I looked over at Luin, who was sitting next to her pile of white cores, slowly popping them into her mouth. She made that ‘Mmm Mmm’ face every time. She seemed to savor the sweet aftertaste. I shook my head at her antics and made sure I had collected the rest of the sacks into my magic bag. I turned to the sound of Luin’s voice.

“Eight. Eight. Odd eyeballs.”

“What’s eight-eight, odd eyeballs?”

“Floating number here,” she pointed to the top right of her vision.”

Odd eyeballs? Then it dawned on me. “Is that what you see, Luin?” I asked as I drew eighty-eight and the ‘%’ sign.

“Yep, yep. Luin sees that here,” she pointed to the top right of her vision.

“Did it go up as you ate the cores?”

“Yep, yep.”

“Luin, how did you level up twice when the Kobolds kept you confined?”

I could see her become a bit upset at the question, but she looked at me and smiled away the sadness. “Kobold alpha forced me to eat cores he brought. When I wouldn’t bond with him, he stopped bringing them to me, then put me in that room.”

“I see. I’m sorry you had to go through that, Luin.”

“Nope, nope. Not papa’s fault. Kobolds did that, not you.”

I couldn’t help it. I bent down and picked her up, and gave her a massive hug. She patted me on the back a few times, and I allowed her to drop to the ground. “Ok. Let’s go turn in the quest and find us a nice meal; how about it?”

She nodded her head feverishly, and we began our walk back to town. I cursed myself as I realized it must be later than I thought. I wanted to meet with Hiroaki and see his books for me to gain Traits from. “Come here, Luin. Going to give you a piggyback ride.”

“Piggy ride?”

I laughed at her sideways gaze and bent down. “Put your hands around my neck, and wrap your legs around my chest.”

She did as I asked, and I held onto her legs between my chest and upper arms, and I began to run. I mentally pushed my speed buff to fifty percent and took off down the worn dirt road. I could hear Luin squealing with delight from behind. Seeing as she held on just fine, I pushed the speed buff up to a hundred percent. With the extra Mana, I barely felt it trickle away. On the other hand, Luin was saying something, but I couldn’t hear her over the wind’s howling.

It only took us around twenty minutes to get back to the west gate on Mythtide. The guard seemed a bit taken back at the speed of our arrival, but I made sure to drop the speed a hundred meters out from them.

We walked back into town and towards the Adventurer's Guild. I saw Draf alone at his desk, the other receptionists having lines in front of them. Guess not everyone enjoyed Draf’s demeanor or looks.

“Hey, Draf. I’m turning in a quest. I have enough for four completions,” I said as I began to take out the leathery sacks by the handful.

“You completed four Fyrbee quests?” asked the tattooed man.

“Yes, sir.”

“You're lucky. If you had caught the attention of multiple hives, they would have swarmed you. They are Rank F Bone threats, but an entire hive is classified as a Rank F Jade threat. If you have some trick of taking them out easily, I would grab the quest for the Royal Jelly and the quest for a live queen. They pay an incredible amount.”

I thanked him as he counted out the hundred and twenty-seven pristine sacks.”How in the world did you do this? I’ve never seen such pristine sacks before.”

“It’s a rare Trait I have,” I said.

“I see. Well, I’ll give you the four gold for the four completions. I’ll give you ten silver for the seven remaining. You’ll have sixty GCP added to your account. I can’t give you anything extra for the unfished quest.”

“That’s fine. Thank you, Draf.”

The man instantly made all the sacks vanish and placed the fourteen coins onto the counter. I swiped them into my hand before they vanished into my bag. “What and when is the next bell?”

“The Eighth bell is in about thirty-five minutes.”

“Oh, I’m late. See you around, Draf.”

The man waved me away and sat back on his chair. I made my way up to the second floor and was stopped by the guards going up to the third. “Hey guys, I have an appointment with Hiroaki I’m late for.”

The second guard nodded and allowed me to go up the stairs. I figured the door after the room I had been in was his office and knocked on the door. A few moments passed before Hiroaki opened the door and allowed me to enter.

His office was not at all what I was expecting. Instead of posh or stylish, it was like a museum. His walls had a large number of glass displays with weapons, items, and the skulls of some pretty scarring-looking creatures.

“I’m a collector. I spent almost all my time in this damn room, so I began to display my tressures here. You wouldn’t believe how often the nobles want to buy something from the collection.

“Ok, I was able to grab a few of the books not on cool down. I would recommend only selecting two and using them tonight. In two weeks, before you leave, I can try and reserve the last two you’d like to learn. Of course, you can rent them for the normal price after today.”

“The books have cooldown periods?”

“Yes. It normally takes about a week for the gem to recharge. Of course, if someone wanted to purchase the use of the book, we could recharge it faster with an Azure Core.”

“If I supply the core, could I try and use a third book?”

“Sure, if you think your mind could handle it. Now I’m interested to see what would happen If you try. I have seven books. They are in order of importance to new fledglings; Core Identification, Cartographer, Dungeon Cartographer, Basic Survival, The Adventurer's Call, Basic Cold Resistance, and The Guild’s Locations.

“Core Identification, this Trait allows you to do just as the name implies. When looking at a core, the rank of the core will be visible above it. This is crucial if you wish to make a decent earning as an Adventurer. You don’t want to accidentally absorb a Rank S or higher core while you sleep.

“Cartographer gives you a magic map. I can’t begin to explain the importance of this Trait. The Dungeon Cartographer does the same thing but allows you to map out dungeons. If you plan on going dungeon diving, then this will save your life at some point.

