Chapter 10
Our phage crystals were the cornerstone of our life as wielders. All the power they allowed us to grasp, they could also quantify and reveal to us. Blessings, as we learned, were different. Blessings seemed to act completely independently of the phage crystal, and if you were to ask the phage crystal about your blessing, it will return no data. As if blessings do not exist at all.
“The scholars dedicate their lives to documenting everything they can about the world,” Victoria explained as we walked through the city. “Their organization is to thank for our maps, our understanding of our classes, the great beasts, and other nations. Most importantly, they are responsible for documenting the blessings.”
“How many different blessings are there?” Leah asked.
“So far, I believe they’ve documented over two hundred.”
“That many?”
“Yes, and there are surely many we do not know of yet. Now, most of those two hundred are rather unimpressive. John’s case is most typical, having a certain stat moderately increased.”
“What’s your blessing?” I asked.
She went silent for a moment as she drew from her pipe. Then, in a stoic voice she said, “Second life,” as she blew smoke past the words.
“Second life?” John asked.
“If I am to die, I will be revived a few hours later, but there is a time limit to how often it can be used.”
“Wow, that’s a really handy ability!” I said. “What’s the limit? How often can you die without-“
“If I knew that,” she snapped. “I would not be talking to you right now. Would I?” She took a long drag from her pipe, blowing out the thickest cloud of smoke I’ve seen from her yet. I don’t know how she did it without coughing, but I’ve noticed when she is agitated she smokes more.
“Sorry,” I said, though I wasn’t sure what exactly I was apologizing for. Apparently, I had brushed into a sensitive topic. Though, if she had this second life ability, I wonder why she had such a cautious approach to monster hunting compared to Leon? I would think with less fear of dying, one would be less passive.
After taking a moment to gather herself, Victoria continued. “As far as anyone knows, there have only been seven wielders with second life. Four of them have died permanently. The shortest recorded interval between deaths was two weeks, with the next occurring after a two-month gap. Yet, there is another wielder with second life who once died twice in the same week but still revived. Therefore, assuing it is based on a time limit may be incorrect. The only way I can know for sure when second life will fail to save me is when I die for good.”
“Did you personally know any of them?” Leah inquired, her tone treading lightly.
“One resides here in Goliath, never venturing beyond the city limits within three months of her last death. The other is in Valera, far past the forest and the deserts. The records span hundreds of years, mind you. Rumor is, the one who lives in Valera is over a hundred years old herself.”
“So she’s an old woman?” Hope asked.
“No, wielders don’t age.”
“Wait, we will not age?” John asked.
“Correct, and you can only die from losing your HP.” She stopped in front of a huge flight of steps, going up to a grand entrance of a building. “We’re here,” she said, gesturing upward.
As we climbed the stairs, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the sheer size of the library. The building was four stories tall, with countless windows and carvings decorating the exterior. The entrance itself was a massive wooden door, intricately carved with scenes of battles and mythical creatures. I felt a shiver run down my spine as I wondered what kind of knowledge was stored within those walls.
Victoria pushed open the door and we stepped inside. The scent of ancient books permeated the air. The inside of the library was just as grand as the outside, with towering shelves reaching towards the ceiling and rows upon rows of books, scrolls, and parchments lining their surfaces. The walls were adorned with tapestries depicting more battles and monsters.
John turned to Victoria, who was looking around with a satisfied expression on her face. “This is amazing,” he said.
“This is the world's most extensive library,” she replied, “Goliath being the home of most wielders, we also lead the world in discovery.”
She led us through the maze towards the far end of the library, where a thin man had his back turned to us as he organized books on a shelf. I noticed what seemed to be a tail extending from the arc of his back, and I mistook the fur on his hand for a glove until Victoria cleared her throat, causing him to turn around.
At first, I thought his face was covered in tattoos, but the whiskers and fur extending from his cheeks were unmistakable. He had a pushed-in, cat-like nose that balanced a thick set of glasses. A smile spread over his face, revealing sharp, pointed teeth.
