Chapter 11: Grimoire of the Great Library (1)
tdCSgXThere was a student-only cafeteria in Merkarva Academy. Normal student cafeterias were for student welfare so they usually had okay taste and the same menus with the only good side being their cheap prices, but the one in this Academy was on a whole new level.T5pm
ggHFirst off, the ingredients were great.wjNHE0U
JtkJrmI had no idea where they were coming from but every ingredient including the potatoes, corn, rice, flour and meat were all of exceptional standard.EMMd2KY
iNJF1In the past iteration, the quality of the ingredients did have a sudden drop as if they changed to a different supplier in the middle but the academy used great ingredients in general.Js7bDgR
8wvWK6zWhat I liked the most were the types of cuisine of this world.5O79zYV
IynMY“This is it… Tonkatsu is the best.”PbzbEYB
ignAlthough I wasn’t sure why there was tonkatsu [mfn]Japanese Pork Cutlet[/mfn] in a fantasy game world, there was even kimchi which was apparently from the eastern continent, so tonkatsu wasn’t anything new.Pel
R3sAnd, you know, the isekai novels of the country on the other side of the ocean had katana and kimono popping up every time, and this must be something similar to that.nUmgTt
dvX“Why aren’t you eating? Do you not like it?”BNs
9VycOI was munching through the crunchy crust and the thick piece of meat, but young man Lark had a confused look on his face and did not even bother lifting the fork.errYV6P
8YP6Z9c“Can we first talk about the grimoire…”0dZ
GAs“Shh! What if someone hears it? Keep your voice down.”9WVnxy
PMF5JkZ“S, sorry…”6PivhPT
8gZgdnLark timidly shrunk back. I waited for him to pick up the tonkatsu with his fork before opening my mouth.RPb
S2daqHd“This is something I heard from my uncle who used to be a student here…”dNA
QKWq– Crunch.ebGCA
T3otWHe meekly bit on the outer crust. It was evident that he was very nervous.id3qWD
M45“He used to come to this Merkarva Academy. And you know the library, right? Library 1?”FOJZei
tG9B– Nod nod7uXaNB
TJuz1“Apparently there’s a hidden place there which has a grimoire inside.”GHhX
eCRq“G, grimoire… Is that the same one as what I’m thinking of?”8OcYrT
GseClGrimoire – easier put, it was a skill book; a phenomenal and rare artifact that allowed one to learn spells or specialties just by reading a book. It was something like an excuse to allow the player to learn all sorts of skills and enchantments of different nature.2vf0j
beODAnyone could gain abilities by reading a grimoire but it would lose its effect in return, which was why it was exchanged at an expensive price. Even a house was nothing in comparison.JnFFl
4mIiIf“C, can we get it? Where is it? I, if I can read that…!”TvKfvL
oF5It was natural for Lark to go crazy for it, because he was unable to use spells despite having saved the ‘enchantments’ until now. This was linked to the intuition of a mage – even if they knew about the theory behind a spell, they still had to feel and understand it.R8Kg
gJKImagining a spell and weaving it into an actual form with mana was pretty much in the realm of instincts.joONW
CCVHowever, a grimoire had the power to force that intuition and comprehension. Even a normal citizen without mana could instinctively remember the enchantment as well as its principles upon reading a grimoire, even though they won’t be able to manifest it due to having no mana.TTIyb
W3y“Yes. I know the secret room of the library and where the grimoire is.”xnQ
Vef3mX“And w, why are you telling me this?”SnW
MKDaC2XOh, he was finally rational enough to throw a normal question. Right, it was obvious that I had to explain the reason behind such a story that was too good to be true.SlwuRd
TUWVuL5“Do you know I’m a knight?”GL7
VWo“Yeah… You look like one.”gz7iaT0
cfRLjXJ“There are 2 grimoires according to what uncle told me. One is about an enchantment and the other has a specialty.”MkcNE
QVKF“R, really?”wjLqy
BF1Sfw“Yeah. But my Mana Rank is low and it would be useless for me even if I learned an enchantment. In other words, one of them is worthless for me.”bH0B
Hj4O“C, can’t you still sell it though?”NmMU2
GDyu“How? How can a normal student like me contact places like the black market? What if they ask me how I got it? They might just steal it from me if I can’t answer them properly.”cTeaB
XGy9CC1Walking in the backstreets with a piece of jewelry that is too much to handle would obviously lead to death and robbery.6HY4lGZ
