The diary is nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, it is the same blank notebook given to every student studying at the Montry Public School at the start of the semester.
You see, Lucian's golden finger is not the book itself, but it is what happens after he wrote in the book. Everything he wrote down will be turned into these different coloured liquids. For the past 5 years, he has had no use for these liquids but today might be the day that something finally happens.
Lucian grabbed his pen and quickly jotted down his diary entry into the book. When he first started, this process usually took him 20 minutes, but now he could easily do it in 10.
Everything from when he first woke up to every conversation he had/heard was written down exactly as he remembered it.
As soon as he finished writing and put his pen down, the texts he wrote suddenly started to shift into various combinations of blue, and yellow. The letters, and handwriting was the same but for some reason the texts are now dimly glowing blue and yellow.
'There is so much blue this time.' Lucian thought.
Lucian quickly closed the book and turned it over to the cover. The previous blank red cover suddenly has something else on it. In the middle, a circle made out of metal appeared, and there is a black screen in the circle. Surrounding it are 3 triangles, one for each of the 3 colours; blue, red, and yellow. There is a strange glowing liquid corresponding to each color in each of the triangles. The red one was empty, save for a few drops at the bottom, the blue one was about half full, while the yellow one was almost fully filled.
'With this entry, the yellow bar might finally be full!' Lucian thought excitedly
Plain white text suddenly started appearing on the black screen of the circle.
'Do you want to exchange your knowledge?'
'Yes, please.'
After answering this in his mind, the text suddenly disappeared. In its place was a small white dot in the center. Soon, yellow and blue texts begin to shoot out of this circle. These texts were moving super fast; you could only barely make it out to be the exact words that Lucian wrote in his diary. The texts flew into the triangle of their corresponding colours and began to turn into tiny droplets of liquid.
Lucian was staring intensely at the yellow triangle bar filling up.
'Come on, it is so close!'
There was still a tiny dark spot at the top of the triangle, and as words continued to enter it the water level barely filled it up.
Before long, less and less words began to appear out of the white circle, and Lucian was beginning to lose hope that it could have been filled today.
Seeing as no more words were coming out, and the white circle had disappeared, Lucian was about to give up and tuck the notebook away, getting ready to sleep. However, suddenly the black screen changed and bright yellow text appeared on the screen.
' Congratulations! You have accumulated enough knowledge to exchange for an Opportunity.
Would you like to redeem an Opportunity?'
A new never before seen text appeared on the screen waking up Lucian from his sleepiness.
'An Opportunity?' Lucian thought.
Lucian didn't redeem it the right way, but he decided to think about it a little more.
These past few years, Lucian learnt a couple of things about his golden finger. In fact, no one else but him could see these glowing letters, nor could anyone see the black screen or the triangles. If they look at his diary entries, it would look the same as any other.
And the colour of the text when he finished writing doesn't appear randomly either. Whenever he writes about events, everyday things, or activities the text will turn yellow. As for blue, it usually only appears when he writes about people, emotions, or things like his thoughts.
As for red, he didn't really know much about it. The only time the text ever turned red is when he wrote about this golden-finger ability of his. The paper of which he promptly burned and threw away.
After thinking about it, Lucian decided to go to the bathroom to redeem it. He didn't know what might happen, and it probably is better if he was somewhere alone. Holding the book tightly in his hand, he made his way to the bathroom and sat on the toilet seat.
'Alright, redeem it'
Suddenly, the triangle bar rapidly drained, turning the black screen of the circle into a bright yellow light. The light became so bright that Lucian had to cover his eyes.
'Ouch!'
Suddenly, a throbbing pain appeared in his head. He can feel a ringing in his ear, and it felt as if he got hit by a baseball bat straight through the head. A bunch of information suddenly appeared in his head, he was trying to sort it out through the pain. A vivid scene appeared in his mind. There was a Monster Grasshopper, attacking a caravan in a forest. The people tried their best to fight, and protect something in the caravan but it's to no avail. Watching this scene, the corresponding information appeared in his mind.
'Tomorrow, a caravan of the Dark Dog Gang transporting Earth Essence, was attacked on the way to Backridge. There were no survivors.'
