Chapter 7: The World's Janitor
The first thing Bee did was find all the snacks that the mages had hidden. She started by checking the desk drawers. Eventually, her nose and grumbling stomach led her behind the books on the shelves. Altogether, there wasn’t too much, just a few ends of bread and a moldy wedge of cheese. She also found half a watermelon, but it was spoiled. She gathered it all on the table. The food wouldn’t last very long, and some were already pretty stale. Not wanting to waste anything, she started munching gratefully on the food that was least likely to last. Despite not having eaten in a couple days, Bee didn't really enjoy this meal. Sure she ate it happily, but she didn’t taste a thing. That was very lucky.
Unfortunately, she did not find anything else to drink. That meant she had only the wineskin. It might last her for a day or two if she rationed. Before long, though, she would be back in the same situation. Then she would need to go out and find more water.
Eating the bread restored a respectable amount of energy rather quickly. Now that the adrenaline had faded from Bee's system, it was the boost she needed to keep going. She took a moment to gather herself. She wanted to rest but had to make the most of this opportunity.
Using her chair crutch, she started browsing the shelves. This was not the first time she had been in the library. However, they had never let her in alone. A librarian was always there to watch her. If she ever stopped to try and read even the titles of the books, she was chastised. One time, she had thought about removing a book from the shelf. Before she had moved the book more than an inch, the Librarian was on her. That had earned her a tongue lashing so furious that she couldn’t look the man in the eyes since. Updated from novelb(i)n.c(o)m
Bee headed straight for the book that had incited that particular incident. Despite being alone for days, she still glanced around suspiciously for any onlookers before reaching out to the shelf. It was a thin book with less than a hundred pages. Something about it just spoke to her. A is for Alchemy. Finally, retrieving the book, she got to look at the red cover. It had a glass beaker with a smiley face on it. Perfect, just up her alley. The title fits her perfectly. If it was for someone who didn't know much about magic, that would be perfect. But also, the author didn’t seem to take his work too seriously. An accessible text was just what she needed.
She might be doomed, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight. The least she could do was try and find something to help her in this library. Of course, the thought of finally being free from the Librarian's attentive gaze may have played into her priorities a bit.
After browsing the shelves, Bee was ready to give up on finding anything else practical here. The organization of the library made no sense. Why was something like On the Origination and Classification of Beings Borne of Unusual Magical Circumstances, right next to Particles Ranging from 0.5 Microns to 3 Microns and Other Alchemical Ingredients for the Discerning Nanoparticulate Mage, an Etymology? First, whoever is letting these authors title their own books needs to be fired. Second, no really, these titles are awful. Third, what did Etymology even mean?
After looking around, she found a dictionary on the main desk. Ah, apparently, it meant the root and origin of words. The irony of having to look up this definition was not lost on her. Just being in this room was starting to make her feel stupid.
As she moved through the shelves, she looked up words she didn't know in the titles that seemed intriguing. Apparently, mages who wrote books were an eclectic lot. Titles ranged in readability from things that even she could read with ease, to ones that felt like a stuffy professor trying to impress his peers. Many were written by famous adventurers, if you believed the authors.
Besides, A is for Alchemy, she didn't find many at her level. Slowly, she began to pick out some patterns in how the books were organized. The titles didn't seem connected at first. It wasn't until she started reading the summaries that she began to put them together. Rather than by difficulty, title, or field, books were organized more by content. Not on what topic the contents covered, but how the contents covered the topic. One section was filled with books describing the origins of things, from histories to epistemologies to lineages. Another contained books with definitions: dictionaries, encyclopedias, and maps. Honestly, it was confusing even after you figured it out. Why would they set it up this way? That alone didn't make it challenging to find books. No, her issue was she didn't even know what topics she needed. She really wanted an overview book on a couple of topics. The organization within each section still stumped her, but she could scan through the titles, pick one she knew most of the words in, then read it a bit more. It was a slow process, but eventually, she made progress.
Once she found something that looked like a basic demonology book, she decided that was enough. Bee put her small collection on the chair. Along with the alchemy book, she had gathered a few other novice books on ingredients, demons, and mutations. Then she stretched out to read. By, C is for Containment, she was asleep. Not having adequate sleep for days was taking its toll.
-----
I had made the most important discovery since the discovery of the mop. This is not to undermine the importance of the mop, of course. Perhaps it is more telling that if the mop had been discovered a couple hundred years ago, the statement would still have been valid. This new discovery would revolutionize my kind’s cleaning capability a hundredfold.
----
Bee woke gradually. Her head nestled into the pages of a book. Blearily she opened her eyes and looked around.
Laying on the floor, she had a half dozen books lying about. Her hand rested on the dictionary right next to her head.
How long has she slept? Groaning, she sat up and began to stretch before her ankle put a stop to that. With a small gasp of pain, she looked at it. Covered in the mop splint, it looked like the swelling had gone down some, and now the bindings were loose.
She would need to fix that before moving around too much. Also, she needed a new crutch. Using this chair to get around worked okay in the library, but it didn't let her move fast enough.
Gathering herself, Bee noticed that she had a notification. Huh. She had just received full access to the system last year when she turned 12, so it was taking a little getting used to. Confused, she opened it up.
LEVEL UP. LVL 1. THE FIRST PERK REACHED. CHOOSE BETWEEN: SCAN, QUICKSTEP, OR HUNTER’S CAMOUFLAGE.
That was shocking. Until Bee earned a class, she should only be able to gain experience through combat. She was level 0 because she hadn't killed anything before. Bee flipped to her detailed logs and filtered out all injuries done to her. The only damage she had inflicted was with the couple of broomstick swipes she had got in against the ash imp. She hadn't killed it, though - the Void had. So, where did the experience for the first level come from then?
She scanned her experience logs for the answer. Astoundingly, it appeared the experience was issued for an assist. Bee frowned. That couldn't be correct. To get an assist while you weren’t in a party, you needed to be allies or at least non-hostile...
At least, she was pretty confident. Or was it that you couldn't have damaged each other.... Bee added that to the list of questions she needed to research.
Still, her first perk. She had been dreaming of this since she was a child, and now at 13, she was finally there. She didn't expect to get a level until much later.
Considering her options, all three sounded good. Each one would help in her immediate situation. Well, maybe not the Quickstep with her bum foot. But stealth might be essential when getting out of here. Of course, it would also be massively hindered by a broken leg.
Looking around, Bee figured her only advantage right now was knowledge. She selected the scan option. Not that she ever would have really chosen anything else. Scan was one of the most valuable perks you could get. It was exceedingly rare, especially at such a low level. Any other time she would have picked it without hesitation. However, she wasn't sure if it would be instantly helpful. It was a pity that she hadn't gotten a healing perk.
Her perk’s strength would grow as her level advanced, so getting Scan this early would mean she would have room to develop it a lot. If she attained level 20, she could maybe see confidential stats. That could really help her children and grandchildren if she got that far.
The skill would also make her a valuable community member as she could help find people's potential classes. It would make her useful in combat or a successful merchant. The more she thought about it, the better it seemed. Getting Scan so early could set her up for life.
Now all she had to do was survive. Simple.