"The results are here." The librarian said with a casual voice, once the results of the scan came.
"Let me see as well." Soren said enthusiastically.
"Alright, have a look." After the librarian said that, the two of them saw the results of the scan:
[Results:
Properties: Error!!! Error!!! Error!!! Can not be displayed!
Materials: Flame Dragon Skin, Urelus paper, 73 different types of blood (dried)]
"..."
"..."
Both Soren and the librarian were speechless from the results. The properties were already quite a big shock for the librarian, as for Soren, he was more disappointed that he didn't get any results. But what shocked Soren the most, were the materials this book was made out of. He wasn't sure about the paper, but the dragon skin already showed that this book was valuable and probably made out extremely rare and hard to aquire materials, while the 73 different types of blood felt like a major red flag for Soren. Whatever that book was, it was made out of valuable materials, its contents were, at least, on the level of highly-confidential documents and all of that blood showed that this book was anything but bad trouble.
"Honestly... Whatever that book is, it's definitely valuable and will probably give you a lot of trouble, so my advice for that, is to get rid of it as soon as possible, burn it, tear it, boil it, cook it, hide it, I don't care how you pull that off, but the more you hold on to it, the higher your chances of you kissing the dirt are." The librarian said seriously.
"You don't think? I wonder what made it obvious. Was it, maybe the rare materials that this thing was made of, or was it the 73 different types of blood, that this thing was covered with?" Soren said sarcastically and annoyed.
"Don't get fresh with me young man. I know that when this kind of trouble comes your way, you won't be getting out of it unscathed, so you better get started on writing your will post-haste." The librarian said with an angry and annoyed expression.
"Talking about trouble with a capital T. I just hope that whoever its owner is, they won't take me to the afterlife." Soren said with an annoyed expression.
"So, what are you going to do about that?" The librarian pointed at the book.
"Take it with me for the time being. It's not as if I can just throw it in the middle of nowhere and just leave it there, since the thing will just charge at me like a homing shot." Soren answered while feeling annoyed, before he put the book in the bag.
"Fine, just don't get me invovled with your mess later on. I don't want to meet your unlucky fate, just because I know as much as you do, got it?" The librarian said expressionlessly.
"Got it. Thank you for helping me." Soren said respectively.
"Happy to help and hope you have a nice day." The librarian said calmly.
"Farewell. Let's get going Lavenza, we still have preparations to do." After Soren said that, he and Lavenza left the storage room and then the library. While they were leaving, the librarian said quietly:
"I just hope a terrible fate doesn't befall you."
...
Now that Soren and Lavenza left the library, they decided to sit on a nearby bench to make their battle plan for once they start their hunt and basically just do a full rundown of whatever they learned in the library.
"Now that we are out of the library, let's list down the things we learned in there. First, let's start with the mission and it's objectives." Soren said seriously.
"Kyuu~." Lavenza seemed eager.
"For starters, the monsters we intend to hunt. Those should be the Viscocious Jellyfish, the Mer-Goblins, the Salt Slime, the Sea Snake and the Mer-Hobgoblin. The Crystal Charger is also an option, but that thing is a hassle to track down and in terms of power, it is just stronger than the Mer-Hobgoblin. Sure it may be dumber that the Mer-Hobgoblin, but that is still a creature that will be giving us a lot of trouble, which is unnecessary.
Next, the things we will be needing for the hunt. For the jellyfish, we will need some simple antidotes which shouldn't be hard to come by. For the slimes, I don't know if we will be needing a bottle to collect its liquids or not, but it doesn't kill to do so. The Mer-Goblins and Mer-Hobgoblins themselves, we will just need to repair our equipment a bit. Now, as for the Sea Snake, we can only hope that we can bait it out with some Jellyfishes or slimes. Anything else we will be needing would probably be rations and maybe an extra weapon, in case something unexpected happens. Also, we may need some armor for you, because we can't have you fight buck naked anymore. Hehe." Soren monologued for a while before he chuckled.
"Kyuu~, Reny~." Lavenza was silghtly embarassed by Soren's last words.
"Jokes aside, until your scales harden up, you will need some sort of protection and I can't always take attacks, so some armor is required. Now, aside from that, we will probably need some cash for all of this stuff. Luckily for us, we have 10 Sea Wolf carcasses, just laying in our bag, ready to be sold to material dealers or whatever the profession might be. We still need to keep one for the quest, plus the Ravaged Wolf corpse, so we can only sell 9 of them." Soren said continuously before he took a deep breath with his gills.
