Leo eyed Frank quizzically, curious as to his meaning.
"And what might those conditions be, Frank?" He asked, a doubtful expression on his face.
"First, I want to teach both Max and Elara alongside you. If we're going to spend the time, it would be in the best interest of everyone for the whole team to benefit," Frank answered. He knew it wasn't a big ask, and Leo surely wouldn't have a reason to refuse.
Leo fell into a seemingly deep thought. Shortly after, however, he nodded.
"Fair enough. What's your second condition?"
Frank took a deep breath. While what he was about to ask was not anything major, it would be a lot more work on Leo's part.
"I want you to teach me some skills as well. I think it's only fair since I'm going to be using them to cover your ass out there."
A brief look of disdain took over Leo's face, but it was shortly replaced by another nod.
"Now who's coming away like a bandit?" Leo acquiesced with a sigh. "Still, we have a deal. I have to admit that you being strong could be of use to me. Heck, it already was once."
Leo remembered back to the fight with the wolves. That had been an eye-opening situation for him.
If Frank hadn't lost it, who knows what would have happened? Still, he also thought back to how the man had completely lost control.
Leo knew he couldn't always rely on him; in fact, if Frank hadn't warned him and the others to take cover, they would have all died. Not from the wolves, but from Frank himself.
'I need to be stronger...'
The thought haunted him ever since, giving him an urgent desire to grow.
'But he did save my life; this is the least I can do,' Leo resolved.
It wasn't like any part of that situation was a fond memory, but he needed to be sure he remembered that much.
"Understood," Frank replied, trying to hide his relief. "Well, let's go grab the others, shall we?"
It didn't take long to find Max and Elara, and after a brief explanation of the situation, they both enthusiastically agreed to join in training. Following Frank's lead, the team headed to the Library.
Upon their entry, the librarian's face paled. He remembered the mess Frank had left last time, and now he came here with friends?
'I don't get paid enough for this...' he groaned, his mind full of images of books strewn about everywhere as the foursome in front of him laughed maniacally.
Still, it's not like he could stop them; he was given explicit orders not to hinder the front-line fighters. He wasn't a fool; he knew these were the people who gathered supplies and saved survivors.
So, he simply watched as the group walked directly to the section containing combat-oriented books, and braced himself.
When the team arrived, Frank started gathering the books he had read in this section one by one and passing them to the others.
Everyone was excited at first; they would be gaining new skills just by reading!
But then Frank handed them another book.
And another book.
And another book...
Slowly their enthusiastic looks were replaced by expressions of horror. As they grew more and more uneasy, Max was the first one to speak up.
"Jesus Christ, Frank! How many books are we going to read???" He yelled, earning a reprimanding "Sh!" from the librarian.
Frank looked at him quizzically, clearly not understanding the question.
"All of them, why?"
"What do you?!-" Max started before looking to the librarian. Shooting an apologetic look over, he lowered his voice to a whisper, "What do you mean all of them? Just show us the books you read, we don't need to do all this extra stuff."
The other two seemed to be in agreement, nodding their heads at his statement.
"What do you mean, Max? These are the books I read." Frank responded casually, clearly still not understanding.
That remark was met with the simultaneous sound of three jaws hitting the floor and a distant chuckle from the librarian.
'Yes, my brothers and sister, I understand your pain,' he empathized before going back to his book.
The team was speechless for a while before Elara gave a forced laugh.
"Very funny, Frank, you nearly had us going there," she said, breaking the silence. "So, which books are we actually reading?"
Frank sighed, finally understanding their meaning. "Like I said, all of them. I didn't receive a skill until I finished all the books in front of you. Honestly, I was just starting with the books I read to gain 'Mana Bullet.' Figured we could start there then move on to the next."
"O-oh," she replied as a sick feeling filled her stomach. "And uh, how many books did you read total?" she asked, knowing she would regret it.
"I lost count, but if I had to guess, about 1000?" he answered thoughtfully.
The three of them gulped as a horrible realization hit them.
'What kind of monster is this guy?'
Leo in particular couldn't believe what he was hearing. Is this what he had signed up for? This was way more than he thought! Frank had warned him when they made this deal, but he never thought it would turn out like this.
Calming himself down, Leo started to think. They came here to get stronger, but at this rate, it could be upwards of a year before they finished, and he doubted they had that kind of time. So...
"Guys, I think we should split our focus," he finally decided.
Everyone looked at him before he continued to speak.
"I don't know how Frank did it, but I think I speak for all three of us when I say we definitely can't repeat it. I vote we all focus on the skills that would benefit us most," he explained.
"Are you sure?" Frank asked. "I thought the deal was I get the materials when you get the skills I gained."
Leo just nodded somberly. "I will still keep our deal; after all, you were honest when you said there were differences between us and you at the moment. Besides, you also made it clear you didn't know any shortcuts. We just don't have the kind of time it takes to catch up. It's my fault for not considering your words seriously and asking more questions."
He didn't like it, but he couldn't change it either. He wanted to accuse Frank of duping him, but he knew that wasn't the case. The guy didn't have the skill in that department.
"So here's what I'm suggesting instead," Leo continued on. "Tell us the skills you gained and which books you read to obtain them. After that, we can read only the books that suit our taste. Everyone in agreement?"
Both Max and Elara seemed relieved, visibly relaxing when they heard his suggestion.
"Yes, please," they responded simultaneously.
Frank still couldn't believe how things had turned out, but if they were all in agreement, he wasn't going to argue.
"Alright, well in that case..."
He began to list all the skills he gained from the library: the different forms of martial arts, the production skills, "Mana Bullet," as well as any other miscellaneous skills. He wrote them down on a sheet of paper, and the three of them started to decide what they wanted.
A lot of the skills seemed useful to all of them, but in the interest of time, they decided to limit themselves to two.
One combat skill and one production skill.
The first to decide was Leo, opting to learn "Mana Bullet" and tailoring. As he tended to scout from a distance, the ranged option was invaluable to him, and he was mainly the one who would be using leather types of armor.
Max was next, selecting Judo as his combat skill. He figured he could shorten the learning curve since he had already learned Krav Maga in the military, which was partly influenced by Judo. Then, contrary to everyone's expectations, he picked cooking for his production skill.
Everyone shot him a confused look, to which he simply replied, "What? You think I got this big without eating?"
That left Elara, and her decision was actually a much tougher one. While she wanted to learn "Mana Bullet" as well, the simple fact was that her INT stat just wasn't high enough to justify it. Also, to everyone's shock, she revealed she already knew the basics to all the martial arts Frank had listed.
'Right, sometimes I forget I'm not the only abnormal one here,' Frank shuddered.
With that being the case, she decided instead to pick two production skills. She could have gone with any of them of course, but she figured it would be better to fill in any gaps in their team. Looking over the options carefully, she finally chose forging and medicine crafting.
With everyone set on their research paths, they split up and got to work.