Divinity: Against the Godly System

"You can start reading it. This book only has 20 pages, so it shouldn't take long," Ryder said to Rale.

Ryder placed the book between him and Rale and opened the first page.

Rale started reading the words and frowned.

"It says Book of Mysteries. It should be the title," 

Ryder nodded his head in approval.

"That's right. That is the book title. Does this name remind you of something? Have you heard of it before?" Ryder asked.

Rale nodded his head as he remembered the lore that he had heard.

"I've heard about the book. This should be written by the Ancient Hobbit Greenwitch. He was said to be the most unorthodox Hobbit who was obsessed with mysteries,"

"He spent all his life in search. What was he searching for? No one knows. It was said that his search never stopped. Throughout his life, he wrote seven books. All of those books were called the Book of Mysteries. He died in his old age," Rale said.

Ryder was visibly confused.

"A Hobbit who wrote books and explored? Is that strange? Why is he so famous that even you know about him?" Ryder asked.

"He wasn't famous before. In fact, even in his own Hobbit Clan, he was considered a crazy man who wasted his life like a crazy person. Even though Greenwitch always talked about his seven books, no one was interested in it even after he died,"

"His house was sold to another Ancient Hobbit Salaka. The Hobbit Salaka found one of the seven books written by Greenwitch, and out of his boredom, he started reading it. The more he read, the more shocked he became. He tried looking for other six books, but he didn't find them,"

"Salaka left the town. Salaka's destiny seemed to have changed because of the book. He was not the richest or the most powerful, but in less than six months, he entirely changed. When he came back, he was the strongest Ancient Hobbit. In fact, he even challenged their Clan Leader and won. To this day, Salaka is considered to be the strongest Hobbit Leader who wasn't weaker than the Elf King of that time," Rale explained.

"Salaka grew old. On his deathbed, he finally talked about it. He gave all the credits of whatever he achieved in his life to Greenwitch and his book. Since that day, the Book of Mysteries, written by Ancient Hobbit Greenwitch, has become the stuff of legends. I can't believe that I have something like that in front of me right now," he added.

"Interesting. This might be useful in a sense," Ryder muttered as he looked towards the book.

Ryder turned the page.

"You can start reading," he said.

"Yes, Your Highness," Rale responded and started reading.

"It's the 3rd day of Eres Year. I'm going to the Valley of Wandering Souls. The rumors that I have heard sound really credible. I really hope that I will find what I'm looking for,"

Rale started reading, and he kept turning the page after he finished reading the pages.

"It's my 200th day in the Valley of Wandering Souls, and I finally saw it. It's not what I came looking for, but It's still as incredible as it can get—the Guardian of the Pearl. I see the pearl in its hand, but I can't take it. It's more powerful than anything I've seen before..." 

"... I managed to steal the pearl, and its uses are amazing. It's definitely a treasure that fell to our land from the realm of gods. I can't believe that I'm holding it in my hands..."

"... the guardian is here. He's not alone. I guess this is as far as I can go with the pearl. I will have to return it. This trip was really worthwhile," 

Rale finished reading the book and closed it.

'Fascinating. A land that has something like that. And I somehow feel that the pearl might be an unsealing fragment. If that's true, then this book was something I desperately needed,' Ryder thought as he picked up the book.

He put the book back in his storage space.

"Where is the Valley of Wandering Souls? Do you know?" Ryder asked Rale.

"Ah, it's in the Undead Region," Rale replied.

Ryder was visibly surprised as he heard Rale's answer.

"Undead region? Greenwitch traveled from the mortal world to the Undead Region? He definitely was crazy," 

"That's what his peers called him, but now they call him Great Master Greenwitch," Rale said with a wry smile on his face.

"I want to go to the Undead Region. I need that pearl," Ryder said to Rale.

"We can go there, but it will be dangerous. As long as we don't meet the Lich King and the Vampire King, we should be fine, but if we meet them, we will die," Rale said.

"We will not meet them. We'll stay near the portal and check the surroundings first. Also, we can disguise ourselves. It wouldn't be easy for them to find us," Ryder said.

"If Your Highness says so," Rale nodded his head.

"Alright. We will go there tomorrow. Take the same team that we had when we went to the Dark Elves Kingdom," Ryder told Rale.

"I'll tell them to be ready," Rale said.

Rale stood up and left the place.

Ryder also left the room. He walked to Miyali's room and opened the door.

Miyali was sitting on the bed, and her lips were covered in blood.

Ryder understood that she must have drunk blood.

Miyali saw Ryder and wiped the blood off her lips.

"How are you feeling?" Ryder asked her.

"I'm fine," Miyali replied.

"Are you? Didn't you say that you only have to drink blood once every two weeks? It's just the 2nd day," Ryder asked as he looked at her with a questioning gaze.

"I..." Miyali struggled to find words to respond.

"It's alright. I guess the blood is not what you need, but it's what you desire. It must be pretty lucrative for a vampire. Anyway, it's fine as long as it's monster blood, but try to self-control, alright?" he told Miyali.

Miyali nodded her head like an innocent child who was accepting her mistake.

"That's like a good girl. If you want to go to the city, you can go there too. Just tell Miku before you leave. She'll assign a guard with you. Just make sure that your eyes aren't a deeper shade of red. It might cause unrest amongst people," he added.

"Yes," Miyali said.

"Also, you said that you don't know much about your father. Do you really have no clue about him?" Ryder asked her.