Ch #22
"A Story Retold"
Kai and Aria followed Clio, who had rushed deep into the library. After a few moments, they found Clio in an old, dusty part of the library.
Cobwebs and heavy dust covered the floor and shelves. "Some organizing and cleaning you did, Clio," Aria sneezed. The place looked rarely visited, and the books seemed even more rarely read.
"Oh, come on, like anyone else ever comes here." Clio rolled her eyes. "The library is rarely used by anyone, and most people just ask me," she grumbled.
"Alright, alright... let's stop and focus. What are we looking for?" Kai wanted to find whatever they needed and get out quickly. The last time he was in an unknown corner of a library, he'd been gutted. Thinking about that sent shivers down his spine.
"Where are you, where are you... Ah, here it is." Clio took out a dusty book, far larger than the ones she'd taken out till now. Barely able to hold onto it, she dusted the book, passing it to Kai to carry.
"Here, hold it. This is the one we need." Clio opened the book in his hand, turning the pages. *Too close,* Kai could smell her hair from how close she was. "Let's move to the tables." Kai closed the tome, moving away and walking towards the tables.
Sitting down, Kai examined the tome. "The Magical Tales of Ambriel... Is this a storybook?" The size and cover of it had fooled him. Opening it, Kai's suspicions were proven correct; it was a bonafide storybook. "Is there something in it I have to read?" Kai asked, turning to Clio.
"Not something but about someone," Clio said as she took the book from him. Flipping the pages rapidly, she stopped at a section. "You should read this... The story of 'Gram the serpent-slayer'. What you need should be here."
Gram the serpent-slayer... He'd known someone named Gram before. "How do you know that?" Kai asked perplexed. He'd been meaning to ask for a while how she found every book that might have some information, without any help, and without looking things up. He doubted she'd read every book in the library and remembered them as well.
This book was, in a word, ancient. And it hadn't been touched for years either. Clio should not know what he needs to read and where...
Clio looked at Aria, "You didn't tell him?" The two seemed to share a moment of realization. She groaned at that. "Aria, you know how the Guild is about sharing information with outsiders!"
"We simply didn't have time, and I wanted to figure out a solution first, before getting him registered." Aria stated without a pause. It seemed she'd thought it through.
"I agree with her; the introduction and all can wait for after I have a plan..." Kai understood that he was in an unknown place. The constant thought of a timer ticking on his head would wear him down.
He'd kept up a strong front to not scare Lumi. He couldn't just break down in an unknown place suddenly. And he'd be fine anyway; he was alive till now.
"You guys better give me a treat later, and Aria, make sure to recommend him personally to the guild."
Kai didn't know what the fuss was about, but he didn't mind "Alright, So how do you do it?" He was curious if it was an ability or something else...
Clio cleared her throat, sitting up straight. "It's an ability of mine called
Kai looked at the number of pages the story spanned. "I have to read this entire thing? Can't your ability find the part I need?"
"Just read it..."
**break**
The story was about a boy named Gram. Reading the book, Kai was amazed and confused at the same time. The character felt wholly familiar to him...
Gram had tragically lost his home and friends when a horde of monsters ravaged through the Kingdom. Warriors, Knights, and Mages all united, engaging in a months-long battle against the beasts. In a final attempt to end the conflict, the greatest warrior of the Kingdom confronted a giant serpent leading the herd. Severely injuring it, the monsters scattered. Everyone, including Gram, believed that would be the end of the ordeal.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
But fate had something else in store for Gram. The beast had not succumbed to its injuries. It had appeared in front of the caravan Gram was traveling to the capital in.
Injured and bleeding, it slaughtered all that came before its eyes in a mad rampage. Gram had been lucky. Burnt and broken but still breathing, he lay in the blood of the giant serpent.
As he lost consciousness, he prayed to the god of creation for power to avenge his family. In a twist of fate, the blood merged with his own... Transforming him into a half-human half-giant.
Kai was surprised by the details of the story. "Merging with the blood of a giant serpent monster and becoming a half-Giant... How would that even work?" Still, he read on.
The boy had become famous throughout the Kingdom and had been scouted into the most famous Academy of the realm. Learning and experimenting there with his own blood, he finally unlocked a way for him to control his giant's blood.
"See here... " Clio pointed. Kai noticed the lines. "To control his giant's blood, he needed to imbue himself or rather his blood with mana... " It was a similar problem to his own. Mana and blood. Would his blood be able to hold? Contain? Mana if he had magical blood?
