One week had passed after Kyrie reached rank 1 in adventurer versus adventurer arena. She had become famous after that, and no one dared challenge her. Moreover, many of those who Kyrie challenged over the week, rejected her challenge. She had only two fights after reaching the top; one with the tenth ranked adventurer because he was bored and the second with Cassandra again because Cassandra had fun fighting Kyrie. Marcus was convinced Kyrie and Cassandra were soul mates and had told Kyrie so. That remark had earned him a whack on his shoulder.
Marcus could see that Kyrie was starting to get a bit bored and had suggested that she needed to take a decision as to what faction she needed to join and whether they would make their team permanent or not.
That led Marcus and Kyrie on the steps of the library of Opulential, bright and early in the morning. They had decided to be permanent teammates and had decided to join The Librarian faction.
“And from where do you join the fucking faction of The Librarians”, muttered Marcus gesturing at the library, “The fucking library, obviously.”
Kyrie said, “And what did you expect, Marcus? We are joining The Librarians.”
Marcus shrugged, “Makes sense. Come on then. Let’s go in.”
They went into the library to the reception where Marcus declared that they were there to join The Librarians. One of the receptionists led them to the office of the Head Librarian.
The head librarian was a gnome named Sylinine Sharpquill. She welcomed Marcus and Kyrie and asked them a bit about themselves and their reasons for joining the faction. She was happy with Marcus’ explanation as Marcus did show passion for research work and an unexplainable desire to get more knowledge.
Sylinine was not that happy with Kyrie’s reason because Kyrie felt The Librarian was a good faction to join for her through a method of elimination. However, Sylinine was impressed with Kyrie’s abilities of analyzing her opponents albeit be it her opponents in adventurer versus adventurer.
Sylinine explained, “You are both good candidates to join our faction. I must still warn you that in this faction you shall not be getting many quests which are related to fighting. Also, this faction is not as glamorous as other factions, but you would earn good money if you do well, still not as much as you would earn in other factions.”
Marcus nodded, “We all know all about the faction. We researched all the factions before joining The Librarians.”
Kyrie nodded along with Marcus.
Sylinine smirked and said, “That is true. I would have expected no less.”
Kyrie spoke, “We also read something. That you are able to take care of your members’ debt to NAIF if they perform a special quest.”
Sylinine raised one of her eyebrows at that. She said slowly, “It seems that you have done your homework well. What are your debts to NAIF.”
Kyrie said in a small voice, “We have put it on our application that you gave to us.”
Sylinine looked at their applications again. When she saw Marcus’ debt she snorted and said, “That is not much.”
Marcus said, “We are not concerned about my debt. It is Kyrie’s debt which concerns us.”
Sylinine looked through Kyrie’s application and stopped short at her debt. She stared at it for quite some time. She broke out of her reverie when Marcus cleared his throat.
“How?” asked Sylinine, “This much amount is not possible. I have never known any adventurer to be this much in debt with NAIF. I mean Marcus’ debt is simple. We can take care of it without even expecting a major quest for him. I mean even if we do not take care of it, he would be able to take care of it in a year. Your debt, Kyrie, is too much.”
Kyrie explained to Sylinine regarding her weapon, tank top and shorts along with the two spells she had purchased from NAIF. Sylinine stared at Kyrie for some time.
Then Sylinine said, “I swear that NAIF is sometimes against the adventurers rather than being for adventurers. We would be able to take care of your debt Kyrie, but it would require a treasure hunt. I don’t think any of you can do a treasure hunt right now. Get your levels in the eighties and then we shall talk.”
Kyrie seemed to be okay with this. Marcus could see that she was relieved that her debt to NAIF could be paid. It would just require some time and patience and Marcus had a feeling Kyrie would have both.
Marcus said, “So are we official members of The Librarians?”
Sylinine said, “Not yet. We need to process the information you have provided to us. This was your interview, and I would say I would recommend you both as members. You need to come after a week. We shall have proper documentation ready by then. Then, you can officially call yourselves members of The Librarians. Till then wait.”
Kyrie said, “What do we do till then?”
Sylinine said, “You wait. One week is not long. Do some minor quests. Your major plotline will update when I give you your task. I will need to plan a faction quest related to you. You will get that once you have joined. So go now. Enjoy your week. Do whatever you want. Once you join, you will be lost deep in work.”
Marcus and Kyrie thanked Sylinine and left. They had a week to spare. After that, they would be official members of The Librarians.
***
Sylinine looked at the elf who she was talking to on the video call. She was not liking what he was saying.
Silas said, “Are you on board Sylinine?”
Sylinine thought for a moment about what Silas wanted her to do. What he wanted The Librarians to do. She was not happy about it, but in the end, it was not just her decision alone.
