Chapter 7 : Reading

When Arthur entered the buildings, he could see tables scattered all around and people were either drinking beer or eating something, they were all chatting heartily, but few of them gazed at Arthur when he walked in the building, they threw suspicious gazes at him because of his attire but those glances lasted for a couple of seconds before they continued their laughter and chatter.

Arthur ignored them and headed for the reception desk, there was a big muscular lady at the reception desk, she was frightening like a gorilla but Arthur didn't seem affected by her appearance.

The muscular lady saw Arthur coming toward her, she frowned for a second then smiled at him and said

"Hello customer, would you like to reserve a table to eat or do you want to stay at the inn?"

Because in his past live Arthur was isolated for months, his interactions with people became non-existent, so it was hard for him to respond properly, even when he speaks his voice seems cold and devoid of emotion, he stared at the lady for a second then just said

"Inn... a room"

The lady didn't seem bothered by the lack of words of the man before her and just replied

"A night at the inn is 1 silver, with breakfast, lunch and dinner it's 2 silver"

Since Arthur was new to this world, he didn't know if the price was expensive or cheap but he had thousands of silver coins and even more gold coins in his storage so spending 1 or even 100 silver didn't seem much to him.

He merely waved his hand and 5 silver coins appeared, he handed them to the lady and spoke yet again

"5 days"

He didn't want to stay a lot of days, he thought that 5 days should be enough to familiarize himself with the town, and if he wanted to stay more, then he would come back and pay for more days.

The lady accepted the 5 silver coins and said

"Thank you for your payment, if you would like to follow me upstairs, I will guide you to your room"

Arthur nodded and followed her, the building was made of stone but the interior was made of wood, it was clean and tidy, even the stairs were clean and well preserved.

After walking upstairs he found himself in a 15-meter corridor with doors left and right, he followed the lady until they reached the end of the corridor she then opened the door to the left and showed him the room.

"This is your room sir, if you would like a hot water tub then come and ask me, it costs 20 copper coins" she then turned around and left hurriedly to serve the other customers downstairs.

Arthur entered the room and looked around, he saw a simple wooden desk and a chair. There was simple candle with a flickering flame, it illuminated the whole room but it seemed that it won't be long before the flames is extinguished. Despite that, Arthur didn't mind as his high Dexterity gave him super sight, which allows him to see clearly at night.

On the left of the room was a simple bed with sheets tidied up on it but because of his infinite stamina, the bed seemed totally useless for him, he could stay awake all day long without getting tired and even if he would sleep he would only have nightmares about his past so he preferred staying awake and avoid unnecessary trouble.

He sat on the chair near the desk and bought a book from his storage, but he didn't retrieve a random book, instead, he took a history book and began reading it.

The reason he chose a history book was because he is new to this world and the better he knows the countries and historical events the better he will be able to understand his surroundings and his current location in the world, furthermore, it will help him better adapt to the environment.

He began reading fastly through the pages, because of his tremendously high intelligence, his reading was far better and his memory was strengthened too, so the contents of the books would not fade away from his memory even after some time, he even could remember what he has read letter by letter which was truly amazing, I guess that's what they called a photographic memory in his previous world.

After 1 hour or so he finished reading the book but he wasn't sure if it was the same or not, after all, this book was very old and maybe many things changed from back then.

The contents of the books were about this world and the continents in it, apparently the world was divided into 4 continents, in the South was the human continent which was ruled by a human emperor the empire was called The Nida empire.

In the north was the second continent, also called the Demon continent which was ruled by a council of demons and a demon lord.

In the west was the third continent which was a wasteland, it is a deserted land with few people living in it, usually, those people were savages and barbarians, you can also find beastmen clans there too.

Last but not least was is the 4th content , also called the Itas continent ,the continent was in far to the East and was practically a big forest composed of mountains and rivers with some dangerous places here and there, it is inhabited by elves, fairies, and various other races, it is the smallest continent and the most peaceful one, even though it's peaceful and small, it's by no means weak, there are some strong individuals lurking there.

Arthur wasn't sure if the information he got from the book he had just read were still true or false, so he decided that tomorrow he would go look for a history book in a library if there was one, because in a new world, information is everything, and if he goes around and provokes someone powerful, then he would most certainly be doomed.

He then picked another book and started rampaging in it and in just half an hour he finished, this book explained various cults and religions, apparently the human continent had the most religions and church, and the main one is the Holy Church which has the highest authority, it is said that even the human Emperor has to listen to the orders of the church and cannot act against it or it would be regarded as treason.

Also, the holy church had branches all over the world, even some secret ones in the demon continent, Arthur was surprised about how detailed the book was about the holy church, inscribed its location, army, and even the pope who was a very mysterious person and is rarely seen in the public.

Time passed and Arthur continued reading books until it was morning, he learned many things such as the existence of many races like dwarves, Fishman and even the dragons which surprised him even though he believed they existed since he was in such a fantasy world.

He also found out that there are various kinds of mages, a mage who can use any kind of attribute ( AN: by attribute I mean fire, water, wind etc...) was very well-known, usually mages are nobles or royalty which were trained to be mages from birth by using either elixir or they got a blessing from the Holy Church so they could use holy/light magic.

There were also geniuses who would be born with an attribute and be a prodigy in controlling it but those were extremely rare to come by.

Also, any mage who can use 2 kinds of attributes is called a dual-mage and you can find one in every 10 to 100 thousand people, it is said that every dual-mage had good fighting abilities and can be sought for even by kings.

As for mages who can use more than 2 attributes it was mentioned that they were unique and almost non-existent, they were also known to be called as 'Wizards'.

