Chapter 319: An Ocean of Knowledge

Chapter 319: An Ocean of Knowledge

Early Morning - Early Summer : Atlas | Bahamut

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"Hooh..." I let out a deep breath as I took to the air and finally pulled my aura off everyone. *Vwoom* -Geez.. just controlling that much is so draining, and controlling it somehow isn't even my biggest problem...-

But such issues were to be addressed later.

"You're quite a good actor, you know," Mother spoke to me through wind magic, her tone tinged with slight pride.

It brought some ease to my mind right away. "Well, after calling myself a Whyte and pretending to be a demihuman for so long, I'd hope I've gotten pretty good."

"Hoho~, you speak like you want it to end. Are you excited to finally be able to use the family name once the festival rolls around?" A smile slowly broke through her facade as she spoke.

"How could I not be? Though I'm not sure exactly how it will all work out..." -I wonder if I should continue to lie low or finally announce myself... I'm sure Asgard knows about me now, especially considering the scene I made on the moon.. even if, for whatever reason, I was left alone...- From my perspective, it didn't make much sense, but there was undoubtedly a reason, although I would end up saving it for the next time I saw the goddess.

"Well, we still have a little over two years to think about it, so what's the rush. For now, let's just focus on the library."

"R-Right. Speaking of..." I quickly glanced at the horizon before turning back to Mother. "Where is it?" -I thought it would be at one of our estates, but.. I don't remember anyone mentioning we had one over here...-

"It's a few kilometers northeast of the academy." She spoke as if it were something I should have known.

But I was hung up on something else entirely. "Academy? Like where it used to be?"

"Haha," she chuckled. "Where it still is."

I tensed up immediately. -W..what?- Thoughts ripped through my mind instantly. I knew for a fact that I had erased every trace of the academy. -But it's.. still there?-

However, while I was still questioning my own memories, Mother motioned to the horizon ahead of us with a refreshed smile.

-Huh? What is she...- On the distant horizon, a series of massive, unfamiliar structures began to come into view.

They were all very simple and cubic, a stark difference from the intricately designed buildings within the city, and as we continued to fly, more and more of them started to appear until it had essentially become an endless field of them. -W..what are those?-

I continually questioned myself as we flew, eventually finding them similar to the Elder Hall's old housing district, but before long, something more familiar came into view.

The hole. The place where I incinerated countless ancients and erased an entire monument off the map.

But something about it was.. different... As we approached, I wanted to ask Mother about it, but the closer we got, the more of the hole I could see and the more of a whirlwind my mind became. -W..what the hell?-

The once-desolate and devastated site of the academy was buzzing with activity and life, the hole's expanded edges lined with the countless, newly constructed buildings with countless dragons traversing between them carrying tools, materials, and even artifacts leading toward the hole. "W..what are they.. doing?"

Mother was quick to put on a proud look. "Well, you remember how Poniria said destroying the academy would help bring dragons together again? Although she may have been a manipulative bitch, she was right about that."

-H..huh?- Looking back toward the academy, I could finally see into the hole, but rather than seeing the cooled molten rock like I expected, I saw nearly perfectly vertical, carved walls of stone with countless massive marble structures embedded in them, each with a dragon working on them from the surrounding scaffolding.

It was truly a sight to behold, but once the bottom of the expanded, nearly 18-kilometer-wide hole came into view, I saw an unbelievably massive mythril structure, and it looked like just the base of a colossal spire. "That's.. a lot of mythril..." I spoke with awe, unable to maintain my act. -I get that its mostly lower grade stuff, but holy shit, that's a lot...-

Mother's smile only widened after seeing my reaction. "Once things cooled down after your spell, we sent Sir Atsáli down to check things out, but rather than finding survivors or anything, he found that you had uncovered a huge, low, and mid-grade mythril vein. It's what we plan to use to construct the entire central spire, leading from the very bottom to the top of the hole, giving more support to the walls and connecting all the rooms at the same time. But mind you, construction only began a couple years ago, so it will take quite some time before it's done."

Quickly making our way inside, we were immediately presented with the view of a seemingly endless ocean of books, stacks of paper, stone tablets, and even animal hides covered in fairly primitive languages lining shelves hundreds of meters high and managed by several younger and older ancient stage librarians. -They must be the caretakers...-

"Miss Ragnarok! Wel-" Their cheeriness instantly halted when my aura reached them.

"Haah..." Mother could only sigh. "One of you, please show my guest to the aura control and aura reading sections." She quickly looked back toward me before whispering. "Go ahead and take your time. While there are rules against removing books from here, given the status of the Fenrir now, they won't apply to you. But to be sure, I will fill the rest of the caretakers in on it while you're out."

"Alright." Looking back over toward the caretakers, I saw one completely frozen and shaking slightly, but compared to the other two, she was in rather good condition. "You seem to be able to handle my aura the best, so why don't you show me around."

The next thing I knew, she gulped her anxieties and nervously nodded. "Y..yes! Dear guest..."

After that, it took some time to eventually get moving, but after leading me around the massive, circular library for a few moments, she stopped in front of a massive shelf before hopping up onto one of the many small balconies lining the wall of bookshelves.

Although it took her some time, she actually managed to slowly get used to my aura. "This area here should be most of the books related to aura, aura control, and aura reading, a-although there are a few techniques elsewhere if you would like me to grab them."

Quickly walking up under her, I used my aura to start scanning the names of the books, pulling out the ones that stood out. "If you could, I'd be grateful." My voice was fairly soft as I had already started reading some of the texts.

From the looks of things, it made her a bit flustered. "Y-yes, my lord! I will fetch them for you right away!"

Before I could say anything more, she hopped off the balcony before gently landing on the ground and rushing around the corner. -She really is quite dedicated...-

But while I was extremely hopeful seeing just how many books there were on the subject, numbering close to a thousand, I was quickly let down by their content. -Some of these really sound like weird fantasy cultivation techniques...-

'If you imagine every place the blade of grass can be, then where it is will never be a surprise. You can read your aura in a similar fashion.' -Ya don't say...- *pop* Closing the book with a bit of agitation, I moved it back up to the shelf before turning to the next book I head ready.

It had been about an hour since I arrived, and I had fully read around 700 books, but somehow, I felt dumber than when I started. -These.. really aren't helpful...-

To put things simply, the technique I was using was leaps and bounds beyond the ones in these texts, and the worst part was simply how cryptic and symbology-driven the texts were. -No wonder these texts are meant for geniuses.. you have to be a genius to even understand what the hell they're trying to say...-

Needless to say, I was starting to get upset and eventually just abandoned the technique texts entirely in favor of the theory ones.

The caretaker assigned to me was actually beginning to get nervous after seeing that I was getting a bit agitated, but eventually, I completely changed the subject.

"So, what kind of texts are in the inner layers if stuff like these techniques are out here?"

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