At the end of the day, Michael decided to show the librarian the piece of paper he had shown his brother.
There were two reasons for that.
First, Michael was too curious to find out more about the language used by the Temple of the Forgotten. He wanted to obtain an answer to the question that had been tormenting his mind ever since he found the Temple of the Forgotten; How dangerous is the Temple of the Forgotten?
Michael wanted to know how much stronger he had to grow to raid the Temple of the Forgotten, and what kind of treasures he could find inside the Temple of the Forgotten. He was too curious not to ask others for help.
Second, Michael hated himself for overthinking too much. The Berserker Librarian couldn’t really do much against Michael even if the Berserker grew interested in the Temple of the Forgotten.
Only Michael knew about the location of the Temple of the Forgotten, and he was the only Lord in the Untamed Jungle. Forget about other human Lords, Michael hadn’t seen any other Lords in the Untamed Jungle either – except the Gogi Lord, who had been exterminated a long time ago.
Even if the Berserker Librarian would be interested in his Ancient Ruin, he was unlikely to act right now – not when the Interdimensional Flag War was about to begin, and the threat of the Tekur race still existed.
The piece of paper was small in the large hands of the Berserker Librarian as he looked at it. His brows furrowed deeply as he imprinted the letters into his mind.
“I…don’t know this language. I can translate parts of it, but it doesn’t really make sense. It feels incomplete,” The Librarian said, tilting his head to look at the letters from a different angle. “Some sort of Origin Tongue, but it’s a lot older than the oldest books I’ve retrieved from the Blood Asura Dungeon…”
The librarian stared at Michael, his frown even deeper than before, “I don’t think the language books on the third floor will help you. I can hand them over, but you won’t gain anything. The records of Ancient Ruin raids might be helpful…”
The librarian halted in his tracks. He seemed irritated and sighed deeply. “…let me give you one piece of advice.”
“Don’t enter this Ancient Ruin until you become a Divine Lifeform.”
Michael’s eyes widened in surprise. Even Kraft Viton couldn’t contain himself after he heard what the Berserker said and blurted out, “Huh?!”
The old man took a stride forward and took a look at the piece of paper shared by Michael as well.
He was asking Michael to become a Divine Lifeform, a being whose life force evolved a second time as a result of advancing to the 7th Tier. The Berserker Librarian told him to become such an existence before entering the Temple of the Forgotten. That was crazy, or so Michael would have said if he hadn’t suspected something similar as well.
Since Lilica told him that the language used in an Ancient Ruin determined its danger level, Michael had had a bad feeling about the Temple of the Forgotten. However, being told that he should become a Divine Lifeform before entering the Temple of the Forgotten was a lot different than merely thinking about it. Receiving affirmation was like a fierce slap of reality on his face.
Michael realized too late that Kraft Viton was staring blankly at the piece of paper that landed in his hands. The old man had been too baffled about the Berserker Librarian’s words to pay attention to his behavior. He didn’t care that it was rude of him to look at Michael’s possession.
His eyes widened while staring at the letters, followed by utter confusion replacing his surprise.
Michael retrieved the piece of paper with his expression eerily calm. “It seems like I have to trust you now. You said that we’re allies, after all.”
His voice was eerily calm as he added, “I decided to trust you once.” But his eyes were far from calm. A blazing flame of fury could be seen within them.
Kraft Viton noticed that he made a mistake. He might be older, and stronger than Michael, but his mission in Meku was to ensure that nothing bad would happen to Michael and not to meddle in his affairs in any way.
Locking eyes with Michael, Kraft Viton felt a little bit weird. Michael’s last words were a warning, but the gaze was a promise.
‘Break my trust, and I will make sure to crush the Bartholomew Corporation, even if that means I have to sell my soul to the Olympus,’ Michael’s eyes seemed to scream. That was at least what Kraft imagined to hear in his mind as he kept staring into Michael’s eyes. It was ominous.
Michael turned away from the old man and focused on the librarian once again.
He might not be able to procure useful information about the language used in the Temple of the Forgotten, but he could take another path to take one step closer to his final goal.
