《Villainess and Grimoire》Chapter 26 – Adventurer Arc
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Three hours later I wake up in bed as my body was tired from the morning work.
"Yawn... I wonder what time is it, did sister or dad return home yet?"
I get up and look at my dress totally rumpled, possibly from having moved inside the sheets while sleeping with it.
'I shouldn't sleep with it, mother would've been mad if she knew,' my expression frowns as I remind myself of how scary mother can be.
I stretch it a bit in front of Aurora's mirror.
"This mirror is such a blessing being this big, I love it."
I stare at it from different angles while doing silly poses laughing on my own without a care in the world.
'I really wonder what can it be used for seeing as how useful appraisal is being unique tier...'
'A cursed tier skill should be more useful, but since it was a curse before there's a chance that it's just a normal mirror now who completely lost its purpose, plus even if it was working there is no evil being that must be sealed in it.'
'Since Aurora consumed the curse it had it ends up becoming a very tough mirror, maybe even a shield of sorts, who knows.'
I head to the kitchen and grab something to eat then head towards the village library talking a bit with dad on the way, and then I let him know where I'm going, which he smiles happily as soon as he heard the location.
Once I arrive I pass through the entrance balcony where a library old man stares at me.
"Good afternoon sir," I say politely with a kind smile.
"Good afternoon miss, can I help with something?"
"I'm looking for a herbs book."
He rubs his white beard downwards as it's a bit long.
Then he points towards a specific hall, "at the end of it, you should find what you're looking for miss."
"Thank you, I'm Iris by the way!"
The old man smiled and said, "I'm the library man, Einstein."
"Nice to meet you."
"Likewise Iris, it's rare to see such a young person looking for a herbs book, you must be a herbalist or a genius learning alchemy."
I smile and say, "yes, alchemy like the old sir at the potion shop," and walk towards the books.
"I'll be here if you need anything else, the library closes in 3 hours, it's currently 4 in the afternoon," he voices a little louder as he points at an old clock on his desk that runs with magic.
I wave my hand to signal that I understood and then keep moving.
After checking a couple of books I find an old one about herbs.
'Herbalism by Sage John, it's that old man who also wrote the World of Artana books, system library.'
Notice: 300 mana has been deducted.
System: The title Book Thief has been received.
System: The title Criminal has been received.
'The system sure doesn't go easy on me does it?'
'I'm betting both titles increased my disgrace.'
'Since I'm a witch now, might as well keep doing these things, moderately,' I smile.
'Plus it's not like I'm doing anything bad, just leveling up my skills,' without realizing it my smile turns into a smirk.
After spending 3 hours reading the book.
'Compared to the world of Artana book, this one was a lot easier to understand with some clean locations in it, hopefully, after who knows how long has passed they are still viable."
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'Seems like there's a forest to the west with the herbs I need, I'll go there tomorrow.'
'Wondering what other books there are, this library isn't small, it has plenty of books for me to read.'
'I could easily spend a while coming here every day, consuming books into my skill.'
'The higher the level of the system library goes the more books it'll unlock, which will benefit me further.'
'The problem as always is mana, I need to buy some mana potions so I can do more things, or get stronger and reach a higher level foe more wisdom perhaps.'
'Doing quests, playing around with appraisal and system library.'
'Appraisal level goes up the more I appraise things, it went up a lot due to the skills information.'
I get up and place it back where I found it, and then I start looking around.
'The library should be closing, and I've rested enough to grab another book into my skill a smaller one at least.'
'If my theory is right it should consume 30 mana per volume inside of it.'
'At least from the two books I tried, it seems to match.'
I look at a particular book title,' the gods of Artana.'
'The gods? I expected from what I was taught for there to be more gods, but for there to be a book with information about them.'
'This is a great find, system library.'
Notice: 60 mana has been deducted.
'60 mana? I open the book and do a quick look,' I smile upon realizing I was right.
'Two volumes, I'll make sure to read them when I get home.'
As I'm leaving I notice a really large book,' this is? World Classes.'
I open and have a look at it quickly, the moment I do I hear a voice.
