Chương 337: (330) 5.26. Book Worms

The librarian seemed to realize that she'd gotten her point across, as the golem stepped back a few feet, giving him space to breathe as it continued staring at him. Vin slowly pushed himself up in his chair, his heart hammering away in his chest at the librarian's true motive finally came to light.

"It's sounding less like you think I might become a God, and more like you're banking on it," he said carefully, not wanting to anger the woman with a few hundred golems under her command while he was sitting in the middle of her house. Even if she claimed she was removed from her emotions, there was no sense in taking any unnecessary risks.

"I already told you, even if it turns out that's how Gods are created, I have no interest in that sort of thing."

"Believe what you will," the librarian said, nodding toward the book in his hands.

"Ophela did not set out to become a Goddess of the Sky. She simply loved the sky so much that it was the natural order of her progression. Tell me, Vinnie, do you love exploring? Or magic?"

"More than just about anything… though please, call me Vin," he said, the sound of his real name sending an even worse shiver down his spine than their whole discussion up until that point.

"Then it may very well happen whether you wish for it or not," she said simply.

"I suppose." Clearing his throat, Vin realized he might actually be able to utilize this to his advantage.

"So… it sounds like you want me to keep leveling, right?"

"That is correct."

"In that case, can you grant me access to your restricted, subterranean levels?" he asked excitedly.

"I heard you keep runic formations and more dangerous information down there. I imagine all that knowledge would help me level up rather quickly!"

"Incorrect," the golem said, causing his bubbling excitement to die out just as quickly as it had started.

"You are an Adventurer of the Arcane. You need to earn your growth naturally, or you will never reach the next prestige, let alone achieve Godhood."

"So you want me to grow as much as I can… to the point where I theoretically hit the top… but you're not willing to help me in any real way," Vin surmised, frowning at the golem intermediary.

"That kinda sucks."

"I am allowing your companion to keep her translation artifact, as well as fixing your friend as we speak and permitting her to retain her body you stole," the librarian stated, the glowing blue eyes of the golem functioning as her intermediary boring into his own.

"Would you prefer I stopped?"

"Never mind, that kind of help is plenty appreciated!" he said hurriedly.

"It's just that neither of those things are helping me directly, if you see what I mean. I'm not trying to sound selfish here, but after all your talk of relying on me to hit level 100, I was sort of expecting more assistance."

"I am granting you and your friends access to the largest collection of written work on potentially all of Edregon," she said simply.

"People once flocked to my library from all across my world for the chance to conduct research within these towers. Is that not assistance enough for you?"

"It is super generous of you… but none of that will grant me any new levels or spells, right?"

"Correct. Blame your own soul for its love of adventuring and discovering the unknown, rather than having the desire to sit in a dark room and read all day."

"Huh, are you sure you're free of emotions? That sounded dangerously close to an actual joke if I'm not mistaken."

"Just because I do not feel, does not mean I no longer understand the concept of humor," the golem said.

"Now, I must turn my attention fully toward correcting your friend's body. As I said, you are free to roam around the above-ground floors. The trick with the golem was clever, but know that it was I who responded to your original request, they are not capable of anything like that. Do not waste your time trying again."

"Understood," he said, giving her a small smile.

"Regardless of all that crazy God crap you just dropped on me… thank you for helping fix Alka's body. She's my oldest friend in the world, and I can promise you in the event I do ever obtain godly powers beyond mortal comprehension, I'll remember this."

"I am counting on it," the librarian said, before the golem's eyes dimmed ever so slightly back to their normal electric blue, indicating Vin was once more alone with a mindless construct.

"Alright, no more children's books," Vin sighed, getting to his feet and handing the book back to the waiting golem.

"Can you bring me to a section on artifact creation? I've got some things I need to read up on." Putting everything he'd talked about with the librarian to the side was no easy feat, but there was nothing like delving head-first into magic to clear the mind. The golem did exactly as asked, bringing him to the fifth floor of the fourth tower and sitting him down, before retrieving a handful of dry, heavy tomes for him. Vin didn't even know where to start, his eyes bouncing from one large tome to another.

Do we start with 'An Apprentice's Guide to Artifacts,' or do we jump straight into 'Relic Creation and You, a Primer?' Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. In the end, Vin picked one at random and dove in, immediately losing himself in the theory and instruction behind creating artifacts.

He quickly discovered that his assisting Shia the other day in the creation of a new magic plant species had in fact been a fantastic practice session regarding creating actual artifacts, and he made a mental note to thank her once again with one of his first artifacts down the line. He was so engrossed in his reading, he didn't even realize someone was standing beside him until they physically shook his arm.

Letting out a scream that was a tad less manly than he would have liked and not at all appropriate for a library, Vin clutched at his chest as he stared at a laughing Shia.

