Chương 23

When Ethan had absorbed most of the common knowledge available to the free city folks, it was noon on his second day at the library. Naturally, it was impossible for him to memorize everything. He only remembered the most important subjects, the ones he thought about more than once. Memory transfer didn't improve his ability to memorize. It was just like reading the books himself, but much faster. Regardless, he could've always asked Ani for the things he forgot. He leaned back in his chair with a stretch.

Looking around, he realized that the librarian was different, but the rest of the staff was the same as yesterday.

'Ani, we got a lot of data, don't you say? Percentage-wise, how good are we for you to do simulations?' he asked, his voice brimming with hope.

'Less than one percent, but it is getting close.'

'What the hell? That was hundreds of books. What else do you want?'

'In order to convert this world to a virtual one, I need to understand the laws that govern it, the elements you are trying to comprehend, and the mechanisms of mana. It is difficult to learn it from books. Watching others' applications of mana or experiencing some skill improvements through you might be much more efficient. If I fill the gaps myself, it won't be useful for your practices.' That… was a long explanation. Just like the old times, he thought with a mirthless smile.

Looks like my dream of spamming the skills every night until I get better is still a long way off. Ethan left the library with a mild headache and fuzzy steps. A few heads turned toward him as he walked. Likely because there was no one else at the library gates, in contrast to across the street. There stood the Adventurer's Guild, a three-story tall archaic building, welcoming the busy crowd.

Gazing at the people who were flying around, I should ask Zach about these flying artifacts tomorrow, he thought as he made his way to the guild. Inside the building was a huge bar with a loud crowd. Some played cards with curses flying around, some drank with their friends or shared stories with each other. A few wore robes, but many had their armor on. At the bar's end, three clerks sat behind a long desk, talking with adventurers.

When he entered from the door, many people turned to look, but their gazes didn't linger for more than a few seconds. A smirk stretched on Ethan's face. This was exactly what he wished for from this world. No one knew who he was, and if he told someone that he was an assassin, they would probably say, 'Oh, good for you. We also need a scout for our party.' He walked toward the clerks, and his smile got even wider as he recognized some people with the same occupation.'' Good afternoon, miss.

I hope you are also experiencing the thrill of a charming day!'' he greeted cheerfully. The young human girl with long brown hair looked at him with an amused expression.

''That's one way to put it.''''As long as it works,'' he said, extending his hand.

''Ethan.''''Miranda.'' She leaned forward and shook his hand.

''So, what can I do for you, Ethan?''''I would like to join your guild. I originally wanted to get an identity badge, but now that I'm thinking of it, doing some missions also sounds good,'' he said, looking toward a large mission board.

''What is required, though? I'm not supposed to give you a piece of my soul, right?'' he asked, half-joking.''Oh, you can keep your soul,'' Miranda said with a smile.

''We only need your name and your cultivation level. You also need to bind your badge with your blood, but no worries, its only function is to upgrade your level accordingly, and we never share our members' tier with outsiders.''''Well, I guess I'll take your word for it,'' he said, mildly hesitating.

''How about the other branches? Can I use it anywhere in Azora?''''Of course, we use an ancient rune for the badges. You can even use it on other continents,'' she said in jest.

''And since you're applying from Ehrendil, you can get citizenship of the free cities with your badge, by only paying a fee of a mana stone. But you still need to wait for a month, until they are done with their background check.'' Getting the adventurer badge was faster than he expected, while the citizenship was a welcome bonus, since he was already planning to get one to use the teleportation gates. He cut his finger with a poison-free spider leg and dropped a blood drop on the badge.

The dull star-shaped artifact absorbed the blood and changed its color to yellow. Although he felt a slight connection, there wasn't anything else. Afterwards, he looked for the available missions. There were many options, starting from tier 1 and going up to tier 6. It looked like high-tier people didn't do adventuring, or at least that was the case for Ehrendil. Even in this bar, there were only a few tier-5s, if he didn't count the people with seemingly no mana whatsoever.

Rewards for the missions also varied from a silver coin to hundreds of gold coins. He looked for something around the Primordial Realm, but they were all above his abilities and related to the Serene Depths. Ethan had no confidence when it came to water. His [Fabric Tear] wasn't working on solid objects. Would it work in water? He had no idea. In the end, he chose a mission that was close to the path he'd used to come to Ehrendil.

He needed to collect Blue Root Grass, which he vaguely remembered from a book, an ingredient for a local beer. 10 gold reward for a barrel of it was a pretty good deal. The cave system that contained the grass was also a habitat for rock worms. The mission was recommended for a party of tier-3s, as there could very well be a tier-4 worm king. He had no plans to fight a tier-4 for now, but he also didn't plan to return unless he became a tier-3. So, it could be the perfect last stop before returning back.

