Despite the book that lay before me detailing the history of the world and thus ostensibly being of little use, I still read it with the same intensity as I would if it were about forming your first magic circle.
Sure, knowing the early life of the first disciple before he was taken in by the old goddess certainly wouldn’t make my channels more mana conductive, and one hundred times out of one hundred, it wouldn't suddenly make my sword to be quicker, sharper, more powerful, but I still found the content to be incredibly interesting, to the point that I briefly considered becoming a historian. But then I returned to reality.
Sighing, I closed the book.
Having chosen it at random, I originally didn’t intend to begin reading, instead planning to conduct an experiment in which any old book would have been fine, but I was drawn in by the work's cover and title, my curiosity unable to be suppressed.
I got up from the wooden chair on which I sat and exited the stone chamber Lunia and I previously used in the library, making sure to take the book with me as I did so.
As I entered the stone hallway, even as the difference in pressure clogged my orifices and made my ears begin to ring, I made sure to stay alert. I didn’t want to miss anything when it appeared. But even with my senses sharpened to the max, when I reached a certain point in the hallway, the blank faced fleshy thing just suddenly appeared in front of me, quietly standing there.
A chill ran down my spine, with the hairs across my body even going stiff, but I forced myself to calm down. I had encountered it before with Lunia and it hadn’t hurt us then, so it probably wouldn’t hurt me now. I walked towards it, wanting to see how it would react, but it just remained still, only reacting when I tried going around it, to which it finally moved, going to block my path.
Noting in my head it's new reaction, I slowly backed up, step by step, to which it mirrored me, but just like last time, it’s feet didn’t move. Not to mention, even if I sped up or slowed down, it kept a constant speed.
Making sure to keep one eye trained on it, I turned completely around and began to run back to the stone room, but unexpectedly, it still kept the same, relaxed pace.
Finally re-entering the room, I stopped and waited for it to catch up. As it did so however, it came to a full stop in front of me, face still blank, demeanor still poised, temperament still controlled.
Even as I stayed still, continuing to observe the blank fleshy thing's behavior, there were no notable changes.
Just the slightest bit bored, I began to walk back, remembering how unpredictable it's movements were before, but it was only when I stepped onto the wooden walkway that a switch was seemingly flipped in it's head, as it’s behavior suddenly changed. It’s movements became wild and jerky as it rushed at me, only stopping when we were an arms length apart, where it then pointed directly at me. But I didn’t hand the book over, instead just continuing to watch it.
As time passed however, and our stand-off persisted, the blank flesh’s facade of calm began to unravel, slowly growing more and more anxious. It shifted from one foot to the other, swaying it’s body this way and that, before finally,
Suddenly stilling it’s head and body, it rushed at me, and admittedly, I was spooked. I reflexively threw the book at it, not wanting to get on the bad side of something who's skill in combat I had no clue on.
Catching the thrown book, the flesh thing immediately calmed down and began to slink back, but I didn’t let it escape that easily.
I chased after it, but as if it sensed my intent, it began to speed up. As I raced down the hallway, I barely caught a glimpse of it bursting through the double doors to the stairwell, before I followed it, intent on seeing where it was going, but it was already gone. Even as I peered up and down the shaft, there was nothing. No sign of the thing.
But despite that, I was still elated.
After all, I was able to gain just the slightest bit more knowledge on something that was previously so daunting, so seemingly impossible to comprehend.
***
Making my way out of the library, the unnatural silence that came with nightfall immediately enveloped me, but I felt no discomfort at the quiet. Rather, I enjoyed it. Save for Lunia, I was beginning to feel a distinct aversion to being around other people, but certainly not to the point where I wasn't able to function around them. I just felt more at peace by myself, free to lose myself in my own thoughts.
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As I began to make my way back to the U dormitory, I checked over the observations I had recorded in my leather notebook.
Those blank faced flesh things displayed a number of characteristics, but the most prominent was their frightening devotion to the books contained within the library. After my first test, I thought that the number of books I took with me when attempting to exit the library played a part in just how many would appear, as in both cases, I attempted to take out one book, and exactly one of those thing showed up, but I was proven wrong. Even as I carried two books out with me, again, only one showed up.
But being proven wrong only fueled the fire that burned within me.