“Ah, Victoria. Already devoured the last pile of books, have you?” he asked, his voice smooth and silky, not unlike a purr.
“No, not yet,” she replied. “I was actually hoping for an opinion on this new wielder here. I suspect she may have a rare blessing.” As she brought her pipe towards her lips, the cat-man's hand - or should I say paw - darted forward, swiping the pipe from her grasp. As he did so, I noticed a phage crystal on his wrist and discreetly tapped my own to check his stats.
Name: Mathew
Scribe - level 31
HP: 8105/8105
This was my first time seeing the scribe class, and there were not any statues for it at the guild hall, but this was also my first time seeing a cat person.
“No smoking in here,” Mathew chided Victoria, his tail flicking with disapproval as he wagged her own pipe at her. “You know better than that.”
Victoria rolled her eyes but did not protest further. “Go ahead, Leah, introduce yourself.”
A hint of blush appeared on Leah's cheeks, her eyes widened slightly as she tried not to stare too obviously. She seemed somewhat fascinated, maybe even charmed by the peculiar sight of the scholarly cat-man. “H-hello, I'm Leah,” she said, stepping forward. “These are my friends, Zelik, John, and Hope. It's nice to meet you.”
“The pleasure is all mine,” he responded smoothly. “I’m Mathew, the lead scholar here at the library. So what clues do you have about your blessing thus far?”
“Hang on a second,” Hope interrupted. “I’m not trying to be rude, but...”
“Are you a cat!?” Leah finished for her, apparently more interested in his appearance than his knowledge at the moment.
Mathew chuckled, seeming to take no offense. “I come from the kingdom of Felinia. All of our people share what your people would consider a feline appearance.”
“So… are all of you so…. furry?” Hope asked carefully.
“I should ask, do all of your people have such flat useless ears?”
“Oh, I-I’m sorry,” Hope said, waving her hands. “I didn’t mean to mean to insult you.”
He grinned slyly. “Not at all, but the point stands. However, halflings only retain our ears and tail; Otherwise, they look more human than Felenian.”
Victoria added, “Felinia is a distant land, far to the east. It's quite different from Goliath, but they have their share of wielders. Perhaps a quest may take you there one day, or I’m sure you’ll see more of his kind around Goliath from time to time.”
Mathew nodded, his yellow eyes glinting behind his glasses. “Yes, I used to be quite the adventurer myself, but these days my passion lies in knowledge and maintaining this library.”
He gestured around at the towering bookshelves, his tail swishing contentedly. “I've traded in my sword for a quill, so to speak. But I still offer my wisdom and experience to other wielders, like yourselves. Now, let's get back to the topic at hand. Leah, you were saying about your blessing?”
“Well, it seems I’m able to communicate with monsters, to a certain extent...” she twiddled her fingers in her usual fashion as she explained.
“Is it with just any monster?” he asked.
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“Well, I’ve only come in contact with a few, but it was most clear with the wolves. I knew how they felt and their emotions. With the slimes and the ribbit things with the horns, there was less.”
“Hmmm, with wolves, you say...” he leaned back, a deep sparkle in his eye as he thought something over. “Victoria, your thoughts?”
“Either she is an extreme rarity, or her abilities are restricted to a mere empathetic connection with monsters,” Victoria proposed. “There is an easy way to tell for sure.”
His lips parted, his fangs set against each other behind his grin. “Then shall we go upstairs? If it turns out she is what we think, then it is a rare opportunity to document the blessing.”
“Um...” Leah glanced back the way she came, and I wondered if she was considering running away. I could see why ― the way there were smiling and winking at each other would make anyone think something shady was about to happen.
Mathew brought his hands together with a clap. “You three, make yourselves comfortable, and feel free to peruse any books that catch your eye! Victoria, Leah―follow me!”
“A-actually I think I should-” Leah began to protest, but Victoria placed a gentle hand on her back and started guiding her away.
“Wait, what’s this all about?” I asked as we followed them to a staircase.