“You ask too much Silas”, said Sylinine, “I cannot take this decision alone. I have to talk with other Head Librarians about this. We are a democracy and not a dictatorship.”
“NAIF is not a dictatorship, and you know it”, said a disgruntled Silas.
Sylinine gave a short laugh and said, “You keep telling yourself that. I will still need to talk with the other Head Librarians. I shall do that tonight. You shall hear our decision in a few days. Do not call me till then. I will call you.”
Silas frowned and said, “That is gorking not done Sylinine. I need a date and time when I shall expect your answer. You have a maximum one week before you officially make Marcus a part of your faction. I need your answer before that.”
Sylinine nodded and said, “Alright. You will get your answer in exactly three days. Same time. Expect either mine or Karl’s call. Goodbye Silas.”
Sylinine disconnected the call and swirled her chair. She had the habit of doing so when she needed to think hard and fast. Silas was apparently moving up in the world. He seemed to be leading a team which apparently kept a tab on Marcus Blank because he was an anomaly.
Gorking NAIF. What was wrong with them? She had met Marcus and had found him to be a pleasant fellow. Then why the gork was NAIF treating him as if he was going to explode at any moment?
As Marcus would be joining The Librarian faction, Silas wanted the help of The Librarians in keeping track of him. That meant all the records of faction quests related to Marcus would go to Silas and they could not even tell Marcus. Sylinine did not like that at all. NAIF should not be interfering this much with any factions, anomaly or not.
Although Silas had been right. Sylinine had not heard of or read about Una having an anomaly since forever. Charles, the head of NAIF was right to be worried. But did it mean that they should violate Marcus’ privacy. She did not like this. She needed to consult the other Head Librarians about this.
Sylinine knew that she could not directly go against NAIF but there would be something The Librarians could do for Marcus which would help him. She sent the message for a meeting to the other Head Librarians. It was going to be a long night.
***
The one week passed fast. Marcus and Kyrie did some minor quests to pass the time. Marcus introduced Kyrie to the escort quests and found out that the water nymph enjoyed doing such quests. They also hunted some wild animals who were bothering the hunters in Sosquatch forest.
Kyrie did not have many challenges from adventurers. She was still ranked 1 in the level 21 to 30 bracket in the adventurer versus adventurer arena. She did not do any other fights either. Marcus observed that Kyrie enjoyed being ranked 1 more than actually fighting the adventurers.
They both had levelled up and had reached level 26. Marcus had put points in agility. He wanted it to reach 20 after which he would focus on leveling up his dexterity, intelligence and vitality. He was satisfied with his wisdom as of now and he would focus on it once he felt that his dexterity and intelligence were high enough to handle complex spells which require more mana.
Kyrie was focusing on dexterity and agility. She would invest in vitality soon, but she wanted to get her attack up first. Considering how devastating she was from afar, Marcus understood her leveling up strategy.
Marcus and Kyrie had to wait for some time before they were allowed in Sylinine’s office. She was busy with some work. Finally, when they entered, Marcus could see that Sylinine was tired.
Sylinine’s desk was cluttered with papers and files. The rest of the room seemed to have been filled with books since the last time Marcus and Kyrie had come. The books were piled up haphazardly and some of them were even half opened or lying face down on the ground.
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There were dark circles surrounding Sylinine’s eyes. It looked as if she had not slept for quite some time.
Sylinine gave a weak smile as they entered. She said, “Welcome. I am pleased to announce you are official members of The Librarians. Your application has been accepted as I had predicted. You will get your official documentation and badge from the reception downstairs. Please collect it before you go. Please, sit down. We have some quests to discuss.”
“Are you alright?” Marcus asked as he sat down.
Sylinine waved his concerns away. She said, “I am fine. Fine. Just overworked. So, quests. Yes. First we deal with the major quest. Yes. That makes sense. As a part of the major quest, you need to help the Order of the Golden Sun to get rid of any demonic problems in and around Opulential. Go meet with their head here in Opulential, Timothy Candlewick. He would give you the next part of your quest. And that is the major quest done.”
Marcus saw the update in the quest.
Major Quest
Demons are stirring around Opulential and the Order of the Golden Sun is the only institution standing between the demons and the total annihilation of Opulential. Help the order in resolving the situation.
Marcus frowned and said, “You told us that when we joined The Librarians, the quests would not be as glamorous as other factions. Look at this major quest. I mean it is kind of glamorous.”
Sylinine scoffed, “It is a major quest you gorking dolt. What did you expect from it? Read up on the demons and spread information about them? I thought you were more intelligent than that.”
Marcus was surprised at the outburst but did not show it. Some emotion did seem to have passed on his face as Sylinine groaned at the next moment and said, “Sorry. I need to sleep. This work is hampering my mental and emotional faculties.”
