It was the top 3 floors of a certain high rise. With 9 floors it was one of the tallest buildings in the city and likely in the whole kingdom. It was hidden in plain sight as who would hide an organisation in such a standout building.
Seth arrived at the building and after marvelling at the height, Seth started his journey up the dreaded stairs. As Seth sweated his way up, he could not help but feel deep admiration for whomever devised such a genius plan.
Maintaining fitness was always good in a guild, especially in the production classes where jobs were not so physically demanding. Yet, these stairs made sure each and every member had a workout going up and going down every day.
`Now that`, Seth thought, `is a true mastermind`.
The workout was definitely something but lucky for Seth his training months prior and his daily workout helped him maintain his stamina all the way up to the sixth floor.
Elevators were truly the heroes of large buildings. Seth prayed that one day someone in this world would invent it for his lazy needs.
After arriving at the sixth floor Seth noticed that it was obviously the shop centre of the guild. Here you could buy nearly everything and sell something if you bought a storefront.
The currency used was exclusively guild points, but this was something Seth already knew. There was also a mission board where members could take on guild missions for certain payments, usually in guild points.
These missions were set by people like the City Lord of Darter of the Queen of Historia as an incentive to allow the guild to exist on their land. For people like them hidden organisations were incredibly easy to find no matter the hiding, so the guild offered to do missions for equal payment.
Seth walked around more, looking at what was being sold and tried to find someone who could sell him those sleeping potions. He didn’t find any, but he did notice that there was still security on this floor.
There were some ID checks, and a more discreet guild badge check on the first floor, but all Seth needed to do was flash his card and the guards on the first floor let him up the stairs.
As Seth was wandering around the stalls he saw the view outside of the sixth floor and almost immediately Seth decided he needed to see the view from the 9th.
The 7th floor was a training floor for classes, consisting of dojos and workshops.
The 8th floor was for more boring stuff like classrooms and offices.
Finally, the 9th floor was for the branch manager's office and for the guild's library. Unlike in Darter, this branch had access to a library which held various books on sensitive subjects. It was a trove of knowledge that Seth wanted to dig into right away. Learning about the world was boring, for Seth, but he knew it was necessary to understand the world around you to best maximise the opportunities you are given.
Sadly, the cost of library access was paid for by the hour and it was on the expensive side so Seth needed to make more GP (Guild Points).
Seth had many options for making guild points, he could sell his money for them, or he could sell some of the skill books he had. Actually, that last one was a pretty good idea, Seth meant to sell those anyway.
Smiling at his own genius Seth sold 2 of the 4 skill books. They were the blander and cheaper ones, but they still managed to get Seth 2 hours inside the library.
Seth entered the library in a hurry but could not help but marvel at the endless ocean of books he could see. The shelves did not tower high, but every inch of space was filled with books containing the secrets of the world.
Seth wanted to know more about the world around him, particularly the kingdoms around Historia. Before that, he needed to pay.
Seth walked up to a dimly lit desk and although natural lighting played a key role in brightening up the area this woman seemed to have her desk lamp on anyway. Was she wasteful, or simply blind.
The woman in question was leaning over a book with the lamp set closed, her eyes seemed centimetres away from the book and Seth could not help but feel bad for those with eye issues in this world. Glasses were truly a miraculous invention and yet they were slept on by people on earth as an ordinary accessory. Some even wore fake versions to look better.
Seth had seen the length people had gone to look better; he still remembered the first time he heard of cement being used as a buttock implant. At first, he found it funny, it was just so ludicrous but as Seth thought of it more, the question of why showed humanity's worst characteristics of denying what they looked like.
Seth had the privilege of being fairly handsome; his physique was good, though that was undeniably earned, but it was more like his face was fairly even, his eyes were a diamond blue. In his previous life, he was a very basic man, a bit like now but without his good physique and good eyes to boost the numbers.
He had experienced rejection and it hurt, more than any bruise could ever sting but Seth had overcome these wounds. When he died he did think of his worst regrets or his worst pains, he thought of his greatest triumphs, his greatest gains. Death revealed a lot and Seth had grown because of it.
He noticed the woman was unlikely to notice him and since time was short he knocked on the desk. Maybe he hadn’t grown up enough as he found the woman jumping far too amusing.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“What are you laughing at?” The woman said holding her head where she had hit it against the table. She looked unhappy with a frown but as she returned to reality and remembered she was working she quickly double-backed, “Actually I’ll forgive you.” Then she changed the subject, “What can I do for you?”
“I want access to the library, 2 hours.” Seth handed over his ID badge where a man a signature decided how much he had on balance.
“Okay, what level of books do you want?” The woman asked to which Seth looked confused, “There are 3 tiers, general knowledge, secret knowledge, and forbidden knowledge. Looking at your payment you can afford 2 hours of general knowledge or 12 minutes of secret knowledge.”
Seth understood but had to ask, “So are the books locked or something or are they in separate places? What stops me from buying general but reading forbidden.”
The girl answered him like he was dim, “The library is spit and even if you were stupid enough to read a book from another tier you may have your membership revoked and your Oath will break anyway. So, 2 hours of general knowledge tier?”
Seth sighed; he had forgotten about the Oath.
“Yeah.”
“Okay then here is your temporary pass. It has a timer on it and once it goes off you must put the book you’re reading back and start walking back. If your caught still reading with a timer is over its time limit you’ll be banned from using the library again. Okay?”
