Chapter 2 – Silence in the library

Kifirin was indulging in reading. Yes, indulging. Gorging herself with words. Engulfing book after book, greedily. It is said that books are the food of the soul, and in her case, it was right.

We could say that our heroine was the truest being to the bookworm creed. As life has lost most of its meaning and interest to her, she had naturally fallen into reading to pass time.

Reading to learn.

Reading to feel.

Reading to live.

Books had become her fuel, and the last binding keeping her sane.

Books were holy.

And so she had chosen Heimlin city as her starting point. As capitol of the Strategos Empire, land of the wise and learned, Heimlin sported the grandest library ever: The knowledge Library. Books there numbered in the hundreds of millions, and the great edifice that bore them had many, many floors. It was the highest building in the whole Empire, and yet it was surprisingly beautiful. One could even say graceful. The mighty Alexandria would pale in comparison.

The myth said that the Bright lord himself had willed it into existence, and ruled that to come into any position of power, be it the king or the lowest official, then one was to at least earn the golden Reader rank. He would suffer no fools at the head of the empire he founded. He also declared knowledge free. Entrance to the library had no cost. However, to be allowed at certain floors, one had to have reached certain Reader ranks.

It was a fair system, moreover it permitted the Strategos Empire to flourish under the shadow of the library and the guidance of the wise. The Strategianos were the cherished children of Order. As such, the empire was aligned with its most respected parent.

Followers of chaos were scarce on this golden land.

Now, what was that about Reader ranks? It was the same system as currency or mercenary ranks. Copper, silver, gold, platinum, crystal and dakinum. The worthiest was obviously the last, Dakinum.

In the knowledge library, the more you read, the higher was your standing. To attain a rank you had to have read a set number of books. Copper was 100. Silver 1 000. Gold 10 000. Platinum 100 000. Crystal 1 000 000. Dakinum 10 000 000. Head librarian Davros was rumored to have attained Dakinum rank, but never deigned to verify the tale. He was too busy reading.

By reaching silver rank, you also completed the basic mental training. This was also what Kifirin was after. She would enjoy herself reading while gaining stats. A win-win situation.

A great happiness warming her heart, she had entered the untouched library. It had been spared by the earthquake, and not even a tremor had been felt inside. Such was the power of the bright Lord.

The orgy was going well

-------

Ding!

System notice: you’ve gained a skill!

As you have an unbelievably super-duper quick reading pace and it’s FUCKING warping time, you have been given the “Timey-wimey reading” skill. You may NOT delete it, I ain’t got time for shit like smoothing out the timeline.

Genuinely yours,

Systra.

[FORCED] PASSIVE – Timey-wimey reading [beginner 1 – 0%]

Your reading speed is out of this world, leaving into the dust even the most dedicated of readers. It feels like time does not flow the same way for you when you read (Are you really human? Geez, seriously)

• When you’re reading, time warps to accommodate your speed (ratio of 1 : 3)

>> Whenever you read for 3 minutes, only 1 minute will really have gone by

• Satiation level drops normally (not affected by the timey-wimey)

Ding!

System notice: You have been awarded the title ~Dedicated Bookworm~

You are an avid reader and recognized as such by your peers.

• When the title is equipped, you read 8% faster

• Fame : +50

Ding!

System Notice: You attained the copper rank (reader)

100/100 books have been read

Congratulation on reaching the copper Reader rank!

• You read 8% faster

• You have learned [PASSIVE] languages mastery

• You can now access the copper rank floors

You shall be awarded a D-rank skill as well as XP at the central librarian administration. Please go ask for your rewards.

Kifirin was surprised at the content of the windows *Huh? I’m warping the timeline? What does that even mean? … and isn’t the skill half assed? I mean…. It doesn’t even explain whether it’s time that slows down or me who speeds up. Timey wimey, I guess*

She was also irritated with the snarky remarks…. And felt like she somehow knew Systra... Yes, this… barbed tongue… it felt familiar. She decided to remember the name for future references. Now was a happy time. She had just obtained valuable tools, tools that would allow her to read even faster… they just needed honing! And if she thought about it, the skill had other uses…. *Nierk nierk. I just need to read and time slows down right?*

Putting down the book she had just finished, she went to the first floor cafeteria, one of the 3 cafeterias housed by the library, but the only one where buying what not mandatory for using the premises.

