Wish Fulfillment System

Returning to the Xenos' hidden village brought with it exactly what Isaac had expected. In a matter of minutes, he found himself surrounded by all kinds of friendly monsters again, all of which were either staring at him with interest or chattering non-stop.

Thankfully, as he had already suffered through the introductions last time, he now didn't need to feel impolite for cutting them off quickly and demanding to be left only with the people that he would study.

Speaking of this, he didn't explain what he had to do too in-depth, he simply stated that he had to observe many different Xenos to gain a greater understanding of them. He gave them his word that none of them would come to harm, or would feel any pain at all, so nobody complained. While a few weren't eager to volunteer because they weren't comfortable with being stared at, he didn't need to study too many of them in the first place. A few tens should do, probably.

With that in mind, the first ones to be closely scrutinized were the other two leaders aside from Ray. He already had a good understanding of the SIren, even more so since she had joined him as a subordinate, so now it was Lyd and Gros' turn to be put under the figurative microscope.

Somewhat surprisingly, both of them still got some of their life force syphoned away, even though they were currently in the dungeon. The only difference from when they were outside was that, via the same channel, their 'mother' seemed to be sending them life force back as well. This should theoretically be possible to do when they were on the surface as well, because the connection between the two would still be stable. But as this wasn't the case, it was quite likely that the Xenos' fate was intentional. To shackle them here, to keep them away from the surface, that was the goal. Admittedly, however, it was also a possibility that something unknown restricted the equal reciprocation of the dungeon, and made it impossible for it to send its 'children' its life force while they were away from 'home'.

Upon spending another half an hour to scrutinize this phenomenon with other Xenos happily playing the roles of willing research subjects - luckily not the ones that the dungeon's regular monsters so often got turned into - Isaac made two peculiar discoveries.

Firstly, this channel that connected each Xenos to some part of what he speculated to be the dungeon was very similar to an umbilical cord, one that just had never been cut and also wasn't as one-sidedly supportive as usual. This became clear almost immediately.

Secondly, the part of the Xenos's bodies that it was connected to was the magic stone - or rather, somewhere within the magic stone. At first, this had just been a hypothesis, but upon having taken a close look at tens of Xenos, whose magic stones he could both locate by using his mana to sense them directly, as well as already knew the magic stone locations of due to having researched their brainless distant cousins, it was evident that the channel truly originated from their very cores.

This meant that cutting the connection would be a very dangerous thing to do, at least as long as he didn't understand exactly what effects doing so would have on the magic stones.

Although he had run into an obstacle during his research, his eyes were bright as he reported his progress to the Xenos' leaders.

"In conclusion, I have to thoroughly study and understand magic stones first, before being able to solve the problem once and for all."

A downhearted and panicked expression spread on Lyd's face as he heard this. He couldn't help but interject to inquire about what was worrying him.

"Won't doing that take a long time, possibly even tens of years? Magic stones are our cores, there is no way they're easy to figure out!"

With a relaxed smile, Isaac shook his head, not even changing the cadence of his voice during his reply.

"In the worst possible scenario, I would have to fully devote a few months to exclusively this field of study. While I'm a busy man, you definitely won't have to wait longer than a year or so. In fact, I highly doubt it will even take as long as a month. This will give me a reason to finally look into all the stones that I've gathered so far as well, so I would say it's ultimately a good thing."

Relieved gasps escaped the mouths of all three leaders. Ray showed a brilliant smile, Gros nodded cordially, and Lyd… he almost teared up.

"That's great! No, it's amazing!! Even if our generation wouldn't have had the opportunity to experience true freedom, I would have still patiently supported you, Lord Blackshaw. But now that I know that even the old fogies amongst us will still have the opportunity to look forward to it… I'm happy, I truly am! Thank you, so, so much!!"

Looking at the emotional Lizardman who was grasping his hands with not-yet-shed tears shimmering in his eyes, Isaac's smile turned a bit wry for a moment, before he expertly escaped Lyd's grip and brushed him off politely.

"No need to thank me, I already got the remuneration for my efforts, after all. I won't go back on the agreement that I've made with you. Oh, by the way, once I gain a good understanding of magic stones, I will still need to continue to observe your kin closely, but that time, I will be comparing the magic stones of regular monsters to those of you all."

While they were all patiently listening to his explanation, Isaac rose to his feet and stretched lightly.

"With that said, I'm done here for now. I will be returning once I've made sufficient progress. Of course, Ray can contact me at any time, and so can Fels. If there is anything you need, let me know. As long as I can profit from it somehow, or it can be of help to me in a way, I'll send support or even stop by personally."

