Second Library Floor

His response was humble and nice, but I couldn't help but frown.

This guy… Has he never told anybody his real name? I mean, he didn't say it in the opening ceremony, and it isn't even shown online.

"What's wrong?" He asks as I step through the doors and enter the room, which was a bit smaller than I had expected.

"Nothing," I responded.

I didn't like this guy.

Even though he helped me win that court case which you could hardly call a case, I still didn't like him for one singular reason… extortion.

I'm not saying I'm any better, and yes, I am a hypocrite because all these teachers are using the kids for their benefit.

For example, my Gun Theory teacher is just trying to create a prodigy who he could one day call his own if they ever get famous.

I know this because he literally told it directly to me.

There are other teachers as well, but the headmaster here is doing something similar to my Gun Theory teacher.

"May I ask something before we start?" I spoke up just as the headmaster took out a few papers.

"Go ahead,"

"How many of these successful alumni are funding the school because this place is one of the most prestigious places of them all?" I asked.

"Oh… Well, all of them,"

I knew it.

Implanting the idea in each student that they should "never forget their roots" and have them support the school if they ever get successful is a decent plan.

This gets further accentuated when somebody who does become very successful rides on the excitement and immediately thinks back on that implanted idea… which I assume the headmaster then reaches out to them.

Well, to just sum everything up, I'm a hypocrite, and I hate being used or manipulated.

It's just a bad feeling… mainly because if I end up becoming manipulated, that means that person is better at the thing I'm good at.

Just not a good feeling.

Top ten worst feelings, in my opinion.

"I see… Well, sorry for the interruption. Please continue," I kindly gesture with a smile.

"Of course. The compensation for the trouble you have been put through has already been provided. You just need to sign a few documents, which I assume you should understand…." He says before sliding the papers on his desk towards me.

I walked up to his wooden desk and leaned over the papers.

Most of the documents were basically just secrecy as they probably didn't want others hearing about somebody traversing to the next floor without taking the test.

Jealousy would erupt, and it would just lead to tons of problems they probably wouldn't want to deal with.

Also, the final document was on how you couldn't take any books out of the next floor and how you couldn't tell anybody the information.

The consequences were pretty light for breaking it, though.

"Oh, by the way, this is only for the second floor. The third to sixth floors are still off-limits to you," He says.

"Huh?"

"Yeah, but they would be useless to you anyway," He adds, completely brushing off my confusion.

It kinda ticks me off that my hard work led to just one floor, but I shouldn't push too hard otherwise, I won't even be able to access this reward.

After signing a couple of documents, he quickly shoved them into a drawer, and as I had nothing else to do here, I began to take my leave.

"Boy, let me inform you of something," I hear the headmaster speak up just as I was about to close the doors behind me.

"Yes?"

"You should leave this city quickly unless you want to be trapped in a war that could potentially destroy this place,"

I glanced up at him.

"I know,"

After listening to the headmaster's warning, I soon walked back to my room and decided to sleep early as I really needed it.

It felt as if there were bags of sand stapled to my eyelids, so keeping them open wasn't easy… of course, I took a shower before hitting the sack, though.

…

The next day, after all, my classes had passed, I ran straight to the library and met up with the old lady.

And as soon as I saw her, and she looked at my face, I gave her a smug smirk.

"Son of a bitch," She muttered before gesturing for me to follow her.

We both walked to the back of the library, where a large steel door stood at a decent eight feet tall, which gave it an intimidating aura.

"You know the rules, right?" The librarian asks.

"Yep,"

"Good, now you only have an hour in there each day," She says before opening the metal door, which led to a flight of spiraling stairs.

I quickly waved her goodbye before walking up the steep steps, and upon arriving at the top, I noticed a few teens.

They gave me a quick glance, but after that, they just continued to shuffle through the small selection of books.

All of them were separated into two categories.

Dungeons and Skills.

"Skills? Like skill books?" I muttered.

Excited, I quickly made my way over to the selection of books, but disappointingly, they were just information on different skills.

But, after opening the first book I could grab, my disappointment turned back into excitement.

"This is broken," I muttered as though this book was only fifty pages or so, each page was packed with information on a single skill.

The history, what types of classes use it, its weakness, and strengths.

I only had an hour in here, but as I could come here every day if I wanted to… the amount of information I could grasp my fingers around… is insane.

For about fifty minutes, I was completely absorbed in reading this singular book and even took a few ghost annotations in my mind.

But, as soon as I had finished it, instead of feeling sad like how I always feel when I finish a book, I felt completely satisfied.

So, I decided to retain this information on a few fire-related magic skills and placed the book back before leaving the library.

And to finish off the day, I met up with Findir, Cy, and Aisa for some early dinner.