Class S finally reached the academy's library after a short walk. When they entered, there were already many other classes waiting in the large lobby of the library. When class S arrived, the other classes turned their eyes towards them. Admiration, envy, jealousy and many other feelings were present in the eyes of the other class's students.
Cecil had stopped caring about the stares people gave him and their group, so when his class arrived in the lobby, he immediately searched for a place to sit and began fiddling around with his MID again. Lucia, as usual, clung onto him and his other friends joined him. Their group seemed kind of unapproachable, so when some of the students from the other classes tried to get friendly with the students from S Class, they inadvertently avoided Cecil's group.
"Hey, everyone's getting all friendly with each other! Let's join 'em!" Lucia said with a twinkle in her eyes while tugging on Cecil.
"...no one's stopping you, Lulu..." Cecil frowned.
"Cel~ it's because your face is so scary that they're avoiding us~"
"Pfft, Lucia's right, you know!" Eli added with a laugh.
"Y-You should smile more, Cecil..." Fina hesitantly said.
"...isn't that just his default face?" Ainz stated, a bit confused by what the girls meant. He couldn't find anything wrong when he looked at Cecil's face. It was the same dull expression, except he was frowning since Lucia began tugging on him.
Ainz looked around and saw that the lobby was beginning to get more crowded and noisy as more classes arrived. He frowned before asking out loud, "What's the hold up? Shouldn't we go and pick out our books now?"
Eli looked around and counted the classes before saying, "Yeah, all the first year classes are here, so what're we waiting for?"
Right after she said her words, the instructors of each class gathered together in front of the library's entrance and after a moment, the doors finally opened and in strolled the headmaster, Elufied Crescentia.
"Welcome, headmaster!" The instructors greeted in unison.
"WELCOME HEADMASTER!" The students followed in turn to greet the headmaster.
"Now, now everyone, do remember where we are. Stay quiet in the library, unless you want Elder Tohrun to haul you out of the library, hohoho~" The headmaster joked with everyone, but still nodded back in greeting.
He walked past everyone and stood just before the door that led into the inner area of the library, where all the 1st floor manuals, spell books, and combat guides were being kept. He knocked on the doors once before turning around and addressing the students, "Now students, this is a rare opportunity that the school has granted to you, so please do not waste it! Choose something that suits you and don't pick anything that's too high for your level. You know best of what you can do, so please choose something appropriate."
The headmaster swept his gaze across all the students in the lobby, his eyes turned sharp and his voice severe.
"You will only have one chance to choose something and you may not swap your choice after you have exited the library. So, if you pick something too advanced for your level and you are not able to learn it after the 1 month time limit before you have to return the book, then you can only blame yourself!"
Many of the hopeful and ambitious gazes of the students in the room immediately dimmed down. Many began to seriously ponder their choices again after having learned of the 1 month time limit.
"Remember, choose wisely. This time is a freebie for all of you, but the next time you want to enter the library and take out a book, then you must use the academy's contribution points or currency. You should know what these points and currency are by now, yes?"
In Cecil's group, apart from Cecil himself, everyone else nodded in understanding. Seeing this, Cecil looked around and whispered to Lucia, "Hey, Lulu... what're contribution points?"
"...Cecil, have you ever been listening to what instructor Jin says these past few mornings?" Lucia whispered back.
"...no..."
"Figures..." Lucia shook her head before replying, "I'll explain later in class."
"M'kay."
"Now, children! Proceed into the library and make your choices wisely! Instructors please oversee the rest."
"Yes sir!"
The headmaster nodded his head to them and casted a warp gate next to him with a wave of his hand. He stepped through the black distorting gate and disappeared from the library. Cecil couldn't help but wonder why the headmaster didn't just appear inside the library the same way he exited the library. However, he would soon find out the reason later.
The instructors began arranging groups, the winning students would enter first and only 15 minutes later would the other students head into the inner area. Once the groups were settled, the library's doors opened up by themselves.
"Guys, let's quickly head up to the 3rd and 4th floor! There's nothing that will interest us here on the 1st and 2nd floor. The techniques are too low level for the likes of us." Ainz said in a haughty tone.
"Shut it, Ainz, can't you see that the other students had begun avoiding us again? Now with your stupid, condescending remarks, they'll think it'll be beneath us to associate with them!" Lucia said with a scowl.
