Chapter 56: ResearchDay 59

  Woke up a bit squished — in a good way. This is wonderful. Actually, it may be too good. If I think about this objectively, I’ve got money, a safe pce to live, and these wonderful women. It’d be perfectly fine if the guys for extra security. Even with the high taxes of this empire, I could lie here and do nothing for over ten years. After that, I could use crystal acceleration to generate easy money on the lower floors. Let’s see, working an average of two hours a day with max crystal acceleration and max auto-haggle when I sell, I’d gross nearly 600k per year without even bothering to collect the drops. Even if my scker lifestyle drives everyone else away, I could survive on my own.

  Alright, that’s it. I need to get my ass out of bed. Right now. Well, pretty soon. One hedonistic morning can’t hurt.

  “Morning, guys. Sorry for coming down so te. I was thinking about going to the library today.”

  With a bit of concern in her voice, Sherry asks, “Um, by yourself?”

  “Of course not. I pn to take you as well. Do the rest of you have things to do?”

  Roxanne says, “Could I try using some of the worms?”

  “Sure, sounds great. Anyone else?”

  Hesitantly, Theo says, “Um, if there’s something I could help with, I’d like to go to the library too.”

  “Sure. So, Marcus and Alina will stay here with Roxanne, right?”

  Maybe I should give them the option to come along, but the others have rather basic literacy. [1] It seems that commoners typically learn what they need to know in a practical way without formal schooling. Sherry and Theo are exceptions and Theo grew up around nobles. In terms of education, I would fail subjects like history and literature but could write my own books on basic science and mathematics. Anything I would write about technology would be categorized as fantasy.

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  After paying our entrance fee and deposit, we walk through the simple administrative area to the main hall, which might be better described as a cathedral. Cynically, it’s a poor use of space but the architectural impact is impossible to deny.

  Sherry goes off to gather more information on the upcoming monsters. Theo, with wax pads in hand, is tasked with researching imperial history and reted matters. I am here to research magic. Well, first, I just want to enjoy this environment. A historian or anthropologist from my old world would go nuts here.

  As expected, it’s not just a uniform collection of bound books like you’d find in a university library. There are scrolls, tablets and parchment folios along with some actual books. Despite the diversity, it’s rather orderly, probably due to the great number of attendants. I’d like to explore all of the rooms, sections and corners of arcana. Before any of that, I have a task to complete.

  “Excuse me, I’d like to find material on the history of magic.”

  “What do you mean by that, Sir?”

  Actually, I really want to learn about the physics of magic. History just seems like a reasonable starting point. Let’s try again.

  “Such as, a description of what magic is and where it comes from.”

  “I’m not familiar with anything like that though there could be something in the hall of sealed records.” [2]

  “Oh, can I go there?”

  “No, Sir, the area is sealed. Unless you have a signed letter from a titled noble, you won’t be allowed on that floor. Some rooms would require royal authority.”

  “How about the practical uses of magic?”

  “There should be some information in the military archives.”

  “And these too require permission, right?”

  “Yes, Sir, but any noble rank would be sufficient.”

  “Thanks for your assistance. I’ll return when I have the required credentials.”

  “Of course, Sir.”

  Well that sucks. I’d rather not even talk to the duke, let alone get his permission just to satisfy my intellectual curiosity. Outside of magic, I’d like to learn more about this pnet. As it is, that clerk has probably put me on a watch-list and asking about heliocentric models could be enough for them to drag me away. As opposed to entering a castle, this pce actually checked our status cards and recorded our names.

  After wandering around for a while and definitely not thinking about warping back here after they close, I joined Theo in his history research. He had dug up a number of stories about the founding of the empire, none of which could be called histories. It wasn’t that they’d built up a mythology. It felt like no one cared to write down what everyone of their time knew. Much of it was in the form of journals which concentrated on diatribes against their retives.

  I asked the attendant assigned to watch us for something a bit more specific.

