27 Prohibited literature

Finn didn't manage to catch up to Pete for the whole two hours they spent in the obstacle course. The only they talked was around halfway, when Pete started yelling out instructions and critiques as he ran.

At the end of the training, Finn was completely wiped and drenched with sweat. He had to admit, that elf knew how to run.

Petrosilinus on the other hand was smugly showing off that he still hadn't started sweating and bragging that he could go on for another few hours, Finn could now understand why the others at the guild liked to tease Pete. The elf was too annoying, they needed some way to get back at him in order to vent that frustration.

Finn went back to the guild for a shower and some more food. All the exercise had burned a lot of energy.

Thinking about the lesson with Pete, Finn was really glad he had found that magic core. Since the elf had taught him the basics of free running and knife throwing, there wasn't much else Pete could do. From now on it depended on Finn's own hard work and practice.

As the final part of the payment, Pete gave Finn free access to the obstacle course for a week. After that, it would cost him a little each day he wanted to use it.

After dinner, Finn practiced his mage hand spell in the training room. He tried using it to pick up some of the wooden weapons there and swing them around.

Finn knew that he could never use the spell like this in actual combat, it wouldn't be possible to focus on maintaining the spell while using his hands to wield his own weapons. At best he would probably be able to create the hand and have it just float somewhere as a distraction.

Picking up and swinging weapons did help improve Finn's control over the spell though, and with a few more days practice he would not fail as much during his casting.

This time, to avoid the extreme mental exhaustion, Finn stopped his practice while he still had some mana left.

The sun was setting at this point and it was still a few hours before Finn would need to meet up at the address he had received last night.

With his spare time, Finn decided to pick out his next task from the wall. He was still only a trainee so only E ranked requests were possible.

Looking at his options, Finn sighed. There weren't many interesting tasks so he took the simplest looking one. It was to pick up a new recruit, transferred over from a different branch of the mercenaries guild.

The new recruit would be arriving the next day and Finn would need to meet them when they got off the ship and lead them to the branch headquarters.

Filling out the form with Pete at the reception he found out that tasks given by the guild were special. They weren't usually paid well, instead Finn would be getting an increased amount of contribution points.

Finn was fine with that as he wanted to quickly gain enough points to become a full member. Looking down at the paper he read the details of the task again and the description of the person he was meeting.

The new recruit was human called Ray. When meeting up they would be wearing scalemail armor and equipped with a sword and shield. It also mentioned that they had short brown hair.

Finn would need to pin his badge in a visible place when he went, there was no other way to prove who he was.

With that taken care of, Finn had an idea. Since he was planning on selling things tonight, he should figure out how much that fancy book was worth beforehand.

Fetching the book and the two unidentified potions, Finn asked Petrosilinus if he knew what they were. Being an elf, he would naturally be able to read the elven script easily, as an experienced mercenary he might also recognize what the kind of effect the potions might have.

Pete flipped through the book a little before closing it.

'This is an interesting book, you might have guessed from the illustrations what it's about. It's similar to the popular "Marvin's Monster Manual" in that they both give detailed descriptions of all sorts of animals plants and beasts one might encounter in this world. The difference is that this book also includes information on which parts of a creature can be used in forbidden magic such as necromancy.'

Pausing for a while, he gave Finn a serious look.

'I'm not going to ask where you got this, but as you didn't know what it was and can't read it I assume it isn't yours. However, I must warn you not to sell it or give it to anyone. Either the previous owner might find out and trace it back to you, or the mage guild will.'

Taking the book back Finn felt a little put out. 'So what should I do with it?' He asked.

'Well, you can burn it, that's the mage guild policy about necromancy. But, as we aren't involved with magic anyway, we are more lenient about their rules and regulation. You could keep it as a souvenir, or examine the illustrations. The anatomical ones might come in handy if you ever meet one of the creatures depicted. We don't really care what you do, just don't let the mage guild know you have it.'

At this point, Petrosilinus swiped the two mystery potions into his clothes. Finn blinked then looked at Pete questioningly.

'Something wrong with them too?'

'Nope' The elf replied, before getting back his paperwork.

'You going to give them back?'

'Nope, consider it payment for my consultation. It probably saved you a lot of trouble with the mage guild.'

Finn's eye twitched a bit in irritation. 'Well then, can you at least tell me what they are?'

'Nope' at this the elf looked up and grinned. 'I honestly have no idea, but bringing it over to the mage guild to ask is a good excuse to meet my friend.'

Finn was annoyed at losing what he considered his most valuable goods right before was going to sell them. Holding his prohibited book tightly he went back to the dorm.

The dorm was a small room with four beds and four chests. He hadn't met any roommates yet, but he hoped they weren't weird. Looking out the only window, Finn thought he still had another hour or so to spare before he needed to get going.

Sitting down on his bed and getting comfortable, he flipped through what he now knew was a forbidden book. It was a little exciting until he remembered he couldn't actually read any of it.

Flipping through randomly to pass the time, Finn would stop and look at pictures of creatures he found interesting. He didn't even know if some of them were real or just a legend passed down from long ago. He saw illustrations of a unicorn, a pegasus, several colors of dragons, a giant eagle called a roc, and other stranger things.

When Finn got to the section on humanoid monsters, he noticed something that caused him to stop his flipping. There handwritten notes in common scrawled on a few of the pages detailing trolls, minotaurs, werewolves, and vampires. In the margins of these pages were numbers that had been written then crossed out. Some of the book's words had been underlined or circled, even some of the anatomical illustrations had parts circled or crossed out. Next to the circled parts were numbers matching those in the margins.

Examining them carefully Finn tried to understand what this was about. He only managed to decipher a few words but they were shocking enough.

Experiment. Transplant. False bloodline. Soldier. Incompatible.