Library Etiquette

Guy woke up early and was walking towards the academy library with a spring in his step. Yesterday, after he recognised Markus as his personal student, Mast sent out a notification that there had been an update in the RoK.

While he lay in bed, Guy checked out the new functions and found that the first barrier in the RoK had been lifted, opening up access to a massive collection of elementary to middle school level study materials from his old world.

As a teacher, Guy used to spend a lot of time going through different publications to figure out the best options for the kids he was teaching. Since most of his students were living in poverty, Guy could not provide a long purchase list of textbooks - it would be impractical. Instead, Guy would stitch together content from a wide range of textbooks and provide a chimaera-book, as he used to call it, that went through all the pertinent topics with high efficiency - which means to have meaningful content and fewer pages. This was so, that should the students lose their books, the printing cost to get a new copy wouldn't be astronomical. Through this method, Guy had unwittingly read through a lot of different books.

While Guy didn't know whether those books would be of any use to him in this magical world, he would never look a gift horse in the mouth.

Guy thought that he had arrived early, but just as soon as he stopped next to the library's entrance, he saw Markus running towards him. The boy's face emanated excitement, but as he noticed Guy standing outside the library it subtly shifted into shock.

Markus wanted to arrive early as well, but seeing his teacher waiting outside the library he started to panic.

'Oh no! I hope I didn't make Teacher wait too long,' he reprimanded himself.

Markus increased his pace and quickly arrived at his teacher's position. While struggling to breathe, Markus apologised, "I'm so sorry to keep you waiting Teacher Larks."

Guy waved his hand, "Don't worry about it. I came early because I was a little excited. You came just in time!"

Guy let Markus catch his breath before he continued, "Let's talk inside. I booked a table for us inside," and then guided Markus into the library.

One good thing about being a coward was that the old Guy never offended anyone in his lifetime. In fact, apart from the infrequent disdainful glares, Guy was basically an invisible character in the academy.

Once the teacher and student scouted a sufficiently isolated desk in the library, they sat down and started their discussion.

"So if I remember correctly, the first time we met, you said that you already tried all the cultivation methods in this library?" Guy probed.

Markus nodded with a trace of disappointment in his eyes.

"I'm going to take it that you tried everything properly, and won't go over them again to save time. Is that OK with you?" Guy tried to confirm.

"Yes. I tried every single cultivation method here that was accessible to me. The problem I'm facing is that they just don't resonate with me. Some of them are so abstract that I can't wrap my head around them. Others talk about such profound thoughts that it doesn't really relate to me," Markus explained.

Guy nodded along and thought about his plan of action. The Mana Condensation realm was the first realm for any mage. Once a prospective mage managed to clear up their mana channels and cast basic cantrips they'd be considered an Early Stage Mana Condensation mage. Within this realm, the main goal is to expand the mana channels that are overlaid on top of the blood vessels in the human body.

The purpose behind widening the channels is twofold. The first is to accommodate mana in its condensed form. Generally, mana is stored in the body of a Mana Condensation mage in a gaseous, wispy form. As the mage advances from the Early to Middle to Late stage, the size of the wisp inside the human body increases.

Once the mage gains sufficient insights and manages to break through to Foundation Establishment, this wisp condenses into a liquid-like form causing the impurities inside the human body to be expelled through the now widened mana channels, which is the second purpose.

To advance within the Mana Condensation realm, having a suitable cultivation method is the safest strategy as it naturally allows the mage to advance into Foundation Establishment. Cultivation methods also have tiers.

The Common methods are the lowest tiers. They are basic and can at most allow a mage to reach Core Formation Realm. They are basic as their contents touch on topics superficially, and hence the insights that can be gained from those methods are limited.

Advanced methods are a tier higher and can provide more insights. They are generally a continuation or expansion of Common methods and can usually carry the mage through their entire cultivation journey. Within the Common and Advanced tier, there are implicit subdivisions that depend on the specificity, relatability, applicability, and similar factors pertaining tho the method itself.

Specialised methods are those that are tailored to specific individuals, bloodlines, physiques, or even species. Depending on the applicability, that is the number of people that can use the method, the cultivation methods can have a higher rarity.

Ancestral methods are those that are passed down from generation to generation. These can be restricted to specific clans, sects or organisations. These are highly guarded and are passed down personally.

In this day and age, there are quite a few cultivation methods, both real and fake, floating around the market. Academies usually hold legitimate copies and segregate them based on quality and rarity. Most of the cultivation methods on the general floor are Common tier and with the lowest rarity. These work for 80-90% of the population.

For the unfortunate 10-20% that can't comprehend or pick up a cultivation method, a less common method is to forcefully expand the channels by casting spells.

"Even though you are my personal student, I don't think we can access the more advanced cultivation methods in the library's higher levels. The methods down here are the most common and generally widely compatible. But since we already know that you aren't compatible with them, I guess our only remaining option is to brute force our way through and practice spells," Guy declared.

Markus didn't display a positive reaction to that. He was even less confident about this method because there was an implicit requirement. "I don't think that option will work for us either. I'm only in the Early stage, even the most basic spells they teach are Rank-1 in complexity. If I can't even sustain a spell, how will I advance?" Markus lamented.

Guy furrowed his brows. The situation presented an endless circle. To advance, Markus needed to cultivate. But without a suitable method, he could only forcefully expand his channels. However, as he was stuck in teh Early stage, he couldn't cast any spells till he reached Middle stage or higher. To do that, he had to cultivate!

Guy hurriedly stopped his train of thought and calmed Markus by saying, "Hey! Let's not count our chickens until they've hatched. There are so many books here on spells compared to cultivation methods. I bet you haven't looked through all of them. Let's see if we can find one that can work for us. First, I want you to go through the library and mark for me the books that you've already looked into."

And with that, the two dispersed.

Guy started from the first shelf and picked up the first book titled "Comprehensive Guide on Fire Magic". This particular book was not already in the RoK, so with every page he read, a copy materialised in his mind. Although the book stated that it was 'Comprehensive' it was not that long, and Guy managed to finish it in around 10 minutes. Once he returned the book to its shelf he started to scan the adjacent shelves for books that weren't already inside his RoK.

While he shuffled along, he noticed one of his colleague teaching apprentices sitting down at one of the desks between two rows of shelves. Mai Louts was her name, and she was the third teaching apprentice under Blevin. Her appearance was nothing short of exceptional. She had a perfect figure by Earth standards. Her face, like most others in this city, had a sandy brown hue, but her eyes were accentuated with a chestnut grey colour. Her dark wavy locks rested on her shoulders and waved as her head swivelled in place.

Mai felt as if someone was staring at her and looked up from her book. Guy's and her eyes met. Guy involuntarily nodded his head as a salutation, but Mai didn't respond and lowered her head with an arrogant sneer.

'Guess my colleagues aren't my fans,' Guy thought to himself and moved on.

While he was doing so, Jo strutted into the library. Guy was a little peeved about the unfairness when it came to system distribution, but he couldn't find a valid argument to move Mast, so Guy just dropped it.

Jo waved superficially waved towards Guy - to which Guy responded - and then walked towards the shelf farthest from the entrance. On his way, he greeted Mai, who gave him her regular response.

'I have a bad feeling about this…' Guy had a sudden premonition.

Guy decided to push down his uneasiness and continued reading his book. But not 5 seconds after he resumed, an ungodly, periodic "Shh Shh Shh" sound echoed in the library.

'Oh, here we go...'