Ascension of the Master Assassin

Chapter 15: Eras

With no other way to continue, he decided to open the black envelope after some tinkering.

With a gentle pull of the envelope, the item inside fell out of the envelope and revealed itself. After some careful examination, Venn concluded that It was simply a piece of brown colored paper that was folded in half with a rough grainy texture.

Unfolding the small piece of paper, he attempts to read the content within.

On the piece of brown paper, it was filled with words of a person's cursive handwriting written in black ink. Upon a quick glance through of the writings, Venn shockingly recognised that the letter was written in an ancient language belonging to that of the Stormbound Empire.

Other than that, a strange logo was situated at the bottom of the letter as well.

"What exactly is this?" Venn's eyebrows furrowed. The content of the letter was not what he had expected at all.

The Stormbound Empire existed in the same era as Adeonis. In fact, it was the birthplace of the Grand Mage as well. 

Throughout the history of humanity in Heaven Descent, there are four definite eras that made up the story background of the game.

The oldest era, also known as the Era of Gods, was a time where various Gods roamed amongst humans. They imparted precious skills and knowledge, provided blessings to humanity and taught them to live in a treacherous world filled with perilous danger. 

The second era was called the Era of Calamity, it was a time where the Gods had fallen and became relics of the past. It was the darkest period for humans as their protectors had betrayed them, either fled or dead. 

No one knew what happened as there exists little records of this period, but details had shown that the population had dwindled sharply during this period of darkness and despair. 

The third era was named as the Era of the Three emperors and Five Kings. Unlike the previous Eras, there was a clearly defined period of how long it lasted. 

And that was five thousand years. Books that mentioned about this period were ample, and it was the main topic of research of the library rats.

To end the Era of Calamity, the talented mage assistant - Adenois devised a method where humans could extract and assimilate cores from defeated monsters. 

It meant that humans could finally gain the chance to retaliate against their threats, and not live in the bottom of the food chain anymore.

Through the sacrifices of mountains and mountains of human lives, more and more monster cores were accumulated, and the overall strength of humanity grew as a whole. 

It was a great monument of the history of humanity.

Adeonis had carved out a bloody path of progress for humanity and was crowned as the grand mage afterwards for his achievements by the people.

Whenever Venn read about him in the library books, he would always think about the acts that he did. He had a feeling that he and Adeonis were the same kind of people.

Was Adeonis correct in his decision? Venn wasn't sure. 

But one thing was for sure, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Needless to say, most casual players would never have thought that there would be a history behind the mechanisms of monster cores. And that was the mesmerising thing about Heaven Descent. The game was truly alive.

Finally, the era that the players were currently living in, is known as Pantheon Era. This is the time where the once glorious empires and kingdoms of the past had broken up into scattered kingdoms. 

The various kingdoms would act as the centre stage for the players.

***

Venn was confused as to why such a letter would appear in this place. Wasn't it supposed to be a simple errand quest?

In the past timeline, he stumbled upon the book by accident and whenever he looked inside, he would find a piece of envelope and a note that would indicate who the envelope should be sent to. 

After returning the book back to the shelf, a new quest with a new set of instructions would appear in the book again if he finished the delivery.

However, it was different this time.

"What could it be? Why did this happen?" Venn thought internally. Without the quest, his plan would fall apart like a sand castle.

Fortunately, Venn had attempted to learn the ancient language used in the Era of the Three emperors and Five Kings from Klein before in the past. 

Although he was just an amateur, it was still better than nothing.

Paying more attention to the writings, he tried to single out words that he could understand.

"Annual meeting."

"Or...phanage."

"Seven days?"

"..."

"Fuck me sideways!"

Venn wanted to hit himself. Out of the large chunk of passages, he could only recognise five words and he wasn't even sure that he was correct in deciphering them.

However, a second later, a quest notification popped up in his vision.

[Common quest received: You have discovered a mysterious piece of paper with strange writing on it. As you cannot understand the meaning of the words, perhaps it would be wise to ask someone that might understand the language.]

[Quest reward: 200 experience points and 20 copper coins]

[Accept the quest? Y/N]

Venn wanted to accept the quest, he had already thought of who he could ask regarding the letter. However, the familiarity he felt when he saw the strange logo on the letter made him paused a little.

He had a feeling that he had read about the logo somewhere before.

Ignoring the quest notification, Venn examined the logo more closely again.

The logo depicted two serpents in red, both devouring each other tails, forming a perfect circle. In the middle of the circle was a wide opened eye seemingly able to stare into one's soul. The design was strange and ominous. That's why Venn had a strong inkling that he had seen the logo before. 

Searching his memory to his best efforts, Venn tried to associate the image of the logo to the books that he had read until he realised he could simply narrow down the range of his search to the history of Stormbound Empire.

Very quickly, he seemed to have recalled something.

"Isn't this logo, the emblem for the blood serpents?!" Venn exclaimed. "Every single thing makes sense now!"