Extraction’s enhanced golden streams engulfed the small batch of books lying on the floor, initiating the process of extraction.
It was the first time that Michael used extraction on a book, hoping to extract the knowledge inside, and he was not sure how well it would work.
He had great hopes, especially after Enhancement had been upgraded to 5-Star, strengthening the enhancement effect of every applied layer. Using Enhancement on Extraction several times strengthened Extraction’s power greatly. The 6-Star Soultrait’s limits increased, revealing new functions that could be utilized by Michael.
He was not sure if he was not yet able to extract the book’s knowledge, or if that was not possible, in the first place. However, Michael expected great things from Extraction because it had yet to let him down, after all!
At first, Michael didn’t sense anything. He was about to lose hope when he sensed that something changed after he used Extraction on the books for a whole minute. He could see a silver wisp passing through extraction’s golden streams. The silver wisp passed through the golden stream and entered his body through his palm.
After that, strands of information entered his mind where they were immediately digested and comprehended.
“I don’t even have to comprehend the information entering my mind? Doesn’t that mean I can extract comprehended knowledge immediately?” Michael mumbled to himself, and a bright smile blossomed on his face.
The discovery he made was much better than expected. Michael thought that the Wisps of Knowledge entering his mind would be similar to those from the Memory Orbs and that he had to digest and comprehend everything on his own.
However, that was not the case. It felt more like the knowledge entering his mind belonged to him.
While that seemed great, Michael could also see the downside.
‘If the content written down in the books is incorrect or misleading, I’ll have wrong information imprinted in my mind. Finding the falsified information and replacing it with authentic data will be quite difficult.’ Michael concluded.
He knew that the effect of falsified information might not be that drastic when it revolved around studying certain simple topics, but it would be quite problematic when he was to apply it to more important topics.
‘Don’t believe everything. Use your head to question the information the Wisps of Knowledge imprint in your mind!’ Michael told himself as he continued to extract the Wisps of Knowledge from the books in front of him.
Now that Michael could sense what exactly he had to extract to obtain the Wisps of Knowledge he could divert Extraction’s focus on these spots. He aimed precisely at them and quickly extracted the Wisps of Knowledge that entered his mind.
In the next 30 minutes, Michael learned the spoken and written language of the Draconia Era. It hadn’t been easy to fill his mind with that much knowledge, but Michael overcame the toll of learning a complete new language in half an hour, quite easily.
“Good thing that I practiced Ceasurium Menta up to the second stage. If not, I would be bleeding to death,” Michael scoffed before he stopped using Extraction on the books that were spread out in front of him.
He picked one of the books up, just to see that the pages were blank now.
“That counts as destruction, right? I didn’t steal the books…just the content,” Michael said to the Librarian with a sly smile on his face.
He wiped his bleeding nose with the back of his hand and his eyes sparkled brightly while staring at the Librarian.
“You…what did you just do?” The Librarian asked a deep frown on his face.
The power Michael had used just now was extremely old. It was something the Librarian had never seen before even when he was still alive. Putting aside the presence of the golden streams, it was quite obvious that Michael did something to wipe out not only the content of the books but also the insights of the author who wrote the books a long time ago.
“I learned the language of the Draconia Era,” Michael revealed while speaking in the language that had been used before the Second Epoch.
His proficiency in the language was not exceptional, just like his pronunciation, but the Librarian could clearly understand what he said.
The Librarian stared at Michael in bewilderment and could not think of a response as his mind blanked out. He was trying hard to hide his surprise.
Little did the Librarian know that Michael was also surprised. If he had known that it was so easy to learn something, he wouldn’t have bothered spending so long mastering the Memory Lane technique at the Saphirelake Military Academy. The technique was quite useless now, but even then Michael had to reach the 3rd Stage until the end of the semester if he didn’t want a bad remark.
That thought was quite annoying, but it was not too bad. After all, he could study everything for his other courses as long as he could find the textbooks for his courses. In the age of technology and space-traveling physical books were a rarity. But even if they were rare, they still existed. It was just that their price was quite high.
Fortunately, Michael had enough money to purchase a bulk of physical books to skip studying.
“Can you really understand what’s written in all those books now?” Tiara asked, even more baffled than the Librarian.
She felt a sudden burst of excitement course through her entire being like an electric current.
Michael looked over to Tiara and nodded his head. Then he tilted his head lightly as he thought of something.