Y0nmNNhMore importantly, I definitely needed the help of another one to send the Unique Grade demonic spirit stuck next to the grimoire all the way to heaven.Xpqg
yrAYWG“One book for you, one book for me. I think this sounds like a fair deal.”769pz
ptzj“…I don’t understand. What do you want from me?”oiNmWkR
aKRoGKxAs expected of a hard worker who was good at theory, he was fairly quick-witted.arYVXb
mPVJBR“I have 2 conditions. One is for you to be possessed by a demonic spirit for me. That’s what we need to do in order to eliminate it.”40eYoz
8Czpx“B, but anyone can…”CKgtlm
WWq0iMI cut him off and told him about the second condition.z5v3X
wiXTc“Secondly, I want a ‘Contract of Pledge’.”LMRQdQ
5D9oq“…Then you need a mage then.”loTh
BKI“Exactly.”Z2R4Zj
6n2fFaContract of Pledge was a vicious short-term contract which only mages could do, that immediately made them lose all their mana upon not keeping the contract.IMr
HOoRAy“But… There are other students and professors of the Magic Department. Why me?”B8H4ICl
2ZZPRJ“Striking a deal with a professor is a stupid thing to do. Both their power and authority are in a whole different league. What if they knock me down and force me to tell them the location?”6SOP
FSlOlh“Ah… Then what about other students?”pjkjr
7phO3“It’s highly likely that they haven’t learned the contract spell yet.”475o
3oL4XEven though the contracting spell was not hard, there was no reason for students to learn such a vicious spell so it was hard to find anyone who learned it. But–vyh4DI
wwg“It’s different for someone like you who has Memorize.”CftXAB
d4e8Uw“…Because we can learn the contracting spell with Memorize and use it immediately, right?”0FZ
7PKFL“That is correct.”EsM
KOXi2O1That was the advantage of Memorize. After saving a spell in the spell book through Memorize, it was possible to use it immediately.8Nkbu
2VDNuIt might be difficult for high-tier spells but an easy one like the contracting spell would not take much time to understand.9oE
7t3Tf“First off, we have to start with the contracting spell but…”blg
LKXg8Y5“That’s okay. I’ve saved it already a long time ago. I used to work part-time as a contractor.”Cc2i
xPL“Hoh~. That will make this nice and easy then.”AbnVG
gnaS5“Tell me the conditions of the contract.”N4ix
prcvjXH“Let’s not make this hard for the two of us and go simple.”npFI
uw14Y****UYuNSY
uYt2SLark and I headed to the library located at the center of the campus.tptPdp
cia8DThe library of Merkarva Academy was as big as the scale of this massive academy. Rather than a library, it was constructed in a fancy way that reminded people of the ancient temples. In fact, it was also sometimes used as a temple.iGygDO4
uo8fAs for the size of the building, it was probably as big as 4 high schools of Korea combined into one.JqEE
IfGT“It, it’s massive…”dCcE5r
pTkhxDLark was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the Great Library and gulped.8tVp6
jwWzPLV“How many books even are there?”9Ac1ros
5p2CtMb“I heard there’s around 8 million including the ones in the basement.”1TB4TV
KEtZ2“E, eight million…”zAaWn04
DNx6It was so much bigger than what he thought that Lark couldn’t even continue his sentence.z2T6y
ZBUTRE“Why did they build such a large library in the middle of the campus? No-one can enter the academy apart from students and professors, right?” Lark asked.gfU
IKUfVQF“There’s probably about 3 reasons.”3PF2
eCgc“3 reasons?”JWJM2
0XhrWa“The first is the provided reason for building the Merkarva Great Library. It is to preserve knowledge and convey it to the future descendents.”7me
PsCy“…That one’s a bit too obvious.”6dr
esz“Secondly, it’s because that is more beneficial for the academy. It’s probably to keep the professors stuck in the academy right? Because this would be the best environment to gather data for research.”g0HF5s
gxM“Ah…”DJgj
1yAiwP4Teaching students was less than half of the entire job of a professor. Their real jobs were related to research and thesis, and because of that, Merkarva Academy was the most attractive environment for those professors.gIS3AKB
rBErCs“And what’s the third reason?”Cq7xN
z7M5y“Concealment.”PjihR1W
4E80b“Concealment?”VYyM3R
8H9u966“It’s to hide the grimoires, banned and sealed books using the overwhelming number of books.”q1K
MjG74YHide a tree in the forest.vmtR
