'That was more troublesome than it needed to be...'
Silver couldn't help but sigh as he found himself walking through the doors and into a large open room, and looking around, he could see that the interior of the room was mainly composed of wood, and with countless shelves filled to the brim with books.
It had taken him a bit longer than he would've liked, but eventually Silver was able to increase his Teyvatian Language skill up to level five where he was capable of extremely basic levels of speech.
Although understanding and speaking were still rather difficult, he managed to eventually find his way here to the library. Only after being guided here by a kind civilian did he end up remembering where the library actually was.
The headquarters of the Knights of Favonius.
Obviously, his memory regarding anything about the game wasn't nearly as good as he had hoped. In fact, his level of knowledge was probably only barely above that of a beginner who had just opened the game.
'Maybe only after seeing some familiar sights my memory of it all will come rushing back to me.' Silver shook his head as this thought passed through his mind. 'In any case, I've managed to reach the library. Pretty cozy...'
Listening to the noise, lack of noise that is, the atmosphere here was definitely something he could get down with. Walking over to the railing, Silver glanced around the top floor, the one which he was on, and the floor below where he could see a number of others reading or searching for books to read.
Silver watched silently for a moment before pushing off of the railing and walking over towards the area where the receptionist desk seemed to be. However, based on what he could see as he walked over, there was no librarian in sight.
'The librarian was one of the playable characters, right? What was her name? Lia? Lena?' No matter how hard he tried to remember, whatever the name was clearly slipped his mind. 'Guess it doesn't matter. Assuming this library works the same as modern ones, I should at least be able to browse.'
Walking away from the desk, Silver made his way over to the nearby shelves that were void of any people. Picking a random book from the shelf, Silver flipped it over to look at the cover before opening it.
'I can barely read anything in this thing...' Silver smiled wryly as he realized this. 'I suppose it doesn't matter, as long as the book has characters I can't yet read, I should be able to improve the skill. In other words, the content of the book doesn't matter.'
Picking out two other random books from the same shelf, Silver made a quick flip through to make sure that they were filled with words he couldn't read. Nodding in satisfaction, Silver carried the three books he picked out from the aisle he was in.
Looking around, Silver soon noticed an empty table a few meters away, obviously placed there for people to read at if they so wished. He did notice larger tables on the bottom floor, but those had quite a number of people reading as well.
After taking a seat, he quickly grabbed the pair of gale-force reading glasses that he had hanging on the collar of his shirt before putting them on. Opening up the book, Silver wasted no time as he rapidly absorbed the information.
[Skill: Teyvatian Language - Level 5 → Level 6]
[Skill: Teyvatian Language - Level 6 → Level 7]
As Silver continued to read, he naturally noticed the words becoming clearer and clearer as Teyvatian Language continued to level up. In practically no time at all, Silver was able to read through the three books in less than ten minutes.
'That was way quicker than I thought, perhaps I should look for a bigger book.' Silver thought to himself as he closed the third book he had just finished reading. 'These books were rather thin, not to mention they were just story books.'
Naturally, since he was able to now read every character in these books now, he obviously was able to figure out the content of the books. These three weren't really anything special, just basic children's story books or something.
Silver wasn't concerned either about the store, he had taken the time to read the posters he had placed up not too long ago. There was no specified opening date, just a map of the locations of the store and a general business pitch to gain interest.
In other words, he didn't need to open up the shop immediately, he could even do it tomorrow if he so wished. He could use the time he had now to simply refresh his mind and improve his teyvatian literacy skills.
'I guess I'll look for something more informative...'
____________
As the humble librarian of the Knights of Favonius, Lisa was able to enjoy the luxury of simply sitting around and reading whenever she wished. Of course, when duty calls she'd answer in full, but most of her time was spent in peace here.
For someone like her who seldom leaves to go outside and prefers to either sleep or read for a majority of her daily schedule, a job as a simple librarian was all but perfectly fitting for someone of her nature.
