Chapter 26

The Book Club

  After class was let out, I could almost feel the tension in the air. There was no real sign that anything was amiss. The students around me clearly didn’t notice that anything was odd as they all seemed to be moving about as if nothing happened, or rather nothing was happening.

  This meant either everyone was in on this, whatever it was, or I was the only one who felt odd about this whole situation. Given how self-absorbed and entitled most of the other kids here seemed to be, I doubt it was the latter. No comments on my own self-absorbed nature, I know I am, why I can spot it so easily in others, I’m dealing with it. That said, there was something off about this whole situation.

  Generally given so many students, someone would give away something if they were involved in some type of elaborate prank. Yet no one even seemed to look my way.

  Then I felt it.

  Whoom.

  Before I knew what had happened my survival instincts kicked in and I was through a self-made portal to the spirit realm. Why here? Simple, I always feel safe here, ever since my first time in this realm. This realm is sort of my go to place any time there is an issue.

  Still, even here in the spirit realm I could feel the odd tingling sensation that set my survival instincts on edge.

  Of course there was just one problem with my being here in the spirit realm meant that I couldn’t exactly see what was happening in the mortal realm. Maybe if I had real eyesight I might be able to perceive the real world with a sort of blurred filter to it, but sadly once I am in the spirit realm all I can see is the spirit realm.

  “Something wrong?” Zero asks, clearly feeling my mind and creating a mental connection to me. He doesn’t use Telepathy to make his connection. That or if he does, it is not the same form of Telepathy that I am used to. This is more of a subtle use that I think has more to deal with the fact that she is my familiar more so than anything else.

  “Sort of. I have an odd feeling, like something is off. Almost like I am being watched.”

  “Good, so you noticed them.”

  “Them? As in plural?”

  “Yes, you are nearing that age.”

  I paused and waited for my all too cryptic familiar to continue, but that was it.

  “What do you mean by that age?”

  “Yes.”

  That was it, all my familiar would say, about as helpful as a Chinese fortune cookie.

  “That’s it, you aren’t going to give me any magic numbers?” I ask, trying to at least get my full buck from this fortune cookie as I could.

  The small dragon paused and then said, “0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8.”

  “Fibonacci? That’s your big help, the Fibonacci sequence?” I ask, but at this point I can see that my little dragon is clearly tired and looks like they are going to go to sleep while floating. I am not sure how such a state is even possible, though I do envy the dragon. Does that mean it is always on its bed? Or that it can summon its bed from nothing?

  Shaking my head at the little dragon, I decide to just dismiss their antics and focus on what I can change. First, I know that my senses were correct, something is happening, I just don’t know what. Also, my one key insight gained from my familiar on how to deal with this, spirals.

  Yeah, I did not know what to expect other than the fact that it was likely a trap in some way shape or form. That said being forewarned is being forearmed or something like that. This was not a completely new concept for me, as an information broker, I made my living on selling just such details to people who would be targeted by such traps. Now I just had to remember what those people did. Mostly they would avoid the trap entirely and just attack from a different area that people weren’t expecting. Unfortunately I don’t think that would be the case here, I was on the University, meaning whomever started this trap would likely also be on the campus, with spirals. Gah, stupid familiars and their stupid cryptic warnings.

  Now to be fair, I know the Fibonacci sequence covers more than just spirals but the spiral pattern is what is found within everything. From plants, to life, to likely magic.

  As I think about it, I realize that I might be able to apply my own mathematical knowledge and see if there is a way it applies to the implementation of magic. My mind is about to go down this train of thought when I realize I am getting derailed.

  “No bad brain, focus.” I scold myself, as I realize this has come at the absolute worst time possible. I am dealing with an unknown threat, probably one of my Rivals as I am fairly certain that I now have two, but this could be something else entirely.

  Ultimately, I curse at the sheer inconvenience of this all. This is the absolute worst time for a distraction, I have my class quest where I need to interact with ten different restless spirits and help them move on to the afterlife. I have my classes, though admittedly I don’t have any more today, so that isn’t really an excuse I can use.

  At this point I realize my ultimate trump card in this, time.

  If this is a prank or act by a rival then the time window I can expect retribution to occur will be limited. If this is something else, like dealing with spirals, gah why did my familiar put that thought into my head, anyways if this is something else, then out waiting the situation will at least provide an opening that I can exploit.

  Seeing as I want to waste time, I decide to work on my class quest.

  Looking around, there are dozens of spirits that I can interact with, there is still the odd lightning master. I opt to not talk to him, unless absolutely necessary, I don’t want to get caught up in electrical discharge of some kind, as Spirit Lightning sounds ten times worse than regular lightning. Not that it is, but it just looks far more devastating than regular lightning.