qoSY9SIt was a simple and standard rule, which was also why it was difficult to fight against.Km3Ttr
DwwuHow could anyone find the book you want out of eight million books?5Kpe
BjY8Normal people wouldn’t be able to but that was a different story for me. I even knew the secrets that the Grade 1 librarians didn’t know of thanks to my prior knowledge through the game and the previous iteration.Xlw
xflI walked into Library 1 along with Lark.SKAZ1kS
fxj“Welcome. Which book are you after?”xGkddD
E1HOne of the librarians at the front entrance welcomed us.vAMheY0
07LG“We are looking for books related to the specialties of Merkarva Academy. Those… what were they called again? Merchelin stars or something?”eYz
gq0U“Ah~. If you’re talking about that book, then let’s see…”0HnOg50
Krxf62ZThe librarian senior browsed through the list on the parchment which was created from a documenting spell and found what I talked about.UGa2zLb
Lxu3“If you head to 3rd Floor, L32, you will see it in the 2nd row. The ladders are located next to each of the stairs so feel free to use them.”CsXf
jc32fSFollowing the words of the librarian, we climbed up the stairs of the wide Merkarva Great Library.aEL
ugOI recalled how I used to come to this place quite often to gather bits of information with Park Sihu, who was also from the Magic Department like Lark. This was also where I had read stuff about rune magic.OBqV
UgmQaAs we soon entered a place that had no signs of other people, I whispered to Lark who was walking behind me.z5e
uE6m1“This way.”fpGp6
Xhmte“N, nn…”BsLD
bAQI will be giving a grimoire to Lark and Lark was unable to mention this deal to anyone. It was a simple contract.1GDn
g7SANAfter arriving at the secret room, I told Lark to stay still and rummaged through the bookshelves.XWqX0
EJy‘Time to fulfill my Duty.’m0G9s
vLYRI had plenty of information. Although this side quest had requirements that you couldn’t meet without leveling up a lot, I should be able to beat the quest right now.ko617Lx
f52tQ7jOpening the secret room was something that was impossible without gaining clues from the previous quests of the quest line, and was something that required a relatively hardcore password.hIs
GY1The ‘code’ itself used quite an old-fashioned method. It was to place the books in the designated areas while pulling some of them out. It worked with a few clicks in the game but it used to be quite difficult to clear this in the previous iteration.SODI
x0S– Rattle…!xgxeG
GB6Even though I didn’t even touch the bookshelves, they slid open and revealed the door to the secret room.WgWbP
Pjok“Let’s go in.”88Fzp
P7lqTs“Huh? O, okay!”64pvnK
aFmRXLark and I quickly dashed into the room before anyone could see us.eMDtZ
YxbIo1c****oNIseQ0
Vtn“Uhh, it’s cold in here…”GffNV
XcEThe inside was empty and barren with not a single breeze, and unlike Lark, I did not feel cold in the slightest. That in turn meant that the chill Lark was feeling was because of the demonic spirit in this place.Y8A
Y8ZN“Lark.”DCTdY
1HE“Nn?”nvjQ
VBc0Olw“It’s time for you to fulfill your promise.”QvwJWf
XEaT“Huh? Umm… it’s about defeating that demonic spirit right? How— Kuhk?!”Pe6Qb
pF41– Slam!ls2
0umAhI threw a wonderful fist towards his jaws. His eyes rolled around in circles as he soon collapsed on the ground.wxMa
MMVGl4After making him faint, I dragged him deeper into the secret room.OHu8Ed
ZjcAs I had seen in the previous iteration, this secret room had a bookshelf with two books inside, and those books were the rewards of this side quest.byuqB0o
bMYRIn truth, you needed a well-trained party member and a sufficiently high level to complete this quest. Otherwise, it would be impossible to even hold off against the initial attacks of the Unique Grade demonic spirit sealed in this place.4HNkaGW
o60…U2AcbC
X6KdX1Even though it had been over 2 minutes since we came into this secret room, Lark and I did not suffer from any attacks.xe1cH
XkVFEAstral bodies could only interrupt upon mutual cognition. Lark was unconscious so his cognitive ability was naturally at 0, and I couldn’t perceive astral bodies because of the Restriction of my Precept.HzbSW
V3eyotIn other words, all I had to do now was have a one-sided conversation.qhnM
0X9B“Violence is no good!”3mp1
fG8wyThe demonic spirit must have paused its action.lpfec3v
kKiI think…G6tEd
wU6CwI mean, what else can he even do?mZr6aT4
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