A grotesquely large dragon, with obsidian scales and a terrifying scarlet eye, which perhaps just the size of its iris alone could be compared in size to Dante, and to make matters worse, it was staring fixedly at Dante.

Dante quickly composed himself and, with his back as straight as possible, began to try to communicate with the monster.

After clearing his throat, he said, "I suppose, judging by the place we are in, that you must be the librarian."

The dragon, seemingly having no physical senses to sense these questions, replied, "And who might you be? You have a strange scent."

His voice clearly did not match his body at all; instead of a powerful, guttural, and intimidating voice, it sounded more like it originated from a sixty-year-old man who spent most of his time in his garden.

Dante noticed this and seemed to be more concerned than he should have been, especially when he remembered that he was now supposed to be the owner of all this.

"I am Dante, the new Master of this library."

The dragon now, unlike before, seemed to be trying to show emotions, which were hardly discernible to Dante.

"That old masochistic bastard finally died?"

The dragon strangely began to emit a powerful laughter throughout the colossal hall.

"No, in fact, he just passed on the position."

Damn, he's looking at me in a strange and scary way now... maybe it would have been better to just lie?

"What a shame..."

The strange dragon showed true happiness one moment and pure indifference the next.

"So... what are you doing here? Can't you see I'm off duty?"

Off duty?

"Actually, I came here to look for some beginner's magic books, preferably in Ancient Thoth."

The dragon waited for a moment as if this were some sort of joke and finally said, "You have the ring, why are you asking me for this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you know? Didn't that man tell you anything?"

"Let's just say he didn't have much time."

The dragon seemed to understand the situation and, wanting to get back to its sleep as quickly as possible, said, "If that's the case, just summon Y; she's my assistant and should help you with this matter."

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"Now, if you'll excuse me, I ask that you leave my room."

After that, the temple around him crumbled, and the colossal dragon disappeared; he was actually back in the endless rows of the library.

When the dragon said to summon, was it simply a matter of calling out the name?

"Hee, Y?"

After speaking, he waited a bit, and when he was about to give up, he began to see a strange trail of light illuminating parts of the air, quickly disappearing.

However, when he realized it, there was already something in front of him that appeared to be some kind of miniature woman with wings, basically a fairy from Dante's memories of what he had read and watched in the past.

She didn't have stunning beauty but rather a strange charm, seeming more adorable than anything.

"Master called me?"

She spoke strangely fast, as if she wanted to rush this first meeting. Perhaps she was doing something else before this, but Dante had no way of knowing.

"Yes, actually, the librarian said you could help me."

"Of course he did. I'm one of his main assistants, actually the twenty-fifth assistant, so I'm here to help with whatever is needed."

After that, she released a quick and constant smile, as if all of this were a strange theater to her.

"Okay then, I would like some beginner's magic books in Ancient Thoth, if possible."

After hearing that, she disappeared for a moment, and before Dante could even blink, she was back, now holding what seemed to be three disproportionately large books for her tiny body, but that didn't seem to be a problem.

"Master, I believe these books are the best we can have for beginners, and in Ancient Thoth. Unfortunately, most of our collection is in other languages and these have never been translated."

"I understand, but can these books be understood well by someone who has never practiced magic in their life?"

"Affirmative, in fact, we have few books for beginners, these almost always bring the same information, often in scribbled and hidden tones to make learning difficult, but these bring good first-grade spells... and were written by the previous master himself to serve as basic books for the academy."

"So these should be enough, thank you for your help. How can I take them to the real world?"

She didn't understand this question and looked at him as if she were waiting impatiently for an explanation.

"How do I take these books to my physical body?"

"Oh, just leave this place with the books in hand, just remember to return them when they are no longer needed."

"Right. Thank you."

After that, the little creature simply disappeared from his sight, and he now, without much delay, invoked the strange phrase to finally leave that fantastical place.

When he realized it, he was back in what would be his room for the next week, but now in his hands were the three strangely large books recommended by Y.

They would surely have presented some challenge just because of their weight to an inexperienced magical human, but for Dante, even with their large size and weight, they were not much different from holding a common novel.

After placing the three books on his bed to better understand the three recommendations, he could finally read their titles, and they seemed strangely... strange.

"Magic for Dummies"

"Absorbing the Universe in a Mysterious Box"

"Demonic Spells for Angelic Beings: Vol I"

Even with the strange names, they seemed to complement each other, and they were also quite general, as any beginner's book should be.

Dante didn't know where to start, but he believed that it would be best to save the last book for later, as it seemed to be the practical area of magic.

Fortunately, since his youth, due to the high load of self-study he went through while studying at home, he had developed an efficient method of study and memory, so he didn't expect to take more than a few hours to read one of these gigantic books.

This was actually a blessing as well as a curse because it made him read fantasy books so quickly that in the early years of his adulthood, he simply abandoned them to pay attention to topics he deemed more important at that stage of his life, like having sex... and things related to having sex, especially college parties.

In the end, he chose to start with what seemed to be the most obvious, "Magic for Dummies," a title that reminded him of a great collection of books from his previous world, but that certainly had nothing to do with these. It seemed that Zargorios himself was once again showing himself to be a complete stalker of his previous world... he hoped he was enjoying his new stay and preferably not thinking about conquering the world where Dante was born.

After just two hours, Dante could heroically close that psychopathic book because he had finally finished it; at this moment, he was only grateful for his excellent memory and fast reading. But to summarize these last two hours, the book served as nothing more than a theoretical introduction to magic itself, not aiming to be anything more than an introduction, really.

Fortunately, he was able to perfectly convey the most basic knowledge in this area, and, as it seemed, it was quite cliché. Not necessarily bad because perhaps the cliché came from something like this, but to begin with, magic in this book was nothing more than the alteration of reality through a controlled chain of events. This could be intentional or not, but it needed to originate from what the book defined as "Aeternus," some kind of metaphysical philosophical plane from which aether, or mana, arcane, or any other word, originated, and which was used to perform various feats in magic.