Chapter 80 (Self Edited) – Going to the Library
If Soma had to be honest, he was wondering the reason why the girl, Sylvia, who sat next to him staring with a frustrated face. Well, there was no need to understand her.
He had talked with her in the break time during the entrance exam, and he heard the reason why she came here. Soma wasn’t thick headed to the point of judging her. It was true that he didn’t take the cla.s.s seriously, and it was certain that she was clearly frustrated at him.
However, even if Soma was aware of that, he didn’t intend to change the current situation. Although it was certainly not a good situation if one thought as per normal, Soma didn’t really think that the lesson was boring.
It was an act of taking a lesson by sitting in the same cla.s.sroom with a lot of people. How many years… no, this was the first time in decades. He just missed the time and it was enough to make him happy when he thought about it. It was interesting to hold various ideas and discussed it, but… that alone was no good.
After all, the reason why Soma got into the academy was still the very same purpose. That was in order to use magic. There was nothing else.
That was why after taking lesson for about two weeks, Soma made the decision. He probably wouldn’t be able to achieve the purpose if he just received the lesson as it was.
Perhaps, in the middle school… no, even if not until that level, he was also not sure if he could achieve it by next year. At least for now, he knew that it was impossible to find discover any meaning here.
Of course, since he didn’t intend to disturb his cla.s.smates. He would answer questions if he was asked. As he didn’t think he couldn’t achieve much with the lessons, Soma put more emphasize more on his purpose.
The book he had now was for that purpose. As one would expect of Royal Academy, the books that he had never seen in the parents’ house were everywhere. For the time being, he read it at random because he didn’t know which one would give him a clue, but… oh well, the current situation of Soma was as mentioned.
Consequently, it was bad for Sylvia, but he had no intention to change what he had been doing.
Anyhow, it wasn’t like he did that in every lesson… While that might sound as an excuse, he turned over the page of the book at hand. Today’s book was about dungeons.
Dungeon was a type of ancient ruins in a broad sense, but according to the theory, this type was the older one. Anyhow, it was certain that dungeon wasn’t well understood than the ancient ruins. In the dungeon, the monsters would never decrease. How much people defeated the monsters, and when they thought that it didn’t exist anymore, it was already revived.
It was very troublesome, but… from the view of the adventurers, it was profitable. The fact that the number of monsters wouldn’t reduced no matter how many times it was defeated, it mean that they could procure materials and other things.
Therefore, there were even adventurers who specialized in dungeon among adventurers. They went into a dungeon, hunted the monsters there, brought back the materials and cashed it out. They were those who lived in that way.
Of course, dangers came along with it. The dungeon was basically going underground. Since it was a dim and narrow place, people didn’t know what kind of uncertainties it had. It was common for adventurers who headed into the dungeon but never came back in the same way they went in.
Nevertheless, the reason why the adventurers dived into the dungeon was because it was easy income to some extent, and they could aim for quick income at the same time. Just like the ancient ruins, there were treasures ‘sleeping’ in a dungeon. There were magic tools or magic books… well, that sort of things seemed rare, but it was good enough if there was a possibility to obtain those. Occasionally, something that hadn’t been discovered so far was found. It was also said that going to the dungeon was the best for those who seek for adventures.
Soma was reading the book and he discovered the possibilities of such a situation. As for unknown means, he would be able to use the power that he couldn’t use until now. That was probably the standard.
Well, strictly speaking, this book was picked up by chance, but it was also the fact that he was paying attention to it.
‘Hmm… as expected, that is the best possibility so far…’
To begin with, this was also one of the purposes he came to this academy. In the premises of the Royal Academy, there was an underground dungeon.
It was discovered after the academy had been built. Not only that, the academy was purposely built on top of the dungeon. The purpose was to utilize the dungeon as one of the lessons. There was no need to go outside of the academy as the practical training could be done internally.
Moreover, the monsters inside were ideal for the training. Basically, the dungeon was divided into several dozens of levels. The monsters that emerged as people went deeper became stronger, but the emerging monsters were based on each level. The basic idea was that no strong monsters could suddenly appear. To sum up, it was ideal for practical training because the students could choose the place which was suitable with their current abilities.
In this way, he could use it as the academic training. Although no one knew this fact or it might be among the students, the lower layer seemed to be untouched. There would be more treasure the deeper the dungeon was. Hence, the possibility of the treasure increased and the probability of its being valuable items also increased. If that was the case, one should have an expectation even if it was an unpleasant expectation.
However, there was no doubt that a dungeon was a dangerous place. In any case, there was no training to be done there at anytime soon. On the other hand, there were more or less training for students with limited experience in combat, and… it was possible to head in for the first time about two months after the entrance exam.
Furthermore, the students were permitted to head in whenever they wanted after reaching the middle school. However, the students of elementary school weren’t allowed to enter outside of the lesson hours. In short, no matter how much Soma wanted, he just couldn’t go.
‘…I wonder if the library provides any methods written about what should be done in the dungeon.’
