Northern sat languidly in the office, a couple of books arranged on his table.
While rummaging through Professor Heimburger's belongings, he had found some very interesting books and was reading through them.
They were very rare books about language formation that were probably priceless and could never be found in an era one.
It made sense how Professor Heimburger had such kinds of books, considering that he was well over three hundred years old.
One book in particular, "Ages Les Peria," proposed that runes originated from a mind more primal and ancient in existence than all human beings today are familiar with.
From an era-less epoch. A time where the world was still whole.
Northern, however, failed to recognize the latter part of the statement. Perhaps it was talking about before the rifts came.
Wouldn't it then mean the era of constellations?
But it had said, the era-less epoch. Northern had reason to believe this was definitely not the era of constellations and most likely was the very early beginnings of the world of Tra-el. Before it became Ul'Tra-El.
The awakening of the voice of the world dated back over three thousand years. Northern did not know yet how far the era of constellations was, or if Ul's voice had awakened in that era. Which was why he still planned to go back to the first floor to study those artifacts of history. There should not be an issue as long as he got permission from the Head Librarian. The main issue was getting access to the part of the library that could not be seen.
For now though... other things demanded his attention.
He had left a clone at his dormitory to live his daily life, which included communicating with Aster.
The link between him and his clones had grown immensely clearer and stronger since his evolution to a Sage and couldn't even be limited by distance anymore.
In the early stages, the link was disturbed by distance, so Northern avoided sending the clone far away and used them mainly as aide to get stronger during battle.
But as a Sage, he could place them a kilometer away and still vividly feel the link.
This meant Northern could easily see and hear the things his clone heard when he focused on
He was also well assured that the clone would keep to his instructions to not speak to anyone except Aster. And whenever Aster came around, he got alerted by a slight tinge of the invisible link strings.
The clone was responsible for his everyday movement between the forge and his dormitory, while interacting with as few people as possible.
While Northern, for the past three days, had been cooped up in his new compartment,
frequenting between the first floor of the library and his office.
The library was open and active round the clock, so even at midnight when he wanted to study more, he could casually walk to the first floor to borrow some books.
All he had to do was sign and write his name down with the floor librarian.
Over the past few days, Northern, because of how much he had frequented the place, had become somewhat familiar with the librarian.
The man also recommended some magnificent books of history to Northern that were very helpful.
On the third day now, after studying the books around Heimburger's office and the first floor of the library, Northern had precise knowledge about the eras of the world of Tra-el.
It was quite an interesting development that made him grin as he closed his most recent book. Because history was another thing he was very much interested in aside from engineering.
Talking about engineering, Northern was also making a recent transfer plan with Aster through his clone.
After seeing how he was able to grasp blacksmithing in weeks, he had restructured his mindset.
Before, he thought he was going to know all about blacksmithing in two years- he never expected to be able to do it in just three weeks.
Chaos Eyes and his constantly adapting body had the most to do with it. Moreover, this kind of thing was Northern's forte from his past life.
He might not have started life as the best socially smart and intelligent guy. But he was very smart and brilliant; he was diligent in his studies and his love for reading could not be overemphasized.
In fact, having stayed here for the past three days, he was already feeling his old self creeping back; all he wanted to do was lock the doors, keep ordering takeouts with his money, and read more and more.
But sadly, he couldn't choose that kind of life. Not in a world like Tra-el.
Or at the very least, not yet.
Which was also why he had made the decision to not just learn Blacksmithing, but everything that sat under craftsmanship. His next focus was artificing.
He slapped his hand on the closed book and stood up, stretching his hands and muscles all the way up with a strained groan escaping his mouth.
Northern then stacked six big books on each other and carried them in his hands like a baby.
Jeci silently watched, her eyes longing, suppressing her hands and feet from wanting to collect the books from him.
She couldn't help since she couldn't be seen, but she hated having to just stand there and watch him do all the work.
Northern from under his arm grew a rigid blackish tendril that clasped at the doorknob and pulled it before going back into his body like it never appeared.
For the rest of the door, he used his legs to widen the space, as to prevent onlookers from sighting anything suspicious.
Three offices adorned the wall on his right, while the left was the glass wall of the library; outside could be seen clearly. But anyone looking from outside would only see their own
"You again, when do you plan to go to school?"
The occupant of the third and last office on the hallway said to Northern as he happened to come out as the boy with a pile of books walked in front of his office.
Faking a smile, Northern lowered his head a little bit to greet the man but did not bother to stop. He walked away without responding.
The man, however, stood frozen. He blinked, confused. Never in his life had he been insulted in such a manner.
'Should I have minded my business?' he thought to himself as he locked his office door and