He took a step closer to Tiara and pressed his flat hand against her forehead.
Tiara was startled. She held her breath and was about to step back when she heard Michael’s thoughts in her mind.
[Focus on my thoughts and try to learn the Draconia Era’s language yourself!] Michael ordered, using his Mind Reader Soultrait for the first time in forever.
Mind Reader was not supposed to be used this way. It was actually supposed to read the mind of the target. However, Michael was using Mind Reader in reverse while revealing his unguarded mind to Tiara. He began to think about the knowledge of the Draconia Era’s language that had entered his mind not too long ago, allowing Tiara to get a glimpse of the translated version of the books he had just extracted.
Tiara’s mind was flooded with information. She stumbled backward and fell to the ground without uttering a single sound. All she could do was stare at Michael in surprise and utter shock.
“How is that possible? What did you do, Master?” Tiara asked, feeling quite clearly that a strand of information had entered her mind.
She had yet to digest the information and comprehend everything, but Tiara was certain that she could learn the language of the Draconia Era using the strategy Michael had just utilized.
“I used the Mind Reader Soultrait in reverse to allow you to read my mind. I cannot do that with all of my Summons since I don’t trust everyone to enter my unguarded mind, but we can copy the content of the books and write it down ourselves,” Michael said, overjoyed that his foolish idea was working.
He actually didn’t expect Mind Reader to be that useful. Fusing Mind Reader to his War Rune had been one of his regrets. However, that was not the case anymore. Mind Reader’s utility increased by leaps and bounds because it allowed him to forward the knowledge he learned from books of another language to anyone he wished.
By studying the books spread all around the Library, Michael’s mind would translate them naturally and he could use Mind Reader to forward the translated information that could then be written down on paper for everyone to read. That was amazing!
With this discovery, Michael turned to the Librarian, the glint in his eyes even more intense than before.
“Can you show me books related to the Origin Expanse, All Languages of the First Epoch, Books about the Dragon Tongue, the Origin Tongue, books about Forging, Ores, Alchemists, Enchanters, Martial Arts techniques, Breathing techniques, Ancient Ruins and…maybe just everything that may be useful for a ‘young and naive fool, who thinks that he is powerful and that the Origin Expanse ought to be conquered by him’,” Michael requested, unable to refrain himself from teasing the Librarian using the same words he had used a few minutes ago.
The Librarian was about to say something, and lecture Michael but he shut his mouth before uttering a single word. 𝒏𝒐𝗏ℯ𝓵𝐍𝗲xt.𝗇𝓔t
It was not difficult to tell that Michael’s motivation was overflowing and that he had entered a state of extreme excitement. His entire being was overflowing with ecstasy, desiring to devour the knowledge of the Library of Laxartia.
Under normal circumstances, the Librarian would tell the youngster to calm down and take one step at a time. However, after witnessing what the young Lord had just done, he didn’t want to say anything.
Rather than warning Michael, the Librarian wanted to see how high his limit was.
Could he really devour the knowledge of the entire Library in the remaining time before the Lord Rift closed, or would his brain be overwhelmed with information, unable to digest more. Would Michael collapse from the input of knowledge, or were his mind and willpower strong enough to overcome all ordeals?
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, the Librarian felt surprised and a tinge of interest by looking at one of the youngsters entering the Will’s Lord Rifts. Everyone capable enough to enter a Lord Rift had great ambition, but the Librarian had only seen a handful with the actual strength, willpower, and uncontrollable desire to overcome all issues and become the greatest.
However, Michael was different from the handful of prodigies the Librarian had seen before.
He didn’t seem exceptional at first glance.
The Librarian could also tell that Michael had been affected by the Will. It was most definitely not a blessing granted by the Will.
On the contrary, a curse had spread through his bloodline, festering through all of his ancestors that were granted by the Will centuries ago.
Yet, despite the curse weighing down on the youngster, Michael didn’t seem to be giving up.
‘I wonder how much you have gone through, and what obstacles await you in the future.’ The Librarian thought, staring at Michael.
‘Good luck, fellow Descendant of the Cursed. May your future be brighter than mine!’
[A/N: I know that many of you were already expecting something similar, but Michael found out about another use for Extraction. Do you think it’s overpowered to be able to extract Wisps of Knowledge from physical books, or can this power become dangerous?]