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Chapter 8 - Learning

'Wow, this place is even bigger on the inside.'

I was strolling through what I think was the courtyard of this castle looking for a way to explore the inside. My friend split up into ten smaller slimes and followed me inside. As big as my friend was, if we did find an entrance to the inside it wouldn't fit. Looking around the courtyard, it seemed like a serious battle took place here a long time ago. Everywhere I stepped I heard the crunching of bones, the entire ground was covered with skeletons, most of them were human but there were some that looked monstrous. Skeletons of giants, dragons, giant snakes, birds, and all other types of animals. Just looking at the skeletons wasn't enough to know exactly what they were when they were alive but they all seemed to be skeletons of the monsters that are already here.

'What exactly happened here? It looks like humans lived here and fought with the monsters. But if humans were here first then where did the monsters come from?'

I didn't know what to think to be honest, I highly doubt that the monsters made these castles. If humans made them then they would've had to dig all the way down here. I thought that perhaps dwarves made these castles since they're known for living underground but I couldn't find a single dwarvish skeleton anywhere. After wandering around for a while I managed to find a hole in one of the walls and made my way inside.

'Ah, so you can't fit huh?'

The hole I found was about three times my size but my friend was much bigger than that even when it split into ten parts. My friend was forced to split again, this time into a horde of regular sized slimes that spilled through the hole. I was swept off my feet by the sudden flood of slimes and slid down the hall way, hitting a door. Standing up and looking down the hall way all I saw were slimes.

'I guess that's one way to fit. Now, what's behind this door?'

I turned around to find a solid metal door that was in surprisingly good condition given the rest of the place. The door itself looked like it was just made, the hinges, on the other hand, were rusted to the point that I could just rip them out of the wall.

'Well that was easy.'

With the hinges ripped out, the strong metal door that was in perfect condition simply fell over. I walked through the doorway with the horde of small slimes trailing behind me. I took about three steps before falling down a very long staircase. I got up and dusted myself off before getting drowned in a horde of slimes. When I got up the second time I noticed that the room I fell into lit up with magical stones.

'Oh, wow...'

What I saw in this room was a lot of books, somehow still in perfect condition.

'A Library, I found a Library!'

I jumped up and down and ended up stepping on a slime and falling over again. If there was one thing I wanted to find more than anything, it was information about the world. I got up again, this time being careful of where I stepped, and looked around the library.

'As I thought, I can't read any of these.'

I walked around looking at the books and all I saw were strange symbols I didn't understand. I was just about to give up when I spotted a door all the way at the back of the library. I walked to it and simply opened the door, to my surprise.

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'That's it? No trap or something?'

I took a step inside, and nothing happened.

'I guess not.'

I walked into the room and it was a simple small room with a single desk in the middle, a magical light stone in the ceiling, and a chest at the back. I walked over to the chest and opened it up, no trap either. Inside were more books I couldn't read but these all looked exactly the same except for the symbols it had on the front. I took out the ones at the top and found even more underneath them. Taking all the books out I counted sixteen and then I noticed something, the symbols on one of the books looked familiar. Then it hit me all at once, an entire language I knew came flooding into my head like something I forgot about.

'I, can read this!'

I grabbed the book and read the title of it on the cover; "Xaxis' Sixteen Volumes of Languages: Number Sixteen: The Dead". I opened the book and read the note on the first page.

"Hello and welcome to the sixteenth volume of Xaxis' Sixteen Volumes of Languages! Each and every volume is written exactly the same, in order for easy learning of all the languages. These sixteen volumes are the only existing copies so I suggest that they be kept together. Every known word of this language is contained within, along with a brief meaning of the word, and pronunciation key to help you learn how to speak it. The reason these books must be kept together is because a minimum of two are needed for anyone to learn a language using these books, it's a bit of a failsafe I came up with. All sixteen volumes are as follows: Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Giants, Goblins, Orcs, Beasts, Demons, Angels, Dragons, Sea Creatures, Fey, Primordials, Celestials, Abyssals, and finally, The Dead. On the next page of each book you will find the books volume written in each language so you can tell which one you have. Have fun learning and please, don't share these books with just anyone.

-Xaxis"

I was amazed, I didn't know what to think and my mind went blank for a bit. I was finally able to read something, and I had a way to learn fifteen other languages! I turned the page and sure enough, the volume of the book was written there sixteen times. I took out all the books and laid them on the desk. 

'It would be best for me to learn all of these languages if I can ever get out of here.'

I sat down at the desk and started with the Human language. The horde of slimes gathered around the room I was in and sat there waiting for me while I tried learning a new language. After a while of reading and trying to decipher the unknown symbols in one of the books I started to get the hang of it and then heard Mother.

Skill Learned: TranslationLanguage Learned: Human(Written)

'Yes! I did it!'

I managed to learn some of the human language and even got a skill out of it which made translating things a little faster. I still had quite a way to go to finish the book so I kept on learning.