"Today really was no good for going out..." Lisa sighed to herself as she walked through and into the library. In her arms was a small stack of books, ones that she had just collected from a certain few individuals who didn't know the meaning of being punctual. "How troublesome."
As Lisa walked towards her desk, she casually placed the books down onto her desk, leaving them there for her to return them to their rightful places here in the library later. After giving a small yawn, Lisa then stretched her arms before sighing in satisfaction.
"Time for some afternoon tea... hm?"
Lisa turned around and was about to walk off when something caught her attention, and when she looked, she saw an unfamiliar individual sitting at one of the isolated tables here on the top floor of the library.
This kind of sight was nothing out of the ordinary, and was naturally not something that she would bat an eye at. However, Lisa had taken notice of the glow of light despite the male's back facing her.
Curiously, Lisa walked on over without alerting the individual.
As she got closer, the better she could make out the male's appearance. A head of spiky swept brown hair, and a set of clothes that were unlike anything she'd seen before. However, what caught her attention the most was what was in front of the young man.
He looked to be reading a large book, one that Lisa very much recognized. It was a book that had in depth information regarding the history of Mondstadt. She had read it a very long time ago, but she could clearly recall all its details.
Even so, it wasn't the book that caught her attention.
What really made her curious was the magic circle that was hovering in front of the young man, along with the countless particles of light that seemed to flow towards the circle and the young man's face. She also noticed him flipping through the large book very quickly, turning the page every five or so seconds.
Although she couldn't see the male's face due to having his back turned to her, it didn't take a genius to know that he was obviously concentrated on the book in front of him. Lisa even noticed three other thick books placed on the table, and as for whether or not he'd read them all already, she didn't know.
'A magic circle?' Lisa's usual somewhat tired and uninterested eyes seemed to widen a bit as she leaned over to get a bit of a closer look. 'It's unlike any magic circles I've ever seen before. Who is this young man?'
Magic was not something that could be easily learnt and very few individuals were capable of it, Lisa was one such individual, and she was certainly among the truly gifted. Considering how difficult it is for anyone to learn magic, Lisa naturally had curiosity towards this young man.
Especially since it looked to be a form of magic unfamiliar to her.
Despite her curiosity, Lisa decided to wait for the young man to finish reading before she decided to get his attention. After all, it was rude to interrupt someone when they're reading. On top of that, considering how fast he was getting through it and how much was left, it shouldn't take any more than three minutes.
____________
As Silver continued reading, his memory regarding the game, at least his memories regarding Mondstadt, had gradually returned to some degree. The books he had read were mainly about Mondstadt's history, and about Teyvat overall.
The first book he had read from the four large books he found was all about the ruling figures of the seven nations, being the Seven Archons. Whether all of the information was accurate to the finest detail was debatable, after all, it was most likely written by humans.
As for the remaining three, they were all more about Mondstadt itself, it's history that is.
Silver did want to see if he could find any books with more information about the other nations as well, but he wasn't too hopeful. This was a library most likely dedicated to Mondstadt, so if there was any history books about the other nations, it'd be very minimal.
In any case, although he couldn't recall the finer details of the original plot, he at least remembered some pretty significant things. Although it is a shame that he couldn't remember everything, he simply accepted the fact.
After all, it was years ago since he last even touched the game.
Silver may not be the smartest person out there, but he wasn't stupid, he knew that he couldn't rely on his past memories of a video game from years ago to get him through. That was one of the main reasons he looked for books regarding the nations after all.
"That's some interesting magic."
"H-Huh...?" Having just placed the book down, a sudden voice suddenly sounded right behind him. Managing to hold back a visible flinch, Silver turned his head to see who had spoken to him. "You are..."
When Silver turned around, he was greeted by the sight of a rather beautiful young woman probably only a few years older than himself. Wearing purple clothing with a witch-like aesthetic, along with a head of light brown hair and a pair of somewhat tired green eyes.
'Isn't this...?' Silver widened his eyes slightly as he looked at the person in front of him. 'Right, she's the librarian, right? The person who's name I can't for the love of God remember.'
