Everybody was working quietly under the watchful gaze of the golem. No one wanted to attract unnecessary attention. Although it was just a soulless being, the golem had been given total authority within the reading room and could use his authority to enact punishment. Perhaps it was precisely because it didn’t possess a soul that everybody dreaded it. It was just like an automaton, like robots back on Earth. No one could negotiate with the golem which made it a dangerous guy in the mind of all the students of the academy. No one wanted to be punished as punishment meant a loss of contribution points. Thus, everybody was well-behaved except one person.

One particular student had attracted the golem’s attention as it found her acting strangely. From time to time, Abi would call for a book, would glance at it several seconds before dismissing it for another one. She was just glancing at a book before throwing it aside as if it was worthless. If she had done it three or four time, the golem might not have mind it but she had been doing it for one hour already. How many books had she chosen from the bookshelves? The golem wasn’t sure but it didn’t like what she was doing. The golem thought that she was doing it on purpose to cause trouble. However, she hadn’t broken any rule thus the golem couldn’t do nothing about it. Thus, it continued to watch carefully.

Contrary to the golem’s suspicion though, Abi was not just fooling around. She was in fact reading with her [Divine Eyes]. Naturally, she had casted an illusion on her eyes so that no one would notice anything. With her power, she only needed several seconds to read a book without the need to open it at all. Moreover, like any self-respecting mage, she possessed a perfect memory. Everything her senses perceived was irremediably remembered to the utmost detail. If it were all to it, it wouldn’t be a big deal but her eye power multiplied the usefulness of this capability several folds. She needed only a glance to record all information into her memory. Thanks to Feanor’s help, she had begun with excellent which had led her to other more detailed books.

History, culture, magic system, … she hadn’t neglected anything as each piece of information was valuable. The most important things to do after arriving in a new world was always to gather information. It had become routine for her. One hour was enough to record all the books she found interesting. Everything was now recorded in her memory, all she needed to do now was to analyse the data. Although, a mage could remember everything his or her senses perceived, not everyone found it useful. Indeed, recalling a specific memory became difficult as there was too much information inside the brain. Sometimes, it could even cause some mental problems. However, Abi was a special case, she came from Earth where magic was inexistent.

A civilization devoid of magic had to find other ways to record its knowledge and the civilizations back on Earth were no exceptions. First, writing had been invented and then photography which both used paper as information medium. Videography came later which required the invention of magnetic tape capable of storing more information tan paper. It was especially in the modern era that humanity faced a revolution in data storage with the advent of computer. A single hard disk drive was enough to contain hundreds of thousands of digitalized books which was truly a miraculous achievement. However, each invention comes with its lot of problem.

It was soon found out that information should not be stored randomly. The more structured data were, the better it was to retrieve the information afterward. Thus, information science had been created to deal with this problem ad as a high-level scientist, Abi had excellent knowledge in information science. Although, she currently possessed no computer, it was not a problem as she had her own brain. Within her mind, all the information from the books had been categorized by theme and stored inside memory files which were linked to each other. She had unexpectedly transformed her brain like a computer database with a well-defined structure and so that specific information could be retrieved quickly.

Moreover, she had succeeded in isolating tiny parts of her mind so that they could perform preprogramed tasks. Those programs were handled by her subconscious mind to which she only needed to give simple orders. Now, she was retrieving the data about history. Thousands of memory files opened simultaneously before the information they possessed were analysed by some programs. Soon, a new appeared within her mind which synthetize resume Altaïa’s history. All of that took time to describe but it happened in the blink of an eye.

As Abi began to check the first part of the memory file, she got a litlle disappointed. It was the part about the most ancient era. She had the suspicion that there were no written records about that era and the information surely came from legends and myths. It was not reliable at all. The more she read about it the more it appeared like a fairy tale to her. It was probably all fantasies.

According to the file, the Altaïan (inhabitant of Altaïa) had been created following a cataclysmic event during the primordial era. At those times, the multiverse had just been born and the primordials were the first living beings which had appeared. Those immortal beings were blessed by the heavens and were granted divine light which made their magic unparalleled under the heavens. Comparing them with modern mages was like comparing a microbe to a giant dinosaur, they were not of the same world. The primordials reigned supreme for many years and none of the lower life forms which had appeared after them possessed to qualification to challenge their dominance.

