Hector looked carefully at the cover, there was a kind of lock that blocked the opening of the book, a bit like you can see with some diaries. He could have forced the lock, but he decided to look for the key, it took him more than an hour, but he ended up finding it between two slats of the floor. His research also allowed him to discover other interesting objects that he took with him. He took the opportunity to continue to search as the sun began to disappear behind the roofs of the houses, but he suddenly felt very uncomfortable, Balam remarked to him, something was wrong with this place, it was perhaps just a simple impression, but the young man decided to leave immediately to linger a second longer to pry into the attic.The two acolytes discussed their findings and after a while, Hector opened the book with the key. He hadn"t felt this childish excitement for a long time, the one you feel when you open a Christmas gift, this thought made him smile and after staring at the front cover, he opened the front page with curiosity.
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╠►Preamble: This ma.n.u.script was written with the purpose of listing all the breeds of this world in the hope of being able to unlock the secret of our existence in the future. I have listed all the races discovered so far, but since there are new ones emerging over the years because of the biological, alchemical and magical weapon created by the Elves hundreds of years ago, so what is written in this book will only be an exhaustive list of the different peoples who live on our dear planet, not to mention that not all the emerged Lands of our world have yet been discovered.
This book is therefore by no means a finished work and should not be taken as a reference to talk about breeds and peoples, it is only a big book filled with sheets of paper that an old man has tried to fill after years of travel and research.
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Hector sneered a little bit at seeing how the man had written his preamble, he seemed to think he was just an old b.u.m who was good to go and die of a heat wave. Claude Grim. In his own short biography of the author, he said that he was a man born of an interracial marriage between an elf and a human, which had allowed him to live longer than average, and that he had walked the Pangea and some islands to learn more about the world around him.
He probably must have been dead, though. The grimoire was written according to the author between the year 173 and another unknown year. It was not indicated, which suggested that he had died prematurely, or at least that death had prevented him from finishing his work, some pages at the end of the book were empty of ink, which validated this theory.
[A book this thick, but worthless?] Balam began with a thoughtful tone. [This man seemed to have very low self-esteem.]
[I guess it"s because, at this time, Dentelia had just been built, so the society was much more matriarchal. They must have put a lot of pressure on the men, which is probably what made him want to travel... I would have done the same thing.] replied Hector with an evasive expression.
[I suppose...] said the demon as he reflected. [Wouldn"t you like to take a look at the contents of the book?] he grumbled with an amused tone. [You"re more admiring the cover of this book than of all the women who look at you when you walk outside, it"s almost scary.]
[Sorry for not collecting your so precious s.e.xual energy, huh.]
[You could at least make an effort and try to meet some girls, the bonds are forged afterward, no need to make an excuse like that you want to love the girl you"re doing it with. If you don"t meet anyone, you can"t love anyone. Then go outside and make me work these t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es.] Balam ordered, speaking quickly.
[You don"t want to let go of me with this, it"s incredible... Excuse me for not being the milking cow you want me to be. In the meantime, I"m the only one who chooses where I dip my p.e.n.i.s, so stop talking to me about that, when the time comes, you can tell me anything you want about s.e.xual energy and s.e.x, but for now, I just want to understand this world. I"ve been here for less than a week.]
[Yes, yes, like me... Weak.]
[Yes, I am. Sorry to be human.]
The relationship with the demon wasn"t particularly bad, but sometimes, like that, all of a sudden, they started to get into trouble like two children. After this little altercation, Hector opened the book a little more, a very light cloud of dust spread in the air before falling to the ground in silence.
The first page following the preface was t.i.tled: The Ancients. Handmade sketches showed humanoid, misty, sometimes deformed, human-sized shapes that stood upright. The young man stared a little more at the drawing and was shivered through. How many copies of this ma.n.u.script had been written? If he followed his logic, there was only one copy, after all, no scholar would post a work that he himself considered incomplete, so this grimoire had to be the only one making a serious and precise report, containing an unimaginable amount of information on the peoples and breeds of this world. How much would a book as rare as this be worth at auction? No. Hector took that idea out of his head, selling something like that would be sacrilegious, it was better to a.n.a.lyze everything he could learn. It was after looking more closely at the content of the book that he turned a few pages. The Ancients seemed to be extremely powerful spiritual beings, older than the G.o.ds who organize and structure this world.
