Why Should I Stop Being a Villain

"Not this," Asher kept picking up book after book.

And as he reached higher, he noticed that most of those books were damaged.

He understood why Neyman had mentioned the specific book he'd read might have been incomplete.

Most of these books had only been preserved when they were brought to wealthy families or to the World Academy.

So it made sense why most of them were damaged or in poor condition.

Some books were even hundreds of years old, but not as old as the Records of the Past, held by certain elite families. Their existence was only known by the High Council.

But not much importance was given to them.

Most of those records were assumed to be broken texts, and they were only preserved because they had become a relic of the past.

Those who had them cherished them as they increased their status among others.

Asher picked up another book as he reached the highest shelves.

He had skipped past the middle portion, as he decided to look at the highest portion first.

And the highest shelves had the most books. Most of them had knowledge that was not useful for the current era.

Unlike magic, runes have progressively improved as more people researched them.

So it was obvious that looking at old books about them wouldn't be very useful, and most people like Neyman would look at the middle part.

But Asher remembered what Neyman had once said in his previous life.

"Reading the history has its own benefits, doesn't it?" He had joked once when discussing the sword with Asher.

This made Asher believe that the book must be among those old ones, and Neyman must have picked it up randomly.

He stepped on another step that formed under his feet with the help of runes.

"Records of Mazilion..." Asher read the title of a book with a greenish cover.

Looking at the pale brown pages, he judged that it was quite an old book.

"It's about basics," Asher stopped at the first page when he saw the book was about the basics.

He kept turning the pages and his understanding of rune arts increased.

Despite being old, this book was written by someone from a family named Mazilion, but the full name was never found as some pages were already faded.

[ Understanding of Rune Arts is increasing ]

He saw that the person had explained about runes in a very simple manner, and it was easy for him to understand what was written.

It had all the fundamentals written in it.

Asher was going to skim through it, but he stopped and read it diligently.

He was going to read more about rune arts, but he found a book that was quite easy to read.

He kept receiving notifications that his understanding was increasing.

Asher kept turning the pages, and he soon turned the last page when he saw a new notification in front of him.

[ Rune Arts has increased to Novice Mastery ]

He had increased his rank of Rune Arts which was at 80% at Fundamental Mastery.

It was a small increase but he could learn more about it in Neyman's next class.

It only took him around 30 minutes to fully read the book.

Asher put it back inside, as he looked at the next book.

This book was even more dull; its cover had completely faded to a dull grey, with parts of it that still appeared lavender.

"Diary of Lizare," Asher read the title that was written in golden letters but most of it had turned dull.

Asher flipped the page, skimmed past a few pages, and stopped on a particular one.

"This is it," Asher said as he looked at the book.

He had finally found the book that Neyman had talked about with him.

Asher turned to the first page of this book, and found it was empty.

He turned to the second page and read the first line.

"Creation with Runes is the only exciting part of this dull life,"

Asher read through the only lines written on the second page.

As he turned to the third page he saw symbols of various runes that Neyman had used in front of him.

He kept reading through them, but surprisingly his understanding of the rune arts wasn't increasing.

He didn't recognize the runes, but judging by how Neyman had put them together he arrived at the middle part where another set of runes was explained.

Each of their workings was different.

As explained by the writer of this diary, none of these runes were meant for creation.

It was strange for someone who talked about how they loved creating something to write about runes that weren't used for creation.

It was mentioned again and again that these runes could only be used as a way to free something.

Asher could see that his sword was the 'something' mentioned here, but it didn't make sense for a person from the past to know about his sword which came out of the dungeon.

He kept reading through the book and became more confused.

Nothing about the runes was explained except what they would do if joined together.

It was mentioned that they were useless when used on anything other than the specific object.

"Did this knowledge come from an artifact?" Asher muttered as he kept looking through the book.

It had been three hours since he had started reading it but he kept going back to the first page after reading a bit of the book.

It made sense if the writer had gained the knowledge about his sword from another artifact but this was only a guess.

"Unless..." Asher's mind drifted through a specific thought.

He arrived at the second last page and saw the sequence of runes that Neyman had used in his previous life.

And reading through all of it, Asher could guess why Neyman thought this sequence was the answer.

He turned to the last page where some letters were written but he could not understand the language.

[ An unknown language detected.... ]

[ Does the Host wish to translate it? ]

A notification from the system caught Asher's attention.

"Will it cost fate points?" Asher asked.

[ Yes ]

"How much?" Asher queried once more, his indifferent eyes scanning the system notification.

[ 1500 Fate Points ]

Asher glanced at the sum, noting that it was a substantial portion of his current fate.

"Go ahead," Asher authorized the system, eager to decipher the text before him.

[ Deciphering the language ]

The text started appearing before Asher, identical to the script penned in the book.

The System commenced the translation of the enigmatic language for him, unveiling the words one by one.

Finally, the cryptic text revealed itself, prompting Asher to delve into its reading.

Seek not in lines that straightly flow,

A secret awaits where the roots grow.

The key to lock, in reverse is found,

Turn me over, truth will abound.

In completeness, this book lacks,

Seek the missing in the talent's tracks.

Amidst the Creation of Runes, the finest art,

There you'll find the missing part.

"What is this?" Asher exclaimed, staring at the translated text.