The team had made it to the ancient library of Rempegana, which was amazing, especially since they made it here in one piece! Now the dilemma was that the elevation drop in front of them was too intimidating, it was concerning. They could quite literally fall to their death because it was a twenty meter drop, and in a world full of magic, this may be one of the most embarrassing ways to die. It would be tragic!
For that matter, Tim asked. “How do we get down there, Araduli? I think your friends stole all the ladders from here.”
“The ladders withered away, they were made out of wood I presume. I believe that’s what you call it, wood? Besides, you don’t need any ladders today, because I’ll just cast a light-wing spell on the lot of you. It’s very effective, you’ll be flying.” He answered.
“That sounds useful, cuz you don’t hear much about flying goblins out there! You must be a pretty powerful guy then, Araduli?” Tim asked, he was a bit curious.
“Yes, I would say so. Calidum mana lets us be really flexible with what spells we want to use, because well, we don’t have any gods looking over us. Our god is iron, and our belief is in solid architecture.” He added.
“That’s rich, considering that you destroyed everything here apart from the library. Architects my ass!” Arvena interrupted, she was very keen on arguing with any and all dwarves.
Nevertheless, Araduli did not engage, and he brushed that comment off with a smile. Then, he gave the team the freedom that he promised them. Araduli wiggled his fingers in front of his face, muttered a spell to himself, and then he stretched his hands out towards the goblin guests! A red flash erupted in front of them, it was quick, painless, and then the team suddenly forgot that gravity was a thing! Or in other words, they didn’t fear this deep drop as much as they used to, so the result was great overall.
Arvena was the first to start floating, as if her rage powered her new ability of flight. She was a bit happy considering that she wasn’t falling to her death, but now since she had the great opportunity to browse the library, she did exactly that. She pulled out one of the many scrolls out of the neatly designed holes in the stone wall, and was more than eager to read its contents!
“You know, I’ve been in this library before, only once, with my grandpa.” She spoke, but her tone was faint so she was mostly speaking to herself. “We snuck in here and read a couple of scrolls, but we couldn’t get to the important ones. Only if we did… this library would’ve been ours.”
Araduli picked up on what she said, despite her faint voice, so he came up with a sweet answer. “The library is yours, lass, for twenty-four whole hours. That’s how long my light-wing spell will keep you floating, so read what you have to read, and then I will guide you out of here. You can tell your kin that contrary to popular belief, us dwarves are more than hospitable.”
“That’s rich,” She muttered to herself, and she didn’t fight him on the matter. This was a wonderful opportunity to become more powerful, and she wasn’t going to waste a single second of it.
Arvena took one peek of the scroll that she had grabbed, and put it right back on the wall afterwards, because it wasn’t what she was looking for, it wasn’t as ancient. Then, she floated down at the very bottom of the library, because that was where all the good, forgotten stuff was supposed to be.
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Arvena pulled three, two-foot tall scrolls out of the wall, and then she was very gentle with them, so as to not tear them. The metallic handle of the scroll had collected a lot of rust over the years already, it was almost unusable, and this alone hinted how old these scrolls actually were! With that said, she didn’t want to figure out just how fragile the very parchment of each scroll was, no, she wanted to be as gentle as possible with them!
It was best to roll the scrolls down flat on the ground, and she did exactly so with the three of them, the ground was bone dry. Once unraveled, each of them were from one-to-three meters long, and this itself hinted that the scrolls withheld great knowledge!
The language on it was ancient, it was simply impossible to understand it at first sight, but she came here with a solution in mind rather than a complaint. She knew a spoken-word spell that was fit for this occasion, one that would help her decode this ancient, degranus goblin language!
She sat near the scrolls, cross-legged, and then she chanted. “I call upon you, first fathers of our goblin kind, fathers of our holy degranus race! I seek the knowledge you bore, I seek to speak your ancient tongue… Let me read the scrolls you once wrote, for as to maintain what we considered lost, for as to rediscover what our world would surely underestimate! Bless me with your sight, first fathers, and let me carry out the greatest of traditions!”
The chant was extensive, but its purpose was grand. The first fathers listened to her as well, apparently, because moments later, the very color of her pupils faded away by half! A less experienced goblin would be freaked out by this phenomenon, but she knew what she was doing. As of now, she truly bore a pair of old, faded eyes, the eyes of the long gone, first fathers!
Arvena could read the ancient scrolls now, they started making sense to her effective immediately. She could read the large paragraphs effortlessly, as if every word was highlighted for her to check out, and this latter part was especially useful, because she could read the paragraphs even though the library was poorly illuminated! Each important paragraph was highlighted with this golden glow that only she could see.
“I am eternally grateful for your blessings, first fathers…” She muttered.
Eternally grateful wouldn’t begin to describe this phenomenon, she struck gold. The title of the longest scroll, for example, spoke of great importance as it cited; Mana Thinning, And The Alternation Of The Pool.
Arvena struck gold, no doubt about it, so she started reading through the scroll as fast as she could. There were so many other scrolls that she wanted to pick up and read, so there was no point in wasting even a single second today. Progress was inevitable, she craved it!
In the meantime, Timothy and his friends had picked up a couple of scrolls from the top of the library. They grabbed them randomly, and figured that it was best that they floated on top here, because the scrolls on top were far more understandable to them in comparison to the others.
In this goblin form that they were in, the team of three could understand some goblin languages, and their understanding was almost genetic, even, primitive. Their goblin brains were wired to pick up on goblin words and phrases, so it wasn’t too surprising that they could read the scrolls. They could read these ones at the top of the library very well, because odds were that these scrolls were not that old.
Though the degranus goblins started living topside about three-thousand years ago, plenty of religious priests had forced their way into the library in the recent past. Some had had credentials to write scrolls of their own, and they had stashed them here, in the library of Rempegana for safe keeping, and this explained how some of the scrolls were so new!
The team picked up a few of them, for educational purposes. They started getting bored because they picked up a bunch of scrolls about goblin history, but then, Tim made a great discovery!
Tim picked up another random scroll, unraveled it, and then the very quality of his mana upgraded at level three all of a sudden, it was amazing! It only took a second, a mere flash even, it was painless, yet such results were nothing short of phenomenal! This was the best thing Tim got out of reading, that was for sure!