“Rental fee: 1,100,000 merit points”
This was too crazy!!
In the Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy that Angor recorded, there were crafting methods for nearly a thousand different alchemy tools, and the energy stabilizer was only a very basic one.
And this single, basic tool was taken out and published in one book which cost more than a million points to rent. That meant ten thousand magic crystals! Angor could not believe his own eyes.
If the price was real, Encyclopaedia: Basic Alchemy would worth… billions of points?
And that was only one of the many alchemy books Angor recorded in his tablet. There were also intermediate books, advanced books, even other special ones. How much would they cost?!
“Wow. Alchemy books were so expensive…” Angor mumbled to himself.
Seemed like he was a rich guy himself, only that he could not reveal it to others. The boy would never try to sell his recordings. One of Jon’s teachings was that “a man’s wealth is his own crime”. Before he knew how to defend himself, selling the books would only bring him death instead of a fortune.
“I can’t sell them, but I can try learning them,” Angor muttered. Since he possessed such textbooks which covered all levels of knowledge, why not put them to good use?
Still, it was something for later. His main job now was to become a supernatural first and turn into an apprentice successfully. Everything else had to wait.
Angor left the silver bookshelf and continued searching for the elder.
Before declaring the section to be another disappointment, the boy suddenly saw an old man in a corner. He looked much like a soul who kept blinking out of existence. The soul was sitting in front of a long desk and writing something.
Angor’s eyes brightened up.
“There he is!”
…
There were three ancestor souls in Brute Cavern: The Tree Spirit of the tree of eternity, Lady Mirror in the mirror world, and the old man in front of Angor.
The most erudite being in the southern region, and the philosopher of Cloud Library—Elder of Books.
The Elder of Books was a soul who existed long in history. He was a wise and serene man who edited or participated in the editing of more than half of all the book in the entire Cloud Library. Rumor had it that he was born from an ancient tome, thus he loved and cared for books as well.
The old man never went out of the mirror world before. He did not even leave the library much. And still, he was titled the “most erudite being in the southern region”.
Being erudite meant knowing a lot, which was different from being an expert who spent countless time researching a certain field of expertise. They were equally important traits, but the wizards still preferred being experts.
The Elder of Books knew a lot of things. Many wizard tricks out there came from him. He even lectured legendary wizards before. This was why Flora mentioned his name to Angor.
Angor approached him and noticed the old man was composing something. He decided not to interrupt his work and stood aside to wait.
And he waited for ten hours straight.
Even after Angor’s feet went all numb, the Elder of Books did not show any hint of stopping.
During the process, Toby switched from Angor’s left shoulder to the right, then onto his top hat. In the end, Toby fell asleep, so Angor put the bird into his pocket.
The sky outside turned dark.
Angor tried to call his name in a small voice, “Um, Elder of Books?”
The elder did not look up from his work while he pondered over something as what he did during the last few hours. He did not mind Angor’s presence at all.