  “I’d like to know more about the first emperor. Do you have anything written by him or those close to him? Even a careful summary of one of these would be useful.”

  “Journals of His Majesty, the First Emperor are part of the Royal Archive, as are the works accompanying those. Only members of His Royal House have access.”

  These people probably aren’t even doing this for secrecy, just archiving. It’s only my first time here, but from what I’ve seen so far, historians are about as rare as scientists. Considering that I woke up in the same pce and retive time as the manga, this entire world may have just spun up on a virtual server in some enormous data center. From that point of view there may not even be a history, just an initialization script reading a long list of parameters.

  Yep, I still sound insane. Just suggesting that the world was made for me is clearly ridiculous. Even if it’s true, that’s not particurly helpful. This is like freewill vs determinism. The only practical solution is to just accept that it’s somewhere in between and get on with your life.

  Well, I’m still gd I came here. If I actually manage to get permission, I’ll come back for the archives, assuming they aren’t just a bunch of TODO notes. For now, it doesn’t look like this section will be helpful. I took Theo to join Sherry and told them that I’d come back to fetch them around closing time.

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  Got my deposit back, found a good spot and warped to the merchants guild in Curatar. I quickly found the ever-present Luke who appeared to be in a bit of a hurry.

  “Hello, Mr. Moreau. I’m expecting an important client, but if we can be quick, I can see you now.”

  “Thanks, Luke. Lead the way.”

  In a nearby room and speaking a bit more quickly than usual, he brought out what he found for me.

  “Today, I have two each of Kobold at 5600, Caterpilr at 4100, Rabbit at 4300 and Pig at 3200. Nothing special came in.”

  “Fine. I’ll take them all and pce an order for ten more crystals. Just get whatever you can find at a good price. I’ll pay the commission now, of course.”

  “Excellent, Sir. The total today is 39,400 Nars. Truly a pleasure doing business with you.”

  “Just a quick question before you go. I recently obtained a full set of Damascus-steel pte mail with matching steel gloves and boots. Would this be something you could auction for me?”

  Luke suddenly seemed to have more time and sat back down.

  “Sir, could this possibly be from the Baradam family?”

  “Um, maybe. His first name was Sabo.”

  “Yes, this is almost certainly the same. The complete set would fetch a good price.”

  “Fine, I’ll bring it next time.”

  “Actually, I have a client who is particurly interested. Would you be avaible to meet with them soon?”

  “If your client represents the Baradam family, they probably wouldn’t be pleased to see me. The fact is, Sabo challenged me to a duel. The armor was his.”

  “Thank you for your candor. Since you obtained this in a duel, it would be highly unlikely for my client to have any compints. Could I at least say that you would be willing to talk?”

  “Alright, I’ll return around noon tomorrow.”

  “Wonderful. Thank you, Sir.”

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  I warp back to the capital and walk to the library. While waiting for Sherry and Theo, I skim through Theo’s notes — much better handwriting than mine. The empire united a rge number of fiefdoms. This was reportedly peaceful though details are sparse so it could just be propaganda. The empire seems to be just a few hundred years old rather than thousands or ‘eternal’. Well, I don’t really need more detail than that.

  After about 30 minutes, they come out of the library.

  “I hope your research went better than mine.”

  “Yes, David, the next tier was a bit easier to research.”

  No one is paying attention to us so I open a portal at the transfer wall of the lobby.

  The new tub is here. The three of us manage to carry it around the house to a spot between the smaller tubs. Since we all act rather tame while bathing, complete isotion isn’t essential. Sherry and Marcus make a new drainage channel and Theo joins Alina’s dinner preparation. Roxanne enthusiastically reports on her use of parasitic worms — not exactly what I want to hear about before eating.

  Soon we eat dinner and then rex a bit.

  “Since we haven’t gone to the byrinths today, how about we go fight a dragon?”

  “Yea!” shouts Roxanne.

  Alina asks, “David, isn’t that the type of monster that can wipe out an entire vilge?”

