VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 101: Silence in the Library

Sitting in the Library, Belladonna flicked through books in absolute silence, and she was not the only one. The only sound within the library was the simple flickering of pages as they turned or the slight scuffing of feet as people moved.

It was a silence that withheld not just due to good manners, but also the general threat of the Amodites. Some had learned the hard way that making a loud ruckus in the library was a good way to have your tongue cut out.

Of course such a thing could be healed by skilled enough clerics or healers, but the memory of such a thing and the lesson it imparted could not be healed as easily. Exactly how the Amodites liked it.

The funny part was, they weren’t even official guards. They were all regular members or magic students themselves. They actually paid to be here, just like everyone else!

However despite the fact that they had no official authority, everyone simply went along with it. It was natural for them, after all. Amodites were simply acting as their nature intended, and if the tower thought they went too far, then they would have intervened.

But Amodites were law-keepers by birth, and so trying to keep them from doing so was more trouble than it was worth. Pits have no wrath like an Amodite unable to punish a litterbug.

’Found it!’ Belladonna shouted in her head, patting the book in front of her in her excitement. Just as the examiner had instructed, she had come here immediately afterwards whilst the effects of the spell were still lingering.

Her instincts had guided her through different books, leading her to note down some possible cultivation items. But while most of them felt good, none of them felt entirely right.

Like comparing a snack to a proper meal. The former could fill you up if you ate enough of them, but they couldn’t compare with the nutrition a proper meal gave you.

The particular page that had gotten her so excited depicted a morbidly beautiful flower, with a bowing stem and drooping, slightly wavy petals. Her instincts, which were technically Beans’ instincts, were going wild just looking at it.

Not just showing her the potential power it held for Beans, but also giving her slight hints about the ideal way of preparing it. She was like a pregnant woman, suddenly craving a hot-dog and knowing it had to be coated in cold custard and wrapped in lettuce.

A truly vile combination, and one that she had never tasted, but the instructions of preparation were there in her mind and she would just instinctively know it would be perfect.

The same concept was happening for what to do with this plant, and she was eager to find them.

Moving her hand to the side, Belladonna made the motion of turning a page, however there was no book where she was moving. Yet, half way through the motion, her Grimoire appeared without a sound as if it read her mind. Its page already gripped in her hand as she turned it to a blank page and began to write.

’The Lord’s Orchid. Exclusively found where the dead rest in numbers. Although they are highly toxic to the point of fatality if consumed and sprout in graveyards like weeds, they are not seen as such.

These are the blessings of the Lord of the End, a sign of his presence and grace. A grave that has sprouted a Lord’s Orchid is one that has been visited by the Lord of the End.

The more of these beautiful flowers that sprout, the more they were beloved in life.

Lord’s Orchid have been shown to be perfect in the creation of a multitude of poisons due to their toxicity. They also have been used as a binding base in various Death magic based spells, especially involving the creation of undead.

Curiously, an oil created from crushed Lord’s Orchid is highly affective against Lost Souls of various forms, burning them on the slightest contact. This even applies to those without a physical form.

Further studies show...’

The text continued on, going into great detail about the various studies and experiments that people had performed with the flower. However that was of little interest to Belladonna.

Reading that it was incredibly toxic and fatal to ingest did give her pause, but there was no doubting the call of the instincts from her deepened bond. Beans knew that this is what he needed, and although she was worried about hurting him, she knew that these texts weren’t ironclad laws.

After all, the examiner himself had said no one really knew anything about Shadow Demons. It was entirely possible that something poisonous to her was delicious to Beans. Like a strange reversal of humans eating chocolate while it poisoned cats.

The after effects of the bond spell were still lingering, but slowly fading, so after making detailed notes of what she needed to know about the Orchids, Belladonna went back to her studies.

She scoured through more books, trying to find as many possible cultivation resources for Beans as possible and formulate them in her mind into a powerful, and reproducible, meal.

Rare resources would be better, no doubt, but it was more important that she could keep feeding him in a stable schedule to promote ideal growth.

In the end her ideal recipe required a Lord’s Orchid, Blood from a creature killed while it felt intense fear and either a Tarbria Crystal or a Corpse Berry.

Tarbria Crystals were a black crystal that would literally melt in the palm of your hand from body heat, and which was known for melting beneath miners feet and drowning them. Whereas Corpse Berries were named not for any proximity to corpses or anything that requires it growth.

Instead Corpse Berries were named as such because of the putrid stench they let off, and the fact that biting into them was described as being like biting into a rotten corpse. Her heart went out to the poor mage who found that out the hard way, all in the name of science.

All of this, mixed together, would be turned into a sauce that she would drizzle over a cut of meat infused with Shadow Essence. A meal that she could definitely not wait to create, as it had such lovely sounding ingredients.

Belladonna couldn’t help but glance at Beans out of the corner of her eye, as he snoozed on the table beside her.

"You’re lucky that you’re so cute..."