021

We didn’t talk much after our conversation, I had breakfast with their family and was about to leave when Rachael stopped me.

“Here, take this.” She said while handing me rolled up piece of paper.

I knew what it was, so I immediately replied.

“But we didn’t…” before I even finished that sentence Rachael swiped her finger across the dark storage crystal and two stuffed cages filled to the brim with snow rabbits came thumping down on the floor beside her.

I was completely shocked, she must’ve understood looking at my expression, so she answered with a wide grin on her face.

“You’re not the only one with quick reflexes.”

Seeing her with that expression, I couldn’t say anything anymore so I just took the paper and left.

On my way towards the Union, my mind was filled with all the information I got today.

Ever since I came here I knew deep down that I would be a little different from native people, but I never expected that the difference would be to such an extent.

After I get some money with this request, I should properly take some time to do a little research on what I do know.

From all the things that we’ve talked about, I know that I can use Blood Arts, that is the thing that is common in both my system and theirs, and there was something that she didn’t say but I could guess from the situation that if I had some Magic energy or even aura then I could’ve probably been able to learn their skills as well.

That is to say that the same skills are available in both of the systems. I don’t really know if this is true or not but what I do know that I can test it if I am able to learn a Blood Arts skill, one that is known in this world already and not something that I got by accident, then I will be sure that I can at least learn most of the blood arts skills even if not all of them.

The first place that can help me with this kind of information is either the Union or the library. I don’t think I’ve spotted any libraries after arriving here.

Maybe because I was thinking and busting up my brain with all these thoughts that I reached the Union in a few minutes without noticing.

I headed directly towards the head receptionist’s table. Her name was Lara, Rachael told me because I forgot this basic human courtesy when we first met.

She was sitting with her usual mean look there, but this time I could also see a hint of worry in her eyes, she kept looking around trying to find someone in the huge hall that was still as crowded as ever.

As soon as she saw me walk over, I could see the mean expression disappear like magic but what replaced it was a face filled with worry as she looked me with almost a pleading look as she proceeded to ask.

“Hey, Grant, right? Is Rachael with you?”

Her eyes kept darting towards my back as if checking if I was hiding her somewhere.

“No, she isn’t with me, but she is back at her home, we spent the night in the guard healing station, she just reached home this morning.”

“The guard healing station!? Why was she there!? What happened!? Tell me!”

She asked panicking as she almost jumped at me from across the table.

I then proceeded to tell her all that happened yesterday and how we barely managed to escape. I also told her that I collapsed half way through and don’t remember much of what happened later.

I really don’t.

I asked how I got experience, but she wouldn’t properly tell me, she said that she defeated the Ice Brawler with the help of the guards. How she did that is a mystery, because what I heard from her later, Ice Brawlers are pretty dangerous beasts.

She also told me that my kick had severely wounded its face that’s why I got that much experience. I also skipped the part of where I dashed back here with [Quick Dash] when I told her everything.

After listening to everything I said very closely, she finally heaved a huge sigh of relief. A smile much like the ones that she puts on regularly came on her face but somehow it was a lot more genuine and a lot more charming than usual.

With a smile myself, I sit down and hand over the request completion form that Rachael gave me.

She read through it quickly and her expression was calm the entire way but suddenly when she reached the end of the document, her expression froze.

She looked at me while slightly tilting the paper to the side. I don’t know what she saw there so I just gave her an awkward laugh indicating that I didn’t know what she was trying to communicate here.

“You know, if her signature weren’t at the bottom, I would’ve handed you to the guards for forging a request completion form.”

She said coldly. I looked at her and she was staring straight into my eyes, her eyes that I distinctly remember to be blue look like black pearls as they stared into my own eyes. My mind got sucked in as I was unable to say even a single word against her statement.

A moment later while I was still in a daze, she suddenly returned to her normal expression of a smile and handed me over a small pouch of coins. She apparently counted everything while I was unaware of what was happening.

I took the pouch and it was surprisingly heavy.

“Just how much is it…?”

“2400 Silver.”

My jaw almost dropped to the ground after hearing that.

I was worried over nothing, looks like my [Sprint] skill won’t let me die of hunger any time soon, whether in the jungle or in the city.

