Quinn awoke feeling more drained than when she went to sleep. She stretched out, popping her back a few times as she looked down at her hand. It still hurt, though not nearly as much as it once did. She slowly unwrapped the bandage from it, easing the wraps from the wound. It was a bloody mess too coated in red to see.
Her heart flickered as she gathered her mana and formed the familiar circle of dark purple. It was a bit weird using her right hand, but there was nothing she could do about it. She slowly etched the runes in it and prepared herself. Releasing the tether connecting the magic to her, it cast the spell. She was ready to pull away at a moment's notice.
The brilliant light enshrouded her hand and the bandage, cleaning away all of the dry blood away in nearly an instant. The warmth of the light was oddly soothing as it scrubbed away the filth. She didn’t stop there, she cast it again to clean off All the small blood splatters and overall filth that had collected in her body and clothes.
The magic faded, leaving only the ambient light to see by. Her hand was in much better shape than Quinn thought it would be. Instead of looking like a skinned mess, the palm looked as though it had been sunburnt and was peeling. Granted it was a terrible sunburn, and it still looked as though someone had scooped out a chunk of flesh with a spoon. It must’ve looked worse last night thanks to all of the blood.
She rewrapped it and looked at the mess of bandages. It was less than pretty, but at least it held. More importantly, it covered up the mess of her hand. Speaking of messes, she headed around the room and cleaned all of the blood everywhere and the bile in the corner. After she did that, she shook out the sheet to put it on the bed.
Something caught the corner of her eye as it flew out of the sheet. It was a small red drop that hadn’t been cleaned away. Quinn approached the thing, crouching down to Cleanse it better. She formed her mana circle but paused just short of casting. The item was more akin to a jewel than a drop of blood.
She curiously picked it up. It didn’t flow like a liquid but had a physical form as if it was a ruby. It gleamed in the light, reflecting a red hue. The thing itself was a deep red color and was slightly translucent.
Now where had this come from? She thought briefly for a moment before an idea began to sprout in her head. If her magic malfunction last night was a sudden compression, like a black hole, then maybe it was the compressed form of her blood? The thought shook her as she realized how truly dangerous messing with magic was. If the vortex was strong enough to compress matter into a quasi-impossible state of compression, it would’ve surely turned her into a small bead too.
She held the small blood jewel for a second and debated on what to do with it. Rationally, she should just Cleanse it away since it was probably her blood compressed. But the scientist in her wanted to keep the blood gem and research it a bit more. If she could learn how it compressed, how the atoms folded in on themselves, it would be quite a big boon for the scientific community.
Just the thought of how major that kind of discovery would be excited her. If she could fold water in on itself and have a gallon of water take up the space of a small stone… any military in the world would pay for that knowledge. It would instantly solve supply line issues when it comes to water.
She tossed it into her last empty pouch. She would keep it for now since she could always get rid of it later. Continuing with her routine, she cleaned herself up and did some exercises. Unfortunately, the type of exercise was vastly limited by her injuries.
Quinn headed out of her room - all her gear was with her - and went back to the Schel's room after she finished her daily routine. She knocked on the door and waited.
The door silently opened, revealing Torrence already set and ready to go. “About time.”
“I-I’m sorry? Were you waiting long?” She thought she had been rather quick today.
He cast Compass, revealing the familiar runes and ball of light. The marker for the sun was just over the east. “About an hour? I don’t know… I’ve been waiting since I finished my book.”
Ah, so that’s why he sounded so grumpy. “W-well, we can leave now? And where’s your grandpa?”
“Out.” The brat said as he walked down the hallway, leaving her behind.
They left the Shattered Grail and headed down the streets. She tried to make small talk with the kid, but he only answered with one-word sentences. It was very frustrating.
They moved through the people already beginning to amass as Torrence led her quite far from the Shattered Grail. So far, in fact, she was beginning to think that following the bookworm was a bad idea.
That notion was tossed out the window as they arrived at a great plaza. Market stalls lined the plaza in neat aisles. Their colorful tarps and banners swayed in the rain as vendors hawked their merchandise. The majority of the plaza was unprotected from the harsh rains and winds, but a central area had a large tarp covering it. She was too far to see why exactly that was.
She slapped up her hood and followed Torrence into the tightly knit plaza. He didn’t even bother to wait for her as he spearheaded his way through the plaza. People screamed and shouted to get her attention. One man even stopped her progress forward as he tried to sell her a fried toad. She pushed past him and hurried to catch up with the teen. She followed him to a building overlooking the merchant plaza. It had a sign dangling from the door with a symbol of a scroll on it, but she couldn’t read what it said.
They stepped into the store to the refreshing scent of old books and worn paper. A guard stood at the door, but he was off in his own world as he read a book. Lines of shelves sat all around the store in a disorderly fashion. It looked as though the shelves made a massive maze with the only clear path leading to a counter at the back of the room. An elderly woman sat behind a counter in the far corner, gently swaying her hand around as she wrote with a feather quill. She had long white hair and a kind look to her.
