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19 – Bibliotheca

Tilting his head from side to side, weighing choices, Vurm was feeling trapped. “So it just left like that?”, he asked. “Yes, Vurm. He just disappeared, and I came outside to find you over there!” I said and pointed towards rocks where Vurm was lying down moments ago.

Pressing his left hand fingers into his right palm, Vurm cracked his knuckles. “I hope it does not come back for us!”, he spurted out words unconsciously. “What’s the plan?”, I questioned him. “Metropolis, Kain. Best option seems to be Metropolis..”, he said and we departed to north.

Early July. 4030. Adventurers Guild. Metropolis..

It took us two long and tiring weeks of walk to reach Metropolis. In comparison to other city and towns that were established in Cohen territories, Metropolis didn’t have any farming around it. Everything from basic necessities to expensive needs were imported to Metropolis.

City economy was built and flourished upon gambling and prostitution. There were few red light districts where prostitution was legal. Fifteen big casinos and many small establishments were operating within the walls of Metropolis. It was full of inns, pubs and restaurants.

Metropolis didn’t have any family which ruled it. Cohen family had established this city and appointed governor who was directly responsible for day-to-day management of this massive city. Entrance to north-west of city was strictly for permament citizen’s of Metropolis. To enter you had to pass through the passage in between Adventurers Guild and Police building.

Walls encircling Metropolis were very tall. There were couple of entrances, although Vurm and I went through without waiting in queue. As soon as we entered Metropolis, I noticed colorful exterior of building within the city. White, black, green, red, blue and so on, there was no single building which was simple and colorless. Even Holy Church’s cathedral which we passed by was covered with white marble.

It was first time ever I saw a religious building in this world. Cathedral was built as if it was a pyramid. It was located few blocks after the main entrance. Facade of bottom part of pyramid was decorated with human sculptures. Looking closely, each and every sculpture was referring to or directly depicting ‘lust’, ‘greed’ or ‘gluttony’.

Sculptures on right and left side of entrance to cathedral were suggesting idea of salvation although as a person who never dealt with religion of this world, I had no idea about process which was illustrated on those sculptures. Most probably it referred to some kind of baptism.

We passed by cathedral, inns, restaurants and pubs, not stopping to eat or drink. “Best roasted chicken that you can find in Metropolis with special tomato sauce from our chef!”, “Beer and ale with free boiled beans!”, kids were shouting daily specials to attract bypassing potential customers .

I was tired and hungry after two weeks of walk through the forest where we ate what we could hunt and sometimes were stuck with only eadible wild grasses. I didn’t want to disturb Vurm, because I knew he was dealing with hunger too.

At last, after long inner city trip we reached passage between police station and Adventurers Guild building. Vurm showed soldiers guarding the passage a badge which identified as members of Destrian’s squad. They let us through without any questioning and we headed towards Magus Guild which was inside the north-west part of Metropolis.

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Governor of Metropolis was standing by the entrance of Magus Guild by the time we reached it. He greeted us in high respect though Vurm was still having his “I don’t give a shit to you” attitude. Vurm went to some room and told me to freely roam around Magus Guild building while he did his job. Before he left I told him that I will be in library.

After asking few bypassers, I learnt where the library is located. There was a sticker written “Bibliotheca de Gilda”on top of a normal wooden door. I opened the door to see a stall besides the entrance. There was a beautiful young girl standing at other side of stall.

“Welcome, how may I help you”, she said. I stepped closer to stall and put my arms on top of stall. “It’s my first time in public library”,  I said. I saw her leaning back and wrinkling her nose. “Damn it” I said to myself, “Its been ages that I have cleaned myself.. Most probably I stink like shit!”.

“Except this floor, there are 8 levels, kid”, she told and pointed towards sky. I was mesmerized by her beauty so I hadn’t checked out library. But after she pointed her arm, I looked at that direction to see 8 distinct levels of floors which all together were almost 100 meters tall.

My mouth was wide open in awe when I heard her say “Kid, unfortunately I won’t be able to let you go in.. Kid, you have to be ‘conglegiati’ to use our resources!”, she insisted. “A member?” I asked. “Yes, a conglegiati!” she said and laughed softly.

I used my index and middle finger of right hand to sign her to bring her head close to me. “Let me tell you something”, I said seeing her in doubtfulness of my actions. She brought her head close to me, and I whispered to her ear “If you want to prove yourself as an adult to the gentleman standing behind me by insisting that I’m a kid is like playing into his hands. Don’t worry he will fuck a pretty girl like you anyway! My advise is, let him try to win you over!”.

I said and turned back to see a good looking tall blonde man standing still. I hadn’t noticed him when I had entered into library, as door opened towards inside of library and he was offside of my vision. But as girl was talking to me, every time she used word ‘kid’, she was peeking behind me. After second time, I had already understood that there is someone behind me, the question was who needs a beautiful young girl?

I turned to face girl again. “By the way, my name is Kain and I belong to sir Destrian’s platoon which is serving directly under supervisorship of Lord Riley Cohen. We just came back from mission, my squad leader Vurm is involved in secret matter which I won’t be able to tell you. But I can tell you one thing for sure, if you don’t help me out, you won’t be able to live in Cohen territories after I say what had happened in here to my squad leader”, I said and smiled.

She was frozen. I think she was still thinking through what I had said. She left the stall and went towards a aquarium filled with water. I followed her. “Ask and it will help you!”  she said. “Lichen!” I said looking towards small aquarium. After few seconds, a book was projected on top of water inside the aquarium.

“Cartae e Monstrum”, 5th level. 3 block. A28

p.s: Looking back one single fight took 3 chapters, is it ok with you all?

Next: 20 - Unknown