"Sorry!" she said, still laughing as she looked at the expression on his face.

"You wouldn't respond to me when I tried talking through the golem, so I figured coming in person would be easier!"

"You nearly scared me half to death," he grumbled, rubbing his eyes and blinking as he realized they were more tired than he'd realized. More than that, he was shocked to find he was starving, as if he'd missed a meal or three.

"Shia… how long have we been here?"

"Lost yourself reading again?" she snickered, eyeing the pile of books at his table. Vin started as he realized he'd read through not one, or two, but four separate tomes on the basics of artifact creation, each one the size of a small textbook.

"I suppose when your endurance is as insanely high as yours, that's not too surprising."

"Please tell me it's only been a few hours," he begged.

"Close. Two days," she said, laughing anew as his eyes bulged.

"I tried talking to you! You get shockingly absorbed in your reading for someone so into running around outside as you are."

"I can't help it, they're books on magic!" he argued.

"What the hell has everyone been doing the last two days?!"

"Same as you," Shia shrugged.

"I mean, we're surrounded by literally the largest font of information any of us have ever seen. Even if we're not allowed in the restricted section, there's enough up here to keep us busy for a lifetime. I finally finished researching what I was interested in, but I think the others are still going strong. I'm pretty certain Lumel suffers from the same lost-time sense as you do, and Scule managed to find a number of books on various alchemical techniques he's been actively practicing to keep himself busy."

"Well that's good at least. Any news from Alka?"

"I just asked a little while ago, and the librarian said she'd be with us soon. It's the reason I finally came to get you. The others agreed to meet back up in the lobby, but you wouldn't respond."

"Sorry. Probably need to break that habit," he said, grinning sheepishly. He was blown away to discover he'd spent the last two straight days reading, but he supposed that was one of the perks of having an endurance attribute of 70. A regular human's endurance was generally somewhere between 10 and 15, which meant he literally had anywhere from five to seven times the endurance of someone from back on Earth. Pulling back to back all-nighters was child's play.

Following Shia back down the ladders, the two of them met up with everyone in the main area of the library, where he was pleased to find Alka already up and on her feet, laughing at something Scule said as Lumel watched with a smile, petting Reginald. Alka looked good as new, though there was in fact one distinct thing that immediately jumped out at him. She had two arms again.

"Alka!" he said, walking forward and pointing at her brand-new arm that stuck out like a sore thumb. While the librarian was evidently capable of restoring her missing limb, she hadn't been able to cover it in darthsteel plating like the rest of her body. The bright-white, marble-like limb was a stark contrast to the rest of her jet-black body.

"Looking good!"

"Like the new arm?" she laughed, lifting it up and twirling it about on her strange elbow joint.

"The librarian asked if I wanted it replaced after she fixed me, and I figured, why the hell not? Though I'm planning on running over to the Crater after this to bug Deorer until he agrees to plate it to match the rest of me."

"I'm sure he'll be ecstatic to see you," Vin grinned.

"So you're all better? What even was the issue?"

"Repeated blunt force trauma," the librarian said, walking out to join them.

"Her body is that of a worker golem. I designed them to be nimble and dexterous, as their primary purpose is to tend to the library. While the material they are made from is nearly indestructible, the mana gem socket evidently was still capable of getting knocked out of alignment. My golems are required to change out mana gems, as having hundreds of golems draining the ambient mana means there is not enough in the air to power them all.

As she does not, recreating the design with a focus on reinforcement and stability was simple enough."

"All that to say, I'm back in action!" Alka said, throwing her hands up excitedly.

"Apparently, now I can get punched in the face and blown up as many times as I want! No more going dark for me!"

"For the sixth time, you are not indestructible," the librarian repeated.

"There are at least eight known materials capable of damaging the unique alloy I invented on my own world alone, and I have no doubt there are plenty more you will encounter as you journey around Edregon."

"Yeah, and half of them you said were owned exclusively by kings and queens scattered across your world," Alka snorted.

"Wasn't one of them from a meteorite or something?"

"Two of them," the librarian corrected.

"Sounds like so long as I don't go picking a fight with royalty and watch out for falling rocks, I'll be fine," Alka said, waving away her concern.

"Anyway, what have you guys been up to? Anything fun?"

"Reading," they all responded at the same time, each with differing levels of fatigue. Even Reginald gave a tired squeak, rubbing at his eyes with his paws as his tail drooped.

"Huh… I guess it is a library," Alka shrugged.

"Though I can't say I'm nearly into the whole reading scene as much as you guys are. You all cool if we head back to Terra? I want to show the Slayers I'm alright."" Please," Scule said, yawning despite himself. The poor petian looked more ragged than Vin could ever recall seeing him, to the point where he was practically swaying on his feet.

"I don't want to see another book as long as I live. I don't even care if it's made out of gold, I'm not touching it!"