"Iris the library is now closing," he looks at the book I'm holding.
"If you'd like you can take the book home as long as you promise to take very good care of it till you return it."
"Can I really?" My eyes shine with happiness as I feel like I'm being super blessed by the old man.
"Yes, you may... this one time only," he thought, 'she's so young, she must be feeling the pressure of choosing a class, and that book is ideal even though she might end up becoming an alchemist, if she studies hard enough since Iris can read at such a young age whereas most kids don't bother learning, she should end up just fine.'
After a while, I return home walking all the way back.
"I'm home!" I shout happily while carrying a big book.
"Welcome back daughter, how'd the trip to the library go?" He asks to notice what was in my hands without saying anything about it.
"It was very enjoyable dad, I got to learn a lot of things!"
"That makes me so happy to hear," he smiles warmly at me.
"By the way dad, Vicent the boss of the potion shop he has the alchemy class right?"
"Yes, he does why do you ask?"
"I was wondering what potions he can make."
"He can produce health and mana potions, antidotes, statuses ones like strength, stamina potions, and resistance to elements."
'That's quite different than the ones I can craft...'
"Thank you, dad."
"Why? Did you want to buy them perhaps? Is it because of not having enough mana since you asked mother for some?"
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"Yes, since I have a lot of skills, I've been having a hard time making good use of all of them."
"They're not cheap, but tomorrow I can bring you some, I've also spoken to Rohan about your field."
"What did you two talk about?"
"He said for a 10% commission that he can sell things for you."
'That's not a big commission, I guess their friendship had something to do with it.'
"Sure, I'll use the money from it to pay off the potions."
Upon hearing that dad's eyes opened a bit more and without contesting he said with a smile, "sure thing Iris."
'I'm really happy to have such a good daughter even though she's growing really fast, I meet kids of her age and she's wiser than most of them, excluding a few noble ones, reading from an early age sure makes a difference, really happy she likes it.'
"I spent a few hours talking with your sister, she came home with her clothes a bit tattered, but it seems like she was pretty successful with slime hunting."
"Ah... I'll check on her."
"That book... isn't it the classes book? Mother told me you got yourself a taboo class."
"I wanted to know more about it and why it's considered bad by the church."
"I don't know much about it myself, but there's a couple of points that are consistent about their doctrine."
"Doctrine?" I make a confused face as I've never heard of that word.
"Yes, it's like their teachings, one of them is that committing crimes is a bad thing since it gives disgrace."
"When one thinks about it though, it is very hard to not get titles that give disgrace since we have to live, and some of us who aren't as blessed survive."
"A lot of kids like yourself from an early age kill animals, and steal and a lot of other things."
"It is a pretty brutal world where we eat what we find, especially since most of us peasants would starve otherwise, as not everyone earns enough money to have a stable life."
"Nonetheless, when a person gets an awful amount of disgrace certain classes start appearing."
"They're not particularly stronger than famed base classes from what I know, but I haven't met anyone that has reached the pinnacle of such a class."
"Since even the heroes that are summoned already come with famed base classes."
"They come with classes set for them?"
"Yes, I believe it's part of their deal with the Goddess Aria, from all of them only one gets a unique class hero though, from what I know at least."
"Is that class obtainable without the Goddess blessing in other words without being summoned?"
"Yes, though it's extremely rare, there was someone in the tales of Artana book who succeeded in that, a peasant at that."
"It influenced the nobles back then a lot since they're superior and there hasn't been a single noble reaching such a miraculous class."
"There's truly a lot I don't know," I smile.
"Indeed dear, that's why you should read a lot more, read the whole library!" Dad laughed at me.
"The whole library? That sounds like a good challenge, I'll go check on sister for now."
"Alright dear," dad thought, 'I hope she didn't take it seriously, not even a book worm such as myself read the whole library before.'
I enter the room and close the door slowly.
I look to the left where my bed is glued to the wall where I have a window.
I sit on the bed on the window side since Aurora is resting on the mirror side of the room.
I can see the window from the mirror so it feels like I have two of them.
I open the book I brought with me.
