"That was pretty good," Ryan says as he grabs our trash to throw away. "I haven't tried his stall before, but I'll make sure I do again."

"He knows what he's doing," I agree. "He sometimes gets a permit to go to longer-duration Dungeons to set up for when the hunters and scavengers to come out."

Obtaining one of those permits isn't easy. If the bureau is going to authorize a food stall at a Gate because of how long the run could end up being, they'll make sure there are high standards for it. Hunters who just spent six to twelve hours in a Dungeon will often be on the agitated side and will want good food.

The bureau will prioritize that over someone just wanting to make money. Unlike some hunter agencies in the world, ours tries to take care of its Awakened and make sure they're happy, within reason. Making sure they have good food after a long day of hunting is one of those things that are considered to be within reason.

I think there are only four restaurants and meal vendors in this district able to get such a permit.

"That's pretty impressive," Ryan looks over to the lake as he dumps our trash into a can. "Going to call Aster?"

Aster took off while we were eating and is playing with some of the kids in the lake, happily barking and chasing after them, splashing around with them. Some of them had one of those small fabric pool balls that they're using to play keep-away with Aster right now.

"He's neither my pet nor my familiar," I say. "All I did was clean him up because of how sticky he was. If he wants to do other stuff, it's not my place to stop him."

"Are you sure it's safe?"

"He's not a monster," I shrug. "And he is a rather powerful beast. If he wants to do something, I can't actually stop him."

While I don't know exactly what the pup is, he's able to come and go from the Mythic Forest as he pleases. That alone indicates he's likely something very powerful – on the level of a mythical beast at a minimum. Then there's the fact that something able to edit the System's informational windows did so for him just to make notes about his behavior.

Not even the mythical beasts I've come across so far have had their information changed.

"Plus," I add. "I already told him to go home after I cleaned him off and he left and came back. And he can teleport."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Damn," Ryan says. "I guess it's fine. You won't get into trouble if he does something, will you?"

"He's neither my pet nor my familiar," I say. "So I don't hold responsibility."

Technically. I'm certain Aster will be fine, though, so there's nothing for me to worry about.

"If you're sure," Ryan looks hesitant. "Anyway, our next stop is this way. Come on."

We resume walking and he takes my hand into his again as we do. This walk is a bit quieter and we enjoy the scenery as we go.

With limited ability to enjoy nature in the wild, most of the cities across the globe include a decent amount of nature within them. Trees lining the center of the streets, with bushes and flowers and grasses between them. More flora planted along the sides of the streets adds to the view while providing additional homes for insects such as butterflies, which can be seen fluttering around as we walk.

It doesn't take us long to reach our next destination, as it's a large stone building facing the park. The library/bookstore combination was built with the intention of allowing people a quick path to somewhere scenic to read their books so they built it at the park's edge, facing part of the forested area with walking trails and part of the small lake.

The section of road in front of it never had trees planted there to allow for the park view, though the other flora still remains.

"Here?" I ask as Ryan starts to lead me up the steps to the grand building.

"Yeah," Ryan says. "Come on."

We enter the library and start to pass by the front desk, but I stop to greet the worker there.

"Hello, Cynthia," I say.

She's in her late forties, and has grey-touched blue hair and blue eyes, while dressed in the green polo and khakis of the store's uniform. I've been coming here long enough that most of the staff knows me by name, and I don't want to ignore her just because I'm on a date.

"Hey, Evan," the clerk greets me. "What brings you in tonight?"

"Me," Ryan answers. "We're heading into the bookstore section to look at some books."

Please don't let this be him wanting to buy me something.

"Oh," she says. "That's nice. By the way, who's this?"

Rather than looking at Ryan, she's looking at Aster, who Ryan only now notices has rejoined us. The pup is dry once more, so he probably used his magic to dry himself off after leaving to rejoin us. Either that, or someone at the park did.

"This is Aster," I pick the pup up. "He's not a pet or familiar, he's just following me around this evening. Aster, say 'hi'."

The library and bookstore permit pets and familiars within reason and as long as they're well-behaved. Aster fits into neither of those categories, but I'm sure they'll be fine with him.

"Woof!" Aster wags his tail.

"He's cute," she says. "Reminds me of a beast in one of our books."

"A beast?" I ask.

"Yes," she nods. "I don't remember much about it, you'd have to ask one of the employees. The one I'm thinking of is a bear, but he has a similar coloration and markings as it."

There are far more texts here than I'd ever manage to read in a lifetime, so I'm not surprised there are creatures I haven't read about. If the other one isn't from an ancient tome, I'm even less likely to have heard about it.

"I'll check that out, thanks," I tell her.

"No problem," she says. "Good luck with your search."

I set Aster down, then Ryan and I pass through the library with its shelves, tables, and seats. We pass by a desk at the back section of it and into the actual bookstore section, which has considerably fewer tables and seats.