When Miranda didn't even bother to warn him about the recommendation, he couldn't help but ask, ''Anyone could do this mission without a party, right?'''' Of course, but I hope you are not that stupid. There might be dozens of tier-3 rock worms. This one is difficult even for a decent party,'' she said with a stern expression. Ethan waved his hand dismissively.

''No worries, I was just asking. You know I'm new around here,'' he said while thinking that it was actually a pretty good hunting ground even before tier-3. He was still going to buy some skills, but as he liked the vibe here, he decided to spend some time listening to the gossip of the town. Walking to the bar, he sat near the bartender, who was one of the few tier-5s in there.''Say, what was that beer that was made from Blue Root Grass?'' Ethan asked the bartender. The kind-looking old man raised his head.

''Ehreneer,'' he said with a grandfatherly smile.''Right, get me one of those, please.'' The bartender poured a glass and gave it to him.

''Did you get the quest for Blue Root Grass?''''Mhm.'' He nodded, sipping from his beer.''Before picking them up, make sure they are not frozen. They release a gas of lethal poison in extreme cold,'' the old man warned.

''They grow in humid environments so that's unlikely, but be careful in any case.'' This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Raising an eyebrow, he nodded again, but slowly this time.

''Okay. Thanks for the tip.'' He enjoyed his drink even more than the whiskey-like beverage he'd tried at the Pink Pearl. As he was planning to buy some more for his trip, he realized a new group had entered the guild, and they were looking at him from their newly occupied table. Two elves and one human, all males. Eventually, one of the elves, the only tier-3 at the table, walked toward him.'' The armor you're wearing, it was a custom design for a friend of mine, called Nuvian,'' the elf stated rigidly. Seriously?

How are you so sure? I bet if I lie, he'll show me the engravings that say 'belongs to Nuvian' at the bottom of it. Ethan mocked himself internally and decided to be honest.

''He tried to rob me but got robbed instead. He is still alive if that's what you are wondering,'' he said calmly, keeping eye contact.'' And I'm supposed to take your word for it?'''' Well, that sounds like a you problem.'''' Then I'll fucking make it yours.'' He took a step toward him and raised his fist. Ethan jumped to his feet and [Blink]ed half a step to the side before punching him in the throat with all he had. The elf first hit the bar counter and then to the floor, gasping for breath.

His friends jumped to their feet immediately, but before they moved, an oppressive aura washed over the entire bar. Everyone got tense. Ethan even got goosebumps on the back of his neck and felt a little weak in his knees. A coughing sound interrupted the silence. He looked at the coughing bartender and saw the old man pointing at the wall behind with a thumb, where it read: NO FIGHTING IN THE GUILD. The aura disappeared, and everyone relaxed a bit.

The [Mana Aura] needed both a strong killing intent and a deep mana pool for a favorable outcome. This man lacked neither. The friends of the elf ran toward the guy who was still having a difficult time. As he got the attention of everyone, Ethan thought it was time to leave. He passed a silver coin to the bartender.

''Sorry for the trouble. Keep a few bottles of Ehreneer for me. I'll come to buy it tomorrow.''''No problem,'' the bartender replied before whispering a good-natured warning, ''By the way, using skills in a bar fight is something looked down upon.'' Ethan rubbed his neck, rather embarrassed.

''Uh, I didn't know that.'' The bartender just smiled and got back to his work. Ethan moved to leave the guild after giving a wave at Miranda and received a stiff wave back. He glanced at the now crimson-faced elf who looked about to pass out despite the help of his furious companions and tried to convince himself. With or without skills, I would've beaten him all the same. The bar returned to its usual bustle, but he still felt a few eyes watching him.

No one tried to stop or follow him after, and he reached the skill shop after a short walk. He'd checked out most of the skills the last time and had a rough plan for his shopping. Firstly, he wanted a skill with low mana consumption that would replace his knife throwing. There was a brief opening whenever he threw a knife, and his body movements also told his enemy what to watch for. He already changed his build as a Rogue/Mage and had a good amount of mana.

If he could find something to work with [Fabric Tear], that would be ideal. Secondly, he wanted a stamina-based skill as a backup, as he often found himself with low mana yet more than half stamina. Since he intentionally distributed his stats poorly, it was only natural to go for a variety of skills to make up for it. Inside the shop, for every skill, there was a description and estimated times of usage for a tier-1 user. That was the closest thing he had to knowing their mana consumption.

After half an hour, he decided on two skills that were perfect for him and relatively cheap. The one called [Shadow Spikes] was a variant of [Earth Spikes] he'd seen from Oliver, although much weaker in comparison. The skill used the shadows on the body, so the user had to position their hand–or any part of the body–against the sun and use the shadows on the opposite side of the same hand. The range was merely one and a half feet.

