David returned to the Library. He had begun the job of cataloging the library, and he was going to finish it. With his incredible level of Reading Comprehension, he quickly advanced through the second floor. A week in, he had finished almost a third of the second floor – although he had gained very few skills – when a message appeared.
Reading Comprehension has increased to Intermediate 10, and become Advanced 1
All contents of book are known upon contact with the book.
With this advance, David was now able to finish cataloging a book in a minute, compared to the twenty it had taken him before. He noticed that he still gained increases in Wisdom and Intelligence, even though he wasn’t reading the books anymore. He finished the rest of the second floor that day, not even stopping to return the catalogues to Dante.
With the second floor cleared, he had gained a number of skills: Tailoring, Jewelry-making, Blacksmithing, First Aid, Instrument Making, Lute Playing, Dancing, Calligraphy, Lock-picking, Stealth, Fishing, Painting, Sculpting, and Identify.
-What am I going to do with all these skills? It would take me forever to raise them to a point where they could be useful and I have absolutely no desire to spend days working to raise a useless skill. You know what, unless I find a real good reason, I won’t raise a single one of them, except for Identify. Now, to give this stack to Dante.
When Dante saw the mound of paper David brought him at the end of the day, he looked amazed.
“What happened, that you were able to catalogue so much in a single day?”
“My Reading Comprehension skill gave me the ability to know the contents of a book just by touching it.”
“Incredible, I’ve never heard of such dedication to reading. That you would gain such an ability does not surprise me – you have invested so much time and energy in this Library. It’s even more incredible that you’ve managed to catalogue all of the normal books.”
“Do you not want me to catalogue the restricted section?”
“If you could, then we would have a complete list of our collection for the first time since the Library fell from glory. But I worry that you might not be able to handle the information contained in the restricted section. All knowledge is power, but in the restricted section, some of the books actively try to cripple the minds of the readers.”
David felt a little hesitant and fearful when he heard that, but his resolve firmed up, “No, I started cataloguing the Library, and I’m so close to finishing, I couldn’t possibly give up now.”
Dante nodded in acknowledgement. “Alright, but you must first learn to protect your mind against the dark influence of the more evil tomes. I’ll demonstrate. Mental Wall!”
Some of Dante’s mana broke off from his mana supply, snaking towards his head and in the process became tinged with a blue different from that of water mana – lighter, more a sky blue than the royal blue of water mana.
Your Mana Sight has increased by 1
Mana Sight is now level 2
You can see more fine and distinct gradations in mana
With that increase, David’s sight sharpened, and he noticed that some of Dante’s mana was leaking. It seemed to dissipate into the air, but as he looked at it more closely, he realized that the mana was once again becoming the crystals that he saw all outer mana as.
David tried gathering the mana that Dante had released – he wanted to know what it was that Dante was doing with his mana, so that he could replicate the process.
When enough of the sky blue mana had gathered to form a sphere the size of a golf ball, David touched the ball of light
Instead of visions, he felt a sudden solemnity – the gravity that only a vast repository of knowledge can generate.
*Ding*
Your Mana Understanding has increased by 1
Mana Understanding is now level 3
You can now learn spells up to Tier 7 on sight
- Knowledge mana? I’ve never heard of magic based on the mind before, except for illusion spells.
David decided to ask, “Dante, what is that spell?”
“It’s a simple barrier spell.”
“No, how would you classify that spell.” Seeing that Dante didn’t understand, “What element of magic did you use to create that?”
“It’s just a non-elemental spell. All of us Librarians learned it. Do you want me to show you again?
“No, I think I’ve got it. Mental Wall!” With that, David mentally pushed all of his knowledge into his mana, as his mana snaked its way through his body to his head.
*Ding*
Mana Mastery has increased by 1
Mana Mastery is now level 2
Use of mana is more efficient – Mana consumption of all spells -2%
“Excellent, I think you’ve got it. You really are impressive - it took me almost two weeks to learn that spell.”