There was also something that picked his interest, he read that there was a special kind of fighters, it was those who used magic to enhance themselves since they couldn't use any attribute but the enhancement depends on their skill in using mana, also mages who can use attributes like fire, for example, can use those attributes in their physical attacks, so in general any mage who can use an attribute can either use it by casting spells, for example, a fireball or use those attribute to enhance their physical body and use it in physical attack, for example, a normal slash of a sword would contain fire in it, which will be more deadly.

When Arthur read this he immediately thought of his [void slash] which was terrifying, a single slash of his contained the power of the attribute [void], if he could use it in physical attacks doesn't that mean that he also can use void to perform ranged-attacks too?

Arthur ignored the idea of using void magic for now because he finds dark magic more useful, however thinking thoroughly about this, didn't that mean that he was a dual-mage?

He could use [dark magic] and [void magic] but he liked the dark magic more because he found it more easy to use, perhaps because he got the experience or Zodiak in controlling it?

'Let's not think about this for now' Arthur shrugged the idea off and put the book in his storage, then got up from the chair to head out of the room.

When he got downstairs, he saw that the place was emptier than last night, as to be expected, it was still morning and many people were either sleeping or working.

The landlady was at the reception desk helping customers, and sometimes delivering food to them, she seemed very energetic although it was still morning.

Arthur just passed by her without giving any greetings and left the building, just as he left he saw that there were many people wearing coats, maybe the weather was too cold but he couldn't feel it, perhaps because he was a pack of bones, albeit feeling the air touch his bones or the air resistance when he ran at his full speed, he was still perplexed about this body, he couldn't get hungry not could he know if he was actually breathing, but it's not like it mattered right?

Yesterday, Arthur roamed all the time, although it was called a town, it was considered big, it took him 3 hours to do a full tour of it and check everything except that luxurious road which he couldn't access to.

He remembered seeing some kind of a building with a book symbol in the western part of the town, so he headed toward that building hoping that it was a library.

The town was still bustling with merchants and shops even though it was still early in the morning, the cold weather didn't change the fact that there were many people either working or shopping, after walking for about 10 minutes he arrived in front of the supposed "library" and he entered it.

The first thing he noticed when he entered was the strange smell of paper, there were bookshelves aligned next to each other very neatly, even though the room was not that big, probably 30x30 meter, for a library it's considered small, but it was very clean, there were some customers checking books and observing the bookshelves, but they were all quiet, as to be expected since they were in a library.

In the center of the room there was a wooden desk, and an old man was sitting there reading a book, the old man was very skinny albeit looking healthy and somewhat a face full of vigor, he had a long white beard all the way to his chest, and seemed to be reading a book leisurely.

Arthur walked toward the old man was, he guessed he must be the receptionist.

The old man glanced at Arthur for a second before he continued reading the book without a care in the world but when Arthur was too close to him, the old man felt a cold chill and his hands shook a bit, so he glanced seriously at the man coming towards him and guessed that he must be someone powerful or else he wouldn't emanate such cold and ominous feeling, the old man strengthened his back and spoke politely to Arthur

"Hello there customer, welcome to our shop, would you like to buy a book or borrow one? If so please tell me what kind of book you want"

Arthur noticed the change in the personality of the old man, and he knew that it must've been his aura, he had long since decided to find a solution to it, maybe somehow turn it off or it would bring big troubles in the future, when he was in front of the old man he unconsciously appraised him, it seemed to become a habit of him to appraise anyone who spoke to him so he can measure their strength.

Jeff Kelner(Human): Lv11

"Buy all books.... history "

He was quite surprised by the Lvl of the old man, it seemed higher than the bandits, but he quickly concluded that it must have been because he was old and that even working in a library can give experience but compared to hunting it seemed to give much much less experience.

Arthur spoke in a weird manner, it even surprised the old man for he didn't expect the man who scared him to speak in such a manner but nevertheless he brought all the historical books he could find for fear of angering Arthur.

After having Brought all the historical books he could find, there were about 20 to 30 books on the reception desk.

"Dear customer, these are all the books we have about history, you can choose whatever you want but please note that there are some expensive ones among them"

The old man spoke politely to Arthur and waited for him to choose whatever book he liked, but what surprised him more was what Arthur said next

"...All"

Just one word but it greatly shocked the librarian, he couldn't believe his ears first so he questioned

"Dear customer, are you sure you want all of the books? Some are expensive and not all people can afford to buy even a single one of them".

Arthur just nodded his head, after seeing the affirmation of the customer the old man was shocked and couldn't help but feel a bit suspicious, he didn't think that Arthur would buy all the books as they cost a huge sum together but nevertheless he still took his time and calculated the price.

After 3 or so minutes of checking he told Arthur the amount, he told him the sum he needed to pay and greatly focused on the facial expression of Arthur, however, he was astonished to see that the customer didn't as much as flinch when he heard the price, his suspicions soon subdued and he concluded that this customer is a noble or something similar or else why would he spend so much gold on those books?

It's not like they were cheap, their sum could feed several households for a couple of years.

The total sum was a whopping 220 Gold which was enormous for the old man but for Arthur? Not so much, those 220 gold were just a single drop from an ocean of gold, his storage had mountains of gold coins, so spending some on books is nothing for him.

After he gave the gold coins to the old man, the librarian stared greedily at the gold coins for some seconds unable to believe his own eyes, but he quickly adjusted himself and thanked the customer, however, Arthur ignored him, he picked the books and left the building, the old man didn't stop speaking as he shouted at Arthur to come back if he needed any sort of book .

'He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have' even though the old man got a whopping 220 gold he still wanted more, human greed is really the worst thing in them.