Chapter 06: The library

 The large doors opened with ease. A huge marble hallway lay in front of her, the room had blue flags with golden marking dangling down on either side of the walls. As she looked around the room, huge book shelves lay on either side. Row after row with billions of tomes, each shelf exploding with hundreds of different volumes varying in size. There were so many books that some of them had been stacked in piles instead. It was breath taking.

 Meeth Crym inhaled the dusty smell of old tomes and novels, it was a comforting feeling for her. A part of her wanted to run around the whole of the library and try to read every single one of these different tales. However, for the time being there were more important things to think about.

 On the other side of the library stood an elderly man, he wore a coffee brown pork pie hat with a golden strip around the rim. He also wore a striped cream shirt, with golden bands on either side, causing the top of his sleeves to puff out. Over his shirt he wore a brown waist coat, it had golden edges and buttons. For his bottom half, he wore buffy purple trousers, tucked in knee length brown boots. His creamy wrinkled face seemed pleasant, relaxed even, as he read the large ancient text in front of him. His tiny black glasses, just barely covering his crimson coloured eyes. As if sensing her presence, he made a remark of surprise, turning to face in her direction. “Are you…?” he began, before closing his eyes and shutting the book. Now facing her directly, he nodded his head, “Can I be of service?” he inquired.

 Meeth Crym approached him somewhat nervously, there was something about his appearance that made her feel a little uncomfortable. She didn’t understand it though, this was the first time they had ever met, surely she was over thinking things. She decided it was best to just explain the situation to the elderly man in hopes he could help her in some kind of way. Clearing her throat, she explained to him what had happened, “Eryll, a girl from village has fallen ill. According to the elders in the village, she shows the signs of having crystal sickness. I was sent out in search of a cure, but I have no idea what to do!” she explained.

 “…Hmmm, I see. So a child from your village had fallen ill, ja? And vhen the villagers saw the symptoms, they determined that it vas the crystal sickness?” He asked, more to himself then her. Upon nodding her head, he allowed himself to continue. “It is strange that there are people around who still know of that disease. Crystals are powerful objects that emit continuous energy vaves. In small quantities, it is harmless. But if a person is subject to large amounts of radiation over a sustained period, their body begins to change. That change is called the ‘crystal sickness.’” he explained. His face began to crease, “But it is a very ancient illness. The crystals are long gone from this vorld, so vhy vould anyone fall ill now?” he placed his hand to his chin, pondering the reason.

 It was at that moment that the crystal within Meeth Crym’s pocket began to shine, it made a brief flash, and in that time period it illuminated the room in white.

 The elderly man seemed shocked, “Hm!?” he unfolded his arms and started at her for a moment, allowing himself to calm down, before asking a seemly important question, “Do I sense… a crystal? Do you have one?”

 Meeth Crym reached into her pocked and pulled out the small yet bright crystal.

 He appeared to be somewhat annoyed, maybe even angry as he spoke the next words. “Ja, ja, it is indeed a crystal. And one of incredible purity, at that.” He started at the crystal in awe, clearly taken away by its beauty. Looking down at the floor, he began to talk to himself, “Does this mean that they crystals are returning? Surely, that cannot be.” His head cocked up once more, the rage increasing within him, “Tell me, child. Vhere did you find this object? Come, come, you must tell me!”

 In response to this, Meeth Crym realised that keeping the crystal out was a rather bad idea, so instead, she put it back within the confined space of her pocket. His reaction made her feel rather fearful again, the doubts from earlier was arising once more.

 The man took a moment to compose himself once again, “Ah, my apologies. First, you vant to help the child vith the crystal sickness, ja?” he said while shaking his head in disappointment with himself. He made eye contact with her once more, “I know how to make the medicine that you seek. Hmmm…” He paused for a moment, then a smug grin appeared on his face, “Perhaps ve can help each other, ja? There is something I need done as part of my archaeological research. If you agree to help me, then I vill make the medicine for you. Vhat do you say?”

 Meeth Crym paused briefly, she knew she needed the medicine, and there wasn’t many who knew how to make it. Yet something about this man made her feel uneasy. She didn’t want to trust him, but she knew all too well that she didn’t have much of a choice. Despite every nerve in her body screaming at her not to trust him, she nodded her head in agreement to his request. Surely nothing bad could come of helping an old man with his research.

 He smiled rather happily, “Good, then ve have a deal. My name is Larkeicus. First, to complete my end of the bargain…” His cocky smile had returned to his lips, “I must have a buffasaur horn to brew the medicine. You vill find me one vhile I am preparing the other ingredients.” He then turned back to looking rather serious, “The buffasaur is a magical beat that lives near vater.” Then his face seemed to light up once again, “It is very powerful, but easily succumbs to magic. Ja, it’s scary, but not TOO scary…” He then began to walk to the centre of the room, before asking, “Do you know how to use magic? If not, perhaps I can teach you. Vould you like that?”

