The black sun hangs high

Chapter 3 Tentacles and Engraving

In a world that resembles a dream, he is bound tightly by a gigantic tentacle that he himself released...

Hughes had considered this kind of plot before.

It just shouldn't have happened to me.

The enormous tentacle, formed from a strange, dense fog, had an extremely cold and slippery feel, reminding Hughes of wet rubber. As the light and shadow moved across the tentacle, he felt chills seep through his clothes and creep up his entire body.

The tentacles continued to tighten, and soon, Hugh lost his last bit of room to maneuver.

He felt like a worm tightly wrapped in spider silk, unable to move his body no matter how hard he tried.

"So, what's going to happen next?"

As a person with a wide range of interests and a mind full of all sorts of messy information, Hugh instantly conjured up many different endings for himself. In his imagination, he had less than a 10% chance of surviving, a 30% chance of dying on the spot in an extremely bloody manner, and the remaining 60% would fall into the category of "taboo".

Just when he was almost in despair, the tentacle made a new move.

Its tip slowly rose in front of Hugh, and only then did Hugh realize that the tip of this tentacle was covered with a layer of hard keratin, making it look like a sharp black dagger.

At that moment, Hugh stopped thinking.

Because he discovered that the black dagger was pointed at his chest.

Before Hugh could make a final struggle, the tentacle stabbed down fiercely. In an instant, Hugh saw the black shadow pierce through his chest, and the cold sensation that had been on the surface of his skin flowed throughout his body as the black dagger pierced through.

The coldness was followed by intense pain.

This was something Hugh had never experienced before, having already died once. In extreme pain, his mouth was wide open, but he couldn't make a sound. He felt as if countless hands were tearing at his skin and flesh from different directions, while the constantly flowing cold sensation transformed into vicious threads that were wrapping around his bones and internal organs, seemingly trying to rip them out of his body.

The pain continued to intensify.

The coldness that enveloped his body felt like real water. Hugh gradually suffocated in extreme pain. Finally, Hugh felt darkness envelop him, and his thoughts and consciousness collapsed and disappeared like bubbles in a vast ocean.

……

A piercing and loud scream echoed from the empty Ernst mansion. The sound was so heart-wrenching that it startled several crows resting in the shadows of the mansion. In their terror, they took flight, cawing noisily in protest. However, after circling the mansion once, seeing that there was no more movement inside, they landed again and began to communicate in hoarse voices, perched on the branches of an old tree beside the mansion.

The intense pain brought Hughes back to this conscious world.

Unbeknownst to him, the thin young man lying on the bed was already drenched in sweat from the pain, and his body involuntarily arched up, like a shrimp that had jumped out of the water and was about to die from lack of oxygen.

This deep-seated pain is far more profound than death itself.

Hugh rolled around on the bed. As his mind became clearer, the pain lingering in his skin and flesh became more and more intense. Time seemed to drag on endlessly. Every movement, every rapid breath, and even every thought brought even more agonizing torment to Hugh.

I don’t know how much time passed.

By the time the crows that had been startled earlier returned to the old house to rest, Hugh's pain had finally subsided considerably.

What remains is a lingering stinging pain in my brain.

Hugh felt as if a constantly spinning gear had appeared inside his head, its sturdy, sharp teeth cutting into his brain as it rotated, as if trying to permanently etch something into it.

The afternoon sun shone on this delicate little town, and a ray of light pierced through the gaps in the old curtains of Ernst's old house, falling on the equally old furniture. As time passed, this ray of light slowly turned along with the hands of the magic clock, and finally swept over the body on the bed, which was already soaked with sweat.

"Hooah!"

Hughes took a heavy breath.

As the throbbing pain in his head subsided, he finally regained his senses. Everything that had just happened to him felt like a real and terrifying nightmare, especially the latter half. He could almost feel the changes happening in his head—it was probably not an illusion, but some kind of strange change that he couldn't understand or explain at the moment.

Hugh completely relaxed. Now, not only his clothes, but also the sheets and blankets were completely soaked with his sweat. Lying there was very uncomfortable, but he didn't want to move an inch.

After the panic and fear gradually subsided, what remained for Hugh was ecstasy.

"Magic Inscription..."

He murmured the word that was originally so distant from him, and an uncontrollable smile appeared on his pale and weak face.

Just now, after the stinging sensation subsided, Hughes finally realized what he had gained from that pain.

……

In this vast world called "Vann", magicians hold an extremely special status.

As the only group in Vaan's long history that can truly reproduce "miracles," magicians enjoy a privileged social status and treatment in all kingdoms.

According to the standards provided by Merlinle and the Legal Council in the far north, anyone with the talent for spellcasting, capable of containing and casting magic within their body, can become a formal mage, provided they are certified by the Legal Council.

Therefore, the magicians of Vaan are not necessarily of noble or scholarly birth. Before being discovered and certified by Merlinler and the Legal Council, they may have been ordinary clerks, rude mercenaries, prostitutes living in cramped buildings, or miners who need to go deep into the mines and farmers busy harvesting grain.

Once they obtain the status of magicians, they will be qualified to study at the local academy and undergo formal assessment. In legend, the goddess of wisdom, Mel, who governs the magic of Vaan, also controls all the rivers, lakes, and seas within Vaan.

