Of my four basic stat-enhancement skills, only Scholar had yet to improve. This was why I needed to come to the library, even if it cost me a silver coin to enter. In my opinion, one silver was an incredibly small price to pay to evolve a stat-enhancement skill.

Of course, that’s not to say that I hadn’t been getting any experience towards this skill. In fact, I had been getting quite a lot, enough to level it up to level fourteen. Whenever I used one of my magic enchantments, a small amount of experience would go towards the Scholar skill. Sadly… the fact that my training of both Mana Bolt and Fire Bolt was only enough to get it this far showed just how ineffective skill training was at achieving that goal.

Thus, I planned to stay in the library until Scholar evolved, or until Nuoda messaged me. My first targets for books were those containing information on the surroundings of Arcanhide and its local dungeons, and then looking up the same information about Decashear, which I planned to make my next base of operations.

Just by reading through these books and recording the related material, I found that the Scholar skill was increasing leagues faster than when I was using my enchantments. I could already tell that I would be able to evolve the skill by the end of the day.

Or… at least, that was the expected plan. As the skill finally reached level nineteen after I finished the books related to Arcanhide, I heard a voice calling out to me. “Uhm… excuse me, but are you the one that defeated the Shade Queen last night?”

I blinked, turning around. Behind me was a redheaded woman with blue eyes and freckles, wearing a black hood over her head. She had a matching capelet and form-fitting dress, both of which had red fire patterns sewn into them. Finally, she wore black boots that came up to her thighs and a leather belt with a pouch on her waist.

“Yes?” I looked at her curiously, not sure why she was looking for me. “Can I help you with something?”

“Ah! Yes, thank you!” The girl blushed shyly, nodding her head quickly. “I have… it’s a strange request, but could you hear me out?”

I gave a nod, gesturing for her to continue. “Well… I heard that you released a slash of flames from your sword to kill the monster. Could you show that move to me? I-If you’re worried about the library fees, I can pay you five silver for the demonstration!”

I arched my brow, turning to fully face her. “First… can I ask why you want to see it?”

The girl gulped, giving a sullen nod. She opened her status screen, taking a screenshot before messaging it to me. “I-It’s about my traits. I can’t learn magic skills normally, so I can only do it like this.”

Curious, I went to check the image that she sent me, my eyes going wide. She sent me a picture of her traits, both of them at nine stars. Her positive trait, Chosen of Flames, allowed her to learn any fire-attribute ability after watching it performed, and she could use it herself at half the burden. However, her second trait, Inept Mage, was arguably more terrifying than my own negative trait. With it, she was incapable of learning any Magic skill from skill books or quests.

At the very least, I could learn the magic, I just couldn’t cast it normally. Still… a Chosen trait? I feel like I had heard of those before, but I couldn’t place it from where. With a sigh, I looked up at her. “The ability that I used was an enchantment on my sword. Would your trait be able to copy that?”

Her blue eyes blinked, and she nodded her head. “I should be able to. I learned how to use Fire Snake from watching a mage teacher activating it through his ring. However, when they learned of my traits, they kicked me out and banned me from returning…” She dipped her head lower as she spoke, though my eyes widened a fraction. Fire Snake sounded like a rather powerful skill.

“Got it… I’ll show you the skill, as long as you can pay for me to get back into the library when we’re done.” I said, closing the books and starting to move to put them away. The girl beamed at that, nodding her head quickly.

“O-Of course!” She said, waiting at the side before following me. “My name is Ella, by the way. I’m sorry that I forgot to introduce myself.”

“It’s fine.” I shook my head, moving towards the northern gates of Arcanhide. It would be bad to showcase my flame enchantment near the forest, so I needed a more wide-open area. “My name is Drake.”

Ella gave a shy smile, following me out of the city. Once we had left, I found somewhere off to the side of the road without any players or dry plants. “Watch carefully.” I said, before pulling my sword from my inventory. Ella’s eyes focused on me, and I activated the enchantment.

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The blade of my sword lit up as I swung it, a wave of fire shooting out that exploded when it came in contact with the ground. Ella gasped in surprise, before being distracted and looking off to the side. “Exploding Flame Slash. Level one, evolved once. Requires a sword, dagger, or axe to use.”

Level one… right, I had enchanted this onto my sword as soon as I obtained Fireball. “Will you be able to level that up, since it came from an enchantment?”

Ella hesitated, before pulling a dagger out of her inventory. Her gaze seemed to shift, becoming more confident, even bordering on arrogance as she slashed out. A second blade of flames emerged from her weapon, striking the same place that I had hit. Her strike seemed to carry more power, likely from either proficiencies or equipment attributes.

