Well, that escalated quickly, the brothers had agreed to help so Salt had that going for him. Gathering the brothers, he explained his plan. One would stay here, and coordinate supply and logistics and Salt would take Two brothers and quickly gather the paper needed to get the information and `print leaflets`. Then the 2 brothers and him would teleport to the capital and begin infiltration the library and from there grow a web of safe houses so reinforcements could come in.
Finally getting to his silvers and Walt-lodger paper company ally only an hour or two late, the rune having gone off in his absence as it was supposed to. Unfortunately, they were not alone, ringed by tough men or brutes or whatever his people had built themself a little barricade seemingly to stop the...... gangsters maybe? Unfortunately, though the barricade was very high, it was also on fire. Setting 30 arcane servants to ring the enemy but hold back disabling them or other, Salt focused his perception and found quite a few 1 circle mages. Taking an added minute to check with a multispectrum spell Salt sent a servant to engorge and trough illusions make a vast avatar of himself appear hovering above the on-fire barricade.
Making the illusions with a bang a bluish blocky Saltlike shape took form and spoke with thunder “who dears interrupt my servant's path! Speak!” Waiting for a while no one said anything or did anything, so after a while Salt asked the brothers to just teleport him past the barricade. Turning the illusions towards his nominal allies he made the head say “so did you all finish your assignments? I need that paper now.”
Teleporting to a roof behind the barricade, salt focused in on the man he thought most likely to have answers as the gang under them shouted incoherently he had him teleported to him. He was a nice-looking man a bit wild in the eyes, but one can forgive that under such circumstances. Salt began “mister Bedear was it from Walt-lodger paper company?” Seeing the man look up at him with joy left much to be desired Salt himself “Wy yes sir, and finer sheet smith you will nought find.” Salt stifling a heavy sigh said “mister Bedear do you have my purchased goods? I can feel too few of the spatial items I left in hands of those that assured me they were safe?”
“Well sir begging yore pardon but is not mees that done the failing, we bought and payed for all the paper yed need and more. But them durned Strix-co boys after learning that the papers run out come for our heeds they did, and they boss man payed for the braker boys to bash us. Them men took the watsits we put them papers in sir, and the person holding it too.”
“Ok”, addressing the brothers Salt asked, “could you please find the spatial co-ordinates of the amulets corresponding to these ones.” handing out his poorly made spatial amulets and rings. “Hey Baltazar, Bob could you fast track this. I know it's going to be hard to teleport repeatedly in such a manalow environment, but I think I have something to help you there.” Taking out the Oriestes flask mana battery he had just got and handing it over. Nodding his head Bob said, “sure Salt we could do that, but we would be hopping around for like an hour, you sure you would not like some backup here?” Nodding his head Baltazar chimed in “that's a lot of men.”
Settling himself into the role salt went “please don’t mention it to grandpa Soil but I am quite a bit stronger than him in combat, so thanks for the worry but this will be fine.” Smiling with what he hoped looked like youthful confidence Salt waited to do the mass murder until he was sure the brothers was out of range. Calling his mana servants in towards himself, Salt readied himself for slaughter.
Salt took out his new staff and could not help but admire it compacted scrolls of life reservoir the third circle upgrade to his former steal life scrolls. Joined by lines of arcana flowing between five eyeball sized gemstones made as an artificial mana lake to hold the differing energies Salt would need to complete his book-mancer mission in the Cartisia empire. Most of Salts movable wealth had gone into three of these staffs and the many, many spatial rings and amulets he would need to transport parts of an empire's entire written records to Nersinia.
The staff Salt held right now was his least powered up staff, it held a mere 53% of the mana it could hold within its mana lake. Using 11% of this massive force Salt empowered 47 mana servants charging 47 rot grow scrolls and giving the starting spark for 47 life reservoir scrolls. This being more mana in more intricate constructs then Salt had ever held before he sat down focusing his will trough the scroll tome.
Throughout the night of this section of the city of Urguth the noise crept ever downwards until the people hiding behind the barricade felt the fire flicker and fade. Hearing nothing but the popping of glowing wood and detritus some of the trapped Silvers took the chance and ventured into the night. The formerly besieged people stayed for some 20 minutes before a fog rolled in over ground, and the blue immovable head over the barricade started melting. Not knowing what was happening people stood still people waited, asked, screamed questions and in the end people died.
