The Grand Library was Junad's pride and joy. The high-ceiling rooms with towering bookshelves to complement it. The long oaken tables which are hardly empty as people try to satisfy their thirst for knowledge. It was top class even though it was still not the best library in RR. As i opened the door I swore i felt smarter already just by looking at the sheer magnificence of such an establishment. Near the door was a pretty bespectacled receptionist, with long dark braided hair wearing a pure white dress. However, looks can be deceiving in this game as appearances can be altered and one can never be too sure if a person was an NPC or not in this game. NPCs was far too realistic.

"Good Morning welcome to the Grand Library. My name is Claire. Here are some rules before I let you in.

1) No eating or drinking inside the premises at all times.

2) Keep your volume down.

3) Any damage done to books which are caught will be fully reimbursed by you.

4) You are not allowed to bring any books out of this library unless you are a member of either the intelligence guild or the library itself. Anyone caught flouting these rules will be dealt with severely. Now that we are clear may I help you?"

Gosh that was a long speech and if she has to say this to everyone... Well i think that's definitely an NPC

"I would like to browse books of a certain category and I was wondering if you can show me where the appropriate bookshelves are. I am interested in understanding more about mana."

The truth was, I had already researched beforehand on forums that reading in libraries could result in procurement of skills. The easiest way of course was to go to the intelligence guild, pay them a sum of money or do some errands for them and they would give you a low level skill book to learn basic magic. You could even change class to be a mage immediately and take an aptitude test. The more talent you show, the more precious the skill books the intelligence guild would give you as an investment in your future. I knew that in this virtual reality game, i wanted to cast magic no matter what. Controlling mana and manifesting the elements while attacking was something reality could not give me no matter what i did. Unless i built a flamethrower of course but you get the point. I could still swing a sword around in real life, I could learn baking and cooking skills and even maybe architecture or merchanting in real life but magic, this was something only RR could give me.

I wanted to take the aptitude test in the intelligence guild but in order to get the most out of that i needed to impress them. No matter what i needed to impress them first and as such i came to the library to understand more about mana as what i learnt so far in real life is only when you achieve a deep understanding over something can you fully utilise its potential. When you play a sport just enhancing your physical fitness is one way to get better but only when coupled with a true understanding of the plays and tactics of the sport will you get to the top. Same goes for things like studies, cooking, music and whatever you can think of I think this analogy would fit. Both practice and comprehension are necessary for proficiency and I had always believed in this so I went ahead and crafted this plan.

"Are you sure you want books about mana? People usually ask for books regarding specific types of spells to help them learn better. We even have low level skill books that can be read to gain proficiency in some of the lower tier spells." Claire asked with a curious look on her face.

Oh this is interesting. I thought many people would have already thought of that but maybe people came into the library to read books to gain spells and stats like intelligence and wisdom. Understanding of mana is not necessary in casting spells anyway. All you need is the skill and enough mana to cast the spell. Maybe I might be able to learn faster if i just read the skill books but i think I'm still going to stick with my principles. I need to understand mana first.

"Yes I want to read books about mana. Not about skills or tactics of magicians and stuff like that. Is it possible for you to help me Claire?" I answered.

"Hmm I will try my best. It's been a long while since i've tried searching for books like that but since you've piqued my curiosity with that request i will do my best for you." said Claire, looking at me with a wry smile.

Piqued the interest of Librarian Claire! Relationship with Librarian Claire increased!

I followed Claire through a maze of bookshelves, left right left right left right left.

Holy shit how much time must one spend here just to even know which books are where. How the hell do they even categorise the books anyway?!

"The books are categorised by genre followed by keywords followed by age thought up by librarians. I'm taking you to the magic genre now which is rather huge but lucky for you only one bookshelf has books specifically about mana as the definition of mana is rather... in a grey area if you know what i mean. Its hard to pin down what exactly is mana even though everyone can use it. You do know how difficult it is right?" Claire said suddenly.

"Wait you can read minds?"

