“Hi. Would you be interested to join our guild? We have a vast collection of Grimoires that might pique your interest!”

The guild recruitment took place during the first two weeks of the semester of the academy. Except, in Alice’s case, many recruiters advanced toward her. Perhaps this was because of the presence of a rare Grimoire, poking out of her magic bag, slung over her left shoulder.

“I’m sorry. I’m just here to explore the academy.” Alice answered, apologetically.

One by one, the recruiters’ offer got declined, as Alice was wandering around. However, more and more recruiters began to overstep their boundaries.

Sensing something dreadful might happen, she gradually stepped up her pace. The recruiters gave chase while holding their pamphlets depicted of their guild activities and such.

She took whichever path to avoid contact with other recruiters. As she turned a corner, she found an opened door.

There was no time for her to make a decision, either she gets caught by recruiters and spends her entire day listening and deciding which guild to join or hide in a room from her pursuers, so she chose the latter.

Upon entering the room, she closed the door shut and locked it. She leaned her back to the door, catching her breath.

Once she calmed herself down, she looked around the room. On her right was a low-coffee table at the middle of two couches positioned across each other. On the other side of the room was lined up with three large bookshelves. In front of her, across the room, a boy sat in a window seat, holding a book in one hand, gazing at her with a confused expression.

“…May I help you?” He asked, confused about Alice’s sudden appearance to his room.

The boy wore a black trench coat, a black shirt, a pair of dark brown battle trousers and a pair of spectacles. He had straight black hair with bangs length up to slightly above his eyebrows and a pair of brown eyes.

“Sorry for intruding. I was being chased by recruiters. Would be okay for me to stay here for a while?”

“The name’s Jayce. As for your question, sure. As long as I can continue reading my book,” he answered, resuming his reading session.

She thought that she would be told to leave, but that didn’t seem to be the case. He seemed to be looking forward to reading his book.

She went to one of the bookshelves. Her eyes widened when she gazed at the contents of the bookshelves. Apparently, the bookshelves contained collections of rare grimoires and guides and documents of alchemy and blacksmithing.

“Sorry for bothering. How did you get these Grimoires?” She couldn’t help to contain her curiosity.

Grimoires can only be found in dungeons or lost temples; the price of one Grimoire was sufficed enough to purchase a guild house, including necessary utilities for adventurers to preserve their weapons and armors’ conditions. To fully explore dungeons or lost temples, it required a party of six, at least. Most adventurers preferred to obtain them from exploration, rather than purchasing them.

His answer, however, was not exactly what she had expected. “I purchased most of them from traveling merchants, while the rest were from dungeon exploration. If you’re interested, feel free to read anything that is available on the bookshelves. It may take a while for your pursuers to settle down.” He offered, without sparing a glance at her.

He sure is focused when it comes to reading. She thought, knowing he did not expect any responses from her. She went over to one of the bookshelves containing the grimoires. She browsed through each and every one of them, and finally, she took one of them out. She brought the Grimoire she had chosen and sat on one of the couches across the room.

She felt self-conscious at first. Thinking about the price he had paid to get his hand on this Grimoire. But she received his permission moments ago without any hesitation, at least. She shook her head lightly to ward off her hesitation, she returned her gaze to the Grimoire before her, placed on her lap.

As she slowly flipped the front cover of the book, the book suddenly came to live, multiple pages flipped by itself, then, abruptly came to a halt. Thinking the grimoire was attempting to inform her something, she looked at the pages before her. Suddenly, her head slightly swayed left and right, eyes felt heavy as a lead, then fell to the couch, and the world went dark.

While reading his book, he gave a side glance to her, found her lying unconscious on the couch with a grimoire in her hand. He placed his bookmark and closed the book. He walked over to her and picked up the grimoire from her hand.

“Of all Grimoires I had in my possession, you’ve picked this grimoire.” He sighed. Although it is too late to say his remark, as Alice can’t hear him at all.

____________________

She appeared in midair, surrounded by darkness, slowly descending to the ground beneath her. She took out her staff, ready to battle whatever was waiting for her from this point on.