I next thought that they would somehow react with varying intensity depending on the contents of the books. Spending a solid hour searching a small section of the shelves on my floor, I found one old codex, 101 uses for rendered hog fat, a torn up guide to the basics on sword fighting, and coincidentally enough, Imario’s Beginner’s Guide to Mana, though this one was the 333rd edition. When I was once again reunited with my old "friend", Imario, I couldn’t resist the urge, briefly skimming through it from beginning to end. And big surprise, it was once again, complete and utter garbage, being essentially the same as the 361st edition save for a few changes in the wording here and there.
After finding his work and confirming just how much of a bastard Imario was, I forced myself to dig through just a few more shelves in search of a book that actually had relatively accurate information about mana to directly compare the fleshy thing's reaction to each.
Though, unexpectedly, whether the book I attempted to take with me was of the utmost garbage authored by a crook, contained completely and utterly normal, mundane information, or was of actual value, whenever I stepped back onto the wooden platform, the fleshy golems all reacted in the same, panicked way.
However, after finishing my last trial, I was out of ideas on how to proceed and I returned to the wooden platform, continuing to browse the books when something caught my eye.
The same book I used in my first experiment, the one that detailed the history of the world, in the exact same place I remembered finding it.
As I stared in wonder at the pitch black spine of the book I had previously unwittingly lost myself in, a realization came over me.
I truly knew nothing beyond the surface level about those blank faced, fleshy things.
Why did those things even exist? What caused them to react so violently whenever I stepped onto the wooden platforms that jutted out from the walls of the library when previously, in the hallways, they were seemingly so calm? I didn't know the answer to such seemingly basic questions, yet I was still out of ideas to test. But as I thought of such topics, a thought came over me.
I started my tests with the belief that the knowledge derived would somehow benefit me, place me at an advantage compared to other people.
But in the long period of time I spent in the library, I spotted absolutely no people. Even taking into account the sheer size of the place, that was still absolutely absurd.
I would understand if it was the first day and the overwhelming majority of people were equally clueless about Celestia, but a week had already passed. Everyone had already gone through the first dream, and as a result, they should have had a basic understanding of how important information was.
So if those smarter than me, which there certainly were such people in a place such as Celestia, weren’t spending their time in the library, that meant only one thing.
It was completely useless for me to be in the library so often.
The day after the first dream, I had visited the school shop out of blind curiosity, finding a myriad of different items being sold. Artifacts, catalysts, nearly any material that one could think of was on display, with the cheapest item going for a dozen or so points, while the most expensive was being sold for millions.
But of the utmost importance to me were the spells, the cheapest of which was fifty points.
Assumably, the main draw of the library would be such spells being contained inside it's walls, and there were billions upon billions of books inside, so surely there would also be a seemingly endless number of spells to be learned as well. But over 99% of the books in the library were of complete and utter garbage on the same level as Imario's horse shit. The situation was made even worse by the difficulty of uncovering that small 1% that was gold.
From finding the world history book that had been placed exactly where I found it, I could infer that everything, after being taken back by the blank faced fleshy things, was returned to it’s designated place by some unknown mechanism.
That was all well and good, were it not for the fact that there was absolutely no method by which the books were organized.
I had checked a dozen or so floors, precariously dangling off ladders to scan each and every shelf I could lay eyes on, but nothing.
Books on theoretical mathematics were placed next to nursery rhymes, guides on how to become proficient in weapon aura next to those on how to best cook an egg.
There was no method to the madness.
So it made sense that nobody used the library. Celestia provided a way to access the information regardless if you were a mage, swordsman, alchemist, or blacksmith. You could just go to the shop and pay points to get the knowledge you desired instead of wasting years navigating the library’s nauseatingly spacious confines.
All signs pointed to my just giving up. To devote all my attention elsewhere, to something more productive.
But even so, I wanted to learn more about the blank faced flesh things, a pure desire to learn more cascading down on me and suppressing any sense of logic I had of doing the contrary.
So I continued my trials until night fall, a burst of inspiration having come over me.
Unlocking the door to my room, I tiredly trudged inside, freshly washed and smelling of soap, but I stopped, a wave of excitement coming over me at the trunk that lay in front of me.