Azimuth: The Elden Throne (New Version)

Chapter 179  A Tribe Of Giants End

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"This is an item made for the Spirit Contractor Class."

'Everything aligns, from the Stat distribution to the Skills on the item.'

'Albeit it lacks a little bit on the buffing department, the rest makes up for it.'

'I don't think this is a set item, but if it were one, then this would likely be one of the best Sets in the entire game including the one before.'

'This rarity grade didn't exist in the past game, but given what came before and some of the item's attributes, I'm inclined to believe the next grade would be the same Caladgolg is part of... Legendary.'

'Not Legendary Armament... That is a bit different.'

With a silent nod, Dale took a step back from the belt, making his way to the staircase.

'Though... I still can't tell if this is a hint to the Class acquisition method or something bigger like a Main Questline or something of the sort...'

'Mayhaps even a new Race change possibility... It didn't happen much in the past game, but depending on what the players did, new races for them to play were unlocked.'

'Sometimes, one would first need to go through an entire Questline only to unlock a new race so they can start from scratch with it.'

'I did that a few times since in the past game there was no limit on the number of characters, I made a bunch to test many things.'

'But I can investigate such details later, or not, they won't affect me by much regardless.'

'Though maybe… If I can figure out a stable way to get the Spirit Contractor Class, then I could add it to Resko's repertoire of choices.'

'The Class wasn't super strong and it wasn't "Meta", so I doubt it'll sway the player's choices, but it'll certainly diversify it.'

'The problem is that I don't have an "NPC" to give out this Class, but I'm thinking too far ahead.'

'First, I need to actually get it.'

...

"Hum…"

But midway through his walk, Dale suddenly stopped moving.

'Actually, since I won't have that much time to investigate these runes… I can just leave that to someone else and cut down the time.'

'And I have just the right person for the task.' He thought with a smile as he raised his right hand

[Ding]

He opened his game menu and scrolled through the tabs, going to a rarely visited tab…

Friends.

In there, he opened his chat with Jelly, sending him the photos he took of the item together with a lengthy description of how he came to find the item and a little bit of what he knew about it.

And of course, he omitted a few things.

/Snap!/

As a way to tease him, he also took a selfie with some of the Epic Grade items just to brag a little.

"Heh."

'If there's someone that can find the truth, then it's Jelly.'

'I don't think Jelly would have a dedicated archive like me, but I do remember he bought some fan books and even made a few articles about several subjects…'

'Someone as dedicated to finding secrets as him would certainly have some sort of document about it all.'

'I'm not that desperate to find out what the runes say per se, but depending on what they mean… I could potentially teach them to others.'

'This is due to the nature of their language.'

'Elven language is a difficult one to grasp because it is magical in essence, requiring one to develop other senses to fully understand its meaning.'

'In short, it is a language meant to communicate not only to another individual but with nature itself.'

'Albeit it is strange, Elves don't really enjoy writing, and it isn't because they can't be bothered about it.'

'It's because someone can try to copy them directly through rituals if they're written properly, jumping the process of understanding and learning the language.'

'Elves don't like that, they may teach others, but they want them to be able to employ the Runes knowing their meanings and applications and not to make use of them through external means.'

'However, only Elves can put power into their words, greatly impeding others from learning it the normal way.'

'It's the reason why no one couldn't confirm if they worked or not after Azimuth launched.'

'But if the words were already written, transcribing them through rituals is possible.'

/Raise.../

As he said that, Dale raised his finger, pulling mana to the tip of his finger.

And with it, he started to draw.

"And this entire idea comes from the fact that... Spiritual Magic is also a language…" He said as he drew a cross in the air

'The Elven language originated from Spiritual Magic which is actually a misinterpretation.'

'In the Lore of the past game, Magic Originated from the first Ancient Spirits and it went to the Elves that was then passed along to other species.'

'Albeit a few did manage to learn it at the same time in varied ways.'

'Spiritual Magic, if translated properly, would mean something like "The Tune of the Ancients", as such, in this context, Magic is in itself, Language.'

'And in a sense, that is correct, even Math can be taken as a language.'

'However, different from both, Spiritual Magic isn't something that can be so easily pursued.'

'As such, even if I memorized most of the Elven alphabet and even the many grammatical alterations due to playing the game for years, that doesn't mean it'll work.'

To prove that, Dale tried to add several lines to his cross, Suffixes, and Prefixes...

But nothing happened.