“Well, I just recently learned how to copy spells, just by seeing them.”
“Even so, you really are something special.”
“So… Can I go to the restricted section now?”
“Not quite yet. A word of warning first. The spell you just learned, Mental Wall, is a protection buff that requires constant attention and continuous use of mana. It will protect you against the worst of the books, but they are still quite dangerous. Remember this, the Mental Wall spell will only protect you against the malevolent, soul-crushing effects of the knowledge, not against the knowledge itself. The techniques in those journals are experimental and highly dangerous. In some cases, the experimenting killed the author of the journal. In others, the authors only survived because of long careers in their fields. No matter how tempted you may be to use those skills, do not. It is highly likely that attempting to use one would kill you, and it could do worse.”
Dante continued in a slightly less serious tone. “Also, it goes without saying, but telling anyone about the contents of the restricted section is against our policy. Be careful in there, David. Check the spell regularly for breakage, if there are cracks, get out of there, don’t look back.”
“Okay,” David said, with trepidation. Dante had scared him a little with how serious he was being.
David climbed the stairs to the third door. He had never had reason to come all the way up here before. Dante’s warnings had served as an effective deterrent, even after he had become a full Librarian – the last thing he could afford, as a level one, was to die – he would lose 5 of his hard-earned stats, and, before gaining his class, he didn’t think he would be able to gain them back so easily.
The entrance to the restricted section was a set of double doors, arched at the top, made of wood. It was off-limits to non-Librarians, and was sealed by a magical lock, which only opened with the magical key, the title of Librarian.
Circles of light with various sigils appeared as David neared the door, and then faded back into non-existence. He paused to steel his nerve, then grabbed the handle of the door, and opened it.
The interior was … anticlimactic. It looked a lot like the other floors – windows, floating orbs of light, and bookshelves – just a lot smaller. There were only three bookshelves, and the room itself was tiny in comparison with the first and second floors.
David sighed. He didn’t know quite what he was expecting, maybe a bloodstained carpet with the skeletons of those who had died in their attempt to read the books or scratch marks on the walls, made by those driven insane.
Still, he called out, “Mental Wall.” He watched his mana bar carefully to see how much it consumed, but the spell was apparently quite cheap to sustain, even less than the rate of regeneration of his mana. He picked up the first book, and began.
* * *
The decorations may have been disappointing, but David was impressed by the contents of the books. He was unable to gain the skills they wrote of – probably because he barely understood their methods – but David got the impression from the effects they wrote of that they were leaps and bounds beyond anything the guilds had.
Master assassins wrote about extremely complicated poisons that would wait for days before killing the victim or training bees to sting on command, with poison applied to their stingers.
Master warriors wrote of sword skills they had developed and movement and breathing patterns which, combined, could result in explosive power, equivalent to that of mages.
Master alchemists wrote about secret recipes for potions that could change one’s shape or confer the powers of a god or the life force of a monster.
Master mages wrote of spells they had created accidentally, which were so powerful that they caused distortions in the fabric of reality.
There were more innocent secrets, also, like the master healers and master priests – who wrote of spells that would completely cure even those at Death’s door, and, in some cases, even bring back those from beyond, not like necromancy, but a true revival. There was even one who claimed to have discovered the secret of immortality, but after that page, a few pages were torn out, the rest left blank – as if something unspeakable had happened in his attempt.
By the end of the day, David was almost finished with the final bookshelf. He had taken it (relatively) slow, actually reading each book, because he wanted to fully experience the work of masters of their craft.
When he went to retrieve one of the final few books, he was shocked. When he grabbed it, the Reading Comprehension skill told him that it was a journal of a Sage, Sage Melquis!
He opened and read it. Disappointingly, it wasn’t written about Sages. Melquis instead focused on complicated spells working mostly with basic elements – water, earth, fire, wind, lightning – nothing a mage couldn’t do. However, interspersed with these spells (similar to the previous mages’ journals in their incredible power) Melquis wrote a little about his Mana Sight and about some interesting mana colors created by fusion magics.
