Chapter 194 - Introduction To Runes
The old library was one of the few buildings that were just partially buried. It was fairly wide and had three floors. Leon had managed to enter through the entrance on the first floor without a problem, but the inclination of the floor slightly impeded his movements to explore the building freely.
Every step Leon took on an upward trend would cause him to slide back to his starting point due to a lack of grip in his shoes, caused by the dusty surface of the floor. However, this issue was easily resolved by channeling energy to the soles of his feet and coating his shoes with it.
[Art of Water Striding] was the name of the spirit art. As the name suggests, it allows him to tread upon the surface of water, but its application isn't limited to just that. It could be applied to any surface, allowing him to walk up walls and steep cliffs like he was walking on flat ground.
All the books in the building had fallen off their shelves and piled in one corner of the building like a small mountain. While Leon was pocketing all these books, he was wondering how could a leaning building that wasn't buried, able to remain leaning without the earth holding it in place.
Leon made his way up to clean out the subsequent floors, before deciding to investigate the cause later. On the second and third floors, he found more empty shelves and scattered piles of books, some crystals, and sunstones.
Leon tossed them all into the Worldspace without further thoughts. There were also some strange tablet devices on each floor, but they couldn't be removed from the stands. He could only sweep it with his Divine Sense and imprint it into his memory.
Returning to the first floor, Leon illuminated the higher end on the other side of the inclined building with his flame. The other end was infested with plant-like roots that managed to penetrate through the building's foundation.
Leon began to scrutinize the roots with caution. Base on the vitality he was sensing from the roots, the plant wasn't dead. What kind of plant was this? It was able to survive in a world without sunlight and water, but that wasn't important.
What was important was the power behind its roots. It could penetrate the incredibly tough building!
Leon scrunched his brows together in deeper thoughts.
Maybe the building was already punctured after the fall and the plant found its way inside afterward? Regardless of the case, he found it worrisome that he could not find its main body even after tracing its roots into the underground. The roots were too long for his senses to reach the main body. With such long roots, the main body could be expected to be even large.
Without seeing the main body, he couldn't tell what kind of plant it was. At first glance, it looked like tree roots. But upon further glances, it seemed slightly different from tree roots.
"Let's hope there aren't any man-eating plants in the underground world. But then again, it wouldn't be surprising if there were any considering any living thing found in the underground threatened human existence." Leon quietly mused.
He had at least figured out why the air was rich and plentiful on the second floor. There were plants on the second floor. Leon hadn't seen it for himself, but there must be a lot of plants somewhere. Perhaps these plants weren't exactly devoid of sunlight and water. There may be a water source somewhere deeper.
Leon pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and entered the Worldspace. With possibly danger lurking in every corner, he had to be more prepared, especially since the danger level of the second floor should be greater than the spiders of the first floor.
The herbal garden had been growing well. It only took one month to grow a Tier-3 Spirit Herb, but to grow a Tier-4 Spirit Herb, Leon wasn't too sure. He assumed it would take around a year or longer. As for Tier-5… he should just forget about it.
"Hm? All the remaining energy of heaven and earth I previously absorbed into the Worldspace seemed to have disappeared. Huh? The blob of earth energy is gone too." Leon was dumbfounded. "Ugh… never mind. I'll figure it out later."
Leon grabbed quite a few spirit herbs, ranging from Tier 1 to Tier 3 and planted new seeds in its place, before making proceeding over to the pill cauldron and whipping up a fire. He spent the next half an hour refining Fasting Pills, Iron Stomach Pills and Poison Cleansing Pills.
He wasn't sure if he would need Tier-3 Poison Cleansing Pills, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Considering the presence of plants in the underground, he had to anticipate that there weren't just medicinal herbs but also poisonous herbs.
After completing his refinement, he stored them into pill bottles and set his eyes on the mountain of books in one corner. After emptying out the library, there were thousands of books in his Worldspace.
Unfortunately, only a small portion of the books would contain information on runic technology and its application. The rest covered miscellaneous topics ranging from cooking to science, with a greater part being a collection of fictional stories.
