The Ascendant Wizard-Chapter 117 - The Library’s Price

Morena stepped into the hallway, leaving behind the anxious muttering of other people, the slumped shoulders, and the collective dread that fell over the room the moment Varra mentioned the assignment.

A week was the deadline.

For most of them, that might as well have been a death sentence.

But for Morena, it was simply time she now had to allocate properly; while she had already sensed elemental energy, she wanted to make some progress in meditation by then.

She walked steadily, her mind already shifting to what mattered. Meditation would take up the bulk of her time, but she needed more than brute repetition. If she wanted to get ahead, if she wanted to surpass the ones who started with more than her, she needed information.

The AI was her strongest tool; it was the only really useful thing she had in this life, and she couldn't waste it.

And the Tower had plenty of knowledge, it was just locked behind points she didn't have. How much exactly she needed, she wasn't sure, but she would find out.

And she had something that could possibly give her a head start.

A magical item which she couldn't use; better sell it for points she could.

She reached the stairwell and began climbing upward to the sixth floor. According to the map, the Library sat between the sixth and seventh levels, with two entrances depending on the type of access granted.

Free access for browsing titles; however, you were only allowed to see a few bookshelves' worth, not all.

Paid access for reading or copying.

She needed to see how high the price was.

When she reached the landing, the air felt heavier again, denser, almost thick with a fog; it wasn't her imagination either, the area had a faint mist covering it. The moment she entered the sixth-floor corridor, she could feel mana brushing lightly against her skin, flowing around her in invisible streams.

She felt as if she was being watched, as if something invisible was touching her entire body; it felt disgusting, but she didn't know what it was or how to prevent it.

Two guards stood at the far end of the hall near double doors shaped of pale stone carved with swirling patterns. They were not Warriors, nor soldiers, but robed apprentices with badges just like hers.

The one on the left looked at her first.

"New arrival?"

Morena raised her badge.

"Yes."

The apprentice nodded once and stepped aside.

"Feel free to browse the front shelves. Anything deeper into the Library will require points or permission from a supervising Wizard. If you wish to ask something, you may speak to the librarian at your own risk."

Morena walked past them as the doors opened silently, sliding apart without a touch.

"Though I don't recommend doing that."

The other one added as she left, and while she was curious what they meant by that, she figured it would be better to see for herself.

The Library was larger than she expected.

A wide circular chamber stretched out from the entrance, tiered like a massive funnel descending into the floors below. Thousands of bookshelves curved along the edges. Floating crystals drifted overhead like slow-moving stars, casting a soft light over everything.

Despite being open to apprentices, it was quiet enough to hear a page turn from across the room; most apprentices wouldn't be here beyond buying a book.

After all, why browse something when you can't even afford it? And why stick around once you have bought it?

Morena stepped onto the polished stone floor, scanning the area.

The front sections were clearly labeled.

Beginner Theory

Historical Records

Alchemy Basics

Elemental Foundations

And so on, so forth.

Nothing beyond these shelves had visible labels. The shelves behind them were veiled in a mist so thick she couldn't easily see through, only broken by the distant flicker of crystal lanterns.

It was clear enough. Beyond the beginner sections, more advanced knowledge lay in the depths, waiting for those who could afford access.

Morena approached a desk where another apprentice sat; he wasn't the librarian but simply an assistant who helped out with other matters. He looked older than the others she had seen so far, his robe marked with silver at the sleeves.

He didn't look up as she approached; his eyes were glued to a long scroll he was documenting.

Only when she cleared her throat did he shift his gaze.

"Yes? What do you want?"

"What is the rate to access the inner shelves?"

He blinked in slow motion, as if bothered by her very presence, then tapped the scroll lightly with one finger.

"Entry is fifteen points per hour. Copying information is thirty points per hour. Borrowing a book requires Wizard endorsement. That is all."

Morena nodded.

It was more expensive than she had hoped, but she had something she knew had value.

"I have a magic item. I want to know its worth in points."

The apprentice stopped writing, now very interested in the topic at hand.

Magic items, while not uncommon, were still hard to come by; that alone earned his attention.

"Show it."

Morena reached into her pocket and retrieved the wrapped item. She unrolled the cloth carefully and revealed the small, broken pendant from before, the edges of the fabric cold with its touch.

