Chapter 30 Curtana Library

Maria went to the kitchen to fetch Nicholas's meal and brew some tea requested by him. After preparing everything, she placed them on a tray and immediately returned to Nicholas's room to serve his meal. Both of them not minding the sappy conversation and atmosphere previously, Nicholas stood up from his bed and sat on his desk chair.

Nicholas: "The food smells nice."

Maria, who was placing his food, was covered with cloche so Nicholas could not see what food was cooked. Afterwards, she took a teapot and cup and began to pour the warm tea inside the cup before serving it to Nicholas. 

Nicholas: "What is today's breakfast?"

Maria, before answering Nicholas, took off the cloche on the food, revealing its contents. 

Maria: "Actually, the Mistress personally cooked this breakfast. It is a complete breakfast buffet to replenish your energy. According to Madame Iris."

There are several pieces of bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and even a heap of rice on the side.

Nicholas: "Oh, there is even rice. Did mom especially order this?"

Maria: "Yes. Madame Iris especially bought some for this occasion."

Yes, aside from bread, one of Nicholas's favorite sources of carbohydrate is rice. But the weather condition and water quantity of Curtana are not suitable for raising and growing rice, hence the abundance of grains such as wheat and oats in the Daedric Empire.

Nicholas: "Mom, really cooked all out in this. I hope I can finish this alone."

Nicholas began digging in on his breakfast, and to keep the atmosphere lively, he began to talk casually with Maria about news and trends, chow down the meal his mom made for him.

About 20 minutes into his meal, Nicholas managed to make a large dent into his meal, leaving only 30% unfinished.

Nicholas: "Maria, can you fetch me something sweet to drink? I didn't expect to eat this much savory food in the morning; I need something to combat the oiliness of the food."

Maria: "Sure, Master."

Maria left the room to fetch Nicholas a sugary drink. Meanwhile, Nicholas stopped eating and began to check other things.

First he opened his system panel to check his stat improvement; he was satisfied. Only a bit more before he can be as strong physically as a knight level.

Nicholas: "Maybe I should *BUUUURRRRP* Gacha tonight so my stats can breakthrough the knight level."

After seeing his stats, he then checked his daily quest, took note of it in his reminders, and then began to continue eating his food. 

Maria returned shortly after with a pitcher of lemonade and some cups. She poured a cup for Nicholas and gave it to him; he received the cup and immediately drank it.

Nicholas: "Aaahh!! Thanks for the juice; it's very delicious, Maria. Remind me, what's today's schedule again?"

He asked Maria about his schedule for today to confirm what they would be doing today.

Maria listed the tasks and schedules they have to do today.

Maria: "First, after preparing, we three need to go to the Curtana library to browse skill tomes since we will be able to learn more skills due to the recent promotion."

Maria: "After browsing and choosing our preferred skill tomes, we will need to notify the guardian so he can log it for release since we are just borrowing it temporarily. The count said we can borrow up to three level 2 skill tomes and any level 1 skill of our choice."

Maria: "We have until noon to browse and borrow; afterward we will train individually and proceed with coordination training before dusk."

Maria: "We will not be doing any dungeon diving for the week; instead, we will be focusing on training our bodies until we get used to our current power."

Maria: "And at night, you have to meet the countess to settle some documents about your business. This entails the contracts in distribution and reservations. The countess wants your input before confirming and signing the agreements and contracts."

Maria: "That is all your schedule for today," said Maria as she read the last word in the schedule of Nicholas for today.

This schedule was made by Maria since he was tasked by Nicholas to record and remind him of his future meetings, tasks, and plans. It was one of the foundations of being a great "personal assistant" by Nicholas Standard.

Nicholas: "When will the schedule for Mr. Gofrey be?" Nicholas asked

Maria flipped her own pocket journal, which contains Nicholas schedule, searching for the weekly appointment of Nicholas history teacher.

Maria: "Mr. Gofrey, schedule this; this will be day after tomorrow," Maria replied.

Nicholas: "Please remind someone to tell Mr. Gofrey to extend our schedule since there are some queries and questions I need answers to after the lessons."

Nicholas: "Also, please increase our martial art and weapon training for about twice as much this week to compensate since we will not be going to the dungeons."