Sitting down at a deserted area, she reached into her newbie space-ring for one of the 20 meat jerky stripes allotted to her during character creation. Eating to raise her satiation level, she remarked that the jerky may have been dry but that the taste was surprisingly nice.

Busy masticating (the meat was really tough!), Kifirin reminisced about what she had learned so far about this world. It was complex and rooted on religion, a theatre to the cold war going on between Order and Chaos.

Situm was the name of this world, or more specifically this “plane of existence”. The Lore related the existence of an infinite number of parallel worlds/planes, and the appearance of the players was explained as their “plane-shifting” from Dathum to Situm.

Thus, players were named “shifters” by the natives of Situm, for they had the unique ability to shift worlds.

4 continents made up this world:

The Mortal Continent, named from the numerous mortals that inhabited it was the place the players found themselves in. It was a real melting pot of species, and Low Mortals cohabited more or less peacefully with their higher counterparts while immortal races walked the land in boredom (mostly).

There was also a sort of feud going on between Southern humanoids and monster-kinds from the North, but it was barely hinted at in the books she had read.

The Immortal Land, home of the immortals was unreachable to the unworthy. Mortals had yet to find it, and many hungered for its many mystical treasures.

An old legend told of the apparition of a stranger from another plane that would one day reveal it to the rest of the world. Thus, immortals were quite unfriendly to shifter whereas mortals saw them as a hope for new beginnings. And riches. Let’s not forget the riches.

The Divine Haven was the dwelling of Deities. Gods and Deus (both generally referred to as gods) made up its entire population, and the only immortals beings allowed there were servants to the divine. Mortals were banned.

Finally, there was the fabled Sacred Abode, estate to the primeval gods. It was a mystery as to how the sacred of order and his chaos counterpart managed to cohabitate peacefully, but apparently they did, as evidenced by the continued existence if the universe.

----

Now, about the peculiar existence of players. Not only did they have the unique ability to shift planes, which was already a groundbreaker… but they were also supposed to be able to rank up.

That was unheard of, because while one may evolve within his own rank level (grade up), he may never rank up.

That was the first law of spirit.

A low mortal could only dream of attaining higher mortality, because that’s what it was, a dream.

A High mortal could never become one of the immortals.

No immortal could reach divinity.

No divine being could evolve to Sacredhood.

Yet, if one were to believe the ancient prophecy of the shifters, then he would know that these new beings brought with them the wings of renewal, change, and evolution.

They were a revolution. Would they bring war or peace? Destruction or creation?

…. Order or Chaos?

The history of the game world was extremely dense, and Kifirin had only scratched it. She wondered how the Situm Corporation had managed to create so much knowledge… millions and millions and books… created from nothingness. The minds behind the game had to be brilliant, incredibly so.

She happily sighted. So much to read! Her face, graced by a rare smile was glowing with bliss as she left the cafeteria and zeroed onto a book that seemed promising.

--------

Time went by as she kept on reading. Other than her body pushing her to eat a few times, she had absolutely no sense of time. She lost herself in the books she was devouring. It was glorious, a real orgy of words, her mind voraciously eating up the knowledge and digesting it in a frenzy.

Her timey-wimey reading skill kept leveling up at a frightening pace. It had reached the mid-intermediate level by the time she felt herself wearing out.

She was mentally tiring, so Kifirin decided to finish her current collection of books before moving on to something more physical. After all, they said that physical activity was good for digestion, and she just had a feast!

Ding!

System Notice: You attained the Reader silver rank

1 000/ 1 000 books have been read

Congratulation on reaching the Reader silver rank!

• You read 16% faster

• You can now access the silver rank floors

• You have completed the basic mental training

- +50 intellect

- +50 wisdom

- +100 focus (focus stat has been created)

You shall be awarded a C-rank skill as well as XP at the central librarian administration.

Please go ask for your rewards.

> The Copper rank rewards have yet to be withdrawn

Kifirin smiled. Nice timing.

Titring!

System notice: You have been playing for over 18 R(real)hours, please unlog soon to take care of yourself

Her smile fell. Shit. She had totally lost herself in reading. She’d had lessons today… and missed them. College. It seemed so far away…

*Well… what’s done is done. I’ll say I was sick.*

She unlogged

--------xxx---------

Coming out of her capsule, Alya stretched her body on the last HAL song.

