Chapter 37: Things Like Librarians…

“This is where Didi lives,” Petty said to Zheng Yichen. They definitely couldn’t take those valuables back directly. If possessions of unclear origin were discovered, aside from attracting envy, the more serious issue was that they might face questioning.

As Petty called out, the Harefolk in the rabbit burrow quietly poked its head out, cautiously looking around. Only after confirming the surroundings were safe did it hop out. Zheng Yichen really didn’t know how Petty had managed to form a Contract with such a cautious little creature.

He soon understood. Petty took out a box of pastries and waved it in front of the Harefolk. The latter’s eyes immediately lit up.

Oh, so it was lured with delicious food?

Watching the satisfied Harefolk carry the bundle filled with many valuables back into its burrow, Petty no longer had a reason to stay there.

Throughout the whole process, he hadn’t shown himself. If he had appeared, even if he had shrunk his size to the limit, that rabbit probably wouldn’t have come out either.

“It must be troublesome every time you come here.”

Petty shook her head. “As long as I use a bit more Mana during the summoning, I can bring over anything on Didi too.”

“Huh? It can do that too? Even Projections?” Zheng Yichen couldn’t help but be stunned and quickly asked.

“Yes, it can. But if it’s not a physical object, anything brought over together is just a Projection.”

“Oh, that’s pretty good too.” Zheng Yichen said after thinking for a moment. Knowing this, he could carry some things with him the next time he was summoned.

“…Looks like we’ll be spending the night outside the city tonight.” Petty stared at the already closed city gate, paused for a while, and then sighed somewhat dejectedly. Even though she had calculated the time when they left.

But the extra time spent picking out those marked jewelry had used up a lot of her time. This caused her to miss the best time to enter the city upon her return. And her identity was utterly ordinary; there was absolutely no way the guards would make an exception for her.

“It’s fine, I’m here.” Zheng Yichen waved his hand and said rather indifferently. The only troublesome thing was not having brought something like a tent; sleeping outside wasn’t easy. “Wait a moment, I’ll go back and flip through a book…”

As he spoke, he closed his eyes, shifting his attention to the Castle’s main body. He picked up the book he had gotten from Loris, which recorded a vast number of Magic spells, and started flipping through it. This book had no table of contents, but it was enchanted with some kind of permanent Magic of an unknown type, possessing a certain degree of vague “search” functionality.

As long as Zheng Yichen thought about the type of Magic he needed, and it was recorded in the book, he could just flip through it randomly and land on a spell with a similar effect.

“Hmm~ Earth Wall Spell, this is the one.” Looking at the Magic Rune Array and notes recorded in the Magical Grimoire, Zheng Yichen nodded slightly. The name might be a bit plain, but it was very descriptive… By the way, should this thing be able to be Projected over too?

He tried to activate the continuously effective Summoning Mark in his Mind Sea. When he was summoned, this Summoning Mark emitted a subtle, hard-to-detect Mana that enveloped his entire body. By influencing the Summoning Mark, the subtle Mana enveloping him also covered the book in his hand.

The Mana consumption to maintain the Projection Summon also increased a bit… It seemed successful.

Closing his eyes again, he shifted his attention back to Petty’s side. The Projection’s hand now held a book identical to the one from the main body. The difference was that the size of this book fit perfectly in his hand, and it was also in a Projection state.

Flipping through the book, he tried looking up a few spells. Unlike with the main body, using the book in this state required a little extra Mana consumption. This wasn’t strange. He simply thought of it as making a phone call; you had to pay phone fees. Using the convenience of the Summoning Projection to remotely use the Magical Grimoire, using Mana instead of “call charges” was perfectly understandable.

“Hmm~ Earth Wall Spell!”

After tracing out the Magic Rune Array recorded in the Magical Grimoire with a Mana Thread, a wall of earth suddenly rose from the ground in front of him. This was the basic form of this spell—a very singular manifestation. If a Professional who had Reached the Tier made improvements and fine-tuned their mastered Earth Wall Spell, then the released Earth Wall Spell wouldn’t just be a flat wall like a brick.

