The next morning was a weird mixture of hectic and peaceful. I would have been content just resting a bit more but Safrah was ready and up by the time the sun crested the horizon. At least she let me have some tea before pushing to leave.

The trek through the woods was uneventful. My second ever friend was not used to the uneven path, even with the guards having cut through a good bit of vegetation. There were no real issues besides us being slow. A group of dwarves carrying stone passed us about half-way. They nodded a greeting but their load made them rush along.

We arrived soon after lunchtime, the beach having been expanded away from the lake. A good number of trees had been cut down. Some dwarves were busy cutting off branches and otherwise preparing the material for building. The stones were already laid out as foundation for some building. More tents had sprung up as well forming a circle around a fire. A pot with soup was standing close to it, most dwarves having already eaten.

I spotted Vivi near the lake looking at her new node. A hoot drew her attention and she jumped up and ran over. Safrah welcomed her with a hug and some ear scratches. The ocelot purred in content.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Vivi”, the dwarf said as they separated.

A meow was her answer before I finally got the connection down.

“We did it!”, Vivi near-shouted into our minds. That elicited joyous laughter from our friend.

“Yes, you did. Good work.”

More hugging and nuzzling ensued for another minute. Then I brought over a bowl of soup for Safrah. She was hungry from the walk and took it gratefully. We settled down for another retelling, this time from Vivi’s perspective. A bit toned down on the danger we were in but still quite accurate. The captain joined us towards the end, greeting our chaperon. He added his own observations here and there but mostly let Vivi do the talking.

It was well into the afternoon when the story reached its end. The captain pulled Safrah to the side to talk about something but I paid it little attention. I had another matter I wanted to know about.

“So, got to an agreement?”, I asked Vivi.

She nodded.

“I get to live with Safrah at the lake. They get mana crystals.”

That sounded decidedly simple.

“That’s all?”

“Sort of? The dwarves build the house and make sure crystals grow. They also keep some distance with the other buildings.”

Alright?

“But how many crystals do they get?”, I wanted to know.

“As much as they can grow. But the lake stays at least two-thirds its current size. Oh, also. I can do thaumaturgy. Just have to be careful.”

I nodded sagely.

“Yes. Be careful with that. Don’t put Safrah or yourself in danger!”

Vivi nuzzled me.

“You teach me!”, she demanded.

I slowly pushed against her with a wing.

“A little. But I want to keep travelling. I won’t stay here forever.”

She looked up at me with wide eyes.

“Why?”

“I’ll come visit. I’m really fast now”, I reassured her.

“Often!”

I nuzzled her back. Gently dragging my beak through her fur to clean it made Vivi calm down.

“As often as I can.”

That night Safrah slept in one of the tents. I had a few more things to do in the town but I would get back to my journey in a week or two. Sort of. The dwarven lands still held a lot of interesting secrets. I wanted to see a real city. Maybe meet a dwarven thaumaturge. And I wanted to learn brewing. Though, that was unlikely. With what the captain had told me about the brewers, I had to fully commit to learn about potions. That was just not happening any time soon. Should I just look in the library? Surely the dwarves would have some information on the surrounding lands. There might be something interesting there.

Before visiting them, I went through my inventory. I had my crucible plus heating plate, a bunch of trinkets and materials that I never bothered to take a closer look at, a bit of brass and gold and a pile of books, including the Thaumonomicon. The trinkets were honestly not that interesting right now so I put them aside. My materials could use restocking, especially the metals. A bunch more iron and I would be able to make more thaumium in case I needed money. The crucible and heating plate went right back into my storage, along with the Thaumonomicon. That left the books. I had no reason to keep them on me. There was nothing really interesting there, just fantastical tales about times long past. Maybe the library would take them? They were fun reads, after all.

Vivi had talked about learning thaumaturgy. I might want to see if I could make another Thaumonomicon for her. Yes, that was a good use of the early morning hours.

I paged through the magical tome, looking for a clue on what I wanted to do. There was something about sharing research with others but I did not understand its purpose. It allowed me to create a copy of any page in my Thaumonomicon to give to someone else. But they needed their own magic tome or they would be unable to read it. Was not all knowledge already hidden in the book? Maybe it was just a method to bypass the restrictions about structured knowledge the Thaumonomicon had. It was sometimes difficult to find what one was looking for. Like right now.

By morning, I had gotten a basic idea of what to do. There was a way to create a new one, but it would destroy several books in the process. Maybe the library had some spare copies I could use? Or… no. The ones I had from the ork’s mansion might be unique. I should ask the library first. Surely they had multiples of most of their basic texts.

After some morning tea and the dwarves chatting about construction and what the new house for Safrah and Vivi should look like, I made my way into town. The captain handed me the 25 gold needed for lifetime library membership. I was looking forward to that.

The building was just as I remembered. In the reception room, I was welcomed by the same dwarven librarian whose name I had already forgotten. Had I ever learned it? Maybe I should…

“Lihan. My name is Lihan.”