A second and third floor overlooked the base floor from balconies lined with metal rails. The second and third floors also looked as though they were lined with bookshelves. The entire place was quite reminiscent of the libraries back home.
Quinn turned to ask Torrence about the grimoires, but he had long disappeared behind the disordered array of shelves. With her best option gone, she approached the old woman.
She stood at the desk, waiting patiently for the elder. Not once did she look up from her writing. Still, she waited. Her father had taught her to be nice to the elderly. After several minutes, the woman finally set down her quill. “Greetings, child. Welcome to Epso’s Books. What can I help you with?”
“Good e-evening, ma’am. I uh, I’m looking for a Hellion reading grimoire.”
The old lady nodded with a kind smile. “I have exactly what you want. A single gold.”
Quinn retrieved one of her nine remaining coins. “I’ll take it.”
The elder nodded several times and disappeared behind a bookshelf on the opposite side of the desk. She returned shortly after with a black leather-bound book. It had a picture of a golden sun on the cover.
Quinn handed over the coin, but it slipped from the old lady's palm. She thought nothing of it and picked it up, handing it to her.
The old lady took the coin but didn’t immediately hand over the grimoire. “Epso’s Books has a special sale going on for first-timers.”
“Oh?” Maybe it would be a good idea to get more books than she was planning.
The old lady pointed out into the maze of books. “If you pay fifty silver extra, you can pick ten books from out there regardless of price.”
Quinn frowned. “T-Thank you, ma’am, but I would be losing money, no?”
The woman kindly smiled. “There are rare books and even a few grimoires out in the shop that are worth far more than a few coins.”
She was probably lying. Quinn had heard how rare the magical times were, and there was no way this lady just had grimoires about. But… she might be able to find other books of interest. “Is there a catch? It sounds too good to be true to just give out grimoires.”
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The elderly woman laughed lightly. “Of course there is. Once you pull from a shelf, that book will become a part of your ten. You can’t put it back to free a spot and you definitely can't grab more than ten. I’ll know if you do. Other than that, you are free to grab any book aside from those behind my counter.”
She gulped at the ominous warning and forked out fifty silver from her coin purse. It didn’t sound like too bad of an idea. “Here.”
The elder handed over the grimoire and took the money. She then passed over a slip of paper with a few words written on it. “Give this to the guard at the door before you leave.”
“Thank you.” Quinn grabbed everything and left the counter behind as she entered the aisle. She wordlessly looked down at the grimoire in her hands.
She looked it over. It didn’t appear magical or anything. She used her mana sense and was astounded by the amount of mana held in the leather-bound book. The mana was so tightly compressed that she wouldn’t have been able to notice it if she wasn’t holding the book.
Quinn activated her other senses, not expecting much. The entire environment felt like a boundless ball of energy and yearning. The amber also felt endlessly curious as if it was starving for knowledge.
The grimoire surprisingly tripped her amber sense as well. It was quite a bit more somber than the surrounding area but still held a deep desire for knowledge. She could easily feel the difference in the book with her amber sense active.
Quinn wasn’t quite sure what to do with the grimoire. She wanted to use it but didn’t know how. Should she just read it? She opened the book though nothing happened. Flicking through the pages covered in complicated runes and writings didn't reveal anything either.
Inspiration struck her and she slowly tapped the book to her forehead. Instantly a migraine wracked her. It was very painful, but not quite unbearable. The migraine faded barely a minute after it started. Quinn rested against one of the bookshelves with her eyes tightly closed.
Eventually, she was stable once more. The grimoire hadn’t just disappeared like she thought it would. She opened up the grimoire and saw that every page was blank. It was as though the runes and writings had been wiped off of every page. It was quite a happy occurrence since she had been wanting something to write notes on. She tossed the empty book into her bag.
She looked around, and it was like a whole new world was opening up before her eyes. Nameless books that blended into each other were given a life of their own as their titles popped out against their spines. With just a short glance, every book showed off its nature as a fantasy, romance, adventure, action, or any other kind of fictional book. Unfortunately, the amount of nonfiction was seemingly low.
Quinn could feel her curiosity swelling with each glance around the bookshelves, but she stopped herself from grabbing just any book. She had only bought ten, and she only had room in her bag for eleven or twelve. She needed to really think about what she was going to grab.
There were three things on her mind as she started to make a list; history, magic, and monsters. She wanted every book to be related in some shape or form to those three topics as they would help her the most with what she wanted to do.
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Quinn ended up spending several hours combing through the maze-like bookstore. The more she was in the bookstore, the more she was confused by the placement decisions. Each bookshelf seemed to intentionally block the way forward, and some were even curved to block entire paths. It was as though the proprietor wanted to trap unsuspecting customers.
Torch scones were set in gaps in the bookshelves, dripping with a pitch that faded to dust before it touched the ground. The torches seemed to burn like a normal fire but produced no smoke. She simply figured they were magical in nature.
It took her a long time to go through each bookshelf and even longer to find the route to the second and third floors. It was as though the ladder was intentionally hidden so no one would go up, not that she could blame them. The books on the second floor were of a higher value than the books on the first and were primarily non-fiction. The same could be said for the third floor too.
