7. It's All Just A Game

The background of bookstands and the colorful tomes locked in place on the shelves kinda blended completely in this psychedelic mix that existed in Trevor's peripheral view, but what was important existed in front of him, somewhere.

He walked for a while, and eventually ended up in one of those open spaces, but this one was different. There was only one bookstand, right in the middle, with a single book laying there, covered by a thick layer of dust. Actually, just like everything in that small space. He didn't notice it at first, but as he approached the grammar, his senses returned to him, and he finally could pay attention to the surroundings.

The experience scared him at the very beginning because he realized that he lost control over his own body.

- Shit - escaped his mouth, as he looked around, gasping out of fear.

But since there was nothing scary around him, the feeling slowly disappeared, and the boy ended up approaching the piece of literature. He couldn't help his curiosity, and the fact that it wasn't behind bars, or chained, made him a bit bolder than when he was surrounded by the imprisoned tomes.

The words of The Falafel Windsbaum still present in his memory, also had an impact on this decision.

"You see… The books I'm talking about… You don't pick them. They chose you, and that might be something very, very dangerous." He could hear in his ears as he made each step forward. He was ready for the danger if it was the only way to change his destiny. At least... That's what he thought.

He extended his hand, when the book was in his reach, and touched it briefly, then retracted his hand, as another gasp left his mouth. The only effect was a fingerprint left in the layer of dirt. Trevor clearly was expecting something to happen, but it simply didn't. This led to him touching the book, again, and just like before, nothing happened.

Emboldened, he placed his whole hand on the tome, which he quickly regretted, as the filth got stuck to his skin.

- Ugh… - disgust showed on his face.

He whipped the hand on his pants, and then dusted the whole grimmuar off, before picking it up. There was still some residual dirt, but he got rid of it by blowing on the thing.

The book had a dark leather cover, with mysterious symbols forming strange patterns on it, and runes imprinted all over it. He moved his fingers on the uneven surface, tracking the words which didn't mean anything to him.

Pushed by curiosity he checked the spine of the grimmuar, but there was no title there, just more of the symbols and runes.

There was no other choice but to check inside, so the boy opened the book, looking for the title there, on the first page - but it was empty. That took him by surprise and further underlined the mystery. He was about to check another page, but suddenly the paper caught fire.

At least that's what he thought at first, but his opinion changed. It was magic, burning the same patterns and symbols he found on the cover, straight on the page, leaving dark marks.

- What the heck… - he mumbled to himself and turned the page.

Again, it was empty. He started looking through, quickly discovering all of the pages were empty.

- What the…

He returned to the first one, and the marks were gone. It was blank, just like when he opened the grimmuar for the first time. It further bamboozled the kid. He found the tome very bizarre, and because of that, also very interesting.

Trevor decided to wait with the first page open, checking if the burning effect will return, but it didn't. He tried the next page, but the magic didn't work as well.

- What the heck is with this book? - he asked himself.

He was unable to answer his own question, and looking through the empty pages didn't help at all. He ended up scratching his head and was about to put the thing back, when a sound hit his ears, making him look around. There was nothing.

Nothing but a small bell icon in his peripheral view.

- What the fuck? - escaped his mouth.

He tried to focus his eyes on it, but it was impossible, as it moved along with his eyes.

The whole thing looked quite comical, as the boy kept turning his head, and even spinning around before he realized there was no way to achieve what he wanted.

A thought hit him suddenly. The bell reminded him of video games he played from time to time, and there it was always used for communication.

- O-open? - he asked like there was somebody around, but there was nobody there with him.

His question remained unanswered, and the boy's frustration grew a little bit.

- Open – he said with confidence.

Again, nothing happened.

- Open message! - he growled.

Completely silent, a semitranslucent window appeared right in front of him. It was slightly blue in coloration.

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Welcome! You have been granted your own personalized magic progress system, congratulations!

Do you want to participate? Sey 'Yes' to accept, and 'No' to decline.

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- YES! - he said firmly and smiled. - Yes!

After he spoke those words, the window shifted.

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Congratulations!

Initializing the system, please wait a few seconds...

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Initialization finalized! Congratulations! Please read the brief introduction to your system written below:

To check your status say or think 'Open status'. To check your missions say or think 'Open missions'. To check your messages say or think 'Open messages'. To close any windows please say or think 'Close' and the proper window name. To move through tabs, you can speak or think its name, you can also do it by simply focusing on the proper tabs.

When unsure, focus on the part of any window to open the description subwindow.

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- Now you are telling me this? - he asked the system.

There was no answer.

- Open status! - Trevor said with confidence.

A much bigger semitranslucent, and a slightly blue window appeared in front of him. At the top were two tabs, one was called 'Overview' the other was called 'Spells'. He happened to be in the first tab automatically. There were two words 'Energy', and 'Control' with '0s' next to both of them, just a bit below. Even lower was a frame with a thin black border, titled 'Skills', completely empty.

- Open spells.

The tab changed and showed another frame, also completely empty.

- Ok – he said to himself. - I have no skills, no spells. Don't have any magic, and can't control it at all. Looks like it's completely true.

For Trevor, the showcased numbers were reflecting the reality of his life. He was a completely magicless person. A true 'Zero'.

- Open missions

The 'Status' window disappeared, and another one appeared instead of it. It was titled missions and also was completely empty. For Trevor that was quite a disappointment, but he wasn't able to think about that for too long, as a characteristical ping announced that he got another message.

- Open messages – he said and the windows switched.

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Congratulations! You just successfully checked out your new system. To unlock new attributes, skills and spells, cultivate your current ones, and complete missions! New missions will be available when the system generates them, enjoy!

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- What the heck does that even mean?! - he said out loud after reading the message.

There was no answer.

„What the heck did I expect? To get another message with explanations?", he thought to himself and sighed heavily.

- Close messages.

His stomach growled almost immediately after that, making him realize how hungry he was, and also bringing back the sad truth of him having no food and no way how to get out.

- Shit – escaped his mouth, as he looked around.

Maybe he found his answers in 'The Grand Library', but they were useless if he wasn't able to get out.

Every passage leading away from the space he was currently in wasn't looking promising at all. They all were pretty much the same, and he even couldn't really tell in which direction the exit could possibly be.

The situation was looking grimmer and grimmer with every passing second, which led to panic kicking in again. Trevor started looking around even more desperate for something, anything that could lead him away, but there was just simply nothing indicating any of the passages could lead him back to the entrance.

He realized that by just standing and looking, he won't be able to find anything, so he started roaming in the immediate vicinity and peaking over the corners of the bookstands surrounding the one with the strange book, trying to find any clues. The minutes started passing one by one, but there were no breakthroughs, and his desperation grew.

- Anybody, please! I'm trapped here! - he yelled at the top of his lungs.

His voice didn't even get repeated by the echo, which was the nail to Trevor's coffin. He collapsed out of desperation, landing heavily on his ass.

He spent a moment on the floor, fighting with dark thoughts, trying to muster the strength to get up, because he knew very well that if he stays in place, he will die. Just as he was about to get back on his feet, he spotted something. A small rat on the floor, peeking from behind one of the bookstands.