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Chapter 28: The Young Man



“Is there a requirement to unlocking more quests?”

No matter how he looked at the situation, the second book only changed because he fulfilled some condition. Although he wasn’t sure why the first volume was glowing blue in the first place, he knew why the second volume was.

Completion of the first inheritance quest. That was the requirement. After he stared at the book glowing in blue, he turned his head to look at the first and third volumes.

The first volume was not sparkling like the books next to it.

“The third volume is still white.”

The third book was still the same as when he got the quest. Only the second volume had changed.

“And if I completed the second books quest……”

The third volume could change to a blue colour like the second book. He only had to read the second volume, get the quest and complete it.

Walter snapped out of his thoughts and looked back towards the second volume. It was time. Walter had started to take the first step when……

Whoosh!

Something suddenly appeared in front of him! A split second later, Walter realised that it was a young man. Calming himself, Walter thought.

“So there are still people going to the library.”

He had even considered the possibility of the library being forgotten. But it seemed like this was not the case, as there was a user in front of him.

The young man suddenly turned around and met eyes with Walter.

“……”

“……”

To break the awkward atmosphere, Walter forcibly smiled and greeted the other user.

“H-hello.”

“Ah, Nice to meet you too.”

“……”

“……”

An awkward silence fell again after the greeting. After a few seconds, the young man turned around and started to walk away.

“No, wait.”

Walter was pulling out the second volume of ‘The Legend of Larkan’ when he suddenly looked at the first volume. Walter had just had a sudden thought.

“Can other people still do the quests that I’ve completed?”

Walter was curious about whether the special quests could be repeated. At least, he wanted to know if it was possible for ‘Larkan’s First Inheritance’.

“If he can see blue too……”

That meant that people could get the special quests that other people had completed.

“I have to ask.”

Walter was planning to ask the young man from before whether he thought the book was glowing blue or white. Of course, you needed to fulfil a requirement for the book to glow blue, but Walter was not worried about that as he was just a new Magician at level 10 when he got the quest.

Although he didn’t know what the requirement was, he couldn’t think of anything else that might’ve triggered the blue glow. This meant that the young man had most likely also fulfilled the requirement. Walter pulled out the first volume and headed towards where the young man had gone.

The young man was sitting at a desk when Walter found him again. He was reading a book while surrounded by 4 other books. The books were also all glowing with a white colour.

Walter approached the desk and sat down on the chair opposite to the young man, waiting for the other person to make eye contact.

“……?”

However, the young man didn’t make eye contact no matter how hard Walter stared at him. Walter was gradually getting more and more flustered the longer he waited.

“What kind of concentration is this?……”

At first, Walter had just patiently waited. He had also coughed slightly to get his attention. But the young man hadn’t reacted at all! He was focused completely on reading his book.

“If this goes on, I’d feel guilty for interrupting.”

Walter wanted to excuse himself now. But how could he excuse himself to the other party if they weren’t even paying attention?

“But his reading speed is really fast.”

How long would he take to finish the book? Walter had even started counting!

“It looks like it’s going to take some time.”

The young man was reading at an unbelieving fast rate. It was hard to believe that he’d read every single word before flipping the page. But the book also one of the thicker books in this library. No matter how fast he read, it going to take some time.

“Yes, let’s wait.”

After pondering hard, Walter ultimately decided to wait for the young man to finish. Of course, he wasn’t just going to sit there. Walter put the first volume of ‘The Legend of Larkan’ on the desk and started reading the second volume.

* * *

“And that’s all of them.”

Soo Hyuk had read all the skill quests and closed the tab. He was currently walking in the tunnel, towards the warp magic circle.

He had nothing to do here. The next time he was going to come here was probably when he reached level 100 and could open another door.

Soo Hyuk arrived at the end of the tunnel and stepped on the magic circle. A screen with the warp options appeared, and Soo Hyuk tapped on Matab Library.

[Warping to ‘Matab Library’.]

A magic circle lit up at the same time as the message appeared, and the surrounding space began to distort.

After a flash of bright light, Soo Hyuk found himself in a familiar scenery. Soo Hyuk turned to a bookcase to pick up a book.

“……!”

When he turned around, he suddenly saw another man right in front of him. There was an awkward silence.

“H-hello.”

Sensing the awkward atmosphere, the man smiled while greeting him. Soo Hyuk hurriedly greeted him back and after another round of awkward silence, he hastily turned around and went to a desk.

“They cleaned it up as expected.”

Soo Hyuk saw his old spot when he arrived at the clearing filled with desks. He had previously left three books there, but it was empty now. He had already realised this when he was reading through his quests. Soo Hyuk picked random books from a nearby bookcase and started reading at a desk.

