After leaving the hall, Arthur roamed the academy silently, exploring the places he had never visited before. He didn’t intend to end his dueling streak there, and he wanted to find stronger opponents to fight with if possible.
However, he knew that with his name getting more and more popular, finding good opponents would be harder as people wouldn’t carelessly throw their points away knowing they had no chance at winning in the first place.
‘I have a few more hours before the end of the day. I should just look around more.’ He thought to himself as he looked to the left. There was a section he had never visited in the institution which was the library.
Your journey continues on empire
He had heard about it before and he was instantly curious. After all, every place on this island is as gorgeous if not even more gorgeous than the previous one.
‘Now, where is the library?’ He thought to himself. Opening the map, he started walking through the paths of the institution, reaching a new section of the compound. There was an open double door and inside, Arthur saw rows and rows of shelves.
The smell of papers reached him from afar even before he walked in. But, the moment he stepped inside, a feeling of peace filled his heart. Looking up in awe, he realized that the shelves were humungous in size, reaching tens of meters in the air and stretching for as far as the eye could see.
There was an entire maze of wooden structures around him, going left and right in a confusing manner. Each shelf is filled with all kinds of books and documents old and new.
“Wow…” He muttered as he stood there, taking everything in. There were some students inside going about their day but the atmosphere was quite calm. People were simply reading their own books and minding their own business.
‘The contrast between this place and the Duel Hall.’ Arthur shook his head and walked inside. Immediately, he garnered a few curious looks. Noticing his S-Class attire, many were taken aback but then they quickly returned to their own books.
‘It seems these people are naturally calmer than the rest. Nice. Hmm, let’s see… I should find a book to read perhaps.’ He thought to himself as he walked deeper into the library and started looking around.
Arthur quickly discovered that there were entire sections of the library dedicated to all kinds of topics. From normal subjects like math and geography to more exotic topics related to the Divine Realm.
Fantastic tales, natural events, disasters, unexplainable phenomena, and many more topics related to the game. Arthur was fascinated by how deep the lore goes inside the game.
‘Each character, city, village, and place has their own story and the sheer number of secrets still unexplored is incomprehensible.’ He thought to himself as he skimmed through a random book with a curious look.
‘It will never stop surprising me how real this world is. There is nothing about it that feels programmed or scripted.’
In the end, Arthur decided to just read one of the fantasy tales from the Divine Realm.
“Hmm, ‘Hero and the headless dragon’? That sounds like an interesting book.” He muttered as he picked it up and sat down on one of the comfy couches inside the library. There were entire rows of couches so he was able to sit on his own, far away from everyone else.
Closing his eyes for a moment, Arthur cleared his thoughts from all the buzzing. In reality, he knew that today was perhaps one of the worst days he experienced in recent times. He was feeling extremely sad, but there was nothing he could do about it.
‘Life wasn’t going to always go my way. I should just focus on myself. I have already done everything I can.’ He smiled bitterly before he opened the books and started reading. Quickly, Arthur found himself engrossed in the story as he slightly forgot about his feelings.
The story of the book was rather a very odd one. It told the tale of an unnamed hero in the farthest parts of the south region of the Divine Realm. The region was apparently one of dirt and bushes, dry but not deserted, and filled with monsters of all kinds.
The book then leads Arthur to a very small village in this region. It spoke about its origin, location, people who live in it, and the way they adapted to the harsh conditions.
Out of this village came a rather excited boy who loved to explore and venture on his own into the wilds.
This boy grew up in that village and quickly learned how to be a hunter who goes out to hunt prey and provide food for the village. However, his dream was to simply leave the village one day and venture into the north after he heard about all the tales of the north and the great mysteries it held.
He found great interest in exploring the Divine Realm and seeing what others could never even imagine.
“Hmm, this guy reminds me of myself,” Arthur muttered as he rested his head against his hand and continued reading. He would be lying if he said that the character didn’t sound eerily familiar but he assumed that it was just a coincidence.
Continuing to read, the book proceeded to tell the tales of his adventures through the wilds. Arthur was guided through the boy’s struggles, his near-death experiences, and his wins and losses.
He learned about the terrifying monsters living in the dry lands. Things that even the book struggled to encapsulate fully. However, that didn’t stop Arthur from finding himself completely invested in the story.
He would react whenever the protagonist would do something dangerous and smiles when he wins. Until, eventually, the story lead them to the terrifying monster that ruled the region. A headless dragon said to have defied death itself and lived to rule the lands in a mysterious manner.
Its breath would send waves of dry air, killing all living things in its path and its fiery skin turned the entire world around it into an inferno. When it sleeps and the night casts its shadow, the temperature drops and the cold breeze fills the world.
‘How strong is this creature to have such a deep effect on an entire region of the world? It surely is an exaggeration… right?’ Arthur gulped. So far, he didn’t know if the book was telling a real story or simply a folklore tale of sorts and he wished it was the second option.
Then, the story goes on to describe the quickly growing tension in the village as the weather had noticeably grown worse in the past few months for unknown reasons and their sources of water and food were disappearing quickly.
Their search for the solution quickly leads them to the headless dragon and its weird behavior that they haven’t experienced in hundreds of years.
However, at that moment, the story takes a rather… odd turn.
“Hm?” Arthur raised an eyebrow as he adjusted his position. “Now… What do we have here?”
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3