He looked out of the bus and saw a giant plaza in the middle of Tree Spirit Garden suddenly being shrouded in sunlight.
The Tree of Eternity grew very large leaves and branches which hid most of the sun from the ground, so the Tree Spirit Garden underneath was always dark with only occasional, scattered light spots.
But now, the central plaza which was several square kilometers in size was completely brightened by the sun. The place appeared as if it was covered by golden dust.
Angor looked up and saw the giant leaves which denied the plaza of sunlight all curled up.
“Maybe Mister Tree Spirit is in a good mood today so he allows people down there to enjoy some light?” Angor wondered.
But was that something worth cheering for? Anyone who wanted to see light could simply take a sky bus and go to the leaves on the tree.
Angor looked back and failed to notice that a rupture had just opened up in the central plaza. The cheering apprentices all rushed inside.
Twenty minutes later, Angor reached the stop he was coming for.
It was only a small stop, and Angor was the only one here. A metal sign which was about three meters high stood under the platform. It read “Cloud Library”.
Yes, the base of the sign was fixed on the cloud.
This stop was not located on one of the tree leaves. It stood on a thick cloud. When Angor stepped on the cloud, he felt like walking on soft dirt.
This was called “cloud dirt”, a product made by mixing a special material with clouds.
The cloud was very wide. Angor could already see the magnificent library which shined a golden light not far from him.
The elder he was looking for was here, in the biggest library in Brute Cavern.
There were lots of people in the library, but compared with the size of the building, they appeared like swarms of ants.
Angor was the only one on the bus stop because everyone could fly. As the boy stared agape at the library, a middle-aged witch wearing blue wizard robe and a pointy wizard hat decorated by stars and moon flew past him on a broomstick.
The aura of the library shocked him more and more as he approached it. It stood there like a hallowed church, which made people want to show respect and bow down. Angor knew that this was not something religious, but natural respect toward knowledge and truth.
Every single person walking around the place presented his or her best manner. No one spoke a word.
Angor was the same as he entered the library with a solemn attitude.
The library was extremely spacious inside. There were obviously space-expanding magic arrays being used. Books were arranged in different sections. When Angor checked the map at the entrance, he saw 8,329 sections in total. According to people’s needs, they could all be reached via certain teleportation points.
The rule of equivalent exchange also worked here. To use teleportation and rent books all required merit points, and most of the apprentices would spend their hard-earned points here.
According to Flora, the elder was inside section 7920—7930 recently, researching for some sort of energy transformation project.
Angor found a vacant teleportation point and prepared to go to section 7920. Without any more clues to go by, he had to look in the sections one by one.
When he placed his bone card on the teleportation device, a number showed up: 100 merit points.
Angor widened his eyes. He just saw an apprentice who only paid one point to use the teleportation device. Why was it asking for a hundredfold now?!
When he felt like crying, someone in the line urged him to hurry up.
There were 30 teleportation points in the library, and somehow, they were all occupied. Angor did not want to keep people waiting and make a scene, so he clenched his teeth and accepted the price.
Angor reached section 7920 and felt his heart aching.
He thought a section would be a dozen meters around at best. But what he saw shocked him for good. The section was beyond a hundred meters in both directions and was full of giant bookshelves. The first glance presented him books a hundred times more than what Sunders had in his collection. No. It was way more than that.
Angor glanced at a random book nearby.
Summary on How to Use Hyper Magnetic Cannon .
When he placed his bone card near the book, the rental fee quickly showed up on it: 300,000 merit points.
Three hundred thousand…
Angor’s total asset was ten thousand. One single book cost thirty times! That equaled to 3,000 magic crystals! This was insane. Few apprentices could save up such big money.
Angor guessed that this section was meant for wizards. The teleportation fee would also make sense. It was a price bar which discouraged apprentices from coming here. Considering how apprentices usually made money, they would never waste their income by coming to this place.
That was also why Angor did not see anyone at all in here.
He walked along the central path and looked aside, hoping to find the elder Flora mentioned.
But he did not succeed even after looking around the entire Section 7920.
Angor had no choice but to return to the teleportation point and go for Section 7921.
Another 100 merit points.
And the effort still brought him nothing.
7922, 7923, 7924… The boy kept searching for another three sections by spending 300 points. He did not find a single soul, let alone the elder he was looking for.
When he prepared to move to Section 7925, he noticed the teleportation fee this time was 300!
Angor felt faint and wanted to leave. But on second thought, he felt that he could not let his previous attempt go to waste, so he made a hard decision and went for Section 7925 with a sad face.
He walked in the middle to search around just like before. When halfway through, Angor noticed that a bookshelf at the end of the line to his right was of a different color than the others. It released a weak, silver glimmer.
He approached the bookshelf out of curiosity.
The books here were… all alchemy books?
Alchemy Script: Energy Stabilizer
It was an alchemy script on how to create an “energy stabilizer”. Angor recalled recording a book in the warden’s secret chamber back at Stairs of Hanging Prison. The book was called Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy , which contained knowledge on how to craft such a stabilizer. It was an elementary alchemy tool.
But why was the bookshelf silver? Because it was meant for alchemy books? When Angor placed his bone card near Alchemy Script: Energy Stabilizer and read the number shown, he felt his heart skipping a beat.