Of course, Soma knew that was impossible, but he was really frustrated because there was a possibility that he couldn’t enter the dungeon. Since he was aware of that, he didn’t try to read book related to dungeon among many books he borrowed in the beginning. Anyhow, the books he read during lessons was decided to be chosen at random. In a way, once he took a book, it was impossible for him not to read it.
‘…Well, even though I know nothing, I guess that is also possible by any chance. I wonder if I should look for things in that direction today at the library.’
While thinking about such things, Soma read further the book at hand.
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After school, when all lessons were finished…
Naturally, it was free time from now on, but surprisingly, there were only few people going out to play outside. Although it was not really forbid by the academy, it was necessary to get the permission. However, it was a ha.s.sle to keep doing that.
Plus, those who came to the Royal Academy were basically strong people. One of the reason was there were many students prioritizing on training and study rather than playing.
Even if the number of people was small, that wouldn’t change. Aina was also the same. She said that she was going to the training ground after school hours. She could also train her magic, and there were a lot of similar people to her there. It was fine to see and learn. One also could ask questions. That was how she spent the time until dinner.
To be honest, Soma was really envious. If possible, he wanted to join in too. However, if he who still couldn’t use magic went there, he would be nothing but a bother.
Consequently, Soma was looking forward to the time when he could use magic, and… while deciding to join her later, Soma headed for the library for today too.
The Royal Academy’s library was on the way out of the school buildings area. Nonetheless, it was logical to say so in term of its position.
The main gate was in the direction of the south, and the school buildings were at the center. The dormitory was in the north and the east was where the training ground was. If the necessary buildings were placed in the necessary locations, the library was inevitably placed in the west direction.
It would probably good to incorporate it in the school buildings depending on the scale, but unfortunately, it was also good to have library there. People might think that it wasn’t bigger than a crude city, but as expected, it was impossible to make it adjacent to the school building.
It was just that, the number of book was huge. Let alone of this country, it was the best library in the world, and it wasn’t a mere show off. Even though it was somewhat exaggerated, it was a fact when people came close to it.
They could understand that at a glance if they took one step into the library. What they could see were books… books… well, it was literally a mountain of books. Although it wasn’t piled up, people could imagine that the height would be the same if the books were piled up.
When Soma looked up, the library was easily exceeding more than three stories. Moreover, the size was also considerable. In the ground where the internal s.p.a.ce was expanded by magic, it went without saying how big the library was given that the library was in the west.
Anyhow, Soma, who came to such a place as usual, looked at the surroundings while muttering. Today, the number of people seemed to be extremely small.
Most of people went to the training ground. Although there were other things, it looked like the library had a very low utilization rate. When he first heard of this, he thought that it wasn’t necessary to care too much, but… once he knew the reason, he thought that it was unreasonable.
It was because the number of books in this library was a bit… no, it was really too much. Speaking of how much, the librarians couldn’t even grasp the details. More specifically, there was a possibility that it was impossible to know where the location of 90% of the books.
This was something that he understood, but when he asked why, it seemed that all the books were brought from the Royal Academy in the Kingdom of Veritas. It was confusing and mess in various ways. The books were brought here quite broad and the librarians couldn’t separate them based on the fields of studies. At that time, the library was quite a mess. It was just that there were no personnel to organize or time when storing books from there. That increased further the chaos.
Nonetheless, they were able to grasp that 10% because there were people who actually reading it. Soma understood that notion well. In short, it would cost a hundred years to grasp every book if this situation kept going on. Well, it was probability true when considering reading and searching for the books needed.
However, that wasn’t something Soma needed to consider. He appreciated that he was able to understand the books he picked up so far, but not being able to understand well meant that unknown information could be overlooked. When he thought about it, he held hopes for the future, and it didn’t feel bad at all. Although he might be over thinking this…
By the way, what Soma was reading during lesson was a copy of the 90% that still hadn’t been categorized. He randomly picked the books since he didn’t know what was written in it.
In addition, even though he was reading books when he had free times other than during the lesson, other people had already read about 10%. Soma wasn’t looking for unknown information. He was looking for something that could be a hint from known information. If he couldn’t get the result ever, other people might have to read 90% of the books, so for the time being, he would continue doing this.
For today, he should go for the books of known information. Anyhow, since the current Soma couldn’t enter the dungeon, it could be say that he was trying to find the back door. He went to the known section and did preferential search on books related dungeon.
Well, even if there was a back door, it seemed that measures probably had been taken care no matter how much Soma thought about it. It might be pointless to search. If he wanted to search seriously, he should look for the unknown section, but to find something that he wanted by pinpointing something that could be said among a few million books, it was too reckless. In that case, he should bet for the ‘by any chance’ information, but with the higher probability.
Anyhow, Soma headed to a corner of a library and that place was relatively close to the entrance. Since it was huge library, there were still s.p.a.ce for more books, and the books whose contents read were gathered in that spot.
He walked there alone while feeling to a desolated place that was empty of people.
“Hmm…? Is that…” (Soma)
Accordingly, Soma noticed familiar figures.
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