"Hey, I'm just stating the facts! These techniques, spells, and manuals are too low leveled for us! And if they want to socialize with us, then they should man up and just do it! It's not like we're monsters or anything!"
"...we're not, but our identities are pretty...monstrous" Fina quietly mumbled.
"What's that, Fina?"
"It's nothing, Eli..."
While Ainz and Lucia were arguing like usual–but in a quiet voice–instructor Jin led the winning group into the inner area of the 1st floor. A splendid and majestic sight came into Cecil's view and his eyes sparkled in astonishment.
"Woah..." The sight caused Cecil to unconsciously exclaim in admiration.
The library had bookcases and shelves not only on the ground, but also some suspended in the air. Magic arrays and formations were constantly floating around or hovering all over the place and Cecil felt as though he had entered into a different world when he viewed the inner area with his Mana Eyes.
The first floor was brightly lit with light stones and the glows of the magic arrays and formations gave the floor a very surreal feeling and atmosphere. Cecil's curious mindset immediately kicked in and he dashed towards the first bookcase he could see and pulled out a book.
"Beginner tier 2 spell, Flame Torch." Cecil read the title aloud. He flipped open the book and tried to find the table of contents.
He read through the table and found that not only did it introduce the spell's incantation and uses, it also listed some possible variations and strengthening. The Flame Torch spell was also a type of interlinking spell to another tier 3 spell called Scorching Torch.
'Wow! The spells are actually interlinked! The variations and other stuff are also listed here!'
Cecil was only surprised since this was the second time he saw an interlinking spell. The first was Lucia's lava bolt, lava rain, and lava storm originals. Lucia had explained about these interlinking spells before, but he didn't understand the concept. After reading the book, he now had some inkling to what it was. It was similar to his use of mana bolt, mana volley, and mana wave.
He immediately put the book back and dashed to another aisle that had mana cultivation manuals. He picked up a random book and began skimming through its contents.
'What the? Aren't these just breathing methods?' Cecil frowned after he skimmed through the book.
He then looked at the title, "Breath of Flames."
The manual was a breathing technique used to cultivate fire element mana inside one's body, so it was only for spell casters that had an affinity with the fire element. Cecil frowned and put the book back and walked further in before picking up another book.
"Iron Mountain Body Manual."
Cecil once again skimmed through the contents and found that it was a mana circulation technique used to cultivate earth element mana. The results of the technique would greatly increase the cultivator's bodily defense. It was a mana cultivation manual that leaned towards close ranged combatants that had an affinity with the earth element.
The next manual Cecil took out was called Spirit of the Beast. It was mana cultivation manual that didn't lean towards any element. The main focus of this cultivation manual was to help the spell caster or warrior in molding their mana into beast-like forms. For spell casters, it helped them in casting magic spells or creating original spells that had some sort of animal form.
Some examples are the fire element's Fire Hawk spell, water element's Shark Torpedo, earth element's Earth Demon Summon spell that summoned a hedgehog like animal created from dirt, mud, and stone. Then there was the wind element's Storm Beast Summon spell. The manual would help with increasing these kinds of spells' strength while lowering the mana required in casting the spell. For the summoning types, it would also increase the duration and durability of the summoned being.
'Damn... there are a whole lot of these mana cultivation types...'
Cecil turned towards his dumbfounded friends who were staring at him in surprise. The zeal and concentration Cecil put in to read these low leveled mana cultivation manuals came as a surprise to his 3 friends.
Lucia was skimming through some manuals with some interest, but she didn't take too long since the manuals couldn't hold a candle to the one her mother passed down to her. She turned towards Cecil and called out to him, "Cel, I'll be checking out the upper floors, okay?"
"Yeah... I'll catch up with you guys later so just go on ahead without me," Cecil replied as he zealously skimmed through another manual.
Although it only looked like he was skimming through each page, it was the exact opposite, however. When he flipped through each page, Cecil would activate Hyper-sensitivity and speed up his thought process. This way he could read through the entire page in a short amount of time and quickly continue onto the next page.
It was slow at first, but when he got used to the speed of activating and deactivating Hyper-sensitivity he only became faster and faster. Cecil and his group had only spent 10 minutes inside the inner area of the first floor, but he was already on his 5th book.
To Ainz, Eli, and Fina, it was as if Cecil was just flipping through the book and not taking its contents in at all, but when they heard him mumble and frowning like he had read through the entire book, they could only stare at him in surprise.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"Okay, see ya later, Cel~" Lucia bade Cecil good bye for now and pulled Fina and Eli with her to the next floor. Ainz looked back at Cecil before shaking his head and following after the girls.