“Wow, this is quite thick.”

Soo Hyuk thought as he admired the book that was nearly 2 times as thick as the other books. Soo Hyuk was especially fond of thick books since he could read more without interruption. Soo Hyuk had also chosen 4 other books aside from the thick book. Soo Hyuk had started reading the thick book as soon as he sat down at a desk.

[Wisdom has increased by 1.]

[Wisdom has increased by 1.]

Soo Hyuk smiled at the messages. Although thick books took a longer time, if they were thick enough, they also gave extra wisdom.

“Thick books are more comfortable to read, and they also give more wisdom.”

Soo Hyuk didn’t know in the beginning, but as he read more books in the Matab Library, he had discovered this fact. The fact that even the white books could give 2 points of wisdom if they were thick enough. Like now, when he gained 2 wisdom.

Soo Hyuk looked up from the now dark book as he closed it. But Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but panic slightly when he looked up.

“……Huh.?”

Soo Hyuk stared at the young man on the other side of his desk with a flustered expression. It was the person who greeted him previously in the library.

“Why……”

Why was the young man sitting opposite him? There were lots of spare seats around them. In fact, there was no one else inside the library currently. So why did he choose to sit opposite him?

“Ah!”

While Soo Hyuk was deep in thought, he suddenly heard a voice. He looked towards the source of the voice, which was the young man that he had been thinking about.

“So, you finished reading.”

Said the young man when Soo Hyuk made eye contact.

“……Did he wait for me?”

From the way he talked, it seemed like this was the case.

“Why though?”

He was unfamiliar to Soo Hyuk. A stranger.

“Does he need something from me?”

As Soo Hyuk was thinking, he asked the unfamiliar young man.

“Did you perhaps wait for me?”

“Yes, I waited for you to finish that book.”

The young man replied as he nodded to his question.

“Why did you wait for me?”

Soo Hyuk asked again. He was curious as to why this unfamiliar man had waited this long for him.

“So, the thing is……”

The young man started to say, he held up a book while grinning. It was a normal white book.

“The Legend of Larkan 1?”

Soo Hyuk checked the title and looked up at the young man again. Why did this person suddenly give this book to me? Sensing his suspicion, the young man said to Soo Hyuk.

“What colour do you see?”

His question was simple. It was about the colour of the book.

“You mean the glow, right?”

Soo Hyuk asked the young man, just to make sure.

“Yes.”

The man replied while nodding.

“White.”

“White?”

The young man repeated.

“Yes.”

This time, Soo Hyuk nodded.

“Is something there?”

Soo Hyuk wondered as he stared at ‘The Legend of Larkan 1’ in the young man’s hands.

“Why is he asking me that?”

While he was wondering, the young man suddenly exclaimed.

“I see. Thank you for your answer!”

“Did you wait just to ask that question?”

The young man did not immediately reply to his question.

“……Yes.”

Then, looking like he decided something, he continued.

“Perhaps.”

As soon as the young man opened his mouth again, Soo Hyuk also concentrated.

“Do you know the blue glow?”

“Yes, I know about it.”

Not only the blue glow, Soo Hyuk also knew about the red and purple colours. Soo Hyuk answered while nodding.

“Then this makes this a lot easier.”

The young man then continued.

“Actually, this book is blue for me.”

“……Really?”

Soo Hyuk was flustered again. The young man was holding ‘the Legend of Larkan 1’, and it was definitely white. But it was blue for him?

“Don’t tell me……”

Soo Hyuk suddenly thought of a possibility.

“It’s different for every user?”

Then Soo Hyuk changed his thought after considering the situation more.

“No, it can’t be like that.”

The books are different for every user? Then it was too unfair. Some users would get good quests while some would get bad ones.

In ‘Pangea’, hard work and effort was a large part of the game. There was some luck, but ultimately, you had to work hard to be good at the game. But if the quests that users could get from the library depended solely on luck, then a hardworking user might get a trash title while a casual user might get a godly item with just more work than usual. Soo Hyuk thought that this wasn’t the case as it was just too unfair.

“Then it’s special requirements?”

Soo Hyuk had read many books so far, and there was a lot of fantasy novels set in Pangea. Although it wasn’t all of them, some required certain conditions to be fulfilled to get a special item. Soo Hyuk thought that special quests also worked the same way.

“And this book.”

The young man pulled out another white book, and continued,

“It was white at first but turned blue.”

Soo Hyuk finally came to a conclusion after hearing his words.

Translator and Editor Notes:

The kofi donations have risen to $12 because the double releases stress me out more than I thought?. Sorry about this.? Also, the chapters have gotten longer from around 1500~ words when I started to ~1900 words now.? ~ MagicFishCat

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