The first book he picked up was called "The layered Realms". He remembered that the system had said that he had been brought to the world called "Layered Realms" so he was curious about it.
What he learned in the book was that there were 5 realms in the "layered Realm". The first realm, which he was currently in, was called the Bottom realm. Advancing to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th realms they were called the low, middle, high realms and the 5th realm was known as heaven.
The bottom realm which he was currently in, was a medieval themed realm, with kingdoms and empires. Nico tried to research how to proceed to the next realms but he couldn't find anything. Hell, he couldn't find any information on any of the other 4 realms.
Finishing the "Layered Realms" book he proceeded to the next one he picked out, it was called "Monsters and Dungeons".
This book mostly aligned with what he already knew about monsters from the Obelisk. But he decided to read it anyway to refresh his memory.
The first part of the book was about dungeons.
Dungeons are a place with monsters in it, they have traps and many other deadly things. Every dungeon ended with a boss fight, some even had multiple bosses.
The next part was about ruins.
Ruins were simple to explain because they were defined as anything that centered around monsters but wasn't a dungeon.
The final part was about field monsters.
Field monsters were…well…exactly as it sounded like. Monsters that roamed around and weren't affiliated with a ruin or a dungeon. Monster villages like goblin or orc villages fell into this category.
"Hmm… I already knew all of this, it's basically identical to how it was in the Obelisk." Said Nico, while opening up the last book he picked up from the shelf.
This book was called "Skills and stats".
There were different ways you could get and earn skills. One way was through getting rewarded by the system, you could get rewards mostly through dungeons, ruins and doing other monster related things. But, Nico noticed another way that you could get skills, which wasn't in the game. And that was by repeating a certain task over and over again.
After thinking about it for a second it made sense to Nico, after all this world has real inhabitants. He took a second to look through the skills that one would get using this method and saw that they were all passive skills.
{Spearmanship}, {Blacksmithing}, {Cooking} these were some of the examples he saw of skills that one could get with a little bit of persistence. Of course, none of them were mind blowing game changing skills but they would without a doubt be helpful.
This opened up a whole new world to Nico, he suspected that if this world had such skills that maybe you could harvest the corpse of the monsters that you kill. This would allow one to create amazing gear without having to rely on drops from monsters for armor and weapons.
"Hehehe…" Nico's gamer mind was thinking of all the things he could do if he could create his own gear and let out a creepy chuckle, before turning his attention back to the book and continued reading for a little longer.
**
"Nghh…So much to learn and so much to do…" Thought Nico as he was leaving the Library.
He had spent so much time in the Library that the sun was setting in the distance, but he didn't even waste a second of time today. He had learned that there are some things he is familiar with and some things that are completely foreign to him in this world. But, no matter what he learned, it all excited him!
He knew that he would have a long journey ahead of him to ascend all 5 of the realms like the quest wanted him too, so he would have to pick up some of the skills he hadn't heard of before.
Getting caught in the thought of how long his journey will be, he began thinking.
'I don't want to just live my life to just complete this quest, I already did that in my past world. My life was dedicated to completing the Obelisk, but this is a second chance, not just at getting stronger…but at life. I want to make friends...and maybe even…start a family…' He thought.
Nico's past world or as he saw it, his past life, was extremely unfulfilling. He didn't have any friends or family to lean on when he needed it, hell, he was even climbing the tower by himself. So he saw this world as a second chance at life, he was determined to complete the {Ascend} quest he was given, but he was just as equally determined to find happiness and keep that happiness.
Finding this new determination, Nico headed back to the Inn to get some rest for the busy day he was planning on having tomorrow.
***
The next day Nico woke up and headed out of the inn. He wanted to get to his destination early. His destination was the 'Adventurers Guild', he read about them in one of the books he read yesterday and thought that they would be a good way to get started on regaining his stats.
The book also recommended to get there early so you get a larger choice of quest, Nico didn't know anything about the guild so he took the recommendation to heart.
