Michael was not too worried about the Magical Smithy when they walked out of the building.
Contrary to his expectations, there weren’t many Lords and monsters in the abandoned town. Even the Lords, who had entered the Lord Rift, had abandoned this place.
But that was actually for the better in Michael’s opinion. They wouldn’t have to worry about getting attacked, or someone stealing the Magical Smithy.
After walking for a few minutes, their small group of three finally reached the large building that looked like an old library. They entered the building, just to realize that the interior of the library was well-kept and untouched by the curse of time. It didn’t look like the library had been abandoned, at all.
“Nobody bothered taking the books with them? Aren’t books the most important inside a library? There is no other reason to protect this building except for the books inside,” Tiara asked, not quite understanding why a group of Lords had been guarding this place.
There was nothing other than dozens of shelves filled with various books.
Masked Saber retrieved one of the books the closest to him. He flipped through the first few pages, and nodded his head in understanding.
“The language is quite hard to understand. The Lord probably didn’t bother taking these books because they don’t know their value. Well, even I cannot tell whether they’re valuable books about the Origin Expanse, or novels of ancient times,” Masked Saber said before handing the book to Michael.
Michael flipped through the pages as well, nibbling on his lower lip as understanding dawned upon him slowly.
“That seems like one of the older origin tongues. The books are probably from before the Second Epoch. Maybe the Forest Elven Elders can help us decipher them?” He wondered, his gaze roaming over the vast collection of books.
‘Our storage space is almost full. If I want to take all of those books, I will have to remove the monster corpses,’ Michael was in a dilemma, not sure if the books would be more valuable than the monster corpses of superior existences.
But when he thought hard about it, Michael recalled that he was not really in desperate need of money.
“I think we should take the books with us. Even if they’re mere novels of ancient times, they’ll give us insights about the time before the Second Epoch. That should give us some essential clues to take a step closer to unravel the secrets of the Temple of the Forgotten as well,” Tiara said in a matter of fact tone.
“In the worst case, you can just throw out the monster meat, intestines and everything else of lesser value. Let’s just keep the Diamond Deer’s antlers, their tendons, the Werewolves’ horns, scales and so on. Other than their most valuable parts, we don’t need anything, or am I wrong, Master?” She added, smiling nervously at Michael.
Michael responded with a smile as well. Even though he was occasionally overthinking and trying to make everything fit, it was often much easier to have a simple-minded person voicing out her opinion.
This simple-minded person was Tiara, and Michael was glad to have her by his side. Without her, he would be standing in front of the bookshelves for an eternity, trying to come up with a perfect plan to both keep both corpses and store as many books as possible.𝒏𝒐𝗏ℯ𝓵𝐍𝗲xt.𝗇𝓔t
“Alright then. Let’s throw out the less valuable monster body parts,” He said before accessing both his War Rune’s storage space and his spatial pouch. He retrieved tens of tons of monster meat, and the less valuable body parts of more than a thousand monsters.
Now that he thought about it, Michael couldn’t help but be surprised how so much stuff fit inside his spatial pouch and storage space. It was quite surprising.
Tiara retrieved lots of monster meat and other goods as well. She didn’t hesitate to throw them aside, creating a huge pile of unwanted stuff next to the goods Michael had retrieved.
Michael and Tiara were so focused on their spatial spaces that they didn’t even notice when Masked Saber grew tense. Masked Saber unsheathed his saber, stepped in front of Michael, and changed into a defensive stance, ready to protect Michael with his life if necessary.
“Please put your weapon aside, esteemed traveler. This Library of Laxartia hasn’t been constructed to commit crimes and spread violence. It’s a place of peace and knowledge,” A hoarse voice echoed through the library, pulling Michael and Tiara out of their trance-like state.
Their heads flicked over to the voice’s source, and their eyes widened in surprise.
A purple-skinned being the size of a small dog was seated on a yellow cushion that was hovering in the air. The purple-skinned being had long pointed ears and large violet eyes that were filled with wisdom. He had short arms and wielded a small staff, which looked more like the branch of a birch tree than anything dangerous.
Nonetheless, Michael could feel a distinct difference in their power level. Even with their combined forces, Michael, Tiara, and Masked Saber would never be able to defeat the small being if it were to come to a battle.
He was still shocked about the sudden appearance of a foreign being, but Michael stepped forward, putting a hand on Masked Saber’s shoulder.
“Put the saber away,” He said as calmly as possible and waited until Masked Saber did as he was told.
Afterward, he looked over to the small being once again before he greeted him, bowing deeply with his right hand placed on his heart.
Uncertain which tradition the being followed, Michael could only use the most common custom to politely greet an elder and a superior being.
“There is no need for formalities, esteemed traveler. This body of mine is but an empty shell bound to the Great Will. All that is left of me inside this space is a wisp of my former self, and this tiny body, if you can consider it as such, in the first place,” The being said in a neutral tone.
