The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch-Chapter 119 - Learning Old Ansu Script (1/2)

Ciel looked at the system store.

After ignoring miscellaneous items like clothes, Ciel showed a slightly puzzled expression.

“System, that sealed artifact? Didn’t it enter my brain? Why isn’t it counted as brought back to the store?”

Yes, Ciel couldn’t find the black and blue feather in the system mall. Clearly, just before the simulation ended, the feather was still inside her body.

Something was definitely wrong here.

“Did you bug out?” Ciel questioned unceremoniously in her mind.

【Said it at the beginning】

【The system cannot purchase intelligent living beings ^^】

Living being? Isn’t it a sealed artifact?

A sealed artifact that gained self-awareness counts as a living being?

Ciel frowned slightly, feeling somewhat troubled.

The idea of directly using the system to figure out the feather’s details failed. This inevitably increased Ciel’s workload and investigation volume.

Moreover, due to the sealed artifact’s obstruction, the “Strong Luck Coin” and “Evil Eye,” which were already obtained, were directly discarded by it.

If she hadn’t successfully saved a file, Ciel’s previous efforts would have been wasted.

However, encountering that feather this time wasn’t entirely without gain.

Ciel memorized the words spoken by the feather after it controlled her body.

This could be a breakthrough.

But this created a new problem.

Without text, only language, translation was impossible. Even borrowing an Old Ansu dictionary from Avena for comparison wouldn’t work.

Unless she could find someone proficient in Old Ansu script and absolutely trustworthy, and have that person listen to Ciel repeat the words.

While thinking, Ciel opened the store’s 【Basic Disciplines】 interface.

Besides the previous four subjects, three new ones were added this time.

【【Basic Disciplines】】

【Tailoring (Learnable): 1 Fate Point】

【Sculpting (Learnable): 1 Fate Point】

【Linguistics (Learnable): 1 Fate Point】

Linguistics?

Previously, seeing Old Ansu script didn’t trigger the learnable option for this subject. This time, hearing it made the learnable option appear?

Whispers generated by potions probably weren’t classified under basic disciplines, so not being able to learn them was normal.

Ciel looked at her remaining 166 Fate Points. Without much hesitation, she directly selected Linguistics.

Ciel had never purchased any subject from Basic Disciplines before and was somewhat curious.

After she chose to purchase and learn, the Linguistics entry flickered slightly, and the original “Learnable” changed to “Lv.1”.

【Linguistics (Lv.1): 2 Fate Points】

【Linguistics Lv.1: Slightly increases your aptitude for linguistics, making it easier for you to learn various basic languages. With a little effort, you can become an excellent linguist】

...That’s it?

Ciel didn’t feel any change in herself.

The Old Ansu words still remembered in her mind remained incomprehensible, like listening to gibberish.

Still have to learn it myself...

Ciel felt slightly disappointed.

Learning a language could be easy, but it required at least a few months of dedicated study. She clearly didn’t have that time now.

And learning niche languages or those with few documented records and translations took exponentially longer.

The only feasible way was to have her simulated self learn it, write down the answers after finishing, so that when she went over, she could directly see the result.

Actually, Ciel had considered an even more extreme idea before.

In the last simulation, when it reached the final hour, the mastermind sealed artifact hadn’t appeared. Ciel had an idea then.

That was, in the next simulation, directly have her simulated self enter the system’s “deep simulation” at the last moment, and through the perspective of the Other Side, directly locate the feather.

This could directly find the location of the black and blue feather.

However, this idea was just wishful thinking, because finding the feather’s location was useless to Ciel.

Because Ciel had no idea how to fight a sealed artifact, especially when this sealed artifact seemed so much stronger than her.

Remember, in the previous simulation, that feather directly created a meteorite that destroyed Berren City... Before figuring out the feather’s specific strength, Ciel wouldn’t act rashly.

The clue ended here. Ciel had no better ideas for the time being, only able to slowly deduce from the details in her memory.

After the feather controlled her body... it directly picked up the 【Echo of the Silver-White Timebinder】, which was her stopwatch.

As for the other two people’s sealed artifacts, the “Strong Luck Coin” and the “Evil Eye,” the black and blue feather didn’t even glance at them, as if completely disregarding them.

Was everything it did just to filter out the 【Echo of the Silver-White Timebinder】?

Did it not know what it wanted?

Was it looking for something it didn’t even know itself?

Ciel stood up, paced within the room, thinking rapidly.

What could be confirmed now was that its target was only her and the stopwatch. The other two were at most dragged into it.

Another certainty was that the feather had intricate connections with the system, but clearly, its power was far inferior to the system’s.

The clue breaking here left Ciel slightly disheartened, but she didn’t give up.

This situation was what she was most familiar with.

The enemy was in the light, she was in the dark.

Give Ciel some time, and she would eventually drag the opponent out.

If she did nothing according to the initial method, not giving Lucy and Oppold any information, she could at least live for another forty-plus days.

This amount of time was unbelievably ample for Ciel.

Ciel walked to the desk, sat down, picked up a piece of paper, and began writing on it.

This was a letter addressed to Avena.

The letter first thanked Avena for the translation and her generosity—after all, Ciel was practically penniless now, and the money Avena sent indeed solved Ciel’s urgent need.

Next, Ciel asked Avena to lend her books about Old Ansu script translation and learning, and materials about the Ancient Era Holy War—these were things the academy wouldn’t teach, and Ciel knew very little about them.

Ciel naturally had to learn Old Ansu script. As for the Ancient Era Holy War materials, they were related to Tara. Tara’s Divine Advent Church had records about that strange feather, and those records dated back to the Ancient Era.

Understanding that era might help Ciel’s investigation.

Moreover, these materials were considered basic disciplines, having little relation to the transcendent. Studying them wouldn’t incur misfortune for Ciel.