"What do you mean?"

"I was just wondering how the books are even classified and you just answered me immediately. So can you read minds?"

"Haha maybe i can"

"Hmm but if you can you haven't answered my other question. I am going to be reading for quite some time because yes I know how difficult it is but i would still want a better understanding of mana. As such I would be spending many days here but i would feel lonely so during meal times would you be free to accompany me?"

"Wha- I mean.. Hmm i guess. I usually eat alone anyway." An immistakable blush grew across her pale white face.

Bold move asking Librarian Claire out succeeded! Relationship with Librarian Claire increased!

"Alright we've reached. This bookshelf is the one you're looking for with the oldest books on the left and the newest books on the right. Knock yourself out."

I looked at the spines of the books. Despite them being arranged by age, one could not tell with the eyes at all. They must have all been enchanted with some magic of sorts. All of them were preserved so well that there wasn't a single hint of old age on any of the books. Excluding of course the dust on the books since I suspect it has been so long since someone else tried what I was about to do. Understanding mana in its essence.

Oh well. Guess its back to school. Here we go again.

I picked up the oldest and the newest book to start off and it shocked me. It was probably such a bad decision. The new one had theories of mana based on its properties. If i were to describe it it would be something like studying mana from a chemistry point of view. It talked about how mana was suspected to be gaseous particles whose density could change based on the will of the individual wielding it. They could pack it densely together to form heavier mana which was the basis of gravity type spells, they could also vibrate the particles of mana faster to increase its kinetic energy which gave it properties of lightning to be able to move at fast speeds. The caster could also change its temperature which defines fire and ice and also will it to change states to liquid and solid to form water and earth type magic. It made a lot of sense from my point of view but the feeling i get from magic shouldnt revolve around chemistry as this game already had alchemy to imbude the laws of chemistry in it. Also, this couldn't explain light or dark magic. Thus i moved over to the old book.

The old book was more traditional. It touched upon mana like it was an energy an individual unknowingly produces. With sufficient training, one could control it and manipulate it. The feeling this book gave me was describing mana as "ki". One could use it to send projectiles, circulate it to get certain buffs like increased mana regen etc. One with high levels of mana control could then manipulate it with their affinity to certain elements to get it to transform into spells. However this explanation was flawed as a simple noob could cast any type of tier 1 level spell at the cost of only 10 mana so no "high" level of mana control is needed.

URGHHHHHHH THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING AND I BARELY READ 2 BOOKS

And so I decided if all of them were going to be this enigmatic, why not I read all of them and mix and match the theories i find relevant in order to form my own understanding from scratch. And as such the days went past. Everyday i ate rye bread from my inventory i got as a beginner at a bench outside with Claire as she packed her food from home. Once i finished my fifth book i got a surprise.

Wisdom +1

Intelligence +1

New skill: Fast Reader

Ohh just like i thought the Fast Reader skill came out.

"Show Fast Reader Skill."

Fast Reader Beginner Level 1. 0%

Enhances your reading speed. Finishes books 10% faster.

Using this box as a milestone and motivation, i began to steel my resolve and set out what i wanted to do in the first place. After 9 gruelling in game days of nothing but reading (216 hours in game time which is 54 hours real time) sleeping only when the library was closed, I made it. My fast reader skill even reached beginner level 8 and i gained a further 9 points in both wisdom and intelligence. I read 47 books of nothing but theories of mana and I begun to formulate my own theory. However, a pleasant surprise was awaiting me as I was formulating the theory.

"Jinx look what I found! I was tidying up in the history section and there was a book with two keywords! I've never seen a book with two keywords before as librarians usually just give one keyword to a book but this might be what you are looking for!" Claire exclaimed after popping by my usual seat.

I couldn't have heard better news. This was most likely the book that could put everything into place as it was unique. Maybe it even needed a high amount of intimacy with Claire which i've developed over the past week.

"Origins of Versailles - Yggdrasil." - J.K Bowling, Keywords: History, Mana.

