"Firearms? Why would you want to know about firearms?" Fleming asks doubtful.
"I wanted to try making one." Zeno answers truthfully.
The former world's science of making explosions wasn't unknown to him. But that science depended on chemical reactions and the way its energy was released. In this world however, the chemical reaction makeup had changed completely because of the interfering and all pervading nature of World Energy on different materials.
"Yeah...., right"
Fleming first chuckles thinking that the kid was joking. But seeing the look on the kid's face, Fleming knew that the kid was serious. "Wait, you… you are serious?"
"Maybe." Zeno replies.
"Kid, don't try to even joke about such things. Making explosives isn't easy as it sounds and you, a kid isn't even supposed to be messing with such things. People have lost their limbs and lives trying to make such dangerous things." Fleming tries to dissuade Zeno.
"Since when did you care about me? Just tell me if there's any books." Zeno asks firmly.
"There... indeed are books on it, but it is a waste of time. If you want one, why didn't you try the marketplace?" Fleming asks.
"I already did. But there was none to be found. Hence I came here." Zeno replies.
It was true. On his way here, he used
"Ofcourse, there won't be. Why do you think Fighters and Hunters risk their lives setting traps and fighting beasts and monsters with their skills and tool weapons? If we had a bunch of explosives, we could have just tossed a bunch of them down the Dungeon layers and we wouldn't have to worry about any Dungeon Break."
"Then why isn't no-one doing that?" Zero asks half joking and half serious.
"Because, they aren't easy to make nor cheap to buy. Explosives are as costly as Energy crystals. Even Simon won't have enough money to buy one." Fleming says as a matter of fact.
"And who needs an explosive when you can break things with skills. If you want something destroyed, employ someone with a destructive skill. "
Fleming tries to discourage him further even though Zeno seems adamant.
"I have no money." Zeno answers which is factually correct. Both the copper and gold coins he had did melt during the onset of lightning strikes. "Even if I did, I don't want to involve anyone else in this matter."
"Alright!" Fleming relents finally. "Well, it's not my problem if you waste your time. It's not like you would be able to understand it."
Fleming then gets up from his chair and leaves for the two humongous doors of the Academy Library.
"Are you going to push it open, just like before?" Zeno asks, remembering Fleming ballooning up to become a giant and pushing open the doors wide open.
"You kidding me? That was just for a first impression, kid. If I had to do that for every rascal that comes to borrow a book, I would have quit this job a long time ago." Fleming says, as he takes out a set of keys from his pockets. He inserts one of the keys into an unassuming crevice on the door which opens up a mini door barely an adult's average height, on the leftmost side of one of the doors.
"That's for sure, convenient."
Zeno comments as he enters through the min door along with Fleming.
Once inside, Fleming guides Zeno to a deeper portion of the first floor. Shortly after they reach another door which opens upto a storeroom with a bunch of shelves full of books lying around gathering dust.
Seeing the tall and wide room fully covered in dust, Zeno could assume nobody has been inside here for ages. Small spiderwebs could be seen all around the large room.
{~ Given the state of this room, I think the old guy tried to warn you because he didn't want to trouble himself looking for it in this dust sack. ~}
'Yep. Seems like it.'
Zeno answers back in his head to Blacky's remark.
"Why is it that so many books are stored away here?" Zeno asks Fleming being curious.
"Because no one wants to read these kind of things anymore. This is where the non combat or non advancement oriented books are stored. Since most students are only interested in the technique manuals and such, the other things got stacked here….."
Fleming suddenly stops talking as they seemed to have reached their destination. They stopped in front of one of the unassuming shelves in the store room.
"Every document regarding explosives in our Library is stored here." Fleming says as he points to the middle section of that particular shelf. "On top of each of those books you can see the task points required to take them with you."
"I will be waiting near the doors if you want to get out of here."
Saying so, Fleming leaves Zeno alone in the dusty storeroom alone.
Just as Zeno makes sure Fleming has left the area, he immediately starts his work.
'
Hundreds of status screens light up in front of his eyes each pertaining to one of the books stored in there. Seeing the sheer amount of books to go through in an hour, anyone else would have given up in that moment but Zeno doesn't.
He starts to sort out each one of those screens to check for books that have relevant info regarding explosions. A normally sane person would have gotten bored after going through ten or so screens, but since Zeno possesses the trait, State of Absolute Soumd Mind, he could go on with no stray thoughts affecting his judgement. Profile also helped removing books that wasn't related to what they were looking.
