Gaming Sword Magician

Chapter 50: One-Hundred Seconds!

Ten minutes later, Whittaker arrived on the first floor of the Royal library located at the center of the academy's main building.

It was mostly vacant, but some students could still be seen studying. These students were deemed as Nerds by their classmates.

Most of the hardcore intelligent students passed most of their Academy life in the library: For they chased after professions such as Alchemist, Appraiser, and Magic teacher. These professions could only be obtained by reading hundreds of books about the related subject.

Whittaker was slightly nervous, there were lots of towering bookshelf in this place, after all. Each bookshelf has 12 rows. In each row, at least 150 books were placed. Basically, a single bookshelf had 1800 books.

The first floor had 180 bookshelves. From calculations, Whittaker found out that there will be around 324000 books on this floor.

Locating what he wants to read will take forever, as the first floor itself had dozens of bookshelves. Hence, he walked back to the entrance of the library to talk with the young librarian for some guidance.

The librarian told him about the basic information of this place, such as the whereabouts of the books on Battle energy, basic knowledge of the world, and how the service items of the library functions.

From the librarian, Whittaker found out that the books about mana and battle energy are found on the second floor. The first floor has detailed books about Professions, History, Newspaper, Novels, and some miscellaneous stuff.

First of all, Whittaker decided to read books on the first floor, later on, after he had read some necessary books on the first floor, he will target the second floor to learn about the battle energy.

Whittaker pulled out his Academy Map. The Academy map was a mystical item graded as 2-star. It was modeled after the 10-star treasure Celestial Mirror of Ten Hundred thousand Truth.

Anyways, at a time, this magical Academy map can reflect the answer to one question. Naturally, it was ranked as only 2-star because there was a certain limitation imposed on it.

The Academy Map could only be used for finding locations inside the Academy and the books located in the Royal Library.

Using the prowess of the Academy Map, Whittaker located certain books he had a keen interest in.

The books ranged from "Awakened Association and Professions" to "Magical Beasts, Herbs, plants, and items". Along the way, a book adorned in black gems and weird inscription has also caught his eyes. Curiously, he pulled it out from the bookshelf 

The dark book was named, "Book Of Gossips!"

Most of his interest evaporated after reading the book title. He shook his head while extending his free hand to place the jeweled book back on the bookshelf.

'Gossip is a really fun tool for people who have nothing better to do, but I am busy!' he thought while suppressing his desires. He remembered the cracking waves of laughter of the gossiping aunties in the open market. Just like an ancient sage he thought, 'From the looks of it, Gossiping is extremely fun, but alas, one can't hope for everything!'

With closed eyes and a disappointed look, he placed the book on the shelf. The moment he placed the book back, a system notification popped up,

Weekly Quest Activated: Knowledge is power (1)

Description: Some Gossips are lies while the other truths that can save lives. Utilize the Book Of Gossip to peek at other people's secrets. 

Rewards: +5 intelligence

Whittaker's head tilted in shock, but he picked up the book of gossip, as now, it was fun with a plus free +5 intelligent points. The same amount of intelligence points he gained from the words of the mage king. And the thing he needed to earn that was peeking at other people's embarrassing information!

It was a win-win situation!

With ten or so books in his tiny embrace, Whittaker seemed like a legit troll who strolled through the library for fun as no one would believe that a person can read ten or so thin books in a single day.

But Whittaker could!

He wasn't feeling sleepy or hungry, hence he decided to spend the night in the library, learning about various stuff and battle energy was his main goal.

Walking past some students, who were too busy studying to spare a glance in his direction, Whittaker searched for an open environment. Ever since he was a child, while studying he liked quiet places with little to no distractions.

After going to a dark table placed at the corner of an inauspicious area that was vacant of any signs of life, Whittaker sat down.

After placing all the books in his hand on the table, Whittaker swiped his ID card through the slot on the card reader installed on the table. The Light Orb immediately lit up, illuminating the dark table, and a magical formation formed around the table.

Now, even if Whittaker shouts at the top of his lungs or smashes his head, his voice or actions couldn't be heard or seen by the people outside.

Such was the effect of the magical formation installed in every table under the pressurization of the Studen Council Members, especially, their hard-headed and over-cautious President, who believed that Nerds deserved privacy from prying eyes.

Whittaker left the Book Of Gossip for the finale as it seemed to be the most fun among all the others.

The First book he opened was the book on Awakened Association. It was only 100 pages long.

He glanced at the first page, which introduced a person to the definition of "Association", only one time, and it was memorized. Then he flipped the page.

With one glance he memorized the next two pages, Whittaker chuckled dumbfoundedly as he realized that increasing the intelligence stat didn't only increase his mana, but also strengthened his memorization ability!

Since birth, he could only memorize one page with a glance, but now he could memorize two pages with a glance!

That means that he could read and memorize 100 pages in fifty seconds.