It could be a semicircular dome shape, or a ram-type, turning a defensive-type spell offensive. Of course, such an earth wall could have its form adjusted later as long as one kept outputting Mana. However, in the middle of battle, if you had already used a defensive spell, how could you possibly have time to adjust the earth wall afterward?

Rather than adjusting, it was better to quickly cast another spell for counterattack!

Controlling the output Mana, he continuously changed the form of the earth wall. Soon, a small, square hut appeared there. Then, Zheng Yichen cast a reinforcement spell on it, Fortify, to prevent the Magical Structure of the Earth Wall Spell from dispersing.

An earth wall created by Magic would turn into a pile of loose earth or simply dissipate as long as the maintained Magical Structure dispersed. After all, it was just formed from Earth Element. Different people could make the earth wall last for different durations, but once the Mana maintaining the Magical Structure was exhausted, the earth wall would definitely disperse.

“…You’re casting Magic on Magic!?” Petty stared blankly at Zheng Yichen’s actions. She found herself getting shocked yet again today!

“Is that not allowed?”

“Basically, it’s not…” she answered with a troubled expression. “Connor, you’re really amazing.”

Muttering a couple of times, she said sincerely. Since she had already been shocked enough, a little more probably didn’t matter. She glanced at the extra book in Zheng Yi’s hand. The cover of the book felt somewhat familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before.

Frowning slightly, she only remembered something about that book after Zheng Yichen had almost finished tidying up the small hut temporarily created by Magic.

“Connor, is that book in your hand… Bona Kaine’s Magic Book?”

“Who is Bona Kaine?” Zheng Yichen shook the Magical Grimoire in his hand. Seeing Petty’s surprised look, he couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong? Is this thing very special?”

“It is something very special,” she answered with some difficulty. A Magical Grimoire, well, it was a book used by Mages to assist and enhance their Spellcaster. To describe it specifically, it was similar to a Magic Wand, just in a different form, and it also served the function of recording knowledge.

However, one very special Magical Grimoire was different. It basically had no effect in strengthening a Mage’s Spellcaster abilities, but it recorded an extremely wide range and number of spells. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to regard it as an encyclopedia of Magic. And there was no complicated searching required.

If you wanted to know about a certain type of Magic, you just had to hold the book and think about it. Even if you didn’t know the name, if you saw a spell with your own eyes, you could find it in the book based on your impression—provided it had relevant records.

It’s just that this book had gone missing for unknown reasons six hundred years ago. Now it had reappeared in the world in Zheng Yichen’s hands.

“Wow? Sounds pretty impressive.” Zheng Yichen patted the Magical Grimoire in his hand. From the very beginning, he had felt this book gave off a sense of déjà vu. Now, after listening to Petty’s explanation about the book, that sense of déjà vu grew stronger and stronger. Wasn’t it just an Otherworld book version of a Magic category search engine? “You know quite a lot.”

“Because I’ve always had a part-time job transcribing books for others,” Petty said. Such part-time work didn’t pay well and was too tedious, so not many people did it. But she quite liked this kind of work.

Not only did it earn money, but it also allowed her to accumulate knowledge. She didn’t have a privileged family background. If she wanted to stand out, she had to study hard continuously and also find ways to support herself. This kind of part-time job suited her just fine.

It was also because of this that she had managed to secure a spot for a training expedition to the Forest of Illusions from the Academy not long ago. In terms of strength, she was the weakest in the entire team. But in terms of accumulated knowledge, she was the best.

“You like reading books, huh?”

“Mm…” Petty nodded.

“Then why not consider getting a job as a Librarian or something?” Zheng Yichen thought of a profession that was often joked about online as god-like before he crossed over.

“Huh?” Petty scratched her head and said somewhat unwillingly, “I tried competing for it… but I didn’t get it…”