Erudite Kingdom (5)

"I'm not familiar with the capital which leaves us no choice but to loiter around until we find one."

"How about that one?" Prune pointed at the store with tables arranged outside.

"Let's take a look then."

We settled down at that store for a drink in the end. Taking a seat with some shade, we were presented with a menu by a well dressed female waitress, fantasy-style.

Tea time was not bad? We were presented with the lamp a little later-- I think it's a magic tool because I don't smell any oils of sorts, and the flame was blue. It's a magic flame, I think it's to warm us up.

The Coco drink I ordered came with a small butter biscuit-- I get that it's basically chocolate but that's not this drink's name.

Liliath ordered summer season aromatic tea they had in stock, I think it's called Ewal tea. It has this weird minty aroma, the tea itself was tinge of purple despite the tea leaves being orange in colour. Liliath comment was this: decent.

As for Prune, she had trouble deciding with the drinks because most of the items are unrecognizable. She stuck with what I chose.

The price was around 2 silver and 4 big copper.. no idea how much that is but it seems 5 big copper is equivalent to 1 silver. And 10 normal copper is equivalent to 1 silver. I wonder how many silvers is equivalent to one gold?

Enjoying tea while watching the interactions of the people.. not that we really enjoyed it since it feels very weird being independent like this.. we're like fish out of water and it's really uncomfortable.

This is definitely fear. I didn't feel this way when I first arrived to Imagi. I've never been outside like this, usually I'd go to the shopping malls that I knew and had probably never ventured out to explore random places.

Here, with everything unfamiliar, everything new.. more so-- being in a fantasy world where social welfare can be thrown to the abyss-- it's actually quite hard to calm down. I felt my mind turn inwards, it's harder to think rationally in my current condition.

Not to mention.. after this, what's next? How about money? Will a war really break out? Would we get dragged into some weird situation? What if we were suddenly forced by the kingdom to do hero stuff else they'd kick us to ruin?

Even with all these OP Unique Skills in our arsenal, it's hard to calm down. We would have to depend on each other's Unique Skill a lot… I can't imagine how much worse it would've been if we didn't have them.

Liliath was reading something using the BookReader widget while Prune busied herself by exploring the system functions. I don't know if it's because of my increased visual senses but.. her shoulders are stiff and her fingers are shaking.

The BookReader widget huh? I actually haven't tried that.

When I brought up widget.. I realized how I'm looking at a digital library database, not limited to books I've read, some of which I've never seen. A small tutorial window popped up when I tried using it, teaching me some of the functions to the search bar, filter, and method of reading.

When I typed in One Time with You, sure enough, there it was. All 18 volumes. Hah, the 19th volume is in WIP so I guess it makes sense how it wasn't here. Then again, does this mean all books on Earth could be found here?

I went to use the keyword filter, typing in things like 'self-help', 'lightnovel', '100 ways to', 'manga', and the search results were all in the range of millions. That is a lot of books. I have a feeling that basically every book on Earth can be found here, webnovels too. Maybe I should let Siesta read these? If so then I should also ask to have the books translated to Phoenic language… no wait, if I did that she could take advantage of the porn here-- too late, she's probably already reading them by now.

Since I'm confused, might as well read something to calm myself down. No, I'm not going to be reading light novels, I'll be reading self help books to regain some perspective on reality.

Prune mimicked us in the end and too, started using the BookReader widget to find something to read.

A few minutes have passed since I started and you know what? A good idea struck my mind. Rather.. how about I explore how the magic widget works?

There's actually a number of widgets pertaining to magic, I didn't know what does what, so I brought up a UI for each of them.

Magic guide widget, Mana carving widget, Magic casting widget, Auto casting widget.

First, the magic guide widget is as it states, a guide on how to use magic. It's more of a book than it is a system, with chapters ranging from the basics to advanced spell casting methods. And my favorite part of the book was page 11 where it said once you've casted a magic, you can save the data into the auto casting widget.

So then I found out that the tier system of magic goes like this:

Basic-class, intermediate-class, advance-class, saint-class.

Then what about Nine's god-class appraisal? Now I'm curious.

Magic, as cliche of it sounds, casting starts with you 'feeling' this thing called mana at the upper abdomen, or dantain, or if you want a scientific name to it, the solar plexus. Meditation is an essential part of magic because it states that casting magic requires high concentration and focus… okay, this is a nightmare of a way to start a guide. I don't like this.

I've never seen Liliath meditate though..

"Liliath, do you meditate?"

"Hm? No, why?"

"Just asking.."

So it seems unnecessary.. wait. There's an explanation at the bottom part here hngg..

Meditation is for the sake of improving focus and concentration. It's not some kind of voodoo magic that makes it easier to cast. It's just a practice that helps keep your mind calm and sharp.

I remember trying meditation back when I was 14-- thought it actually works so I meditated 15 minutes everyday for a month.. just to realize it makes absolutely no difference.

In any case, let's explore the mana carving widget since I don't dare practice magic here. Maybe when I'm somewhere with less people-- like Bleu's domain for example.

The mana carving widget had like this drawing function. Is this rune magic? The interface had some rune inscriptions so I'm guessing it is? I remember Bleu saying that there's rune magic and circuit magic, maybe that's what this is for?

When I referred to the magic guide widget, I found out that there's a rune magic and circuit magic category. I guess I'll look into that later.

"What is this for?"

"I think it's where you draw runes."

"How interesting. Could I try?"

"Yeah sure," I threw the panel to Liliath.

It's finger operated, so while she was busy fingering the air in the eyes of any normal passerby-- I pulled over the last widget. The autocasting widget.

[PERMISSION TO MAKE CHANGES TO THE SYSTEM]

[YES/NO]

Of course. Why did it have to ask?

When I selected [YES], what appeared was an empty list with some weird categorization options on the top.

"Noel, after I've finished inscribing a rune complex, do I proceed by saving?"

"Yeah sure."

The rune appeared inside the autocasting list with the name [Rune magic 1]. You could even give it a name. I wonder how this works but I think I should test it at a later time..

Looking around, there were people dressed up in what seemed to be noble-casual-wear while chatting with each other. Not to say there weren't normal commoners here but.. seeing a fat-looking guy drinking tea with a stern maid beside him seems kinda off.

That wasn't the point.

Prune gave Liliath and I a few furtive glances when we were discussing the magic system, but she herself didn't participate. She probably feels left out doesn't she?

Just when I thought of speaking to her, I received a message.. or rather, everyone received a message.

It was from Nine.

'Sorry. Found a place we can stay temporarily. Protagonist correction is the real deal.'

The three of us looked at each other in confusion. What the heck did Nine do?