Chapter 7

Acceptance

Everything was so grand and new that Lykan half thought he was in a dream. Surrounded by beautiful women and men. There were intricate walls and locations that seemed to both be alive with vibrant life forces but stationary as if they had grown to the perfect size and proportions and were now content to just hold their form as living plants that were slowly becoming more and more dense with metals as time went on.

The entire building and structures were amazing. The plants were an intricate ecosystem that all came together to form one function, provide shelter for the High Wood Elves. If Lykan had not been sure of their being a Supreme Spirit Protector of the High Wood Elves before, the very existence of this building would have been proof enough that such a being existed and was with the High Wood Elves.

The Library was unlike anything Lykan had ever seen. It was even beyond what he would expect. The books themselves were living attachments to a great tree. The pages were filled with magic that shined brightly to Lykan’s gaze and could be powered to turn into dark runes simply by applying energy to the runes.

To enter the Library, one simply had to place a hand on a sphere at the entrance of the Library where a small portion of mana would be siphoned off to feed the Library. There were no librarians or people who were needed to take care of the books once they had been used. The books themselves would repair from the mana of the user. It was brilliant. Spill something on the page. The page would absorb the excess and share it with the rest of the Library system.

Damaging a book was simple to fix. If you somehow managed to burn or damage one of the books, the book would then just draw energy enough from the person holding it to repair itself. Depending on the amount of damage, the Library might never allow someone back into its sacred halls. After hearing this last part, Lykan became very afraid and made a note to never harm the books. Not that he would anyway, but the idea of being forever denied to enter such a place was almost too much to bear.

As Octavia walked down the aisles of books with her, a few popped out like blooming flowers, opening up mid to partway through. Surprised by this, Lykan asked.

“The books are alive, or rather the Library is alive, and it remembers. When you touch a book, you leave a marking of your energy on each page. So when you come back, the Library remembers the books you have touched and tries to provide them to you. This is really handy for reading really long intricate works that take time and practice to Master,” Octavia said.

Hearing this, a smile crept on Lykan’s lips as he realized how amazing this was. An entire Library that not only remembers what books you read but where you were when you stopped? This was heaven, or at least close to it, as Lykan could picture. With that, he picked a book that had opened up for Octavia.

“Do you mind if I look at it?” Lykan asked.

Seeing the book in question, Octavia shook her head. It was on advanced magic theory and had been beyond her comprehension at the time, which was why it was only a few pages in. The concepts that were being described didn’t make much sense.

Lykan pulled the book up. There was a slight resistance at first, but then mana flowed from Lykan’s hand and fed the book allowing him to take the page.

“I will warn you, the more you read, the more draining it will likely feel. Each page requires mana, but you can adjust the energy needed based on how much you need to read comfortably. Reading in this way will help with your mana regeneration rates and can even unlock the Skill if you have an open Skill slot,” Octavia said.

Lykan looked at the pages but soon felt his advanced mind having trouble parsing the information it was receiving.

“Tough, isn’t it?” Octavia asked with a smile on her face.

Lykan nodded as he handed the book back and was surprised to see the book easily reattach itself to the vine he drew it from.

“For that book, I would recommend reading these others as a way to being to understand the concepts in that one,” Octavia said, pointing to a row of books that glowed a bright green for her.

Lykan looked at the books and then saw how they all went dark as he approached. Only the first book in the series glowed with a light yellow glow.

“So the colors are simple to understand. Green means you read the entire book. Yellow means it is the first book in the series if you wish to learn the concepts. And dark books are books that are in a series that you should likely read the books prior to, in order to understand what is happening,” Octavia said, pointing to all the books around. Most of which went instantly dark as Octavia left the aisle, leaving only Lykan in its place.

“This is…” Lykan trailed off, trying to think about what to say.

“Too much? Sorry, it can be a bit overwhelming at first,” Octavia said as she took in the hundreds and thousands of books that were available. From a distance, each book resembled a large leaf of a giant tree. Only once you got close could you see how many leaves it took to create the coat for this amazing tree.

“No, that’s not it. This is amazing. Can we stay?” Lykan said, grabbing the first yellow book in the series.

Seeing that he was intent on reading, Octavia let out a deep sigh. “Sure.” With that, she went picked up the book that Lykan had put down a moment ago. As soon as she touched it with her power, the book instantly went back to the page she was on, and she carried it to a reading table only to find that Lykan was already reading the book, engrossed in the introductory materials of casting.

Shaking her head at realizing how long ago it had been since she read that book and how long it took her to master the basics, she could only grimace. They were going to be here a long time.