Nicholas: "Speaking of dungeon, tell a knight to fetch me some information about the dungeons from level 20 to 30 in Curtana. That's all." Nicholas finally relented, yapping.

…

At noon in the Curtana Library

Three people were walking inside the library carrying skill tomes; this is Nicholas, Maria, and Clarice walking along with their chosen skill tomes. Like weapons, skill books also have rarity from common to legendary, but unlike weapons, skill tomes have some requirement for awakeners to learn their contents. The elemental and weapon compatibility, or elemental level, is the restriction that binds awakeners from learning different skills just by possessing them. You must satisfy these two requirements to be able to learn a particular skill.

As an example: A person with a level 2 fire element with a sword emblem cannot learn a level 1 water element sword skill, nor can he learn a level 2 fire skill with a grimoire skill. Both requirements must be satisfied to be able to learn the skill.

Currently, Nicholas and Clarice are already satisfied with the skill; they have browsed and picked what they liked holding them in their hands while accompanying Maria around the library.

The only one not finished is Maria since she cannot find any ice attribute skill that fits for her weapon style. But alas, time is running out, and they have to bring this skill to the guardian of the library of documentation.

Seeing Maria's disappointed face, Clarice comforted her by patting her back using her free hand while saying.

Clarice: "It's fine; it's not the end of the world; we can't find suitable ice magic skill tomes for you here. We can still buy or get those skill tomes by other means."

Nicholas: "She is right, Maria; don't beat yourself up for not finding any suitable skill tomes for yourself; the Curtana library doesn't really contain a lot of ice-type magic skill tomes. We can just find and buy as a last resort."

Maria: "Yeah..." She replied sullenly since it really was quite a bummer not to find any good skills for her since the library itself was quite large and the assortment of skill tomes is quite varied.

It took some time to coax Maria into cheering herself up, and by the time she felt a little bit better, they had already arrived at the location where the guardian was stationed.

They saw a person that looks like a librarian; he was quiet aged and frail on the outside, but his stats show otherwise. He was quite strong, just a little bit weaker than my father.

Anton Marcus Curtana

Level: 70

Age: 65

Stage: 5

Element: [Fire Lv.5] [Wind Lv.2] [Lighting Lv.4] [Smoke Lv.2]

STR - 410

DEX - 501

INT - 750

VIT - 520

AGI - 450

Power Level: 81420

Nicholas: *This uncle's stat is insane. Almost triple mine.* He thought as he browsed his stats with his scan skill.

Maybe that's the reason why he was tasked with guarding the library.

We showed each skill token we wanted to borrow to the guardian, and one by one he scrutinized the skill token as if recording something in it. As he finished looking at the last skill tome in the queue, he said, "I already logged the book for borrowing; be sure to return it at the end of the next month. That should give you plenty of time to learn those skill tomes and some time to spare. Make sure to return those skill tomes on time, otherwise there will be some penalty."

The three replied, "Yes, thank you for the reminder." They proceeded to take their skills one by one and went to the entrance of the library.

As they left the library, the scorching sun shone directly above them. With such weather, they decided to grab some lunch first in a café with a cooling artifact to cool down.

They talk about their chosen skills and possible combinations in their new skills and old ones. Maria also reminded Clarice about the change in their schedule. They passed the time leisurely talking and chatting about different things as they ate their food, enjoying the cold environment and avoiding the midday sun.

After an hour, the temperature is still blistering. They didn't like to change places to train, so the three decided to read through the skill books they borrowed inside the café.

But before they started reading through their skill tome, Clarice opened her mouth and asked something.

Clarice: "Can I ask a question? It has been bothering me for a while now."

Nicholas: "Yeah, sure, do you have a problem learning a skill or something?" he looked at Clarice with a confused look.

Maria: "Or, maybe she didn't know how to read certain words." She followed Nicholas's word with her own teasing words.

Clarice: "Of course not! She denied vehemently at Maria's conjecture."

Clarice: "THAT was only one time!! Once! I just happen to mispronounce a word!" She was trying to defend and reason at the time when they were learning to read and she was so confidently wrong about how to pronounce a certain word.

Nicholas: "Hey, stop that," he tapped Maria's shoulder as trying to show that he is on Clarice's side in the argument.

Nicholas: "So, what's your question?"

Clarice: "Are all skill tomes only found in the dungeons? or people can create them?"