(6) Albus

'Well, in that case, I feel like you deserve a name. I won't feel comfortable calling you Grimoire knowing that you have your own thoughts.'

:If that's the case, you can feel free to give me a name. Though I am cognizant, I don't have any memory of a life before:

'Well, a name fitting for a magic book huh?' Taylor lay back and thought for a moment. 'How about Albus? It may be a bit cliché using a movie character, but he was a wise wizard and had a great impact on my childhood.'

:I can accept that. You should be able to move shortly, I suggest collecting your cores before the area becomes overrun by Slimes again:

'Shit, you're right.'

:Well, it's one of your thoughts, I'm just reminding you:

'Man, I wish I'd always had a magic book around. Though, talking to a book on normal Earth, I absolutely would have been labeled crazy.' He mused while dragging himself to his feet.

There was still a massive amount of pain, but the wounds had already scabbed over with fresh scabs. He also had a massive ache in his left wrist, though after the initial movement of the bones going back into place it was bearable.

He approached the area of the explosion to find a large pit. The pit was almost 10 yards in width and about 5 feet deep. He could sense the untamed rush of the disturbed Mana fighting to return to its original order.

He glanced around and began picking up and stuffing cores of all colors into his pouch. 'Albus, how did the pouch survive while my clothing was ripped off? I'm topless and look like I'm wearing a torn-up skirt.'

:Magical items have much more durability than any basic garment:

'That's a relief.' After checking the Battle Log and recounting the cores to make sure he'd collected them all, he had picked up 71 cores. 'Wow, that explosion really did a number.'

'Albus, how are we supposed to learn Spells?'

:Well, like any world without previous civilization, we will have to learn from scratch. As you learn Talents and crush new cores, I can sketch the runes for us to study and create new combinations. Of course, it will be dangerous:

'Cores have Runes on them?' Taylor asked rhetorically as he pulled one from his storage pouch. He examined it closely and could see a very dull Rune etched into the center. This was a clear core that hadn't had an element attached to it.

:You can see them now due to your Mana Sense and the increased amount of Wisdom:

'Interesting. How much longer do we have until the 24 hours are up?'

:You have about 11 hours left. Of course, even after the acclimation process, it will be 10 hours before most wake up. Some exceptional Users who have a strong connection with their Grimoire can wake up early:

'Do you have a way to wake me up?'

:Yes:

'Wake me in 3 hours or if there is any danger. I don't want to waste this opportunity of being the only hunter at the moment.'

:Understood:

He climbed to the top of the hill and laid down, closing his eyes and quickly falling asleep.

****

An uncomfortably warm heat began to invade Taylor's mind. His eyes twitched as the heat increased and he finally couldn't ignore it. His eyes snapped open and he saw Albus hovering over him.

"What a strange thing to wake up to." He grumbled, watching the book hovering around him.

Now that his mind wasn't so dulled from the pain, he noticed that Albus looked a lot different. His cover was no longer ragged-looking. It seemed to be a nice brown leather cover, though it was still very plain. There were also a few more pages.

'Albus, you've changed quite a bit already.'

:Yes, my growth rate is parallel with yours. I have three new pages, one being your Inspection Skill, the other two pages being your Mana Sense:

'How do the Runes in your pages affect me?'

:When the Runes appear in my pages, they also inscribe themselves into your mind, or onto your body based on what they do. The same thing happens as you level Attributes, there are millions of small Runes etched into your cells causing your body to harden. I can't tell you where they come from, it's beyond my capabilities:

Taylor felt a bit strange knowing that information, that meant that something wasn't changing just Albus, but for him as well.

'Well, there's nothing I can do about it.' He thought as he headed to the other side of the pit and proceeded to hunt Slimes for the next 7 hours.

****

'Man, that was a cakewalk. I'm glad these cores weigh next to nothing or else they wouldn't have fit in my pouch.' The pouch still amazed him, no matter how many cores he threw in, there wasn't even a bulge on the side.

The terrible injuries he once had were now barely red scars across his body. His wrist was completely back to normal, not even a bit swollen.

In that 8 hours, he'd used 7 to storm right through the army of Slimes until he reached the inner layer where he'd stomped around killing as many Slimes as possible. They couldn't even hurt him anymore.

'If it wasn't for Albus I wouldn't have a clue how many I'd killed, quite a few in that area were level 2.' He'd managed to kill another 182 level 1 Slimes and 60 level 2 slimes which granted 10 experience each.

Taylor had made it to Level 10 after a full day of grinding, and he was ready to use his next Talent Point. The levels became much harder to grind after Level 10. Levels 5-10 had required 300 Exp per level, now it seemed Levels 10-15 would take 900 Exp per Level.