Though we're wearing storage bracelets, no one attempts to stop us as we walk. As with basically every shop that deals in anything remotely magical, the building has powerful enchantments on it. Some of them completely block a person's ability to access a pocket space such as in our bracelets or the [Dimensional Storage] Skill, so they don't need to ask us to leave the bracelets behind.

No one would want to, considering their value. If something went missing – or the bracelet was never returned – it would cause a massive legal headache.

"I've been trying to learn the ancient language," Ryan tells me. "And while I've picked up some, I was curious if there's anything you'd recommend I get. No limit on this."

"You want your first date with me to be help getting books?"

"First official date," he says. "We've had the little lunch dates. But yeah. It's something which interests both of us, right?"

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"Sure," I say. "Are you good with getting three books, or just one?"

What I would recommend differs based on that, with the three books being the superior option.

"Whatever you think is best," he answers.

"Alright," I say. "Let's go over here."

I lead him to some shelves and scan the titles before tapping on the spine of one. It has a deep blue cover with text in both English and the ancient tongue on it announcing it as a translation guide for the two. The tome's fairly thick and is one of three copies on the shelf, all of which have a label beneath them announcing their price as $150.

While it's fairly high in price compared to more normal languages, that's because of just how much is involved in even writing a proper guide for it. A $5 book won't cut it and even the cheapest version of this costs $50.

"Do you have this one?" I ask.

"No," he answers. "I do have a translation guide they recommended me, though."

"They probably recommended that one," I point at a book several titles down. "Generally-speaking, that one's better for newbies. I prefer this one as a recommendation though even if it's more in-depth. Plus, you're smart enough to understand it."

I pull it off the shelf and hand it him, then take him to another section, where children's stories are stored. We pass by the normal children's stories and enter a section with replicas and imitations of ancient tomes, both in their original language and translated.

For ancient texts which have a little bit higher of a demand and cheaper production cost, they'll sell them in a normal store rather than require them to be specially-ordered. This is especially true for ones which have been out for longer.

Some of the tomes here aren't actually copies but compilations of stories taken from various tomes. I look through the various tomes until I find what I'm looking for.

"These two," I indicate two nearly-identical tomes.

Their covers are the same, bound in snow-white leather with silver caps and deep blue writing. One is written in English, the other in the ancient tongue. Their price to purchase is $1,300 each so it might be a little bit more than he's willing to spend, but if it is, then he'll probably let me know the limit on that and I can make choices accordingly.

The reason I'm picking them instead of a cheaper pair is because I do feel they're better for those learning the ancient tongue over most of the cheaper ones. While their stories were compiled from various texts found in different Dungeons over the course of centuries, this latest edition including a new story discovered last year, the writing is pretty similar between each tale. That makes it easier to pick up the patterns and words when reading.

"They're children's stories about a kingdom of frost," I explain. "Each featuring one or more of five beings: a frostwing falcon, an icesoul wolf, a winter leopard, a snowstice tree, and a young boy."

"It looks pretty thick," he says.

"It is," I tell him. "There are thirty-four stories in it and five hundred fifty-nine folios in the version with the ancient tongue, which is forty-six folios longer than the translated text."

"Folio?" Ryan frowns.

"Front and back of a page," I tell him. "Each sheet. The average story length is around eight folios, or sixteen sheets, and usually contains an image on every page pair that takes up either all or a significant part of a page, to go with the story that's being told. These were also designed to imitate the style of the ancient texts, though they of have some at a lower price point if you don't want the replica method."

"I don't mind that," Ryan says. "I'll take them if you think they'll be good."

"They will," I pull the tomes off the shelf and set them onto the one he's already carrying. "If you can read a story in both languages, it'll help you learn the one you don't know."

"Since I'll be able to see what it's supposed to be," he says. "Instead of needing to constantly look it up."

"Right," I say. "Also, those four creatures are all mythical beasts. The boy isn't, and is usually portrayed as being around ten or eleven. In his tales, he usually gets help from one of the four while their tales might only include them and no people."

"That sounds neat," he says. "Let's look for something for you now. Want to see about that text the clerk mentioned?"

Since he said we're getting something for me, the implication is that he's going to buy it for me as well.

"You don't need to do that," I tell him.

"I know," he says. "You can pay me back by reading some of these stories to me."

"Alright," I chuckle. "I'd do that anyway."

"I know," he winks. "Let's find an employee."

"There's one in the next aisle," I say. "I can hear them stocking shelves."

We walk around the aisle to find a worker in her fifties, her hair completely grey, though her orange eyes are still full of energy.

"Hey, Abigail," I say.

"Good evening, Evan," she greets me, then looks at Ryan. "It's Ryan, right? You were in here the other day looking for a book on the azulvitt fox, right?"