 She paused for a moment, Meeth Crym had to admit, she didn’t really know how to use magic, potions were easy, but casting a spell? That was a different story. She decided that it would probably be best to make use of Larkeicus’s offer, as there was no telling what spell she might have to use. Not to mention the fact that the villagers were currently too busy looking after Eryll to try and teach her anything. Left with no other choice, she nodded her head, “Yes, please!”

 Grinning wider, he responded with “Very vell. Let us begin vith the basics.” He then indicated where he wanted Meeth Crym to stand before continuing on. “To use magic, you must have mana. The amount of mana you need depends on your tribe and the spell you vish to cast. If you do not have enough mana, then you cannot cast the spell.” He paused for a moment to allow himself to catch his breath and to make sure that the young lilty was still listening. “You can replenish mana by taking items from the foes that you defeat.” He then quickly cast a spell, illuminating the room in light. “This is just for practice, so you have unlimited mana.” He then walked towards her, holding a rather old tome, he opened it up and then handed it to her. “Now take a look at this page. On the right, you see the magic panels, ja? These show the magic you can use.”

 Meeth Crym stared down at the page, clearly confused. For somebody who was about to teach her the basics, they weren’t doing a very good job so far. It seemed they were expecting somebody who knew how to cast at least a couple spells, maybe even knew what he was actually going on about.

 He seemed to notice the fact that she was struggling to understand. Never the less he continued onwards, “There are serval different vays to cast a spell. I shall start by teaching you the easiest vay. You can select a spell to cast by touching the magic panel. Vhich vill then allowing you to read the spell that you vish to cast. Tis the easiest vay after all.” He paused once again. “From top to bottom, the spells are Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure, Raise, and Clear.” As if remembering something, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small stone like amulet, “Or, using this amulet, you can hold down the centre and move it in the direction of each of the spells instead. This vay you don’t have to use the tome.” He then handed the circular amulet to her.

 Meeth Crym lent forward and took it from him, “Thank you.” She mumbled, studding the strange thing now held in her palm.

 “Of course, in the long run, it would be much easier to cast the spells from the tome, or by remembering the spell by heart. But for now, this vill help you in the heart of battle.” His smug grin made another appearance, “Once you have chosen the spell, focus and concentrate to make the target ring appear.”

 Meeth Crym did as she was instructed, she closed her eyes and decided which spell she was going to cast. She concentrated all her energy in front of her until a ring appeared. While still focusing all her energy, she still allowed Larkeicus words to reach through to her. She also opened her eyes again to allow herself to see what he was doing as well.

 Larkeicus’s voice became stern “Now hold it. Don’t let go yet!” Upon noticing how well she was doing, a warm smile pealed its way on his face, “Vhile still concentrating, you can move the ring vith your mind. As you can see, the ring is the same colour as the spell you are going to cast. You have selected the Fire spell.” His face became more serious once more “Vhen you have placed the ring on the target, release your mind to cast the spell. If you vish to cast recovery spells on yourself, simply move the ring so it targets you. Now, vith one ring you can only cast one of these six spells.”

 Meeth Crym frowned, “Why can I only cast one ring?”

 He chuckled, “Naturally, as a beginner you vill not be able to stack your spells just yet. Of course vith time comes great power.” The oh so charming smile remerged. “But by combining magic, you can unleash more powerful spells. You can do this together with your allies, or you can stack magic yourself. First, you must select a spell and focus to summon the target ring. Then when you are strong enough you will be able to fix the target ring in place, then you can summon another target ring and place it on the first.” He chuckled once again “In this vay, you vill be able to cast even more powerful magic. This is called stacking magic. Different combinations and numbers of rings produce different kinds of spells. Experiment and see for yourself.”

 Meeth Crym nodded her head. It was a lot to take in, but somehow she was able to understand what he was talking about.

 Larkeicus had returned to his serious teacher format. “If you have fixed a target ring, you can focus again to cast the spell. A successful adventurer knows how to make the most of magic!… Vell, you are an apt pupil.” A cheeky grin appeared, “I think you efforts deserve a reward, ja?”

 Meeth Crym perked up, finally after all the hard concentration, she was going to gain an interesting little reward or two.

 “Here!” He grunted as he lobbed a few strange orb like objects.

 Unsure as to what they were she picked them up regardless. As soon as she made contact with them, they disappeared, yet somehow, she felt… stronger? She looked up at him in awe.

 He laughed, “These are vhat ve call orbs. Ve use them to raise our magic levels. You can find more vhen you defeat monsters or open treasure chests. Be sure to collect them all! Remember, vhat matters are the results! Now, good luck.” And with that he returned to his desk and his old dusty tome.

 And just like that, Meeth Crym was set off on her journey to find the location of the beast known as buffasaur, and then snatch its horn. With her newly learned abilities and a better understanding of what she would have to do, she left the library in search of the location of the creature. Perhaps someone within the town would be able to help her locate it.