The primordial era lasted billions of years but a calamity ended it abruptly. One day, the primordials faced an entity that they themselves couldn’t defeat. This creature had appeared out of nowhere and was so strong that its strength defied the imagination. Although it didn’t possess divine light, it had something else, something evil and more powerful. Chaos was his name and it spread darkness wherever it went. Chaos had the power to corrupt the minds of all living things. Even a primordial, the embodiment of divine light, was not immune to its corruption. He could turn a benevolent being into a bloodthirsty killer with only one thing in mind: to destroy. Aided by an army of corrupted, Chaos conquered the entire material realm of the multiverse and not even the primordials could stop him.

The chaos era also lasted billions of years until the last of the primordials made the ultimate sacrifice to defeat Chaos. They burned their divine lights which created a terrifying spell, a spell powerful enough to seal Chaos forever. No one knew where he had been imprisoned but it was said that he was still alive somewhere. The primordials which had lost their divine lights were destined to die. They seeded the material realm with life planet after planet, galaxy after galaxy, until their last breath. Since then, the Altaïan whorshipped the primordials as their gods.

The story made Abi snort within her mind. The mere idea of an entity capable of conquering the whole material realm rendered the whole story utterly ridiculous. How vast was the material realm? Someone with no knowledge of astronomy couldn’t phantom the vastness of the physical universe. There were quadrillions (thousands of billions of billions) of stars with even more number of planets there. The dimension of the material plan was so enormous that the mind couldn’t even imagine it. A single person had no way to conquer a space so vast even if given billions of years. It was just impossible.

Shaking her head, Abi continued to read the memory file till she got something interesting. Apparently, true history records only appeared a million years ago on Altaïa. Once she read the file memory file till the end, she couldn’t help but be worried. When she landed on this world, she had imagined it to be peaceful but she was wrong. According to the records and for millions of years, the Altaïan were haunted by the magical beasts. The four continents had been habited by Altaïans in the beginning but because of the magical beasts, the habitants on the three other continents had been exterminated. The northern continent itself was not immune to danger ever. Not even 200 years ago, a magical beast horde had broken through the Mountain Spirit Kingdom frontiers before slaughtering their way to the royal capital. If not for courage of the noble families who had sacrificed many of their members to stop this horde, the Mountain Spirit Kingdom would have ceased to exist. Even now, some minor hordes attacked the frontiers every few years which required continuous extermination.

Abi hadn’t suspect such hidden danger. She could die at any moment if she was not careful. After all, she was just at level 5. What would happen if magical beast attacked the academy. And that was not all, the neighbouring countries also constituted a serious danger for her life. If one looked at a map of the northern continent, one would see an enormous mountain range several thousand kilometres long. With a north-south orientation, the central mountain range separated the northern continent in nearly two equal parts. The Mountain Spirit Kingdom occupied a large part of the central mountain range. Although, there were not many agricultural lands within the mountains, it was rich in cultivation resources. Precious ores, rare herbs and an environment rich in ether had made the mountains a paradise for mages. Of course, the neighbouring countries would like to get a share of the pie as well. Unfortunately for them, the Spirit Mountain Kingdom was too difficult was not sharing.

This caused permanent tension with the neighbouring countries which sometimes causes devastating wars, wars the Spirit Mountain Kingdom always won. It was not called Spirit Mountain Kingdom just for show, the term spirit was the key. Indeed, the central mountain range housed the totality of the spirit beast population of the entire northern continent and the Spirit Mountain Kingdom controlled a big part of their living areas. Only the scraps were left for the other countries and they couldn’t do anything about it. A kingdom of spiritualists was just too difficult to deal with. The neighbouring countries could only curse the day when king Alexander had created this hateful country.

Thousand years ago, Alexander lead a group of refugees to the central mountain range. They had come from different countries recently destroyed by magical beasts. These people were desperate and had lost all hope. Only their survival instinct was pushing them forward. From time to time, magical beast would attack which reduced their number continuously. Seeing that there was no hope, Alexander went deep within the mountains and made pacts with spirit beasts. He then became the first spiritualist in history. Afterward, he taught the refugees how to make a contract with a spirit beast. With their new sources of power, the refugees began to repel the magical beasts outside the central mountain range before establishing their own kingdom. Alexander was crowned king and his descendants ruled the Spirit Mountain Kingdom since then. The gold statue in the library hall had been created in honour of is courage.

