We reached an enormous courtyard garden (1500-meter or about a football field) with the Library at its border. Before we reached the building, my attention was pulled to the great white marble statue of a mage with an obsidian staff and red gemstones that gave off a glow for his eyes at the gardens' center.

"Do you know the story behind that statue?"

"No, I don't recognize him."

"Hehe, that's the Mage Legend Anerauce Clementine," I swear could see Sarah's nose increasing in sharpness as she held her head high.

"Did we really have such a great mage?"

"We did, but he never had any children."

"Did he like men?"

"Boys can like boys?" Sarah was wide-eyed at the thought. "Ahem, no, he had many wives, but from what my Papa said it is the curse of the strong."

I just quietly and patiently stared at her waiting for an explanation.

"Do you read?"

"I read, I've been learning alchemy, I just haven't found anything too interesting."

"Well, this man was history in the making."

"Ok, I get it, what's the curse."

"From what my Papa said the higher in level you go the less of a chance you can pass on children. The first happens at level 25, the second at 50, the third at 100 and the highest curse sets in at 101."

"I can see, 25 to 50, but why 100 to 101?"

"Papa said that 101 you become more than human, every race has their own level caps but most people never even reach level 25 let alone 101 but Mage Lord Anerauce claimed he reached 200."

"Seems like he was tooting his horn."

"That's what others think too since one of the spells he propagated was call contraceptive. They said using the spell has side effects but it makes it so you can't have children during the duration."

"How exactly do you know this?"

"Well learning everything about a master of magic is what an aspiring mage should do."

"Ok, I get that he didn't have kids but how did he become a mage legend?"

"He saved the kingdom just like every other legend. The capital city of our budding kingdom was suffering severe drought, it had been months, at the time magically conjured water was tiding the kingdom from toppling over. The enemy force had dammed the at a point in time a riverside capital, leading to near drought. The king worried that the ailment wouldn't subside requested young mages to investigate to see if the problem was magical in nature only to turn out in failure. But the young mage Anerauce decided to seek the source of the ailment magical or otherwise. The cause as we know now as the planned damming of the Aldamari River that fed into the capital. He trekked through monster-infested forest hills and mountains following the caked-up river to its source and he found patrol after patrol of unknown troops surveying the area and keeping monster and would be curious people away. The source of the drought a dam that had been slowly constructed to make the drought look more natural, so much water had been dammed that an artificial lake had formed. When he came to warn the then king, the king was hesitant to believe him but ultimately ordering the evacuation of his people but not before the enemy destroyed the dam. The flood minutes away from washing away hundreds of thousands of lives away before the young mage convinced the other mages to use an altered spell circle, basically reversing the spell that they had been using to conjure water to push the water away. The spell worked that it saved many lives but those unlucky on the outskirts of the city were washed away, the soiled practically smoothed over creating the Great Aldamari Plain surrounding the capital. The forces of the enemy came after, and as weak as the people were, they thirsted for revenge that could only be washed down with the blood of those who cause the tragedy."

"That quite the long-winded tale."

"Hmmph can't you appreciate the fact the man saved the capital and reversed engineered a spell in a matter of minutes to save the life of hundreds of thousands?"

"No, I can appreciate it but why didn't the king send people earlier."

"It was the will of the gods."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Seems like a cruel fate."

"Shhh, don't speak so openly about that, even if you come from a strong family, they can't protect you from the priests whose gods you are profaning."

"Ok, I get it. But why did the king wait so long."

"The prophet at the time foretold their answer would come to them in time of dire needs."

I didn't say it but seemed more like bullshit to feed someone while you stalled gathering what resources you had left to run. With the end of our conversation we finally reached the library. It looked more like a cathedral than a library but at this point, it seemed I needed to review my history more in-depth and less I step into a landmine like I could've done today. We were granted admission upon the gatekeepers imprinting our rings with some magic, as soon as I passed the doors the ring on my hand pricked into my finger drawing blood to light the insignia it held. With the yelp that came next to me, I could assume that I wasn't the only one to receive this treatment. To which we heard a hush from an older gentleman sitting at the counter pointing to the rules of the library, which wasn't much, but to be considerate of those around you, return books you read back to where you found them, that if you wished to check out books that the older gentleman would help you and finally to buy copies you need only past the door next to said gentleman, so common courtesy.

We walked pass the old gentleman and headed into the bookstore to buy the required textbooks. The wait wasn't longer than a few minutes to receive the books we needed. Likely due to the influx of new students every year they set a large number of extra tables. After Sarah got her books she asked if I wanted to talk more about Anerauce, I rejected the offer since I wanted to see more of what the library had to offer, so she bid me goodbye. But being reminded by Sarah, I started searching for more books on magic besides alchemy. I found some about an introductory magic theory on priest, monster tamers, druids, and of course mages, I also bought some books on fighting techniques and basic skill knowledge. I had some workers help me carry my things back to my dorm, but I couldn't help think that it would've been nice to have Captain Vesimir lug these books instead of having to pay but I guess this would have to do for now.

Once back at the dormitory I skimmed the introduction which basically boiled to "So you want to be an X, well worry not follow the rules stated in here and you will be able to do what it is your heart's desire, with a caveat of practice makes perfect." After getting pass the spiel and actually learning what it had to offer, they all talked about mana nodes in the body, but the way which to invoke them were all different. Priest connected themselves to one of the 5 known gods Goddess Julia, I couldn't know for sure if they really had gods here but it seemed plausible with magic here. Anyways it seemed that many "classes" here that used magic were attached to a specific god if not the main 5 besides actual mages and beast tamers. Mages studied the elements but even then, they felt the pull of what they could only call god's intervention. Beast Tamers, on the other hand, split a portion of their mana into the core of their contracted beast, this intermingling of mana allowed magical beast to further improve themselves by actively absorbing mana as would their beast tamer, as for the tamer it allowed them to have a strong partner and to borrow traits and skills that were inherent to the monster. The more I read the more intrigued I was when I got to skills usage and basic knowledge, I learned something important. There was a soft cap on the numbers of skills you could have was 5, and any more than that would determine your skill. Skills in this setting were to help you become accustomed to them, a training wheels if you would before you attempted them without it. But those "skills" would almost always be weaker for everyone else and only a few could use it to match what they had when the skill was something they actively used, another important note was that skills could only be learned once and that passives skills weren't limited to this Rule of Five, and whether the fact it was connected to the gods were unknown.