"The library is quite far from the Inn."
Ju thought as he made his way through the other street. Unlike before, when he was tense and wary, Ju was beginning to slowly adapt to the atmosphere and was able to experience another side of Ender town. The teenager still saw that several people who moved across this street had auras that made him feel uncomfortable, showing that they were probably much more powerful than him. Ju wondered if there might have even been Essence Artists among them.
Yet despite all the disparity in power, everywhere was still orderly, and the sort of conflicts inherent in the Wastelands, when a large number of people gathered together, were not present at all.
At this moment, Ju was more impressed with the city's authorities for achieving this feat.
"This should be the place."
Thirty minutes passed before Ju reached the Library. The building was easily recognisable because it was the largest in the area. Unlike most buildings, the Library was well-built. Its walls were made from polished stone and steel, and slender shutters held wide windows. The entrance was covered by two heavy wooden doors held together by brass hardware; the left door was swung open to allow passage.
A group of guards patrolled the entrance, checking anyone coming in and out of the Library.
Ju felt a faint yet dangerous spiritual pressure from them. Just as the young boy was about to approach the guards, a burly-looking man came out of the door. He had a fierce countenance and sideburns on his face while radiating a wild aura.
The guards, who seemed confident before, suddenly appeared quite meek as the man walked past them.
"This is…"
Ju closely observed this individual. Given his countenance and the looks of respect from the other guards, Ju suspected he was an Essence Artist.
The teenager clutched the small bag tightly as he approached the entrance. The supposedly Essence Artist paid zero attention to Ju as he left the area.
Ju felt a tightening in his chest after the encounter, just like how a prey would feel anxious when he spots a predator. Even though there was no interaction whatsoever, he still felt a bit shaken by how coincidental it was to meet someone like that the first time he visited the Library.
"Mason is said to be one of the top 5 Essence Artists in the settlement. Rumour even points out that he and Pike had fought numerous times, although he always lost. Pike has acknowledged his strength. What would such a person be looking for at the library
"Don't underestimate this place. Although most books were scavenged from more prosperous places, you never know what hidden gem of information you can find relating to specific matters. Insights on meditation techniques and essence arts could be derived from the books there, although the chances are very low. Perhaps Mason is at a bottleneck and needs a different source of knowledge." One of the guards analysed
"He is already a fairly powerful Essence Artist; what else can he be looking for? If I were already an Essence Artist, I would start a family and live my remaining life in splendour." Another guard fantasised.
"Hehe, it's not a bed of roses as you might think; I even believe anyone who can take that step and condense a spirit source lives a more tumultuous life than us; even without the danger, there is also ambition. After all, there are ranks for Essence Artists, and even within the ranks, there are subdivisions. No one would want his peers to outshine him, so they still have to train and look for ways to get stronger and stronger…or die in the process." A nostalgic look appeared on the other guard as he spoke out.
Ju could not hear them discussing anything. Instead, he provided his means of Identification: a small piece of fine wood infused with Essence that authorities in Ender Town used. The wood also contained Ju's Essence imprint, meaning that the item was unique to him alone.
After confirming that Ju's Essence matched that in the Wooden Token, Ju paid the fee and entered the LLibrary.
There were fewer people than Ju had expected in the building. But that was to be expected to some extent.
"So many books."
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Although he was on the lowest floor of the Library, everywhere Ju looked, tall shelves of paper books stretched into the distance.
According to the Attendant, the books had already been arranged into various topics and subcategories, each with books of varying qualities. The lowest floor had low-grade books, and more precious knowledge was available as one went higher.
There were even rumours that the highest floor had only seven books, 3 of which were bonafide meditation techniques, much more effective than tempering formula, and the rest were powerful spells, even among the ones used by Essence Artists.
"There should be about 70 books on the lowest floor," Ju observed as he took his seat.
He had about 3 hours before he was required to pay again.
"I have to use my time wisely."
Ju had spent about 200 gold coins on four books.
He spent about 30 minutes selecting the books he wanted to check. In the end, the teenager chose only four books.
A Basic Description of Essence and its Users.
Who are the Essence Artists?
A General Overview of the World.
Common beasts in the Wastelands.
These books contained common knowledge, but it was valuable and rare information for the people of the Wastelands. After all, one would not expect people who don't know where their next meal will come from to bother about the state of the World and miscellaneous information.
Few people in the Wastelands were interested in this kind of knowledge and even had to pay an exorbitant price for it.
"I do not think that I earned enough to read as much as necessary. There were still many other things that I needed to worry about, such as Moonflower's upkeep, his training, and better equipment."
After seeing the power of the tools used by Zabel and Aron, Ju became interested in weapons with writing on them.
Another issue the teenager had was that he could not read as fluently as he would have liked. In the mines, Old Kai taught him how to read the most common language and recognise symbols. Although Ju was not completely literate, he could only slowly navigate paperwork.
The first book he went through was titled General Overview of the World.
According to the book, the World was divided into six regions by "Veins of the Earth."
North, South, East, West, and the Central region.
The last region was not named.
Each region and its inhabitants, whether Mortal or Essence Users, had special characteristics that made them unique.
Ju discovered that he was in the Northern Region, which is said to have the least dense amount of Essence, more impurities, and the most scarce resources.
Because of this, the people from the North lived tougher lives on average than their counterparts. Ju could certainly relate to this.
But the North was much more than just Wastelands Ju was currently in. In fact, the Wastelands could not even be described as one per cent of the territories in the North. It was just a lonely place no one even cared about.
An actual territory in the North that Ju estimated was closest to Wulan City was Wulan City.
"The place Old Kai came from…"
Old Kai in the mines told him a bit about the place; it was about 15 times the size of the Wastelands and roughly hundreds of thousands of kilometres from here.
Even for Essence Artists, this was an incredibly long distance. Ju wondered how those foreigners came to the Wastelands since it was now obvious they came from Wulan City.
That was all the useful information Ju could extract from the book. The book also described other regions, such as how the Central Continent was the most powerful and prosperous part of the World, the East was blessed with the densest amount of Essence and Resources, and the Southern plains were home to the largest number of spiritual beasts and other "Non-Human" entities. The West was the only region unified and ruled by only one power: the blood of the titan, the An family.
But Ju didn't delve deep into the other places. After all, he did not know if he could explore the entire North, not to mention other regions, throughout his life.
The young boy quickly went to the next book.
A basic description of Essence and its users.
No one actually knew how Essence appeared in the World. Ancient scholars believed an almighty beast came to this World to die. Its body disintegrated, giving what was known as the "Essence" of its body, which spread. Its bones became the veins of the earth that separated the regions.
The prerequisite to using Essence lies in a person's anatomy from birth. This special trait was known as Spirit Nodes. It was very rare for someone to be born with them. There were nine nodes: one in the Glabella, chest, and umbilical part, two in each arm, and one in each leg.
You can not begin to absorb Essence if you don't have these nodes in your body. The more nodes you open, the more Essence you can absorb, and the more likely you are to become an essence artist.
Time slowly went on, and he kept on reading.
Ju spent more than an hour reading the book. The young boy was beginning to understand the very basis of what he wanted to become: the power he sought.
The fact that he had the Spirit nodes made him special amongst hundreds of thousands; he didn't ever want to waste this opportunity.
"I should be able to use the tempering formula now properly."
The youth then checked the next book.
Who are the Essence Artists?