**AN: Ok...this chapter turned out a bit bigger than I thought it would. But I like how it turned out. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

As soon as Skywind entered the library, he felt a cool breeze in the air. It was very gentle so as not to disturb a reader but relaxing enough to make people feel comfortable while reading. 'Magic for air conditioning...interesting. I wonder how it works.' He thought as he looked about with a slightly amused and thoughtful look on his face.

As for the library itself, there were large shelves that stood almost three times his height all kept in neat rows in one half of the interior. All the shelves were stacked with books. Past the shelves were some doors that appeared to be locked as no one was trying to go inside. The other side of the library was more open and had three rows of tables and chairs for people that were looking for specific things. Some chairs though were different than others, in that they looked more comfortable than the majority of the chairs. Most of them also did not have any tables accompanying them. Some of these comfortable chairs were placed near open windows while others were scattered here and there in various spots.

And near the entrance that he had just came in, there was a small desk with a young man sitting behind it. He had a book in front of him and had a finger placed at what must be the spot he had stopped reading at and was looking at his direction while waiting for him to approach. Skywind went up to greet him instead of taking up more time than needed.

"Good morning and my apologies. My first time seeing this library and was not really what I had expected. If you can tell me how things work, I will try to be out of your way." Skywind said to the young man.

"Eh, I'm used to it. Don't worry too much. As for the library system, fairly simple. The only books that leave from here are ones you've bought and nothing else. If you need help finding a particular book and you know the name of it, just stand near the shelf that has it and say the name of the book and it will come to you. The sections are divided by topics such as Magic, History, Fiction, Non-fiction, and Generic Knowledge. The books themselves are in alphabetical order and if they have multiple volumes, in the order from earlier to latest and going from left to right. Any questions?"

"None yet but if I have any, I will be bothering you again. Thank you."

Skywind looked around the library and noticed that there were quite a few people in robes similar to his here. There were also people wearing different clothing, which he knew were residents of this world. Without sparing more than a glance, Skywind went towards was the fiction section. 'Might as well start with something light before getting to the serious reading.' he thought as he looked at the books that were in the fiction shelf. He took out 3 books with the title, "Little Magus," "Magician," and "Dragon's Companion." He took them to the table and opened up "Magician" first and started reading.

It didn't take him all that long to finish it as he had purposely chosen books that did not have too much content to them. He had finished all three of the books in 2 hours. Although they were rather small, he did learn some interesting things from the Dragon's Companion that he wanted to try out at some point. Part of him was excited but it would have to wait till he can go outside the city with Zareth. He had not gained any stats like he had thought would happen though. Looking around him at the faces that seemed somewhat disappointed made him realize that not gaining any stats like this was rather normal. He had some other ideas to try though to test on that matter.

He took the books back and returned them manually before moving on to the next section of books. He decided to check the History section to see what he could learn about this country and this world they were in. There were much fewer books in this section than in the Fiction area and as such, it didn't take long to find some books he was looking for. The first book he decided to read called, "The Formation of the Zilis Kingdom." He also noticed a book with the name, "History of Magic," which he grabbed as well and went back to the table to read.

According to the book, the Kingdom of Zilis had actually formed about a 2500 years ago and is actually the youngest of the five known countries in Celestial Realms. The country came together out of a need for people of different races to trade without fear of discrimination. What started off as a small trading post, grew into a small city in around 300 years. At that point, people had started settling down and mixing with each other. This allowed them to learn of the other cultures and had brought an awareness that the other countries did not want their citizens to have. As such, the 4 other countries had started marshaling their forces to destroy the small city before it could get any bigger.

Unfortunately, or fortunately for Zilis, some of the guards that knew why their country was gathering its troops, sent a warning to their friends and family that had settled down in Zilis. The citizens, having been of a peaceful nature that had focused on their respective crafts instead of the art of war, did not know what to do. At this time, their savior was a young man, who would end up becoming the first King of Zilis. He was one of the many people that had been born there and grew up among people of different cultures. He did not want to lose his friends because people from other countries didn't like each other. Not to mention that he himself was a mix of Human and Orc.

