CH438

“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait about a week and a half,” The librarian told him apologetically. “The head librarian is out right now but I can schedule a time for when they’re back if that works for you?”

“Uh, sure, sounds good.”

He felt himself deflate with the news but there was nothing he could do about it, so instead he just gave his thanks and submitted the report Myriad asked him to before going to wander the many shelves.

“You sure you don’t want to take the test yourself?” He asked Thera as she was looking around, trying to see where to read. “It seems like a decent opportunity since we’re here.”

“Mmh, maybe I’ll give it a go in the future, but you’re obviously going to pass so just make copies of anything that seems interesting for me after.”

“I’m not a printing press.”

“Aren’t you?”

<You’re technically better than one given you can use your minds and magic to put a book together in seconds. Or instantly if you materialize it, pages and ink and all.>

I’m not sure if I’m going to take that as a compliment.

“So anyway, which floor do you think you’ll focus on today?” Thera asked him while she was still deciding for herself, using whatever he’d pick to help make up her mind.

“I’m thinking third. If I’m trying to go up a couple then it would make sense I’d be tested on the highest one I can currently reach, right?”

“Makes sense, in that case, I’m going to the second if you need me. I doubt I’d be able to get much reading done on the same one as you given how you’re going to be drawing attention.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She looked at him quietly, trying to see if he was being serious before sighing and kissing his cheek, not giving him an answer.

“I’ll grab you for lunch in a couple hours so just try not to disturb anyone else reading, okay?”

Seriously, what’s that supposed to mean? I’m a perfectly quiet reader. Mouselike in my dedication to it, completely unnoticeable. Not even remotely distracting.

He told himself all of that and more as he got to the third floor before standing in front of the nearest shelf, holding out his hand to let his magic flow through his as books flew out of it, twenty-five lined up before him as pages fluttered past his eyes before he put them back and moved onto the next set, the sound of paper being quiet yet filling the space with its sheer volume as the few others on that floor turned to stare, none of them actually believing that what he was doing was reading as he moved to the next shelf after only a few minutes.

<Do you seriously not see how that might distract people?>

What, reading in silence?

<…You know what, forget it. You’ve become too comfortable with how far you are from the human standard for this to be a real concern.>

Excuse you, I’m still incredibly human, minus however the demon organs are changing me and how my minds have changed.

<Your minds alone make you completely different from any other human on the planet! Or from any mortal in general for that matter!>

Shush now, no yelling in the library.

If he was going to honestly look at himself, he had to admit he understood what his god was saying. Reading so many books at once wasn’t exactly normal, and what was worse was that he wasn’t even reaching his full potential. The only reason he wasn’t reading more wasn’t due to the limits of any skill or amount of mana, it was because of his eyes and the space around him. The shelves were packed tight enough that he couldn’t step back to give himself more room to read more at once, and even if he could, no matter how good his vision had grown thanks to the combination of different skills, none of the skills he had were specifically dedicated to vision either.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Which means I should add vision enhancement to the list of skills I want to pay Zandale to acquire and then teach me after. Well, not Zandale since I think he would need eyes to get it, but maybe one of his apprentices. Then I’d be able to do even more.