'Most of these are more like speculations on events that happened. They are mostly fairytales instead of real facts. Except for these few.'
Zeno chatters in his head as he turns his skill off and separates out 13 books out of the whole shelf.
'
'
'
'
'
'
.
.
Zeno scans upto 10 of the books to his
[Profile would like to request something.]
{~ Oh? You have a request, you say? Aren't you a golem? Golems aren't supposed to make demands ~}
'That's weird.'
Zeno thinks to himself ignoring Blacky. This was the first time he recalls Profile requesting him for something.
'What's the matter?' Zeno asks in his head.
[Profile would like to re-scan the Advancement manuals User scanned from this library.]
{~ Wait,what are you both talking about? ~}
'Why?' Zeno asks.
[Profile wants to rectify the error that occurred when Profile tried to compile all the Advancements manuals]
Hearing Profile's reason, Zeno remembers the event. At that time, he was caught up in the moment and forgot all about it. After that, he didn't give much thought to it either.
Taking the three books along with him, Zeno walks up to the shelf where he put back those manuals when he came here last time. Fortunately, no one had moved it from there after all this time.
Taking it up, he looked at it thoroughly, but something seemed off. It wasn't the same as last time. Something felt different to him.
'Somehow, I feel like there is more to it. Do both of you, have any idea as to what is causing it?'
Zeno asks their opinions. Profile doesn't respond to its User's questions because it wasn't sure as to what was causing it. Luckily, it is Blacky who comes up with an answer.
{~ That golem's newly obtained skill is making your eyes sense traces of energy left in the books unknowingly. That's what's making you feel that difference~}
Acknowledging Blacky's theory, Zeno activates Profile's newly obtained skill to a minimum degree, not wanting to blind his eyes again.
'
Since the skill was activated to sense the energy feebly, he didn't get his eyes blindsided like before. He opens one of the manuals to test the theory and it was true.
Below each page where the page number should be, Zeno notices a tiny needle depth trace of purple coloured energy lingering around. At first glance, it seems nothing special. But after some scrutiny, Zeno could make out each of those traces formed in Roman numerals, which wasn't supposed to be known by anyone here.
"First, it was the rubix cube, now there's roman numerals. If it wasn't someone from my time or before checking it, they would have ignored it without further glance." Zeno comments as he looks through all the 5 manuals and see the trace in each of its pages.
'Somebody must have left these here for me or for other transmigrators if I am not the only one. Possibly a transmigrator.' Zeno deduces before he activates his skill to try find some link to the owner through the traces.
'View'
[⚫Psionic Energy Trace
⚫Attribute: Time]
'Psionic energy….. Time attribute…. How could an energy be of time attribute? I don't get it.'
Zeno muses in his head. He had used the skill hoping to find any leads on who left it, but nothing like that showed up. The only reason it didn't show up he could of think of was that it must have been a long time ago or the person might be too high levelled for his current level to see through.
{~ It means the one who left the trace had a psionic ability to perform time oriented skills. I assume purple colored energy signifies an energy of psionic origin. ~}
Blacky explains since it was knowledgeable in these matters. Being the former Will of the Abyss, it has an idea on the gist of events and recognise it as long as it is visible to Zeno.
[Only a person with vision based skill or trait could have noticed this]
[ The one who left it must be also of the same kind]
[That's all Profile can derive from this situation]
Profile also provides his reasoning which didn't support nor deny Zeno's reasoning of it being left by a transmigrator like him.
"Whatever, let's scan these babies again." Zeno comments as he activates his skill once again over the 5 manuals.
'
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'
'
'
Within minutes, the data regarding the energy trace and its shape was copied onto its current copy in the Hidden Codex.
Compiling all the data, Zeno arrives at two conclusions. First one is that these manuals are part of one whole advancement manual and somebody split and separated it into different different manuals for some unknown reason.
Second conclusion is that he doesn't have enough manuals to complete the puzzle. Most of the roman numerals were missing. If the first page was numbered 5, then the next was 27, the next 32 and all. This can only mean that there are other manuals in here that he would have to collect in order to solve the puzzle.
'No wonder, the compilation of manuals into one turned out to be an error before. I need to find the rest of them if I have to compile them all.' Zeno deduces. 'But why should I waste my time for all this? I could just leave it at that.'
{~ You got anything better to do? ~}
Blacky asks.
"Not really, but it depends." Zeno answers back.
{~ It's not everyday you get an oppurtunity for a lottery. People with the power of time on their side are a rarity among rarity. Something that belongs to them must be of high value too ~}
"When you say it like that, I cannot leave like that, can I?"