He came up with an idea to make the use of the various experts that had gathered in his city and asked them to build a large and sturdy wall. His idea was to fortify each part of the wall with magic and enchantments to protect both from physical attacks as well as magical attacks. And because it was done with each part as the wall was being built, the wall had become impenetrable to all forms of known attacks. The wall also ended up much bigger than originally planned due to the craftsmen wanting to try things out that they were not able to try back in their original countries. And that was just the first part of his plan.

The second part of his plan was to have many people trained in the basic use of the bow and arrow. Skywind understood what he had in mind as he was reading. The idea was that as long as there were many people shooting, at least one of them will hit the target. Just in case, he had some trained Spearmen hidden in parts of the wall and had some holes outside that they can look through. Anyone that managed to make it close enough to try and scale the wall, would be stabbed by the Spearmen that had been lying in wait.

It seems that it ever reached that point where the Spearmen were needed though. This was because as soon as one of the countries had come to attack the city, they would see the giant wall and try to bombard it with siege weapons or magic instead of even think of trying to scale it. And when those failed, they could do nothing but go back or suffer casualties from the many archers that would shoot from high on up. It was not hard for the archers to hit them even if they were fairly far back. Especially when they had the help of enchanters that would enchant the arrows with the wind property to allow it to fly far even if there was wind resistance. 'I wonder how it would work if other weapons were enchanted in a similar manner...another thing to experiment with later. Good thing that Zareth is bit of a crafting nut and is likely to pick something up. Definitely more things to experiment,' he thought with a smile on his face.

Also according to the book, the training of people in the basic use of the bow and arrow, which had originally been done in case they were attacked again, ended up becoming one of their tradition. 'Interesting...not sure when this book was written, but if the tradition held to this day, then this means that most of the citizens here, at least know basic Archery. A bit of a scary thought in some ways.' Skywind could not help sighing in admiration and fear at the thought of how well defended this peaceful looking city was.

It seems that the Spearmen ended up becoming the patrols to protect the inside of the city from possible trouble makers after the city had become established as a separate country and opened its gates for those wishing to trade. They were given a public trial and if someone in the city knew them, the trouble maker was simply banished from the city. But if there was no one to speak for their identify, they would be taken away and killed. The rest of the book explained that the King would actually be chosen by merit more than lineage and that it was actually possible for a commoner to become a King if they showed merit. It even listed the names of some commoners that had become King too. There was little to no mention of dates so it was hard to tell exactly how old this city was and Skywind made a mental note to ask the young man at the front desk later.

He called up the in-game clock and noticed that an hour had passed from him reading about the history of this country. There was also a window that had popped up after he had finished the book.

The Goddess has noticed your uncanny ability at reading at a faster pace than normal and has unlocked the Reading skill.

Reading skill has improved to Intermediate rank 1

For reaching Intermediate rank in Reading, your Intelligence was raised by 5.

Reading sub-skills have been unlocked. Gained Speed Reading and Reading Comprehension.

'Hm...so my ability to speed read in reality is actually at what is considered the intermediate level in here huh. I wonder if improving that skill will allow me to read faster in reality too. Something to keep in mind...lets see a description of what these skills do.' Skywind thought and pressed the window for the two skills.

Speed Reading: This skill allows you to read a book at a faster pace. Skill level is tied to the Reading main skill. Higher skill level will allow you to read at a face pace. Current reading speed: 3x

Reading Comprehension: This skill allows you to understand what you read. Skill level is tied to the Reading main skill. Higher skill level will allow you to understand at a quicker pace. Current comprehension level 3x

'So it would normally take people around 3 hours to read this book. Thank goodness that I read a lot while growing up. On to the next book anyhow.'

He put the "The Formation of the Zilis Kingdom" aside and pulled over the "History of Magic" book in front of him. As he read through it, he came to understand that although the source of the magic seems to have been the Goddess, its continued existence was not under her control. They seemed similar to have become a form of existence on their own. And in order to use magic, a Mage would have to form a connection to the existence before being able to cast anything.

It also indicated that although there existed certain set ways in which a Mage can form a connection to the entities but that it was also possible to form connections through other means. It listed some some of the usual ways that a Mage would typically make connection but it did not go into detail about anything more than shaping the magic in each of the elements. Whether they would do anything or not, it made no mention of. This made Skywind curious about trying it.

