Paley walked around the library, picking out five books with purple covers that interested him. They were all by the same author, Libon Reish - a monster hunter - and they all contained hundreds of pages of information on monsters he hunted.
He carried the books to a table near a window where two girls were revising for an upcoming exam. He sat in the corner of the table, away from them, and began to read the books.
He read them in chronological order; the first one introduced monsters. He learned from it that monsters have magic affinities like humans. There are fire-type monsters, water-type monsters, air, and earth-type monsters, as well as subtypes like Ice-type monsters and even rarer ones such as Music types.
Even in the most specific of types, there are hundreds of monsters. This is because new monsters are born constantly. Originally, knights were the ones who were contracted to combat this overwhelming rate of new monsters, but around 2000 years ago, monster hunting became a profession as a result of Manoha Buul being one.
The first book was thin, so Paley finished it quickly. At the end of every monster chapter, there was a note about the monster's weak points, whether it's a certain magic type that they're extremely weak against or a physical weakness such as an exposed organ.
He moved on to the next four books, which detailed specific monsters. The first one included friendly and lesser monsters, the second, had tier I monsters: monsters like the giant rabbit that Paley punched to death. The third book had tier II monsters like the Fulguron, and the fourth had tier III monsters. There were five tiers of monsters, but anything above tier III was far too rare for a public library to contain information on. Even Libon Reish hadn't seen one in his lifetime.
Paley read through the books, but they were too thick for him to study in the library in one day, so he took them home and read them throughout the next two weeks. After committing most of the content of the books to his memory, he went to the library one Friday with Dillie to return them before staying at her house for a while to spend time with her.
She sketched him once more, this time his real face, also showing progress in her realistic art style.
"So, I'm going to hunt a monster soon," Paley said as she sketched his left eye, trying to get it to match the right.
"Really? Are you sure you can do that?" She asked, worried.
"Y-Yeah..." Paley stared at her, making her stiffen up slightly as he contemplated telling her, "I gotta tell you something." He said.
"Go ahead,"
"I'm a Quimnia."
After a short silence, she giggled. "Was that a joke?" She asked.
"No." Paley decided it would take too long to convince her with words and held his hand up, "Watch." He created a flame on his hand, already surprising Dillie. She'd always only seen him use Air magic - apart from when he heated the bucket, but at the time she was too excited to see his real face to notice.
"Woah!" She pulled the paper she drew on away to keep it from catching on fire.
"That's not all," Paley said and switched the flame to a ball of water.
"Woah, what!?" She yelled and slid back on the bed as she considered the possibility of Paley being a Quimnia.
"And lastly." Paley turned the ball of water into a ball of rock that sat comfortably on his palm. He dropped it on the ground and let it roll to the corner of the room, then turned to Dillie, who was in a state of pure shock.
"You're a Quim-" She shouted, but Paley managed to put his hands on her mouth before her parents heard.
"Don't say it so loud!" He whispered, panicked. "I trust you, which is why I'm telling you this." He let go, "Are you okay?" He asked, noticing that she'd turned a deep red.
"Y-Yeah..." She replied awkwardly. Paley isn't very socially-aware, so he didn't realize that he'd pinned her down with his leg between hers, "But a Quimnia? You're a once in a thousand years chance!" She tried to whisper as she gently pushed him away.
"Mhm." Paley nodded.
"How does it feel? Do you feel... powerful? Do you feel like you can do anything you want?" She asked intently.
"Not really. I guess sometimes I feel proud of myself after training."
"Ohh," She moved her head agreeably, grinning.
"What's up? What're you smiling at?"
"I'm just happy because I got to meet a Quimnia. Speaking of which, when you grow up can I be a part of your story?" She asked eagerly.
"My story?" Paley returned, raising one eyebrow.
"Mhm. Every Quimnia has their own story. You've heard of Aneros and Manoha, right?"
Paley nodded. He'd heard of Aneros many times especially.
"They all left behind biographies of their life. Stories. Imagine that in a few hundred years, kids will be looking up to you. Calling you a hero for defeating the demons!" She was excited like a wife whose husband just won the lottery.
"Why would they call me a hero for *that*? There are many other things to be a hero for." Paley sat back against the wall. His question made Dillie tilt her head with a puzzled look on her face.
"Every Quimnia fights demons. Legend says they're fated to fight them to protect the world. So, chances are, that demons are going to attack our world soon, and you were born to stop them."
"Sounds like a crappy fate." Paley sighed, "Is that for real? I actually will have to do that?"
"Do you not want to?"
"No... I kinda just want to live out the rest of my years in peace. With my family, with friends, at some point, a wife, and have a family of my own." Paley's words shocked her. He didn't strike her as the kind of guy who wanted to settle down and have a family.
They talked for a while more about Paley being a Quimnia before Dillie's mother called them down for more snacks. Her parents thanked Paley profusely for the ring he bought the entire time and once more as they bid him goodbye. Dillie hadn't tried the ring on yet, she was going to try it on her birthday: the 14th of September.
Before heading to the orphanage, Paley stopped by a weapons store whose owner was shocked to see a twelve-year-old walking into his shop. The store had swords, shields, a few sets of armour, and other kinds of weapons such as bows and nun-chucks.
It was run by a middle-aged man, large in stature; thanks to the scars on his left eye and neck, it was apparent that he'd been in a few fights. Whether he received them from different battles, Paley couldn't be bothered to ask.
"Hey, kid. This isn't a toy shop." The owner said in a gravelly voice.
"I know," Paley replied and looked at the swords on the right.
"Are you mad at a friend, or something? You know killing them's not the best idea, right?" The owner sat back in his chair, watching Paley intently.
"I'm not killing a human. I'm probably not even going to use it to kill anything." Paley replied calmly.
"Then, what else could a sword be used for?" He laughed.
"Cutting. Like a knife." Paley answered boldly, "I need something sharp that can cut through meat and bone easily. It also needs to be cheap." He explained.
The owner sighed and pointed to one of the swords, "The third one from your right should suffice. What're you even going to cut with that? The monster under your bed?" He asked sarcastically.
"Sure." Paley took the long, slightly wide but sharp sword with a wooden hilt off the wall. The blade was made of fine steel and added about 4kg of weight by itself. He was still weak in body, so he nearly dropped the sword, having to lift it with both hands to bring it to the owner.
"That'll be 2 gold coins and forty silver." The owner said and Paley dropped three gold coins in his hand that he'd borrowed from Teerom, "So, do you want to be a knight or something?" He put the coins away in a cabinet that he used as a cash register.
"No way in hell," Paley replied monotonously and lifted the sword with Air Magic instead. Before the owner could say anything about him using magic, he hurried out of the store.
"What a strange kid," The owner mumbled and sat back again in his chair.
The shopping district was fairly clear of people, so Paley could fly back to the orphanage with the sword, making it back just in time for dinner.
After dinner, he asked Bacha to make him some potions the next day and went to bed to get a full night's sleep for the hunt tomorrow.