Walking through the streets of the city, which he learned was called Ontadon, he still couldn't help but become enchanted at his surroundings, even though he had seen it before it was still just as beautiful.
While looking around the city and enjoying the sights Nico's eyes wandered to a sign that said "Manny's Weapon Shop". This reminded him that he still only had a cheap shortsword which he had gotten from the poor bandit he robbed.
And while he was good at fighting with a shortsword, the weapon he was most proficient with was the spear. He found the spear to be the best weapon in almost any situation, it had range, could slash well, could pierce well and was overall the most versatile weapon. The Obelisk was an unpredictable place so versatility was key whether it came to skills or weaponry.
Deciding that he would use the rest of his money to buy a spear, Nico entered "Manny's Weapon Shop".
When he entered, Nico was met with the smell of fresh metal. To most, this smell would probably be too strong, but Nico strangely enjoyed it. While he was relishing in the metal smell, he heard a deep rough voice come from the opposite side of the shop.
"Is there something I can help you with, boy?"
Turning to look at the owner of the voice, Nico saw an old man. But, he wasn't just an old man, this old man was wearing a white tank top which exposed his massive arms. Overall, he gave off the vibe of a body builder from Nico's old world, but it didn't match well with his old man face.
Shaking away his thoughts, Nico responded to the man.
"Yeah, I'm actually looking for a spear, got any?" Nico didn't feel like speaking with a polite tone but he also didn't speak in a rude tone.
"Sure do! Let me go grab them real quick." Saying this, the man, who Nico assumed was Manny, turned and went into the portion of the shop behind him.
Not long after he disappeared into the back, Manny returned with four spears in his hands.
"These are the only four I have, but I can guarantee the quality! HAHAHA!" The old man laughed as he spoke.
Seeing his mannerism, Nico couldn't help but overlap Granny Gertrude and Manny. They were both prideful of their work, but while Gertrude was prideful of her cooking, Manny was prideful of his crafting. And looking at his work, Nico could tell why, they were all beautiful.
Nico decided to try something. This world had the system that was in {Trials of the Obelisk} and in the game you could see the stats of weapons. So, he hovered his hand over one of the spears and spoke in his mind.
'Status'
"..."
"..."
After waiting for a second, Manny spoke out loud.
"You have to say 'status' out loud if you want to look at someone else's property." He said, guessing what Nico was waiting to happen.
Then with a slightly embarrassed face Nico spoke aloud.
"Status"
[Blacksmith's polearm
Rank: Uncommon
Attack: 500
Durability: 250]
'Thank god, it worked' Nico was embarrassed previously so he was glad it happened this time.
Seeing the stats of the spear, Nico compared it with his shortsword.
'Status'
This time since the shortsword was recognized as his property it showed up without having to say it aloud.
[Junky Shortsword
Rank: Handmade
Attack:50
Durability: 5]
Seeing its stats, he unintentionally spoke aloud.
"Well… Thank goodness I decided to get a new weapon."
Nico had almost gone to fight monsters with a weapon that would break before even reaching its target.
"Would you like to trade that sword in? It doesn't look like much but it might save you some mon…."*Shatter* "..."
As Manny was trying to be generous and give the boy a way to lower the price, Nico swung his shortsword down onto the counter, causing his weapon to shatter.
"Pfft…HAHAHA!"
Manny attempted to hold back his laugh before he couldn't do it any longer and let out a loud laugh.
"I don't think I could have gotten much for it…" Nico said.
"Haha…Yeah, I don't think so either." Manny said bluntly.
After that little comedic spout, Nico proceeded to check the status on the other 3 spears before rounding back around to the first one he checked.
"I'll take the {Blacksmith's polearm}"
"Alrighty…That'll be 2 silver, actually make that 1 silver. Stress has been gettin' to me lately so I needed a good laugh, consider this a thank you." Manny spoke, genuinely.
Not giving Manny a chance to take back his words, Nico pulled out 1 silver coin and handed it to him.
"Thank you, have a nice day, sir."
"You too, boy"