*Ding*
New Skill: You have learned skill Fusion Magic
David marked his place in the book with his thumb and said, “Skill Window, Fusion Magic.”
Fusion Magic Level 1, 0%
Allows you to cast fusion spells, which combine the effects of two or more spells for an additional effect – using opposing elements may result in a weaker attack power
To activate say: Spell name “and” spell name
Current number of spells allowed in one fusion: 2
Adds 1 effect in addition to the effects of both
-Interesting, so different mana colors can be created by fusing different spells. Does this mean that there are a limitless number of mana colors/elements, one for each possible combination of spells? I’ll have to experiment with this later.
David returned to the book, hoping to catch some other mention of the Sages. He didn’t find anything, though. When he had finished the book, he returned to the last books of the library, hoping that there might be another by a Sage, but he struck out.
-Even if I didn’t find anything about the Sages, I’ve finally finished reading the whole of the Anderalex Library. The quest reward ought to be worth something.
With that, David exited the restricted section, returned to Mímir’s Hall and logged off for the night.
* * *
David logged back in in the morning.
When he arrived, he went to Dante and said, “I’ve finished with the restricted section, here’s the final catalogue.”
Dante rose and took the sheaf of papers from David’s hands.
“I … I can’t thank you enough, David. The Library of Anderalex, fully catalogued, will become popular once more.”
Unreliable Catalogues has been completed. All of the Library’s many books are now registered, and their contents are well known. With the fall in the public value of the Library, the Library was forced to fire many to meet their budget. This left the records in an unholy state. You have brought the Library back from the brink of oblivion to a new standing. It is not the power it once was, but it is no longer a forgotten relic.
The Public Value of the Library of Anderalex has increased by 500.
Library of Anderalex’s Public Value: 750
You have leveled up
You have leveled up
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
You have leveled up
You have leveled up
You have leveled up
You have leveled up
You have leveled up
…
In one fell swoop, his level went from 1 to 12.
“You know that our budget is tight,” Dante began.
David cut him off. “I don’t need anything more, Dante. The class that I’ve obtained has little need for money, and I can’t really use items all that well.”
“No, please. Hear me out. David, the Library may not have much money, but we do have incredible teaching. I can teach you pretty much any skill or spell you would like to know.”
“Dante, I have an overabundance of skills…” then, something occurred to David. “Actually, one of my class skills requires a completely blank book. Do you have one?”
“Yes.” Dante brightened, happy to know that the debt would not go unpaid. “Wait right here.”
David expected a simple notebook, but what Dante brought back was a beautiful, leather-bound journal with many thick cream-colored pages. He was honestly stunned.
“This is perfect, Dante. Absolutely perfect. Identify”
Journal
Durability: 30/30
Restrictions: None
A simple, though beautifully crafted, journal. Its pages are completely blank.
David took the journal from Dante. “Grimoire.”
The journal flashed bright white, and then slowly faded.
*Ding*
You have soulbound this journal to you, creating a Grimoire.
Your Grimoire, called David’s Grimoire, cannot be lost, stolen or destroyed. It will not be dropped upon death. Right now, David’s Grimoire can hold 10 spells. As the grimoire’s abilities are used (i.e. stored spells are cast), the skill level will grow, and with it, the capacity of the Grimoire to hold spells.
The journal looked much the same, but when he identified it again, the information had changed drastically.
David’s Grimoire
Durability: infinite
Restrictions: Soulbound to David. Useable only by David
Seemingly a simple, though beautiful, journal, it is the Grimoire of the novice Sage David. Though its pages are completely blank, it is destined to hold many arcane secrets and experiments. Current spell storage available: 10 spells
David decided that the best way to make use of his Grimoire was to store a bunch of the spells that had longer casting times or higher mana costs – to cut down on the negatives of higher tier spells. So he stored Bleed, Stalagmite, Quicksand, Stone Cocoon, Red Laser, Lightning Orb, Ball of Lightning, Lightning Strike, Downdraft and Air Bullets.