Reading along the lines, his brows furrowed. Gram could not imbue mana directly into his blood, because of his other half being human. The vessels could not hold the strain put on them while forcefully keeping mana and blood together.
Still, Gram did not give up. He had to avenge his parents, his sister, his village... And he believed he could do it; he had the backing of the most powerful Academy after all.
But luck did not favor him this time. Tirelessly slaving away at trying to merge his human blood bore no fruits. So he moved on to try to find a stopgap solution. A way to reinforce his vessels first...
Here he found the company of the most brilliant researcher in the academy. She and Gram together created many results, but their breakthrough came suddenly and in a shocking way.
Gram had procured the most rare flower he could find to propose his love to the lady, a Nauchalia camellia. The red flower with vibrant petals had been an abundant thing in his hometown used for proposing one's love.
The Lady accepted, but in the heat of the moment dropped the flower into a beaker of their latest experiments... Laughing it off, they tested the serum. Voila, there it was... A potion that could reinforce vessels 9 times over.
Gram and his paramour worked on the potion for years, stabilizing it and reducing the side effects of the potion... With it, he would become a magical being; he would become the slayer who cut down the White -serpent of the Andalusian sea.
***
The Story ended there, an abridged version. "So... a flower, huh?" Kai scratched his head. "Are you sure this story is real?" Kai didn't actually doubt the story. Lumi had magical blood? Sap? in her system as well. Kai hadn't checked how the tower had incorporated her core along with her magical blood.
Clio rolled her eyes in response. "Like we can go back in time to confirm. I can only tell you that this person really did exist and does hold the title of the great serpent-slayer."
"The one who wrote this tall tale sure did put in a lot of work... Maybe we should look for the descriptions of flowers and materials listed here?" Aria chimed in. It appeared that she had been listening intently as well.
Cleo got up from the bench, heading towards the shelves again. "It should clear up the validity of the claim at least." This time Kai observed intently how she worked.
Her skill seemed to pull her towards the thing she was looking for but did not have pinpoint accuracy. It also included everything she was looking for, not just the one that had the answer they needed.
Picking up a few books, she came back to the tables, plopping down on her seat. "Some days carrying bags are going to break my back... Now here are the encyclopedias on flowers and minerals and Monster materials."
Aria and Kai groaned at the thought of going through more books again. Kai looked at little Lumi soundly sleeping on the bench. Oh, how much he wanted to just sprawl on the ground and laze his day away without a worry.
Hours later, they finished finding all the materials mentioned in the story. "Molydelphi, tears of a wisp, blood of a magic serpent, all A grade or above." Clio showed the image of the plants and materials they required and their effects. "3 minerals along with these as well..."
Kai tried to be optimistic. "At least we know the materials aren't made up... They actually exist, so the potion might just work." He didn't know why the other two were so down.
Aria crossed her arms, brooding. "Nauchalia camellia, an S grade herb, extremely rare... Only known location spires of Hell's Valley... Kai these are rare, and far tougher to gather than you think." Clio also had a pondering look.
"Still, Aria, she's right, and if you want to make the 3 months time limit, this would be the best course of action as well." Clio took out a map from above the shelves. "We're currently located on the Islands of Ambriel.
The Islands of Ambriel [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1122206290224087050/1177926383905804348/Parchment_world1.jpg?ex=6574486e&is=6561d36e&hm=ba92d0a74abce68f748c7caed45ebb1c5b88678f77e9fcfe46a4dbcecf18c656&]
A couple of things he'd never heard of before. Well, he'd never heard of a lot of things before.
Clio facepalmed, seeing the confusion still evident in Kai's face. "Aria, you bring the guy to the guild, not register him first, and not even tell him the basics... What is this?"
Reining in her anger, Clio pointed at the map. "We're here, in the Ashen Mountains, traveling south we find the burning desert and further the Icy Mountains. The dune serpents, and the frost crystal are there respectively."
"There's the grasslands and a sea in between us," Kai pointed. This was going to be a long trip, it seemed.
Clio sighed. "I'll hash out a plan later. Now the other ones are The Kingdom of Thaladrion, Hell's Valley, and the Whispering woods. We'll find the liquid metal orichalcum, the flower, and the tears of the Wisp in these places." The map showed the position of each clearly.
Clio paused, a solemn look crossing her face. "The bad news is that the stabilizing ingredient... The moss, Molydelphi, is easily grown at the base of the world tree, but the world tree is.... dying." She said grimly.
Aria diverted the conversation. "It would be up to luck to find the moss in its roots. We can only hope it would work.." Kai agreed. Thinking of the bad things would only trouble him more.