Lucian sat still, taking a while to sort out this information.
If this is true, then it is indeed a big opportunity. However, Lucian was still hesitating a bit.
Although the Knowledge Exchange power, yes that's what he now decided to call it, gave him all the information needed such as the time and place, it still feels a bit risky.
For one, this happened outside the city walls surrounding Backridge. Out there anything can happen.
For two, this is the property of the Dark Dog gang. Even if there are no survivors, who knows if I want to make an enemy out of them.
And for three, there is a Monster Grasshopper still out there somewhere. If it is still around by the time Lucian got there then he would be done for.
However, Lucian decided he will try to go take a look anyways, after all if there really was an Earth Essence there then if he got it he would be set for life.
Still Lucian decided that it was worth the risk. It was an opportunity too big to ignore.
Although, Earth Essences are just a Rank 1 Essence, and is one of the most common. Just one of them is about 5 gold, or 5000 silver. If he got it, he would be able to help his mother Mary, and eat well for years. Afterall, to sustain an orphanage of about 15 kids, Mary spends about 200 silver each month. And this was 5000 silver for one person.
Essences are a really precious resource.
Essences are basically the physical manifestation of anything. It started appearing during the beginning of the apocalypse and continued all the way until now. One of the main uses of essence is for Pathseekers to advance in their Paths, however it could also be used for things like potions or equipment, etc. Although essences usually appear in the form of spherical balls, it could be basically anything. For the rarer essences it could even take the form of things like birds, even just gases.
Essences appear naturally in the world based on the environment. For example, if there is a lot of water like in the ocean then Water Essences can appear, for Earth Essences you can usually find it in places with a lot of dirt or stone like in caves. Basically, anything can be an Essence, even abstract things like mind, love, or even time.
Not only humans, but other animals, and even plants can absorb essences. When they do, they will also gain supernatural powers and strength based on the essences that they absorbed. We call any plants and animals that have successfully absorbed an essence a Monster.
Now let's get back to why Lucian decided to take this risk.
First of all, he can easily get out of the city walls by just bribing or sneaking out with an ongoing caravan. That wasn't gonna be an issue.
The only Pathseeker in the Dark Dog gang is its leader. From what he heard, the leader was a Rank 1 Warrior, so he should not have any tracking capabilities unless he uses an artifact. Making it so that as long as he was careful, no one would know it was him.
The most pressing problem is the Monster Grasshopper. In the vision, he can see that the Monster Grasshopper absorbed some kind of nature essence. Whether it is the Rank 1 Nature Essence itself, or something else he wasn't too sure. Nevertheless, Lucian knows some ways to mitigate this risk. And quite frankly, this was a risk that he was willing to take.
Regardless, Lucian was crazy tired right now. He decided to go get some rest first, and think about it more tomorrow. Afterall, according to the information he received, the event will happen at about 4 PM tomorrow.
He will be able to use the entire morning to prepare and if he set out at 2 PM, he would probably be able to make it to and back by 6.
The only problem is that he has school tomorrow.
As a college student in his previous life, skipping classes is just like taking a shower, something that he wouldn't even think twice about doing. But right now it is not as simple as before, all because of 1 person.
Rose Vanarik.
He did try skipping classes a few times in the past, however everytime he did, Rose would instantly run crying to report him as missing or something to Mary, and the teacher. Even if he already explained to her many times that he is just skipping classes, she wouldn't budge an inch.
Rose was a goody-two shoes through and through. Perhaps, in her mind she couldn't even comprehend the idea of skipping classes, let alone why someone would do it. Whenever I skip class she probably thinks I am getting kidnapped or something.
He already got 2 strikes from Mary already, and if he get a third one Mary said she would give him extra 2 hours of studying everyday.
For Lucian, this was equivalent to torture. After all, having to do kids problems like addition, telling the time, or takeaways for an additional 2 hours everyday would literally destroy his mind of boredom.
The more Lucian thought about it, the angrier he got.
'Rose Vanarik, you goddamn cabbage!'
Lucian decided that from this day onwards, in his mind he would curse Rose as a cabbage.