A reddish oak-covered book laid over a big table while strings of golden light danced above, and sometimes, through it. The magic that bound the book was carefully inlaid in invisible runes on the wooden cover. Anne checked and re-checked it a dozen times before declaring the restoration finished. Months after being brought by Ceres, the papermancy compendium would finally leave her restoration workshop and enter her archives.
The book had been her best and most throughout renovation work. The pages, the information inside, and even the cover had to be redone. Fortunately, her efforts hadn’t been wasted, aside from adding a whole new craft to her inventory, the book had also increased the pages of her grimoire by four units. A satisfied Anne took the book and went down stairs to store it.
The last couple of weeks had been full of quiet mornings, which she used to finish the restoration, and vivid afternoons when the golden trio and Rick would come to study. Since Asha’s abrupt trip, the rest of her customers decided to use the morning for training which was perfectly fine. A good amount of practice would also improve comprehension.
Rick had also decided to move up his game by adding skills to his studying plan. Much like warriors, the hunter path would leverage magic essence to improve the body and perform skills. However, the two paths would focus on different types of skills. The former would lean towards fighting against foes, while the latter would focus on speed and non-confrontational skills like trapping and tracking.
Sadly, Rick’s rich days had come to an end and he had only saved two days' worth of reading credit. Still, his planning had been fairly reasonable and mindful of his financial limitations. He started with the beastiarium, focusing on local beasts until he was confident in identifying and dealing with them. Then, he moved to basic speed skills, running and evading. Although other skills could help him slay stronger beasts, the ones that he chose were amongst the easiest to learn and more essential to survival.
Two weeks ago, when he learned from the mayor’s butler that Asha had left on a long trip, he didn’t hesitate to proceed to the next step of his plan. Fortunately, the bookstore had training books on both skills. Training books were usually more expensive, but being from basic skills they would only cost six silver for a day of study.
The hunter had chosen running as his first skill using one day of reading credit to experience the book and take his notes. The first chapter of the book was dedicated to breathing, and the first pages were just like a regular compendium. He would read about the different breathing techniques and get a good mental image of them, then the book would move towards the training part.
Virtual simulation was one of the most exquisite and difficult bookmancy techniques. First, the crafter would draw a virtual master model of the skill, either from their own comprehension or from someone else’s who mastered the technique. Then, the bookmancer would copy the settings of the model without the experience and add points of interaction for the readers to input their own experience. During the training, the reader would repeatedly simulate the skill in the copied model until it matched the minimum standards of the master model.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The training book simulation model would work as a trainer who would constantly evaluate and give pointers to the reader. However, this exercise would only happen in the mind of the student, requiring further physical training to build muscle memory and mastery of the skill.
Compared to its direct competitor, the magitech’s skill scroll, the training book was indeed more complicated as it demanded more work from its users. From a utility point of view, the scroll could be seen as an evolution of the training book. Just by activating it, the skill information would be transferred to the user’s mind bypassing the need for study and mental training. However, its practicality came at the cost of true comprehension and experience.
A skill scroll user would be able to start performing the skill a couple of minutes after the activation, while a training book could require any time from one week to a month of hard study with the risk of the user not learning it in the end. On the other hand, to achieve the same level of mastery and insight as a training book user, those who opted for the scroll would take more than a year if ever. It was a typical weak guaranteed fast gain versus a stronger slower gain.
Although books had long stopped being an option, the ancient lines had never fallen prey to the easy gains of the magitech. Instead, they used masters and trainers to teach directly to their youngsters.
With his one-day credit, Rick had gone up to the second chapter where he learned techniques to conserve stamina while running. Then, he spent a week training and absorbing the knowledge. For training, he mostly ran between the town, the bookstore, and the forest, adding obstacles and going through uneven paths. Just by integrating the breathing and energy conserving techniques he felt a huge difference in his jogging and running, so he reluctantly spent another reading credit to finish the book.
Thankfully, another day had been enough to complete the last three chapters, which were ‘Irregular Paths’, ‘Sprint Techniques’, and ‘Persecutions’. By the end of another week, he felt comfortable enough to dive deeper into the forest and look for better passages through the mountains. And so, the hunter left with the mapping book for his second solo expedition.
Winter was only three weeks ahead, so he was pressed in time. The golden trio had been against him going alone, they pleaded to go with him both because they feared for his safety and because they felt bored without action. Still, Rick had insisted on going by himself, mapping was a task the demanded quietness and high mobility which wasn’t possible with the trio.
Seeing the adventurers’ depressed state, Anne decided to commission their services to get her some supplies from Riverend Town. Initially, she planned to wait for Ceres to return and hire the mercenary for the job, but for such a simple task the trio should be capable and trustworthy enough. Of course, she hadn’t done it only because of pity, Anne would feel uneasy without enough supplies at hand and having the trio come to the bookstore every afternoon only to check their notes didn’t bode well for her finances.
Usually, escorting or retrieving missions would fall under the job description of mercenaries while adventurers would focus on tasks that involved beasts. Yet, the golden trio was desperate for some coins and they did know their way to and around the neighbor town.
Dorgh had advised Anne against establishing trade relations with Riverend at the risk of facing the ire of the mayor, but she couldn’t limit nor jeopardize her business because of it. After all, what could he do to make her business difficult? Even though the town’s investments didn’t reach her deserted bookstore, she still paid her taxes, or she would when next spring came. The deed of the building was also on her hands, so the only way he could make things difficult would be by bad-mouthing her business. Unless he wanted to put a banning on her store, but that would be ridiculous, right?