The third day into the Month of Looming Frost.
Apprentice Town Eight.
Angor woke up earlier. After he washed up, he found himself a black gentleman attire which suited him just fine.
Inside the mirror, the young kid quickly became an elegant nobleman with a high nose bridge, delicate lips, deep-blue eyes and messy but lively short blond hair. When viewed by the people in this era, Angor was absolutely a top-tier handsome. Even though he did not pay much attention to his dressing, he managed to draw a lot of attention to himself. When the boy tried to look better, he only made it super.
“Something is amiss…” Angor muttered. Anyone else here to comment on his looks would not find anything more that could be done.
Bird chirping came from the French window. Angor opened it and invited fresh air into the house. Along with it came a seabird wearing black gentleman suit, Toby.
Toby circled around Angor’s room for a while and perched on top of Angor’s head skillfully.
Now, two pairs of eyes stared at the mirror.
Similar clothes, the same puzzled look… They were even standing in the same posture.
“I see now. I need a hat!” said Angor. He looked at the small creature inside his hair and recalled the days when his hairstyle would always be ruined by the bird.
There was a marketplace in the town where various merchants from villages and towns nearby sold their stuff. Angor soon found a hattery and purchased a pure-black top hat.
Then he rushed back home with Toby on his head.
The boy attracted a lot of people on his way. He made quite an interesting sight with his appearance, clothing, and the adorable companion. But there were only common folks. Angor did not see any apprentices. Maybe they were all hiding inside their basements doing research and did not come out much.
Angor removed Toby from his hair and put on his new top hat. Now he looked more wonderful. Together with his dark-red bowtie and snow-white silk collar, the decorations added some mysterious properties on top of Angor’s handsome look.
He was going to find someone today. To show his respect, Angor made sure he presented his best manner.
According to Flora, his target was an elder with a very strict character who preferred people who knew the rules. The boy had to wear formal clothes.
Angor would do this anyway without Flora’s advice. He would not forget the glory of the lion’s heart which was carved into his soul.
“The fire in the lion’s heart never dies.”
The button on Angor’s gentleman wear was the emblem of Padt Family—lion’s heart. Angor put on this costume for the first time. He prepared it for brother’s title inheritance ceremony. He did not expect that he would suddenly go somewhere else far, far away before he could actually use it.
Angor recited his family motto in a small voice. The young man in the mirror was now carrying a responsible and solemn look.
“Let’s go, Toby. I heard the elder is the most knowledgeable being in the entire southern region. Maybe he can help you evolve.”
Apart from asking something for himself, Angor also planned to do something for Toby.
Greya only put Toby in his care for the moment. But Toby was also a supernatural now. Angor developed a fine friendship with the bird during these months, so Angor hoped he could find Toby a path to advance using the chance.
Not far from Apprentice Town Eight, Angor reached a stairway made from plant vines which led toward a bus stop ten meters off the ground.
Angor climbed onto the stop and saw a sky bus approaching soon.
While on the bus, he silently went over the key points for sensing spirit power.
Being able to sense his spirit power meant he could finally begin his life as a supernatural.
There were three steps. The first one was to feel his spirit power, and the second step was to control the power. The last step was to construct one’s spiritual model. Once the model was made, he would be considered a Level-1 Apprentice, like Abelle.
However, Angor did not manage to think for a long time before someone’s cheering voice woke him up.
He looked out of the bus and saw a giant plaza in the middle of Tree Spirit Garden suddenly being shrouded in sunlight.
The Tree of Eternity grew very large leaves and branches which hid most of the sun from the ground, so the Tree Spirit Garden underneath was always dark with only occasional, scattered light spots.
But now, the central plaza which was several square kilometers in size was completely brightened by the sun. The place appeared as if it was covered by golden dust.
Angor looked up and saw the giant leaves which denied the plaza of sunlight all curled up.
“Maybe Mister Tree Spirit is in a good mood today so he allows people down there to enjoy some light?” Angor wondered.
But was that something worth cheering for? Anyone who wanted to see light could simply take a sky bus and go to the leaves on the tree.
Angor looked back and failed to notice that a rupture had just opened up in the central plaza. The cheering apprentices all rushed inside.
Twenty minutes later, Angor reached the stop he was coming for.
It was only a small stop, and Angor was the only one here. A metal sign which was about three meters high stood under the platform. It read “Cloud Library”.
Yes, the base of the sign was fixed on the cloud.
This stop was not located on one of the tree leaves. It stood on a thick cloud. When Angor stepped on the cloud, he felt like walking on soft dirt.
This was called “cloud dirt”, a product made by mixing a special material with clouds.
The cloud was very wide. Angor could already see the magnificent library which shined a golden light not far from him.
The elder he was looking for was here, in the biggest library in Brute Cavern.
There were lots of people in the library, but compared with the size of the building, they appeared like swarms of ants.
Angor was the only one on the bus stop because everyone could fly. As the boy stared agape at the library, a middle-aged witch wearing blue wizard robe and a pointy wizard hat decorated by stars and moon flew past him on a broomstick.
The aura of the library shocked him more and more as he approached it. It stood there like a hallowed church, which made people want to show respect and bow down. Angor knew that this was not something religious, but natural respect toward knowledge and truth.
Every single person walking around the place presented his or her best manner. No one spoke a word.
Angor was the same as he entered the library with a solemn attitude.
The library was extremely spacious inside. There were obviously space-expanding magic arrays being used. Books were arranged in different sections. When Angor checked the map at the entrance, he saw 8,329 sections in total. According to people’s needs, they could all be reached via certain teleportation points.
The rule of equivalent exchange also worked here. To use teleportation and rent books all required merit points, and most of the apprentices would spend their hard-earned points here.
