"…Save us…"
"…Release us…"
"…Astorpa…"
Deep voices echoed in Marcus's mind.
"Oi, sleepy sloth!"
"Hey, Marcus!"
Asta and Magna's loud voices snapped him back to reality.
"Are you dozing off now, you sloth idiot?" Magna roared, dripping wet.
He turned to Noelle, his frustration boiling over. "Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Magna grabbed the Black Bulls robe from the ground, but Noelle walked away without a care.
She turned back with a haughty expression.
"Who cares about Black Bulls? I do not need this filthy thing. This is absoultely worst squad , and it is not royalty like myself belongs!"
Her face radiated pure arrogance as she spoke.
With the same vibe as a tsundere heroine, Marcus smirked at Noelle.
Noelle snapped her head toward him. "And you, bug, what are you smiling at?"
Marcus's expression twisted into a creepy grin. "Bug? Heh… heh… heh."
"There was one girl who called me that," he said, his tone eerily calm.
Noelle raised an eyebrow, curiosity flickering in her eyes. "And?"
"She died," Marcus finished with a shrug.
"You… h-hiikee!" Noelle yelped and bolted, unnerved by his unsettling laugh.
Asta and Magna exchanged awkward glances, casting weird looks at Marcus.
"What's wrong?" Marcus asked, genuinely confused.
Time flew by after that.
Marcus slyly passed off his cleaning duties to Asta, claiming, "Working and cleaning build your body, which helps you get stronger."
Later, with Finral's help, he got a ride to the bookstore near the capital.
"Meet me in an hour, over there. I've got some flirting to do," Finral said with a grin, pointing to their meeting spot before saying his goodbye.
Marcus nodded and began walking toward the bookstore.
The store wasn't grand, nor was it shabby—just a simple two-story building.
In the Clover Kingdom, there were no free public libraries. Since book production required significant time and resources, books had become a costly commodity.
Marcus stepped inside, greeted by the lingering smell of books—a scent he thoroughly enjoyed.
As he ventured deeper into the building, the interior resembled a modest library. A book clerk sat at the entrance, and rows of bookshelves lined the back.
Unlike modern designs, the space had a distinct medieval fantasy vibe.
The library seemed empty, which wasn't surprising. Books were expensive, and patrons were allotted only a limited amount of time within the library.
Marcus approached the clerk, who handed him a wooden plank with the number 45 carved on it. The number represented his time limit in the bookstore, decreasing by one every minute—a peculiar system.
Wasting no time, Marcus began browsing through the shelves.
The books were well-preserved, some noticeably old. There was a wide selection of historical and geographic titles, such as:
"Clover Kingdom: Brick to Castle"
"Geography of the Continent"
But what caught his attention were the books in the magic section:
"Origins of Mana"
"Mysterious Magic of ages"
Curious, Marcus opened them, but as expected, most of the information inside was pure nonsense. Many books in the section turned out to be bogus, filled with ridiculous claims.
For example, Origins of Mana contained gems like, "You can increase your mana exponentially by consuming boar fat mixed with herbs."
If that were true, everyone would be doing it, Marcus thought, shaking his head.
In Mysterious Magic, another absurd statement claimed, "If one reads this book 20 times, they will gain a mysterious magic."
What kind of bull shit is that? Marcus sighed, clearly unimpressed with the so-called magic books in the store.
Marcus grew more cautious in his selection, eliminating books with exaggerated or flashy titles.
However, one book caught his attention: The Mystery After Death.
Perhaps because his main attribute was death, he felt compelled to pick it up.
Opening the book, he discovered it described the journey of a man named Raphael.
Raphael was a boy born in Zeko Village, a small settlement on the outskirts of the Clover Kingdom. Like most in the Forsaken Realm, he had low mana.
Even so, he refused to give up on his dream of becoming a Magic Knight. Despite being ridiculed by everyone around him, Raphael worked tirelessly.
He practiced magic with unwavering persistence and patience.
His efforts eventually paid off when he passed the Magic Knight selection exam, achieving his dream.
But that wasn't the end of the story.
Raphael was assigned to a warzone near the borders of the Diamond Kingdom. There, he was ambushed by several mages.
He fell in battle.
His heart stopped.
He wasn't breathing anymore.
Everyone thought Raphael was dead—but he wasn't.
After the battle, he suddenly woke up, shocking everyone around him. They dismissed it as an error made by the person who examined his body.
But Raphael thought differently. He knew he had died but had no idea how he came back.
Interesting, Marcus thought, his curiosity deepening as he read on.
From that day forward, Raphael quit the Magic Knights and began traveling the world in search of answers. Along the way, he met many people.
One encounter was with a monk from the north, who shared profound words with him:
"The soul is stitched to the body by countless millions of threads. As the body nears death, these threads snap, one by one.
But death itself holds threads that can either share or take life force."
Fascinating, Marcus thought, the concept sparking his interest.
Suddenly, an idea crossed his mind.
He opened his palm and conjured a black orb. But this time, instead of forming an orb, he used his imagination to shape it into threads—thin, delicate threads that he controlled with precision.
As the threads touched the table he was reading on, a small scratch appeared.
No, not this way.
He focused again, this time letting his mana flow smoothly rather than chaotically. The result was different.
Lets add pure death element ,
Suddenly, the Death Horn—the one the grimoire had swallowed—appeared within the grimoire, infusing the spell with life force and mana.
A new spell was born.
His grimoire began to glow, and on an empty page, the spell was recorded.
On the seven-slot spell page, another slot filled with this newly created spell.
"Necro Magic: Death Threads."
"Time's up," the librarian called out.
Marcus, so engrossed in the book and his experiments, hadn't noticed his time was over.
But it was worth it.
Marcus approached the counter. "I want this book. And… is there any place with more advanced books?"
The librarian gave him a blank stare. "Are you calling this place useless?"
"I was kidding—"
"Yes."
"Tch." The librarian glanced at the book in Marcus's hand. "This one? That'll be 5000 yuls. As for more advanced books, there's the royal library, but only royals and nobles can access it."
Marcus nodded, though he cursed inwardly. Damn, that's expensive.
Using the last of his money, he purchased the book.
By the time he was done, the hour was up. Finral opened a portal near the hideout, and Marcus stepped through.
But just as he arrived, a loud sound came from the sky.
He looked up to see a massive spinning water ball crashing down, tearing apart the ground below.
"What the hell?" Marcus muttered, eyes widening.
Before he could react, the water ball popped, drenching him completely.
Seeing Asta plummeting from the sky, Finral quickly conjured a portal, dashing through to save him.
Without hesitation, he opened another portal to reach the source of the explosion.
Meanwhile, Marcus stood frozen, dripping wet. If it were just the water drenching him, he wouldn't have cared much.
But the full force of the water had destroyed his book.
Unlike modern ones, the old, fragile pages couldn't withstand the impact and were utterly ruined.
"I'm going to kill someone today!" Marcus roared