Chapter 354

Chapter 354

Like any location that was important to all races of the world, the magic towers were built on a coast, ensuring that both terrestrial and aquatic races could access the trials with all eleven buildings being constructed with one side on land and the other in the sea, giving easy access to each of them.Ñøv€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

The city itself was interesting too. Being built around the trials, it had become a hub of magical research in the world as buildings were constructed for the purposes of study, training, and other works that would lead to the development of magic as a whole.

Despite that and the deceptively bustling streets, the city itself had a relatively small population. Sure, there were dorms for students who’d come from afar to train there, as well as apartments and some houses for those who preferred to live close by, but the city itself was relatively small, making it easy for individuals to live in different gate cities, only coming over when they needed to for work or study.

It was as they drove through it, the cart drawing eyes from many who were curious to see it moving without an animal to pull it along, that Ben couldn’t help but turn to Thera and grin as she went to humour him, knowing exactly what had raised his mood so high after arriving.

“Yes yes, I’m happy your designs seem to be doing well out here.”

Amongst the many going through the streets, they were seeing far fewer carts like their own compared to a different means of transportation. Bikes, and lots of them as people peddled around, making it clear that that particular patent had taken off in the city, with the chances it had spread beyond that all the greater for how people would go in and out of it.

It was as they were going, Ben staring to see how each bike they passed was built to judge their quality compared to what he could do, that they made it to their first stop and went inside.

It was an embassy like the one they’d been in during their time in Allfaith, the succubi and incubi within all wearing braces on their arms like Thera was to keep their passive effects from getting to anyone who might not be able to resist them. Up at the front desk, they showed the letter they’d gotten from Pelenia only a few hours earlier to get them two rooms as they were handed keys and led to where they would be staying before dropping off their stuff to go to their main destination in the days until they were going to be throwing themselves into danger, the city’s library, home to the bulk of the world’s magical research.

After getting directions they walked the streets, Ben doing his best to ignore any shop that looked like it had anything interesting in order to get to their main destination, a building that by all accounts managed to be more impressive than the eleven towers they could see poking into the sky off in the distance.

Really it was a group of buildings, but only one really mattered as they saw three large rectangular ones on each side of the enormous pyramid in the center as they went within, seeing rows upon rows of shelves, each filled to the brim with books as signs pointed them to different areas, both denoting where information on different branches of magic where kept, but also information that was tangentially related that could help in the use of magic, such as biology and chemistry too.

Ben wanted to take it all in, having no idea how he was ever going to read as much as he wanted, even with the ridiculous speed he could currently manage as he silently bargained with himself, trying to decide just how far he could go.

I have thirty minds in my head but even if I’m not using all of them I can at least use twenty-five at a time, right? That shouldn’t make my headache worse or get me a level in anything, right? Then I could read more and it will be fine.

It was an internal debate he thought he’d be struggling with his entire time there, only being temporarily silenced as they went to the front desk, the letter from Jake’s teachers in hand with Thera speaking up.

The first floor was arguably mostly foundational, even if it was broad in scope. There were sections devoted not only to each affinities magic and related matters, but the specialized versions that could exist of each, as well as combined magics too. That wasn’t even considering all there was on the non-affinitied options. As a branch of magic that technically had more within it than anything tied to an affinity, there was of course plenty to learn, but as a result of it being so much harder to acquire when comparatively large portions of the population ended up with an affinitied magic the day they were born through their blessed skills, he couldn’t help but wonder if there were any discoveries to be made in the thousands of books the library contained, only holding himself back as they ventured to the next floor.

On that one, things got even more interesting, especially for Thera who wanted to grow further in the direction it seemed to be taking as the books became more geared towards how different branches of magic could be used together to make a greater whole, spells she’d been experimenting with herself but had only begun scratching the surface of in her journey to grow.

Again there were different books on the non-affinity options as well, not only on how they could be combined with each of the standard ten for some truly unique results, but how they could be combined together as well, approaching what might be done by an individual like Vasta who possessed the non-affinity magic skill.

By the time they got to the third floor, they found it to be the quietest of all. There were plenty of people there reading what they could, but nowhere close to what could be found on the first or second, even with the sloping walls of the building creating a tighter space the farther one went up.

It was on this floor too that books on awakened magic started to appear, talking about what could be done with them, as well as differences in how skills that had come from the same base magic compared to each other, as well as what was known to combine to give different results.

By the end of their little exploration, Ben was all but salivating while Thera already knew where she was going first.

“I think I’ll be on the second floor for a while, how about you?”

What he wanted was to exist on each floor at the same time, the only thing stopping him being the fact that he was limited to a single body.

“Okay, I think I’m going to start at the non-affinity stuff on the first floor. If I don’t find you first, want to meet in a few hours at the canteen?”

“Sure, sounds like a plan.”

With that they parted, Ben making his way back to the more public section of things as he stared at the far too vast amount of books before him. His current reading speed left him at approximately a book every ten minutes, meaning if he went through them cover to cover he’d only get around a dozen done before meeting Thera, but even if it took a while, there was something he desperately wanted to find.

In all of this, there has to be some books on my two magic skills, right?

He’d gained them from awakening other skills so he’d gone in not even knowing they existed, having to learn purely through experimentation as a result of being forced into the last trial, but for all he could potentially use in the library to put towards his enchanting, he wanted to focus on that first, getting whatever he could as he prepared to dive in.