I looked at the rest of my titles and was astounded, Bonuses for my stats? Affinities? Fame? Increased effectiveness? Easier skill gain and level up? Isn’t this too good to be true?
I checked my statistics and saw that my agility and defense both increased by five. So by training you can increase your statistics, and by acquiring titles, you can also increase them? Is this the embodiment of the saying ‘You define your tool, and the tool defines you’? How does that even work?
Below the ‘stats’ tab was the ‘sub-stats’ which contained both ‘Fame’ and ‘Infamy’, my Fame was in the thousands… Am I that famous now?
The next thing I saw is the ‘Affinities’ section. This I can understand easier, it’s probably about magic. It had to be. Though why is do I have more affinity with death? Is it because I died? Or is it because I kill?
Looks like I can also activate some titles like they are skills, I noticed that some titles both have passive and active effects and some had no effects at all except for an increase in Fame. Is it because my appraisal level is too low? Or are there really no other effects?
“UGHHH,” I ruffled my hair with both of my hands, “I don’t know anymoooooore. All I get are more and more questions! I need answeeeersss.”
I stood up from the bed, wore my vest, and went downstairs after locking my room. It’s been more or less an hour after I ate.
The old man in the counter was replaced by an old woman, if the old man earlier was Laura’s father, then this should be her mother.
“Hello,” I went towards her and greeted.
“Hello, young man,” She smiled and greeted back, “What do you need?”
“Is there a library around here?” I raised my eyebrows and asked her.
“Oh, there is, it’s not as big as the one in the capital though, “ She looked up the answered me, “Are you new here?”
“Yup, I just arrived earlier with Arnold,” I nodded at her, “Do you know where it is?”
“So you’re the kid that Paul mentioned huh? Thank you for what you did, I’m glad that there might be a chance to see my grandkids before I die. We tried everything with those two, we even tried telling them both that they liked each other, but both just denied it… stubborn little rascals.” She grumbled and I could only smile wryly. Paul must be the name of the old man earlier
“Hahaha, no problem, how about giving me a discount instead,” I looked at her, hoping that I may be able to gain some discount…
“Discount? Oh, Paul already did that earlier, you were supposed to pay three hundred and eighty five Lors but he only charged you three hundred,” She looked back at me and replied with an almost undetectable smug look in her face.
“Hmm, okay then, “I just shrugged, “What about the library though?”
“Go towards the plaza about 300 meters away south then go East about another hundred meters, The 3 story building there is the library,” She looked up with a hand in her chin and answered me.
“Thanks, I’ll be right back,” I went out the door and went south.
“What a peculiar young man…" her mutter reached my ears just before i closed the door.
After leaving the inn, I observed my surroundings more than before; most of the buildings here are made up of stone, with the occasional wooden ones. I also noticed that the establishments here in this area are almost always stores and shops.
I reached what I assume to be the plaza, It was a grass patch around 10 meters in diameter and 1 statue was placed in the center, it was a bearded man riding a horse facing north with his sword pointed forwards and the horse in the middle of a gallop. It was a cool statue, but I didn’t decide to dwell in it further. Two trees were in the Plaza adjacent to each other, street vendors littered the streets and kids were running around a tree and playing a game similar to tag with their mothers gently smiling at them. I decided to look away immediately.
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I hurriedly went towards east and located the library; it was 3 stories tall and was made from bricks compared to the other establishments, I entered the building.
Inside were bookshelves, 6 of them to be exact, each containing around 50 books each.
I walked towards the counter that was on my left side.
“Hello, “ I greeted the bespectacled brunette beauty that was reading a book in the counter. There are actually eye glasses in this world?
“What is it? “ She answered me coldly. She didn’t even look away from the book.
“I’m new here, is there an entrance fee?” I just shrugged at her rude attitude.
“No,” She replied briefly, I shrugged again and just left her alone, I like these kind of people best, clear and concise without much chitchat, something tells me there’s something else about her, but I decided not to add questions for myself now that I’m looking for answers.