As she landed on the ground, she scanned her surroundings. She found herself standing at the entrance of this world—the Grimoire’s world.

Once she confirmed there were no monsters in her vicinity. She dropped her magic bag on the floor and began checking her bag for consumables. She had nine mana potions, twelve health potions, five antidotes each for paralysis, poisons, and petrifications.

As she was checking her consumables, a silhouette appeared out of thin air right next to her.

It’s Jayce. This time, he had already equipped himself with a pair of obsidian scimitars, strapped by his waist. But what surprised her was why is Jayce here?

He looked around his surroundings until his gaze met her’s.

Grimoires were different from books. They contained ancient glyphs, where they can only be read by magicians or readers who possessed the knowledge to decipher them. If a reader understood the contents, the reader’s mind will be transported to the Grimoire’s world, while their physical body in the real world will be seen as if they were unconscious. However, gaining a skill from a grimoire was no easy task, where the readers had to battle their way against dangerous monsters in the final room, where the ancient glyphs were located. There were two ways to leave this world; either at the entrance, or the room with the presences of the ancient glyphs.

Although this may be the first time for Alice to visit this world, she knew the former, but not the latter information about dangerous monsters.

“So, do you still want to explore this world?” He asked, after explaining to her about Grimoire’s world.

She felt tensed. After knowing full well of the danger, they are going to face, she already knew the answer. “We’re adventurers, aren’t we? We should explore the entire region of this world.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” He answered, smiling at her determination. “Alright, I will be your vanguard. I will draw enemy attention towards me, while you will focus on providing support. Whether it will be a buff spell or attack spell to fend off monsters, be my guess. I will change my battle style depending on your approach.”

She thought he would leave after he gave her a warning, but apparently, she was wrong. He had already made his decision after taking into consideration her current equipment, but…

“What about you?”

… Instead, he chose to equip himself with light armors. He wore a thin armor breastplate, covering the upper half of his torso; a pair of armbraces, covering from his elbow to wrist; and a pair of greaves, covering from his knee to ankle.

“I will be focusing on speed so that I can switch between attacking monsters and protect”

“Protect?” She repeated.

Despite his warning, she was sure enough that she can handle herself, as long as she kept herself a decent distance away from monsters. But the atmosphere around him became heavy, as his eyes narrowed.

“—You. I’m the one who suggested to let you read any books available from the shelves, and this is the result. This is my fault for bringing you into this world,” said Jayce, with a split tone of seriousness and guilt.

She turned bright red up all the way up to her ears, averted her gaze away from him.

“Ah…”

He did not expect any responses from her, but he remembered something important. He leveled his right arm horizontally and closed his eyes.

When Alice snapped back to reality, she looked up, gazing at his hand. His glove had some sort of a crystal embedded in it.

After a moment of silence, a pair of gloves like Jayce’s materialized in midair. He slowly opened his eyes and grabbed the new pair with his right hand. He walked towards Alice, offering the pair of gloves.

“What’s this for?” She asked, feeling mystify from what she had just witnessed.

“Magic gloves: It’s just like magic bags, but it also produces a shield around your body outline with the cost of user’s mana, also known as mana shield. It will be your primary shield to protect yourself. When you equip those magic gloves, even though you will be protected by its shield, you’re still able to feel pain, but not much as the shield will absorb some of the impacts.” He explained.

She giggled. She felt as if he was a lecturer in Adventurer Academy. Although she couldn’t help herself feel somewhat suspicious towards the magic gloves he just gave her moments ago. She knew that magic gloves only function to store items, weapons, and armors. But she had never heard of it possessed a defense mechanism. Just who is this guy? She thought. Of course, she didn’t say it out loud, after he had decided to tag along with her in this world.

“Remember, whatever you do, do not draw their attention. Let’s move.” He prompted, giving her a reminder of their chosen tactics. Technically, he was the one who decided their strategies, but Alice seemed to be fine with it.

She equipped the magic gloves and followed after Jayce, into the depths of the Grimoire’s world.