I was shocked. I was familiar with Yggdrasil as the tree which connected the 9 gateways of Norse mythology but to think it had anything at all to do with mana. I begun reading it as well to see if it would enlighten my head which was already full of possible mana theories.

"Yggdrasil was the first creation of the gods. That much i am sure of. The gods made Yggdrasil as a gateway to the 9 realms of which one of them is Versailles. The gods also assembled there for their daily meetings and even mythical wyrms resided among its branches. I am so fascinated by this tree. This huge tree who seemingly sustained the entire universe."

"How then was Yggdrasil created? The gods must have put together their powers on such a large scale that it gave birth to the creation of Yggdrasil which could support 9 realms at once. Such teleportation magic of such scale led me to wonder how the gods could always supply mana to Yggdrasil for it to keep balance within the 9 realms. And it struck me. The simplest of thoughts struck me. Yggdrasil was a tree so i always thought it would be self sufficient to survive. But what if it wasn't just self sufficient in terms of food or water but also in terms of mana?"

What an incredible theorist. To think that Yggdrasil can rely on its own mana regeneration.. It must be unlimited or something. WAIT. UNLIMITED MANA REGENERATION. HOLY SHIT. IT WAS LIKE THAT. OH MY GOD. I KNOW NOW. It just might be the missing piece i need.

"Can you pass me some pen and paper? Please! FAST! I need to pen down my thoughts now." almost shouting at Claire.

"S-sure." and her face looked as shocked as a face could possibly look. Looks like she even forgot about no loud noises in the library rule.

She came back quickly with a pen and paper and i immediately started to formulate my thoughts proper.

Mana is a life force.

Non living things can only get mana if it is imprinted or enchanted on by a living object.

Yggdrasil should need tons of mana to be able to run 9 space time magics at once but it could manage.

There are 9 types of main magic ; Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning, Earth, Wind, Dark, Light, Gravity. All of them are affilated to nature.

What if nature had an embodiment. And that was Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil could generate mana non stop as it was nature itself and use it to shape the 9 realms. The gods didnt create all 9 realms.. Yggdrasil was the one who made it from using mana!

So if we relate it to Yggdrasil, we were also products from nature but in a different way...

So what if mana was actually the power of nature, an aura we were all born with and could develop as we grew stronger. The more we understand a certain element, the more we could harness the energy out if it.

That's why there are tier level system in spells! You need to use fireball enough times before you are capable of handling fire strike and eventually meteor.... The skill proficiency system from beginner to master would also reiterate this point!

All of us were born with or developed basic understandings of the basic elements such as fire is hot and lightning will shock and maybe thats why even noobs can cast weak tier 1 spells like gust or a simple lightning bolt.

If my theory is correct there shouldn't be something like fire mana or lightning mana or specific types of mana.

Everyone starts off with a pure mana, untampered which then can be changed to different elements according to how much you understand that element and what you want that mana to become.

This is why some people have affinities towards certain type of magic but some don't have an affinity at all! So if i want to cast a spell I just need to picture my mana taking form of the spell choosing the affinity i want the mana to have...

OH NO WONDER MAGIC CIRCLES EXIST IN MAGIC. I've read somewhere that magic circles are actually rune engravings onto mana. The runes engraved might specify the element affinity as well as scope and shape of the mana attack! IT FITS DAMMIT!

After realising how Yggdrasil could be the core of what we know as mana, I was linking up idea after idea theory after theory upon formulating this hypothesis from all the information i have read thus far. I was so sure this was going to be it and true enough, I heard a *TING* and a notification box appeared in front of me.

Congratulations! You have found out the origins of mana. Mana at its very essence is a form of manipulation of life force nature has given you. Runes can be used to help enhance mana usage and you have identified in the form of mana circles. Upon understanding how mana works, you shall be given this skill which can only be used by the people who truly understand mana.

Wisdom + 10

Intelligence +10

New Skill : Mana Manipulation. End of Chapter 2