Ryo walked into the library, looking at his hands. He splayed his fingers while looking at the gloves that covered the backs of his hands, noticing the size difference. The one on his right hand, the rocky hand, was significantly bigger. It didn't look more stretched out than the one on his left, yet they were the same size when he pulled them out of the chest.
Ryo looked around the lobby, noticing Aragoth lifting up one of the fallen shelves. "Hey, Aragoth, how do these gloves work?" Ryo asked him, pulling at the fabric on his left hand. "I mean, both of them were the same size before I put them on, and yet, now that they're on, it's clear that one is bigger than the other."
"I mean, they're Relics. They're composed of magic that nobody knows, or at least not many people know. I wouldn't know how to make something like that, it's just how they were formed." Aragoth told him, pointing at his chest. "If you want to argue about semantics, technically I'm a Relic, as nobody knows how I was made, and I can use magic that nobody else can."
"Oh calm it, you old husk of tentacles." Inquisax yelled from a few hundred metres down the library, shocking Ryo as he forgot just how well audio reverberated off the walls. "You can't even call yourself a Relic, as even though you were made in that dungeon you call home, you existed at the same time as the three actual relics, so you're just an overly strong flesh thing."
"Isn't he so kind with his words?" Aragoth sarcastically asked Ryo. "I heard that!" Inquisax shot back.
Ryo, deciding to test out his new magic, began by lifting up some of the books that had fallen off the bookshelf lifted by Aragoth. With a simple motion, they all flew back onto the bookshelf, even organising themselves into alphabetical order. "Sick." Ryo said to himself. "Hey Inquisax, I'm going to push myself to the limits really quick!" Ryo yelled down.
"If you're about to do what I think you're about to do, go ahead. It's been a long time since this place has been organised." Inquisax responded, his voice echoing throughout the library. "You read my mind!" Ryo announced, while focusing on his mana. He felt his body lift into the air, his legs leaving the floor. "Woah!" He gasped out of excitement. "Inquisax, is this meant to happen?"
"Yeah, if you're doing a huge alteration with Psychokinesis, a by-product of that is having your body float into the air for a bit. It's like the gateway into learning how to float manually, and then fly." Inquisax called back, flying over to him using his mind. "Like this, see?"
"You amaze me more and more every day. I have to read more into that magic book." Ryo commented, staring at the rows upon rows of books. He separated the rows into different categories in his imagination. He had Literature, with Fiction and Non-fiction, Magic, Monsters, Demons, Mutations, Artifacts and Relics, and then Miscellaneous. That was for anything that didn't fit into those broad categories.
He waved his hands outwards, as an orchestrator would to his players, and the books began rising up into the air. It was a sight to see, like a cursed resurrection of knowledge. Aragoth looked into the air, seeing the amount of books moving around, and decided to make himself scarce by placing himself against a wall.
"Move." Ryo announced.
The books did as they were told. They began flying at a high speed around the place, finding their designated area. It was as if you could watch a sea of books raise a wave of knowledge to crash upon the coats of the library. There was no other sight like it. All the books lined up with how Ryo imagined them, and, as a byproduct, Ryo fell to the floor, slapping his knees off the wooden floorboard of the library. His mana had been drained by that, and even then, it wasn't even one percent of the books in this place.
Inquisax, looking on with an unabashed smile, moved out of the way of an inbound magic book. He watched as it organised itself amongst its peers on the shelf, lined up in alphabetical order, too afraid to move out of line. He couldn't say it was every book, as there were well over two hundred thousand of them, but at least a hundred books quickly moved.
A few select books avoided the rush of the others. Those were the books that Ryo had picked up earlier. The guides that Ryo had written for his party members, "A Comprehensive Guide To All Things Magical: Spells, Techniques, And Downright Devious Destruction", the magic book that had taught him Psychokinesis, and "Magnificent Magic Mutations and Where They Come From", the book with all the Mutations.
Those books were special, so Ryo decided on a unique place for those, which'd require special permission for others to read. He had noticed a few cupboards inside the large desk in the lobby, and figured that those would be a suitable place for him to place them so that he could sit down and read. He'd need to find a decent chair, but that could come later.
Those books slid themselves into the desk cupboards, where they'd remain until Ryo had either learned everything he could from them, or found a better book, which was equally likely and unlikely. Ryo descended to the ground, landing behind the desk in the lobby. He pulled the magic book out from it, placing it onto the desk, moving the large "Observations" book.
Ryo opened it to the first page, noticing that there was an index with all the types of magic on it. "Page twelve… safe ways to use mana-enhancing substances… page thirty-nine… Teleportation… page three hundred and seven… Creation…" Ryo read out, before stopping. "Creation?!" Ryo exclaimed, shocked.
"Yeah, that exists. I never bothered learning it, mainly because I didn't have a use for it. It's meant to be stupidly easy though." Inquisax told him, appearing beside him. "Although, you can only really use it to make stuff like chairs, bookshelves, tables, the like. It also drains a lot more mana than most other types of magic, as you have to convert mana into a physical construct, then transmute that into a new form." Inquisax explained.
"If you know so much about it, why haven't you learned it?" Ryo asked, confused.