When used under the sunlight, the material that came from the shadows got weaker and dissolved in a few seconds. That was why, while [Earth Spikes] was 12 mana stone, this one was only 6 gold. But Ethan couldn't stop imagining the possibilities. He could use the inner side of his coat's sleeve with a [Fabric Tear], and the shadow spike would appear 150 feet away, right in front of his enemy's skull. They wouldn't even see where it came from, and it would be almost instant. Every spike needed about 10 mana.

Used with [Fabric Tear], it added up to 25 mana each time. He could use 20 of them and still have the mana for another 20 [Blink]. The other skill he got was a popular one called [Long Jump], which gathered a large amount of stamina in the user's foot and used it all at once for a straight jump. Its range was about 20 feet, and it used 50 stamina. Honestly, for a price of 15 gold, it was only so-so, but the other stamina-based skills were much more expensive and inefficient at low tiers.

He wanted this one as a backup for when he ran out of mana. Initially, he also wanted to choose a skill for Beet, but as he didn't know where its talent lay, he didn't want to risk it. Calling over a staff member, he told him his purchases, but before buying the skills, he heard a girl crying at the talent line.'' What's that about?'' he asked the staff.'' Another giftless, she'll never reach tier-3 in her life,'' the staff whispered with pity in his voice. There is such a thing?

He suddenly felt lucky for his trash talents; coming to this world and finding he couldn't progress would be a very cruel joke.

''Does that happen often? And can you tell me what kind of talents are there?''''Not often, but it's not rare either. After the giftless, the talent ranks go from low, below-average, average, above-average, high, and top,'' the staff explained.

''There are also elemental talents, but that's very rare. They could only train in one element, but it's even better than top talents.'' It was as he'd guessed, but he didn't find anything about this elemental talent in the library, making him wonder about what else he didn't know. He was still a bit bummed out about his talents. Even his cloak–likely a supreme treasure– only managed to upgrade one of his low talents to below-average, and even that was nothing permanent.

From what he'd learned in the library, ascension was still possible for people with trash talents, no matter how rare or time-consuming it was. He wasn't worried about cultivation time since he could always grind monsters to get his essence. That became much harder on higher tiers. As the essence required to advance increased exponentially, no one wanted to try killing millions of monsters and risk their lives on a fool's errand.

But that number became much lower if they hunted higher-tier creatures than themselves. That was another quick way to die. For others, that was. So far, Ethan had no problem hitting above his tier, even when he'd had nothing but two rather unique skills to rely on. There were countless ways for him to improve his build… as long as he had money. The real problem was the difficulty of comprehension and not being able to advance his skills, leaving him stuck in a bottleneck for god knows how long.

He hoped to fix this in hyper-realistic simulations with the help of Ani, but he wasn't even sure if it would work, let alone the fact that Ani was nowhere near creating VRs yet. Shaking his head, Ethan bought his new skills and left the store. After some debate with himself, he decided to visit Pete and tell him that he was going on a trip. He was planning to stay another week, but the fight at the adventurer's guild made him a bit anxious.

Oliver and others still didn't return, and their families were rather powerful, making him want to leave the city before it got more complicated. Buying some street food, he slowly walked toward the biochip user, who usually stayed in the same place. And as he guessed, it brought him to a butcher shop in the slums, where he found Pete and another man working on the carcasses.'' E-Ethan,'' Pete exclaimed.

''I didn't know y-you were coming.''''Just wanted to check on you and see if you are up for another drink,'' he said with a smile and turned to nod at his boss as a greeting.''I-I mean, I still have another h-hour-'' Pete looked at his boss, hesitating. The boss waved his hand with the big knife.

''Go, go! I told you not to hang out with that Rafael kid. Go out with others by all means,'' he said.

''Hell, if you find a girlfriend, I'm giving you three days off!'' Pete gave a flustered smile, while Ethan chuckled, already liking his boss. After a quick clean-up, they headed to the Pink Pearl.''Ethan, how about a tavern this time? Some of them also have good music,'' Pete suggested uncomfortably.''But they don't have Leyla and Alisha,'' he replied with a smirk.

''The last time you made Alisha laugh until her eyes teared. Don't tell me you don't wanna see her again?'' Pete looked away.

''I d-don't even remember that clearly. She was the elf girl with a stringed instrument, right?'' he asked, peeking back at Ethan.''Yep, and the half-elf with a darker tan is Leyla. I think we have a good shot. At worst, we'll just eat, drink, and have a good time. Don't worry, it's on me,'' he said, patting Pete's shoulder.