She glanced off to the side briefly. “No gains. Tsk.” She muttered, clicking her tongue before blinking. Immediately, her face flushed and her confidence seemed to melt away. “I-I’m sorry, I just get like that whenever I use my skills, i-it’s just the type of character I play.”

I was… admittedly confused, before she spoke up again. “Uhm… if you enchanted this on your sword, can you show me the skill that you used for it? I should be able to level it up properly if I can see that.”

At that, I had no choice but to shake my head. She looked disappointed, stammering about how she had made herself look like a fool. However, I gave a wry smile. Mimicking her earlier actions, I took a picture of my negative trait, sending it to her. Naturally, I did not share my positive trait, as I didn’t trust her enough for that yet.

Ella blinked, looking at the image that I sent her. “Crippled…” She began, before her face went pale. She looked up at me. “But wait… did you get someone else to enchant your equipment? Can you introduce me?”

“I did it all myself.” I explained. “Enchanting isn’t strictly casting, so it seems to be okay. However, whenever I enchant a magic skill, it causes a backlash proportionate to the skill’s power. Enchanting my sword charred my entire body black for half an hour.”

Her face paled again when I described the event. “So… I can’t learn them normally, and you can’t cast them normally?” She asked, showing a bitter smile of her own. “High-ranking negatives suck, huh? You’ve got to have something good to show for it at least, right?”

I hesitated for a moment, before nodding my head. “I do, but I can’t tell you the specifics.” When she looked confused, I brushed aside the hair over my forehead, revealing the burnt mark. “I’m not a player like you. If I die, there’s a small chance that I could drop my positive trait. That’s why I’m working to grow stronger, so that I won’t be targeted by players greedy for my power. Or, at least, if I am, I will be able to fight them. If you die, you only drop an item. But I could lose everything.”

Ella blinked, nodding her head. “I-I see. I’m sorry for prying. I’m sure that it must be difficult for you. Could we add each other as friends, at least? T-That’s something you can still do, right? I don’t want to be rude.”

My expression softened, and I gave a small chuckle before sending her a friend invitation. She let out a sigh of relief when she received the notification, quickly accepting it. “How long are you planning to stay in Arcanhide for?” She asked. “Or are you planning to live here?”

I shook my head, glancing at the nearby road. “I’ll probably be leaving for Decashear in the next few days.”

“Decashear… that’s the city to the north, right? I heard that it’s the next stop on the way to the capital, or to the elven lands. I wanted to go see the elves, but… they probably wouldn’t like someone throwing fire around their forests…” Her head dipped again, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Why don’t you try to earn some money with me for the next few days?” I asked, Ella looking up in confusion. “The Shade Queen’s not going to stay down, being a boss monster. It will probably appear every night for a while. If last night is any indication, the guards could probably use help dealing with it. Last night, I managed to earn half a gold for my contribution.”

“H-Half a gold?!” Ella’s eyes went wide in shock. I could understand, as that much money wasn’t easy to come by. Even sweeping through an old dungeon with just myself and Diane only gave a little more than that. “U-Uhm, sure. Is it alright if my Chosen attends, though? I have to be up for work tomorrow, so I can’t stay up that late.”

I gave a nod, as it didn’t matter whether it was the player or the chosen that helped. Either way, they were sure to get a reward. “I’ll introduce her to the guards tonight, after the sun sets.”

After saying that, I turned to make my way back to the city, Ella hurriedly following after me. “W-Wait, you forgot about this!” She called out, rushing in front of me to hand me five silver coins. Right… she had promised to pay me for the demonstration.

With a small smile, I accepted the money. I still had to pay to get back into the library and finish my reading. Even with this distraction, I was still determined to get my Scholar up to level twenty and evolve it by the end of the day.

We parted ways shortly after we entered the city, Ella saying that she needed to get ready to log out. Once I returned to the library, I grabbed the books that I had yet to read, and continued my ‘training’ in peace and quiet.

This time, thankfully, nothing interrupted me, and I was able to meet my goal before being contacted. The Scholar skill evolved into Studious, giving a similar increase as my other evolved skills. With that out of the way, I was finally able to end my stay at the library. All that was left for me in Arcanhide was to try to get more money out of the Shade Queen’s raids.

If it remembers me from last night, will it target me specifically? I asked inwardly, actually hoping that was the case. If it was, that would make it easier for me to get credit for killing it by drawing its rage.