South explained to Wolf where he could find the ingredients he’d need for the Star Body elixirs the boy planned on using. After giving Wolf the useful information, along with the list of stores selling potential toilet paper, he hugged his stomach as if he had an ache.

“Little brother, if you’d excuse me, I’m in great need of fine literature right now,” the drunkard said with a pained expression.

Wolf screamed and wanted to storm off, but South doubled over, laughing drunkenly.

“Big brother, do me a favor and let me touch the pages of those books,” Wolf pleaded. “I don’t want to end up buying things that are worse than what you have.”

South shrugged, and pulled a bunch of books out of his pocket. There were around two dozen of them. The spectrum went from beginner level martial maneuvers, all the way to high level philosophy on True-Naming that even had a list of confirmed True Names. It’s just that True Names were labeled as Laws for some reason, but Wolf still recognized them for what they were. When he saw this exotic tome Wolf’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

“Where did you get these?” Wolf asked in disbelief.

“If I told you that I’d stolen them in passing, while looking for this flagon, would you believe me? I picked them up while exploring the palace of the overlord of the demon world, a man who rules over more than a trillion intelligent living beings,” South spoke nonsense with that trademark intoxicated smile of his.

“I think it’s easier to swallow that acting as a potato can get you to become a noble’s manservant,” Wolf replied, and for the first time ever he saw a slightly dumbfounded South, but the bum’s eyes sparkled happily, as if saying ‘That’s the kind of nonsense I want to hear!’

South bounced back immediately. If you’re crazy enough nothing can surprise you. “Well, whatever. I wish you good luck on your quest!”

I’m looking for stuff you can use to wipe your ass! What makes this a quest?! Wolf cried inwardly, but got to work on finding the necessities for his big brother. The big brother smiled and waved as the boy left, as if amused by those thoughts of Wolf’s.

Wolf spent almost an entire week trying to find fine fabrics and soft leathers which had enough traction for South’s needs. Whenever he touched the materials he felt like bashing his head against a stone wall.

The whole situation was too absurd, but Wolf desperately wanted those books. As he wandered the streets, Wolf kept imagining South in his alley wallowing in filth, dead drunk, laughing his ass off, which was surprisingly close to what was happening in reality. At that moment South was chuckling all by himself while consuming spirits.

Wolf would’ve thought that the whole thing was an elaborate prank, if not for the fact that he’d seen the state of the book that South was currently… using.

The page South showed Wolf was missing exactly two-thirds, as if someone had torn that piece off for reasons all too well known.

Whenever Wolf thought of the ripped page he felt like screaming, crying and going insane. His late father would’ve murdered people for those books when he was at the peak of his power. Heck, even Wolf would become a target of every Archmage and True-Namer within the empire if they were aware of what he had in his possession. And outside Empire of Human, the top powers from the nine other empires would come searching for Wolf, if they ever caught wind of these books.

Over the last couple of days Wolf had spent ten gold pieces on various fabrics and scrolls, while an unknown number of all manner of random thoughts plagued his mind. He was now on his way to buy the ingredients for their Sunday lunch, still worrying about the books.

If only I could mend the missing pages of that half ruined book– Suddenly Wolf smacked himself on the forehead so hard he left a red print. He started laughing out of the blue, startling a couple of people around him.

I can cast Restoration! Hopefully it can repair the books the way it did my fancy chair! Wolf thought excitedly, and started running towards South’s alley, completely forgetting about the ingredients for their dinner.

A dozen steps later he slowed down. No, no, no… Don’t get your hopes up. Knowing Big brother, he probably did something stupid, like burn the covers to warm himself up, or to make mulled wine…

Even though that’s what Wolf thought, it didn’t stop him from casting Subtle Fleet of Foot and once again sprinting towards South’s home in the next moment. The distance which should have taken a better part of a day to cover was traversed in a tad more than two hours.

As expected, South was in his alley, lying atop a pile of trash, covered with a soiled blanket Wolf had given him months ago. The drunkard was giggling in an amused manner, while snoring merrily.

“Wake up Big brother!” Wolf shouted as he jumped on top of his big brother.

The boy wanted to tackle and shake the drunk awake, but he immediately regretted his foolish decision. Ramming into South was no different from running into a rock wall while dashing at top speed.

Wolf had his wind knocked out of him and he crumpled into a wretched heap. South on the other hand woke up groggily. He lazily shifted his intoxicated gaze towards the choking boy and smiled warmly. He took his soiled blanket, and started affectionately covering Wolf. The touching moment was ruined when the big brother covered his little brother’s head as if covering a corpse.