I raise an eyebrow at Ryan, who gives me a sheepish look.

"After I left your shop last Friday," he tells me. "Since I'd found an ancient text that had a similar creature, I figured maybe I could learn a little bit about it. But that one wasn't listed as available yet, and you were reading about a similar creature, so I figured I'd see if I could get a copy made. Learned I had to order it."

"Ah," I say. "Did you?"

"Yeah," he answers. "It should arrive in a few weeks according to the tracker."

"They do take time," I nod.

"How can I help you boys today?" Abigail asks. "I see you've already found some books. Learning to read the ancient tongue?"

"Yeah," Ryan answers. "Evan's recommended these to me for it."

"Not a bad choice," she says. "Did you have any questions?"

"Yeah," I point at Aster. "This little guy's following me around, and Cynthia mentioned you guys have a book with a similar creature, but she wasn't sure which one. The beast was a bear, though."

"A bear…" Abigail starts thinking. "Maybe it's… come with me. I think I know which one it is."

She leads us to another part of the store and pulls a few books off their shelves to quickly skim through them, then repeats that a couple of times.

"Ah-ha!" She exclaims. "I remember now! This way, boys!"

Abigail leads us to yet another part of the store before reaching up and grabbing a thick tome from an upper shelf. It's got a cover that's a deep purple, with golden metal caps on the corners and spine and black writing in the ancient tongue.

"We have it in English, too, if you want," she says. "Though I know you prefer ones originating from ancient texts to be in the ancient tongue and as much a replica of them as possible. This is a compilation of stories found in various texts and speaks of a group of god-like beasts. Not many people ever look at this tome and new stories involving them are even rarer. I think we've had this copy on the shelf longer than I've been alive."

"No one really looks at it?" I ask.

"Yeah," she shrugs. "Most of what we get from the ancient tomes which reference them are inconsistent, more akin to folklore and journals without certainty. The only thing that's common between them is that they're called the Celestials and are agreed to have unlimited magical energy and power. They can't agree on their forms, their specific abilities, or even if they can communicate like people or not."

That explanation is enough for me to know why it's never been suggested to me before. I prefer reading stories that tell proper tells and which make sense, or tomes which are informational guides about creatures and places.

"And people generally want stories and compilations which make sense," I say. "Rather than ones full of speculation and inconclusive information. I take it that $9,000 price tag is from the materials the book is made from?"

"Right," she says. "While the stories were often found in journals and diaries found in Dungeons, the topics of the tales are usually found in ones with more expensive pages, inks, and coverings. The leather is made from the hide of an iceheart bear that was stained to the amethyst you see now. The pages, inks, and metal are all equal to that. We do have them in a lower price point, however."

"This one's fine," Ryan says. "Add it to the pile."

"Ryan-" I start to protest.

"It's as much for me as for you," Ryan tells me. "After hearing what she said, I'm a bit curious about those creatures. I will admit, though, but you're probably going to have to tell me what it says."

Abigail places the tome on Ryan's stack.

"Good luck seeing if there's information about the little guy in there," she tells me. "Like I said, it's pretty inconsistent. I haven't gone through the full tome before, so I couldn't tell you anything more than there are multiple creatures with his coloration and patterns within it."

"You've looked through it?" Ryan asks.

"We have a basic copy of every text we carry," she explains. "So that copy is still considered new, even if it's been around for decades. The one I looked at was in English, too."

"Oh."

"Did you boys need anything else?" She asks.

"No," Ryan tells her, then looks at me. "Unless you wanted something?"

If I say there is, he'll probably try to buy it for me. I do have a wishlist of texts I plan on ordering in the future so I could accept that offer now. However, Ryan's already spending a lot of money on this date and I don't want to have more spent on me.

It's his money to spend as he pleases, but he's already going further than I'm comfortable with. If he bought something from my list, it would go beyond the level of discomfort I'm okay with.

"Not tonight," I say.

"Alright," Abigail says. "Enjoy your night."

"You as well," Ryan tells her.

"See you," I say.

Ryan and I head to the counter to pay for the tomes, and he carries them until we've exited the building. Now that we're outside of its protective enchantments, he places them into one of his bracelets.

"It'll start getting dark soon," he says. "But I have a lantern in one of my bracelets. Do you want to get dessert and find a spot at the park to read some of the fairy tales at?"

"You want to do that for part of our date?"

"I don't mind it," he tells me. "I've heard you've got a nice story voice, too, and kind of want to hear it."

It's impossible to know who told him that considering that I do readings at the library and have for years. Hundreds of people have heard my reading voice so it could be one of our mutual friends, it could have been someone at the bookstore when he was there last week, it could have been something he came across online, or something else.

Not that it matters, as I don't mind reading to others.

"We can do that," I tell him. "If you're okay with any kids passing by wanting to sit and listen in with you."

"I'm sure there won't be that many."