5 The Library

They went over to the reading rooms, and sat down. 'Finally', Dante thought. 'I finally get to become a summoner! I just need to learn all about it in this book…'

With three giant books in front of him, Micheal was indecisive. 'Where do I start?' Eventually, he just picked the book on pathways and started skimming through.

With a flip to the table of contents, his gaze was drawn to "List of Pathways and Steps. (Known in the Kingdom of Lunalla)" 'Known in the Kingdom of Lunalla? So this implies that there's more pathways than even this kingdom knows!'

Flipping to the page, a table soon greeted Micheal. Neat and orderly, a simple table with many sections that start at Step 1, and into higher steps. Although this was a simple table, its contents filled Micheal with reverence. 'Every Step…. Clearly organized and defined.' Looking through the steps, Micheals expression kept changing between fear, awe, and worship. "Step 3 Polymath" Looking at another section, "Step 5 - Four Leaf Sorcerer." 'Just these lower level steps have such dominating names… how do you become them!'

Flipping to the page where they are elaborated on, there was a sentence at the top. "Due to dangers associated with high level steps, the methods to rise above Step 2 are not public information." 'This… the dangers!? What kind of dangers could there be?' The sentence had a page number attached to it which lead to the middle of the general information section. It read, "Death, explosions, going insane, turning into a monster, natural disasters, and more. These are various examples of what can happen to those who experience complications in advancing through the steps. The higher the step, the more chances of problems occuring, and can lead to tragedies. The most famous example is the Demon Lord. Experiencing problems when he tried to ascend, the monstrous tyrant who killed millions appeared."

'These dangers… if going up the steps can cause this… is it worth it? I thought I would postpone my new goal in life until I know more, but I was leaning towards becoming powerful through the steps. Who wouldn't want to have these amazing powers! But now…. I don't know what to do. Lets just keep reading more steps, those were interesting.'

"Step 7 Voidwalker" "Step 8 Walking Disaster." As Micheal kept looking downwards, his attention was soon brought to the grand, shining silver letters near the bottom.

"GOD"

"G-g-god!?" Micheal couldn't help but exclaim out loud! 'You can become a god through this?! T-t-this… this is'

"Dude, what the fuck" Dante said due to his reading being rudely interrupted due to the human next to him being unable to control himself. Micheal looked at Dante and simply uttered, "Sorry". He was in the wrong after all. 'Alright, I don't think I can handle the mental shock I would have from reading the names of the God steps right now… but I'm still curious! One step below god, Step 10. Let's read!'

"Step 10 Universal Exploiter. Step 10 Author. Step 10 Miracle Invoker"

'These names…' Micheal stared at those names before deciding not to even try to understand them, and just read the rest of them. 'Alright. My curiosity has been sated, but what I need to memorize is general information and my own pathway! Lets see here... '

"Step 1 Fortune Teller"

"Step 2 Trickster"

"Step 3 Deceiving Wizard"

"Step 4 Anonymous"

"Step 5 Bizzare Mage"

"Step 6 Soothsayer"

"Step 7 Voidwalker"

"Step 8 Histories Administrator"

"Step 9 Otherworldly Pinochet"

"Step 10 Miracle Invoker"

"God" Micheal was hesitant to look, but eventually steeled his resolve.

"God - Unthinkable Undefined Symbol"

'That name…so… strange!'

.........

Time passed as the two were engrossed in reading. Church bells rang once in a while, and after a few rings of the bell, a young boy in scholarly clothes walked in. "Excuse me, everyone, the library closes in a few minutes. Be sure to put borrowed books back in their respective places or give them to the librarian, or if you paid to take them with you, then please take good care of our books." With that, the boy walked back out.

Micheal slowly was brought out of reading and looked up for the first time in hours, and no longer saw Dante anywhere. 'Seems my journey with that orc has finally come to an end. We coincidentally met, and turned out we were both hero descendants! Hero descendent, heh, he certainly didn't act like one.'

'Take the books out for a fee… I barely have any money! I can just come back tomorrow to go more in depth in this knowledge.'

Walking out from the library, Micheal debated where to go next. 'According to books, most people live in a rented out place, rather than owning their own house. Should I check the rent prices? I also need a job…'

As he walked, he remembered he was holding a paper in his hands. 'The king's notice of gathering the strong and the heroes descendants! I actually forgot to read this since I was so focused on the books!'

'Let's see…'

"Official notice from the king and the great churches. Through the history of our land, many great occurrences have been witnessed." 'Wait a minute… this is useless information!' Flipping through the paper, near the back he found the important information.

"This mission regards the safety of our land, stemming from occurrences related to the ancient Demon Lord. For specific information, please show up at the palace to gather, effective from June 1st to July 1st" We call those who are strong, have a unique skill, or descend from the respected heroes to rise up and protect our land in this mission. Ample rewards will be given

just from participating, and more depending on the situation. During this period of time where we wait for participants to gather, housing will be provided if necessary."

'Ample rewards? Housing! I must check this out!'

While walking to the gathering spot, Micheal internally went through all his recently acquired information.

'Alright, so the main points to remember are:

You can only be on one pathway, and attempting to go to another pathway's steps will result in catastrophic results. Ascending through the pathways can also have disastrous results if they go wrong, so public knowledge of how to ascend stops at step 2.

The Great churches are all massive powers spreading across nations, each worshipping a god.

Our nation of Lunalla is the biggest center of pathway knowledge, located at the southern tip of the northern continent.

As Micheal finished organizing his thoughts, he had arrived at the palace entrance.