After he stored each one, a page for each one appeared, describing the spell processes, the mana cost, the casting time, and, interestingly enough, a brief blurb about the history of the spell – how it had been created and how it was used in past.
-Hmm, that’s useful. I thought I would have to figure all that out on my own. This Grimoire is really useful.
“Isn’t there anything else I could offer you?” Dante asked.
David shook his head.
“Then, I have one other reward for you.”
David began to cut in, to say that he didn’t need anything else.
“No, this isn’t so much a reward, as it is another request. Once upon a time, our Library had a number of adventurers combing the continents, in search of new or rare books. This was the source of our continued greatness. However, the Head Librarian of my father’s time frequently clashed with the adventurers over the worth of the books that they brought in. One by one, the adventurers quit, until they were all gone. This was the ultimate source of our downfall – without constant updates to our inventory, the people slowly stopped coming to us. With your catalogues, we have regained some of our former glory, but to regain the whole of it, we need to start acquiring books once more. This is my request: while you are out in the world, if you find any rare books, could you send them to us?”
*Ding*
You have been offered the job Head of Acquisitions
You will find books which aren’t in the collection and send them back to the Library of Anderalex
You will be paid the worth of the book, plus 10%
“I will. Okay, Dante, I’m going. I’ll see you again sometime.”
* * *
David wended his way along the city streets, filled with the hustle and bustle of a city in the afternoon. When he reached the gates of the city, he took a deep breath and stepped out, into the wilds.
He saw rolling grasslands, with gentle hills and a dirt path, leading away from the city, far into the distance. On the plains, there were an abundance of bunnies and foxes – with so few beginners due to the impossibility of escape from the city, no one there was so low-leveled that they had to hunt animals. No one except David.
He decided to start with small game, just to test out his skills, get a feeling for how the combat system worked.
He walked towards an isolated rabbit, away from all the others. When he was a few meters away, he took out his Grimoire, pointed a finger at the rabbit like an imaginary gun, and called out, “Red Laser.” He watched as the mana for the spell gathered right next to his fingertip, then shot a beam of red light at the rabbit, scorching a hole through the rabbit, which turned gray and faded away.
*Ding*
You have killed an animal that showed no aggression
Because of your ability to learn nature magic, Affinity to Nature stat created, -10 Affinity to Nature
Without a positive Affinity to Nature, nature magic cannot be learned
In order to make your Affinity to Nature positive, you must atone for your sins
Atonement
Seek out the family of the rabbit you killed, and explain what happened. Accept their punishment.
Quest Difficulty: Unknown
Quest Rewards: Positive Affinity to Nature stat
“For a rabbit?!” David cried out, shocked at the injustice. “For one rabbit, I lose access to an entire branch of magic? And, how am I supposed to explain what I did if I can’t speak to animals!?”
David brooded for a few minutes, internally cursing at the unfairness of it. Then he remembered something he had read a month or so before. The book, in the Druid division, told the legend of how the first druids had learned to commune with the animals. It said that they had sat completely still, observing the animals for days, slowly learning their language.
-Well, there’s no point in brooding when I could be getting on with this awful quest.
He sat down.
* * *
For days, David would just sit, constantly watching the rabbits, who had no fear of people, because people didn’t harm them in this area.
After a week, in-game, of sitting and watching, David finally achieved it.
*Ding*
You have learned the language of rabbits.
It will allow you to understand and converse with rabbits.
The language is rudimentary, with few words for more complex concepts, like honor or dignity, but rabbits’ emotions are no less intense than more intelligent species
Suddenly, he could understand what the rabbits were saying. It was unimpressive. Mostly it was:
“Grass looks good”
“Over here, grass better”
“Odd man still there”
David called from where he sat, in what sounded to him like broken English, “I killed rabbit. I want say sorry to family. Where is family?”
