Only God

Belvan nearly abandoned sleep and meals for the research in his hands; his originally orderly life was disrupted by his passion for research. He was so engrossed in the Ancient Language, seeking the intangible connections between them, that he often stayed up late into the night, to the extent that his students Kagu and Prince Mura had to substitute for him in his classes.

The Alchemist’s enthusiasm for the Ancient Language was unimaginable, and his mood was equally volatile. The originally gentle and scholarly demeanor was temporarily gone, replaced with impatience, restlessness, and eagerness. He had changed entirely—he even scolded the palace servants for cleaning the study room, venting his frustrations.

But it was all worth it.

Under Belvan’s day and night efforts, he had not only verified the descriptions in the Nameless Book one by one, but he had also preliminarily identified the early parts of two God-created Paths, and roughly outlined the range of Ancient Languages of these two paths.

Every moment, Belvan felt fortunate to have obtained that Nameless Book, yet regretted having only one. His fortune lay in being able to infer many secrets of the Ancient Language from the book’s descriptions without spending a great deal of time on trial and error. Since ancient times, who knows how many scholars of the Ancient Language had fallen at the step of trial and error, without achieving anything.

His regret was that he had only one book. According to the author of the book, he had written a full forty Nameless Books, signifying that the God-created Paths were not just God’s grace, but also a test and transformation for mankind, just as Prophet Noen had found the Ancient Elf Kingdom after forty days.

To fully understand the God-created Paths, having only one book was far from enough; many of the records within were isolated evidence, beyond Belvan’s ability to fully prove.

What he could do was to construct a framework with what he knew and had discovered.

After extensive research, Belvan had a rough grasp of the early parts of both paths, naming them: the Path of the Passerby and the Scholar’s Path. For the former, he deduced three Ancient Languages, respectively meaning "Silence," "Observation," "Travel." The latter required more, with five Ancient Languages, respectively meaning "Study," "Carefulness," "Curiosity," "Observation," "Patience."

It’s evident that there were repeated Ancient Languages between the two paths. Belvan noticed this and it gave him a great insight, which he recorded in his manuscript as an axiom:

"Where paths are close to each other, there must be shared Ancient Languages, there must be shared understandings."