  Sherry confirms, “Yes, but many of the monsters we’ve fought could do that. This one’s a bit special because it can fly, use all types of magic and resists none. Otherwise, only its bite is dangerous.”

  She’s worse at pep-talks than I am.

  “It’ll only be one little dragon and we’ll fight it fully prepared on a low floor. It’s better to first fight it like this than in a pack on a high floor.”

  Now that’s a pep-talk, sort of.

  To really stack the deck in our favor, we’ll do it on the first floor of Vale’s Labyrinth. We pick a spot that isn’t a dead-end and the corridor is short enough to duck around the corner if needed. Roxanne confirms by smell that no other parties are near. We form a tight configuration with Sherry and Marcus in the front. Now, we wait for our volunteer.

  As the tree-monster approaches, I deftly toss the fish liver at it. I’m half expecting this to be an incredibly eborate hoax, but it really turns into some sort of floating dragon. Identify confirms it to be a Drive Dragon. It fits in here but isn’t exactly small. As could be expected of a monster able to move freely in the corridors, it’s distinctly of the Eastern rather than Western variety of dragon.

  We certainly have its attention so I fire off a fireball and follow up with a water wall just as it starts to charge. I open a portal to just behind the monster and all but Sherry and Marcus follow me. Alina and Theo run to its left while Roxanne and I go to the right. The dragon smashes through the water wall, as expected, and is held back by the strong vanguard. Meanwhile we mercilessly attack the monster from the sides. It turns to attack the ones doing the most damage and gets stunned. We beat it some more, it goes poof and that’s basically it.

  A pretty artificial experiment but still a bit of fun. Theo picks up the drop which reads as Dragon Skin.

  “Cool! How many of these do we need to make armor?”

  Quite cynically, Sherry replies, “No, David, that would be dragon hide. This is for cooking.”

  I’ve certainly seen Sherry’s skeptical face but this was my first time seeing her truly pcating expression. I couldn’t help but ugh at how close it was to the manga. Both Alina and Roxanne scowled at Sherry’s rudeness. Not that I’m in any way hurt, but Sherry actually was uncharacteristically rude. Now that I think of it, Sherry didn’t reek of alcohol when I picked her up from the library. Well, maybe I just said something especially silly.

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  To celebrate sying our first dragon, I decided to try out the new tub. Preparation was harder this time not only due to the increased volume but also for the ck of dey between filling and heating — too bad I hadn’t thought of that earlier. Alina came with me to replenish my MP and I asked Sherry to use Bee and Kobold crystals to enchant Roxanne’s sword with a second skill. Before finishing, I took another MP trip with Roxanne.

  Finally came the reward. Alina sat on my left, Roxanne was on my right and Sherry snuggled up right in front. Apparently, Sherry wanted compensation for not taking her with me for MP recharging. I know that having girls compete for my attention is supposed to boost my ego, but I honestly find it a bit bothersome. Since the competition was rather mild, I maturely accepted the benefits.

  I think I had more space in the two-seater tub. If I had any compint, it’d be that I regret pcing this tub in the middle. I soon took Sherry upstairs to continue spoiling her.

  “Sherry, do dwarves need to consume alcohol regurly?”

  “No, David, we can survive without it.”

  “Well, you know that I don’t drink much. In fact, I consider it to be a bad habit but maybe that doesn’t completely apply to dwarves.”

  “We don’t consider it bad at all.”

  “I don’t want you to drink before going to the byrinths and I never want you to drink to an unhealthy degree. If you can agree to that, it’s alright if you want to drink in moderate amounts in the evening.”

  “I appreciate that, David. I’ll go get a couple jugs.”

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  [1] In the LN, Roxanne didn’t get the Tutor job because she basically just transted words and phrases for Miria. The Tutor job is rare because it requires formal education (David) or serious dedication (Sherry). The student’s willingness to learn could also be a factor.[2] The LN didn’t say anything about sealed archives or restricted areas. I just thought it’d be fun.