World Classes I
Author: Pope Eric the XXV
This is a collection of all the classes the church and other branches have been able to research up to the year 3200 after the system implementation.
Firstly an introduction to classes.
They are derived between what we consider in our doctrine good and evil.
Thus Fame and Disgrace, seeing as the classes from all the summoned people through the years that have gone by after the system was implemented were all fame-based ones but two, that we know of at least.
The two disgrace-based classes that were summoned by the Goddess Aria ended up having their users causing a gigantic amount of chaos in the kingdom.
The ones having the hero class ended up slaying their own summoned kin as a consequence earning a disgraceful title, summoned slayer.
Ever since then through history we the church have been persecuting all the users that we find out owning a disgraceful class, including the summoned ones by splitting them among the kingdom.
The disgraceful ones end up forced to join the army and the famed ones stay with us to be properly raised.
We do not know the reason behind the Goddess Aria summoning such people to the Lumen kingdom, however, compared to all the good summons that she brings, it is but a minor issue.
We can only think of it being a problem with the humans that tarnished the reputation of our esteemed Goddess.
I believe it could be a restriction from the god of chaos, an evil god that has corrupted the system allowing such classes to existing in the first place.
Throughout the whole book, we've written through the years about many classes, however, I can say for certain that not all classes are in this book.
Not everyone taught us the information about their class and how they obtained it, we were able to gather as much as we could from all the heroes we raised and the people in our care.
We do know three important things, the class system the Goddess created consists of 3 factors.
It focuses on reputation and disgrace standards.
It focuses on the titles providing a likely class, like how a peasant who has farming titles is likely to be able to get a farmer class.
Lastly, we believe it focuses on the overall status someone may have, the higher the better the class may appear.
We'll disclosure both types of classes so that we reduce the number of people getting disgraced ones thus increasing the number of famed ones so that the human kingdom becomes stronger.
You'll be exiled from the kingdom if you use this information wrongly, no matter how many thousands of years pass.
I believe this law will persist, I believe our faith will last as long as the Goddess keeps helping us with her visions and heroes.
Our kingdom used to be small, but thanks to the Goddess's messages, in other words, the visions she grants through our blessed skill oracle, we have been able to survive invasions and also expand our territory slowly.
We are the weakest race, but one day we're sure to dominate the world in the name of the Goddess Aria.
For that reason, we have created this book so that our fellow humans may strive towards the one and only true divine path.
System: The title Expert Reader has been received.
'Seems like I should finish the reader series to boost my intelligence and wisdom, I believe it gives a bit of both.'
'I have way too many problems with my mana being so low, so anything that helps growing it, I'll do it.'
'This is quite the author, he holds a very strong conviction and faith for the human kingdom, I don't know how far it has been since this was written, however, it did happen as he wrote it would, for better or worse.'
'It seems like the world of Artana and lumberjack books were really old.'
'The church seems to hold a time concept, so they should know what year after the system we are in somehow...'
'This is not enough information to know how old the world is, but at least 3200 years have passed with certainty.'
'That is... as long as the information isn't false since mother told me that believing in false information would lead for my intelligence to drop, so I should be careful, and think things thoroughly on my own.'
'I believe that the first focus this Eric pope mentions is right since my one and only choice derived from all the accumulated disgrace I had.'
'The titles farming and fishing series should've given me the farmer and fishing classes yet I didn't see them in the list.'
'There's a chance that the last focus he mentions is right too, as I had a lot of status for my age... everything on my status would include the contract I have with Aurora wouldn't it? Did the choice of the class got affected by her in some way perhaps? Hard to know and even if I did it's too late now as I've decided to stick with it!'
'I'll keep a secret of everything I do with my class, so that I don't get exiled, seeing as the religion is the same as back then, the laws shouldn't have changed.'
'Witches will most likely all be exiled at some point.'
'I'll grab a chance to talk with Rohan so that he sells my potions secretly, but I'll only make the typical ones, the potions he seems safe.'
'From the list I had, dark alchemy.'
Notice: 10 mana has been deducted.
Dark Alchemy:
Weakness Potion: It'll weaken the consumer losing statuses.