According to Flora, the elder was inside section 7920—7930 recently, researching for some sort of energy transformation project.
Angor found a vacant teleportation point and prepared to go to section 7920. Without any more clues to go by, he had to look in the sections one by one.
When he placed his bone card on the teleportation device, a number showed up: 100 merit points.
Angor widened his eyes. He just saw an apprentice who only paid one point to use the teleportation device. Why was it asking for a hundredfold now?!
When he felt like crying, someone in the line urged him to hurry up.
There were 30 teleportation points in the library, and somehow, they were all occupied. Angor did not want to keep people waiting and make a scene, so he clenched his teeth and accepted the price.
Angor reached section 7920 and felt his heart aching.
He thought a section would be a dozen meters around at best. But what he saw shocked him for good. The section was beyond a hundred meters in both directions and was full of giant bookshelves. The first glance presented him books a hundred times more than what Sunders had in his collection. No. It was way more than that.
Angor glanced at a random book nearby.
Summary on How to Use Hyper Magnetic Cannon .
When he placed his bone card near the book, the rental fee quickly showed up on it: 300,000 merit points.
Three hundred thousand…
Angor’s total asset was ten thousand. One single book cost thirty times! That equaled to 3,000 magic crystals! This was insane. Few apprentices could save up such big money.
Angor guessed that this section was meant for wizards. The teleportation fee would also make sense. It was a price bar which discouraged apprentices from coming here. Considering how apprentices usually made money, they would never waste their income by coming to this place.
That was also why Angor did not see anyone at all in here.
He walked along the central path and looked aside, hoping to find the elder Flora mentioned.
But he did not succeed even after looking around the entire Section 7920.
Angor had no choice but to return to the teleportation point and go for Section 7921.
Another 100 merit points.
And the effort still brought him nothing.
7922, 7923, 7924… The boy kept searching for another three sections by spending 300 points. He did not find a single soul, let alone the elder he was looking for.
When he prepared to move to Section 7925, he noticed the teleportation fee this time was 300!
Angor felt faint and wanted to leave. But on second thought, he felt that he could not let his previous attempt go to waste, so he made a hard decision and went for Section 7925 with a sad face.
He walked in the middle to search around just like before. When halfway through, Angor noticed that a bookshelf at the end of the line to his right was of a different color than the others. It released a weak, silver glimmer.
He approached the bookshelf out of curiosity.
The books here were… all alchemy books?
Alchemy Script: Energy Stabilizer
It was an alchemy script on how to create an “energy stabilizer”. Angor recalled recording a book in the warden’s secret chamber back at Stairs of Hanging Prison. The book was called Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy , which contained knowledge on how to craft such a stabilizer. It was an elementary alchemy tool.
But why was the bookshelf silver? Because it was meant for alchemy books? When Angor placed his bone card near Alchemy Script: Energy Stabilizer and read the number shown, he felt his heart skipping a beat.
“Rental fee: 1,100,000 merit points”
This was too crazy!!
In the Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy that Angor recorded, there were crafting methods for nearly a thousand different alchemy tools, and the energy stabilizer was only a very basic one.
And this single, basic tool was taken out and published in one book which cost more than a million points to rent. That meant ten thousand magic crystals! Angor could not believe his own eyes.
If the price was real, Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy would worth… billions of points?
And that was only one of the many alchemy books Angor recorded in his tablet. There were also intermediate books, advanced books, even other special ones. How much would they cost?!
“Wow. Alchemy books were so expensive…” Angor mumbled to himself.
Seemed like he was a rich guy himself, only that he could not reveal it to others. The boy would never try to sell his recordings. One of Jon’s teachings was that “a man’s wealth is his own crime”. Before he knew how to defend himself, selling the books would only bring him death instead of a fortune.
“I can’t sell them, but I can try learning them,” Angor muttered. Since he possessed such textbooks which covered all levels of knowledge, why not put them to good use?
Still, it was something for later. His main job now was to become a supernatural first and turn into an apprentice successfully. Everything else had to wait.
Angor left the silver bookshelf and continued searching for the elder.
Before declaring the section to be another disappointment, the boy suddenly saw an old man in a corner. He looked much like a soul who kept blinking out of existence. The soul was sitting in front of a long desk and writing something.
Angor’s eyes brightened up.
“There he is!”
…
There were three ancestor souls in Brute Cavern: The Tree Spirit of the tree of eternity, Lady Mirror in the mirror world, and the old man in front of Angor.
The most erudite being in the southern region, and the philosopher of Cloud Library—Elder of Books.
The Elder of Books was a soul who existed long in history. He was a wise and serene man who edited or participated in the editing of more than half of all the book in the entire Cloud Library. Rumor had it that he was born from an ancient tome, thus he loved and cared for books as well.
The old man never went out of the mirror world before. He did not even leave the library much. And still, he was titled the “most erudite being in the southern region”.
Being erudite meant knowing a lot, which was different from being an expert who spent countless time researching a certain field of expertise. They were equally important traits, but the wizards still preferred being experts.
The Elder of Books knew a lot of things. Many wizard tricks out there came from him. He even lectured legendary wizards before. This was why Flora mentioned his name to Angor.
Angor approached him and noticed the old man was composing something. He decided not to interrupt his work and stood aside to wait.
And he waited for ten hours straight.
Even after Angor’s feet went all numb, the Elder of Books did not show any hint of stopping.
During the process, Toby switched from Angor’s left shoulder to the right, then onto his top hat. In the end, Toby fell asleep, so Angor put the bird into his pocket.
The sky outside turned dark.
Angor tried to call his name in a small voice, “Um, Elder of Books?”
The elder did not look up from his work while he pondered over something as what he did during the last few hours. He did not mind Angor’s presence at all.