It went on to describe the elements and magical energies that existed in this world that was known. According to the book, the basic magic spells, relied on the 4 elements of Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth. They were considered as the lowest form of magic and was usually taught to beginner mages to practice with. The elemental spells had their ranking from Bagic to Advanced to Master within themselves but were still classified as simply, Magic.

Above that, resided Light, Dark, Arcane, Holy, Unholy and Nature. While most people thought of Light as Holy and Dark as Unholy, the book emphasized that they were different branches of magic. Nature, Holy, and Unholy were actually classified as Mystic while Arcane, Light, and Dark were considered to be Ancient. Mystic class spells were usually used by Priests or Paladins and whether they used Holy or Unholy type, depended on their religious faith. There was very little information regarding Nature magic in the book. Ancient class magics, were said to exist but people able to use them apparently did not. What Light or Dark magic was capable of doing, was not known it seemed. Arcane magic however, did have practitioners in parts of the world. They were few and far between and were known to do things such as changing the gravity of an area or using beams of pure energy to destroy things but details were, for the most part, unknown.

At the top, were the magic that was classified as Primordial magic. These were divided between Matter and Void magic. It was written that only the Divine were capable of using this class of magic. Some mages theorized that all magic that exists can be classified as either Matter or Void though. Spells that removed things from existence for example, would fall under Void while spells that created, were considered as Matter.

'Basics first...I should learn some kind of meditation technique before even touching the elements. It will allow me to have a better foundation to work with and allow me to train in magic more efficiently. Maybe the one I used in my previous game would work...but I guess I shouldn't try it here in the open. I better ask if there's any place that I can practice.'

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He returned "The Formation of the Zilis Kingdom" to its rightful shelf before going up to the young man. He waited patiently again for him to hold his place in the book he was reading before asking him if there was any place he would be able to quietly try things out at. The young man looked up to see who it was, nodded his head and pointed to one of the doors past the shelves. The door the young man pointed at, opened as the magic lock was triggered. Skywind thanked him and went inside, the door closing behind him on its own. He looked back and wondered if it was possible for anyone to open or close it and decided to try a theory that had popped into his mind later.

For now, he looked around the room and noticed that it was fairly bare. There was a single table with a chair and there was enough light to read but that was it for decorations or furniture. What caught his eye was that in the middle of the room was a pentagram indented into the floor with enough room to have someone sit inside comfortably.

'Heh. Looks like it's fairly common to practice magic inside these rooms. I might as well get started too,' he thought as he placed the book on the table and went to sit inside the pentagram. He sat in a lotus position and started to take deep and calm breaths while slowly emptying his mind. His eyes closed as he continued to do this. It took him less than a minute to enter into a trance where he was only breathing and nothing else. Nothing seemed to be happening but never the less, he continued repeating the deep and calm breaths.

Around 10 minutes later, he felt some small groups of energies starting to cluster around him. Or at least it felt like energy to him. He imagined his body to be a conduit for these energy clusters and imagined them going in and out and through him. As he did so, he felt them doing exactly that. There was no actual sensation when they went through him but he still felt their presence flowing around. He held out his right hand out, palm facing up, and slowly straightened his fingers while the thumb was folder on the side as if he was receiving something precious. He focused and willed the energy clusters to gather above his right hand. The clusters moved quickly and started to gather above his hand. As he opened his eyes to look, he noticed a blue ball of pure energy floating above his right hand. He imagined them dispersing and let the ball of energy dissipate.

'It worked. Now I know what the energy of this world feels like. I should be able to take the next step and have them converted into the various elements that exists in this world.' He thought as he looked at the windows that had popped up.

For entering a state of calm, you have gained the Meditation skill.

You were able to enter a meditative trance very quickly and thus, your Meditation skill has been increased to Advanced rank 1.

For reaching Advanced rank of Meditation skill, your Wisdom has increased by 20.

You were able to successfully control the flow of mana around you. You have gained the Mana Control skill.