Scholars on the Legislative Affairs Commission believe that the movement of magic is similar to that of water.

They are tiny and ubiquitous, hidden among all things in the world. They are drawn together by spellcasters, and then return to nature due to the casting of various spells and the death of spellcasters, thus forming a vast sea of ​​magic.

When the magic in this vast ocean becomes too abundant, the scattered magic will be used by spellcasters, thus the magic in the world is always inexhaustible.

Based on this viewpoint, they gave spellcasters corresponding titles.

Beginners are called "raindrops," meaning they can only accumulate a small amount of magic within themselves, like catching raindrops falling from the sky in their hands.

Then there is the "stream," which refers to those spellcasters who possess more magic power within their bodies, have undergone the "magic inscription" ritual, and are able to record and use various common spells. Only then can spellcasters truly step into the hall of magic.

Next come the core members of the Legislative Affairs Commission.

These mages are known as "Valleys" and "Lakes." The former are dispatched in large numbers by the Law Council to various parts of Vaan to participate in various affairs and teaching, while the latter are more like scholars. They often appear as important academic advisors to various kingdoms. Mages with the title of "Lake" are also allowed by the Law Council to create spells in their own name.

The highest title is "Deep Sea".

The meaning of this term is very simple: it refers to a mage whose magical power and knowledge are as unfathomable as the ocean. These elites who are allowed to have mage towers are extremely rare. To have this title, one not only needs to be strong enough, but also needs to make enough contributions to the existing magical theories.

From "raindrops" to "deep sea," this is how ordinary people perceive the levels of a mage.

However, in reality, for those more pragmatic people at the bottom of society, there still exists a special identity beneath the "raindrops".

That is the apprentice of the monk.

Unable to truly accumulate magic power, they can only perform simple tricks using magical objects and forcibly memorized techniques. They cannot engage in systematic learning, nor are they allowed to participate in the "magical inscription" ritual. Most of the time, they can only serve as servants, handling various chores...

Hugh's predecessor, the real illegitimate son of the Ernst family, once worked as a magic apprentice at a magic academy for two whole years to make a living.

This body possesses extremely limited talents.

Spellcasters are always proud, so they believe that even their servants and apprentices must be intelligent enough.

Therefore, after discovering that Hugh's predecessor could not even master the two simple tricks that the apprentices were allowed to learn, he was decisively kicked out of the academy.

It was after that that this illegitimate son of the Ernst family made a groundbreaking discovery of his talent for writing kitsch literature.

For Hugh's predecessor, "magical inscription" was a term that was so distant that he could only learn from snippets of conversation that it was an important ritual that could enable magic learners to truly become magicians.

For Hugh, however, this was a piece of background information he had casually written down, and it wasn't very important.

"The theories and principles of most magic are incredibly complex to spellcasters. Therefore, spellcasters are often just containers of magic. To truly realize the miracle of magic, one needs to use the special ritual of 'magical inscription' to inscribe the requirements, steps, and corresponding principles of casting magic into the spellcaster's memory."

"The number of spells each spellcaster can receive is also limited, and each inscription and memorization is a huge challenge for spellcasters. Therefore, for most magicians, daily spellcasting is often done through spellbooks, which are consumables."

Hugh recalled the words he had typed on the keyboard, then struggled to sit up, closed his eyes slightly, and began to carefully explore the strange changes that had occurred in his mental world.

In a boundless, chaotic darkness, Hugh gradually "saw" what he had been waiting for.

It was an enormous metal disc.

Grand, exquisite, with a complex mechanical structure, covered with a large number of patterns and designs.

The disc is divided into five layers from the inside out by its special metal structure, and on the lines that make up each ring, there are evenly distributed hexagonal grooves.

On the innermost ring, there are three hexagonal grooves. The number doubles to six on the outermost ring, and then increases to twelve on the outermost ring... There are nearly a hundred grooves on the edge of the outermost ring.

On the innermost small ring, one of the hexagonal grooves has been filled with a special color.

A coppery-green fluorescence flickered within, while black lines outlined several winding, soft tentacles. Hugh examined them closely and found that their shapes seemed identical to the tentacles that had previously caused him immense pain.

As Hugh focused his mind, the tentacle patterns in the groove seemed to come alive, gently twisting at a specific frequency in the fluorescent light, as if responding to Hugh's thoughts.

At that moment, Hugh felt that he was gradually coming to understand everything before him.

"As a world view created based on games, it is reasonable for some very game-like settings to appear."

So he opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and raised his right hand with the instinct that was already engraved in his mind. His mouth opened slightly, and a strange and obscure syllable came out instinctively.

A strange change immediately befell him.

Hugh clearly felt a chill sweep through his head, like icy water, flowing down his arm and finally converging in his palm. A throbbing pain appeared, and Hugh felt as if something was about to burst out of his palm and fingers. So he immediately changed the direction of his palm, pointing it at the bedroom door leading to the corridor.

The next instant, the throbbing pain in Hugh's palm reached its peak. Then, accompanied by an indescribable, strange sound, several thick and twisted tentacles shot out from his palm in a way that Hugh couldn't understand, amidst the greenish fluorescence. The enormous impact struck the bedroom door directly, and in an instant, the heavy wooden door, inlaid with some ironwork, detached from the frame and crashed heavily into the corridor.

(End of this chapter)