Even though he had just sat back down again, Lyd shot up hastily when he heard Isaac's parting words, a look of dazed surprise plastered on his face.

"You're leaving already? Why don't you give us a chance to be good hosts? We'll throw you a party before you go!"

Flashing an awkward smile in response, Isaac courteously shook his head.

"Really, I appreciate the good intentions, but I'm not a fan of large gatherings and would much rather avoid them. I like to bury myself under mountains of work, so I'd honestly prefer to get some peace and quiet to make more progress instead."

After staying silent for a while, Lyd sighed sadly and nodded his head, then he bowed slightly.

"Then stay safe, and I hope the research will go smoothly. See you soon, Lord Blackshaw."

Gros supported his words with a nod from the side, staying ever so silent. Ray was the one who was the most taken aback by this development. She had expected him to need to visit this village for days, if not weeks, on end. Wouldn't she barely get to see him if he up and left now?

"Milord, what about me? Is there anything I should do?"

Taking note of her almost stumbling over her own words, as well as the desperate gaze that she looked at him with, Isaac smirked amusedly.

"Like I said before, you can stay here and be a supporting pillar for your kin until further notice. But if you want to visit me, or to make use of what I introduced to you earlier for the sake of travel, then feel free to do so. You are one of my people, you can come see me whenever you want. I can't promise that I'll be home at all times, though."

His words reminded her that there was, basically, a portal leading straight to her lord's 'castle' only a few hundred meters away, one that she had the permission to utilize. She had even tested it alongside the others just a few hours ago.

Finally, her tensed up shoulders relaxed, and she directed a subservient but happy smile at him.

"Then I'm relieved. Stay safe, milord. I will stop by regularly."

-----

Isaac began his magic stone-related research by grabbing a Goblin's magic stone from his inventory. As the weakest and first monster that he had ever encountered, he decided it would make a very good starting point and reference. It was reasonable to assume that the stronger the monster and the more mana the magic stone contained, the more complicated its inner structure would be. He wasn't the kind of person that would start reading a book from its last page only to loudly complain about nothing making any kind of sense. In other words, he wasn't an idiot.

He hadn't risked peering directly into the magic stones of the Xenos before, especially since he didn't know what kind of effect inserting his mana to 'see' their interior would have. If he had caused an accident, then that would have been a stain on his prestigious record for all eternity.

Very carefully, he moved his mana to observe the inside of the magic stone.

At first, he couldn't see anything clearly, but upon allocating the majority of his focus to the task, what came into view was… a bit baffling. The magic stone's physical vessel was a simple container, holding pure mana in its core… which was in the shape of runes. Yes, the exact same ones that could be found in magical formations, Magic Items, and pretty much every single magic stone-powered device that he had seen. There was something else unusual about them - he recognized none of them. During his stay in Orario, he had gotten a chance to memorize plenty of different runes - thousands, in fact - but none of them could be found here. Still, even if he had known any of them, he also didn't understand what any of them meant, stood for or signified. He was a complete novice in this field, lacking any and all basic knowledge.

Smirking to himself helplessly, Isaac soon found himself knocking on the door of Riveria's study. She was most definitely the person most qualified to help him with this.

"Enter."

Once the door closed again, the hard-working High Elf looked up from the countless doc.u.ments and books that were cluttering her desk and raised her left eyebrow in surprise.

"Oh, Isaac. What brings you here? I didn't expect to see you today. Didn't you say you were busy?"

Still sporting the same helpless smile from before, Isaac nodded. Without holding anything back, he reported exactly what troubled him. During his recounting of events, Riveria's eyes grew wider and wider, until she finally closed them, rubbed her forehead and sighed powerlessly.

"So let me get this straight. You want me to help you kick-start your rune-related research? Do you want me to teach you? That could be… problematic. I'm a bit swamped right now, as you can see, so you would have to wait until the most immediate matters are taken care of."

Showing a look of understanding, Isaac reassuringly shook his head.

"No worries, I haven't turned blind yet. Do you have a book discussing the basics, or even just one expounding on the meanings of a handful of runes? That should be enough to get me started."

A bit taken aback at the prospect of not having to pull even more all-nighters like she had expected, it took Riveria a few seconds to gather her thoughts. She glanced at the bookshelves that took up the majority of this room's space and finally recalled the exact information that she had been trying to remember.

