Two of the Inquisitors led Karl to a luxurious sitting room with comfortable looking leather chairs, and an older cleric woman in deep blue robes waiting for them.
“Greetings, Karl. I am Lilith, a High Priestess of the Blue Dragon, the Dragon God of knowledge. Do you mind if we use a bit of magic during our discussion today? It helps reveal details that you might have forgotten.” The gentle looking woman greeted him, with her eyes glinting in the soft light of the lamps.
They were dragon’s eyes, not human, but Karl took the seat beside her with a casual grace. The answer to that question didn’t matter, the outcome had already been decided, and if he was right, the spell was already in effect.
“Of course. I only just started taking notes, so there might be many things I have forgotten.” Karl agreed.
Before he could say anything else, the world seemed to fade, and his mind was racing through everything that had happened to him since he had received the Serum Injection.
The only stutter in the smooth progression was when they got to the Trial Instances, both in the woods and the one for the Ascended Rank, where he could feel something take notice of them, and the spell seemed to falter for a moment before continuing.
The spell raced through his memories, right up to the present moment, and then abruptly ended as the two timelines converged, leaving Karl dizzy and disoriented.
“What an intriguing time you have had in the few months since you awakened. The last reports were correct, you do have the World Dragon’s own luck, always finding yourself in the right place at the right time.” The old woman announced as Karl tried to get his bearings.
Karl chuckled. “I suspect that the World Dragon didn’t find himself seated in rooms full of Holy Inquisitors quite so frequently as I have.”
The High Priestess laughed at his assessment and shook her head. “Oh, Dear. You have misunderstood. I am not part of the Inquisition, I am the head of the Historians here within the Church. But now that I have recorded your personal history for our archives, there are a few things that I would like to request, as I don’t have a clear understanding from your memories.
When you stepped onto the System Stones, it granted you more of your Class Skills. One of them is Identification, but limited to what helps your beasts. One is Mental Fortitude, of which you didn’t seem to be lacking to begin with. But the third is known as [Skill Book], and if my guess is right, it is every bit as good as what the Inscriptionists can use.”
The two Inquisitors were immediately on guard, not against Karl, but double-checking the room to make certain that nothing else was here or eavesdropping on them. One would almost think that the High Priestess had announced that they were under attack from the way that they responded, but her demeanour never changed, still intently focused on Karl.
“Sure. I don’t actually know how it works, I have never tried it. Give me a moment and I will let you know what I need for the process.”
Karl spent a moment deciding what skill would be best to try with first. Probably not Rend or Shred, as those were already common enough skill books. The Historian would be looking for new knowledge to add to her collection, or more correctly, the Church’s collection, and if he wanted to get on her good side, that meant showing her something good right from the start.
[Refreshing Lightning] seemed like a good start.
When Karl focused on it, a list of items appeared in his mind.
“I will need a Lightning Element gem, powdered and immersed in Commander Rank blood to use as ink, and then fifteen pages of paper, ash from an Awakened Rank or higher beast vaporized by lightning and a pen made of stone, with a golden tip.” Karl recited.
“What sort of requirements are those?” The Inquisitor behind Karl asked, confused.
“They’re what the skill needs to create the book I wanted to make her. Do we have those things? Or can we get them?” Karl informed him.
If they couldn’t get them, his day would become immeasurably easier. Having to write a fifteen-page book did not sound like fun, and his handwriting was atrocious.
However, the man nodded, and sent a text message. They only had to wait a minute before a scribe came tapping at the door with an armload of goods. There was far more than Karl had requested, as if they had expected him to fail multiple times before he got it right, as would be quite normal for a beginner scribe.
It was possible that was true, but Karl got the feeling that the challenge was not in making the book, but in using it. [Refreshing Lightning] wasn’t a human skill, but the innate skill of the Lightning Cerro.
“Thank you.” Karl greeted them as the child set his burden down on the table, then bowed and ran back out of the room.
The Blue Dragon High Priestess just stared at Karl, waiting for the magic to begin. Literally.
The moment that he arranged the ingredients and filled the pen, then dusted the paper with the ash as the spell instructed and shifted his pen to the writing position and activated the skill, everything seemed to happen at once.
The ink flowed from the pen to the sheets without him moving his hand, the pages arranged themselves, and then a green scaled binding that looked exactly like Thor’s back, but with much smaller scales, formed over it and a buckled latch shut the book tight.
On the cover was a simple description. Refreshing Lightning.
“Well, it looks like it worked.” The Dragon Priestess noted, then gestured for the Inquisitor to pick it up.
“Can you make another?” She asked.
Karl focused, and there didn’t seem to be a cooldown, and there were still some supplies left.
“I should have the supplies for at least one more, and I don’t see a cooldown on the skill.” He agreed.
The High Priestess gestured for the Inquisitor to use the book, and he struggled with the clasp, unable to open it at all.
Then he shrugged and passed it to the other Inquisitor. He also couldn’t work the buckle, so they called in a mage. She didn’t have any more luck than the others, the book was firmly locked, unusable by any of them.
“Well, I guess it’s one of those picky skills.” The High Priestess sighed as she took the book back and gently rubbed the scales in appreciation.
The latch popped open, and the book vanished, making Karl laugh.
Of course, the skill book made from Thor’s skill wouldn’t open unless you petted it gently. Or perhaps it opened because she was a Blue Dragon Priestess, and she would have some affinity for scales and lightning.
But there was no denying that she knew the skill when a barrier of lightning formed around her body a few seconds later.
“It’s a cleric class skill?” The Inquisitor asked, clearly confused.
“Or it just wanted you to pet it gently before it would open.” Karl suggested, making the Inquisitors smile.
“If you would kindly make us another, we will test that theory.” The Historian agreed.
Again Karl activated the skill, creating a second book, but giving himself a blinding headache that made the dim lamp feel like spears of holy light digging into his brain.
“Here, drink this. That feeling is mana exhaustion. Give it a moment and the feeling will pass after you finish the potion. It looks like one is the limit, though the second one did successfully form.” The High Priestess noted.
The Mage picked up the book, eager to see what that barrier was like for herself. But nothing happened, though she seemed enthralled with petting the scales.
The same was true for the warriors that they called in next, so the High Priestess reluctantly called in another cleric.
A young Cleric with a snobbish look on his face walked in and turned to the High Priestess.
“This had better be good, I am on my day off.” The Cleric complained.
“Don’t take that tone with me, young man. Try to use this book. Just do what feels right.” She instructed.
The new cleric gently picked up the book, and then took a cloth from his pocket to clean the fingerprints off before sniffing at it and then tapping the latch, causing it to fall open. He flipped the cover open and read the first pages.
“What an intriguing tome. A Lightning Barrier skill. Is this new for the archives?” He asked with real excitement in his tone.
“So it’s not all clerics. Yes, that is a skill tome of Refreshing Lightning. I had thought that it was a cleric class skill that the Beast Master had gained from his pet, but it appears that it is not.”