The library was enormous, even bigger than the Martial Hall, as one can imagine it was filled with books, and it was at least thr- no, four floors tall. Filled with shelves which were in turn filled with books, leaving a small area with tables to read in the middle of the library.
The library wasn't full but it had some people, most were NPC but there were some players too. It wasn't anything surprising because reading books was one of the ways of gaining intelligence and wisdom skill points, while it was easy to hunt the monster outside of the town, everyone expected to gain some special information to get an edge over the rest.
"Really, they are always looking for the easy way" Thought Allan while walking to the librarian that was discussing with some players about a quest or something like that.
He waited until the librarian couldn't take it anymore and expulsed these players. After he calmed down, Allan approached him.
"Excuse me. I need information abou-"
"I don't need any help, I don't know of any treasure, I don't have any quest if you disturb me again, I will call the guards" said the librarian cutting off what Allan was going to say.
"Eh, no, I wanted information about a book"
The librarian looked up and examined Allan for a moment. The man was old, probably about sixty or seventy years old. After seeing that he wasn't one of these people from before he easy up his face and said softly.
"I am sorry, today is a very busy day, what kind of book were you looking for?"
"It's fine, I don't mind. I was looking for books about swordsmanship"
"If that's the case you would find them on the second floor, on the third bookshelf after you go up the stairs"
Allan thanked the man and went to the third floor, which was as spectacular as the first and second floors. When he arrived, he started to look for the book he needed.
Before he entered the game, one of the posts that Allan looked at was an introduction to the game made by a well-known pro player, which have a lot of good replies, in the post was about skills.
Skills are fundamental in almost every game. Without skills, you can't slay strong monsters, survive in high-level areas, and even get important quests, so skills are essential.
The problem is that nobody knows how to gain skills in Idle Online. That doesn't mean players don't gain skills, it is that they don't know how they did it.
There was a player who wanted to obtain a spear skill, so he swung a spear for a week before he gave up, while others used it once time and he got it. Moreover, skills don't start at level one. The post talked about a player who punched a monster after his weapon broke and he gained "Fist Mastery" at level two. Until now skill acquisition remains a mystery.
Allan observed the books about swords on the bookshelf and read silently his titles.
"History of the legendary Swords of the Continent, The Wonders of Greatswords, How to Use the Sword in a Cave, …, Simple Use of the Sword for Monkeys, How to feel pleasure being Stabbed, … why the heck is such a book here? Ahh, there you are"
After he looked carefully over every book until he found what he was looking for.
< Basic Moves of the sword >
After Allan picked up the book he went to a table, opened and calmly started reading.
Swordsmanship or sword fighting refers to the skills of a swordsman, a person versed in the art of the sword. The term is applied to any martial art involving the use of a sword. There are eight basic moves one person can do with a sword: Cut, Slash, Thrust, Parry, Guard, Hack, Stab, and Slice. Any sword art uses these moves along with specific footwork and body motions to deal with one or multiple opponents.
Cut refers to the act …
And so, Allan read the book with attention on the quiet third floor of the library.
Contrary to the first floor, there wasn't anybody here, maybe one or two people occasionally but that was all. In this quiet and peaceful environment, concentration can reach unsuspected levels, something very unlikely in a busy and noisy city.
"…man"
"Young man"
Allan was suddenly interrupted from his lecture and annoyingly raised his head from the book to look at the librarian. Contrary to before, now he had a sweet and appreciative smile when he looked at him.
"What is it?"
"It´s time to close"
"WHAT!!!"
Allan in a hurry looked at the clock in the menu system. It was nine o'clock, remembering that he came here at half past four, that means that he was reading for more than four hours!!
He couldn't believe it, has really spent so much time without him realizing it?
"Hahaha, what with that face? It is normal for the time to pass when you are engrossed in a good book"
"I'm sorry, I'll leave immediately" Allan stood up and started cleaning the table he was using.
"Don't worry young man, there are still a few minutes before I close the shop. I have come to apologize to you for my conduct before. Let me introduce myself, my name is Carl and I am the head librarian here"
"It's a pleasure to meet you, I am Allan"
Allan introduces himself to Carl and they continued chatting while Carl put the book Allan was reading in his place.
"It was a long time ago that someone stayed reading a book until so late at night, it remembers me of myself when I was young. At that time, I adored the books, but I still do. I stayed day and night reading every book I could catch; I suppose that is why I started work here. By the way, why did you want to read that book?"
Carl saw the title of the book Allan was reading when he put it on the bookshelf. It was a very basic book, which objectively tell the reader the main moves one can do with a sword, but people usually prefer to learn these things in practice and not in theory, besides one wouldn't become a swordsman reading it.
Most martial arts tell you to move in a certain way to inflict damage to the opponent, so it doesn't matter if you don't understand why you must move that way, is useless to read this book which only speaks about the possibilities of the sword without any practice use.
The only people who would be interested in reading that class of book would be veterans who want to make their own sword technique starting from the basics.
In the end, this book is a theory book, not a sword art, it would be unnecessary to read it if you want to use a sword.
"I want to learn to use the sword, but I don't want to go out and stab bunnies and foxes to death, that wouldn't be good enough to learn"
Carl nodded, it was very common for youngsters to get a sword and attack everything that can move, you can kill it but you wouldn't learn anything, and if by chance you survive long enough to learn that way there would be flaws in your technique, sometimes so obvious that can be even mortal.
"You can try to go to get a master"
"Do you know someone like that here?" Asked Allan even if he already knew the answer.
Carl was speechless.
This was Tutorial Island, forget about masters, even true swordsmen were hard to find. The most thing akin to that were the instructors in the Martial Hall, but they had tens of new people to teach every day.
As a result, the instructors observed how the newbies hit the target with a weapon, be peacemakers in fights, and threw out the troublemakers.
In practice, they weren't instructors, they were nannies!!!.
It was better to get a sword and learn how to use it against bunnies and foxes, instead of hitting a not-moving target in a room full of loud people.
"Tell me Allan do you have where to stay tonight?"
Carl was embarrassed and tried to divert the conversation toward another thing that he thought Allan could have forgotten.
"Erg, no, I don't sir. I didn't plan to stay here at such an hour"
By the time the conversation had reached this point they had reached the first floor and the old man went to his deck and started to write something.
"Then, try to go to this place, if you give them this note they may give you a discount" Said Carl as he passed a note to Allan while winking an eye.
"Thank you, sir, I thought I would have to sleep in the streets tonight"
(Not that I don't have experience) Allan thought of his experience last night while taking the note.
"Hahaha, I am sure it wouldn't have reached that point" Said the old man while he closed the door of the library and said goodbye to Allan.