The rabbits stopped what they were doing and looked at him in shock.
“Man kill rabbit?”
“Man want say sorry?”
“Must bring man to Chief.” The rabbit that said this hopped forward. “Come, man, you talk to Chief.”
The rabbit hopped away, and David followed. For a few minutes, the rabbit hopped and David followed, when suddenly, the rabbit disappeared.
Searching for it revealed the entrance to a burrow, which the rabbit had entered. As David was far too large to fit inside, he sat down and waited outside.
After a minute, the rabbit reappeared, followed by a larger rabbit almost the size of a fox, with scars visible through its gray fur.
“I Chief Rabbit. Man say kill rabbit, want say sorry to family? Why?”
“Because must pay debt. Must get punished for actions.” David explained.
“All rabbits my children. Rabbit you killed must be Fub. Fub my child. You want get punished, man? Die like my Fub.”
With that, David saw the Chief Rabbit begin to move, then a flash of gray and the message
You have died from loss of health
You cannot log in for 24 hours.
You will lose 5% progress in your skills and your level will drop by one as a result of your death
* * *
David hopped out of the capsule incredibly annoyed.
“I thought that I was going to have to do something like fix their burrow or something. I didn’t think they’d kill me. Who kills a person who wants to apologize? This quest better have been solved with my death, I really don’t want to go ask for forgiveness again. That would suck.”
It was midafternoon in the real world, so David went down to eat lunch.
Emily was eating lunch at the kitchen table when he walked in.
“What’s up, David?” Emily asked. “You almost never come out during the day.”
“Died. Don’t want to talk about it.”
“Ooookay then. Where are you, anyway? Are you still in Jotunnheim?”
“Yeah, I just left Anderalex.”
Emily laughed.
“Are you serious? What have you been doing for the past three weeks, working on some craft skill?”
“No, I’ve been increasing my stats.”
“Really? When you could just leave the city and level up instead?”
“Well, I had to. Jotunnheim is filled with high-leveled monsters, not so much with the low-leveled.”
“That sucks so bad. Why didn’t you just start over?”
“I guess I just didn’t feel like it.”
“Okay. Anyway, I just came to the Eastern Continent for a quest, so I might drop by and see you.”
“That’s cool. Maybe I’ll leech off you for a while,” David joked.
Emily laughed. “No way you’re leeching off of me. You know what Mom says – ‘independence is key’ and all that.”
David and Emily’s parents were really into teaching their kids to be independent, so they didn’t tell them how to spend their free time, which really explained why David and his sisters were able to spend every day in Royal Road.
“Alright.” David made himself a sandwich and then returned to his room, to sleep – he had been staying up late and getting up early in order to play Royal Road, so he was really tired.
* * *
As soon as he was able to, David logged back in.
He appeared in the same plaza he had the first time, 3 in-game months ago.
A window popped up.
Atonement has been completed
Chief Rabbit decided that the only way for you to atone for your sins was to die. Your death has appeased her and her family, although it has not returned her child to her. She still mourns Fub’s death, though she has let go of her anger towards you.
Your Affinity to Nature has increased by 15, becoming positive. You can now learn nature magic
Separated from his anger and irritation towards Chief Rabbit for killing him, he realized that, to Chief Rabbit, Fub was irreplaceable. He had killed her child, and then had apologized insincerely, because he had been forced to.
He began to feel guilty for killing Fub. To him, Fub had been target practice – he hadn’t done it for the experience or the loot. He did it because he wanted a target that could react. He had acted like it didn’t matter, because the rabbit was just a program.
David was not one to dwell for too long in his failures, so he decided that the first thing he would do was go learn nature magic from the druid, so that he didn’t make any mistakes like killing Fub, ever again.
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