After an hour Salt sat with all his scrolls back around 140 skeletons in rings and 20 rings filled to the brim with paper. Trying to waste as little power as possible Salt had taken his time but the mana deprived air had leached over on fifth of his harvest. His staff now had 61% charge; it was literally almost not worth the effort it took not to have the thing explode in his face. 40 next time Salt thought to himself, I will keep it under forty servants.
Following the proverbial breadcrumbs, the brothers had left him Salt started flying over their trail. Cursing under his breath Salt did the math 3 hours for the paper sale 2 hours for the equipment deal 6 hours for sleep 8 hours interrogated by idiots and now however long this took. It had taken at least 18 hours to get here, and he had not even started with the empire task. All jobs require some improvisation, but this was rapidly becoming all spur of the moments and little of his beloved planning.
Feeling a current of spatial aspect moving Salt landed and prepared his illusions and shields, just to have Bob stick his head trough a portal a bit up the road. Casting a quick telepathy spell Salt asked “all good? Should I come go through with you?” Looking in his direction and shouting in a stroke making Salt try at subterfuge moot, Bob Shouted “they were hardy foes and did not give us the paper willingly, but we are well. Though my brothers got some holes in him, are you good with healing like your grandfather Salt?” Looking over at Baltasar, he could see His singed and tattered robes. And Bob in turn had cuts and Bruises Specifically at the lower section of his body.
Taking his time with the focus on the portal, he healed Baltasar. Salt also asked Bob, just what the hell was behind That portal. Looking red in the face, Bob Replied “Well, we came swinging in with our magic and we found mostly old women. That's mostly where the scratches came from. The old ladies did not like us.” “And the fire” Salt asked. “Oh, when we saw it was mostly small little ladies. We didn't want to burn them. Yeah, I don't really know if there were illusions, but we got Your stuff. And it's mostly filled with paper. Are we done here or what?”
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Checking the spatial rings Salt quickly found himself about 5% short on the best-case scenario he had drawn up. Feeling tired already before the real task had even begun. Salt took the brothers to an Inn where they could wash off Change their clothes and get ready for the task ahead. He himself had started to divvy up the paper Between his new tomes. Salt set aside about 60% of the paper for the secret Libraries Reckoning that he would spend more time there now, As the paragons Laid their sieges. He knew The Paragon sieges quite well Why sieges? Well, they find one evil thing and then it just rolled like a ball down a hill. It truly was not his idea to have more than four or five of them with him but if you don't factor in Angelic Incompetence into your plans then? Well, that was your fault.
As Bob and Baltazar Both Looking much better Went through the first portal, the second Portal and subsequently third portal. Salt was again almost losing his dinner as they arrived at the Morrow Heights The capital of the empire Cartisia. Salt said, “right Let's ask around we need to know the watch commanders.” After some time. Salt and the brothers were shown to large stately building that was Purported To be the watch Commanders Headquarters. Finding a man of at least Sergeant rank and using compulsion to have him take us to his office to do more thorough servant process on him. Salt started going up the ranks First, he started with the Lieutenant Of the current watch. Then straight to quartermaster and the accountant Then taking all three into the watch Commanders office. Salt got the names of every shadow and Special guard The ruling reign had placed as Safeguards. Taking over two of them He got the name of their boss and in a sort of rolling motion, he had taken over the entirety of the headquarters. Salt was bizarrely proud that he had only used 34 Domination scrolls to do it and now he had access to their entire low security secret police Files to copy.
Seeing the tome Channel, the power from the staff into a sort of copying frenzy Salt's started setting up his own Pet project. The copying project was for the library, but his own research and gifts were forced into the realm of comprehension. So now he had a lot of time in libraries and very, very little wealth to pay the exorbitant fees of his school tuition. It actually might seem like salt was secure but if he did not pay his tuition well, he was going to die. He had traded problem for another problem, and he was feverishly thinking of projects to regain some semblance of security. A project that he thought of because of the library situation he was currently in, was something he had toyed with in the first semester. He never really had enough mana for it to work and he lacked a certain expertise with the husbandry aspect. But need is would, need must and salt was here to find a familiar, a quite special familiar salt was here for the elusive bookworm.
