358 Two Birds with One Stone


    There was still another day and a half until his battle with General Aleen was due to take ce, but Ss still chose to return to the System City—though apparently not before he ran into Gregory. Still, although the man gave him a look and the militiamen all red in unison, Ss only swept them a nce before vanishing into the distance.


    …


    Entry into the System City was as easy as usual, and it wasn''t long before Ss found where the library was. When he returned, he nodded.


    ''As expected…''


    The library was enormous. It had three floors above ground and six more below. On the surface, it looked like any normal library, formed of aged brick and mortar and carrying a schrly feel. But the sheer number of books was simply mind-numbing.


    Each of the floors had five-meter-tall ceilings, and there were hardly any seating arrangements at all, as they used up most of the space to stack more bookshelves. From floor to ceiling, there were walls upon walls of books, and several rollingdders of various heights to amodate them all. He knew thatpleting his quest wouldn''t be so easy.


    ''There''s definitely an organization system of some sort. I will learn it first.''


    He walked to one of the few help desks and began asking questions. But after leaving, there was more confusion on his face than before.


    This wasn''t Earth, so there was no digital database to use. In the Veridian University library, for example, if Ss wanted to find a book, he would just look it up on one of the many database monitors. Then, right at his fingertips, he would have several potential names, summaries, and even the exact location of the books based on a numerical system.


    But here, things didn''t work that way. He had thought they might rely on the system, but it was moreplex than that.


    They used a Rune system. The library was separated into Rune Sections, which were further divided into Foundation Sections and even further into Stroke Sections.


    In higher-ss libraries, the section a book was in would be decided by its creator. That was because higher-ss knowledge would almost always elicit a reaction from thews of a world and form its own Runes.


    But… this knowledge, or at least most of it, wasn''t ssified so highly. That ironically made everything several times more difficult. That was because rather than being assigned by something as fundamental as thews they described, the standard of this library was somewhat arbitrarily decided by the librarian.


    Sometimes this would work out well, but it could also go very wrong… especially if there were several librarians or the head librarian was reced.


    The short of it was that even the librarians wouldn''t have read every book here. That meant that Ss had to wade through a tide of clickbait titles, schrly hack jobs, and the ipetence of the librarians themselves. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    The majority of the library was actually arranged in alphabetical order, which was mind-numbingly stupid. The sheer number of books in the ''T'' section because of a book starting its title with "The" was enough to make a man weep.


    ''It isn''tpletely hopeless… The bottom three levels are only avable to nobles for a reason. You even need to be a Duke or General to get liberal ess to the bottom floor. That means that there''s at least some separation of quality. But that might be a worse thing for me.''


    Ss took a breath and stood in a random location. He needed a better way to sort through all of these books to find the information on lost civilizations that he needed.


    "I guess the only way to do this… is to just start."


    Ss'' visualization quickly covered a full 30-meter radius. Asrge as the library was, this was still enough to cover most of it with the exception of the bottom-most floors.


    ''Difficult…''


    Ss frowned.


    While he was able to cover a 30-meter radius, for a full 60 meters in total if it was measured from end to end, his Wisdom was still too low to grasp everything within that radius. He often found himself bouncing from one location to another.


    It was simr to eyesight in that way. There was a focus and then there was the periphery. Most of Ss'' visualization fell into the periphery, and he had to turn his intention toward it in order to grasp the detail of what he was seeing.


    When analyzing Runes, the details were the most important, so it was hard to get away with just a vague understanding.


    Byparison, in battle, the moment something odd moved he would be able to grasp it.


    ''No, I have to take a different approach… maybe?''


    Ss had never tried before, but he forced himself to shrink down his visualization.


    Surprisingly, it was extremely easy. At first, it took a bit of focus, but then he could move it freely.


    He continued to shrink it until he could get a focused image of every little thing in that region.


    ''Hm. Six meters or so seems to be the spot. But that puts a lot of strain on my mind, and I can barely hold out for a few minutes. But, if I shrink it again to five meters, I canst probably a half hour. At four meters, two or so hours shouldn''t be an issue at all.''


    After some thought, Ss settled on five meters.


    The form of a sphere came to mind, and he realized that every meter he lost was actually quite arge volume byparison. Although he couldst longer if he went even shorter, it wasn''t worth it.


    Plus, this would be a good opportunity to raise the Mastery of <Maddened Enlightenment>. He would kill two birds with one stone.


    Ss didn''t end up finding what he needed in a day and a half, but he moved through the library like a madman, imprinting the organization structure to the point he likely knew it better than even the librarian himself.


    When he returned, he would be able to find what he needed within half a week.


    With that thought, he rested, preparing for his match.