Damn, even if I only caught about 24 of those fuckers, I still got over 100 silver for a single one. I really should’ve accepted her offer for being a private hunter.

I put away the pouch with a big smile. As I got up to leave, Lara questioningly asked.

“Aren’t you going to take any requests?”

“I think I would rather take things a little slowly.”

Right after such an incident, I would rather take things a little slow and try to learn a little bit about my own power. I’d rather enter a situation without being on a complete disadvantage all the time.

Stolen novel; please report.

Lara just nodded and the kept the big stack of paper that she had somehow taken out with me noticing.

‘Her hands are quick!’

“Ah, that’s right! Do you happen to know where I can find a library?”

“A library? For what?”

“To learn about Skills and stuff…?”

I answered with a not so confident answer, I couldn’t help it, as even I didn’t know what I was looking for.

“If you want to know about or learn about a skill then you can just enter the Union’s own library.”

“Really!?”

“Yep, the only problem is that it isn’t here.”

She poured cold water on my excitement just like that.

“Where is it?”

“In the capital. Ice Garden.”

Shit. I asked her if there were any others here and she said no. Looks like libraries aren’t that common here.

Seeing my defeated face, she said from the side.

“If you really want then there is a small storage space in this hall, some of the stuff we confiscate from slaves and criminals gets put over there. You can maybe find some books as well.”

“Can I really take books from there?”

“Yep, just tell me what are the things that you’re taking and I can just say that you’re borrowing them from the Union. Take it as a service from the Union for grooming a new volunteer.”

She said pointing to a door which was on the opposite side of the hunter union’s entrance in a pretty isolated corner.

She returned to her usual smile right after. She scares me a little, I don’t understand her at all. One moment she’s displaying clear hostility and the very next she’s smiling as sweet as a flower in full bloom. Just the contrast between the two is unsettling to be honest.

I thanked her and headed towards the room. The door looked old and there was no one walking around even close to it. The door’s handle was covered in dust that it had collected from the last time someone touched it. Clearly, it hadn’t been used in a long time.

If she hadn’t told me then I might’ve never noticed because they didn’t even bother to place a sign it.

Dusting off my hands I enter the room slowly, I have to cover my face because it’s so dusty in here. Let’s just say that the insides looked less than stellar.

It was a fairly large room, to the left there were rows of shelves stacked to the brim with stuff. I walked in between those and scanned my eyes through everything that looked interesting to me.

Unlike the condition of this room, all of it was properly labelled and organized.

I noticed clearly that some areas were a little less dusty than the others, clearly the room was still in use, albeit very sparsely.

I scanned the place until I found what I was looking for, towards the very end of the room, right past all the damaged magic tools and gems, I found the books and scrolls sections.

This section was a little opened up than the others, as the shelves were lined across the walls, giving more space to walk around.

To the left in the corner, there was a table with a lamp, an ink bottle and Quill all of which were covered in dust, looking at the condition, the ink had probably dried up a long time ago.

A wooden chair was kept right behind in the same condition.

“I think I’ll rather stand.”

I first headed towards the scrolls, I was very curious what they were.

Picking one up from stacked up pile, I blew the dust from over it and tried to read the contents.

Something very strange happened right after that.

[Magic skill: Fire Arrow Lv.1, do you wish to learn it? Y/N]

What the hell!? You can get skills this easily!? Just how unfair is this world.

I was a little pissed but a new thought prompted me to act quickly.

I replied ‘No’ and the prompt went away. Keeping the [Fire Arrow] skill to the side, I quickly went to work. Taking one out from the pile and then keeping it to the side, there is bound to be something that will be useful here for me, there has to be.

Looking at the hundreds of scrolls piled up on the two shelves, I was filled with a long forgotten excitement. Looking back, there were two rows of books as well.

A smile involuntarily appeared on my face as I continued to rummage through the shelves.

This was going to be my greatest haul yet. Hehe.

…

He’s been gone a long time now. More than an hour has passed since he entered the room, I should’ve gone in with him to help him out, sigh.

Nothing I can do except wait, I guess.

The man is weird. I can tell you that much, he behaves like everything he sees is the first experience he is having of it. I don’t understand.

His family must’ve sheltered him for a long time, maybe that’s why he hasn’t experienced the world too much.