Marcus said, “It is okay. We are going to do the major quest anyways. No other option.”
Sylinine did not say anything and just nodded. Then she said, “With that out of the way, let us discuss the faction quest.”
Marcus nodded. Each faction had a series of quests for their members. Each faction ensured cooperation and contribution from their members through the faction quests.
Sylinine continued, “Now, we have devised individual faction quests for you. Each member of The Librarians gets their own quest. Marcus. Please take this.”
Sylinine handed Marcus a golden pen shaped object. When Marcus touched it, a screen appeared in front of him. On this screen Marcus could see was a list of books and last known location or rumours regarding the books.
Marcus said, “What is this?”
Sylinine replied, “Information that will help you with your quest. There are a total of twenty books that you need to find. There are two books on each of the landmass of Una except the central landmass. The central landmass has four books. We do not know where the remaining two books are. Your quest, Marcus Blank, is to go search for all these twenty books across Una and bring them to the nearest library.”
Marcus looked at the list of the books. Under them, in small fonts was written which location had the latest rumour regarding them. He read the title of the two books for which there were no rumours of location.
The Fallacy of the System by Tarim Kuna
The Fall of Una and the Rise of Adventurism by Sinol Kushine
Both the books had the same notes.
No rumoured location available for the book. Contacting the current head director of NAIF would help if he is willing to aid in the search of the books.
Marcus examined what the quest said.
Faction Quest
Collect the books given in the list as you journey across Una.
Experience: Cumulative, 1000 experience points added with each book found and submitted to the library.
Marcus asked, “Can I read the books before submitting?”
Sylinine said, “You can read the books any time you want. Anyone can read them. You just need to make sure that you find them and submit them, in good condition. Please take good care of these books.”
“I understand”, said Marcus, “This looks like a fun quest. I have a feeling that they would give me much information about the adventuring system and its history.”
Sylinine did not say anything. Then she turned to Kyrie, “I have your faction quest too.”
Marcus interrupted her, “I have one more question. I am sorry. But what does this cumulative experience mean?”
Sylinine sighed and said, “The first book you discover and submit to the library shall give you 1,000 experience points. The second book shall give you 2,000 experience points. And so on and so forth till the last book, the twentieth book shall give you 20,000 experience points. So through this quest you shall earn a total of 2,10,000 experience points.”
“Those are a lot of experience points”, said Marcus and put the golden note pen type structure in his inventory. It was simply called Digital Note.
Sylinine laughed and said, “They may look like a lot right now because you are in your twenties but wait till you get to higher levels. The experience points required to level up at higher levels will make you think how less these experience points are. Now are there any more questions or should I tell Kyrie her faction quest?”
Marcus shook his head indicating he had no more questions. Sylinine said to Kyrie, “I have heard you are interested in adventurer versus adventurer. I want you to pen down your experience in every town or city you visit where you fight. Leave out no detail, no matter how small it would be. I want to know how you applied, what fights you gambled on, what was your logic in fighting a particular adventurer, how your feelings were before, during and after the match, a blow by blow detail of each of your match and how you were treated after reaching rank 1 in any of the arenas. Leave nothing out. I repeat, leave nothing out. We want to know everything.”
“If you don’t mind me asking”, said Kyrie, “What purpose does this serve?”
Sylinine said, “None of The Librarians over the years has studied the adventurer versus adventurer part of the game world in detail. We have basic concepts and texts on what has been written by the original creators of the system but we do not have an adventurer's perspective. We have never had an adventurer who is so invested in adventurer versus adventurer as you are. If you are not interested in writing all this down, then you can visit any library and hire a scribe to do the writing for you. Either would serve our purpose.”
Kyrie said, “And this experience system is interesting. So the report on a town would earn me 2,000 experience points while that in a city would earn me 5,000 experience points for now. This shall scale up as I level up and shall be adjusted accordingly to my level.”
Sylinine said, “Was there a question somewhere?”
“I was simply summarizing it out loud to make sure that I understood this.”
“Ah!” nodded Sylinine, “Makes sense.”
Kyrie spoke, “I am just curious. Both our quests mention the experience that we receive. None of the quests talk about monetary benefits.”
Sylinine said, “There is a reason for that. This is your contribution to The Librarians. You don’t get money for this. There will be other quests that we shall give you which would earn you some units. Not these main faction quests though.”
She must have seen the dejected looks on Marcus and Kyrie’s faces as Sylinine said hurriedly, “We shall also give you tips for certain quests and locations which shall earn you units. Do not worry about units. You shall be well taken care of.”
Marcus nodded. It would be alright. He was still worried about Kyrie though.
Sylinine said, “As a part of joining our faction, you shall also each be given a special gift. Go to the reception. One of the librarians shall take care of everything.”
