Chapter 19

“Then, I’ll take my leave.”

“Ah, yes… goodbye…”

After breaking up with Erwen, my next destination is nowhere other than the library.

The soothing smell of paper and ink.

A quiet atmosphere that makes you feel like you should hold even a cough in.

Seeing people busy picking up books without disturbing that quiet atmosphere, I somehow feel like I’m the odd one out…

Rumble–!

To my surprise, there is another barbarian besides me in the library.

I reach out and poke them in the back.

“B-, Bjorn son of Yandel?!”

Really, it’s you.

Penelin’s second daughter, or is it third? Ainar.

“It’s good to see that you’re safe and sound.”

“You too!”

“… I think we should lower our voices.”

Ainar also feels the piercing gazes from the people all around us at her raised voice, so she obeys.

“I’m sorry. I was surprised because I didn’t expect to see another of us here besides me.”

Same goes for me, too.

“What’s going on, why the library?”

“You told me last time, that I should always think before I act. While I was in the labyrinth this time, I thought that I needed more knowledge in order to think properly.”

Well, that’s quite insightful.

How amazing.

If only you hadn’t fallen asleep holding the book open…

“Looks like something happened to you inside the labyrinth.”

“It wasn’t easy from start to finish. The fights weren’t a problem, but… “

Ainar continues with a bitter expression.

“It wasn’t just the monsters that I had to watch out for.”

She certainly is a bit different from the rest of the barbarians. They’ve been bragging about how easily they beat the monsters.

They wouldn’t have called it hard out loud even if it killed them.

“So that’s why you decided to come and study here.”

“Yes. But again, this doesn’t seem like a good fit for me. Reading text is very difficult. I should’ve studied harder when I was young.”

… Oh, so it’s that bad, huh?

“So, starting from today, I plan to visit the sanctuary and learn from the elders again. Although, now that I’m an adult, I’ll have to pay for it.”

It’s a little surprising though.

That my rough advice could change one person so much.

Immediately, Ainar closes the book she’d opened and gets up from her seat.

“Are you going right now?”

“If you don’t do it when you think of it, you’ll forget it.”

I see.

The more I get to know them, the more I think they’re a sad and pitiful race.

“Then, I will go.”

Ainar, who starts heading towards the exit after that brief goodbye, suddenly turns around as if she remembered something at the last moment.

“Ah! Come to think of it, I decided to repay you for your advice if I came back alive. If you need any help, come to the Angry Rhino Inn. Whatever it is, I’ll help as much as I can.”

“Alright.”

I just hope you don’t forget about this promise within the next day or two.

I think I’ll be calling for help soon.

After Ainar left, I wandered around the library for a while.

Hey, could a library spanning an entire building the size of the National Assembly be a common sight?

Even in the game, the library only had a sign saying ‘under construction’ hanging at the entrance, and couldn’t be entered.

Hmm, but how would you find a book amidst all this?

It’s not like the location would only be a few taps of keyboard away like in the modern times…

Since I was in trouble, I decided to seek professional help.

“Khm.”

At my cough, the librarian dozing at the desk slowly woke up.

“What is it?”

“I’m looking for a book. Related to history…”

“Parstyev.”

Before I could even explain what kind of book I’d been looking for, the sleepy-looking librarian muttered a word.

At the same time, a faint light entered my body.

What, was this magic?

“Now look around and you will find the book you are looking for. You can’t borrow any, and make sure you put it back in its original place after reading.”

As the light faded, the librarian mechanically uttered some rote words and nodded off again.

… Who the hell was this girl?

For some reason, waking her up again didn’t even cross my mind, so I just wandered around the library as directed.

As a result, I started noticing books all around me that made me feel like I was being drawn to them.

Slowly, I realized what kind of magic it was.

Demons. History. Labyrinths. Adventurers. Essences, and more.

As soon as the keywords I thought about changed, the books that attracted me also changed.

‘What convenient magic.’

With this kind of magic, it was understandable why there was only one librarian. In the first place, compared to the size of the library, the number of users was almost negligible.

Among the books, I selected only the ones that attracted me the most, and started opening them one by one.

[The Ruined World].

