Chapter 8

"Aditi!! I want to talk to you. Bring me to that celestial plane or whatever", Noah yelled holding the book.

Nothing happened even as time passed.

Noah kept thinking about what Aditi had told him when they met.

'EtherWorld was based on a time slice of the future near the end of the world. Does that mean in that future, I had already met with Aditi and had been reborn into this world then died 5 years later? Was time rewinded? No… she said it was a probable future, so it didn't happen but in that case, if she knew I would fail then why choose me? What's the difference between the current me and probable me? THINK!!'

'Okay, she clearly said that it wasn't the first time that we had met that day. Wait, when she said that only a moment was needed to change everything, was that that moment itself? I met Aditi sooner than the probable future?... Ugh… I hope I am right. I wish I had asked more about myself when I met Emilia Wyte in EtherWorld.'

After settling his emotions, Noah decided to continue exploring the library.

This time Noah distorted the library pass to allow him to enter the advanced series magic. He was quite curious as to why these series of advanced magic was kept separately from the original ice element room.

The room resembled the kingdom history room. It didn't look like anyone had entered the room in quite some time.

The books in the advanced series magic unlike the beginner series went straight to the topic. It spoke about the spell's magic circle, the meaning of the circle, effect, repercussions etc. Which all seemed valuable but to Noah, who hadn't even awakened his ice element yet, it was just another piece of paper.

By the end of 5 more hours, Noah completed all the advanced series magic on ice elementals they had in the library.

Not to raise suspicion with the librarian, Noah exited back to the original ice elemental series room that she first brought him to and then to the main library. After making sure she spotted him from the reception desk empty-handed, Noah left, excusing himself for lunch.

Although there was so much information to be harvested from the library, Noah didn't want to spend all his time there.

As the Elder would be coming on the fifth day, it would be difficult to escape on that day. Because of that he needed to leave a day early, which gave him 3 days to train and 1 day to escape.

Noah was in a very difficult situation. He had awakened wind elemental but didn't know any skills for using them. He knew ice elemental skills but hadn't awakened ice elemental yet. And the rest of his elemental affinities were more or less useless to him at the moment. Realistically, if he tried to escape now, he would either get caught or get killed by a beast outside.

Coming back to the library, he went straight for the weapon manuals library room.

Unlike the other rooms Noah had visited so far, this room had very few books on the shelves almost as though someone had looted them.

The moment Noah picked up a book, a message appeared.

Ice Temple Self Defense Sword style (F Rank). Would you like to learn(Y/N)?

Requirements:

Strength: 40

Dexterity: 40

Intelligence: 40

'Yes?'

As nearly half of his mana drained, images of the fighting style flashed in Noah's mind.

Taking a stance, Noah tried to imitate the movement he saw. Although it wasn't as refined as how he envisioned, it felt as though he had practised the moves beforehand. He was able to continue from one movement to the next with just muscle memory.

The movements consisted of various ways to block and parry the opponents move.

Going over all the other books, Noah wasn't able to find any book greater than F rank. It did not make sense for the temple to not have manuals better than F rank. It's as though whoever broke into the library felt pity and left the few there that they didn't need.

The other manuals included techniques for basic bow and spear styles.

Instead of learning from the book directly, Noah decided to scan the books and learn it from memory.

Surprisingly, it worked.

Ice Temple Self Defense Bow style (F Rank). Would you like to learn(Y/N)?

Requirements:

Strength: 30

Dexterity: 50

Intelligence: 60

Closing the menu away, Noah decided to use the last of his mana to enter the next room.

Quickly calculating his mana reserve, Noah guessed he would be able to enter two more rooms before it gets too late for him to head back.

Among the rooms, Noah was interested in bestiary, forbidden ice spirits and ice spirits.

Having the knowledge of the beasts and creatures would surely aid him in his journey but information on beasts and creature weren't that hard to get. All he had to do was ask the locals in that area to get information on the beasts that invade there. Although this method didn't have any guarantee to work well all the time, he was confident to find another way around.

Knowing Ice spirits on the other hand would give a lot of benefits in the long term. Specifically the condition for creating the contract.

In Etherworld, each spirit had its own condition to form a contract and based on the strength of the spirit the quality of the same spell varied. Even if the contract was made by a veteran warrior, if the strength of the spirit was weak, they would not be able to utilise their full capabilities.

As the strength governed by a warrior with a spirit contract was much greater than one who could just control the element with their affinity, there was a huge lockdown on information related to spirits.

There were only a few who were able to form contracts without knowing the conditions required. Most spirit contractors were able to gain this information through careful selection led by temples or passed through family members.

After thinking about it, Noah finally decided to enter the ice spirits room.