Yes, that's right, a bookworm. Now the thing with a bookworm is It's less of a physical creature and more a spiritual one. According to his readings on the very little information that he could find in the vast libraries of Nersinia. A bookworm finds its nest in vast tracts of paper and information Being read all the time. bookworms are few and far between They live on the small edges of your consciousness as you read a book. Sometimes you will feel a word or afraid slipping in your mind This could be entirely natural, or the bookworm has fed. Sometimes you will feel entire sections gone like Didn't I read this before? The bookworm can also use this Ability in a defensive manner as it often panics as you move along the stacks. leading you to having to go back to see what you were looking for or are they ever annoying I knew it was somewhere around here. the bookworm utilizers these things Because it's hilariously Defenceless. We have yet to see a single victim of a bookworm attack This doesn't mean there aren't ways for the bookworm to attack.
Now seeing as the bookworm feeds on the ones That utilises a library or information source. You would think it was an entirely parasitic Organism, In fact, the bookworm. Uses the comprehension that it digests from its patrons to curate, punctuate or extenuate the information in such a way to make it Better and more easily understood for the next reader. Now it is unclear how the bookworm is able to do this, but it is a repeatable phenomenon When a known bookworm has laid its lair. Now there is a thriving market in bookworms The blue gestalts will pay heavily for its ability to Increase the effectiveness of mental spells. As of yet, I have come across no reports That someone has succeeded or even tried to turn one into a familiar.
But salt know how the trappers of bookworms found, trapped and kept alive their quarry for a fresh bookworm and he had specially commissioned A box to keep one or two in. Now a bookworm was not dissimilar from a tiger in that it had its own territory. It had its own genres that it focused in on and could curate with great excellence. It would often take over the index or other books that was rarely read like a book of heraldry, or a fluff piece on a certain genealogy. From its central tome, it would roam its hunting ground, Salt did not expect to find the bookworm in any other place but a massive library.
Finding a bookworm would be a massive help to Salt. But for now, he had a difficult process ahead of him. He needed to know where the secret libraries were kept, and which Kingdom of the three he would designate as the Evil Kingdom? Using his tome of Tome mastery as well as his now servants the main guard accountant and quartermaster, Salt quickly found irregularities in the accounting and reports on forced movement, that made no sense. Dalt decided to stay here until he had copied most of the police libraries. That would add time and complicated His quest to find a bookworm, but it would seem time was not on his side and the brothers were eager Start setting up cells to combat evil overlords.
Finally, something pinged in north Urd the Middle Kingdom of the Cartisia empire. After copying the lion share of the police library Salt packed up and pretty much did the same thing to the watch commander's headquarters in the Capital city of Urd. Unfortunately, there were a couple of mages in the employ of the shadow guards. Luckily, we had found proof of orphan soldiers by that time so the brothers, though unhappy Simply grumbled at my execution. Salt strategy was quite simple Go for the central book repository secret knowledge as it took less time and less energy.
However, Salt had a different problem The sheer concentration necessary to copy the massive amounts of data. Had started taking its toll and he had no guards So two days into his mission in a barracks where they made specialised soldiers, by sewing them together. Salt made a blunder He had been too busy taking Secret police is men that he quite forgot the ever-present rebels that form in empires. One of them must have seen him as he made servants of Their oppressive overlords Called his buddies. And we're happily burning down a large portion of the barracks Unknowingly setting free some of the Monsters that they made in this place. It wasn't that big of a deal, but one of the brothers Decided this was the perfect time to rally support For the Paragons and the ways of light. In the end, salt managed to persuade the brothers that one of them should get back up and to not dive blindly into the rebellions Base knowing so little about them.
Down to only one Taxi Salt felt this was time to hit the main libraries, Before the forces of good burned them forever. If he was estimating, salt would say that he had maybe 8% of the secret mundane Book repository for the entirety of the Empire.