South was about to turn around and continue napping when Wolf shouted, “Hey! What’s the meaning of this?”

“It means you’re too soft,” South harshly evaluated his little brother after finding him lacking.

Wolf had a need to say something, but didn’t know how to answer that. Instead he decided to change the subject.

“Never mind that. Tell me, do you know where the covers of those books you used are?” Wolf asked, his whole countenance radiating hope. He had so much of it that he was like a miniature sun that shone hope.

“M? Ah, you mean the wrapper?” South asked absentmindedly, back in his usual half-asleep, half-drunken state. “Yeah. I couldn’t come up with a use for them, so I kept them stashed until the day I figured out what I could do with them.”

“YES!” Wolf screamed so loudly and excitedly that he even made South jump up and almost stand at attention.

“Has something finally snapped your mind completely, Little brother? You looked like you had some issues when we discussed toilet paper last time.” This simple jibe effectively deflated Wolf in a heartbeat.

Chills went up Wolf’s spine when he heard those words and he even physically shivered.

“That’s not important now,” he said with as much calm as he could muster. “Could you please pass me those covers?”

South looked at him with a tinge of drunken confusion. “Sure, but you have to get me something nice someday. All right?”

Wolf looked at his big brother. He kind of hated himself for what he was about to say. “If things work out I will give you a lifetime’s worth of the finest toilet paper you’ve ever used!”

Hearing this South sobered up somewhat.

“You’ve got yourself a deal Little brother,” he said with a toothy smile.

In an instant South tossed out dozens upon dozens of book covers without pages. The flurry was so sudden Wolf didn’t even get to see where they had all come from. They seemed to come out of South’s palm, so he must have somehow concealed a Ring of Holding.

But Wolf was even more shocked by the size of the heap.

“Could you please point out the one you enjoyed using the most?” Wolf asked with a quivering voice.

Without hesitation South picked one up and gave it to Wolf.

Seeing the cover Wolf cringed. The book was called The treatise on gods, foundations of religion and belief magic.

Also, there were still some pages inside which South had left alone for some reason.

Just the title of the book was enough to scare the wits out of Wolf. This crazy big brother of his actually dared to use something which discussed the nature of gods in detail to wipe his ass? Wolf didn’t know whether his big brother was brave or insane. Probably both in equal measure. Driving away the thought and closing his eyes to South’s smug smile, Wolf sat down and entered his Mind Palace.

The boy was so impatient he went and prepared a spell right then and there. Two minutes later Restoration was imbued in a Second Order tapestry, and Wolf opened his eyes. He didn’t even bother getting up and cast the spell while still sitting on the soiled cobbles.

The near empty covers were immediately filled up and the book was recreated. The absurdly thick tome was once more complete.

Now, there was only one more thing Wolf had to check. He held his breath as he opened the book. A set of gilded words, The treatise on gods, foundations of religion and belief magic, appeared before his eyes.

Wolf let out a sigh of relief. The writing was still there. He was afraid that the spell would recreate the pages, but not the writing. If that had happened the knowledge in these books would be lost forever and all they would be good for was, well, toilet paper.

Having this thought, Wolf's mouth twisted. He realized that, even though the pages were fully recreated, they were still bound to become toilet paper. Wolf took a deep breath.

“Big brother, I’ll go and get the ingredients for our lunch. I’ll be back by tomorrow. By then you…” Wolf’s heart and soul hurt, but he had to say these words, no matter how much he detested them. “… you tear all the pages out of that book and,” he paused and breathed in and out several more times, “and prepare them for your personal use.”

After saying this Wolf shuddered. He felt like a sinner and incredibly dirty. Not because of the religious topic this specific book covered, but because he felt like an accomplice in a crime against books.

***

Two weeks passed without major incidents. Wolf traded with the poor, bought fancy ingredients and prepared two Sunday lunches. The boy spent a week of his time restoring books.

The treatise on gods, foundations of religion and belief magic had its pages ripped out and then restored two dozen times before South said he’d had enough to last him for a while.

One should note that this book was as thick as its bulky name suggested. It had around eight hundred pages worth of boring text, which Wolf didn’t deign to read beyond the introduction.

Wolf was stunned just thinking about the number of scrolls South had acquired. How much would they last and why did South say he’d had enough only when he had around two thousand scrolls? Wolf didn’t ask. He feared he’d hear a shockingly short timeframe and break down into tears again.

Wolf consoled himself by thinking that his big brother was the kind of person that had the need to be prepared for the future. If he’d stopped to think about it, Wolf would’ve realized South didn’t have much as far as food was concerned, but he was fully stocked with booze and toilet paper, ready to face the end of the world.