His attention moved to the piles of monster meat and body parts and a sliver of interest gleamed in his eyes.
“I am wondering if this is a tribute to the God of Wisdom, or if you were trying to make space to fit the library’s books inside your storage spaces,” The being remarked, looking over to Michael to study his response.
“You…can consider it as tribute, but we thought the library was abandoned just like the rest of the town, so we wanted to take the books with us. After all, their value is deteriorating drastically since they are collecting dust here. Books exist to be read, after all,” Michael said, trying to navigate a safe path out of this tricky situation.
He didn’t feel any threat due to the being in front of them, but that could change at any moment. Michael was not confident enough to ensure that he could keep the being calm and composed.
“It’s a good thing that you’re honest. Otherwise, you would end up like everyone else,” The being said nonchalantly.
However, Michael could only swallow his saliva seeing the glint in the being’s violet eyes.
‘Good thing I didn’t lie.’
“I will take this. That should be fine, right?” The being asked, pointing his bony hand at the piles of monster meat and most of their body parts.
Michael nodded his head and gestured to the being to take it all. He moved toward the piles and swung the branch-like staff twice.
A huge black diagram formed on the pentagon and massive swirls of energy were pulled toward it. In the next five seconds, most of the energy was pulled toward the black pentagon, only for a humongous black mouth to emerge out of it.
A black body with four rows of arm-long teeth shot out of the Pentagon. It was huge, big enough to devour the entire pile of meat and body parts at once.
Seeing the big black body – its maw to be precise –, Michael felt his hair standing up to its end. He couldn’t even divert his attention from the humongous maw as it swallowed the piles of meat and body parts one after another.
Nobody in the room dared to breathe seeing the being. It was terrifying, to the extent that Michael wasn’t even sure whether the Mythical Serpent or the being in front of them was more terrifying.
A chill spread down his spine, and he couldn’t help but stare in front of him with his eyes wide open.
The small purple being burped after the huge maw disappeared, attracting the attention of the small group of three.
“Superior Existences at Tier-2. Not the best meal I had, but definitely filling. It was not too bad,” The being said before turning to Michael.
“I am a mere wisp of my former self, but I still have some of my former power,” He said, only to give it a faint shrug, “Either way, now I’m merely a Librarian assigned to this place that can only be entered by young and naive fools, who think that they’re powerful and that the Origin Expanse can be easily conquered by them.”
He took a pause before continuing, “You are not much different. Your power is not too bad, but you are still foolish. I can tell that your subordinates trust you, but that is worthless if you don’t trust yourself as much as your people do. As a true leader, you have to be able to stand up for your actions and order your subordinates with confidence and charisma, otherwise, your survival in the Origin Expanse will always be questionable,” The Librarian said before he began to wave his staff.
Following that, the books shelved all over the library began to move. They responded to the Librarian’s actions and were pulled through the air, revolving around Michael’s group.
Piles of books were stacked up all around them, creating a small maze filled with the books inside the library.
“I cannot allow you to take the books with you, but you’re allowed to do anything with the books inside here. Even if you burn them, they’ll naturally be repaired once the Lord Rift closes.” The Librarian informed while adding, “As a small token of gratitude for the meal you’ve provided, I shall help you find the books you’re looking for. The least I can do is to lend a ‘small’ helping hand.”
Michael stared at the Librarian for a while. His lips parted to say something, but he shut his mouth the next moment.
Even if he asked the Librarian for help, it was not as if he could read the words written in the books, in the first place.
“In that case…can you help me find books related to translations or books that revolve around studying the language used in all of the books here. None of us can understand what’s written in the books. We initially wanted to take them back to decipher them,” Michael requested, revealing his honest thoughts and their initial plan.
“Translation books? You don’t understand the language written in the books? It seems like a lot more time than I expected passed outside,” The Librarian said before he scratched his chin. “There are a few books that may help you understand the written language, but I doubt that you will be able to learn it in a few hours.”
Michael had been quite curious for a while now about how he could understand the Librarian. But he didn’t have to search for an answer for long. The Will of the Origin Expanse naturally translated the words spoken by the Librarian inside the Lord Rift.
The Librarian waved his staff to move more than a dozen books in front of Michael, Tiara, and Masked Saber.
Masked Saber was just about to bend down when Michael gestured for him to stop.
“You said that even if they’re destroyed the books will be restored, right?” Michael asked the Librarian, who noticed that something was different in Michael’s expression.
Michael didn’t seem to be too worried about their comprehension ability. It was almost as if Michael was certain that they could learn the written language of the Draconia Era just like that.
“The Will will restore everything that has been destroyed, that’s correct,” The Librarian responded, giving Michael all the information he required to get moving.
He lifted his arms, his palms facing the books lying on the ground.
Then, Michael unleashed Extraction, enhanced with several layers of Enhancement.