For unlocking the Library of the Ancients, you may access a portal to take you there.

Having unlocked the Library of the Ancients, Gregory knew that he would be able to grow much faster now. It seemed that another window had appeared after the other two, letting him know that he would be able to use a portal there whenever he wanted to visit. Before going, he wanted to wait until the rest of the part was asleep. It would be suspicious if he just mysteriously vanished without a trace. Still, the fact that the party was in less need of him was a bonus. It would make it easier to enter the Library of the Ancients and not be putting the others in danger by not being there.

Waiting until night time, Gregory spent his time doing little except reading from some scrolls and spell books that had been found in the bandits’ hordes. As the others fell asleep, Sean deciding to keep watch, Gregory carefully called upon the portal that he had supposedly unlocked. The portal opened quickly, and he stepped inside. Was in the exact center of a large building. There was a receptionist present, a younger woman who seemed to be quite bookish from her appearance. The center had only one path leading from it, but he could tell that except for the very inner row, all the shelves were currently bound in heavy chains preventing the removal or reading of the books. Gregory had some questions, so went up to the receptionist desk to find out what he could about this place.

“I intend to stay here for quite some time to read, will that be a problem. I am guessing this is probably a very large source of information for people, so was wondering why it seems to empty right now.”

“You may stay as long as you like, time actually doesn’t flow here, allowing you to basically study for all eternity. However, Intelligence does limit what you can learn. You can only learn as much as your mind has room for. If you study too much, it begins causing madness. As for why it is empty, this place is outside of time, but it is also considered a combat zone. Since you are obviously a new arrival, I will give you the explanation. The library is cut off for one year in the time outside while the new arrivals are around. Basically, you will have a year in time spent outside to study here without others being able to enter. This means that you could basically study forever, but remember that madness can occur. After that, others can once again get in. One other thing though, the center is the culmination of knowledge that requires all three areas of skill. There are also six halls, three combination halls, and three single stat halls. One hall for intelligence based magic and skills, one for wisdom based, and one for perception based. The others are for combinations of two of those. When your stats reach the requirements for that depth of the hall, you will be able to read more books from those halls.”

Gregory was impressed, he learned more than he expected by just coming here. He would be able to read for a long time and learn multiple spells and skills to improve his power. At the same time, it would reduce his power in the long run. He wouldn’t be able to improve his stats except for natural growth. It is easier to raise stats in the outside world through training, and then heading back here when stats are higher to more easily learn other potentially more powerful spells. That, and he could only learn so many skills and spells from here, and he’d rather learn some that were more helpful to him, than just learning everything. Gregory left for now, and then went to sleep while Sean was on watch. It would be a good way to grow more powerful, but not until he had at least a full plan on what kind of skills would be the most helpful to him. He wanted to be able to know what he wanted before potentially limiting himself.

While sleeping, Gregory dreamt of the library, walking down halls that were filled with locked books that required more knowledge and power from him to unlock. He wanted to grow as powerful as he could as quickly as he could to unlock some of the most powerful skills and spells there. He would need to if he had even a hope of surviving once the ban on others was lifted. For now, however, he realized that visiting the town may be the best course of action for him. They may have maps for viewing, and he wanted to find out more about this world. There was also the possibility they’d have some people there he could study under to become more powerful. His individual strength was high now it seemed, especially after having leveled up and gotten as many new stat points as he did.

Gregory knew that the bandits he defeated were likely quite strong for people in this area, it was probably why they had as much of a horde as they did, not to mention the fact they had not been defeated until he did so. Gregory needed to go to town though, he needed to find out what was up with this world and why the group that had joined them the other day had been harassed as they were. He made up his mind to head there early in the morning, he needed to learn as much as he could about this world for him to survive here.

As the early morning hours came, Gregory snuck out, using his new class abilities to get out without being seen. Getting close to the city, he saw that the gates were just opening. It seemed he had beaten the rush, and he would now be getting into the city. He walked up to the open gate, when the guards stopped him.

“What is your business here? We haven’t seen you before, and we don’t let people in without some kind of identification. Do you agree to a cursory scanning of your abilities?”

