Chapter 1227: Library Within The Walls
"Oh? Seems like you know of my origins." Shiro raised an eyebrow at the head elder's sentence.
"Years ago, there was an attempt to establish connections between the two worlds. And that was due to an experiment caused by the Tower Master of the mage tower. She had attempted to establish a connection to the mage tower of another world. The details of this experiment were free for everyone to see but incidents happened, and she is no longer around to continue the experiment." The head elder sighed.
"Thus while we do know the existence of another world, we don't have as much information as we would hope."
Hearing this, Shiro was silent for a moment. She had an inkling to what this experiment was about since Aarim had done the same a while back. The connection was never established fully to the point where people could cross over but some items were possible.
"I see… Well good news for you the connection was linked to the mage tower that a friend of mine had created. But as to why I'm here… First it was to find my other self. Second was to increase my mastery over the energy of this world." Shiro smiled as she waved her hand and a stream of creation energy filled the room.
"Though getting a quick history lesson was a nice little gift. I was told that you could give me a better recounting of what had happened."
"We can give you the information you want. However, if that's everything you are here for, we must discuss… the costs of accepting this many survivors." The first elder spoke up as Shiro glanced over.
Seeing the silent acknowledgement that the other elders were giving him, she could tell that this had been on their mind the entire time. The previous talk on her goals was just an act since what she wants to do has nothing to do with them. Even if it did, they couldn't stop her from doing it and they know that.
Sighing deeply, Shiro could see why the guy earlier seemed to dislike the elders. While their actions do make sense, it still caused her to shake her head.
"I will help you expand your city and make farmland for you. Would that be satisfactory?" Shiro asked.
"How much farmland would you be providing?"
"F*ck it, just follow me and I'll show you." Shiro rolled her eyes as she couldn't be bothered to talk to these kinds of people anymore. The only thing on their mind is costs and benefits. However, she wanted the survivors to have a good place to stay, even if these elders are the ones at the top.
Plus, it wasn't as though she couldn't monitor this place. She had given all of the survivors she helped a small helper that would notify her if anything was to go wrong.
If something did go wrong, she can project an avatar of herself where the helper was in order to resolve the issue.
Seeing the elders hesitate, Shiro clicked her tongue and snapped her fingers. Suddenly, all five of them were teleported in front of her.
"Surely your legs work right? Now follow me. I don't want to waste any more time than this."
Understanding that Shiro was getting annoyed but still willing to give them the benefits they were asking for, the five quickly followed behind her.
{Tsk, they're behaviour is disgusting.} Nimue furrowed her brows.
'Well, what can you do about it. Sadly, these five are the strongest in this city. Their mana is head and shoulders above the rest. While it's nothing compared to the soldiers of Asharia, they're the big shots in the city. Losing them would be an issue for the residents here.' Shiro shrugged.
Leaving the hall of elders, Shiro walked towards a cliff that had a good view of the overall land of the city. Glancing at the cave walls, she tapped her foot a few times, sending out small pulses of mana so that she could map out the whole place.
Bringing up a small hologram of the entire city in front of her, she glanced back at the elders.
"Tell me where you want the farmland." She spoke bluntly while letting them handle the hologram.
Watching them pick where they wanted more farmland, Shiro couldn't help but feel her eye twitch at their greed.
"This should be all the land we need to stabilise the supplies." The head elder coughed embarrassingly since even he knew the other elders picked a little too much. If Shiro helped them set up this much farmland, they would have enough to help another safehouse with their food.
"Alright."
Taking the hologram, Shiro projected the image over the entire city. Using it as a base, she snapped her fingers.
Magic circles appeared around the cave, flickering with a dark purple glow before turning clockwise. In just a blink, huge cavities appeared where the magic circles were. Flicking her finger up, several stone pillars shot up, supporting the ceiling.
Waving her hand, lights that simulated the day and night cycle appeared above the new farmlands along with protective barriers that blessed the growth of plants within the boundaries. This should make harvesting food easier for them.
Plus, all of it is powered by ambient mana that circulates through the world. So they don't need to provide extra to keep the farm land going. It was essentially the same as any prime farmland above ground with increased growth and quality guarantee. Plus, they could adjust the conditions so they can better grow a variety of crops.
"There are instructions on how to use the farmlands in each terminal that I've placed by their entrances. It's connected to the mana network all of you are using so you can use it how you see fit. If there's nothing else, I'll be heading to your library to get more information. Oh and send someone to give me the most detailed history books you can find." Shiro said as she started to make her way towards the city.
When she had scanned the city earlier for them to plan the farmland, she had also marked down where the library was so she could get some information before she left. After all, that was one of her goals. She wanted as much information she could get her hands on.
"U-understood." The head elder nodded his head as he was still in shock of what Shiro had just done. A single wave of her hand and she modified parts of the city without breaking a single sweat.
Now that she was finished with them, Shiro had a smile on her face while walking toward the city.
Glancing towards the entrance, she could see that the civilians were being brought down to the city in small groups since the elevator couldn't accommodate everyone in one go.
Her gaze flickered for a moment as her vision shifted to that of the clone she left with the civilians above ground. Seeing that things were going smoothly, she continued to let the clone operate.
Just to avoid a bit of hassle, Shiro changed her appearance a little so that the ordinary citizen wouldn't recognise her. After all, to them, Shiro. C was someone who saved them from the monsters above.
She just wanted to get some information and didn't want to deal with crowds of people right now.
While walking through the city, she observed how they lived with intrigue. Due to the nature of the underground city, life here was very different from above ground.
Every single shop had a 24-hour rotation and the internal clocks of people seemed to match this.
From what she could tell by the schedules written on the opening times, 'Night' and 'day' had roughly the same amount of traffic. People could choose which cycle they wanted to abide by since there was work to be found at any time.
Soon, Shiro reached the library. The building itself was rather camouflaged since you could only see the entrance from the outside and the words Library carved into the walls.
However, hidden behind this plain exterior was a large building with a total of 6 floors and each shelf was packed to the brim with books.
"Hello, how may I help you?" The receptionist smiled before pausing in surprise since she had never seen Shiro in the city before. Which isn't surprising considering the fact that Shiro had a disguise on right now.
"I'm looking for books on history." Shiro smiled.
"Ah right, the books on history should be on the fourth floor. Once you get up the stairs, take a right turn and follow the path. It should be the fourth shelf that you see."
"Thank you. There should be someone looking for me later, just let them know I'm on the fourth floor." Shiro smiled as she dismissed her disguise. That way they'll have an easier time to find her.
"!!" Widening her eyes at Shiro's appearance, the girl froze up in surprise as she watched Shiro make her way to the fourth floor.
Ignoring her gaze, Shiro found the section she was talking about and grabbed a few books that caught her eye. There was a table by the railings that gave her a good view of the interior, so she decided to sit there while reading the books.