'Knock, knock!'
Before the door, I ran my eyes around to see anything that could draw in my attention for the moment, but gave up on it, after looking around.
It seemed like Bright was not contented with the silence from within the Acorn Master's office, so he made to knock on the door, for a second time. And just as he was about to do so, a young-looking man opened the door with a frown, as his head corked out.
This young man seemed to be around my age. But unlike any other boy from back home, this one had horns on his head like some kind of. . . ram.
"Young master, Jaiden. We seek an audience with the your father."
Furrowing his eyebrows, Jaiden declared, after observing us both, "The Acorn Master is busy right now, and wishes no one disturbs him!"
Bright's eyes widened. From the look of things, he really revered this arrogant fellow.
So instead of dragging on, Bright rather said, "If that's the case, you can at least pass a message for us, right?"
The young man's brows were still furrowed, as if waiting for Bright to get on with it.
Understanding what the lad was implying, Bright quickly said, "Tell him someone he'd given his personal jade token handout to, for permission into the Beast Hall, named Stephanie, have arrived as she'd given her words to, and only dropped by to say a proper thank you."
He nodded his head slightly, and quickly rushed inside. Disappointment covered Bright's eyes.
To cheer him up, I said, "It's no big deal, I could always pay respects to him after I'm done with what I came here for. There's still time, and I have permission to spend the whole day. He probably might be too busy to see anyone at the moment."
Bright was thoughtful at first, then he nodded. Flinging his sleeves, we strode together to the Main Hall.
Stepping into the Main Hall, a feeling gushed through me, making me feel suddenly at ease. It was a feeling made by something I've gotten to accept as normal, so far; an aura. I quickly asked Bright about this.
Chuckling, Bright began to explain on the spot.
"It's not an aura, but a formation."
Sensing my puzzlement, he elaborated, "A formation is something used by Formation Masters for different purposes. In this case, this formation was set to keeping the state of mind of those who walked into this Beast Hall at ease, removing any plight they'd suffered from, before stepping into the Main Hall. . ."
Through further explanations, I was able to learn how powerful formations were. Putting it simply, formations could be defined as the gathering of spiritual energy in specific positions for different offensive, defensive and relaxative unique effects.
At the moment, we were seated on a place made for people to be able to adapt their mind while entering into the Beast Hall. Just opposite it was a front desk.
Like the Beast Hall, there were three other guilds in every kingdom under the Phantom Dynasty, of which the Formation Hall was part of. And just as the name implied, the Formation Hall was famed for its possession of setting formidable forms and structures. In effect, Formation Masters were fawned over by almost every guild in this world, as second most important guild members, after the Beast Tamers.
Having explained so much about these, my understanding about the affairs of this world deepened. Soon, Bright left me to return to his chamber of duty, situated beside the gate. So after bidding him, I crossed over to the front desk.
Before me was a cute lady in her mid-twenties.
"Hello, can you take me to the Book Collection Vault?"
"No problem," replied the lady. Without wasting further time, she rose to her full height and led the way. "Follow me."
I nodded in response.
As we walked, I began to observe the Main Hall. It was covered with shelves carrying lots of artifacts and savage beasts' inner cores.
Soon, we were walking up a staircase at the other end of the Main Hall. After a few flights, I read the words over the large door which stood ajar before us, inaudibly.
"Beast Hall's Book Collection Vault."
"There you go, miss. Enjoy your while, you can stay as long as you want," said the lady before turning around, back to her previous station.
'How nice!'
Smiling, I walked inside. My lower jaw fell to the ground, while my eyes shot out of their sockets by the sight before me.
Huge rows of shelves were stacked one before the other in columns. These shelves spanned over a thousand, in the vastness of the mighty hall. Gratefully, I noticed a blonde lad about two years over my age, seated with a strange-looking book, at a desk not too far from the side of the entrance. It appeared he was the librarian here, so I didn't waste time to approach him.
"Hi," said I.
He was completely immersed in the words of his book that he didn't budge at all to my voice, like I was a non-existent being.
"Hi," I repeated, this time nudging him a little on his shoulder.
"Can be palatable!" screamed the lad, almost upturning his desk.
Covering my mouth, I chuckled; I actually couldn't helped it. He'd even startled me myself.
"I'm sorry I'd made you startled," I said, with a light smile on.
Some people spread across different spots in this part of the library raised their heads from their books and stared at us, eccentrically.
Embarrassed, he quickly turned to them before saying, "I'm sorry everyone—" with a weird handwave at them, before turning to look at me with an equally pleading expression, "I was probably too immersed in my reading."
"I know," I said, still smiling. Actually, I was trying hard not to think about what I'd just seen — it was just so funny. I don't know how people do it, but I've never found myself, completely, in a book. It was as though my nudge on the lad made a kind of electronical connection from the outside world to the book world, dragging him back to consciousness.
Standing up, he said with an outstretched arm, "I'm Anthony."
Taking the cold hand, I replied, "I'm Stephanie."
Okay, okay, here's the thing. I do think he was such a cutie. He had a handbreadth of golden hair spread across his forehead, with a complimentary, dashing smile that felt like a... a "love formation".
'Snap out of it girl!' an elder in my head screamed.
Embarrassed, I realised my hand was still in his. Retracting it quickly, I asked about where I could find books on animal spirits.
"Animal spirits?" he was stunned for a moment, before saying, "Sure. Go straight down that book row over there, then count five shelves on your right."
"Down that row, five shelves on my right, got it!" I repeated with a smile.
I turned around and swiftly followed the descriptions.
After arriving there, like other rows, there were chairs behind tables one could use in reading. This place was completely void of anyone, save for those books.
My eyes swept over the books in the massive shelves, before falling on five words on the side of a certain book.
"Coalition of Animal and Spirit."
My eyes lit up in excitement. The name sounded magnificent to me ears, and pricked on my curiosity. Standing on my toes, I drew out the heavy, ancient-kissed, gray-coloured book and placed it on the nearby table, after walking up to the shelf where it was situated.
Due to how spaced the passage was, it was very highly ventilated, regardless of the amount of shelves around.
I drew out a chair and fell to it, lazily. Then after lowering my head, I read aloud the massive words on the book cover, once again, "Coalition of Animal and Spirit."
Immediately, the book on the table began to vibrate and shake as though the doing of an exterior effect.
"What's going on?"
All of the sudden, it finally halted and opened up, somewhere towards the middle.
I looked under the table to be sure I wasn't having an illusion, but there was nothing underneath.
Exhaling, I stared intensely to the first words I saw.
"Animals (savage beasts or not), because being mobile organisms, have the power to harness their souls with phantom spirits with the aid of spirit cultivation technique manuals.
"There are several other ways to harness one's soul with phantom spirits, without using the above method, but it is only possible for people with the Royal Euphenic Bloodline in their spirit essence. These might be useless for others, but not for you—"
At the moment, I paused as realisation struck me. The book was tailored based on the spirit essence of the reader; who'd have ever thought this was possible?
Just as I was about to go further, filled with excitement, I suddenly realised something was not right. The more I immersed myself, the more it seemed as if the words of the books were coming to life. The pictures in the book began to zoom before my eyes and somehow I couldn't hear my own voice reading the words of the book any longer, but a neutral, feminine voice.
My vision began to vividly match with the realm portrayed in the book.
Choking of words as my subconscious mind watched the unfolding events, I stuttered, "Is this a r-real li-life..."
"Cut scene?!"