“Oh, I almost forgot. At the back end over there,” she said, pointing to a section of the Library that was well away from any books. “That is the practical magic area. If you want to practice your spell forms and theories, you can do it there. It is actually encouraged as any excess mana or energy that is fired in there will be dispersed and absorbed to help sustain the Library.”

Lykan looked at the area in question then, with a smile on his face, moved to the table closest to the area indicated. While he didn’t think he could do what was being described yet, he did want to try everything. Only after a few hours of reading did the concepts of what was being said begin to make sense.

Octavia, for her part, had passed out a while ago. Her head was resting on the pages of her book as drool fell from her lip, only to be absorbed easily by the pages of the book. Lykan had watched the exchange, curious to see if the book would absorb the material as readily as she had explained. After seeing the drop disappear with no apparent damage to the book, Lykan nodded to himself before he continued reading. Only once it got close to midnight did Lykan even attempt to try the steps described in the pages of the beginners manual.

He went to the practical magic area and found that there was some type of film that seemed to separate the training area from the rest of the Library. It was readily apparent that the film separating the training area from the rest of the Library proper was translucent. Going to the center of the practice area, Lykan steadied his mind and tried to focus on the flow and movement of energies that were described in the pages of the beginner's book. If he was successful in causing his energies to flow, his fingers would glow with a golden hue.

Lykan could feel the pools of energy that the books had described. His powerful mind clearly recalled line by line the passages of the book he had read in its entirety from cover to cover. The words seemed to flow into his mind forming a clear depiction of what should be done. Find the mana or source of your power, check. Focus on the flow of the magic, the way it ebbs and flows within your body, check. Force the mana to move at your will, failure.

He could feel the energy from within. He intricately understood how this was a pool of energy that his body both naturally created and required. However the amount he needed to survive was only a portion of what his body created. He knew that instinctively he should be able to move the mana in question through his body. The process had been described as being as easy as breathing or the beating of one’s heart. Once the initial process was found, the process would continue. All Lykan needed to do now was the simple task of getting his mana to flow. Or, for the analogy's sake, get his own heart to beat once. The only problem was the more he tried, the harder the task seemed to become.

He thought that it might be due to his meridians being clogged. This was a concept noted in older practitioners, where the constant use of mana would eventually leave a residue that would hinder future movements of mana. Still, this did not seem to be the case with his own body. He had just opened the pools of power a few days ago and had not had a chance of causing residue to build up in his freshly formed channels. Instead, he had a large pool that felt like it was near to bursting against his own channels.

What he didn’t realize was that his thoughts were correct. His initial mana capacity, a sub-set of the Power Attribute, was well beyond human limits. For one to start with, such a large power base meant that their initial pool was larger than his body could handle. Bodies were designed to be pushed beyond their limits only once they had a solid foundation to build upon. In Lykan’s case, his blessings for his accomplishments were now becoming a curse that could harm his body. While he was not aware, the size of his mana pool was near to bursting, and he needed to do something with the power shortly, lest he suffer rupturing his meridians. Rupturing would lead to mana bleeding into his body, which would lead to mana poisoning and worse conditions.

While he didn’t know the full extent of his condition, he knew that he needed to learn how to move his energy quickly. The sad part was that had he tried immediately upon entering the Library, he would have been able to practice freely. It was only that he waited to read that his body had enough time to regenerate the power that had been claimed as an entry fee to the great Library.

Still, Lykan tried, unaware of his mistakes or the ways to correct them. He looked to Octavia and thought of waking her to ask her some questions. But after seeing her sleeping form, he couldn’t help but smile at her and realize he didn’t want to awaken her. Lykan thought about reading the next book but soon felt the onset of exhaustion fill him. He thought about going to his room, but in his excitement, he forgot to ask where his room was. So he shrugged to himself, still not willing to wake the gently resting Octavia. He found a spot on the ground and, with his arm under his head, began to fall asleep.

As he and Octavia slept, the Library kept periodically taking the maintenance fee of mana from both. This was a negligible amount of mana that was quickly regenerated by the two, but it was a good way for newly awakened members to have their Power Attribute increase as time went on. So while Lykan slept, his base power rating of one incrementally began to expand. While it wasn’t enough to notice any changes immediately, such persistence would eventually appear after months of continual use in such a fashion.

Taking one last look at the still sleeping form of Octavia, Lykan smiled to himself, seeing the girl and her half trail of drool coming out of her mouth, along with the odd sounds she made as the air was forced to fill her body at such an awkward angle.

“Good night,” Lykan said as he let his mind drift off to peaceful slumber.