"The third bookshelf to your right, left side, fourth row from the top. There should be a book called 'Runic Mysteries', penned by Celdia Ljos Alf."

'Haven't I heard that name somewhere before?'

Upon flipping through his memory, Isaac soon realized that a character named 'Celdia' had appeared in the heroic tale 'Dungeon Oratoria'. She was also called the 'Queen of the Elves'. Because this author shared the same surname as Riveria, it was rational to assume that they were also a High Elf, therefore they would have had the qualifications to become a candidate for the ruler of all Elvenkind. It was reasonably likely that both Celdias were one and the same person, or at least related to each other. Still, there was a sure-fire way to get an answer to all of these questions.

"Thanks! By the way, is that the same Celdia who accompanied Albert Waldstein on his adventure? Is she perchance your ancestor?"

For a moment, Riveria stayed silent and raised an eyebrow yet again. Then, she nodded.

"Yes. And while she isn't my direct ancestor, her younger sister, Rishena, is."

A thankful nod in her direction later, Isaac quickly made his way to where she had told him to search. It only took him a couple of seconds to find the tome that she had mentioned. It was wrapped in a plant-based leathery material, most likely made out of the leaves of a tree from the Alf's Royal Forest, and had the still mana-imbued letters 'Runic Mysteries' written in stunningly beautiful penmanship on its spine.

Isaac carefully took it out of the shelf and got surprised by the fact that it didn't seem like a millennium-old book at all - in fact, it felt as good as new. Riveria and any previous owners had clearly looked after it extraordinarily well. There were no creases or dog's ears anywhere, and the ink still appeared as fresh as if it had only just dried hours ago. If he had been a pervert, he probably would have noticed that one could still smell the pleasant natural scent of the author wafting from the pages. The reason for all of this quickly dawned on him - one the corner of every single page, as well as on the binding, a rune could be found. It had been carved hundreds of times.

Very delicately, Isaac closed the book again, then he put it into his inventory. After thanking Riveria one more time and getting shooed out of the study because she truly was busy, he returned to his private world, where he pulled out a sturdy and clean table as well as a chair first, before placing the newly acquired Runic Mysteries on top of the former.

'Let's get started.'

Even though all of his movements were as meticulous as possible, so as to not harm this book in any way, it only took him five minutes to read through the entire tome. Hundreds of pages worth of information had entered his mind and had already been internalized by him. Usually, his reading speed would be many times faster, but due to how cautious he had been, he had been left with more than enough time to even get a bit distracted while he was turning the pages.

Many realizations dawned on him as he thought about the most important parts that he had learned one more time.

By relying on his system's automatic translation feature, he had once again confirmed that the runes were not a language, or at least not a language according to the specific definition that he had based this part of the system on.

And yet, the book claimed that the runes were a language. Every single rune had a specific meaning, and when many of them were put together, they could actually be read by the learned, as well as achieve combined effects.

New runes could be created as well, but the process of doing so was only touched upon in passing - most of the book was focused on introducing as many of the runes that the author knew about as possible. To make a new one, one had to 'designate a shape and imbue it with meaning' - that was all that was stated. In essence, this was also how new words for regular languages came about. Combinations of letters, or wholly novel symbols, would be combined or used to convey a specific meaning, thereby becoming 'imbued' with it.

Still, something didn't feel quite right about this to Isaac. If this book's explanation had been correct and the system had been wrong, then the latter should have automatically added this new language to its database, henceforth enabling him to read all runes that he came across. Needless to say, this hadn't happened. But why was he so certain that this was how the translation feature worked? He wasn't, but because he was the creator of the system, he would be very baffled if he forgot to include such basics. So while this didn't 100 percent guarantee that this assumption of his was correct, it was at least a considerably reliable guess.

'There aren't too many possibilities. Most likely, it's a kind of 'formal language'.'

Contrary to 'natural languages', formal ones didn't come about naturally. Yes, the wording literally gave it all away immediately, and it was really just that simple. To give an example from Isaac's past world, programming languages were considered to be formal languages, while English was a natural one that had continuously evolved over the ages.

'But that isn't it either, at least not exactly.'

The ability to create new 'letters' - new runes - was what set it apart from regular formal languages. Normally, these would consist of a given alphabet, and new additions to it would not result in expanding the original formal language, but rather result in the creation of an entirely new one. However, in natural languages, new letters came about every now and then. While it wasn't to the extent that anyone could simply create a new letter and add it to the language whenever they felt like it, on average, every few hundreds years, new ones would inevitably trickle in.