Gregory knew that unless he agreed, he wouldn’t be able to get in, so would let them get the information about him. The worst that would happen would be them seeing his full status window, most likely it would just be basic information such as his name, level, class, and any alignment he had since he entered this world.

“You may run the cursory scan of my abilities.”

A level 22 sorcerer showed up and cast a spell on him, what he saw he relayed to the guards.

“He is a level 30, human, a wizard, sorcerer, and a cleric, with a chaotic good moral alignment. He should be safe to let in.”

‘Seems he could tell more about me than I had anticipated, but at least he decided I was safe to let in.’

“Alright, you may pass. Enjoy your stay in the city of Magna Porta.”

For Entering your first city, you may choose between one gathering or crafting life. Picking the first “life” will be free, give a small bonus to stats that assist in that life, and grant you a basic kit to get started with that life. You have access to all available lives, pick a broad category.

‘I have always hated gathering, it requires the most time, and tends to be physically laborious. Crafters are always useful, making items or potions are quite likely a very powerful option. Being a wizard, I’d wear robes, which means that tailoring would be the life I’d want to take. At the same time, I’d use staffs, which would probably be under wood working. However, some staffs are made of metal or bone, and those may be portions of blacksmithing. It is always hard to come to a decision over things, but I need to pick one. Well, best to take a look at the crafting lives.’

Blacksmith(Metal-Working)

- Armorer(Metal)

- Weapon-Crafting(Metal)

- Jeweler

- Bone-Working

- Repair(Metal/Bone)

Carpenter(Wood-Working)

- Ship-Building

- Weapon-Crafting(Wood)

- Carpentry

- Stone-Working

- Repair(Wood)

Tailor(Cloth-Working)

- Armorer(Cloth/Leather)

- Repair(Cloth/Leather)

- Clothier(Cloth/Leather)

- Embroiderer

- Metal-Sewing(Metal-Augmentative)

It seemed that for Gregory, either Blacksmith or Tailor would be the most beneficial of the skill-sets to take. Most of the higher level staves or weapons for a magic user would likely be made of bone or metal, which meant that it would be useless to take carpenter as a choice. Tailor gave way to the obvious advantages of all the armors for any of the ranged combat choices. Each of the major pathways gave a basic ability to work with the associated product, as well as a set of five skills that could be used to make better gear or whatever else could be made. There was obvious money in blacksmithing and tailoring, while carpentry would definitely be longer period projects. At the same time, all the skills worked together in a way, stone-working could also be used to make weapons of stone, or even roads and buildings that used stone. Also, nearly all furnaces used an abundance of stone in their creation.

‘I need to pick Tailor, it has all of the important abilities required to make myself stronger, and I don’t think I will be limited to just one. It is probably likely that another can be gained through training under a master in the art.’

Are you sure you want to pick Tailor as your free life? This will be irreversible, learning any new life will require you to study under a master of that life choice.

‘Yes’

You are now a Tailor, you have been granted the associated skills.

Gregory continued into the city, making sure not to attract attention. He could feel the eyes of the guards following him, but hoped they wouldn’t bother for too much longer. Almost is if they could tell what he wanted, they averted their gaze and continued watching the wall. Gregory was looking around feverishly, looking for a place to get a map or read books.

‘Wait, how come I can understand everybody in this place? Shouldn’t they be speaking a different language? It is almost as if I have been uploaded with the language of this realm, or perhaps all the languages of the people on the planet. Either way, I need to find out what is happening, see if I can figure out how to reverse it, or slow it down. Perhaps I am doomed to failure, but I’d rather look at things positively. I just need to keep trekking to see if I can discover something, anything, about this new place.’

Again, almost as if in answer to his hopes, he walked by a library. Walking up to the door, he opened it. There was a heavy creak as the hinges moved the heavy wood. Inside was the smell of paper, a few old men talking in hushed tones over a table, and an older man behind a counter in the center of the room. Scanning the shelves, he spotted titles such as ‘A Complete History of the Adventurers Guild’, ‘The Schools of Magic, and Their Study’, and then a book that really caught his interest ‘The History of the Mergers, What They Are’. Gregory went over to grab the three books that caught his eye before taking one of the tables in the room. He opened the book about the mergers first. It was written by a number of people, some with fairly normal names, and others with very odd names.

