After several hours of skimming and light reading, Hazel finally chose which books she would read and take with her. These books were called “The History of Totem”, “Magic Theory for Novice Mages”, The Great War of Totem”, and “The Age of Magic Revolution.” Two books involved the history of Totem, and the other two were about magic; something she desperately needed to learn about.

In fact, she did some further reading on “Magic Theory for Novice Mages” and learned quite a bit regarding the concept of magic. According to the book, magic staffs were created to assist mages in casting their spells more efficiently. That and creating certain types of staffs could increase either magic power, mana regeneration, or other types to help make mages stronger.

But that wasn’t all. From what Hazel read in the book, you technically didn’t need a staff to cast a spell. They were simply created to help novice mages understand how to use magic. This meant that Hazel’s staff was likely created in this world before it was fractured. Or at least the concept of it.

Using this information, Hazel learned that she could cast magic without her staff. It just made things easier for her by assisting in channeling the mana. The staffs were designed to detect and suck in the mana from a mage casting a spell, thus shooting the spell at whatever you were aiming at.

Then she learned something interesting regarding how to learn magic.

So, according to the texts, there were a couple of methods of acquiring magic spells which were learning them through grimoires or reaching your marker, which Hazel had done for both.

As for how mages were able to conjure their spells, they stated that it required a firm imagination and focus. You couldn’t just cast a spell by shouting its name but also imagine what the spell looks like to activate it. This is why Hazel’s first attempt at casting Mana Bolt failed because all she did was shout the spell and nothing else.

This kind of information would’ve been nice to know before she had to figure all of this out on her own. Still, she was glad that she knew it now instead of never.

Aside from these, Hazel didn’t find anything else useful from the books. They mostly just talked about more theories behind the origin of magic and whatnot and how it was before the existence of the system. Although she found these types of information interesting, they weren’t all that useful at the moment.

Except the one where she could cast magic without her staff. A part of her was curious as to how using her hands instead of her magic staff would affect her spells. Would it be more difficult to channel them since her staff did that? Hazel was very interested in testing this theory.

Aside from the magic theory book, Hazel also took a closer look at “The Great War of Totem”. This was because when she initially read the first couple of pages of the book to see if it was interesting enough for her, she skimmed across a line that caught her attention.

The Great War of Totem, also known as the First War of a Merged World.

According to what she read, The World known as Totem before it became this Fractured world, was the First Merged world when the System appeared. This was an incredible find for Hazel since she knew nothing about this world.

Reading a little further, Hazel learned that the War of Totem started because of the System and the players from the other worlds that were merged. With everyone’s territories being combined, the first players fought to reclaim them and rebuild their society.

During that time, conflict for land and authority broke out and a war erupted from it. The first war of Totem.

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Realizing what she found, Hazel felt that she hit the motherload. With this book, she could use the information within its contents to know what her world was in store for regarding the system.

However, after skimming through a couple of pages, she was soon proven wrong because of one rather annoying factor.

“Are you kidding me?” Hazel grumbled in anger. “Why are the majority of these pages burned or torn to bits?!”

When she reached a certain point in the book, she found that the pages were extremely damaged beyond repair, either from burns or tearing. The mage stared at the charred pages, trying to see if she could find something that could give her some answers regarding what the system had in store for her world.

But the pages were too destroyed to provide her with that information. Which angered Hazel deeply.

“Dammit…!” She growled before tossing her book to the side. “And here I thought I finally found something worthwhile. I should’ve read a bit more before deciding to keep that book.”

Feeling angry at herself, Hazel hugged her knees. While she wasn’t able to obtain a lot of information regarding the system and what it planned to do to her world, she was at least certain of one thing about what the future had in store for her newly merged world.

And that was War.

“A war between two worlds…” Hazel muttered grimly. “I can already tell that little event will be so much fun…”

Sarcasm aside, Hazel was actually terrified of the possibility of war. She never experienced something as tragic and horrific as War. She read about them from the Revolutionary War to even the two World Wars.

But this wasn’t some normal warfare like the ones from her world. This…was going to be so much worse. And Hazel was going to likely be in the center of it.

“I have too much on my plate to be dealing with a war,” She groaned “I still need to find my mom and Damien.”

Hazel had no clue regarding the whereabouts of her family. She figured that much like her; Damien and their mom were transported to some kind of dungeon-like this Fractured World. Or maybe they were in this dungeon as well.

The problem, however, was finding them. If Hazel’s brother and mother were in this dungeon, then all she needed to do was find them. But if they weren’t, that only complicated her situation even more.

According to the requirements to leave the Fractured World Dungeon, Hazel needed to either spend thirty days in this place, kill a Sub-Boss, or kill the Dungeon Boss itself. The last option was out since Hazel knew that taking down the Dungeon Boss was suicide, so that left her with either waiting it out for thirty days or killing a Sub-Boss.

Even if Hazel completed the second objective, she would likely have to wait several days before her bother and mother returned to their worlds, since she believed at least one of them would attempt this.

Because of this, Hazel was stumped on how to proceed with her mission to find her family. Placing the book down, the novice mage leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling of the magic shop.

“I probably shouldn’t be worrying about them right now. Especially when I have my own problems to deal with.”

Before she could think about finding her family, Hazel needed to focus on how to leave this dungeon. Or better yet, getting stronger.

After fighting that Cyclops, she realized that she was going to be encountering all kinds of chaos and hell while roaming this dungeon. This was why there was only one solution for this; leveling up.

There were still plenty of monsters in the Town, so Hazel planned to kill as many as she could to gain more levels and points.

With this new goal in mind, Hazel stood up off the floor and picked up the books that she planned to take with her.

“After I get these books back to the Tavern, I’m going hunting again,” Hazel declared with a grin.

Before she could even walk to the door, a new panel suddenly materialized before her. Hazel was startled, nearly dropping her books as she stared at the floating, holographic notification. And what she read certainly caught her attention.

“Sweep the Town!”

Difficulty: Easy

Objective: Rid the Town of the Fractured

Progress: Fractured Monsters within Town Killed[0/60]

Reward: +7 Free Points and an Uncommon Loot Box

Hazel’s eyes widened after reading the new Challenge she received. Her lips then twisted into a sly smile as she was filled with a sense of urgency and anticipation.

“Another Challenge, huh? You’re only giving me a better reason to hunt for all of the Fractured monsters!”

Hazel only planned to kill some Fractured humans or Fractured Classes to gain some more levels and points, but after seeing this panel, those plans changed.

It was time to do what the Challenge said and start Sweeping the Town!