"I'll be going with them, Cecil!"
"Okay, I'll catch you later..."
Cecil said with his eyes not leaving the book he was reading.
'This place is a treasure trove of knowledge! I can't waste any more time.'
Cecil upped his reading speed to the point where each page didn't take longer than a second for him to read and process inside his head. Unbeknownst to him, a pair of wizened eyes was staring at Cecil in disapproval. While Cecil was 'speed' reading through the books a wizened old man was observing him and disapproval was written all over the old man's face.
At first, the old man was only curious at how focused Cecil was at reading the books, it wasn't like the other students who only looked at the title and contents page before putting the book back on the shelf, but when Cecil began his 'speed reading' the old man's feelings of curiosity slowly turned into irritation and disapproval.
Cecil was almost halfway through the aisle when the old man could no longer stand the ignorance and blatant disrespect Cecil was showing towards the books and walked out from where he was standing. He walked forward to confront the youngster and tell him off because in the old man's opinion, it was better to just ignore the books like the rest of the students did after reading the title than to flip through the books in haste.
In the old man's eyes, there was no way the young boy could possibly gleam any sort of information with the hasty way he was flipping through the book. The books were pretty aged so he feared that Cecil's way of handling the books would cause some damages to them and with the way he was flipping through each page in less than a second, nobody would think that he was actually reading and instead would think that he was only playing around.
Cecil had just finished reading another manual and was about to put the book back onto the shelf when he noticed a shadow towering over him. He looked up and saw a wizened elf wearing large rimmed glasses and behind the lenses was a pair of eyes sharply glaring down at him...
There was puzzled look on his face as he stared back at the old man, he was wondering how the old guy had managed to approach him without being detected. Seeing that he wasn't saying anything, Cecil put the book back first before asking the old man politely, "May I help you, Elder?"
"Boy... you better show some respect to the books inside this library!" The old man sharply replied.
For an old man, he was speaking with vigor just like a middle aged person. Cecil smiled back in response and replied in a heartbeat, "Of course! This place... it's a treasure trove of knowledge! I wish I could spend my time reading all the books inside!"
"Eh?"
Cecil's immediate and serious response made the old man do a double take. He saw in the eyes of the boy that he was speaking truthfully and his words were indeed his heartfelt feelings. However, it wasn't the response he was expecting from the boy. From the looks of things, it would seem that he needed to reevaluate his opinion of the boy.
Just his words of the library being a 'treasure trove' made the old man want to smile, but while he was deep in thought, Cecil began continuing his reading. He bowed towards the old man before picking up another book to read. As usual he had activated Hyper-sensitivity and began flipping through the pages, reading each page's contents with utmost attention.
To him it was reading, but to the old man it just looked like Cecil was flipping through the pages without even actually reading anything. The way Cecil was 'reading' the book caused a vein to pop on the old man's head and his expression turned unsightly and he began glowering at Cecil.
'Even after what this young man said about the library, this is how he acts?! Still young, but this is how he acts? Completely disregarding me and blatantly disrespecting this library! How–'
"DARE YOU!" The old man raised his voice.
His shout attracted the attention of the other students that were still on the first floor of the library. Cecil, who was next to the old man, was even more startled. He was reading when the old man suddenly shouted which prompted him to look up at the old man in confusion. He saw that the old man was glowering and he turned to look behind him.
'Weird? No one's behind me...is he somehow mad at me?'
Cecil could only look back at the old man in bewilderment as he asked, "Is something wrong, Elder?"
Despite asking politely, his question was met with an angry reply, "How dare you, boy!"
"W-Was it something I said?"
"It's something you did!" The old man huffed angrily.
"Uh...uhhmm...Wha?" Cecil could only stutter in response, he honestly didn't know what he did wrong. Actually, did he even do anything wrong? All he was doing since earlier was reading through the books.
"C-Can you tell me what I did wrong, Elder?" By the time Cecil asked this, the other students who were curious at who was being yelled at had gathered near the aisle he and the old man were in.
"I'll tell you, boy! It's the blatant disrespect that you are showing towards the books, this library, and to me!"
"D-Disrespect? But Elder, I did nothing wrong?! I've only been reading since I've entered the library!" Cecil said in defense.
