22 Opportunity of a lifetime

"What benefits are we talking about exactly? And how much energy do you need? I might not be able to sustain you right now." Zora said with a serious face. He was a bit paranoid about this. This wouldn't be the first time he was either used or lied to. But also it wouldn't be the first time his trust was placed in good hands... pages?

He has lived a lot already, it was hard to trust at first sight, but his instincts told him this will be at worst a simple fool's errand, or at best an absolute goldmine and the opportunity of a lifetime. Only a single lifetime, though.

Just like last time, when he successfully grabbed the opportunity to marry into the royal family and have an almost limitless access to research materials and specimens to study.

But back in one of his lives his misplaced trust earned him a knife into the back. Specifically between his ribs, while he was sleeping. But he was betrayed nonetheless. It was a shit life anyway, so he was salty and pissed because of the betrayal, rather than losing his life.

Anyway, if the situation turns out to be bad and he dies, he will simply try again in one of his next lives. That is something he definitely wanted to avoid at this point, because he was living a mostly good and useful life, but after living and dying so many times, he barely had any qualms when it comes to preserving his own life. Except when it comes to staring danger in the eyes, of course.

"Hehe... Don't worry I only need you to magically connect us, brand me in a way, after that I can live off of the energies you naturally emit. Its a pretty good deal for you, because me being a research tool, I can give you access to whatever knowledge I have, well at least partially for now. I can also record new knowledge, make a copy of a book you have and store it, for example. Whatever is stored in me will feel like its etched right into your head, you will be able to recall any detail of these writings as you want." The book was once again in his educational mode, giving a lecture to Zora. It wasn't as monotone or annoyed as before though, which is a huge plus.

"What do you mean partially? What is up with the many tiny question marks around your sentences? They are not there, but I can almost feel them. Why are your statements so shaky? Why only partial knowledge? What if I want all of it?" Zora was annoyed. It was oozing out of his sentences. The book was already cutting corners and making deals, that's not a good sign.

"I already told you, its been a while. Considering you can't read what is written in me, its safe to assume my last master is from a completely different era from this one. Hundreds of years could've passed while I was in my suspended mode. I don't have the capacity right now to make a full scan of my libraries to see what damage has accumulated due to erosion. But I bet it is quite a bit. We can only hope that the most useful and sensitive data are in good shape. What is lost I might never recover, so I can't really promise you anything. I can only try and salvage what is left. My other abilities are very useful though, so you shouldn't even think just agree." The book's pride and hurt feelings surfaced again, showing in his tone and way of speaking. He really felt like he is making a huge favor to whoever is going to 'use' him, even if its another respectable reincarnator. It was inconceivable for him that someone would think a second thought before accepting his help.

Its not so simple though. A random artifact just popping up like that out of nowhere, demanding to be recognized as something awesome. That just doesn't work. Even in this era, where the precious items of the Old Gods are scattered around the world few and far between, the number of victims falling prey to cursed artifacts is too great for comfort. But that's not something the Necronomicon would know or care about.

"So you say you barely have any knowledge to show while I am supposed to just believe that you are awesome as heck and go along with the magic you dictate?" Zora asked, trying to fill his words with as much sarcasm as possible.

"Obviously, what else would you do? I'm the Necronomicon after all." replied the book being as oblivious of the words' hidden meaning as a newborn baby, at which Zora could only close his eyes, pinch the bridge of his nose and sigh in frustration.

"Okay this is getting ridiculous..." 

The book could only stay silent in its confusion. He was finding his new master's behavior strange, but he was sure its only because of the differences between their worlds, and that its probably not his first shot at reincarnation, unlike how it was with his original creator.

It will all be fine though. Everything will make sense when they bind their magic together and synchronize their memories. Things will clear up and the book will understand everything and will be able to fulfill his purpose once again. All that is needed is just a bit more patience.