Mathew turned to me with a smile. “Oh, don’t worry, we won’t hurt her. We just want to test her powers and see if she truly has the rare blessing we suspect she does.”
I hesitated, but the way Victoria and Leah were already halfway up the stairs made me feel like we had no say in the matter.
Once they were gone, Hope said, “So… if they don’t bring her back, how do we go about reporting a kidnapping?”
―
The three of us wandered around the library while we waited. I occasionally looked up the stairs and wondered what they were doing. I at one point considered going up to see for myself, but I doubted Leah was in any real danger. For this place to exist meant people who were passionate about knowledge were behind it. As long as no morally ambiguous science experiments were used to test for blessings, I figured she would be fine.
I spotted Hope down an aisle labeled machinery. She had a book open in front of her and she was leafing through it. “Hey, what are you looking at?” I asked.
“Just curious about the technology of this world,” she said, flipping a page. “They have engines, but they require magic to operate. There does not seem to be any kind of fuel-based combustion.”
I folded my arms and thought about it. Fuel-based combustion. Something about that sounded right, but I couldn’t quite imagine it. Even without specific memories of our lives before the ship, we still know what things are. We didn’t need memories of going to a library to remember what a library is, for example. Nor did we need someone to explain to us that a sword was a weapon, or how to use it. Well, maybe that last part was debatable.
“I’m curious to give it a try,” Hope said, flipping another page. “I don’t see many engineer class wielders, but it sounds interesting. Don’t you think?”
“I say go for it. If you don’t like it, you can always change your class later.”
“True, but that would mean starting from scratch with leveling. That’s no fun.”
I left her alone and continued aimlessly walking around. There were so many books on these shelves that it was overwhelming. I wouldn’t know where to start. I saw John in the monster section, also looking through a book.
“Find something interesting?” I asked.
“I started off looking for religious texts, but legends is the closest I could find,” he said, holding up the book for me to see. “Now I’m reading one about these so-called great beasts. Apparently there are dozens of them throughout the world. There are some who never bother humans unless they are bothered first. Others raid cities regularly. One thing they have in common is they all produce spawns of some kind.”
“Like the Leviathan Spawns,” I murmured, shuddering as I remembered the ship.
“Take a look at this one,” John invited, opening the book to a particular page. At first glance, it appeared to be an illustration of a mountain, but looking closer, an eye was discernible. The entire mountain was, in fact, an enormous turtle.
“Wow… where is that one?”
“Far from here, according to the book. The beast is supposedly quite passive. Its spawns live on its body, and they can be hostile, but the great beast itself lays there and only migrates to a new location every few decades. They call him Nomadus, the walking mountain.”
“Interesting.”
John nodded. “There are some caves and ruins on his body that high-level adventurers can explore. Apparently powerful equipment can be found there.”
“I wonder if anyone has ever tried to attack him? Though I can’t imagine being able to do any damage no matter how high your level is.”
John nodded an agreement before resuming his perusal of the book.
“Hey, boys!” I heard Hope call from somewhere within the book-laden labyrinth. “They’re back!”
We all return to the staircase to see Victoria, Mathew and Leah coming down.
“So, going to keep us in the dark or explain what this is all about?” Hope asked them.
“It seems your friend here possesses a truly rare talent,” Mathew stated, adjusting his glasses. “Go ahead and check her stats now.”
Leah
Beast Tamer - level 1
HP: 365/365
MP: 70/70
“You changed your class?” I asked. “How? I thought you needed one of the statues to do that.”
“Who said she didn’t use a statue?” said Victoria. “Aside from the 9 classes you’re familiar with, there are special classes that not just anyone can join. The statues for those classes are not housed at the guild hall. Some are here at the library, others are across various cities and dungeons, and there may even be some that have not yet been discovered.”
“Indeed,” Mathew concurred. “And Leah here is one of the lucky few to be able to join such a class.” I noticed he had a book under his arm. He held it up to show the title: Beast Tamer Class Unilex. “Since the regular guidebook will do her no good, I recommend checking out this book and studying it well, young Leah. However, we do not have as deep an understanding of your class as we do the others. This book only contains as much as the library's efforts have been able to gather over the last centuries.”