The first 700 pages in this book described the early history of the world setting.

It mostly matched with what I’d known from the game.

Millenia ago, the land became impossible to live on due to the curse of the witch, and only the last stronghold, Rafdonia, escaped that disaster.

For the people who were starving to death due to the lack of resources, the royal family excavated a passageway that connected to another dimension.

Until it became the labyrinth of today.

[Basic Understanding of Alchemy IV].

The second book described how the mana stones collected from monsters were transformed into bread, water, and steel.

I didn’t understand any of the principles.

I just read the books at random and tried to stuff as much knowledge into my head as I could.

Thanks to [Holy Wars III], I learned more about the reasons behind the relationship between the fairies and the barbarians, and what evil spirits were.

People were aware that evil spirits were evil beings, who came from another dimension, and could possess others’ bodies.

Um, that wasn’t wrong, considering.

[Demons of the Abyss].

Unfortunately, this book didn’t explain the root cause behind the appearance of the evil spirits.

However, it did describe in detail the efforts of the Rafdonia royal family and the temples who had marked the evil spirits for annihilation.

Speaking as an evil spirit myself, it was full of useful tips.

According to the contents of the book, as long as you don’t spit out some taboo words, you’ll hardly ever be suspected of being an evil spirit.

For example, [Dungeon and Stone].

… I really needed to stop shouting ‘Sparta’.

[How Did Adventurers Evolve?].

[The Two Royalties of Rafdonia].

[About Heroes].

[Life at Camp Bifron].

I was able to collect the information I wanted after reading a lot of books.

[The Death of the King].

This book dealt with the death of Ravigion III, who had been called the First King, or the Immortal King.

Although, the various suspicions surrounding it, or the changes that resulted from it, didn’t matter much to me.

What I took note of was the timing.

Let’s see, the date…

“150 years ago…?”

My hypothesis was proved correct at that moment.

The date of the king’s death was about 150 years ago, as per the book.

In other words, it meant that the place where I was now was the future, 150 years removed from the game’s standard timeline.

No matter which race you choose, the game starts the day after the death of Ravigion III.

Shit.

I’d have to live in the library for the time being.

“Whew…”

I closed the book and rested my eyes for a while.

Although I only read the important parts, my eyes were about go blind after skimming ten books in a row.

Even so, I decided to read the last two books I’d taken out.

Let’s try just a bit harder. Because you might miss out on some important information.

[Dimensional Instability Observation Record].

Was this the book the blond, who’d saved me from crawling on three legs, had read?

It contained statistics and cases similar to mine.

Like the blond had said, falling into the outermost zone was something that only happened once in a century…

“Bullshit.”

Speaking from experience, the actual number must’ve had been much, much more than that.

It was just that most of the time, the victim would’ve died before letting anybody know.

The rest of the content was just statistics, so I flipped through the pages and paused at the last chapter.

The author’s reasoning was written at the end, that ‘entering at the moment the portal is closing may have something to do with instability’.

If true…

So I only had myself to blame after all?

I was feeling pitiful, so I moved on to the next book.

[Ninth Grade Essence Compendium].

Finally, this book was the last.

It was an organized encyclopaedia that described the abilities of the essences dropped by 9th-grade monsters, but unlike the in-game notation, there were no exact numbers.

[Goblin]

Looking at the other monsters, medium seemed to mean a stat of twenty-one or higher…

There was no way to guess the standard value of the high grade.

According to the guide on the first page, it seemed that information above the eighth grade had to be purchased from the Adventurers’ Guild.

“Haah…”

I closed the book and simply stretched my limbs.

The world outside the window had gotten dark.

It was almost time for the library to close, and there were almost no visitors left.

I put all the books I’d read back into their original places and returned to the inn.

And after a simple meal, I stretched out on the bed.

With this, I’d passed three days inside this city.

“So another twenty-seven days like this? …”

The labyrinth opens at midnight on the first of every month.

A month here lasts exactly thirty days, so it means that you have to enter the labyrinth once every four weeks or thereabouts.

“…”

What can you do in the city with the rest of your time?

No, what should I do?

As I was organizing all sorts of information in my head, I quickly fell asleep.