“Does the library sell duplicates of language-related books from other Epochs? Many Awakened should be studying other languages in case they encounter an Ancient Civilization or Ancient Ruins…so you should have some books to sell, or at least to read, right? Can a Warrior buy these books, or do I have to be a Champion to purchase them as well?” Michael asked the Librarian, while storing the piece of paper back into his storage space.
“Records of Ancient Ruin raids are very interesting as well. If you allow me, I would like to study them,” He added carefully.
The librarian smiled at Michael. He gave him a thumbs up.
“You’re quite interesting, little Lord. I wonder how far you will make it in the Battle Exchange. This year will probably be a lot more interesting than usual,” He said before manifesting a holographic screen in front of Michael.
“Usually, you can only purchase books when you’re a native Champion, but I’ll make an exception for you. Tell me which books you want to read,” The librarian said, resulting in a smile appearing on Michael’s face.
“The duplicates are in physical form, right?” Michael asked after he threw a glance at the catalog the librarian had manifested in front of him.
“Of course. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to take them inside the Origin Expanse.”
“In that case…I would like to take all of them,” Michael said after he saw the list of books that interested him, which was a lot given that he wanted all of them.
Despite the unpleasant news he learned a few minutes ago, Michael was still excited. He was slowly getting somewhere. His pace may be extremely slow, but he made progress. That was already worth quite a bit.
“Yes, of cou—…wait, you said all of them?” The librarian asked, his amiable expression replaced with another deep frown.
No matter how he looked at it, the little human in front of him was always throwing new surprises. It was quite surprising, but also refreshing.
“You do realize that there are more than 1000 language-related books in this catalog, right? You…do realize that I’m not running a charity, and that you will have to pay for them…right?”
“Of course, I will pay,” Michael said immediately. However, he realized that he missed out on an important point in his excitement.
Rubbing the back of his head he added, “But can I pay in installment? I might have gone overboard without asking how much I have to pay, in the first place. Well…I don’t even have any Tritan Credits either, but I should be able to use items from the Origin Expanse as a replacement for Tritan Credits, or does that not work?”
“You don’t even have Tritan Credits? How in the worl–…” The Berserker Librarian was slowly losing his nerves. He had a good impression of the little human, but his sudden foolish attitude didn’t make any sense. It was irritating, and no Berserker liked to be irritated. 𝗇𝑂𝒱𝗲𝓵𝚗𝖊xt.𝗇𝓔t
Yet, the librarian wasn’t even able to finish his sentence as Michael retrieved a black scroll with a golden seal, and a crimson pill that increased the temperature in the surroundings.
“What’s better…Body Strengthening Pills, or Mythic Summoning Scrolls? Or do you want some Energy Nourishing Pills, or maybe a Warrior Enlightenment Potion in exchange?” Michael asked, his eyes gleaming.
At first, he didn’t want to reveal so many trump cards. However, the more he talked to the Berserker Librarian, the more obvious it was that the librarian was far from ordinary. Not only was the librarian probably a Tier-6 Lord, but he mentioned the Blood Asura Dungeon as well.
Michael didn’t know a lot about dungeons, but he had heard a lot about the Blood Asura Dungeon. The strongest powerhouses of the Tritan Alliance had joined their forces to conquer the Blood Asura Dungeon. Many died within the dungeon. Only the strongest survived, and they continued to grow much stronger in the following years.
No matter how Michael looked at this situation, the Berserker Librarian was far from ordinary. Kraft Viton must have noticed that as well. Thus, Michael chose to reveal some of his trump cards.
Maybe, he could strike a deal with the Berserker race using his new connection with the talkative librarian.
“Who is that kid?” The Berserker Librarian asked Kraft Viton.
It was already rare for participants of the Battle Exchange to have company, and Michael had a powerhouse following him like a shadow.
Despite that, it didn’t look like Michael and Kraft were close. In fact, they didn’t seem to know much about each other. That was something the Berserker Librarian learned in the conversation of the last few minutes.
But even if that was the case, the librarian couldn’t help but repeat his question a second time.
“Who is that kid?”