“So apparently...” Leah’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “As I level up my class, I can learn to tame certain monsters and train them to help us! But… I’ve been thinking… this also means I have to refuse to hunt monsters that are similar to wolves. Anything that I can create a connection with will be too painful for me to have to kill.”
“That’s perfectly understandable,” John said. “Given your deep connection, it must feel akin to harming a fellow human..”
Leah simply nodded in response, her eyes filled with determination.
“Are you sure?” Victoria asked. “It will greatly limit where you are able to farm. Leveling up will become difficult.”
“I don’t care,” Leah said. “I’m not going to hurt any beast-type monsters that I can communicate with.”
Victoria sighed. “Well, that will mean more slime grinding for a while. We’ll have to skip the wolves and move right on to goblins when I feel you are all ready. You’ll also want to tame your first beast as soon as possible.”
“One more thing, Leah,” Mathew said, bringing her another book. “Go ahead and open this.”
Leah looked at it curiously; it was a hardcover bound in red leather but had no title or author name. As she opened it, we saw that it was no ordinary book at all.
It only opened to one “page” and embedded on that page was a crystal that looked much like our phage crystals, but larger.
“I would be grateful if you could use this as a journal on your travels. Just place your hand on the crystal and think about what you would write. Also, it can transfer data from your own phage crystal and send all this information directly to me.”
“Isn’t that a bit invasive?” I asked.
“I suppose one could see it that way,” Mathew said. “However, I only wish to use the data to document your adventure for our library. Not only can we learn more about the beast tamer class, but I believe you can teach us much about the monsters of this world that we currently do not understand.”
Leah looked at the book curiously, then eventually looked up with a serious expression in her eyes. “Alright, I’ll do it, but on one condition. You have to promise me that the data I send back won’t be used to harm any of the monsters I analyze for you. I can accept that monster hunting is a part of this world, but we wielders already have enough advantages over them. I don’t want to do something that makes killing them easier.”
“You realize that monsters claim wielder’s lives all the time, don’t you?” Victoria said. “By doing this, you can prevent the deaths of more wielders in the future.”
“I understand that, but I don’t care,” Leah held her gaze steady. “They want to live just as much as us, and I have no right to shift the balance of power between wielders and monsters.”
Victoria's eyebrows knitted together, her voice taking on a harsher edge. “What if one of your party members were to die to a monster? Would you reconsider your stance then?” I noticed her reach to her pocket for her pipe, before remembering Mathew had confiscated it.
A shadow passed over Leah's features, her eyes momentarily dropping to the floor. “That would be very sad, and I’m sure I would cry...” She lifted her gaze, regaining that quiet intensity. “But no. It would still be wrong to let my own feelings change that decision.”
Victoria looked at her in a way that I wasn’t sure if she was angry or impressed. Maybe both. “You truly are a unique girl, aren't you?”
“I hope so,” Leah smiled.
Hope laughed, her hand landing on Leah’s shoulder in a friendly smack. “Hey, no arguing with that face, now!” She winked, adding, “Don't sweat it, sis. I've got your back!”
John joined in the laughter and said, “Your convictions are admirable. I promise to support you in upholding them.”
Leah’s charm must have been infectious, as even Victoria who seemed intent on arguing let a hesitant smile break through.
Leah’s cheeks flushed at the compliments, but I could tell she was pleased. I looked around at our group and realized that, despite the odd circumstances of our meeting, we had formed a deep bond. I already felt that these three were like my family. Tsarina’s group were like cousins we saw on occasion, but members of that same family nonetheless.
The cool evening air brushed against our faces as we exited the library. Making our way through the dimly-lit streets back to the guild hall, I felt a sense of excitement for whatever was to come. We may have lost our memories, but we were quickly making new ones. As long as I had my new family at my side, I knew I could stand up to anything this world had in store for us.