Is this Simon Street? No, it’s Apple Street.

Ah, here it is, Simon Street. Now I need to find 334.

*****

While it did take a bit of time, I eventually found 334 Simon Street which was also called the library. It was a large building with quite a few people around and some strange statues. The statues reminded me of some of the creatures I had seen in the forest but why would anyone want to see those things so often?

Ignoring the statues I walked towards the doors of the library. There were two people standing next to the doors. One was on the left and the other was on the right. They both wore the monster hide that Simon wore and had their swords ready.

They stared at me as I approached but didn’t move until I tried to walk through the doors. As I tried to walk through the doors, the guards drew their swords and placed them in front of me faster than I could blink.

“Beasts… not enter… even… Simon’s pet.” The one on the left spoke and I understood it in broken bits. It seemed that people didn’t like monsters or creatures entering the library, I wonder why.

I decided to remember this man for preventing me from finding the knowledge held in the library before walking away. He was similar in height to Simon, had yellow hair, a face that seemed to be made of stone, and the rest of his features were covered by his monster hide.

As I walked away I thought about what exactly I could do to get in. I don’t think Simon could help and I’m not sure how I could sneak in with my low [Stealth] level.

Well, I do have something. [Self Reality] allows me to change my Subspecies and take on that Subspecies completely. If I changed to a Human I could most likely walk in without issue as I wouldn’t be a “beast”.

I had already walked a bit away from the library so I stopped walking and looked around. There was nobody nearby, it seemed that there weren’t many people who wanted to walk around this area in the day, perhaps at night there would be more.

Removing the thoughts of coming here later for the time being, I focused on changing my Subspecies to what I wanted by concentrating on the Subspecies I wanted. While I concentrated on becoming a Human I activated [Self Reality].

Soon the mana that I had and the mana surrounding me combined and formed a sort of shell around me. This shell solidified while my original body turned into mana. Soon I was in the form of a Human and if I looked at my Subspecies it would have something to do with Human.

A strange burning feeling came from somewhere inside my body.

Ow, that hurts? Would that be pain? But where is it coming from?

Focusing on my body I noticed that there was a single spot where my mana was flowing constantly. Normally my mana would flow around randomly and if it collected too much in a spot then it would randomly spread out. This spot however seemed to hold an endless amount of my mana. If I didn’t do anything about it soon then I would assume all of my mana would be drained.

Time to use the easiest solution. [Self Reality] back into a wolf.

As soon as I did so, the spot disappeared and my mana slowly started regenerating.

I should rest a bit shouldn’t I? If something goes wrong again and I lose all of my mana then that would be really bad.

So I fell asleep.

*****

When I woke up it was close to night and there were only a few people around. A small person was staring at me from not too far away but ran off when I woke up.

Alright, my mana’s back now I need to try this again.

[Self Reality] Human form.

Ow, the spot’s back.

I quickly dispelled the Human form and went back to my wolf one. I had enough mana for another attempt thanks to the fact that I switched forms quick enough but becoming a Human again probably won’t work.

So I wondered about what I could do.

I could continue to try and become a Human but it probably won’t work, becoming any other monster or animal won’t help because I still won’t be let in, I could try becoming some other Sentient Race. I haven’t seen any besides that one Half-Elf and that Wood Elf. I couldn’t see much of that Wood Elf though so I’ll have to go with the Half-Elf.

They had a similar shape to Simon but I think their ears were pointed. They kind of looked like a mix between Simon and that Wood Elf, was his name Aidan? Besides seeming to be a mix they were a female I think but I’m pretty sure that’s unimportant.

Now then, concentrate on the Half-Elf form and activate [Self Reality].

Once again my mana and the surrounding mana combined and formed a shell around me. It solidified as my body dissipated and soon I had a new body.

Hm, well I’m not losing mana which is a very large improvement. I wonder if I’ll be let into the library now.

I started walking towards the library and promptly fell.

It seems walking with two legs is much more difficult than with four. This is an issue, I need to walk to the library and all of the people I saw walk in were walking on two legs meaning I can’t walk on four limbs to go through.

I pushed on the ground to get myself on my four limbs before slowly removing one of my hands. Now I was on one hand and two legs. I slowly lifted myself up which removed my hand so now I was on the ground with just my two legs. I moved one leg and then the other until I was standing upright.

Now I need to figure out how to walk. Do I go like this?

I lifted my leg and moved it outwards but fell over like before.

I got up and tried once more. I fell once more.

I kept trying and trying.

*****

Eventually I managed to figure out how to walk on two legs. It wasn’t comfortable or perfect but it would do for now.

It was night now and there were more people walking around. I ignored them and walked towards the library.

Along the way almost everyone looked at me. They were either angered or disgusted. The few people that didn’t look at me I could identify as Half-Elves or pure Elves.

I thought about these looks for a little while but soon arrived at the library. The guards seemed vigilant as I approached but merely spoke as I walked past.

“Elves and Half-Elves are restricted to the first floor.” The guard on the right said.

Interesting, I understood everything he said. I do know some things because of [Self Reality] but language is not included in that. It mostly pertains to magic and trees.

Well, I can figure that out later. For now I want to learn from this library.

Past the doors was a long hallway. It was white and pristine with doors on both sides at seemingly random intervals. At the very end of the hallway was a staircase which led upwards and downwards.

I randomly walked into one of the doors and found myself in a moderately sized room. There were books and bookshelves all around along with pillars made of bookshelves. Looking up I saw that the shelves continued upwards until I couldn’t see them anymore which should be impossible considering the height of the building outside.

In order to get to the shelves that were higher up you had to use the bridges that connected the various sides and bookshelf pillars of the room.

The way to get to these bridges seemed to be a strange area in the walls. People would walk in and be lifted upwards.

I decided to focus on the books all around on the first floor as I had no clue if the bridges counted as leaving the first floor. There were enough books on the first floor to allow me to learn a lot anyways.

I suppose I’ll choose the book closest to me? What is it exactly?

Thanks to the same ability that I assume allowed me to understand the spoken language, I could read the title of the book.

Hmm, “History of the Kingdom of Faler”, it could give me a lot of knowledge.

So I began reading. I read that book and then another, another, one more, five more, and soon I had read an unknown number of books. I had gained a lot of knowledge of all sorts of things even if I didn’t understand what some of it was used for.

Then an issue arose, it had nothing to do with the books, it came from another person. It was a woman who seemed to be always angry. She walked into the room while I was reading, looked around, and started walking towards me with her angry mood.

“Oi! It’s one of you little rats. Aren’t you beasts satisfied with your own archive? I thought you were too proud to use our tiny little archive!” The woman started shouting and broke the silence that had originally existed.

I stared at her in confusion but she accepted my inaction as something and kept shouting.

“I’d bet you’re a spy here to take all of our secrets before sending them back and attacking the city! Well?! Got anything to say?!”

I thought for a bit, I didn’t really have anything to say. I didn’t know who this person was or why they seemed so angry so I just ignored her and continued reading “Questions Answered by the Compass”.

She however, didn’t want to stop talking and shouted once more, “You think you can ignore me? I’ll get the guards to throw you out! They’ll listen to me and not you!”

I turned to her. It seemed she wanted to prevent me from learning the knowledge here in the library or archive as she called it. I can’t allow that can I?

I activated [Earthen Spear] and held it in front of the lady.