Sleep Potion: It'll induce the consumer into a deep sleep.
Love Potion: The first person the target sees after consuming the potion will become in love with.
Paralysis Potion: It'll slowly paralyze their body can be countered by an antidote or a skill.
Poison Potion: It'll slowly poison their body can be countered by an antidote or a skill, it can lead to death.
Corruption Potion: Person's body starts becoming purple leading them to death can be countered by an antidote or a skill.
Antidote Potion: Depending on the ingredients different antidotes can be produced.
I check the screen with the potion list.
'I should focus on sleep, paralysis, poison, and antidotes as they have many uses, and I believe adventurers will want to buy them to throw them at foes.'
'If Rohan tells me that any of them is dangerous then... I'll use them secretly myself on quests.'
'While sister does the quests slowly and we level up, I'll focus on herb gathering and potion making, along with reading, farming, and selling the goods of everything.'
'When I have money I'll buy mana potions, and eventually equipment and a weapon.'
'I should check for accessories and level up appraisal a lot so it gives me information on good ones.'
"Hum? Welcome back, Iris," she says as she gets up noticing my presence.
"Hello sister, you were sleeping so I didn't wake you up."
"That is fine, I was recovering my mana, it's a lot faster if I shut down for a few hours."
"Oh... a quality of being a grimoire," I smile.
"Yes, not everything can be bad about being a weapon."
"A weapon? An item? A human? Which one are you?"
"A grimoire is a weapon."
"I was thinking of buying a weapon, but does that mean that I can use you in some way?"
"Use me..." She smiles coldly as she thinks about it and then says, "Status."
Status:
Level: 2 | Experience 100/200 | Class: None
Race: Human | Name: Aurora | 8 Years old
Health: 1000/1000 | Mana 1040/1050
Status Points:0
Stamina: 100 | Intelligence: 90 Wisdom: 105
Attack: 5 | Magic Attack: 90
Titles: Aeternum(S), Uncursed(S), Soul-bound(S), Contracted(S).
Skill Points: 0
Actives: Status level 40(D), Darkness Barrier level 4(F), Piercing Darkness level 5(F), Mana Coat level 1(F), Dark Coat level 4(F), Mana Wave level 1(F), Dark Bind level 5(F).
Passives: Mana Control level 20(E), Dark Control level 12(F), Monster detection level 3(F).
Unique: Transformation level 6.
Blessed/Cursed: Mirror level 1, Unidentified.
Unique Element: Dark.
Cursed Soul-bound
"100 experience? Just how many slimes did you kill?"
"I met Elise and another 2 boys so I joined their party."
"Oh, that should've made things a bit easier."
"Yes, you could say that."
"You're skills have increased a lot too, monster detection?"
"It detects things around me basically I thought that if the day comes where I can't become powerful like I used to, then at least I'd become useful to you as a... weapon."
I instantly hug her and pat her hair, "I'm sorry that you were reincarnated like that."
"It's not your fault, it's the goddess Aria's fault, the one who reincarnates humans, the one we should take revenge on."
"Fighting a god!? We almost lose against slimes!" I laugh at that silly comment of hers that almost sounded like a declaration.
"For now, but we'll become stronger, plus I'm a weapon I live forever."
"Unless you're killed," I reply seriously.
"Unless I'm killed, she replies coldly.
"I can't promise to go at war against a god, especially since we don't even know if we can reach her, and I'm just a human I might not be able to become strong enough in this life."
"Don't worry about it, it is my desire to kills gods like it is my desire to kill the hero, and the sage of my past world."
"I have promised before that I'd stay by your side, so at least my company you'll have till I die," I smile kindly yet feeling some sadness.
Aurora smiles kindly surprising me upon hearing my words.
"Sister after a lot of thinking I figured what I want to do next."
"Let me guess Iris, cut an entire forest?" I laugh upon hearing these words cleansing my heart of the sadness instantly.
"No silly, I mean I might cut some forests as well now that you remind me of it, but I'll be herb gathering mostly and build a small business towards potion-making."
