Assimilate All Talents

After it was all over, the squad felt slightly better, especially Nataly. She was the one who took Lapis’s passing the hardest because she couldn’t help but wonder if Lapis hadn’t been carrying her, maybe she could have escaped and survived. Still, seeing her burial allowed her to come to terms with it all. Her anger towards Sol eased up as well, but she still disagreed with his decision.

Now the squad was each doing their own thing. Rex was resting while Duncan and Aron were training. Nataly was making use of their free pass to the second floor of the library to learn new intermediate nature spells while also trying to invent her own. Sol spent most of his time training as well, either improving or combining skills.

After taking care of a few matters at noon, Sol also headed to the Royal Library to finally cash in on the book he was owed. When he arrived at the library, he was at first confused, as from the outside, it looked like a one-story building, but upon entering, he was amazed by what he saw.

Books lined the long room with a main central bridge that branched off towards the walls. Stairs led downwards at the four corners of the library, leading to four more floors beneath the room. From where he stood, he was able to see all of it in all its glory.

"Hello, sir knight. Are you new here? I can show you around if you want."

A quiet voice called from behind Sol. He turned to it and saw Phineas, a young man wearing a dark green robe, who upon seeing Sol’s face, jumped back in surprise.

"Oh my gods! You’re Sol!"

Sol nodded but didn’t recognize Phineas and asked, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

He shook his head, "I saw you fight in the knight selection! The way you held your own against Victor even though he was an A-Ranker was amazing! After that day, I went to check the record of previous tournaments, and ever since the founding of our kingdom, nobody has ever done that! You’re a total badass!"

’Ah… it’s a fan.’

Sol was somewhat used to such interactions, but that was usually outside of the palace. Normally, he would politely turn them away, but this time he could use the man’s help.

"I’m glad my performance left a mark on you, but I still have a ways to go."

Phineas agreed. "Once you become an A-Ranker, you will wipe the floor with him!"

Sol nodded, "You said you could show me around, right? Can you take me to the third floor?"

"Third floor?" He looked surprised. "Almost no one can go down there. Did you get permission?"

Sol took out a small metal slate with the number three on it. "Yeah, this works, right?"

"Yes, absolutely! Um, just follow me."

The two made their way to one of the staircases and walked all the way down to the bottom of the fourth floor. On the way down, Sol couldn’t help but ask, "Didn’t we pass the third floor?"

Phineas laughed and shook his head. "Haha, no, this entire open area is the first floor. Heh, if you think about it, it’s really just one very tall room that requires stairs to reach the top. At the bottom, there is a central staircase that leads to the second floor, which is two stories tall, and finally the third floor, which is only one story tall."

"That’s… a lot of books." He wondered how many books there were in this massive library.

At the stairway leading to the second floor, two guards were posted guarding a solid metal door that blocked access deeper into the Royal Library, but this didn’t pose an issue for the two of them. Phineas worked there, and Sol showed his knight emblem, which worked as his pass to most places.

The two were allowed into the second floor without issue. As they continued to walk down the stairs, Sol spotted Nataly in one of the seating areas, deeply engrossed in a book. He decided not to bother her and continued further down until they arrived at the stairs to the third floor. It was much more heavily guarded with an entire knight squadron keeping watch.

"Access slate?" one of the knights asked.

Sol nodded and presented the metal slate. Seeing it was real, one of the knights took out a metal box.

"First, you need to place all your spatial rings here. They will be safe inside, and you will hold onto the key. This is just to prevent people from stealing books. Though there are other measures against theft, it’s better to be safe than sorry."

Once Sol placed his three spatial rings in the metal box, it was locked, and he was handed the key. The knight then took the metal slate and inserted it into a small opening in the door, which caused it to slightly shake before unlocking.

"You may enter now. The librarian inside should have already been notified of your arrival."

"Understood, thanks."

Sol waved and began to walk down until he realized Phineas wasn’t coming along. The young man saw his gaze and shook his head sadly.

"Unfortunately, I’m only a senior librarian. I can’t head to the third floor. It’s okay, go on without me. I’ll see you when you head back out."

Sol smiled and waved him goodbye. "Alright, I’ll see you soon then. Thanks for accompanying me."

Phineas smiled back and waved as Sol walked down the stairs once more.

He walked down a much longer flight of stairs until he finally arrived at a rather small room. There were around twenty bookshelves worth of books, which was nothing compared to the previous two floors. Besides the books, there was a counter where an old woman was sleeping behind. Her mouth was wide open as she loudly snored, being the only source of noise in the entire room.

’She looks pretty old; I don’t want to wake her… I’ll just look for the book on my own.’

Sol used [Muffled Movements] to silently walk past her and approached the first bookshelf, but just as he reached for a book, he felt something small hit him on his back. He turned around to see a ruler clattering on the ground with the older lady now awake and yelling.

"Oi! Don’t touch anything!"