When tomorrow comes, let’s start with getting a new colleague.

“Uncle! Uncle! Come on, get up!”

Almost at the break of the next day, Erwen was knocking at my door, as if blown in by the morning breeze[1].

She sounded quite excited on top of that…

‘Why the hell did she come back?’

I hoped she wasn’t here to say she’d follow me instead of her sister.

To be honest, I thought I might never see her again.

“What’s going on?”

“Look at this! The contract was successful!”

As soon as the door opened, Erwen blurted out an endless stream of words.

“Contract? Oh, I guess you ate the ‘spirit stone’?”

Spirit stones are items that allow fairies to make contracts with spirits of different attributes.

With the caveat that the user has to be lucky enough.

“Yes! Yesterday, after I left your place, I went and successfully signed a contract with a new spirit!”

“You were lucky.”

Spirit stones cost about 150,000 stones in the game.

The success rate was only around 10%.

It must’ve been a gamble with almost all of her fortune on the line, but still, did she succeed?

“Yes! Big sis bought about ten of them for me, and it worked!”

… Fuck, are you here to make fun of me?

As a barbarian who only inherited this body, I could only feel a sense of deprivation.

When we first met, I thought she was a pitiful kid because she had a sibling to take care of, but it was clear now that she was a top-class gold spoon by birth.

Perhaps her sister was the one who bought her that bow, too.

“By the way, it looks like you made a contract with the wind spirit.”

“Yes! I was quite lucky. Because fire and wind go well together!”

“Okay, then cancel the summon first.”

I took a deep breath and spoke.

I’d be lying if I said my stomach wasn’t hurting, but it was for a different reason than envy.

“Yes? But I haven’t shown it to you properly yet… “

“Are you here to mess around?”

“Oh, ah! sorry!”

The raging winds instantly subsided.

Hoo, why do I have to bother with such a a fuss as soon as I wake up?

Erwen, who’d been so bubbly, began to look a bit down at my frown.

“Sh-, should I clean it up?”

I didn’t know why it was even a question.

Or did she mean to just stand and stare while I cleaned up her mess?

At my nod, Erwen quickly tidied up the room that had fallen into shambles.

Surprisingly, it took less than ten minutes.

She hadn’t been lying when she’d said that she was confident in cleaning and laundry.

She moved really cleanly.

Just like some master of martial arts.

“Do you want something more?”

“…”

“I’ll clean up a bit more…”

“No. That’s enough.”

To be honest, I wondered if it was even possible to do any more.

The room was looking even cleaner than when I’d first rented it, for some reason.

Well done, let me give you a carrot.

After all, I have something to ask you later.

“By the way, I haven’t said it yet. Congratulations on contracting a new spirit.”

“Hehe, thank you!”

“Did you have breakfast yet?”

“Not yet.”

We went down to the first floor to have a meal and finish our conversation.

“What can you do with this wind spirit?”

“I think I might be able to slightly twist the trajectory of an arrow that’s already been shot, or shoot it much faster!”

Compared to what I’d expected, the operations seemed fairly simple and one-dimensional.

What about rotating arrowheads increase penetrative power, or silencing the sound of the shot?

Then the combat power would be enhanced even more.

“Uh, I hadn’t thought of that… It seems like it might be possible?”

What the hell are you talking about?

I feel down for some reason.

“Anyway, that’s good. Once you’re done eating, let’s go back up.”

“Yes? why?”

“I have some stuff to do in the room.”

Erwen tilted her head.

As if she had no idea at all what I meant…

“You didn’t think that your debt was fully repaid last time, did you?”

“Yes yes? Wasn’t it?”

She really was naive.

Creak.

Locking the door so nobody could disturb us, I made Erwen sit on the bed.

“Come on, use your ability.”

Are there any difficulties in the skill’s usage, what’s the cooldown, what’re the weaknesses of the stealth ability, etc.

There were a lot of things that I needed to check.

Editor’s Notes:

[1] 아침 댓바람부터 (lit. with the morning breeze). Here breeze/wind means being early or in a hurry, so the phrase just means really early in the morning. The literal meaning of the phrase sounds beautiful, though, so we tweaked it a bit and tried to fit it into the sentence.