Zeno replies back as he decides to check the whole floor for such manuals.
'
Leaving the 5 manuals back in there, Zeno activates the skill and looks through every shelf in the floor for any such energy trace, but nothing turns up.
He even checks the store room just in case he may find something. But nothing turns up in there too. The only places left to check are the upper floors but he can't get in there, atleast not without Fleming's permission.
Taking the three books on explosives with him, Zeno leaves for the giant doors, now that there's nothing else left for him to do here. He is able to check out the three books from the library but is unable to go to the upper floors because Fleming denies him entry.
"Only upper classmen are allowed to go upstairs. The higher your class, the higher floors you can access."
Fleming explains to Zeno as he leads the other outside the library.
'So, I would have to reach the senior class to access the whole library, huh? Sounds like a drag.'
Zeno thinks up in his head as he is leaving for his class, holding the books.
************************
Dom and his two friends, Noel and Bezaj were planning to go to the library, the very morning itself. They are planning to use the task points they have accumulated in exchange for a higher rank fighting technique to improve their combat styles.
They had been going around fighting all the gangs in intermediate classes to see how they match upto their upper classmen and had been able to win some task points over with each challenge. Normally such a rowdy group which causes trouble wherever it goes, would be considered a nuisance in Noir's time, but in this age of Dominus Continent, they are considered the ideal students.
Every academy in the Dominus Continent is built with the main aim to nurture more combatants who can fight for humanity rather than living a settled life with a profession.
Moreover Dom is considered a rare genius since he possesses a weapon as a Gift and has a higher grade than his peers. Bezaj and Noel can be only considered average but acting as Dom's lackeys who follow him everywhere, Dom also helps them Advance faster.
"Don't you think we have been making a lot of enemies lately?" Noel asks Dom on their way to the library. "What if all those intermediate upperclassmen gang upon us?"
"You can't move forward without making enemies, Noel. You should know after all this time." Dom answers to Noel's question. "Even if they did, do you think they would necessarily win with me around?"
"Yeah, Noel. Have some faith in Dom. They are more scared of Dom than you are of them."
Bezaj chides Noel, walking forward in a happy go lucky manner.Even though Bezaj chides Noel, he knows that when a fight occurs, Noel would be the one he can count on.
Just as they turn around the corner, the three of them see Zeno holding 3 large books in his hands, coming their way.
"I didn't expect to see the trash here. Guess it's my lucky day."
Bezaj comments as he storms off. He had been looking around for Zeno from the day he knew Zeno rejoined the Academy.
"He is a primary class student now, Bezaj. If Sir Klaus finds out you messed with a primary student, it won't be funny."
Noel tries to advise him but Bezaj had already left before he could complete his conversation.
"Don't worry." Dom replies coolly going forward. "What's wrong with saying a little hi? That gray haired trash didn't even had the guts to talk back, back then. He won't go around talking to Klaus. After all that old man's the one who got him out in the first place."
Dom being a favoured kid knew a bit of news from here and there. Still he didn't know how his old classmate got back inside.
"Bezaj hates Zeno. If he goes full rogue, who knows ....."
*THUMP* *screeeeeeech*
Before Noel could complete his sentence, a small body gets thrown towards their directions which causes a thumping noise in the ground before coming to a screeching stop.
Looking straight, they see their opponent standing on one leg with the other leg suspended in their direction as if he had kicked Bezaj back to them from that distance.
"Shit, shit ,shit…..!!!"
Noel curses as checks upon his friend Bezaj who got knocked out cold and was foaming from his mouth.
'What…!!?' Dom says in his head as he turns his attention from the opponent to the knocked out Bezaj and back continuously. He hadn't seen what had happened because his face was turned to Noel when he was talking.
'How… how did Bezaj went down that easily? He could stand toe to toe with the Intermediate upperclassmen. When did the trash get so strong?'
Dom once again turns his attention to see Zeno standing straight on both his feet and looking back at them before walking towards them.
"You have gotten cocky from the last time I saw you, trash."
Dom responds readying himself now that things have reached this point. "Did you awaken a new Gift or something, acting all hostshot?"
Zeno just stands still without any response. To Dom's eyes, the opposite person was spacing out not even paying any attention to them.
'That's it, trash. Nobody looks down on us. Especially, a trash like you. I am taking you down, right now.' Dom decides as he activates his skill.
'I will make you feel real pain for what you did to Bezaj.'
Dom takes the summoned cutlass in his hands as he strides forward to engage in a fight with Zeno.