Research

[A/N

Sorry, for not being able to release chapters for the past three days, I was busy handling matters about college admissions since I'm close to graduating.]

Just when Gildarts fantasized about his secret cellar thinking of all the things he could do inside, John's voice brought him back to the surface.

"Hey, Gildarts? Stop Daydreaming, Gildarts, or else I won't build it!"

"Huh? What about not building it?" Gildarts asked in a daze still daydreaming.

"If you are still daydreaming, then forget about the secret cellar you dumbass!"

John's shout completely woke Gildarts up as he quickly shook his head and said to John. "What do you mean my that? Didn't you said that you will help me build one?"

"I've been calling you for five times already and you still didn't respond, you got your head in the clouds already?" John asked in a sarcastic tone.

"This... What are you calling me for anyway?" Gildarts asked as he scratched his head in embarrassment.

"I'm asking you where you caught this Ghost Ripper from?" John said while sighing.

"You can find it in the country of Joya, in the mountainous forest regions that surround the country, I suggest that you should not go there unless you have S-rank capabilities. After all, Ghost Rippers are not the strongest monster in that forest."

John nodded while marking the country of Joya in his mind, hoping to find records of the place at the guild's library.

Anyway, after inspecting the secret base once more, John escorted Gildarts out of place, while he himself went to his bedroom to sleep since it was getting really late into the night.

*July 8, Year 774*

The next day, John woke up and ate breakfast at his restaurant which was a shepherd's pie, it was extremely fulfilling that he can't get up from his chair after eating one whole pie.

"Aren't you afraid of being fat if you eat that much food in the morning?" Sebastian asked while wiping his mouth with a tissue.

"It doesn't matter, I'm young anyways it will all get digested later on, besides aren't you worried about that as well? You ate more than me, a total of three pies eaten by you, I'm wondering if your actually a pig in human guise."

John mocked Sebastian while rubbing his rounded stomach in satisfaction, Sebastian didn't care and just smiled while saying.

"It doesn't matter how much I eat since they all turn into energy quickly by my physique trained for thousands of years, but young master, aren't you already turning into a pig?"

He asked as he pointed at John's round stomach that didn't stop rubbing, John froze for a moment but he can't get up to beat Sebastian as he was too full right now, so he can only stretch out his hand and put out his middle finger.

"What is this supposed to mean?" Sebastian asked in a confused tone seeing John stretched out his middle finger.

John felt like he was hitting cotton since Sebastian didn't understand the gesture he was doing, if this was back on earth then John would have been punched by the other guy if he did that.

John just shook his head and withdrew his hand and said. "It doesn't matter, you won't understand anyway."

"Right, I really won't understand the means of a human-pig." Sebastian nodded as if he was very satisfied with the conclusion he came up with.

John was irritated but was too helpless to resist lest he got some stomach disease from moving too much after eating a full meal.

After a few minutes of digesting the food, John got up and went to Fairy Tail's library to see the records regarding Ghost Rippers and the country of Joya.

After reaching the guild hall, John nodded to those who thanked him for the celebration and good meal last night, after that he went to Makarov who was dozing off on the bar table.

"Hey old man stop dozing off!" John shouted as he knocked on the table.

Makarov snapped out of his daze as he looked at John in displeasure, as he rubbed his eyes while yawning. "What do you want brat? Can't you see that I'm sleeping?"

"Sleeping? Aren't you just dozing off as usual? There are some new letters from the magic council in the guild's mailbox, aren't you checking them?" John said as he pointed at the guild mailbox packed with lots of letters.

Makarov's face darkened as he looked at the mailbox, he wondered why did he even accept to be the guild master. Every year the guild receives at least ten boxes worth of letters from the magic council.

And he can't even resign either since there was no one to take his place as the guild master, if he can go back in time, he won't accept this stressful position, isn't much better to be the mage that causes the trouble?

"I want to go to the library."

"I already told you, you don't need my permission if you want to go to the library." Makarov answered as he pointed to the back of the stairs.

John nodded as he walked toward the back, and opened the door behind the stairs that lead to a basement down the guild hall.

He then walked down the stairs towards the basement, as he arrived downstairs he started to search among the rows of bookshelves about the topics he would read.

As he was looking, stepping sounds came from the stairs, along with a somewhat old but soft voice sounded from the stairs. "John, why didn't you tell me that you came?"

The owner of the voice got down the stairs, it was an old woman with white hair and visible wrinkles on her face, John also smiled seeing the old woman.

"Grandma Liz, I just heard from Old Man Makarov that you are taking a break, I don't want to disturb your break so I didn't tell you." John said with an apologetic face.

"You know that you just need to tell me what you are looking for instead of trying to search among these piles of books like an idiot right?" Grandma Liz said with a questioning look.

"Hehehe, right." John nodded with a foolish smile as he scratched his head.

"Tell me, what you are looking for anyways?" Grandma Liz asked as she took out a thick book from her requip space.

"I'm looking for books about Ghost Rippers and Country of Joya." John answered.

"Ghost Rippers and Country of Joya?" Surprise flashed in Grandma Liz's eyes as she looked at John suspiciously while asking in a strange voice. "Why would you ever want to read books about that?"

"This... It's related to the gift Gildarts gave me yesterday, I need to research about them before going on an adventure there." John answered.

"Sure enough, it's that bastard Gildarts again, you should stop paying attention to him, he has a bad influence on you." Grandma Liz said while fuming at the thought of Gildarts.

"When I saw him next time, I'll be sure to give him an earful of scolding." She said as she flipped through the thick book in her hands, she then stopped on one page and said to John. "You can find the things you are looking for at row 20 inside the red bookshelf and row 25 at the black bookshelf."

John nodded and went to row 20 red bookshelf to see that it was all books about the Country of Joya, he spent some time picking out different books about the Country of Joya's culture and stuff.

After that he went to the 25th-row black bookshelf to see books about Ghost Rippers, he then searched for some time to find 3 books about Ghost Ripper's anatomy.

He then carried all the books towards Grandma Liz's side, as he set down the books at a table beside her table, then he took out a small rectangular box engraved with Toughness Wyvern Runes all over it.

He opened the box with a magic symbol and took out a matte black square glasses from the box, these glasses have the number X10 colored in white on the right side of the glasses.

These glasses is John's treasure due to how expensive it was, this one alone cost John the profit for all of his stores for half a year.

So, it can be seen how much John treasured these glasses just from the case it had fully covered with Wyvern Runes.