It took her until midday to settle on just nine books. She was very happy with what was found. First and foremost, managed to find an atlas. The atlas itself already paid the price off for the ten books in her opinion. The usefulness of a map couldn’t be put down. On a side note, the world seemed to be called Tarsha based on its name: Lands of Tarsha.
Two history books managed to attract her attention. They were called Era Rundown and Seventh Era: War of the Gods. The Era Rundown seemed like it would be nice to have, and the other one piqued her interest considerably. For all she knew, the war literally referred to gods.
Four books about magic made it on her list. They were called Magic 101, A Introduction to Magic, The Fundamental Energies, and A Beginner's Spell Book. She was quite happy to find two introductory books. She should be able to piece together quite a bit about how magic worked between the two. The Fundamental Energies seemed to be an overlook of all of the known energies including mana. At least, she hoped there was more than just mana. The last one was a rundown of various Lifestyle Magics, tier-one magic, and even a couple of tier-2 magics. Surely something in there would be quite helpful.
The last two books were about monsters. The first one was all about common monsters found around the world and strategies to fight them. The second one was about rarer monsters and mythical creatures. It more so detailed the way to survive an encounter with the creatures rather than fight them. They were called A Traveler's Handbook: Monsters and Myths: Fight or Flight respectively.
She was quite excited to leave so she could take a deep dive into her new arsenal of knowledge. She started to walk around the third floor to look for the exit ladder. She was still short a book but decided she would just grab one that interested her no matter its subject. She had already met her quota with her previous books and she had already passed a great number of interesting books. One about herbology was particularly interesting on the second floor.
She continued, at long last finding the ladder back to the second floor. She also, however, found a torch scone that wasn’t quite straight like its brethren. Of course, she had seen it when she first glanced at it when she first came up but didn’t think much about it. Now, however, she couldn’t help but feel it was quite odd. Why would it be tilted? The obvious answer was some vandal messed with it. The less obvious answer was more fun; the torch was a trigger for a secret passage.
Normally, she would toss that idea out. Epso’s Books, however, almost inspired that line of thinking with how everything was shaped and placed. It almost felt natural that there would be hidden passages here and there. And what would it hurt to check? If it was, it would be pretty cool. If it wasn’t, she would be helping Epso’s Books to fix the vandalization.
She plopped her new books into her pack, feeling the weight pulling on her shoulders, and pushed the scone towards the upright position. It took way more effort than she was originally planning as it barely even moved. Still, she pushed on and on.
As soon as the torch was upright, the wall next to it caved in and shifted, moving to the side. A thrill surged through her body as her adrenaline began to pump. Finding a secret just couldn’t be compared to anything. Especially when it was found purely through your own efforts.
There was a circular room on the other side of the hidden door. It was circular and quite dim. Bookshelves were placed around the room with dusty books sitting on them. Every book in the room looked as though it was hundreds of years old. Eight suits of armor were also in the room, their fine workmanship gleaming in the dim light. They were placed between each of the shelves as if to guard them.
Quinn looked around the room in excitement. Most of the books were in other languages she couldn’t read, but the few in Hellion excited her to no end. There were several books such as The Path to Godhood, How I Killed a Dragon, Introduction to Sorcery, and Heavenly Swordsmanship Manual. The third one gave her a chill as she looked at it since it seemed to be made of some kind of stretched skin. She instantly vetoed it.
She activated her sense as she had taken to doing periodically. She wasn't touching any of the books, so she couldn’t tell if they were grimoires, but she could feel a massive amount of mana in the ominous suits of armor. The mana was far more than she had felt in her entire time in Tarsha. It made her knees shake as she stared at the stalwart forms.
Her amber sense revealed the entire room was filled with flickering feelings and emotions. At one point it would be immense joy, then horrible fear, then endless curiosity followed by bloating of knowledge. The kaleidoscope was honestly making her feel quite sick. Outside of the mixture, she could also feel that about a quarter of the books were grimoires.
There were just too many to choose from. Should she just take them all? The memory of the old woman’s words flashed through her mind as she looked at the armor stands. Maybe that wasn’t the best of ideas. She could only grab one.
She felt around each of the grimoires individually and finally settled on the one that triggered her amber sense the most. It was a dusty old tome wrapped in peeling leather. Its pages were yellow with age. She, unfortunately, couldn’t read what it was about since it was in another language. Since she didn’t know how grimoires worked if they were in another language, she decided to wait before using it and stored it in the bottom of her pack.
Greed flashed through her as she looked back into the room. She wanted to just grab all of the knowledge and run, but she managed to hold herself back. She still wasn’t sure about the extent of magic, and pissing off someone who could enchant suits of armor with the amount of mana she felt would be a terrible idea.
She headed out of the room and back to the ladder. As soon as she stepped over the threshold, the door automatically closed behind her with the torch staying upright. It freaked her out, to say the least. It meant either the room itself was enchanted, or someone was watching her the entire time she was there. She quickly left the chilling store. She had already spent far too long in it.