"Potions? Did your class come with an herb skill?"
"Yes, sort of, it's called dark alchemy, so most potions are interesting and also have deadly uses, but there're some that aren't as bad."
"Oh... Interesting."
"You can't copy my memories anymore right?"
"Sadly no."
"Then read the first chapter of this book also lend me some mana."
"Sure?" Her hand approaches me injecting me with mana.
I hastily shout as she didn't give me time to think, "System library."
Notice: 600 mana has been deducted.
"It's done," she removes her hand after giving me a bit more.
"Thank you like this I'll be able to deliver the book tomorrow, I've been collecting books like this in the library, I even got the title book thief and another one called criminal."
"You're actually evil Iris," she looks at me surprised.
I stick my tongue out at her in a childish way then say, "it seems that I am, I have too much disgrace at this point."
"It should suit a class named witch so it should be fine, it was an evil thing back in our old world."
"Were there witches too?"
"Yes, but not with this class system thing, plus they'd recite and cast incantations from a grimoire, in here you just use skills, spend mana, things happen a lot easier, and a lot less studying without memorizing spells."
"Sounds like this world is a lot easier compared to our old one in some aspects."
"That's correct," she makes an eerie expression as she reminisces herself of the old world letting out an ominous aura.
After a while, she finishes reading what I read, and then she says, "it seems like the religion of this world isn't as self-centered, they're actually trying to find ways to expand the kingdom and bolstering the human race."
"In other words?" I ask curiously.
"We can count on their support to protect the kingdom while we get stronger, from your memories a woman called Saintess, an identity that didn't exist in our old world foresaw the kingdom destruction."
"That's right! I was a baby when that happened! It surprised me and made me wonder how I could stop it, but I couldn't do anything in that body!"
"Yes, but the kingdom hasn't been destroyed, from what I've learned so far from your memories and other adventurers, the north is sealed by very powerful monsters."
"The east is sealed by a sea where powerful monsters also reside deep down, the west has a race called golems living on top of it, they are neutral as long as we don't trespass their territories."
"The south has a forest where a small river goes through, the one that is west of our home, it goes all the way from west to southeast beyond the southern forest towards the sea at east."
"That forest is where the goblin kingdom forces reside, one of the factions that live to the south, there're other races, so other territories are expected."
"Aurora you actually gathered a lot of useful information, I'm truly amazed."
"There are useful books about races, and monsters at the guild, you should copy those at some point and learn about it."
"Sure!" I reply happily.
"Above the powerful monster's territory there's the demon kingdom, we don't know if there are other demon kingdoms further north of it or in other places."
"So... What has our kingdom been doing till now?"
"From what I know they have to protect themselves from any sea monsters and pirates from the east, the continuous invasions from the south factions, and any flying monsters that go across the mountains in the west along with many cave monsters in them."
"Sounds like a stalemate."
"It was at some point, but I believe that depending on the Saintess vision if we manage to defeat the invasion, be them from the north or the south or by ship in the east, or even somehow from the mountains in the west."
"Then we should be able to start expanding further south, if we're lucky and the goblins are the ones invading, then we could occupy their territory."
"So you want to help humans?"
"I want to help you, a human, and the day you die or are about to die, I'll either live long enough to take my revenge on my past world and the gods or simply allow myself to die with you through our cursed soul-bound."
"I understand," I reply softly yet seriously to match Aurora's mindset.
"Also I found out that slimes aren't evil, they're actually pretty neutral."
"What? really?"
"Yes, it seems like they only act if we attack them which happens a lot, since they are a source of experience, or get too close, or even have a higher ranked slime around guiding them."
"That's interesting..."
"Indeed Iris, there're even a lot of farmers and people who don't do anything, and just ignore the slimes that wander through the territory, this also applies in the southern territory."
"I wonder if it's possible to tame a monster."
"Maybe with a class that specializes in it, or a contract of some sort, if it's identical to our old world, it'd be with an item."
"We need to learn more about this world!"
"Yes we should, I gave you most of my mana so imma shut down again."
"Alright, sister rest well," I pat her hair as she accommodates herself once more."
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