Chapter 1645: Finding the Books
"What is that you guys are looking for? We have tons of books for every subject. Farming, Battle tactics, and running a business. Whatever you want," the young man explained as he took Ning and Shara deeper into the store.
Ning looked at the vast room with rows of shelves lined neatly in order, with people moving in and out through them as they got their books.
The tall windows on the other side let in enough light into the room that they did not need lanterns within the library.
"We're looking for books on Spirit Awakeners," Ning said. "Trying to learn more about them."
"Oh, Spirit Awakeners, huh?" the young man said, quickly turning in a direction. "Come, I'll help you get some."
Ning nodded and followed. They arrived at a shelf with dozens of thick tomes with leather spines that had their names written on them.
'A Spirit Detective's Life', 'Side Hustle of a Spirit Channeler', 'The Necromancer's Secret', and 'Exorcism as a Way of Survival' were some of the many books Ning saw on the shelf.
"Is there anything specific you want, or just in general?" the young man asked as he looked through the shelf, quickly locating the many books he would need to get before Ning even said what he wanted.
"Something that is more general knowledge, I suppose," Ning said. "We're not trying to learn too deeply, but just informing ourselves on it."
"Haha! You don't have to hide your wishes from me," the young man said. "I was like you too just a few years ago. So hopeful that I would get something before I got too old. I used to stay around daydreaming what my powers could be and what I would do with them."
The young man seemed a little sad thinking about the past. He hadn't awakened any powers it seemed. He really wanted one.
"This book should have it," he handed one to Ning.
"This has all of it?" Ning asked.
"All 5 of it, yes," the young man answered.
"I've heard from somewhere that there are more than 5 types of awakener, actually," Ning said. "Does this include those ones too?"
"More than 5?" the young man thought for a bit. "I... am not so sure. I'll have to ask my boss. Why don't you guys go sit there and read this? I'll see if I can find anything else."
Ning and Shara went to sit by the table while the young man went off somewhere. They sat on a free table next to the tall windows and opened the book.
"Why did you ask for that book? We only need the other one, don't we?" Shara asked.
"If we randomly start searching for these sorts of things, people will remember you," Ning said. "And we don't know how deep this thing goes. Whoever the people in the empire are that are looking for you, they have to have quite the reach, so we can never be careful."
"Oh..." Shara said.
Ning nodded. "Do you know much about the Awakeners?" he asked. "Do you want to read this?"
Shara nodded and took the book, flipping through it. She knew how to read but didn't have much to read as a child, so she was quite slow. Still, she read everything she could from the book, flipping the book with a bit of surprise each time she did so.
The descriptions of the 5 types of awakener told her what it was that the woman back in the Spirit Department had been trying to do by getting her to perform various tasks.
She had failed in every single one of the tasks, so she was something different.
As she continued reading, the young man from before arrived at their table and put down two thick tomes. Ning leaned back and looked at the books, reading the names on the books.
It was volume 1 and volume 2 of 'History of the Onyx Empire'.
"What you want to learn is in here somewhere," the young man said. "There isn't any specific book for what you're searching for, so you'll have to scour this book to learn about it. Will you be needing help to read it?"
"No, thank you. I can read this by myself," Ning said.
"Alright, let me know if you need something else. Otherwise, I'll go help someone else for now."
Ning nodded. "We'll be fine alone."
Once the man left, Ning took the history book and opened it to the first page.
"The world knows not who I am today, but there shall come a day when my name shall be the only thing the world knows." - Emperor Volter Gohlhog II, the Conqueror, 8 years before his ascendancy to the Onyx throne, 15 years before the Burning Conquest.
The very first words left an impact on Ning. 'Emperor Volter Gohlhog...' he thought. He wondered who this man was. He wanted to skip to the part where it spoke about powers, but... this seemed interesting as well.
'What is the Burning Conquest?' Ning wondered. There was some memory of the name in his mind, left behind by the system, but nothing too big. All he knew about it from his memories was that it was something that happened nearly 400 years ago.
Ning read through the page, now interested more than ever to find more out.
Over 400 years ago, there used to be 5 different Empires in the continent. After some event, which the book did not disclose, the Emperor of the Onyx Empire decided that he wanted to be the sole Emperor of the entire continent.
So, he started war against the other empires, and slowly won them over. The book spoke of multiple battles, spread over nearly 25 years of time, in which the Emperor fought one empire after another.
The Ballen Empire was the first to fall to its might, their capital left burning. The Weaver Empire was the second. Then the Umora Empire fell and finally, the Livance Empire gave up to the conquerors.
In 25 years, the young Emperor went from being the emperor of a single Empire to one that took over the entire continent.