  Still looking around it is clear that there are dozens of people, well spirits, that I can talk to and try to help move on with their lives.

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  Oddly enough, I find myself being drawn to the library. There I find one lonely patron at a desk reading one book. The only problem is that it is clear that the book that they are reading is only half complete.

  “Oh, come on.” A male voice cries out in pained anguish as they point to the clearly empty page. The story is clearly there on the left page, but then on the right there is nothing written, just blank pages.

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  “Wha!” The male ghost all but shouts as they jump out of their seat. Fear is evident in their face as they turn to me. “I wasn’t…it’s not what it looks like.” The teenager says, seeing me and clearly feeling like they were caught doing something illegal.

  I pause, trying to figure out what is happening here, but then it hits me. We are not just in the University’s library, but we are in the restricted section of the library, meaning that book he is reading is likely considered contraband.

  “Oh, this has to be good. I want to hear what your excuse is that will prove that you are not in fact in the restricted section of Arcanarus University’s library?”

  The boy closes the book and instantly tries to make it disappear, putting his body between me and him as if to hide its contents. But that means nothing to my all seeing bubble sight.

  I see the book title and I almost chuckle at the sight.

Master Enchanter Rahul and the Maiden.

  Thinking back this was the same restricted book that the one mage in Wonderly city was reading at the mage guild. Well, that mage didn’t stop with just the one book, I believe they read all five books, not that I noticed. I was of course doing far more important things than to spy on books being read from the restricted section of the library. Also, I was on the other side of the wall, so I couldn’t have been exposed to forbidden materials.

  “Let me guess.” I say, holding up my hand while walking around the startled teen to sit at the library table. Seeing me sit down, the boy relaxed slightly, I say boy, the student is clearly in an older body than I currently possess, but he is a boy to me. “You snuck into the restricted section, grabbed the first book that caught your fancy. Then started reading, got caught up in the book, then died not knowing the ending?”

  At that, the ghost that had been standing up from their seat deflated and all but sunk into their chair.

  “Yeah, I died never knowing the end to that cheesy romance novel. Worse, I think I died by setting off some of the defense wards. As I don’t remember dying. But then when I awoke I found myself here, in the spot that I died with the book I was reading in my hand.” At this point the physical posture of the teenager shifted as they continued their story.

  “I saw the light, but there was the book right there in my hand. I began reading but saw the door to the other realm was shutting. But I just couldn’t put down the book. Then when the door shut, I got to the part where I had finished and realized that the rest of the pages were blank. Now if I read the entire book from start to finish, I will get a new word, but that is such a slow process.”

  “Wait, you gain one word more per readthrough, then have to start over for the next word?” I ask.

  At that the teenager nods their head. “I used to love this story, but now it is just a constant torture. Knowing that only if I push through, I can finish, but there are…” He holds up the book to reveal over a hundred or more pages left.

  “Is that it? You just want to know what happens to this book?” I ask.

  “Yeah, could you get me a copy from the restricted section?”

Hidden Quest Found: The Bibliophile: Tobias Jermach Has Fallen In love with “Master Enchanter Rahul and the Maiden,” sneak into Arcanarus University’s forbidden section, find a copy of the banned text and provide it to Tobias so he can move on with his afterlife.

  Seeing the quest prompt, I hold up a hand to stall him. “Rather than get you a copy. Why don’t I just tell you what happens instead?”

  “I don’t know. I really like the details.” Tobias says, clearly not enamored by the idea.

  Smiling to myself I say, “open up your book to your last page and see if the words don’t appear as I say them.”

  Tobias pauses for a second, but then reluctantly pulls out said tome from his sleeve and opens up to the last read page.

  Seeing the words I know exactly where he is, as I unfortunately had read this entire story. Then been forced to sit through six additional stories after this.

  Having read the stories, I focus on my long term memory and the benefits offered from my unique skill Blind Eidetic Speed Reading, and focus on the Eidetic part I look at the page that Tobias has somehow managed to unlock this far and begin.

  “Tell me…”

  Seeing the line, I immediately begin recalling the words from memory and saying them just as they appear in my mind. “Tell me you love me and we will flee the kingdom. We don’t need my father’s permission, if you but say the word I will join you to the ends of the world and back.”

  As I spoke the rest of the words filled in, just as I said them. The more words I said, the more Tobias’ face became alight with a deep radiance as a grin stretched out on his face.

  “You, you do know this story.” He said.

  I smirk, “not just this one, but the six after this one as well.”

  “Six more?” He says.

  “Yeah, but stop interrupting me. This will take forever if you keep stopping me.”