He did train his skills though, a [Sprint] of level 5 is nothing to scoff at. Who knows what he did to get it that high. No one has ever mastered a Blood Arts skills though, so his level 5 is already very impressive.

The request completion form he brought in today was too bizarre as well.

24 Snow rabbits?

People tend to underestimate the speed of these creatures a lot, just going by their movement alone, they can be as fast as a Quick-Wind Hawk, but on the ground. The quick rapid and continuous turns they make is enough to make anyone dizzy.

Catching them is not an easy feat, but not only did he catch them, he caught twenty four of them. I had to use my innate skill [Judgement Eye] on him to be sure.

It was only because of this skill that I was able to become the head receptionist despite being the youngest of the staff.

This skill doesn’t actually tell me if he is actually lying or not, but rather tells me how much malice one has in their hearts. From what I’ve seen of him, now that I’ve checked him twice, there is none.

There is some darkness in him, but who doesn’t have some of it, I would be surprised if he didn’t have any.

That was the reason why I asked him to do Rachael’s request first. Her restaurant’s specialty, the Snow Rabbit Stew hasn’t been on the menu ever since her mother stopped hunting. She would hunt those things in a very precise manner, rather than chasing after them, she would find them using her own skill, [Life Detection] and she would shoot it with her famed magic arrow before the rabbit even knew what hit it.

She could easily tell the rabbits location if she concentrated hard enough, Rachael too was trying to learn the same skill, sadly it is a very rare skill that most people don’t have. Even the scroll for it goes for a very huge price, one that most of us can’t afford.

She is still somewhat capable though, as she sometimes uses it to tell the general direction of the rabbit. If someone takes up her routine request once in a while, she would be the one to find the rabbit and the other would hunt, she could only catch a few at the time.

The backlash of a manoeuvre skill is high. So, it can’t be used too much. So the people doing the catching would be exhausted only after a few.

I still can’t even begin to imagine how he caught that many. I should ask her about it myself. Even if he could continously use his skill, it doesn't mean he can use it willy-nilly without any backlash, otherwise people would be walking around with maxed or evolved skills left and right.

It was at this time he came out with a huge grin on his face, looks like he found what he was looking for.

Seeing the child-like grin on someone with his face, I couldn’t help but hold in my chuckle. He isn’t bad looking to say, but mean looking. Like someone who would steal candy from children.

He reached the counter with a book and two scrolls. I did say that he could take anything he wanted from the storage room as it was basically a dump for throwing away stuff but I didn’t expect him to take away two skills from there, not that it matters anyway, most of the skills in there are pretty useless or completely basic, as the useful ones are immediately handed out.

I first took the book, even though we call that place a dump, it is a dump that we have to keep an inventory of, so I need to register the stuff if someone is taking it.

The book was called “The basics of Hand to Hand Combat”, I guessed as much that he probably didn’t use a weapon judging by the fact that he carried none.

Next were the skills, the choices he made surprised me, first one was simple, [Stone Skin Lv.1], a pretty basic Blood Arts defence skill, nothing spectacular about it. It only hardened the skin on the surface, making it as hard as stone. The only drawback I could think of would be that it did nothing to the actual body below the surface of skin. It was also a blood arts skill that means it will get stagnant after reaching level 5. I guess it’s better than nothing though.

The second one was surprising too, [Weight Control Lv.1], yet another useless Blood Arts skill. All it does is control the weight of your body, and nothing else. It cannot effect anything outside. Martial Arts have a similar skill called [Heavy Arms] which works basically the same, the only difference being it increases the weight of the items that are in touch of the user, usually their weapons.

[Weight Control] would be good if not for the fact that it requires a lot of Qi to power, since he is talented in that aspect, maybe he can get some use out of it.

I guess this too is better than nothing. It’s a shame that he can’t use Magic or aura, otherwise he could’ve gotten some basic combat skills in there.

But seeing the smile on his face, I didn’t say anything and just registered them.

It is sad seeing such a nice person being deprived of growth, while someone like that man is… forget it. I don’t want to sour my mood again.

I tried to clear my head as I saw Grant leave the hall. Unfortunately, I failed to notice that someone else had placed their eyes on him as well.