“Basic Survival gives you a flat five percent boost to all survival skills. This Trait paired with Basic Cold Resistance would give you a fifteen percent boost to your resilience to the cold. We also have the Basic Heat Resistance book but is currently on cool down.

“Now, The Adventurer's Call, and The Guild’s Locations are for those who wish to travel and visit many of The Guild’s Halls thought out the world. The call allows you to hear any alarms The Guild uses around you. So if they put out an alarm for Class Amber alert, the Trait will allow you to hear the alarm and understand its meaning if you are close by. I hope you understand how this can save your life and the lives of those in the area. The location trait works with Cartagrpher and marks every known location of The Guild’s Halls on the map.

“Any questions?”

“No. Thank you for explaining each one. Does the guild have any maps one could use to expand their magic map?”

“So you already have Cartapgrapher and learned that neat trick? No, we don’t. Finding someone who creates physical maps is hard. We have no way of copying maps without someone painstaking recreating them. On top of that, someone must have the Map Making Trait in order to create a physical map that will import onto your magic map.”

“Now I see why the Araneae wanted so much for a single map of the area,” I muttered to myself.

“Oh! Have you met a tribe of the Araneae? Fascinating race they are. We have one of their shops here in Mythtide, in the eastern market.”

“I’ll have to swing by and see what they have. Alright, I’ve made up my mind. I’ll take Core Identification, Basic Survival, and Basic Cold Resistance. How much would the Basic Heat Resistance cost me once its cooldown is over?”

“If you pay downstairs, you’re looking at twenty gold,” he said before grabbing the three books from the pile and stacking them on his deck in front of me.”

“They are that expensive?”

“Yes. They’re always in demand. We rent them out to anyone who can afford them. The price is to acquire more skill books and pay for the cores used to recharge them.”

“Do you buy skill books?”

“I could take it off your hands as payment for the use of another.”

I pulled out the Cartagpher book and handed it over to Hiroaki.

“A basic skill book, but one used often enough. Would allow us to use fewer cores,” he said before going into his desk and pulling out something before flicking it over to me.

I looked at the coin in my hands. It was a carbon copy of the coins he gave me for the classes. Instead of a black gem at its center, a white one shown. I tucked it into my magic pouch and looked at the books in front of me. I pulled the top off the stack, a dark brown leather-covered book with a green gem shown through the leather cover at its center. The words Core Identification were written in black ink above the gem.

I opened the book, and the images and words began to float off the pages into my mind. A minute later, it was finished, and the book snapped shut. My head throbbed, but it wasn’t near as bad as the first couple of times I had done it.

[ System Notification ]

Core Identification Trait Learned

The second book didn’t have a leather cover. It looked almost like papyrus and was sky blue with a white gem at the center. I figured this one had to be the cold one. Opening it, my head began to throb a bit more painfully, but it still wasn’t as bad as that first time.

[ System Notification ]

Basic Cold Resistance Trait Learned

Finished, I pulled out one of my backup Azure Cores and placed it on the table. I had to blink twice as a ghostly gold-looking ‘C’ floated above the Azure Core. That was cool. It automatically applied it. Even If I looked away, I could still see the ‘C’ hovering over the gem in my peripheral vision.

“You sure, you want to try for a third so soon?” Hiroaki asked.

“I should be good. My headache isn’t close to what I had the first time I used a skill book.”

I picked up the last book. It was red with a white gem on it. I opened the cover, and tried not to vomit. The pain was incredible but still seemed far less painful than the first try I gave the Cartagrpher book. A minute went by, and I was gasping for air and sweating. That had sucked.

“Fascinating. I believed you could withstand the pressure from a second book, but a third? Your endurance is incredible. I would strongly urge you to wait at least a week before trying to use another. The brain needs time to adapt and process the memories that were forced into your mind.”

“I think I’ll follow that advice.

“Can Luin use the painful books to become stronger?”

I looked over at her sitting in the chair to my side, then looked up at Hiroaki, who shrugged. “If you think you can endure it. I think the Cartapher Trait would be best. Since you two are always in a Party, you could see one another on the map at all times,” the Sugar Glider said.

“Wait! Is it possible to block a part of her and my map so one can accidentally see it?”

“Ah, your Hero Spawn. Yes, you can will your map to block anyone outside your Party from seeing it. You just need to will it.”

“Also, you mentioned Party twice now. What is that?”

“Did Horrow teach you anything?”

“No, I’ve only really been around the ferret a handful of times. My mentor, Lastaf, was going to teach me everything I needed to know, but he’s away for now.”

“Lastaf? Old as hell, Axoli?”

“Yes.”

Hiroaki began laughing again. “Damn, Zeal. You have some incredible luck. Lastaf is one of the best swordsmen I know of. He’s also one of those who were Horrow’s party when they wiped out the outside Dungeon. You keep some powerful allies.”

“You want to try, Luin?”

“Yep, yep.”

Hiroaki handed me back the Cartagrpher book, and I handed it to Luin. The book was about a fourth of her size. It looked like she tried to open the book but was having a hard time.

“Luin, not strong enough,” she let out a sigh.

“Luin, say magic map,” said Hiroaki.

“Magic map,” she said before a smaller version of my map displayed in front of her and startled her as she tried to swat it away with her hands.

“She already has it. I assume you two have a bond?”

“We do, I said.”

The Sugar Glider began laughing again.