“Got it, thank you for your explanation...”
It took the woman a while to understand that Seth was asking for her name.
“Shoi, my family grew up in the Kingdom of Barbarosa so it’s a bit foreign.”
“Ah, cool. See ya.” Seth left the woman curious about her home country, but he was sure to find out soon. Seth walked down the rows of shelves towards the geopolitics area.
Seth spent the next 2 hours reading. At a desk, a mountain of read and unread books was pilled before Seth. His timer had gone off and he was forced to close the book he was reading.
Over the last 2 hours, he had learned a lot. Mainly he learned about The Kingdom of Historia and its neighbours, that was his goal after all.
Seth frowned; the Kingdom was truly in some dark times. It had three neighbours each one having a different reason to invade History.
The Kingdom of Giblins was a small kingdom that lived in a mountainous region of the local area. It wasn’t large but the Giblins had numbers reaching 50,000 and they would raid nearby villages every year. The surrounding kingdom had tried to purge the fiends, but their reproductive capacity allowed for a new threat to the kingdom every year.
Goblins were a cross between humans and goblins and from humans, they only gained extra height and better intellectual prowess. Although there wasn’t much to add to it did allow for them to make rudimentary weapons and have semi-functional societies.
The kingdom of Historia did try and annihilate the Giblin Kingdom but every time the rat-like beings regrew like weeds in a garden. They could invade and their current numbers were expected to be higher than usual as the kingdom had been holding off on a subjugation mission due to the economic recession.
Seth would try and be nicer, but Giblins were notorious for their crimes against humanity, so Seth had no empathy for them in the slightest.
The Kingdom of Flora was a diverse kingdom made of several demi-human races. The only reason they would have to invade Historia was to reduce racism, but a higher-level kingdom would likely stop that sort of manoeuvrer. It was the age of Humans for a reason, but the Flora kingdom could still invade if they gained a good excuse to and making one of those was not incredibly hard.
The demi-humans in the flora kingdom usually were from plant-based beasts. Note that beasts was an incredibly general term for entities that attacked humans and so mutated plants were added to that list. These demi-humans were usually more muted as they lived much longer lives and they usually aimed at goals like peace since their attacking capabilities usually were bad, to say the least.
The final Kingdom of Barbarossa was a kingdom of demi-humans called Barbarians their ancestry of both humans and ogres made them stronger, and dumber and they gained more warrior classes than normal humans so the kingdom itself was made for conquering. He was surprised the woman from before would reveal her nationality so carelessly.
`Wait no, I’m in the guild aren’t I` Seth was happy to be around non-racists, it meant he got to actually get to meet those from other cultures. As a man from Earth Seth loved new worlds and new cultures. Learning the history of countries and their tradition had always fascinated the Earthly Seth and his fascination had reincarnated with him.
Even better was that this past time was actually productive so he could bypass his fear.
His time had not run out tough, so Seth had to leave. It was a nice experience and Seth was sure to come again. Seth had learned from this that a war with other countries was likely to happen and although rumours of war had begun it was only a matter of time.
For now, Seth went down to the 6th floor and decided to see if there was a mission he could do. Nobles sent in many offers to do nefarious deeds and the pay was good, but Seth needed a mission that would help him grow as a Thief.
He found a perfect match, except for one little issue. Its difficulty wouldn’t allow Seth to do the mission. Even with an updated card number the level requirement was for a level 40+.
Seth grabbed the notice and decided he wasn’t going to let some paper decide if he could do or not do a mission, so Seth walked towards the branch manager's office.
3 more flights of stairs later Seth arrived at the branch manager's office where there was a small queue of members. Seth noticed the woman from the library was in front of him, so he sparked up a conversation.
“It’s you, Shoi.” She turned around and smiled to see it was the customer from earlier. Her smile dampened slightly remembering his little prank, but she still maintained her positive opinion on the man.
“Yes, and yu never told me your name.” Seth thought back and realised he didn’t. He mentally pinched himself, a blunder on his part.
“Sorry about that. Names Seth.”
They both shook hands and finished their greetings. Seth asked a slightly intrusive question, but his boredom mixed with curiosity made him ask it anyway.
“So why are you here? I’m here to do a mission I’m under levelled for but I feel as though I have more than enough skill anyway.”
Shoi was interested in why Seth was here and since he had told her his reason she felt like it was only right to do the same.
“I’m here trying to find someone who could heal my eyes. The branch manager is a well-connected woman and maybe she would help me. I can barely see now and it's only getting worse, You’ve seen me. I’m terrible!”
She may have said that last bit a tad bit too loud and everyone else in que turned to look at her for a moment. Shoi saw their blurry figures turn and whispered sorry back.
Seth found her case interesting, and he had been feeling the need to find a Priest. His arm had got an infection from that splinter, but he had held it off. It was only occasionally numb and a bit discoloured, so Seth figured he still had a lot of time before he had to actually fix it.
Anyway, that wasn’t the issue at the moment, Seth was looking to be allowed on his mission, so he waited outside of the office as the queue gradually got shorter. Shoi went in and Seth had gained a few people behind him.
He wished her well as she walked in and 5 minutes later she came out with a happy smile. Seth congratulated her and she wished him well as Seth made his way into the office of a woman who he assumed may have been above level 100.