Night fell as a cool breeze blew. Autumn had already arrived.
The moonlight was not bright, but it was enough to illuminate the dirt paths of the village.
The village was quiet at night, save for the occasional barking of dogs in the distance and the rustling of wind through the treetops.
Under the cover of the moonlight, Matthew returned to his wooden cabin.
He pushed the door open and casually tossed his heavy backpack by the doorway.
A day of life-and-death combat and long-distance trekking had left him famished.
Lighting an oil lamp, he walked straight toward the old wooden chest in the corner of the room.
He squatted down, skillfully brushed aside the clutter on top of the chest, and lifted the lid. A scent of wood mixed with dried meat wafted over him.
Guided by the dim light, he reached inside to rummage around. Soon, he pulled out several strips of dried meat tied with fine hemp rope—provisions he had stored beforehand.
Having starved for the entire day, Matthew grabbed a tough piece of jerky and, without caring about the details, tore off a large chunk and began chewing vigorously.
The dry, hard meat required saliva to slowly soften it, but its savory saltiness and the tangible sense of fullness quickly dispelled his body's fatigue and emptiness.
He rested for a moment.
His spirits recovered slightly.
Leaning against the wooden chest, Matthew was about to completely unwind when his gaze inadvertently swept over the backpack he had brought back.
A thought flashed through his mind like lightning: ‘Brody's notebook!’
Unlike weapons or gold coins, this item did not directly increase his strength or wealth. However, as a noble scion, Brody might have recorded knowledge in his notebook that Matthew sorely lacked.
Having transmigrated, he understood the power of an “information gap”!
By the dim, flickering light of the oil lamp, Matthew reached deep into his backpack. His fingertips quickly brushed against a square object that felt cold and hard to the touch.
He pulled it out—it was an exquisite notebook wrapped in stiff black leather, its four corners inlaid with delicate silver shards.
Matthew weighed it in his hand; it felt quite heavy.
He walked back to the lamp, sat down at the simple wooden table, and examined it closely.
The notebook's cover had a fine texture and was cool to the touch. It had clearly undergone special treatment, giving it excellent water and moisture resistance.
But to Matthew's surprise, the outline of an old man was actually traced in silver thread on the cover.
A wave of surprise surged in his heart. “The entire portrait... is actually traced completely with silver thread? How much silver must that have consumed, and what kind of exquisite craftsmanship is this?”
“Is a noble from a county really this extravagant?”
While secretly shocked by such luxury, Matthew carefully studied the elder in the portrait.
The old man had a majestic countenance. Though it was merely a static portrait embroidered with silver thread, it exuded an oppressive aura of someone accustomed to holding a high position.
He wore a cloak adorned with intricate patterns, and his hand seemed to grasp a strangely shaped scepter.
“Could this be the patriarch of the Fiery Lion family?” Matthew guessed. After all, Brody was a family member, so it was perfectly reasonable for him to carry an item bearing the emblem of the patriarch or an important figure.
He unfastened the thin silver clasp on the side, flipping open the cover.
The inner pages were thick and tough, but the first page that met his eyes was not the diary he had expected. Written prominently in ink at the top were three words in the common tongue—「The Bard's Record」.
Below these words, several lines of unfamiliar country and place names were neatly listed:
Kingdom of Wildor, Kingdom of Malta, Kingdom of Cheva, Kingdom of Recland...
Matthew's gaze quickly swept over these obscure names until a familiar title caught his eye—
Kingdom of Cher!
His heart skipped a beat, and his fatigue was instantly dispelled by a surge of burning joy!
This was the very kingdom he was in!
This unexpected discovery lifted his spirits immensely.
As a transmigrator, he knew very little about this land, yet Brody's notebook actually contained records of the kingdom he belonged to!
This meant it was highly likely to contain local intelligence, noble secrets, resource distributions, and even common knowledge of the extraordinary world that he could directly utilize. These were precisely the “information gap” weapons he urgently needed!
Even if it was just local customs or geographical folklore, it would be worth its weight in gold to him, an “outsider”!
Matthew certainly did not believe he would stay in this village forever...
Just as he stared at the page, eager to flip to the entry on the Kingdom of Cher—
A subtle yet sharp pang of pain stabbed deep into his temples without warning.
“Hiss...!”
Matthew gasped, his movements instantly grinding to a halt.
Immediately afterward, Matthew's fingertips also felt an unusual chill, as if the book was actively absorbing his Spirit.
An indescribable dizziness washed over him silently like a cold tide.
In his field of vision, the flame of the oil lamp seemed to flicker, stretch, and grow blurry;
Had Matthew looked at the page at this moment, he would have seen that the words 「The Bard's Record」 and the list of country names below had also begun to warp and sway slightly, as if viewed through rippling water.
‘Something is wrong! This is bad!’ Matthew's heart tightened. Just as he was about to shut the notebook that was making him dizzy, an accident suddenly occurred!
The sharp pain and dizziness intensified rapidly.
He felt as if his consciousness was being pulled by an invisible force. The halo of the oil lamp in his vision completely warped and shattered, and the words on the page wriggled and reorganized as if they had come to life.
Just as he was on the verge of fainting, his peripheral vision caught the page—
The original words 「The Bard's Record」 faded and vanished rapidly, as if wiped away by an invisible hand, replaced by several brand-new characters that seemed to be condensed from specks of light:
【Elemental Meditation Method】
But at this moment, Matthew felt his consciousness being rapidly pulled away, as if falling into a cold, continuously descending vortex.
He tried to open his eyes and resist, but even the strength to lift his eyelids seemed to have been drained, feeling as heavy as lead.
Before completely losing consciousness, only a few thoughts managed to flash through his mind:
“This isn't secrets, nor is it intelligence...”
“This thing isn't some Bard's Record at all, and it's not even from the Kingdom of Cher!”
“This... is probably a magic item...”
His consciousness sank into a dark abyss.
He did not know how much time had passed—perhaps only an instant, perhaps an eternity—before Matthew's consciousness broke free from that cold, void-like sensation of falling, struggling to “float” back up.
Enduring a splitting headache, he slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry at first, then gradually focused.
Weak morning light filtered through the cracks of the cabin window, dimly outlining the simple contours of the room.
After looking around,
the transmigration he had imagined did not happen again; he was still lying on the bed in his dilapidated little wooden cabin.
After confirming he was mostly fine, Matthew sat up from the bed, the events of last night coming back to him.
Memories flooded back like a rising tide, carrying a clear sensation of pain and a bizarre unfamiliarity.
“Elemental Meditation Method!”
These words surfaced in Matthew's mind. Ignoring the lingering ache, his gaze eagerly swept across the room.
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