Vesper walked out of the library feeling slightly better, although he still felt some dread with what he had to do next. He took his time, making his way to Olbin's field. Eventually, he was forced to face his boss, whom he knew so little about. Maybe Olbin wouldn't care in his drunken stupor, resigned to his fate of wasting away, or maybe he'd be angry. Vesper knocked on the door, bracing himself. Olbin opened the door.

"Oh, it's you, boy. You didn't show up yesterday, so I had a look around. You haven't made much progress. Can't pay you if you don't show up." Olbin sighed and sat down and leaned against his hut. His soulless eyes peered down at the dirt. Misery exuded from his face.

"What's the point in living when they take everything away? It's bad enough I was sent to this damn place, worse I have to take care of you when I can't even take care of myself."

Olbin started to hoist himself off the dirt.

"Wait! Why are you like this! I haven't seen you leave that hut once. Why don't you ever leave to help me till the field or use one of your farmer skills to make my life a little easier? I can't till this field on my own. You could at least try." said Vesper.

"What's the point in trying when I don't even have any farming skills? I'm like you, boy. I was also cursed with my classes. It just happened later in my life. I got a taste of what it was like to be special before my hopes and dreams were torn away from me."

"What do you mean? People can level their class and change it. What about [Farmer Warrior] Gunthrax or the [Lord Janitor] Scrubbly? They were able to change their fate, just like you and I can."

Olbin chuckled or was crying, or perhaps a little of both.

"They still relied on luck to get those advanced classes. I guess for every one of them, there is someone like me. You see, I was given terrible options for my class advancement, far worse than even my basic class. I was one of the King's retainers, you know. Before the gods cursed me."

"That can't be right. I've only ever heard of advanced classes helping people. Your classes can't seriously become worse for progressing your levels."

"I have remnants of my skills as an [Iron Vanguard], yet I can only level as a [Vanguard Farmer]. I didn't even get any skill that helps me farm, but that's the only way I can level. They kicked me out of the royal guard track, replaced by Dal Horthran of Lothridge Farms. With the debt I took on at the Royal Academy, I was only able to get my hands on this piece of junk land with the help of Lady Eldin."

"Still, you could've tried. My class [bookworm] isn't great, but I'm still doing my best to level. You can change your class around when you hit your expert class." Vesper tried to soothe Olbin.

"Do you know how few people hit an expert class? I can tell you no one is hitting an expert class with my set of skills, at least not if the only way they can level is through farming. Like I said, my life's over, whether you work or don't. It's all just pointless."

Had Lady Eldin paired them together on purpose? Vesper didn't know. It didn't matter. Vesper understood Olbin's sentiment more than anyone else in Lucridge. Even though his class wasn't [bookworm], it functioned pretty similarly, and [bookworm] wasn't a class that meshed with an illiterate orphan. But Vesper had made progress, and so could Olbin.

"It's not pointless. It'll just take more work." Said, Vesper.

"Yeah, no. It's not happening. Work or don't, I'll be in my hut." Olbin shut the door behind him, going back into his hut.

You're just as doomed as him! The doomed duo has a wonderful ring to it. Alry giggled and landed on Vesper's head.

"I meant what I said, you demon! And I'll prove it, too."

I'm not an ugly demon, mortal. You look much more like a demon than someone as pretty as me. It'll take a lot of work to become worthy of the Fae.

Vesper just sighed. There was no winning an argument with the annoying Fae. Vesper still felt terrible, although not physically.

"Why would I want to be worthy of the Fae?" Vesper scowled, moving his hands on his hips.

Because we're the Fae! One of the greatest divine species in all the realms!"

"Eh, seems overrated. Not worth the effort," commented Vesper. He ignored the tiny devil who was yanking his hair and only wobbled a little bit as he picked up his decrepit shovel. He needed to grow accustomed to his new strength sooner rather than later. Already, he had angered quite a few people stumbling like a drunkard down the city's more crowded streets.

Slamming the shovel into the ground, Vesper found it much easier to move the soil. It still wasn't anywhere close to easy, but his added strength made the task from impossible to possibly doable. If Vesper would be able to get his coordination back, that is.

How could someone miss the ground? The ground never moved, and it was the largest conceivable target to possibly ever exist. Yet, Vesper missed the ground when he swung his shovel for the third time, twisting and stumbling onto his bottom. Luckily, no one was watching. If there had been, they would've assumed Vesper was a maniac on magic mushrooms.

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You're the clumsiest mortal I've ever met.

"I'm not used to the strength yet."

Clearly, at this rate, it'll take a decade for you to grow accustomed.

"Really!? I can't spend a decade learning to walk normally."

My grasp on mortal time is poor. I think I meant a century.

Vesper just tried to block out the Fae and kept trying to shovel. Sweat poured down Vesper's body halfway through the day. It wasn't normal for Vesper to be this hungry or tired.

"Why am I so hungry?" asked himself.

Strength of the Fae isn't free. You'll consume much more energy and will have to eat much more to sustain yourself.

Vesper looked despondent at his meager coin purse. He wasn't being paid enough to afford what he figured was twice the food he was currently eating. Twice the strength for twice the cost. That is what it seemed to cost Vesper.

Even if he were able to master his reflexes, working for Olbin didn't seem viable. For the time being, it was the only job Vesper had, though, so he'd have to figure out something. Olbin likely wasn't going to pay him blindly anymore.