Once he’d filled his mind and Ring of Holding with priceless books, Wolf decided it was about time he collected the materials he needed to strengthen his body.

Wolf called the first stage of Star Body Body Refining art Blood like Magma. After reading the second manual he’d named that stage of his body’s evolution Bones like Bedrock, since it focused on fortifying the bones and making them unbreakable.

Just like South had said, this stage was considerably more difficult on the practitioner than the first one. Someone would have to expose all of Wolf’s bones, etch them with lines that matched mystic patterns provided in the manual and then fill in the tiny grooves with the second stage elixir.

With time, or preferably the use of healing potions, Wolf’s wounds and bones would heal, while the tincture would seep into the bones and meld with them. Just like with the first stage, the process would take time to set in, and Wolf would have a craving for large quantities of mineral rich food for several months. The only thing the boy found troublesome about the process and the consequences was that his body weight would once again double, and in a year he’ll weigh more than a hundred and twenty kilos.

Wolf spent another couple of weeks wandering the city. He’d followed his big brother’s instructions to the letter and found all ingredients for the second and third stages for Star Body Body Refining art. He even went to a Mage Academy backed curiosity shoppe in the adjacent Port Town, which was the name of the western district of Silver City. There Wolf found an extremely bizarre, pitch-black rock, which South claimed contained trace amounts of Avarium. This was a mineral Wolf had never heard of, but it was an ingredient required for the fourth stage tonic.

The joy Wolf felt from finding what he’d needed was seriously dampened by the price tags of the items he’d bought. Even with Wolf’s extensive finances this shopping spree put a serious dent in them, and it practically turned the boy into a real beggar.

Wolf had parted from a staggering amount of forty thousand gold pieces. The items needed for the second stage of Star Body Body Refining art were expensive, but reasonable. They cost around forty-five hundred gold pieces. The materials for the third stage elixir totaled a bit over twenty thousand gold pieces. As for the rock with trace amounts of Avarium, it was a curio that could partly negate spells coming your way, and had a price tag of almost fifteen thousand gold pieces.

Thinking of all the money he had spent made Wolf feel dizzy. He had even dug into his father’s finances to pay for all of these items, practically leaving nothing behind save for the platinum.

Still, he now had everything he needed for the next stage. The only thing he had to do now was find someone he could entrust his life to to perform the bone tattooing.

Fortunately, Wolf had one such person in his life, but the question was how to talk him into performing the procedure. It boiled down to Wolf asking South to torture him, and the boy wasn’t certain his big brother would agree.

That Sunday Wolf prepared extremely fine ingredients for lunch. He blew ten gold pieces just on them and did his best to prepare a delicious meal. He pampered South in any way he could come up with. Once the food was eaten, but before South could start drinking large quantities of his own elixir, Wolf cleared his throat.

“Ahem. Big brother,” he began in a flattering tone, “you know you’re the person I trust the most in this world?”

“You want me to butcher you like a pig and carve up your bones for that silly little Body Refinement technique you’re practicing,” South said flatly with a dark expression.

Wolf blushed. He was caught before even popping the question. He nodded his head sheepishly.

“Yes,” he muttered.

South exhaled in frustration. “Fine,” he agreed, then tossed his wineskin to Wolf.

“Drink this without stopping until you pass out,” he ordered, and Wolf enthusiastically nodded his head as he caught the wineskin.

“Thank you Big brother,” the boy said and started chugging.

“Don’t you ‘Thank you Big brother’ me! I don’t approve of that right of passage one bit. But, it’s an important quality to see things to the end,” South said seriously, but Wolf didn’t say anything. He was busy downing wine like crazy, his mind already spinning.

The bum looked up at the sky in a thoughtful manner.

“You little idiot. Suffering needlessly,” he said with a hint of disdain before sighing and facing Wolf once more. “Getting drunk won’t help you deal with the pain, but at least you won’t remember anything after you get intoxicated enough.”

It was plain to see that South disapproved of the whole Star Body thing, but it wasn’t his place to say no, since it was another person’s choice.

Wolf held out for a good five minutes before toppling over and passing out. South slapped him a couple of times for good measure and Wolf opened his eyes.

“Why Dad?! Why?” he cried out before passing out once again.

South apparently wasn’t satisfied enough and opened Wolf’s mouth. Then he shoved the wineskin into his mouth and kept drowning him in wine. Once South was sufficiently content with Wolf’s level of drunkenness he sighed once more while shaking his head.

“Sigh. He was so excited that he even forgot to take out the ingredients and potions...” South said seriously and soberly while taking out the things from Wolf’s Ring of Holding. Then he painted the alley red with his little brother’s blood.