Chapter 320: Pieces Stuck in Time

Chapter 320: Pieces Stuck in Time

Mid Morning - Early Summer : The Library of Eternity

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*tap-fwoop* Quickly shelving a few books with my aura, I glanced down at the caretaker. "So, what kind of texts are in the inner layers if stuff like these techniques are out here?"

She immediately tensed up before looking up at me. "Uh.. the inner layers have more state-critical works."

Curiosity piqued, I tilted my head slightly while shelving a few more books. "State-critical?"

"Older texts and objects of importance that require more extreme conditions for preservation. The deeper we go, the more careful we must be around the objects, to the point that even our auras must be kept away from the pieces."

-Geez... Isn't that a bit extreme?- "What if you need to move things around?"

"The objects are separated into sections, each of which can be moved with a special device stored in the second layer. We as the librarians must meticulously organize these sections before relocating them to the inner layers."

-So all the organization, and I'd assume ranking of importance, happens out here, then they just never touch them..? Wouldn't that make stuff pile up in the inner layers?- Questions rang through my mind before I turned back to the caretaker. "How many layers are there, and how big are they? Is the first layer the biggest?"

She shook her head immediately. "There are four layers in total, though only three are accessible," she explained with a hint of disappointment. "As for their sizes, the second is the largest, and the third follows it. Omitting the fourth layer, each layer essentially acts as a filter for the deeper layers, but the second layer accumulates quite a lot that cannot be disposed of, but isn't important enough for the third layer."

-As I thought...- "I see..." Looking back down at the stacks of books around me, I skimmed through them with my aura before quickly putting them back on the shelf. "In that case, let's see what the second layer has to offer." -If it's larger and has been sifted through before, there has to be something...-

"Uh.. about that..." She quickly tensed back up before breaking into a cold sweat. "No one is allowed inside except on set dates once every few years." She threw herself into a deep bow instantly. "I sincerely apologize."

But as she bowed in silence, a smile found its way onto my face. "That's fine. I'm not a caretaker after all."

She quickly tensed up, but before she spoke, she looked toward the ground. "T-that is true..." Silence wrapped around us as she fell into thought. "However, there is still a procedure that must be taken." With some reluctance, she deepened her bow. "I apologize for my impudence, but please give us an hour to prepare for your entry."

"Alright. In the meantime, I will continue to look around if that's alright."

"O-Of course! Please ask us if you need anything!"

Finally dismissing her with a nod, I skimmed the rest of the texts around me before placing them back onto their respective shelves and standing up. I had an hour to roam and explore as I wished, but as I walked around the massive loop of the library, I quickly found that an hour was far from a long time in that place.

-Geez.. this place is massive...- The outer layer technically had only three rings of bookshelves; however, each was nearly a hundred meters tall and ran in a circle around the entire spire.

-It doesn't help that it's not only books either...- Scattered on the bookshelves were artifacts, ancient-looking stone tablets, scrolls, and preserved animal hides covered in text, several of which were written in languages unfamiliar to me. -Just where are these from...- But as I continued looking, I did eventually find things that did more than just stimulate my curiosity.

About a quarter of the way around the loop, I found a row of stone tablets that looked to have been taken out of the wall of a cave, and on them was the language of the Acardi. -W..what's this?-

Quickly reading through them, my expression of curiosity gradually darkened until I was simply left perplexed.

The text, written by an Acardi survivor similar to the one whose crawler I found in the Holy Kingdom's mountains, wasn't anything like a diary, log, or will. Instead, it was endless mathematics and formulas scratched into the stone's surface, which I couldn't directly connect to anything in physics.

-What is this math for...- It was so complicated and exact that I was struggling to wrap my head around it all at once. Simply nothing I could think of could connect to it, even highly obscure topics like mana energy wavelengths.

My only hint was the text that looked like chicken scratch at the very end, 'After being on the verge of death for so long, I solved the problem...'

But as time ticked by, I sat down and stared at the shelf, continuously wracking my brain over the equation until, eventually, the caretaker came back up to me.

"Lord Nott," she bowed deeply, pronounced with respect. "Your entry to the second layer has been approved and prepared."

-Ah.. has it been an hour already?- In all honesty, I had momentarily forgotten where I even was. "Alright, but before that, where did these tablets come from?"

But the shelves of items related to aura were very few and far between, and nearly all the items on them were theory-based.

However, thankfully, even a single book in this layer was more helpful than everything I read in the first layer combined. After reading through any and everything I could find, I managed to get a slightly different view of aura, as well as some methods to improve my ability to control it.

My issue with reading it still persisted, and my control still needed an excessive amount of practice, but it was at least better than nothing.

However, my greatest boon of the second layer didn't end up being the pieces related to aura.

It was pieces related to the Acardi.

All throughout the second layer, there were artifacts, texts, devices, and blueprints, all made by the Acardi, stored and archived for thousands of years. -This place is a fucking treasure trove...-

The more I looked, the more I found. Broken versions of the mobile satellite device I had, electronic tablets, carbon printers, cables, which I may or may not have taken, and even an empty fusion core were all items I had seen around.

But as I started nearing the four-hour mark and needed to head back to the door, I found an Acardi artifact I didn't recognize. A simple black cube with no glow at all. -Hm? What's that?-

*VWOOM* It instantly started glowing and humming as my aura brushed across it.

"Authorized Personnel det-" *static*

-Awe damn.. did it break?- Bringing it closer, I pushed some aura into it and fixed it in all the places that looked damaged before finally letting the electricity and mana in it flow again.

*HHmmmmm* The hum quickly settled down before the purple glow in it steadied and began flowing more smoothly. "Awaiting command. . ."

The robotic voice was almost identical to those I had heard previously from similar artifacts. -What is it though...- "Uh.. help?" -Will it list commands if I ask that?-

"Invalid command."

-Figures...- Quickly straightening up, I looked over my shoulder toward the door, which was only just around the corner. -I don't have time to mess with this...- "Deactivate?"

*click* The glow and hum instantly stopped as the cube returned to looking like a simple black cube. -Now I just need to think of an excuse to take it...-

"You find something?"

I jolted so badly that I nearly launched the artifact into the ceiling after hearing Mother's voice. *VWOOM* "Uh, yeah... Could you help me take this out of the library?"

I lowered the artifact in front of her so she could look at it, but the moment I expected her to give a suggestion, she just lunged forward. *nom*

I simply froze almost instantly. She simply.. ate it? -H..huh?-

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