When I returned to the Information Trove, everything I instructed to Starisk has already been dealt with. I long predict plans Plus Church had come up with when they exchanged information with five different companies. I knew, in their despair, they would exchange a higher grade manual, but sadly I wasn't here at the time because of the sudden arrival of Feline God's envoys. Starisk hasn't failed me, luckily, or I would have lost many opportunities.
"You did good, Starisk. You haven't failed me." I said and patted his shoulder.
"It is what I should do, Young Master Desmond. If it wasn't for your instructions, I couldn't achieve what I did," he answered humbly.
"Un. Still, you helped a great deal. You can ask me anything you want, and as long as it is in my power, I will fulfill it." I said honestly. I still didn't know why Starisk was working for me, but he didn't have any intention of doing it, thus I didn't probe too hard.
"I will not deny it, Young Master. But I will hold onto it." He said.
"Alright."
"How was your trip to the wilderness, Young Master?" He asked after some silence.
"It was pretty rewarding. I have dealt with the pests and gained much by doing it." I answered. He already knew why I left the city, and by saying that much, I have already revealed that I killed the envoys.
"Ah, I am happy to hear that Young Master." He answered without probing any further.
I entered the city through the secret tunnel not too long ago with Dalia. I left her at the house and came to the Information Trove immediately when I have seen the notification sent to my Bonding Stone. I had left it in the house, while I was away, in case of tracking. Luckily, Starisk had everything under control.
More than 50 power of the city bought the Body Tempering Potion Formula simultaneously, spending all of their IT Stars. They spent many skill books in exchange for IT Stars, and Plus Church even exchanged an Epic Rank Skill Book for getting it earlier. Even I was surprised by their ambitious move, but I learned from Starisk that, the one exchanged the manual wasn't the leader of the Church but a young genius Morgante. As the owner of the Information Trove, I learned many things in the past month, including Morgante.
The arrogant young master wasn't anyone significant in my eyes, but with this move, I set my sight on him. He might have failed, but it was because of my vast experience in dealing with these kinds of situations. I worked in a multinational company before I reincarnated. Every day in that place was a battle of mind with co-workers and other similar companies. With novels, movies, tv shows, and history lessons covering similar situations, I could predict their every move and had planned for each of theirs. But still, I wasn't expecting this young master to exchange Epic Tier Skill Book to get his hand on the Formula sooner than I expected. Luckily he acted a little bit slow for me to counter his move before he could even form it.
After dealing with everything in the office, I walked back to the safe where we kept all the skill books and started to read them. The way of forming runes was understanding all elements in nature. When Dalia was sealing the entrance, I felt many elements answering her calls, but I couldn't understand why. After Dalia taught me, I understand that by bonding elements to the specific points in runes that it could be formed. So the key to forming runes was, gaining insights into every element. It was already my plan to study each and every element to create more skills for my combo elements. Now I had one more goal in doing that.
There were more than enough skill book in the safe of the Information Trove. Starting from the most basic ones, and studying regularly, I gained lots of insight.
Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Lightning, Plasma, Strength, Muscle, Metal, Crystal, etc. There were countless elements to learn and to be used in the air.
I tried to beckon them by mirroring Dalia and called the elements I was most familiar with. Starting with Barrier. Elements in the air answered my summon and gathered at my fingertip. By pinning it in the air, I called more. After ten minutes, I formed a rune familiar to me. I was casting this rune since I had awakened the Barrier element.
Rune melted away as soon as I willed it and formed a transparent barrier in front of me. It took me ten minutes to form the skill I could cast in a tenth of a second, but I was happy nonetheless. Now I figured out how to use the runes.
Next, I mixed other elements to the barrier, but the rune shape changed when I add more elements. Whatever I did, I couldn't fix the shape of the rune to what I wanted. Then an idea popped into my head.
I created the second barrier skill to see what was different about it. I summoned more barrier element from the air and formed the rune. It was slightly different from the one before. "Yes, why am I trying to shape the rune. When there is an extra element, the rune shapes itself accordingly. It is actually that simple."
I willed the barrier element and fire element to take their places and cast the rune. A flaming barrier stood in front of me. It was transparent, still, it was blazing with flames.
"I finally succeeded." I was happy beyond measure. I studied more elements and learned all the basic skills in the safe. At some point, I had to sell the information I acquired, and skill books were included. Unfortunately, even in outer space, skill books were a mystery, and couldn't be copied. "Wait a second. Can a person from Ancient World copy skill books?"