You were able to easily focus the mana to form an object with it. Mana Control has increased to Intermediate rank 2.

For reaching Intermediate rank of Mana Control, your Intelligence was increased by 5.

He saw the notification and face palmed. He could already see what Zareth is going to call him when he finds out. 'He's going to call me a Monk. I just KNOW he's going to call me a Monk.' he sighed as he closed the windows.

'Oh well...I should go see how he's doing anyway. He might still be at the Barracks. Might as well get it out of the way and see what his plans are for later.' He sighed again as he got up and stretched his muscles. 'Still a fairly nice gain I suppose. And good thing I learned how to meditate a long time ago and had practiced a lot.'

Skywind pushed the door normally and it opened. After going out, he turned around and tried to open the door but it didn't budge. He focused on gathering some mana on the other side of the door and using it to push the door from the other side. The door opened as if it had not been locked at all. He nodded his head as his idea worked and went over to return the "History of Magic" book to its rightful spot. As Skywind was on his way out, he stopped at the front desk as he had noticed the young man looking at him with a smile on his face.

"Not even a whole day and one of you travelers have managed to open the door. I'm impressed. It took me over a year before I was able to do it. The master will be interested in meeting you. My name is Gade. I will introduce you to my master, Sephius, tomorrow. I think you will be interested in meeting him as well," he said to Skywind.

Skywind nodded as his intuition told him that Gade was right. Sephius must be a Magician of some kind. The second best way to learn about using magic was also one of the safer ways. Learning from someone that knows how to use it already. "I am Skywind. I will be here tomorrow as well. And I think I will definitely be interested in meeting your master. Thank you," he replies and heads out.

After exiting the library, he went straight into the Barracks. He spotted the 3 doors with only one not being guarded clearly indicating that people can go in there. He went in and looked around and saw some people sparring and some excitedly talking about a spar they had just seen but did not see any sign of his friend Zareth.

'I knew I was forgetting something earlier...lets see if the Instructor over there will have remembered him.' Skywind thought as he headed towards Sir Isaac.

"Good day sir, my name is Skywind. I was wondering if you could help me." Skywind asks.

"The weapon rack is over there if you want to train with a weapon. Feel free to grab one that you feel comfortable with."

"Ah, no, I am actually looking for a friend of mine. His name is Zareth. He should have come here earlier to try the weapons out. He might have been using two swords or maybe a pole arm."

"Oh, Zareth. The prodigy of the Spear. A friend of his are you? I never had the chance to ask him but would you know where he learned to use the spear as I saw him using?"

Skywind was a bit surprised that the instructor knew him by name and actually referred to Zareth as a prodigy. "Ah, yes. He learned it in another realm that we had traveled to. I am glad he decided to go with the Spear. I have not met anyone that was able to use it better than he so far but that would not be saying much as I have not been to many places. Would you know where he went by any chance?"

"I know of some that are better than him but they would be considered Masters and are much older in age. As for where he is, he should be at the Carpenter shop. We had no spears for him to practice with so he decided to make his own."

Skywind burst out laughing as he said, "That definitely sounds like him alright. If he can't find it for an affordable price, he will just make his own. If he wasn't off wandering around with a spear in hand, he was always making something or other."

"Sounds like he will be a good match for Thomas. Especially if he enjoys making things on his own. I have seen too many lazy people use the assistance of the Goddess to speed things along. A waste if you ask me as the products are always inferior. Your friend should be capable of producing fine products though if his passion for making something is even close to him using the spear."

"I would say that his passion to make surpasses his passion with the spear. I guess I will head to the Carpentry shop to find him. Thank you sir. Ah, if you can direct me to the Carpenter shop..."

With that, Skywind went to the production area, following the directions he received from Sir Isaac. He found it easily enough. The smell of wood was a fairly obvious clue too. Going inside, he saw Zareth sanding away at a pole. Skywind noticed the odd looks that other travelers were giving towards Zareth but of course, since he was doing something he enjoyed, Zareth didn't notice any of it. Then again, he didn't seem to notice much else either from the looks of it.

Skywind looked to one of the other travelers and asks, "What's up? Is there something wrong with that guy there?"