The apprentice leaned forward.

His eyes sharpened as he investigated the item; he even took out what looked like a magnifying glass to examine it.

'Comical.'

Morena couldn't help but think as she observed the man; it looked straight out of a show.

"Ice type, that much is clear."

Obviously, she didn't need the man to say that to know; it was freezing cold.

He stood from his seat and motioned toward the side counter.

"Follow me."

She did exactly what he said and followed.

The small stall beside the desk looked like a desk with things just tossed about, books around, and scrolls with notes; it seemed like his workstation. He placed the pendant on a tray, raised a crystal over it, and activated a spell with a brief incantation.

The crystal glowed faintly and then dimmed.

The apprentice scribbled numbers on a small sheet, his face gleaming with a hint of excitement.

"Ice type. Material broken, missing key parts. At least 2nd grade. Valuable but damaged."

Morena stayed silent and waited.

"Estimated value is three hundred points."

Morena processed the number quickly; it was enough for a few dozen hours of library time or hours of copying.

She would need every minute of it.

"Trade accepted?"

"Yes."

He filled out another slip of parchment, stamped it with a metal seal, and handed it to her. When he took the pendant, it vanished into a slot at the back of the desk, sent to storage or further evaluation.

Her badge buzzed softly.

[Badge updated: +300 Points]

"Anything else?"

The apprentice asked.

"If you don't mind me asking. What's a 2nd Grade item?"

She was curious about what the man meant and hoped that he would at least answer that much; however, she wasn't sure if he would be willing.

"The grade of an item determines who it can be used by, as well as how useful or otherwise powerful it is. For 1st Grade, it's limited to around apprentices and such, most official Wizards would find them useless. But 2nd Grade, that's where official Wizards would start using."

He paused for a moment, then added a sentence.

"But this is broken and needs fixing, in case you're doubting the price."

"No need, I trust your integrity."

Of course, she didn't, but she didn't want any issues with the man, so she left for now.

She stepped back into the Library's main chamber, exhaling slowly.

She had gotten what she had wanted: enough points to browse the library and maybe even buy other things. She had even sold off an item that had been a headache to deal with.

Morena walked toward the inner shelves, stopping at the boundary where a faint mist in the air marked the point of restricted knowledge.

The guard apprentice from earlier approached her.

"Using points?"

"Yes. One hour."

He tapped her badge with a crystal token.

"Proceed. When your time is up, the door will push you back out."

Morena walked through the barrier and immediately felt the difference.

The inside air vibrated with mana, and the mist had faded to a slight blur, allowing her to see better. The books here gave off faint signatures, almost like they themselves were pulsing.

She took a quick glance at the names, getting an idea of what the sections held.

Matrix Theory, Volume Two

Affinity Resonance and Adaptation

Mana Structures and Advanced Channels

Hybrid Spellcraft

Meditation Form Variants, Edition Seven

Failures of Apprentices and Their Causes

There were also various shelves lined with spells that one could learn; however, those shelves were different from the others. Spells couldn't be browsed unless one directly bought the book, and they could only go by the names and a short description of them.

For now, Morena had no interest in spells; she didn't even have a Matrix or mana yet, let alone worry about spells. She decided to focus on knowledge.

Morena had a lot of options to pick from; for most people, they would need to pay to copy the book to properly use it. But for Morena, all she needed to do was skim through them; with the AI, she could store the information she needed.

She decided to pick up the last book she had seen.

Failures of Apprentices and Their Causes

Failures were the most important things to learn from.

She sat at an empty desk and opened it.

The pages were old, written by several different Wizards over the years; handwriting changed between sections, and new information was being layered on top of old ones.

Mistakes of past apprentices.

The most common cause was mental collapse from rushing the Matrix formation.

The second was instability created by forcing incompatible meditation methods.

The third most common was lack of preparation, poor energy alignment, misunderstanding of affinity direction, or ignoring early signs of backlash.

Her method, the one she chose, fell under one of the risky categories, but it was also clear that the more knowledge she gathered, the smaller those risks became.

She flipped the pages, letting the AI record the book entirely.

'Store everything.'

[Recording. Categorizing safety risks.]