Chase felt quite out of place, considering he was currently carrying a newly-forged sword throughout the magical halls of The Phoenix Academy.
'Could have at least given me a sheath.'
Perhaps he was being too ungrateful about the beautiful blade he had been given for practically free.
Well, as free as the labor put into making it could get; however, it was still Gemini's materials that they had used.
'Why in the hell did he want to make a sword if he was just going to give it away, and why did he lie about it, at that?'
He thought to himself, as he strolled through the quiet hallway.
Chase didn't bother to look at all of the rooms he had passed, mainly because the library he was looking for was apparently pretty easy to spot.
'Finally.'
Down the hall, at the very end- lie a grand door that stood twice as tall as the hundreds of other doors that lined the academy walls.
He slowly walked over, letting his sword swing back and forth along the makeshift scabbard he had made before leaving the forge.
Yes, he could have gone all the way up to his dorm room and left it there.
But, then he would have had to walk twice the distance to get to the library, and it was already nearing the later hours of the day.
Along with the fact, that he preferred not to have another near death experience with those damned stairs!
He tightened the piece of cloth he had used to tie his sword to his waste as he gently pushed the door open.
Behind it, was a grand library that was packed with towering shelves.
Just by guessing, Chase assumed the ceiling of the library could have been seventy meters high. A long skylight loomed above the space, letting in beautiful rays of lighting that brightened the cramped library.
Not that the library was small. Quite the opposite really, it could have spanned for thousands of meters in each direction except for behind him for all he knew.
As soon as he entered, the smell of ink and candlewax radiated through the air, and was nearly overwhelming.
There were six different aisles in front of him, each surrounded by different types of bookshelves, that were tall enough to nearly scrape the glass skylight.
Chase was left in astonishment, as he took in the sheer amount of books in the academy's library.
It was damn near four to five times bigger then the ancient library that was hidden in the woods of Willowmere.
The thought brought back some unwanted memories, so he decided to just start looking for books to borrow.
Headmaster Leander had told him that if he were to find the library, that he could take as many books as he wanted, as long as he eventually brought them back.
Chase took this as a massive boon, considering that he knew practically nothing about nobles and plenty of other things that he didn't know about the world.
As he walked between the bookshelves, he scanned the covers for a specific section of books.
Eventually, he found said section.
"An Incomplete History Of The Continent Of Vallmora."
He read the title of the thick book with a red cover.
There were several others with the same name; however, they all had different authors.
He gently pulled out the first one he had spotted since it was the biggest of the choices.
"I wouldn't pick that one if I were you."
Chase fumbled with the book as he nearly dropped it, panicked from the girl's voice.
The girl stifled a laugh, as she stepped closer to him.
Her long hair was a dark shade of brown, and her gentle green eyes were several shades darker than his. She had soft and delicate facial features, that made her look quite young even though she was taller then him.
The girl pointed at the smallest of the several books.
"The one your holding only covers the second generation, and it mainly just gives a bunch of useless facts. Plus it's outdated."
She paused, taking her time, as Chase curiously looked down at the book in his hands.
"And I'm assuming that one, covers the other generations?"
She let out a soft sigh.
"Well no, but it covers all of the first, and most of the second."
She inhaled deeply, her breath carrying a hint of sadness.
"No humans were alive before the first, and I doubt any gods wanted to write books."
Chase pushed the first book back into its place, and pulled the "correct" book out.
It was certainly smaller, but upon opening it, he realized he was probably better off with this one.
Each page was filled with pictures of landmarks, and lists of terms that he had never heard of.
He turned the page, taking glances at all of the parts of history that he never had interest in learning about before dealing his limited entertainment inside of The Dark Forest.
He closed the book and looked up, only to see that the strange girl was not there anymore.
'Damnit all, why is everyone here so weird!'
He thought, frustrated by the fact that he could have asked her to show him where the other categories of books that he wanted were located.
Chase set the book under his sore shoulder, and carried on with his hunt for useful information.