Claude Grim had apparently tried to prove their existence for years, but he had apparently only found energy remanences or fragments of souls so tiny that he could never really get much out of them. But according to him, these beings were the G.o.ds of the G.o.ds, they would have fallen as a result of a drama in the Spiritual Realm. The scholar hesitated between several theories as to their fall from the Spiritual Realm, divine war, voluntary arrest, natural death. No evidence supporting his research was found despite these long years of research.
The old man spoke briefly of the G.o.ds of this world. His writing was trembling on that page precisely. He had researched them and had a lot of information, but he was threatened if he dared to pa.s.s it on, so he stuck to names, Tam, Mibi, Sama, Alphée, Sesnar, Zeph, etc. Too many names. Thirty to be exact, but names seemed to have been hidden through large ink spots.
Hector continued to turn the pages, the men and the different races or tribes that resulted from it: Amazon, Demioze, Ryx, Felei, and others. As the pages scrolled, the number of races increased. Elf, Dark Elf, Dwarf, Demon, Giant, a very long page about the Vampires and the reason for their possible complete extinction in a few centuries, so today, there couldn"t be much left. Then after more than forty pages on these few races, the grimoire changed completely.
Unknown and mutations. It was the name of the second part of the book, he explained that some races had absolutely no connection with others, as if they came from another world. As for the one that seemed to have traces of mutations were most generally concentrated near the old Kingdom of the Elves, but he explained that over the years, it would probably spread a little everywhere. The Slimes, for example, had no connection with any other species, no brains, no neural systems, no blood, which is completely opposite to everything else. Moreover, it is one of the first species to have mutated with humans and elves, creating humanoid monsters rejected by society. They are certainly in small numbers, but they are very dangerous, like all other mutants. Centaurs also seem to have been victims of mutation, as have harpies, Lamias, Nereid, Scylla, etc.
The Dryads, on the other hand, presented a problem for Claude Grim, beings between elves and G.o.ds, but sharing similarities with humans at the same time.
And there were still tons of breeds, but after flying over all this, Hector took a break. Too much information wasn"t going to bring anything good. He decided to close the book and looked outside through the open window of his room.
"I have a headache..."
[At least we can say it"s for a good purpose.]
"Have you ever heard of Nereid or Scylla?"
[No, it intrigues me a little, but if we follow what this scholar wrote, most of them are on the Sacred Lands, where the Kingdom of the Elves was located, so it"s not on the territory of Dentelia, it"s the complete opposite, on Jerico"s side. So I don"t really have any hope of seeing these mutants races any time soon.]
"In any case, what good would it do us?" Hector waited for an answer, but Balam replied with a simple throat clearance. "Still with your s.e.xual energy? Are you out of your mind or what? Breathe, everything"s gonna be fine." laughed Hector with a sarcastic smile.
The demon did not answer, he preferred to keep quiet than to add more oil to the fire. The young man took the grimoire and dusted it completely with Amy"s equipment before hiding it between his mattress and the slats of his bed, he had put it in a corner to avoid damaging it by lying down.
Hector went down to the ground floor to start preparing food with what little food was left in the pantry. He quickly sorted out what he wanted. His cooking skills were quite sharp, in his camp, he had the reputation of making good consistent meals with the minimum of necessary ingredients, Chloe had taught him a lot about some aspects, so this one, his girlfriend"s father was a famous cook after all, however, he wasn"t a famous father.
Every time he cooked, he got depressed, it reminded him too much of his past and the time he had not spent with those he loved. He put on an ap.r.o.n and prepared to cut beets and avocados, there was no meat or fish, so a salad was almost required. He boiled the water to bake the beet and started peeling the avocados after bringing back some cheese to cut it into small cubes.
A lock sounded after a few minutes and the front door opened, allowing two distinct silhouettes into the house. The first one Hector then saw from the kitchen was Amy with a trolley filled with various types of food. And behind her was a dark elf who seemed a little embarra.s.sed by the situation she was in. Her white hair was no longer tied in a ponytail but simply fell behind her.
Seeing Hector a little confused about the situation, the maid took the lead and brought the trolley to the pantry just next to the kitchen before addressing the young man with a loaf in his hand.
"Well, all the shops were open! I was lucky!" she began with a friendly smile. "Sorry, I was a little longer, but Helena asked me to get your bodyguard, she was selected at the end of the afternoon... Ah! And I took the opportunity to bring back the bread you asked me."