"It would be great if I could Arden's research room instead. It's almost time to meet back at the gathering point. There isn't enough time to sort out these books. It would take me forever to sort out the runic inscription-related books from the miscellaneous ones…"
"It would be great if I could use the Whitespace to sort them out for me…"
Leon suddenly froze, before his eyes slowly widened. Once the idea came to mind, it was impossible to erase.
The Worldspace was a physical landscape he could enter with his physical body, but the Whitespace was more illusory like a dreamscape. He wasn't sure if he could move the books over, but it was worth a shot.
Returning to the outside world, Leon materialized the [Divine Book of Life]. His consciousness dived into the Whitespace, while he held tightly onto a random book he selected from the mountain of books. The familiar white world soon entered his sight, but…
"No good, huh? I guess this was to be expected…" Leon said disappointedly.
"Just scan them, Idiot." A soft child-like voice said abruptly.
"Who!?" Leon's expression changed with alarm. There shouldn't be anyone here, except him! "Who are you? Show yourself! And what do you mean?"
Leon scrutinized the surrounding, but he couldn't find the owner of the voice. It seemed to have come from the whitespace world itself, but at the same time, it entered straight into his own mind.
Was he being delusional…? Did he go crazy!?
"Who I am isn't important." The childlike voice said nonchalantly, before continuing, "What is important is you don't know how to use the [Divine Book of Life] at all! Any item in the Sacred Garden can be recorded and stored into the Archive with a simple scan."
"Look here, Idiot."
Here? Where is here?
Leon's doubts were answered in a moment. A projection of the Worldspace known referred to as the 'Sacred Garden' soon appeared in front of him.
"You can see the Sacred Garden anytime from the Archive…hm?" The childlike voice froze amidst her explanation. The silence only lasted a few moments, before she continued.
"What the heck are all these trash? Books? Understandable. Clothes? Projectile weapons? Bricks!? Eeek! What have you done to my Sacred Garden!? Treating it as your own personal storage, huh!?"
The childlike voiced screamed into his mind directly with shrill cries like a five-year-old child with OCD throwing a tantrum after someone messed up her tidy bedroom.
Trashes? Projectile weapons? Bricks? Projectile weapons, he can understand, but what about bricks? Leon was confused. Was the child referring to the stainless-steel ingot he never ended up using?
"You know, you have such a sweet voice, but you say some pretty savage things." Leon rolled his eyes. He already had a faint guess as to the owner of the voice, but with such a childlike voice, he couldn't take the person seriously.
In any case, the [Divine Book of Life] was fused to his soul core, making the master. So, what if he uses it as his own personal storage space?
"Yawn*** Never mind… I need to go back to sleep. Remember to gather more energy." The childlike voice yawned, before fading into silence.
"Wait! You haven't explained the scan!" Leon quickly said, but even after waiting a short while, he did not receive any further response.
Glancing at the 'Sacred Garden' projection in front of him, Leon thought, "Guess I will have to figure it out myself."
Leon hadn't forgotten the feeling of omnipotence in the 'Archive' where things moved according to his will.
"It shouldn't be difficult, right?"
Leon stared at the mountain of books in the projection and made a mental will for all the information to be recorded into the Archive.
"Scan."
He could see a line sweeping across the mountain of books on the projection screen before new empty bookshelves began to rise in the Archive. At the same, new books began to fill the empty bookshelves very quickly.
"How fascinating!"
Leon never knew about these functions. If only he could have realized them sooner. He began injecting a string of keywords with his will.
"Organize. Basic. Runic Inscription."
The bookshelves disappeared into the floor and rearranged their contents before a new bookshelf rose with all the runic inscription-related books at the introductory level. Leon casually grabbed at one of the books and it dissipated into particles of energy before all the knowledge on basic runic symbols and their effect flowed into his mind.
"Haiz…" Leon sighed at the name of the book he casually picked.
[Introduction to Runes for Dummies]
"Oh no, I spent too much time in here. The others should be waiting for me!"
Leon quickly returned his consciousness to the outside world, but then he almost got scared to death by what he saw!
Lilith's black, round and pretty eyes stared directly into his own up close. He was immediately attracted and felt like his own soul was going to be drawn into the dark abyss.
"Woah! What the hell! You scared me!" Leon backed off.
"Teehee.." Lilith made a cute expression, before saying, "It's your fault for not responding to my calls."