"Sigh, as expected, it's not possible." He said as he shook his head

'This rune is one of the simplest to utilize…'

"Elven Magic isn't flashy in its presentation, with magic phenomena and whatnot."

'An Elven Mage... Or Poet in their terms will just continually write what he wishes the world to become.'

"Powerful Elven Mages would often spend days writing lengthy paragraphs that would lead to catastrophic displays of power."

'It seems I still lack what it takes to embark on this path, however.'

With one last look at the Belt, Dale turned around and this time, he did not stop as he arrived at the second floor.

It was time to hear what they were about to do next.

…

/At the same time, somewhere far away…/

/Chirp chirp.../

"Yawn..."

'I did it, I leveled up my Skills to a usable state...'

Sitting down in a nice open park, Ermin yawned slightly as he waited for his sisters to log in.

He had been playing that entire night alone to make up for some things he was unable to do with them, and also to try and make some Gold so they could buy some better gear since his sisters would always manage to drain every little coin they had with consumables and repair fees due to their Berserk gaming style.

To make up for it, Ermin gathered as many support Skills as he could, even if that went against his initial goals.

After all, Ermin knew what Classes dominated the past game, from Moon Shaman to the Variant form of the Berserker...

As such, he intended to acquire them this time around.

He didn't know the path to all, but he had assumptions... However, almost none of them required him to act as an all-time Support in the early levels!

'Tsk!... I wanted to be a mage but at this rate, I might as well embrace my role as a backline support...'

'We've been withholding our free Class changes till now, and albeit I still don't know how I managed them to do that as well, I can tell they've started to get annoyed by how 'weak' they are.'

'Despite the fact they're some of the strongest players around.'

'My younger sister is a Ranger while my elder sister became a Frontliner by doing the Class changes through NPCs, I'm the only one without a Class because Magic is such a pain in the ass to acquire.'

'However, if I use my free Class change I'm sure I'll end up falling into a damn pit!'

After almost a month, his sisters' behavior in-game had toned down considerably and at least they weren't spending all of their money on useless things, however, it was still hard for him to try and direct them on a half-decent path.

The way they treated him hadn't changed in the slightest, but he could at least direct their emotions to the pitiful creatures of Azimuth instead of himself.

Yet, he couldn't tell how long that would last.

[Ding]

"Hm?... A message?... Oh? From that guy?" He mumbled with a small smile

'Now that's rare.'

Albeit Dale and Ermin were always in contact, it was usually in the form of small greetings and updates on what they were doing.

They would often exchange information for the sake of unraveling mysteries as well.

Even then, during their talks, Dale would often send items to them to help them with their growth, and this led to his younger sister becoming his all-time fan.

Ermin was happy she finally had something to look after, but something in him cringed when he realized it was his friend.

Because despite how badly they treated him, Ermin wished them to be happy, as he knew full well how hard his elder sister worked.

At the very least, his opinion of them raised immensely considering how faithful they were with their promise of keeping their mouth shut.

'Is he going to ask if I had an update on finding that girl he was asking about?...'

'Let's see… Several images… A Belt?'

'Huh?...'

As he read the message, Ermin's eyes opened wide.

'Woah… That's a good item.' He thought as he red its description all over again

"So… If I understood this right... "I'm too busy… Can you translate it for me?"..."

"Look at this guy." Ermin mumbled with a light smile as he sent Dale the middle finger

'How interesting… He spent the last few weeks training constantly in the Village but now he's out there doing something interesting again…'

'Well, I owe him quite a bit, especially for some of the Skill Books and items he gave me a while ago.'

With that, he replied with a "Sure, I'll see what I can do." as he cracked his neck.

'It's been a while since I've seen some of these, I did try casting Elven Magic during the Beta but… I failed.'

'I imagine the reason for that is not that it doesn't exist, but that I lack a certain condition.'

'Without the proper Skills, it would be impossible to do it…' He thought as he grabbed a twig, slowly writing the runes on the ground

"Muh… Tref… Sas… And even multi-syllables like Polta?"

'That's not common to see even for them.'

'Interesting… So there were Elves in Azimuth after all.'

He finished reading the message and smiled.

"Heh, now this is something worth unraveling…"

'The Mystery of a race that vanished, this seems like a cool Quest to seek.'

'This was why I started playing the past game, it was full of...'

"What are you doing?" Someone asked behind him, interrupting his thoughts

"?!"

'Shit…'

Before he even knew, his two sisters logged in…

…

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Notes