HAL was a legend, and the most loved artist of all times. Nobody could compare in terms of singing skills, let alone compositions skills. Every single original song of his was a big hit and one could never get enough of listening to them.

He was also a total mystery.

Of possible Russian origins, the guy became known on the internet 3 years ago through a single song: Future’s blues. It was a worldwide hit and became the rail that propelled him onto the road of stardom. However, the young man never disclosed his real identity, thanks to a nifty placed silver HUD that hid his face from the world.

Smart cookie

Alya loved his music and often found herself singing along. It brightened her days, the beauty of his voice. She had no interest in the singer though, and gossip magazines tended to irk her.

Looking at the clock, she saw that it was high time to make dinner. She was quite surprised that her brother hadn’t tried to remind her of her duties yet. Yes, she had been entrusted with her baby brother when moving out. He had tagged along and now lived as a total freeloader.

Her parents had made themselves clear on the fact that she was responsible for him and had to take care of his needs. So there she was, catering to his every whims and taking care of household chores.

It was total favoritism but she could not talk back because she still needed her family’s support. It had always been this way anyways, so she was used to it. Golden boy would forever be the light of their parents’ life. His twin died in the womb, so all the grief had turned into even more love that focused on the little miracle.

Pampered as he was, Danny though himself as the center of the world and was extremely egoist. He probably had a superiority complex, and if one must say, his naturally handsome appearance wasn’t helping with the personality growth.

Sighting, Alya entered the little kitchenette and cooked, then called her brother for dinner. No answer. The boy was probably playing, and would eat whenever he felt like it, which is why she left his portion on the table. Hopefully, it would still be hot when he came around, or she would have to hear his grievances about having to heat the food.

Such an obnoxious, spoiled brat.

With nothing to do, she decided to watch a Riverdance show.

She loved Irish music, and the tap-dancing was awesome. The group in question, Riverdance Legacy was pretty well known on the international scene, and toured the world doing live shows. One would soon happen in her country and she had already reserved a place. She was looking forward to it

--------xxx--------

Back to the library, Kifirin resumed the reading. It took her a few days, but she attained the gold and then the platinum reader rank as the timey-wimey skill reached the mid-advanced level.

She had been graced by too many bookworm titles to count, and her speed kept on increasing…. so much that her fellow readers though that she was fooling around flipping pages.

She acquired knowledge specific to the shifters, and 3 windows now appeared in her information menu as Game Knowledge sheets. She also had the option to share said windows, so she guessed that she could probably broker those pieces of information.

***************

Advertisement Previous

Chapter Fiction

Index Next

Chapter RSS About the author 1 Fictions 0 Posts 0 Threads Nergal Follow Author Sunday, December 7, 2014 10:16:19 PM Tuesday, December 9, 2014 9:18:01 AM France The Watcher

Bio:

Achievements Comments(8) Set Compact Log in to comment

Log In Load Comments Please enable JavaScript to load the comments! Log in to comment

Log In Settings Theme (Entire Website) Dark Light Dim background 0% 20% 40% 50% 60% 80% 100% Font Size 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 22 24 28 32 Reader Width Max 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% Font Family Default ————— Open Dyslexic Atkinson Hyperlegible ————— Arial Roboto Open Sans OS Default Comic Sans Lucida Verdana Ubuntu Ubuntu Condensed Franklin Gothic Garamond Caslon Minion Font Color Indent Color Scheme Theme Default OLED Black Royal Road Dark Dark Gray Gray Light Gray Sepia White Paragraph Spacing Close × Give Reputation to User: Points You can specify how many points you want to give (minimum: 0, maximum: 0). Comment (optional) Why are you giving this user reputation? Give Reputation Close About

Royal Road® is the home of web novels and fan fictions! In our amazing community, you can find various talented individuals who write as a hobby or even professionally, artists who create art for them, and many, many readers who provide valuable feedback and encouragement.

Amazon Affiliate Royal Road® is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Theme Select Dark Light

Follow Us On Need some help? Create a support ticket

Contact Contact Us by Email

Advertising Ads for Authors

Programmatic Advertising Royal Road® © 2013-2022 Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Blog | Status Tap again to scroll to the top!