  “Oh, right.” Tobias says as they try to sit perfectly still and then focus their full attention on me.

  Realizing I have him right where I want him, I focus my mind, before I continue recounting the tales of Rahul the Master Enchanter.

  After a few hours of non-stop talking on my part I finally get the quest prompts I had been waiting for.

Quest Complete: The Bibliophile: You managed to accurately recall every detail of the forbidden story “Master Enchanter Rahul and the Maiden” to Tobias Jermach. Unfortunately, they are unable to move on to the afterlife, as they are now aware that six more stories in this series exist.

  Seeing the quest prompt, I realize this quest is likely going to be a bit more involved than I thought. I did get a handful of new skills from this though, so that was a good thing.

New Skill Gained: Narrator has increased to level 1.

Skill Narrator is a Personality, Sociability, and Attractiveness based skill.

  I wasn’t quite certain how Attractiveness came into play with that, other than it was a completely social skill thus maybe they though every Social Attribute should be covered in it? Nevertheless, it was a useful skill to have.

  For my dramatic depictions of the scenes, I also got a few other skills.

New Skill Gained: Acting has increased to level 1.

Skill Acting is a Dexterity, Personality, Sociability, Attractiveness, Perception, and Intelligence based skill.

  Once again, I was not quite certain how Attractiveness played into Acting, other than most movie stars tended to be Attractive? Though I am pretty sure it was a because they were pretty they were forced into acting, rather than they were into acting so they were forced to be pretty. But free Attributes are free Attributes and these skills are clearly available to everyone, so I can’t complain if everyone can get this bonus to their natural appearance.

  The last skill I got from this, was a bit odd, but still something that I could see being useful in the future.

New Skill Gained: Total Recall has increased to level 1.

Skill Total Recall is an Endurance, Intelligence, and Willpower based skill.

  I almost doubted the need for Endurance in there, other than the fact that I felt exhausted after just those few hours’ worth of work on these skills. With how mentally exhausted I now felt, I could easily see how Endurance was part of one of these skills.

  As I was finished, the book that he had read was clearly before him. Just resting his hand on the back of the leather bound tome, he smiled brightly.

  “Well, it looks like book one is now complete.” I say, wanting to end this while I am ahead. I know there is still an ambush waiting for me, or at least there was, and I need to get out of here before I get caught up dictating the next six novels.

  “Wait. Can you just do the first chapter?”

  “You want a sneak preview?” I ask, an incredulous tone to my voice.

  “A sneak preview? What is that?” Tobias begins, “is that what they call me?”

  I pause, completely blindsided by the question, then I think about it, and I can’t help but laugh.

  I laugh hard.

  “What?”

  “Sneak Preview? You think that is your nickname?” I ask through bouts of laughter.

  “What? I just thought that people would talk, you know.” Tobias said, a note of defense in his tone and posture.

  “Oh, I do know. And who knows maybe Sneak Preview was what your fellow classmates called you at the time. But they have all moved on. No one knows you, or about you at this point. At most you might be spoken of as a cautionary tale by professors about why you don’t go into the forbidden section of the library, but that is it.” I state.

  Hearing that, the boy’s face visibly shrinks until his lips are pursed together and he has a look of sad contemplation on his face. Since he is a human, his facial features and mannerisms are a lot easier for me to read and understand.

  “Oh.” Tobias says, delicately rubbing his hands across the book.

  A strange somber feel has suddenly overtaken the library. Finally seeing him in such a state makes me feel bad. Particularly because he is now in this mental state because I put him there.

  “All right, all right. Twist my arm why don’t you.” I begin, even going so far as to mockingly put my arm behind my back.

  “What?”

  “Fine, I’ll go through the first chapter for you, but that will be it. After that I will need to sleep at the very least.” I say.

  “What? You mean it?”

  “Yeah, now be quiet. This story isn’t going to finish itself.” I say, as I mentally focus on the second story and within a second I have the book open in my mind’s eye as I begin telling details of the next story.

  “Now this next story has the completely unique name of “Master Enchanter Rahul and the Maiden II.” I begin. At this Tobias just looks down before him and in some sort of spiritual magic, a new leather-bound tome appears. Though the leather-bound tome is completely flat and devoid of any pages or parchment.

  “Prologue…”

  Honestly it felt good to finally share my secret love for a smutty series with another person. Even if for a moment before they moved on to their next stage in the afterlife. Only now did I realize I was living up to that sad stereotype, being an old retired grandmother who decides to create a book club. Worse it is about a series dedicated to smut and enchanting. The only bright side is that I can work on leveling a few new skills, and the fact that no one on the outside world will be aware that this ever happened.