I went towards the first bookshelf on the far left corner of the floor, I picked up some books that sounded interesting like “Diary of a Traveler”, “Lorian’s Lore”, “The Battle of Esogtris”
I picked those three books plus a couple more and went towards a table situated just in front of the counter, the girl looked at me suspiciously as I seated.
“What?” I furrowed my brows and asked her.
“Those books,” She furrowed her brows as she pointed to the books I brought, “They’re for little kids. Why are you reading them?”
“Well it’s not like everyone has the luxury to read, alright?” I looked at her condescendingly and then pointed to the book she was reading and said with a smug face, “You’re also reading one, right?”
In her hands was a book named “The Hero of the Continent”, I noticed that there was a spot in the first bookshelf that was missing a book, and if I’m correct that every book in that shelf are children’s book, then that book must be one too.
“… Fair enough,” she widened her eyes for a little, answered then returned to reading her book.
And once again, I just shrugged and started reading.
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Many years ago, when men lived in the darkness of caves and trembled in fear of the mighty beasts that roamed the land, one man had enough of the life of fear and hunger.
He thought, ‘If the beasts can hunt us, then why can we not hunt them?’ He led a group of young and brave warriors, armed with spears and morale. But alas, not even morale can make them win, one by one, the warriors fell and in the end only the man and the beast were left, both battered and wounded.
The beast lunged at him and he prepared himself for his death… But it never came, opening his eyes he saw a golden light surrounding him, the beast could not penetrate this mysterious light and only clawed at it, as if it was rock.
The man, though confused, took the opportunity and stabbed the beast with his spear. The beast flailed in protest but finally, he won; he skinned the beast, much like he did for animals, and brought the corpse back home, his tribe rejoiced at his new found power and at the thought of obtaining it as well. The man learned more and more each time he used his power, he could mold rock to his will, blow wind into the enemies, burn trees to ground and drown his opponents, he understood how to use it. He thanked the gods for giving him this gift and swore that he would nurture it, he spread the knowledge of this new found power and soon enough, they were out of the caves and lived in crude houses of earth and wood, years after, small settlement turned to towns, towns to villages and villages to kingdoms. It was the birth of Thalis, the Great Kingdom. And it was the birth of magic.
The man never lived old enough to be the king, but his descendants did. And they ruled the continent til this very day.
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I finished reading the last book, “Lorian’s Lore” I didn’t know if it was true, but I think that if this is a children’s story, most people should believe it, there was a plot hole in the story though, did they forget about the other guys who helped the man wound the beast?. It was already sunset, the books were short and I could finish one in half an hour, I returned to the bookshelf once or twice during that time and picked up a couple more books.
I learned a lot today. There was one book that was actually a history book; It talked about the earliest records to the present day. I learned that this kingdom is named ‘Thalis’ that was centered on both knowledge and military power, they also mainly export clay and iron products. By the way, the continent I’m in right now is named ‘Lorian’. There are more kingdoms that surround Thalis, but it was said that they currently are the strongest. I also read about that guy who was able to circle the world and prove that it was round. There was also one girl who saved the continent from a plague and one man who was able to reach level 84 --- the highest recorded level of a person.
Oh! And I also learned the name of the cold girl, it was Lilith Y’savas. I first thought of it as weird but then I thought, ‘Who am I to call her name weird, I’m from another freaking world! Who knows if that’s a normal name around here…’
She got tired of me calling her ‘Hey’ after asking if there are history books that she could recommend. She just sighed and gave up her name. She also stood up from her chair a couple of times and grabbed some maps and other books for her to read.
I stood up from my chair and bid her farewell, she just looked at me and nodded, she returned to reading her book soon after.
I walked back towards the inn, I think it’s time for dinner already… I hope it’s good…
I didn’t find anything about magic or skills today but there’s still a tomorrow, I’ll come back then to read some more.
After going inside the inn and greeting Paul, I ate dinner, it was a little bit better than lunch, but still not enough to suit my tastes.
Going upstairs after eating, I opened my room, took off my vest, lay on the bed and slept like a log.