That made Abi’s worries diminish a little. At least, she had landed in a powerful country. It was a kind of luck on one hand but on the other hand, the whole world was constantly in war for survival. Sooner or later, she would be embroiled in this never-ending war. But all of that didn’t change her plan as her priority was the cultivate quickly. She must rise her cultivation level as quickly as possible. With [Renaissance of the phoenix] her cultivation speed should be insanely quick till level 10. Once at level 10, she would need to find cultivation resources to continue to cultivate.

After dealing with history, Abi opened the files about magic. Countless information appeared within her mind which she began to synthetize. But in the end, she got nothing interesting. Their magic knowledge could be considered standard if compared to the other worlds she had visited in the past. There was nothing new to her apart the summoning magic. She was encountering this kind of magic for the first time. She had to master this magic, she thought as the Mountain Spirit Kingdom was a country of spiritualists.

She recalled the battle of this morning and she had effectively witnessed Aerin and the twin’s battle prowess increasing violently after summoning their spirit beasts. This could be useful, Abi thought. Even if she already possessed powerful spells in her arsenal, new ones were always welcome. She began to analyse all the data available about summoning magic. Soon, a new memory file appeared within her mind.

According to it, summoning magic had a simple concept. Spirit beasts lived in the spirit realm, a dimension where the mind affected the world stronger than in the material plan. There, a single thought could create a mountain, could make you fly or even traverse millions of kilometres. Because of that, spirit beasts thirsted for a powerful mind which could only be obtained after gathering knowledges. The more knowledge you had, the more powerful your mind became. As creature born from nature, spirit beasts had naturally weak minds. However, they were gifted with incredible magic talents. Mages on the other hand, had poor magic talents but powerful minds. Among those two groups of individuals, one group possessed something the other group coveted.

The base of summoning magic was to convince a spirit beast to make a contract with you. You could borrow its power and in exchange, you had to feed it with knowledge. It was a win-win scenario if the two parties could agree with each other. Unfortunately, a spirit beast was just like a wild animal driven mainly by its own instinct. It would attack anyone on sight to devour one’s mind. If one was not careful enough, one would literally lose one’s mind and become a mental degenerate. The only way to make a contract with a spirit beast was then to force it to accept the contract by force and that could only be done in the spirit realm. The first thing a newbie spiritualist must do is to send his soul to the spirit realm, find a suitable spirit beast, and make it yield by force.

As Abi continued to analyse the data, something suddenly caught her attention, a certain part about the spirit plan. From her current understanding, the multiverse was composed of several realms superimposed on each other with each realm possessing its own characteristic. The material realm was the largest of all of them which made it the most populated plan. Abi also knew the existence of other realms although she had never gone there. However, it was the first time she heard the existence of the spirit realm and she found its characteristics extremely interesting.

Apparently, the spirit realm had the same size as the material realm. Moreover, a link existed between each location in the spirit realm and only one location in the material realm. The best part was that the spirit realm was not a physical dimension but a spiritual one which meant one could do things considered impossible in the material realm, for example teleportation over unlimited distances.

Of course, one could teleport through in the material realm as well but it was limited in range. No mage could boast being capable of teleporting between two planets of the same star system even if it was possible via dimensional portals. But even portals had limits as they allowed one to cross several light years at best. However, the spiritualists had apparently solved this problem by travelling through the spirit realm. Like that they could cross considerable distance from their homeworld. Even if they couldn’t send their physical bodies, such capacity was game-changing for Abi which explained her excitement.

The main reason she had taken such high risks to access the causality realm was that she didn’t know the exact coordinate of Earth. But if she could travel through the spirit realm as far as she wanted, she could maybe pinpoint Earth direction via divination. With enough luck, it could really work. Abi didn’t know how many distance she would have to cross or how much time she would need to spend but she thought it was worth it. Although the plan sounds crazy it was better than to go to the causality realm again as it was too dangerous.

Abi was really excited and extremely satisfied. She had arrived in Altaïa for only three days and a quick trip to the library had already help her a lot. She had a new plan now, a plan to find Earth which improved her mood greatly. Had she not been inside a library she would have shouted “Yes!” outloud. She was eager to go to the spirit realm but after some thoughts, she realised she had a problem. She had not enough contribution points.