A Reader's Grimoire In A Novel World

Julius had a very indifferent expression as he gazed at the words projected by the grimoire.

'Is this some kind of joke? These definitely aren't my thoughts,' he said as he looked back into the waters, and then the words changed.

{He contemplated: should he go into the waters, or should he lure the creature out for a higher survival rate? One leads to his death, and the other... leads to his death also. No escape from this.}

Julius frowned as he kept reading.

'Are these my thoughts? Or what my thoughts are supposed to be?' He glanced at the words and noticed they were also being written on the pages.

{Death to him, but by what? Hidden threats? Or by his brothers perhaps? Or even by the creature. At this moment, he was walking on thorny vines he wasn't aware of. He couldn't understand why the grimoire–}

Julius closed the book with force, frowning as he dismissed it.

'The hell was that about,' he thought, looking back into the waters once more.

He couldn't help but feel uneasy, and since the students had left the area, it was better to take the beast seal and leave.

'Thinking about it now, this would be my first encounter with a real fantasy creature...' Julius smacked his lips.

'It doesn't seem like it wants to make a move anytime soon. I'll need to lure it out somehow. But I don't even know what sort of creature it is,' he mused, putting a hand on his chin.

The only thing he could see right now was the large amount of essence leaking from the waters, and he really wanted to be the one to take this creature in.

He went away from the area to gather some supplies, and soon, he returned, holding a very long branch from a tree that seemed straight and sturdy.

He sharpened the top with his sword and then began to walk toward the water.

...

From where the king and the other royals sat, they all seemed confused by what Julius was doing.

"It's only the second day, and he can definitely capture a great amount of seals. What exactly is his target?" Berlin mumbled as he observed the prince's movements.

There seemed to be a new member sitting between the king and Queen Margaret. It was a young girl who appeared to be around Julius' age, with long wavy green hair and the same purple eyes as him.

She seemed fascinated as she watched him wholeheartedly.

"He's still very inferior to his siblings if we look at it. And there's that girl... If they meet in the battle royale round, he would definitely be taken out," Freya said as she looked at him, and then they all turned their attention to another projection.

It was River, standing in front of a large tiger beast with ice spikes rising from the ground, piercing and suspending it in the air.

The king smiled as he saw that and continued watching River, putting Julius aside.

...

Julius thrust the long stick, which was over five meters long, into the water, and with force, he pushed it down toward the creature.

Soon, the ground began to shake, and he jumped back as he felt it.

The water rose up suddenly, and then a creature burst out of the pool of water.

Julius remained calm as the large creature towered over him.

Because of the darkness of the forest, he couldn't see the creature clearly.

[Creature: Red-Ranged River Serpent

Rank: Tier 2 (Max)

Description: Often found under still waters, the snake has incredible defense, and its secret weapon, its teeth, carries a deadly acid that can corrode most objects upon touch.

Weakness: ??? (Costs 5 plot points)]

The serpent's eyes glowed bright gold, and it let out a loud screech, sending shockwaves toward Julius.

The prince only gritted his teeth and pulled out his sword from his waist. He took a breath before his entire body became covered with a thick, golden aura.

He dashed toward the snake, running faster than he had ever gone before. It dived down toward him too, and he leapt into the air, forming a flashbang in his hand before throwing it toward its nose.

He landed on the ground and leapt up toward the snake as it closed its eyes and roared loudly.

[Weakness: Wounding the eyes, breaking the teeth.]

Julius glanced at the weakness shown before him, then hopped onto the serpent's body and headed toward its face.

A few students came around and saw the massive beast, immediately freaking out.

"W–what the hell is that thing?!" one of the students shouted as he fell on his butt, while some others ran away immediately.

Julius kept throwing flashbangs and, as he reached its head, he immediately ran downward.

At that moment, the serpent regained its senses and dived down, shaking Julius off.

He groaned as he was thrown off, but he stabbed his sword into the scales and breathed hard.

He was already feeling tired, having exhausted his essence on the flashbangs.

He glanced up, and then the snake swung its head up, forcing the sword out of his grip.

His eyes remained calm as he assessed his situation. The serpent's mouth opened wide, and he held his sword horizontally as he fell.

A white light surrounded the blade of his sword as he sped toward the serpent's mouth.

As it opened its mouth, he saw the two red fangs of the snake, and he struck with great precision.

The tooth shattered like glass under the empowered sword, and the serpent let out a loud hiss as it grabbed Julius and threw him to the side.

Julius landed safely, taking deep breaths as he glanced back to see the serpent falling to the ground.

'I guess it's a good thing that I found it early. And I know the weakness,' he thought as he walked toward it.

If he hadn't taken it down early on, it would have been able to trap him or use its body to overwhelm him.

The creature underestimated him, and now it's dead.

"Well, well, well... Who would've known that you'd be able to defeat a peak Tier 2 creature?"

A voice came from behind, and Julius began cutting the seal out quickly as the footsteps approached him.

He was suddenly grabbed and thrown backward out of nowhere.

He regained his balance and looked back to see Cider and Rowan staring at him. Cider had a wide smile on his face as he cracked his knuckles.

All of a sudden, the sound of something cutting through the air rang out, and multiple people in various outfits descended silently from the trees.

"Uh... are they trying to gang up on us?" Cider asked as he looked back at the people and saw them holding their ground.

...

BOOM!!

Julius breathed hard as the trees caught fire. He saw Rowan with a pin in his neck, unable to move from his position.

He fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, Cider was holding off three people at once and then a blade reached his neck and he was slashed.

Julius witnessed fear from his half brother's expression and he couldn't help but feel that something was wrong.

'Did I misjudge? I did look around before I came to the river. These people must have come for me after that...' Julius could only think of the possibilities.

He looked up at one of them and noticed the grey attire and the mask, confusion spreading across his face as he recognized them.

'The Grey Convoys. So Prince Caesar is behind this, huh? At least, now I know.' His left eye glowed brightly all of a sudden, and he summoned the grimoire into his hand.

'Let's go back to where this all started...' he thought as he glanced at the page.

"Page Turner."