"Kyuu~." Lavenza nodded.
"Well, the only thing that could be of use, but not now of course, is a little bit of the history of Crystalia City. We have some knowledge on the important historical figures of this place, including the Arch-Priestess and there is something that caught my eye, but went over my head at the time." Soren said while being in thought.
"Kyuu~" Lavenza asked curiously.
"Quan, was apperantly one of the members of the Longinus household, who also said man happened to be the Arch-Priestess' husband back in the days of the founding, but the thing that seems a bit interesting is the Quan's father's name, Asterius. And the only other time this name was said, was during the time we were saying our goodbyes with the old man and that purple haired lady, mr.Claus and Luna, who also had the last name Asterius. Do you think they may be related Lavenza?"
Lavenza just shrugged and shook her head.
"Figures. For now, let's stick to our plan for tomorrow. I want to take care some of the preparations so tomorrow we can have more time to rest or make battle plans." Soren said before he got up.
"Kyuu~ kyuu~?" Lavenza pointed at the bag.
"What about it?" Soren asked.
"Kyuu~." Lavenza said while pretending like she was holding something heavy.
"Oh. The book. Whatever that is, it's bound to be troublesome for sure. And it's not like we can get rid of it easily for now, considering the fact that this thing is attracted to you like flies to a trash can, so let's not let it see the shine of day for now and not even think about it." Soren said casually.
"Let's get moving, we have a lot to do and I want to sell the corpses before dusk, or should I say dawn, considering that this place has day and night completely reversed." Soren said casually before he and Lavenza made their way towards their next destination.
...
-Crystalia City, Coral Garden Park, Library-
Now, it's closing time for the library and the skies have already darkened quite a bit. After the last person left the library, the librarian from before that talked with Soren, locked the enterance door and then went into the staff room. Inside, there were another two librarians, one who had purple hair and eyes and a red tail, while the other had brown hair and tail and yellow eyes. The one with the purple hair spoke first, once the she entered the room:
"Day's over Leila. You can take off that mask of yours."
"Can it, Chris." The woman who was named Leila said angrily, before she stuck her fingers under the skin on her neck and then took out slowly the mask that was covering her face. As the mask was being taken off, the color on the tail and hair was starting to become a vibrant red color and once she took off her mask, she showed her green eyes and an unsatisfied expression.
"Seems like you have a bad day Leila, did you experience heartbreak today, even with that mask of yours on your head?" Chris asked jokingly.
"If you wish to meet your maker, then go ahead and continue doing so. I'll happily make your face unrecognisable just how this mask hides my features." Leila said with an angry but lighter and softer voice than before.
"I still wonder how is it possible for that mask to hide such obvious features. I mean, it's literally making your face unrecognisable and somehow takes all of the color from your hair and tail, like how does that even work?" Chris asked curiously.
"I said. CAN IT!" *smack* Leila punched Chris on the head furiously because her day was already pretty bad, thanks to the situation from before.
"Jokes aside guys, you rarely ever do that expression Leila. Did something happen before, during the time with that young man with the blue tail and that sea snake of his?" The man with the brown hair asked concerned, while trying to stop Leila from lashing out.
"Do you expect me to tell you my business, Mike?" Leila asked seriously while trying to calm down her anger.
"No, but it doesn't hurt to ask." Mike answered while smiling.
"Fair enough, but I still won't answer." Leila said indifferently.
"Tsk. Spoilsport. At least, let me ask this. Did he do anything to you?" Chris asked while rubbing his head.
"He didn't." Leila answered calmly.
"Then, I guess everything is okay. Now come on guys, the drinks are on me tonight." Chris said happily before he left the room.
As the two of them were getting ready to leave, Mike asked suddenly:
"Did you get yourself in trouble again?"
"... In a way." Leila answered while hesitated.
"Do you need any help then?" Mike asked concerned.
"No need. It's just that I learned something I didn't need to know. That's all." Leila said while looking downwards.
"... I won't force you to answer. But remember to ask for help, if you ever need it." Mike said seriously.
"Thanks. Let's go get some drinks. I don't know about you, but I want some booze running through my system right now." Leila said energetically, before she left the room.
'Glad to see that you aren't feeling down anymore.' Mike thought to himself while looking at Leila before he cracked a smile and left the room just behind her.