Chapter XLIV - Chance Encounters

"Stand Baron Nobody" Jacob said. "A couple questions if I may?" He asked.

Marcus stood and bowed once more adding "I would never dare dream of denying a request of the Crown Prince!"

Jacob smiled "Where did you learn proper etiquette? From my understanding the Chosen Ones know very little in the ways of Nobility..."

Marcus stood up and smiled towards the prince "While not of noble blood, I was born into a family that would be considered Nobility where I am from Crown Prince."

Jacob nodded "Ah I see, so your family has earned titles and accolades, that makes sense! Now tell me how did a Baron gain access to the second floor of the Royal Library…?"

***

The Admins of the first and second floor were scolding the Scholar.

"What do you mean he was right behind you?" The first floor attendant asked.

"Do you see him here? I do not! Where is he?!?" The second chastised him.

"I-I-I…" The Scholar fumbled with his words….

***

Jacob nodded understanding the situation "Well that is certainly one of the most interesting cases I have ever came across..." His curiosity was beyond peaked.

Marcus sighed "I can't even feel my Mana Core anymore, it's truly disheartening and has stonewalled my progression, I knew that the Royal Library had an extensive collection of records from the times before but there's nothing on the second floor relating, I fear I may have to return after becoming a Viscount and seeing if I can't be granted access to the third floor..."

Jacob smiled "Here take this..." He reached into his crimson robe and pulled a seal with a Golden Wolf on a red a back-drop and handed it to Marcus "This is the seal of Augustus, seek me out at the Imperial Palace later tonight and I hope to bring you good news."

Marcus' jaw dropped, he couldn't believe that he would be allowed back into the Imperial Palace so soon and this time with an audience with the Crown Prince, he pleaded "I am beyond humbled by your infinite generosity my liege, but I could never even hope to inconvenience you!"

Jacob raised his hand and Marcus stopped as he began to speak "Do not think twice of it Nobody, I am simply satisfying a curiosity of mine. I bid you farewell." He turned around as the Paladins lead him back up to the third floor leaving Marcus standing there alone...

He was beyond elated as he descended the stairs, it might not have been the appropriate way to receive the information he wanted but at least he was progressing the hidden quest and he wouldn't need to wait another three to four months to reach the Viscount to only find out he may need a higher Fame to complete the quest... He was able to immediately gain access to the upper floors that would take him years to gain access to.

As he descended down to the first floor both of the Admins rushed over and began yelling at him...

"Why did you not follow the orders of the Royal Guards?!?" The first asked but before Marcus could reply the second interjected...

"Do you not know the punishment we could be in because of you!?" She added and as Marcus was was about to explain he was interrupted again...

"Of course he doesn't know, a lowly Baron never should have been given access to the second floor!" The first interjected again but Marcus simply raised the seal given to him by Jacob and caused the women to finally stop speaking.

"The crown prince will be taking up the role of providing assistance that you all failed to simply provide. Don't you worry, I will make sure to express to the Crown Prince how useful the attendants of the Royal Library have provided, you all have a good day!" Marcus stated and brushed past them and confidently strode out of the library.

Marcus decided that he had enough of his own problems and decided to head back to the guild's estate.

***

Forest Fairy slain!

0+0 EXP

"Alright, come on over and harvest this thing" Artox replied. A lanky lizardman rushed over and knelt next to the corpse and said "Dismantle!"

After the body digitalized and disappeared the lizardman stated "Nothing again sir!" Artox clicked his tongue, "What terrible luck... We have barely received any..." Artox sighed in exasperation.

"How did he receive so many...?" Artox asked a rhetorical question out loud. 'He said to just smash them with my shield to work on learning a new skill but I still have yet to learn it and I've killed hundreds, maybe it's my stance?' he was trying to figure out what he was doing wrong when he was pinged the location of another fairy.

Artox sighed once more and began walking in the direction of the ping muttering to himself "Here we go again..."

***

Lisa had never left the Training Hall since she was given direction and had been diligently working hard on controlling the Wind Bolt but forcing it to stay within her hand and not follow the system to automatically launch towards her target was harder than she was expecting. To those around her she was spamming her spells on a poor training dummy over and over but she was frustrated.

After about the thousandth time something clicked and the Wind Bolt finally stood in the her hand as it transformed into a small spiral of air currents and not long after the system chimed:

<Skill Created - Wind Manipulation Lv 0 {0%} unlocked!>

Lisa excitedly jumped in the air and inspected her new skill:

[Wind Manipulation]

Passive Skill - Level 0 - Rank C

Basic wind elemental control. Raises potency of wind spells by 1% per level. Reduces casing time of wind spells by 0.1% per level. Reduces mana cost of wind spells by 1% per level.

Lisa was blown away by the power of the untapped power of this skill. 'I wonder if you're able to learn this for each element...' she pondered 'I won't be able to test this theory until I learn another elemental spell, I think I'll go request an earth based spell from the tutors...' She smiled to herself and began to skip towards the runic tower...

***

Mawu had spent all his time collecting herbs from every corner of the wilderness between Sterling City and Vhul Village. He was just shy of maxing out his Apprentice ranked Herbalism skill and would head back to Sterling and start the quest to unlock Alchemy. Thanks to Marcus he had been given the location for an "unsavory" tutor who specialized in poisons and ailments rather than Tonics and Antidotes.

Rather than taking out all the randomly scattered and roaming packs of monsters in the fields and forests, Mawu was crouching down and sneaking around through the tall grass. Much to his dismay any time a group of travelers were passing by they would be giggling and laughing at the weird man running around on almost all fours.

Yet another group passed by when he heard a girl exclaim loudly "What is that weirdo doing?!?" and the members of her party began whispering in hushed tones he couldn't hear. He couldn't take it anymore and dashed into the forest, if they could have seen his beet colored face, they would have laughed even harder than they already were.

Mawu pushed the embarrassment out of his mind as he crept through the forest. He was had ducked behind a tree as a pair of boars passed by grunting as they dug up the loose soil in search for food. With their backs towards him he snuck past them and continued on his way. He heard a twig snap nearby and ducked behind a bush and began to scan the area around him as he saw a black leopard also sneaking through the underbrush as it was hunting the boars.

Mawu decided he would take the time to observe the leopard as it was stalking it's prey. It silently climbed a nearby tree with a swiftness that amazed Mawu. As the boars passed by Mawu held his breath as to not alert the passing prey or to alert the predator to his presence. As the boars separated, one began digging near the roots of the tree under the leopard unaware of the danger that awaited above.

As the leopard was inching itself down towards the boar a notification chimed in Mawu's head:

<Skill Created - Stealth Lv 0 {0%} unlocked!>

As the leopard pounced down to attack the boar, Mawu jumped up and exclaimed as loud as could "YES!!!"

His loud outburst caused all the birds in the area to flock away from their perches and caused the leopard to miss the vital point of the boar causing both to assault the leopard in revenge, outmatched and outsized, the poor leopard was no match for the boars and it succumed to it's wounds.

Mawu feeling bad for the leopard slayed the two boars and used his basic butchery to dismantle all three. However when he dismantled the leopard, he had even more excitement to enjoy as the system chimed in his head once more:

<Hidden Quest received!>