These runes were an unusual combination of both formal and natural languages, cranked up to eleven. They seemed to be considerably different from the both of them, and had created something novel, something Isaac hadn't seen before. And he didn't recognize it as a legitimate language - there was a simple reason for it. Even if it had been a regular formal language, he wouldn't have the system translate it for him. Only natural languages qualified to be 'real' languages in his eyes, because they had evolved over long periods of time, mostly without any sort of blueprint. They had simply come about, and not been deliberately designed. And while these runes did have some similarities to natural languages, they weren't the same. Did this mean that his system's translation feature wasn't preparing him for any and all eventualities? Yes, but that would also enable him to have some fun while he would be figuring out unfamiliar and strange languages that didn't fit the specified criteria that he had set.

There was another realization that he had come to after reading about the individual runes that Celdia had mentioned, as well as how exactly the interactions between them changed their effects. Runes… they were just a mana-powered programming language. For example, every rune could be considered to be a 'function' - this was what the phrase 'imbue it with meaning' referred to. Or at least that was Isaac's interpretation of it.

'That's all well and good, but how do I actually create new runes? And how am I supposed to find out what the runes in the magic stones mean?'

Nowhere in the whole tome was there any mention of how unknown runes could be deciphered. Maybe it was just too advanced of a topic to be covered here, maybe the author had run out of pages before arriving at this issue, or maybe it was considered to be impossible. Isaac had no idea which possibility was the most likely, he was lacking all relevant information.

The Goblin's magic stone, at this point, might as well have been a black box to him.

As he was coming up with lots of different theories and approaches, the hours passed by.

'Oh, would you look at the time…'

It was already close to 1 p.m., a.k.a. when he had to be present in his cell to feast on his sumptuous meal. Or, well, his pathetic prison food. Yesterday, he hadn't gotten a chance to stop by, because he had been busy being swarmed by hundreds of Xenos and being dragged around like a ragdoll. Fortunately, after having contacted Fels, the skeleton had disposed of his lunch for him, so as to avoid arousing any attention.

After a quick teleportation trip to his cell to fill his stomach with some delectable water, stale salad and hard bread, he immediately returned to his private world.

An hour later, he finally made a breakthrough - it was a small one, but it was progress nonetheless.

When drawing the shape of a new rune with his mana, he chose to try to influence it in the same way as he would usually do with his mana when he wanted to achieve a certain effect. This didn't work at first, because it simply made the mana produce the phenomenon immediately, not caring about what kind of shape it was currently in. As a stopgap measure, he tried to prevent this by clarifying that the rune-shaped mana should only activate after it got imbued with even more mana, and that actually worked… but he knew that he had strayed unto the wrong path.

Nevertheless, even failures would lead one closer to one's goal, as there was always something to be understood - even if it was just 'what not to do'. In the failed rune creation's case, however, the lesson learned was a far more important one.

The second approach to creating a new rune led Isaac to using his pure mana on a piece of rock, carving out the shape of the rune that he wanted to make. Afterwards, he returned the mana to his mental layer, before having it reappear in the same spot as before and designating it the exact role that he wanted it to play. For simplicity's sake, he went with what he dubbed a 'wind blade rune' - whenever mana was inserted into the shape of the rune that he had carved, it was supposed to convert it into a wind blade that shot off in a defined direction, with a certain speed.

This… it actually worked! Even reusing the same mould, the same 'formation rune', wasn't a problem.

In just a few hours, Isaac had comprehended the basis of how to create magical formations. While he was still very far from understanding the actual 'grammar' of this rune language, he could now at least create the most rudimentary of fundamental magic formations. It required him to understand how to make a phenomena happen with mana first, and to then imbue an engraved rune with just that purpose. This was completely different from how magical formation masters created their complicated formations nowadays. None of them actually fashioned anything new from the ground up, they had simply studied the grammar of the rune language, as well as learned the meaning of thousands of runes that had already been in circulation for countless years.

While the path that Isaac had embarked on was an innovative one, what he was currently capable of would only lead to him getting mocked by narrow-minded industry professionals. But as fortune would have it, this time, he was fully aware that he was advancing in the correct direction.

Be that as it may, why were the runes in the magic stone made out of pure mana, and not carved into its vessel? Would carving them only enable one to use them in formations and not result in the wondrous enigma that was a magic stone? To begin with, just what did have to happen for them to become 'mould-less'? And lastly, again, how could he 'read' these runes whose meaning was entirely foreign to him?

At this point, Isaac didn't yet have an answer to any of these questions.