How? Was he not supposed to read books rather than minds?

We proceeded with the registration and soon I had a temporary membership card in my talons. I would need to return in a week to pick up the real deal. Apparently, there was some artificing involved to make it really difficult to fake. He said impossible but I doubted that.

Next, I pulled out the books from the ork’s place. The dwarf’s eyes lit up in delight as he checked them.

“These are… so very old. Where did you find something like this? Even our small library only has two ancient texts! Far from enough to properly decipher the language. And you brought two dozen books? This is insane! We may yet become a respected branch of the Adena. Thank you! Now, what can I do for you in return?”

I hesitated for a moment.

“This… may sound weird but… hear me out. I need some spare books. Copies you don’t need anymore. You wouldn’t get them back.”

His eyes narrowed before understanding dawned on his face.

“Ohh. Thaumaturgy? Yes, we might be able to arrange something. How many books do you need? Anything specific?”

“Doesn’t matter what’s in them. I need about… ten? That should be enough. If they aren’t too short.”

“Alright. I’ll see what I can do for you. For now, do you want to read some?”

I nodded. That would be great.

“Anything on your mind?”

“Something about the lands and people surrounding the dwarven hills. I want to plan my journey from here on out. I want to see more of the world before settling down somewhere.”

“Hmm, yes. Follow me, I know just what you need.”

He led me to a part of the library with several rows labelled “On other peoples”. It was on the second-to-last floor since the texts posed a danger to young and impressionable readers, or so he said. Lihan warned me not to follow other species examples too much. They were not all bad but some of their ideas had questionable results.

“I recommend starting with this one. It’s most relevant to you, personally.”

The book he handed me was titled On Cores and Unique Species. Very much interesting. I spent the next hour eating up the information. Apparently, every species would get the choice between an Affinity and a Core when reaching both adulthood and major vis enrichment. The book heavily recommended taking an Affinity. It was much more powerful, according to the author, and at the same time kept your species the same. That made it much easier to keep living with them. Cores most often turned out to be Beast Cores. Those turned one into a unique species with a weaker node in the core than the Affinity could provide. The changes to one’s body were often major enough to lead to being outcast or at least disregarded by one’s former people. Would owls not see me as their own then? That… did not really matter, right? I had no real wish to mate with another owl anytime soon.

Back to the Affinity. Apparently, it was an incredibly powerful tool to level one’s Class, since most Class Skills relied on the aspects one was closest to, which were turned into the node. That meant, Cores were much better for levelling race. Something I had already noticed. I just had to be myself and do what I wanted and slowly but surely I would grow stronger. I was happy with my choice even if I might have given up on short-term power, the long-term growth was definitely worth it. Especially if the second Class was really tied to race levels.

Then, there were Progenitor Cores. They only had a small addendum which basically boiled down to if you hate living like your people do, pick this. It will not only turn you into a new species but also make you its forefather. The dwarves, specifically, the felt-ear-dwarves, were descended from a Progenitor. The old texts still told that the first felt-ear-dwarf was born a goblin of all things. I wanted to know where the goblins had come from but there was nothing about that in the book. So, these dwarves were evolved goblins? Or descended from one of them? Apparently, it worked like this. A Progenitor would produce offspring of their new species no matter who they mated with. As such, the corresponding Core could only be gained by someone with the desire to be something different enough to warrant such a major change. I was glad I had gotten my Beast Core. It was the best of both worlds. Freedom and power, though only through my own efforts. Just… what I needed. How had the system known? Was it reading my mind?

Steps dragged me out of my budding existential dread. Lihan walked up, another book in his hands.

“So, I got you the books you need. If you ever want to donate a Thaumonomicon to an Adena library, don’t. We don’t take that book. It’s too dangerous for avid readers incapable of understanding the risk.”

I nodded.

“This”, he put the book in his hand on the table in front of me, “is for you. I think you should read it if you want to keep travelling.”

Mythical Beings read the title. No author was denoted on the cover but as I turned the first page there were a few dozen names of contributors and sources.

“It’s a comprehensive collection of all the most dangerous beings anyone has ever heard of as well as an elaboration on the likelihood of them actually existing. Maybe you can add your own thoughts whenever you return to one of our clan’s libraries.”

I thanked him and wanted to start reading. He had other plans.

“Already finished with this one? Did you find it interesting?”

I nodded.

“You’re likely to meet a few unique races if you travel far enough. Pretty much all the Mythical Beings are unique. No others have ever reached such individual power as the strongest of them. But for every impossibly strong monster, there’re probably a few hundred more normal ones. Keep an eye out. The Adena Clan keep a record of all they can.”

I blinked.

“I’m a Unique”, I sent.

He gaped for a full minute. Then he started walking back and forth as if debating whether to leave or stay. Finally, his eyes settled on me with a weird fire.

“Can I [Identify] you?”

I sighed. Was there a reason to say no?

“What level?”

“Six.”

His hands slammed a notebook on the table, his gaze growing even more instead.

I rolled my head.

“Fine.”