Vesper kept working. It would be a waste not to finish off the day and collect his meager coins, but tomorrow Vesper wasn't sure. His life was as uncertain as it could be.

----------------------------------------

Vesper didn't mind the decaying library, which could cave in at any moment. He wouldn't have to worry if it did because he'd be dead. Improving his reading was worth the risk, especially when he had company as good as Quill.

"Your new strength is amazing. Too bad it's useless for a [bookworm]. Trust me, I'd kill for an increased eyesight skill, so I wouldn't have to squint at barely illuminated pages and burn my fingers with candle wax. Now that's a power you should've got." marveled Quill.

"Hey, I made a great choice!? Who doesn't want to be strong! Or to fight! There isn't a greater honor than that of a warrior, mortal." Alry chimed in.

Quill and Vesper just shook their heads.

"It's cool, I guess. But now I have to eat twice as much to live. I'm going to have no spare coins if I keep this up."

"Well, I still can't hire you. This place is crumbling to the ground as we speak. Maybe it's time you move to the capital. Once I finish my business here, you can tag along."

"Maybe. But I like it here in Lucridge. The weather is always nice. The streets aren't crowded." Vesper didn't tell Quill that Lucridge was the perfect city to hide from Lothar and knew that the capital would be teeming with people to rat him out.

"Well, back to the grimoire. Has your fairy friend given you any insight into the dead language? Only about a third of your book is translatable."

"No, apparently, reading mortal languages isn't something Fae warriors do."

"Well, it was worth a shot. Your summoned creature being as dense as bricks isn't your fault, Vesper."

"Hey! I'm right here! If you're going to talk smack, do it behind my back! Or better not at all!" yelled Alry, who yanked at Quill's hair.

"Ah, stop that," Quill muttered as he swung his hands at the tiny devil in the same way a warrior would swing at a mosquito. Alry dodged the clumsy hands and kept tugging at the hair.

Vesper ignored them and squinted at the mysterious pages of the grimoire. Inside laid the answers that Vesper needed to mend his soul and make right the emptiness he felt deep down inside himself. Alry was convinced that it couldn't be done, but Vesper didn't believe her. He couldn't believe her.

Quill wasn't much help either.

"Vesper, I just can't magically make translations lost to time show up, and it would take divine favor to pry even the smallest amount of information from any [scholar] with that type of information. Believe me, there are answers to this text out there somewhere. Just inaccessible from either of us."

"So my options are to slave away in a library in hopes that a [scholar] is generous enough to show what they know about the topic?"

"That's an option, but there are other options. Another option is to worm your way into the King's academy or become a wealthy merchant. For the right price, any bit of information is buyable."

"So you're saying I'm out of luck. That for the foreseeable future, I'm going to feel like this."

"Maybe. It's not like an ancient lost to time language comes cheap; otherwise, it wouldn't be lost to time."

"And the academy? How hard would it be to get admission?"

"For you? Impossible. You're a lowly [bookworm], without the slightest knowledge of combat or adventuring. The academy only takes in those who've proven themselves through their work with the Adventurer's Guild."

"If you end up coming with me to the capital, I can guarantee you some sort of job. They take the art of reading much more seriously there. They know the value of a good [bookworm]."

"But I'm not even a good [bookworm]. I barely even know how to read," said Vesper.

"That's true, and you'll have to act as if you know how to read well. But lying and acting a bit arrogant are the hallmarks of academia. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. As much as it pains me to admit, and as much as I wish there were standards, working in libraries is a cutthroat business."

"They squint at parchments. They don't lop off the heads of bandits or shoot people in the back with arrows." Vesper argued.

"You're right, Vesper. They're much worse than either of those things. Much crueler, more calculating, and cold-blooded." Quill leaned in closer to Vesper.

"Have you ever heard of the Peppermore Scandal?"

"No, I haven't."

"It's a cautionary tale all good librarians should know about weak leadership and mutiny. Peppermore was once a prestigious library near the heart of the capital, where they held onto books that made the King's royal library look like a plaything for little children. It's no surprise that this holy grail of knowledge made the head librarian go mad with power. Elkor, on a whim, burned half his collection for no apparent reason. Maybe there was a reason, but Elkor was killed before he could testify.

They swarmed him like a hive of bees, pulling his bones apart limb by limb for this misdeed."

"Who pulled him apart limb by limb?" Vesper asked.

“The [scholars], [scribes], and [bookworms], of course. Like feral animals, they tore Elkor to pieces, spread his bones across the city, and fed on his flesh like craven beasts. All because Elkor disrespected the people below him and assumed those books were his and his alone."

"I'm not buying this story. They really ate his flesh and picked him into pieces limb by limb? Yeah, maybe if those "scholars" were demons, I'd believe you, but doesn't that seem a little outlandish, Quill."

Quill just shrugged. "There will always be fools who don't respect the validity of stories and die because of it."

"So you really believe in this story?" Vesper was skeptical, very skeptical.

"If someone told you, you'd find an ancient text that summoned a spiteful evil little angel-like creature, would you have believed them?" Quill snarkily responded.

"That's different, Quill."

"Is it?" Quill harrumphed, slightly offended.

"Yes!"

"Well, just be careful, Vesper. It would be unfortunate if you were torn to pieces by your compatriots and eaten. A very real possibility."

Vesper just shook his head.