Promising to come to a meeting of the Shameless Sect that was scheduled that night, Daneel shooed the fatty off before picking up the technique book again.
Indeed, it was a very interesting concept to use a stance to output more power, but Daneel realized that his own fighting style of using the Hidden Kill Fist as a foundation was too familiar to him.
He had no idea whether changing Fighting technique would have any effects on his overall power output, so he decided to try it after compiling everything in the library.
The ideal thing to do would be to collect everything at once, but Daneel decided to act tactfully.
After all, it would be strange for anyone to run their fingers on all the books, no matter how much they tried to make it look like a quirk.
With no intention to court disaster, he part.i.tioned the library into 8 zones, with each floor divided into 4 zones. It was a very large library, so this was necessary.
Each day, he would be able to cover one zone.
However, Daneel noticed a problem.
If he had to visit the library 8 times, he would have to give up an entire Ker Gem as fee!
As someone who had grown up from a frugal background, Daneel was loth to waste money. Even that experiment with the Ker Gem before had really hurt his heart.
No. There was no way that he could allow this farce of collecting fee, at least from him, to continue.
There were only two ways to get out of paying such fee: One, have a high enough social standing either using background or personal power.
Two, have a side business whose services can be exchanged.
The former was not possible right now, as a sudden growth in power from Travis Éclair would definitely result in scrutiny from higher-ups.
So, the latter was the only option.
Deciding on it, Daneel took his time and covered the first zone on the second floor, which had many techniques.
Sadly, he did realize one thing: in the entire library, there were very few history books which pertained to that mythical time when the Sect of Hedon had seemingly ruled over the continent.
Either the information was lost, or it was hidden to all but the higher echelons.
Daneel had been really looking forward to finding some clues regarding the connections and similarities between the kingdoms in the Central Continent right away, but it seemed like he would have to wait.
Nevertheless, the King of Lanthanor smiled to himself, as his opportunities felt almost limitless here.
Corruption was truly something that he had seen a lot of back on Earth, so he felt like a fish in water in this place. Even though he abhorred it, he had to admit that he had a flair in getting ideas to carry it out, probably because his mind had been constricted all this while, only being able to think of "good" solutions and ideas for the most part.
Hence, looking forward to the meeting, Daneel spent his time taking out random books or touching them in one way or the other so as to feed their information to the system.
….
A few hours later.
As Daneel finally exited the library, he found that he was famished.
Their meeting was two hours from now, so he had enough time to eat and explore a bit more.
While heading to the cafeteria of the sect, Daneel asked the system, "Let me know if any important data is collected."
A while back, he had already sat down with the system and clearly tagged all matters that he deemed "important", such as information relating to his talent in magic which exceeded the known grades, or anything related to the Central Continent.
The objective of collecting as many techniques as possible was to later have the system extract the best parts to make something which suited him, so he didn"t need to ask about it.
The walk to the cafeteria would take 40 minutes, or he could pay an eighth of a Ker Gem again to teleport.
Of course, as a newly ascended Warrior who closely guarded his resources, and as someone who just couldn"t justify spending thousands of precious Ether blocks to just save himself some effort, Daneel chose the latter.
The moon was out, so the surroundings of the sect were suffused in a warm light that brought out a unique beauty the likes of which Daneel had never seen before.
The layout of the Sect of Hedon was in the form of wide walkways paved in among the gra.s.s amidst the vibrant trees that were everywhere. The walkway seemed to be made of some kind of marble, as it shone in the moonlight with a soft glow.
Each walkway could accommodate at least 20 people side by side, so this made Daneel understand that the Sect must have once had a very large population.
Buildings were in the style of the Withering Leaf Sect: with creeps gracefully augmenting their appearance, making them blend into nature.
Daneel couldn"t believe at all that such a beautiful place could be home to such a rotting sect.
Shaking his head, he finally arrived at the cafeteria and saw to his surprise that no one was asking for a fee here.
Well, it made sense. If even one"s basic sustenance was denied, it was very possible for ma.s.s riots to occur.
Only, when he entered, he saw that he had been mistaken.
Thankfully, it was only slightly.
There were 3 different queues for food, with the first having the most members.
There was no one near the first queue, but from the envious gazes that were shot by those in this one towards the sect members in the other two queues, Daneel understood what was happening.
Back during the episode with the Black Raven Kingdom, Daneel had reared a wondrous type of wheat in the farms in his Kingdom. Apparently, eating them would result in a boost in power, giving the effect of training for a period of time.
Only, of course, the adverse effect of that plant had been that it ate away at the soil and made it barren.
This was only one variety of the crop, so it only made sense that there might be others with lesser side effects.
The second queue seemed to be the living proof of this: along with the food that was served in the first, a perfectly square shaped piece of bread was also given here to each member.
Only, unlike the first which needed no authentication, each member of the queue in the second needed to show their trinket with the face and the open mouth.
Seeing this piece of golden bread that seemed to s.h.i.+ne, Daneel salivated, even though he didn"t understand why he was doing so.
He had a hunch that this bread was made of some type of Energy-rich plant, and he could tell that he was right.
Wait, if this was already being served in the second queue, then what was being served in the third?
Bending his head, Daneel noticed a strange metallic box beside the serving table for the third queue.
The third queue had the fewest members, but each time someone approached the serving table, the metal box would be opened for the briefest of moments to remove a square-shaped piece of meat.
It looked like it came from some kind of fish, and from the steam that escaped each time the door was opened, Daneel could tell what the cooking method was.
He was completely entranced by this piece of meat, as it was the most perfect piece of food he had ever seen since coming to Angaria.
He hadn"t been that much of a foodie back on Earth, so this trait had carried over the Angaria. However, he really did enjoy the general cuisine in the Palace, which involved dousing meats from various beasts in flagrant sauces before serving them on a bed of bread or vegetables.
This meat definitely wasn"t from the beasts found on Angaria, as it was a fact that the meat of wild beasts had no beneficial effects for humans. Only their other body parts, such as their teeth and claws, could be used to make weapons or trinkets.
It was pink in color, but it"s hue looked so brilliant that one would feel like staring at it as long as possible, feeling reluctant to spoil its perfection by doing something as uncouth as cutting it apart.
It shone with a bright l.u.s.ter, as if it were absorbing all the attention and light in the room.
His eyes followed a woman who had just been served the piece of meat, who sat down at a table and picked it up before admiring it for a while.
Yes, this was what it deserved.
Daneel appreciated the woman, but after that, he felt horrified when he saw her swallow it whole.
The juices flowed from the corner of her mouth as she munched on the meat with an expression of extreme delight, but suddenly, she looked at Daneel who stepped back with shock, as he had just gotten the feeling that someone had tightened their hands around his neck.
His step back made him bounce on something soft, making him turn back and notice the fatty who was also looking at the woman eating the meat.
Only, he was stealing glances instead of abjectly staring like Daneel.
"The day I get the meat of the fish from the endless sea, I"ll save it and eat it bit by bit, for a month. No, make it 6 months. A year it is! No one would be foolish enough to waste food that has more Energy than 100 Ker Gems combined."
As the fatty smacked his lips while saying this, Daneel"s eyes widened.
…..
2 hours later, in one of the rooms in the disciples" dormitory.
Smacking his hands on the table in between the 5 people, Daneel, as Travis, said, "All right, we have to get an awesome side business to eat that meat! If any of you slack off, I"ll bash your heads in!"