“So, it’s Cyrus, the warrior, Iris, the mage, and Hakon, the healer?” Anne confirmed politely while serving more tea. The guests had finally relaxed and now she could move on to some counseling.

The primancer nodded happily and accepted the drink. They told Anne about their origins and the structure of the party. Having come from the same town, they knew each other since childhood and didn’t have many problems cooperating.

If the bookmancer had to summarize it in a single reason, their problem would be access to resources. And she wasn’t talking only about necessities or weapons, it went all the way to proper knowledge and guidance. Of course, they couldn’t be the most talented youngsters on the continent, otherwise, they would have advanced regardless of resources. But in her opinion, talent was overrated. She would always choose prepared and driven over talented.

At this point, Anne already felt comfortable about engaging their challenges directly. It would cause some hesitation, but it was better than shamelessly betting around the bush.

“What challenges are you facing in advancement? I might be able to help.” She asked.

The three adventures looked at each other and didn’t know what to say, even Hakon was a little flustered. Anne observed the situation calmly and drank more tea, she would give them time to feel comfortable. However, it didn’t take long. Just like when they entered the bookstore, Cyrus took the lead.

“Eh… I didn’t get access to the guild information, so I only know rumors. If they’re true, the next step for a warrior should be absorbing energy… I can feel it, but how can I control it? Do I need to eat more food with rich essence?” Cyrus said exasperatedly. He didn’t hold off on anything and voiced out all of his worries.

Anne acknowledge his doubts with a nod but didn’t rush to answer. Indeed, lack of knowledge would become the tallest obstacle in the path of advancement. Without it, he was searching in the dark.

“Yes. From what I know, the second step of the warrior path is absorbing energy to consolidate strength. Now, the right methods might differ from person to person. Eating essence food should help, but there’s more to it… I do have some books on the subject. Mr. Cyrus, how much can you read?” She explained, then kindly asked. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a way around the embarrassing question, she could only be direct.

“I…” Cyrus started to explain, embarrassed.

“He’s bad on it. He can barely read the signs unless they are related to food…” Iris interrupted him again and threw a joke to ease his awkwardness.

Anne sighed mentally. She couldn’t do anything about it, reading was becoming less popular these days.

“There’s no problem with that. I also have a book to help you learn how to read in no time. How about you, Ms. Iris, and Mr. Hakon?” Anne comforted the warrior before asking the rest of the group. How many days ‘no time’ was, could be up to debate. Young Rick would definitely say too much time.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Cyrus was a little confused about it, but Iris wouldn’t care about it.

“I can read the common tongue and some crohnish. I also know few words in ancient solarium but only spells.” The mage stated proudly. Her humble origins didn’t stop her from looking for more knowledge, especially when it was free.

“The common tongue and kohr.” Hakon answered plainly.

Anne wasn’t surprised about the Hakon knowing kohr since it was the mother language of most beastkin, though there weren’t many books written in it. Now, the girl’s knowledge of crohnish was truly unexpected. The old continental language has long been forgotten by the masses, and only scholars and ancient families still paid attention to it. Maybe she would bring other surprises later.

After directing Cyrus to pick a syllable and go over it on an empty table, she moved on to the challenges of the other visitors. Iris was a little more difficult to crack, the girl was too proud to admit her difficulties up front. However, some diligent back and forth finally extracted the information.

As a copper tier primancer, Iris could only cast cantrips, not even a complete spell. Primancy would allow her to spellcast the four primal elements, fire, wind, water, and earth. Unfortunately, due to her financial limitations, the mage was only focusing on pyromancy. The first step of her path was extremely important because the mage would learn how to interact with magic energy to execute a casting. However, the next step would require both perfect control and visualization.

By definition, cantrips only relied on chanting and channeling, while complete spells would also need visualization. The young woman already had decent energy control, and what she lacked the most was a master to guide her through the process of visualization. Since bookmancy often used spellcasting, Anne could help her through this obstacle. However, as a supporter of the craft, she would rather use a book for it and let the girl pave her path.

Anne made a mental count of all books that could offer guidance, but none seemed more appropriate than ‘The tricks of visualization’ by Anne Wordkeeper. Indeed, this was a book written by herself. In fact, it was her first book and proof of her real ability as a bookmancer. It was both a compendium and a training book that could help novice mages with visualization.

Suggesting her own work shouldn’t be difficult, but somehow Anne felt embarrassed to do so, yet she did it anyway. Surprisingly, Iris didn’t stand on ceremony and quickly accepted the book once she heard about its content. The mage ran happily to another empty table and started going through the knowledge right away.

Now, only the reserved healer remained unattended. If extracting the information out of Iris had been like playing tug of war with a giant, doing so with the foxkin was like looking for gold ore randomly. So, instead of trying to guess, Anne retrieved a few biomancy-related books and started discussing them with Hakon.

Biomancy, or healing, was less mystical and more practical than most magic crafts. Hence, Anne needed to take note of several topics to gauge the man’s true abilities. In fact, many healers could be graded between two tiers and only a professional of the guild would be able to decide in which tier they actually were.

The convention was that copper tier biomancers would know basic treatment and healing herbology, like disinfecting wounds, preparing salves, and treating colds. While the next step would require the healer to manipulate healing essence. From what they discussed, Anne guessed that Hakon was already capable of using the essence, but only bluntly.

It was like putting pressure on a bleeding wound, if small, coagulation would take care of it, but if the wound was big, it would have to be manually closed. In the analogy, the current Hakon can only put pressure, and to advance he would need to learn how to close it properly.

Anne wasn’t very sure about this one, but a safe bet would be to use the ‘Magic and Lifeforce’ to give him a strong healing essence foundation and then move on to some more specific books.

Satisfied with her performance, Anne observed the three adventurers immerse in their studies. Good days lay ahead!