"That was some interesting magic you were using, what exactly was it?" Lisa couldn't help but ask curiously as she had previously just seen the magic circle disappear. "Oh, how rude of me. I'm Lisa, the humble librarian of the Knights of Favonius. A pleasure to meet you, cutie."
'Ah, so her name was Lisa. I was close. But, cutie...?' Silver didn't really know what to think after being referred to like that. Did she refer to others like that in the game as well? "Nice to meet you, I'm Silvester. Just call me Silver, Miss Lisa."
Before having introduced himself, Silver naturally stood up from his chair before turning to greet her properly and politely. On top of that, Silver couldn't help but admire how beau0tiful Lisa was, definitely comparable to the top beautiful women back in his old world, if not more so.
"Just Lisa is fine, cutie. There's no need for such formalities." Lisa gave a small laugh with a hint of a flirtatious tone. He couldn't be certain, but it seemed to be her natural way of speech. "Back to my previous question, what kind of magic was that? How did you perform it?"
"Ah, that's not me casting it, it's actually a magic item." Silver had nothing to hide, so he casually answered her questions. Taking the glasses off his face, Silver introduced them nonchalantly. "These are Gale-Force Reading Glasses, they essentially allow the wearer to read at an accelerated pace."
"Gale-Force?" Lisa repeated curiously as she inspected the glasses that Silver handed to her. Although they didn't look like anything special, she had seen them in action just before. "It certainly a product of alchemy, you said it's a magic item? Perhaps it's enchanted. Would you mind letting me borrow it, cutie? Don't worry, I'll be sure to return it."
"Borrow it?" Silver blinked as a look of contemplation appeared on his face. "I suppose it isn't an issue. When you want to return it, just look for a store called Card Cascade. You'll most likely find me there."
Although Silver did want to read more books to help expand his knowledge about this world more, the original purpose of the glasses was simply to help him quickly raise the level of the Teyvatian Language skill. The skill had maxed out after reaching level ten.
Since that was achieved, he didn't mind letting Lisa borrow them for a while.
"Card Cascade? Oh, I did recall seeing a few posters advertising with that name." Lisa seemed to recall before looking at Silver with more curiosity. "So, you're the owner? Considering the name, is it a game similar to Genius Invokation TCG?"
"...What is that?"
"I'm honestly not sure myself, I've only heard of it in passing. As far as I'm aware, it's a small card game a few people happened to pick up. If I'm not mistaken, a merchant who recently arrived from Sumeru brought it with them. Surprisingly considering Mondstadt's current situation with Stormterror."
'If I remember correctly, Stormterror was the main boss of the Mondstadt plotline. If that's the case, then I'm near the beginning of the game's story. I don't recall a card game though, it probably appeared later on when I already stopped playing.'
Silver was already struggling to remember the main plots and general information about this world, so even if it existed during the time he was still playing the game, he doubted that he'd remember something on the side like a card game.
"While I don't really know what this Genius Invokation is, my store isn't really about playing a game." Silver shook his head as he responded to Lisa's words. "It's hard to explain, but let's just say that my store represents... an opportunity."
"Opportunity?"
"An opportunity for change." Silver seemed to gather his thoughts as he continued speaking. "You said that you read the poster, correct? Then you must've seen the quote written on it. Life is a gamble, and risk..."
"...is the step towards success."
"Exactly." Silver chuckled slightly after Lisa finished his words for him. "I won't give much away, but all I'll say is that my store represents an opportunity for people to change their lives around. After all, not everyone wants to remain under the shadows of others."
"What exactly do you mean?" Lisa was both suspicious yet extremely curious. The weight of those words were not light. "And this opportunity you speak of, can you truly provide it? If so, what exactly does it entail."
"As I said before, it's hard to explain. Some things can only be understood after experiencing it." Silver shrugged his shoulders after saying this. With a smile, Silver gave a small bow of his head. "I'll be taking my leave, Miss- ah, Lisa. Feel free to stop by any time."
Without waiting for a response, Silver walked away as Lisa merely watched as he did so.