He found a room at Velis Hotel.
"It's 400 Shields per day and includes lunch and dinner. If you want different food than what we serve for the day, you'll have to pay for that separately," the receptionist explained.
Silas nodded. It had been an hour since he started looking for accommodations, but he had no luck finding any until now. He ended up at this place which he deemed as expensive.
'I'll just find a cheaper place later,' he thought. He agreed to the terms and nodded to the woman.
His room was on the second floor. As soon as he opened the door, disappointment washed over him. The room looked rather dull, almost prison-like with its lack of furniture. He sighed and put his things down beneath the bed.
Silas cleaned himself and opened his [Character Interface] to allocate all 10 [Attribute Points] to his [Energy]. Now that he had a skill like [Limitless Wizard] he had to find a way to maximize it.
When morning came, Silas immediately headed towards his first quest—the Great Archives.
The Great Archives was situated in the northern part of the city, almost at the top of a hill called Arut's Hill. This area differed from the southern and eastern parts of the city. The buildings here were made of whitewashed stones. The storefronts were with glass and decorated with elaborated signages. The streets too, were not as crowded compare to the one he had seen in the commercial corner.
When he finally reached the library, a marbled archway greeted him. From behind, he heard a steamed-carriage horn blaring in his direction. He stepped aside, letting the carriage sweep past. It had a polished brass body with metal wheels—one large wheel in the front and two smaller ones at the back. A white flag with an insignia of a sword and shield adorned its top, indicating that its rider was likely a person of high standing.
In the courtyard, pine trees lined the cobbled pathway, leading to a marble basin with a [Pillar Stone]. As he approached, the letters carved on its body began to glow blue. He wondered about the origins and significance of these [Pillar Stones]. That was another mystery he had to uncover.
When he reached the reception hall, a man with long hair tied in a bun looked at him over his spectacles. Silas was grateful he had decided to wear his new clothes; otherwise, this man might have judged him unworthy.
"10 [Shields] for the library fee," the man said.
After paying the fee, Silas received a rectangular marble tile with two letter inscriptions in dark blue ink: "visitor." He put the tile in his pocket and proceeded down the hallway to the library.
Before the towering doors, guards in red uniforms stood on either side. He handed them the tile, and they used a thin flashlight with a red light to verify the letters on the stone. Nodding to each other, they stepped aside.
"Welcome to the Great Archives," they said, opening the doors for him.
Silas stood dumbfounded before the Archive's entrance, if not for the guard clearing his throat, he would have not walk at all.
The library had a high ceiling supported by ornate columns. Tall windows lined the walls, alternately between a clear glass and a stained one, allowing streams of sunlight to enter and casting a warm glow on the polished tables, marbled floors and brass railings that lined the balconies overlooking the main floor.
There was a distinct humming in the air, a quiet murmur of turning pages and the rhythmic whirring of turning cogs. He stared on his left and saw an old man, being followed by something similar to a robot-an automaton, but instead it was made of gears and brass cogs. It had no proper metal skin to cover its inside, it made the automaton looked mesmerizing and at the same time sinister.
The shelves stretched from floor to ceilings, filled with ancient tomes, leather-bound books and scrolls. He continued to looked around, until he found himself at the center of the library or what he thought its center.
A towering mechanical model of a sun and its surrounding planet were placed at the center. It was made of different colors of metal, some were blue, red and others were gold shining in the light. The circular brass metal where each planet was attached moved endlessly around its sun.
He continued to look around. However, he ended finding the first clue in a shelf close to the mechanical model. The wizard walked past through observers and other visitors of the library. The sound of his boots clacked on the marbled floor, making Silas conscious of each step he took. Once he reached the shelf where the first clue was, he felt a sense of relief. Silas retrieved the book and sat in the table close to a window.
The first book had a title, Bestiary and Early Legends. He flipped through its table of content until he found the part that talk about spiders. There was a short legend about the existence of spider. It talked about how Arachne was cursed to weave webs for all eternity by Athena. This information was something he already know.
[Congratulations! You found a clue.]
The next clue was an artifact. The item claimed to be a [Rare Item]. It was a silk made out of Arachne's web. Silas remembered the [Arachne's Silk] he previously got. He looked around before he brought out the one he has on his [Inventory].
'The only difference is that the one in display had somehow lost all of its golden glow.'
He stood up and once again roamed around the library, trying to find that bright blinking light that would lead him to the next clue. When he raised his head, he caught sight of the blinking light on the shelves located in the balcony.
He walked past through towering shelves until he found the stairs leading to the balcony. The floor used in this part were wooden, creaking as he made his way from shelf to shelf. At last, he had located, a red leather-bound book.