Marcus and Kyrie thanked Sylinine and left. They went down to the reception where they were given documents officiating them as the members of The Librarians and a badge. The badge was on a leather square. It was in the shape of books and was silver in colour. Marcus liked it. He put his documents and the badge in his inventory and Kyrie did the same with hers.
The receptionist said, “I welcome you officially to The Librarians. The head librarian would have mentioned that you also receive a gift. Come with me. I shall show you yours.”
The receptionist led them outside the library and to the back of it. There was a small lawn adorned with grass and flowers at the back of the library. The receptionist brought out two thin reed like whistles from his inventory and handed one to each Marcus and Kyrie.
The receptionist said, “Blow the whistle.”
Marcus and Kyrie complied. As soon as they blew into the whistles, two creatures came into existence. Each of the creatures was long, at least 10 feet with their bodies curved. Scales adorned their body and they had short wings. Their faces were long and sharp teeth came out of the top of their mouth like snakes.
“Wyrms”, gasped Kyrie.
The receptionist nodded. “This one”, said the receptionist putting a hand on Kyrie’s wyrm, “is a water wyrm.”
Kyrie’s water wyrm was blue in colour, and their scales rippled as they moved. Kyrie approached it cautiously and extended a hand. The water wyrm sniffed Kyrie’s hand and then extended their head allowing Kyrie to rub it.
The receptionist then put a hand on Marcus’ wyrm and said, “This one is a mana wyrm. Pure magic this one.”
Marcus’ wyrm was silver in colour. Marcus felt that their scales and wings were magnificent along with their eyes which were green in colour. Currently those eyes were considering Marcus with curiosity. Marcus mimicked Kyrie’s movements and the mana wyrm allowed Marcus to rub them too.
The receptionist clapped his hands and said, “Good. It seems that the wyrms like you. You can name them. It will be good if you do. They are bonded to you. They shall be your means of transportation for long journeys when you cannot use transportation. We initially considered mechanical bipeds but considering that one of you is a nymph we settled on a more natural mode of transport so that you would be comfortable with it.”
Marcus said, “Thank you. This is a great gift indeed. I shall name my wyrm… Wait a minute. Is my wyrm a male or a female or something else?”
The receptionist said, “Wyrms do not have a gender. They are gender fluid. You can name them anything you want.”
Marcus nodded and said to his mana wyrm, “You are Lara. Do you like it?”
Lara snuggled closer to Marcus. He could feel their warm breath. The wyrm gave a small cooing type noise. It seemed that they liked the name. It was decided. Lara shall be their name.
Kyrie said, “I name you Nalana.” Her wyrm liked the name too.
Marcus said, “Will they accompany us like this everywhere?”
The receptionist shook his head. He said, “No, when you want to summon them, blow through the whistle once. When you want to dismiss them, blow through the whistle twice. They normally live in a magical enclosure where they will go once you dismiss them. However, if you want to be using them as your mounts, spend some time with them on a regular basis. They have feelings too. They may ignore you if you do not spend sufficient time with them.”
Kyrie said, “That is not a problem.”
The receptionist then left Marcus and Kyrie with their wyrms. Marcus and Kyrie had a one sided conversation with their wyrms. Then they dismissed them and put the whistle in their inventory.
Kyrie said, “So, what now?”
Marcus said, “Let’s relax for today. Tomorrow we go and meet Timothy. Get a start on the next phase of the major quest.”
Kyrie agreed with Marcus. They started to walk towards their inn. They had finally joined a faction. Now, they would together take on the major quest.
***
Silas was angry. The Librarians had refused to give him updates on Marcus Blank. He did not like it. He wondered whether he should escalate to Charles but thought of letting it go. He was already doing a good job tracking Marcus. Updates from The Librarians would have helped but he would make do without them.
He had lost track of Marcus after his failed teleportation. Tracking his utility belt had helped and soon he found Marcus embroiled in demonic problems of the nymphs. Silas had been surprised at Marcus’ ability and how he and Kyrie had dealt with the demons of the Sosquatch forest.
Silas had then tracked Marcus to Opulential and had found out that he spent most of his time researching or doing minor quests. Today, Marcus had finally joined a faction and was progressing with his quest.
Silas looked at the file in front of him. Till now it was a dull read. Marcus had not done anything that can be considered detrimental to NAIF or the game world. Silas wondered whether keeping continuous tabs on Marcus would actually benefit them in the long run or was it simply a waste of resources?
Silas sighed and stood up. He needed to get ready for his meeting in an hour. He had to give his update to Charles who would not be happy about The Librarian’s decision.
Silas rubbed his eyes as he walked. He hoped what he was doing was right and that it would help the game world. He yawned. It was going to be a long meeting.