One of them nearby with blonde hair that was fairly short and shaped to look similar to Guile from Street Fighter replied, "Yea...the guy is crazy. He's not using system assist to make the spear. And he's been in that trance for a while now. Even has a creepy smile every now and then when he looks at a finished piece. The NPC seems to like him though. Still pretty weird if you ask me."

"Ah, yea, that makes sense. Have you ever heard of a crafting nut? That's him pretty much." Skywind replies.

"Go figure. I guess you know him. I feel for you man," came the reply from the Guile look-a-like.

"Yea, he's a friend of mine. He's definitely a lunatic when it comes to crafting but he's still one of the most reliable warriors I've played with too. I guess I better wake him from the trance if I want to be able to talk to him. Good luck to you guys."

"Same to you man. I think you might need it more than us."

Skywind had a feeling they needed it more but he didn't say much. He instead went closer to Zareth and yelled, "Hey Z! You missed a spot!"

Zareth replied quickly, "What? Where? Show me!"

Looking around to see what he had missed, he noticed Skywind standing there. Then realization hit him that he had gotten carried away with crafting...again. He let out a sigh and says, "Hey Sky...what's up?"

"Oh, you're out of the trance eh. I figured you would've been a bit stubborn and went with Leatherworking or Smithing but looks like the Goddess decided you'd be a better Carpenter. Reports tell me that you're enjoying it. You decided to go with the spear for the weapon?"

"Yea, I tried out a Bo staff that Sir Isaac lent me and it really felt right. They didn't have any so figured I'd make my own. Plus, I'm learning a lot. Oh! I gained about 13 to my dexterity and 5 to my agility. It was weird but I didn't get any boost to strength even though the Bo wasn't that light. Any ideas why?"

"No strength but dexterity and agility? I think the boost to those might have to do with you already being familiar with a pole arm weapon. Stuff you can do in real life will have an effect in this game as well I noticed. As for strength...hmm...I wonder if it works on similar principles of when you do weight training? Like you would gain a boost to your strength the day after when you're muscles are in the recovery phase."

"Hm...yea that would make sense. I guess we'll know tomorrow then. How about you? Guessing you got a nice boost to your intelligence?"

"Eh...more like...I got a big boost of 20 to my wisdom...and 10 to my intelligence."

"You're going Monk? Didn't you want to be a mage?"

Skywind face palmed. "I knew you were going to say it...I just knew it."

Zareth laughs as he says, "You know I'm joking. But on a serious note, how did that happen? I thought reading would give you a good boost to intelligence."

"That's what I had thought too but reading did give me some intelligence. It was for reaching Intermediate rank though. Looks like my habit of reading a lot of books came in handy for that one. The boost to wisdom was actually from learning Meditation. Apparently my ability to Meditate is on the advanced level. That alone gave me that whopping 20 wisdom. The other 5 intelligence was from getting Intermediate in Mana Control."

"Damn...you are a fricking natural Mage. But you didn't just come here to tell me that right? Have an idea in mind?"

"Yea, I wanted to try imbuing the stuff you make with various elements to see what they do. I read about arrows being able to travel a long distance even in a headwind if they're enchanted with the wind element. Wanted to see what the others would do and how it would work in melee range."

"I wouldn't mind that but I will pretty much be busy filling out the order I promised to help with. I'll tell you more details after I finish, maybe tomorrow. Sir Isaac told me I shouldn't train tomorrow and if your theory is right, than I probably wouldn't be able to swing anything anyway. I'll head over to the library to find you tomorrow after I finish up here."

"Alright, I'm going to get back to reading some more and continue to make a note of other ideas if they pop into my mind. I'll see you tomorrow then. I hope you'll tell me why you're making your weapons manually and without system assist too tomorrow."

"Will do. I still haven't even made my first piece yet and need to make 20. So I'll be a little busy. See you tomorrow."

Skywind left Zareth to continue crafting and popped a piece of a bread roll into his mouth before chewing on it. It tasted horrible but it was food. The water was at least good. He went back to the library and picked out some books to read from the magic section so he can get a better idea of how they work. 'So many things to test...so little time,' he kept thinking every now and then as he continued to read throughout the day.