'This looks new,' he commented as he flipped through its pages. It was a compilation of articles that had come from an old newspaper.
[Congratulations! You found all of the clue.]
"What is this?" He said as soon as he found an article that piqued his interest. It was a newspaper from a decade ago, about the series of abduction that took place around Tirash. The motive of the kidnappers was unknown. He flipped through the next entry; a series of arrest were conducted. There were three of them, whom later found out were wizards.
Silas was immersed in what he was reading that he didn't notice that someone was already watching him. The guy peeked on what he was reading, frowning.
"You seemed interested on the current situation in this city?"
He abruptly looked up, shutting the book with two hands and taking a stepped back. The newcomer stared at him, raising his hands as soon as he saw how Silas was glaring at him.
"Who are you?" The wizard said. The lad before him had a red hair, freckled nose and ocean blue eyes that radiate mischief.
'He seemed familiar?' He thought as he looked at him. 'Weren't him the guy from yesterday, who was running away with piles of books in his hands.'
"Don't mind me. And I'm sorry, I intruded on you… I am called Finn."
Silas nodded and turned his back on the boy, he wasn't interested at him, him asking his name was just a reaction for suddenly appearing before him.
He was about to picked where he left, but Finn suddenly spoke behind him.
"You wouldn't find the next part, there," he said. "They were trying to hide it. It was a disaster, what happened at that time."
He was about to turn down his offer when a text appeared before him.
[Quest I: Those Who Walk Among Books]
[Description: Finn claim to know the truth about what happened next in the article you're reading.]
[Follow Finn 0/1]
"So, you know where the next part is?"
Finn stared at him; Silas knew that he was observing his reaction. His hand run through his unruly red hair.
"Follow me," he said.
They descended the stair. Silas who was not receiving any attention from the people inside the library, had suddenly got stares, most of them were intended at Finn but seeing him following him from behind, their eyes questioned his being. He didn't like what he felt at that moment.
Finn led him to the far corner of a library, there were no books in these shelves, but instead he found himself looking at wooden chest some with plain metal and others with intricate design.
"Wait for me here, I need to get a ladder."
He nodded. As he looked around, he realized how much dust had covered each of the chest. He wondered what secrets were hidden inside this chest. Silas was not much of a reader in his previous life, he always found himself distracted.
He concluded he just really have little to no attention span on reading, but the thought of discovering the unknown had suddenly made him want to open this chest and picked up whatever book was inside.
He looked around. Finn was nowhere to be seen. He slowly opened the closest chest to him, dust flew everywhere, Silas found himself covering his nose as he slowly pushed the chest opened. Inside he found himself looking at three leather-bound books and beside it was glass flask of different sizes, something similar to what he saw in their school's laboratory.
He picked up one of the books and started skimming through it, he was welcomed with the sight of intricate magic circles with words written in a language he still didn't know.
[Skill needed for reading this language is not learned.]
'What! Learning a language is a skill?' He suddenly felt frustrated.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Finn said as soon as he arrived. Silas immediately put the book back on its chest feeling ashamed.
"Why?"
"Some of this were owned by dead scholars, we believe it has curse." Finn started climbing the stairs. "Catch this one for me."
Silas looked up and waited as the boy dropped a book without a cover.
"What you read earlier were articles allowed to the public, this one is the complete version of what happened that time," he explained.
"What happened that time?"
"Like I said, a disaster. The Lightservants used the situation to their advantage to once again regain their lost glory. They flagged the wizards responsible for the incident," he said. Silas started flipping through the pages of the book as he listened to Finn.
'The three wizards were executed publicly on the next day,' he read.
"They said it was to teach wizards hiding among the residents that they will never be safe. But what they executed are not the real culprits. The abductions didn't stop, but it didn't also stop the Lightservants in mitigating in the situation." Finn stated. "It instead led to a Witch Hunt, claiming the live of a hundred innocent civilians."
"Why do you have this copy of the story?" he found himself asking.
"We can only learn from the past," he said and retrieved the book from his hand. He left without saying a word. He found his attitude rather unpleasant. Why would the boy suddenly leave after telling him all of that? Silas opened his [Questbook], Quest I is still not complete for it had a follow-up quest for him.
[Quest I: Those Who Walk Among Books]
[Description: Investigate the following streets at night.]
[Tirash Commercial Corner 0/1]
[Gearsmith Street 0/1]
[Three Destiny Monument Circle 0/1]
As he as he finished reading the quest details, Silas had a sudden urge to laugh. 'Another long sleepless night?'