'What disrespect is this old man talking about? I haven't done anything to disrespect anyone! M-Maybe the old man has gone senile?'
Thinking of this, Cecil was enlightened in the wrong way. He put on an understanding expression and thought that he should just let the 'senile' old man berate him.
"What's with that face?! I haven't gone senile, you fool!"
"Eh??" Cecil was startled. 'Could it be that this old man can read minds?!'
"Tsk, you still don't know what you did wrong. Let me enlighten you! The foolish, ignorant, and undignified ways you read and handle the books are what's disrespectful to me, the library, and most importantly, to the books!"
"Huh?"
"You pick up a book and just flip through it like a fool! Are you illiterate?! Why are you even in this academy if you are?!"
"E-Elder, please calm down, let me explain!" Cecil finally figured out what the Elder was so mad about.
Now that Cecil thought it through, when he used Hyper-sensitivity to read the books, to others it looked like he was only noncommittally flipping through the books without even glimpsing at the contents and that was why his 3 friends from earlier gave him weird looks and why the Elder was now furious with him. When he reached that conclusion, he finally understood.
The students who came to observe the mess he was in were now murmuring quietly to one another.
"Isn't that the 2nd ranked?"
"Yeah, Cecil's his name if I'm not mistaken. Gosh, could it be that he's really illiterate?"
"I dunno, but earlier when I passed the aisle I saw him flipping through books at rapid speed... maybe he really is illiterate."
"What? Now that's embarrassing! Rank 2 and he can't read!"
The murmurs turned into small chuckles and soft laughter. Cecil heard all of it and was panicking now.
'Darn it! I'm not illiterate! I properly learned how to read!'
"Elder, please calm down. Let me explain first." Cecil said helplessly.
"Calm down? Why don't you put that book down?!" the old man demanded.
Cecil looked down at the book and saw that he only had a small portion left. He quickly activated Hyper-sensitivity and quickly read through the last portion before putting it back onto the shelf. He turned back towards the Elder with a smile and was about to explain only to see the furious expression that was plastered on the Elder's face.
'Oh... crap...'
"You... FOOLISH BOY! Come with me!" The Elder yelled furiously. He then grabbed Cecil's arm and began dragging him along. Instructor Jin, who was on the fourth floor supervising the students, had finally arrived back down on the first floor when he heard that one of his students had caused some trouble. He looked around only to see the old man dragging Cecil deeper into the first floor's area and panicked.
'Oh no! Isn't that the Elder? What did Cecil do to piss off the Elder?!'
Instructor Jin hastily dashed towards the Elder and Cecil. He arrived right behind them and exclaimed, "Honorable Elder! Please, wait! Is something wrong? Did my student do anything wrong, sir?"
The Elder turned towards Instructor Jin and glowered at him, "So this fool is YOUR student?"
"Y-Yes sir!"
"Well, I don't know what you've been teaching, but this lad has shown blatant and utter disrespect towards me and the library!"
"H-Honorable Spirit Sage, sir! Please spare the boy, he's just young and he most likely did not mean to do you any sort of disrespect."
"Indeed, it wasn't towards me! But towards the books inside this library! Disrespecting my belongings is the same as disrespecting me!"
"S-Sir?!"
Cecil was surprised seeing Instructor Jin act so respectful and submissive towards the old man. Even towards the headmaster, the instructor would only address and act with respect, but never did he act submissively like he was now towards the old man.
'Spirit Sage?'
"Ah!" Cecil widened his eyes in surprise.
'SAGE! This old man is a Sage!'
Cecil was just about to activate Mana Burst to stop the old man from dragging him, but when he learned that the old man was a Sage, Cecil stopped rousing his mana and stared at the old man with sparkly eyes full of respect and curiosity.
"HMPH!" The old man only harrumphed at the dumbfounded Instructor and continued on his way towards the door that led towards the library's core area.
"Sir Spirit Sage! I–"
Just as Instructor Jin was about to chase after the old man, he found that his legs were seemingly bolted in place. He couldn't move his legs no matter how much strength he exerted. He looked down and saw green tendrils wrapping around his legs, holding him in place. Instructor Jin could only helplessly look at Cecil who was dragged into the core area of the library, but then his face turned confused seeing Cecil's eyes that were brightly lit in respect and awe as he stared up at the sage who was dragging him.
'What the?'
Just like this, Cecil was dragged into the core area of the library's first floor by one of the 12 Sages of Urrugdrasil.