While reading the book about the mergers, he learned more than he could have imagined about what was happening. The mergers took place because one of the important sentient races were dying out, and it was causing the world to fail on itself. It threw off the balance of magic, resulting in the magic tearing apart parts of the world most affected by the imbalance in power. It mentioned that the current technology of the world had been around for several thousand years, but had not advanced due to the magic preventing non-magical electricity from being generated and transported.

‘So, even if I were to try to make modern-day amenities, they would be useless and not work just because of how this world works. Very nice thing to now, means I shouldn’t waste my time with what cannot possibly work.’

More information was coming out, the planets would not straight up merge, but would become larger planet, absorbing the surface area of the new planet, growing enough to accommodate that surface area. It meant that Earth would not be destroyed, but the way of life that people on it expected would. Things such as engineers, mechanics, and many of the other common ‘crafting lifestyles’ chosen by people on Earth would be obsolete on this planet, just because the basis behind them involved something that didn’t exist on this planet.

Another important thing about the people from the mergers, they were always known to grow faster until a year after the merging than a normal being of their species. This was important because at the time of the merger, the original people still left were able to become half-races with other sentient beings. It mentioned that everybody had access to an interface for their daily life, that let them know their own quirks, and how powerful they were, roughly anyway. It did mention that it always changed and added new abilities onto it with each new merger. Advancing as the new merger brought new ways to view the interface. It also mentioned that everybody had viewed being able to save, but it was only possible through save stones. Save stones it seemed were a small clear jewel, which when planted, grew an indestructible crystalline tree that restored a person at their current power at that moment to the world at the point in which they died. It was an extremely rare stone, but one that was highly valued and never sold due to their value. They could be used to live forever, which was something nobody wanted to do without if they had access to something so valuable.

Having finished reading it, and gaining the information he needed to about the new world, Gregory decided to move onto the book on the adventurers guild. The book contained a bestiary on the known races of the world, the more sentient races were trolls, humans, elves, dragons, dwarves, gnomes, ogres, orcs, celestials, demons, the faeries, beast-kin, and elementals. It mentioned that all races were able to become half-races, which were a being with abilities mixed between the two races they were made up of. Elementals, dragons, and elves all had powerful magic in common. Celestials, demons, and the faeries were all creatures that couldn’t be killed by common means. Orcs, ogres, and trolls all sported high advantages in close-combat. Beast-kin, dwarves, and gnomes were focused on ranged or physical combat, but which much higher intellects than those of the straight combat races. Humans were a middle ground, they neither excelled nor fell behind in any of the skills.

It also gave a brief overview of stats, mentioning that a humans 1000 and a dragons 1000 were not the same. Dragons were known to be creatures of ancient wisdom, knowledge, and strength. Many believed their constitution to be ridiculous, but it was in fact quite the opposite, dragons were very weak without their scales and would easily die to most attacks. They were also very slow without their wings. Elves on the other hand were known for their wisdom and intellect as well, but were also known for speed and grace. They were thought to be stronger, but it was truly just because of their speed that it seemed they could hold more weight. Their stamina was quite large, but again, their health was absolutely horrible compared to most other creatures. This is what made up the balance of this world, and what prevented a one-sided crushing of a particular side in a war.

The celestials, faeries, and demons were known to follow a side based on their name. The celestials worked for good, the faeries were neutral, and the demons were evil. The races themselves were also leaning more toward the neutral side, basically humans with an immunity to death by disease and aging. The appearance of a celestial was actually confusing to Gregory at first, they had black feathered wings, horns ranging from white to black, and very pale skin color. Faeries very closely resembled humans, though they had wings like a fairy, and many were a little shorter. Demons had dark black leathery skin, but with white feathery wings and ‘oh-so-trusting’ eyes.

These were all things Gregory would need to study and use for later on in case he ever decided to multi-race. He was the most interested in magic, and there were obvious advantages to the powers of basic immortality. The celestials and dragons intrigued him the most. Either one would give him greater power, one to actual battle power, and one to life in general.

Finally he made up his mind, he would see just what the magical classes could offer him.