“What? Why would- Why would he do something like that? And why would he go to the length of writing it in old Argian, using a fake name, and even hiding a sigil on the book’s cover?” Lynol asked, not sure if he really believed in Foster’s statement. However, it seemed like the man in front of him was already convinved, “I know it might sound like a stretch right now, but just think about it. He couldn’t just go around spreading books about his personal combat style, advertising who he was. And in the first place… I don’t think that Thiodrus was planning on leaving that forest alive. He had already been weakened considerably after trying to seal away whatever… that thing was. And then, he gave his legacy to a person he had met just a day before? He was clearly pretty desperate to find a successor.” Foster explained, and even Lynol had to admit that thinking about it like this made his theory appear quite logical.

“….Let’s just take it with us for now. I know that they sometimes sell books instead of renting them out, and I doubt that they mind getting rid of a few books in here.” Lynol suggested, “For now, let’s see if there are any other books written by the same person.”

Immediately, the group got started and searched throughout the room. In total, there were maybe a dozen more books written in old Argian, out of which three were written by the same man as the book that Foster found, Haimous Ragnrodt, “Then let’s see if we can buy these four.” Foster said, somewhat excitedly. He stepped out through the door, but was blinded by the glaring light of the library’s main hall. He forced his eyes shut, stumbling backward slightly. Luckily, Octer stood right behind him, and managed to grab ahold of his shoulders before he fully fell down.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” Octer asked, and Foster slowly turned his head around, “Nothing much, sorry, I just… I’m not feeling too god, I don’t know why.” He explained, and Octer looked down at his friend surprised, seeing that his face was rather pale as well.

“When did this start? You looked fine earlier…” Octer pointed out in a concerned tone, and Kyla quickly rushed in front of the others, looking Foster up and down, “This… Foster, did you run out of mana?” She asked, and Foster slowly turned his head, “What? No, how could I, I didn’t use a single spell all day…”

“Yeah, but maybe… just open your status and check, alright?” Kyla asked, and Foster let out a slight sigh, quickly pulling up his status window.

— 

[Name: Foster Odin Locke][Age: 23]

[Race: Human][Class: Martial Necromancer][Level – 6]

[HP: 32/32][MP: 3/28][SP: 35/38]

[Attributes]

[STR: 21][AGI: 23][END: 24]

[INT: 18][WIS: 16][CHA: 19]

[Titles]

-[He who is one with Death]

-[Otherworlder]

[Class Skills]

-[Martial Necromancy – Lvl. 3] 

[Familiars]

-[Aster – Lvl. 1]

— 

“Huh?” Foster let out surprised, “But how- I’m on 3 mp…”

“…So it was like that, huh? Right, I think that the artifact can move through your mana.” Kyla explained, “That means that you won’t be able to just let it guide you to other books…”

“It also means that you shouldn’t overdo it too much. If you feel that bad after draining nearly all your mana, then we should make sure it does not happen often.” Lynol added, and Foster simply couldn’t help himself but feel a bit annoyed, “Fine, I guess that makes sense. Still fucking bothersome, though.” He said, clicking his tongue. Kyla quickly took the books from Foster, so that he didn’t need to worry about them for now. The group of four made their way to the entrance of the library, placing the four books down on the counter.

“We would like to purchase these books, if possible.” Lynol said immediately, without even greeting the woman seated there. She raised her brows, and looked at the books, “These… They are written in old Argian, aren’t they? Why would you want books like that?”

“Ah, about that-” Octer started, trying to come up with an excuse, but Foster quickly interrupted him, “I know old Argian.” He said immediately, and the woman turned to him surprised, “Excuse me?”

“I know old Argian. Or rather, I know the basics. I happened to find these books, and seeing the sketches inside, it seems like the style is pretty similar to my martial art. I figured if I want to become more well-versed in it, using something that I already have a lot of context for would be a good idea.” He explained, a bit too bothered to worry about subtlety and being particularly convincing.

“Ah, right, right. Well, these books are… yes, they are for sale. They have practically just been taking up a lot of space.” The woman explained. Lynol seemed sort of curious about something, and quickly asked, “Could I ask, why is that the case? From what I can tell, the martial art described there is quite useful.”

“About that, they’re lower intermediate-level tomes, and require the reader to know the beginner-level techniques already, but we never found any tomes related to those. That means that there would barely be anyone that could read them anyway. And beyond that, the vast majority of people that speak Argian are a few hundred years old. Amongst those, the ones that pursue martial arts have already gone far past the level where these tomes could be of any use whatsoever.” The librarian explained. Glad that they could apparently buy these books without any issue, he quickly grabbed the coin-pouch from his bag.

“How much?” Foster asked, and the librarian flipped through a book in front of her, “That would be… 400 Val.”

‘…So still 20 bucks per book, roughly?’ Foster thought to himself. He figured that this was on the cheap side, though. He heard that books were supposed to be really, really expensive during this time, so it made sense that even books that they practically wanted to throw away would still cost a little bit. Either way, it wasn’t like Foster struggled with money anyway. As it turned out, the coins that he took with him from Thiodrus’ place were worth up to four of five times the normal price of coins, because of how old they were. Of course, that depended on whether or not they were damaged, but even so, Foster got quite a bit of money when he went to exchange some of those coins. It would last him a while, at least.

Foster pulled a silver piece out of the pouch, and placed it on the table. It was shaped like a tiny pyramid made completely of silver, interestingly enough. He wasn’t sure why exactly that was the case, though. The librarian took the silver piece and put it into a small box, before bringing out two bronze pieces, which Foster quickly put into his pouch again. And following the pouch, the books quickly went into his bag.

“Then, have a good day.” Foster said, with a slight smile on his face. Now that he knew that Thiodrus had hidden books all over the place for his potential successor, it should be possible to go all the way after all. He would be able to do this, and learn this martial art to its fullest extent.