"Eh, never felt like it was as useful. Sure, it can have its uses, but for the amount of magic it costs to make a metal sword, you could use a kilometer-radius Psychokinesis ability to throw all your enemies into the air about four times." Inquisax continued. "It's really mana-inefficient. If you had a Mutation like Manabound, it wouldn't really matter, but for us regular people, it's not worth it."
Ryo, having never heard of Manabound, pulled out the Mutations book and placed it beside the magic book. He opened the index on this one, noticing that Manabound was actually on page one. He flicked over to it, and began to read.
Manabound: A creature with this mutation possesses an extreme amount of mana, with the natural ability to harness that mana to cast magic. This mutation also makes it so that magic costs less mana overall to cast, further increasing the utility.
There has been one (1) method known to artificially add it to a creature post-conception with relative consistency.
The creature must slaughter a Glasya-Labolas, and consume its core. This only works if it's the same person who kills the Glasya-Labolas who eats it. It also only works once. You must face it in head-on combat, as it is the short-lived adrenaline that provides the Mutation.
Ryo closed the book. 'I see. So, the odds of me obtaining that are slim to none. Maybe I could find another way, rather than fighting a Monster like that, but it'd be incredibly unlikely.' Ryo thought to himself, looking through the book on magic again, trying to decide on what he wanted to learn.
"If you want to learn something useful," Inquisax told him. "Learn how to teleport. The page for that is right beside the one for Psychokinesis, as it's quite similar."
"Oh sick, hold on." Ryo replied, flicking to page thirty-seven, which had Psychokinesis on it. He looked over to page thirty-nine, as page thirty-eight had a load of diagrams on it, checking out the teleportation spell description.
[Mental Magic Daughter (Sub) Spell]
'Teleportation'
'Teleportation: The manipulation of matter in regards to space, transporting yourself and others across vast distances with ease. You must have been in the place that you're teleporting to prior, however.'
'This spell allows one to transport themselves across massive distances without the use of long travel methods.'
'In order to perform this spell, you must channel mana into your mind, and then imagine a place. The time does not matter, as long as the place is correct. If you've been there before, the spell will succeed, and you will arrive there instantly.'
"Okay, this seems rather simple in comparison to Psychokinesis." Ryo commented, getting a chuckle out of Inquisax. This confused Ryo. "What? You said that it'd be easier." He asked, channeling mana into his head, imagining the capital city of Utopia, Eilera. He pushed mana forward, attempting to teleport.
"No, I said it'd be useful. It's still complicated, about the same difficulty as Psychokinesis." Inquisax snickered. "Honestly, I'd be surprised if you could learn that within the next few-"
Ryo had vanished.
"Days…" Inquisax finished, breath leaving his lungs like the gasp of a dying fish.
Ryo appeared in the market street in Eilera, looking around with a shocked expression. He had been listening to Inquisax, figuring it'd take him a lot longer. However, it was like a puzzle piece had clicked into place. Not just one, actually, but half an unfinished puzzle became available to him. It was as if he'd been living his life without half of his desires, and only now were they being fulfilled.
Ryo walked around the different stalls, taking a look at what they were selling. Some were selling pendants made of out the purple crystals found inside Monsters, otherwise known as Monster Cores, while others were selling goods such as food. He took a look around, looking for a carpenter, or someone who specifically made nice chairs.
"Wait. I need money." Ryo said to himself, smacking himself in the forehead. He once again teleported, this time appearing in front of the adventurer's guild. Someone saw him appear, but, luckily, just assumed they hadn't noticed him. After all, who'd notice a Hyandean moving around?
Ryo made his way inside, joining the admittedly small line where they bought monster parts, including the cores. The dark spruce interior to the adventurer's guild didn't feel inviting at all, as the colour of the wood blended in relatively well with the shadows.
After about ten minutes, having spent most of that time behind a man who brought an obscene amount of Monster corpses, he made his way to the counter. He placed the three Cores, one from a Goblin, and two from those eyeball creatures, onto the desk. "I've looted these, and I'm looking to see what they're worth." Ryo told the attendant, a large, burly man with far too much hair on his head.
"Sure, just give me a moment to appraise these." The man told him, lifting up the Cores and looking through them, seeing how light passed. "You've got one low-quality medium Core, and two high-quality extra-small Cores. Due to the size of them, they aren't worth nearly as much, but due to the quality, the fairest price we can do is fifty large silver pieces for the lot." He told Ryo, tossing a bag of coins onto the counter.
"I'll take it." Ryo told the attendant, quickly picking up the bag before the attendant could change his mind. He got out of there as quick as possible, not wanting to spend more time in there as possible, just in case he met-
"Oh, hello there… Ryo." A voice greeted him as he walked out of the building, a familiar smirk laced across his face like it was plastered on him. "How's life been treating you?"
It was Kevin, followed by his glorified cheer squad, the Rising Sun. Andreas and Arthur mimicked the smile on Kevin's face. Uriza, his replacement, gave him an honest bow. Amelee had a small glimmer in her eyes before it died, hearing the words come out of Kevin's mouth. Kyoka, as usual, was stone faced.
"Hello, Kevin." Ryo shot back, an annoyance in his voice.
'Oh, here we go again.'