Records from the Old World part II
Part 3
Sandro led Zal to the largest building in the center of the town and took him inside.
Although Zal was curious about the buildings and towers surrounding them, and many other Revenants he saw in different buildings—both mages and warriors—all wore iron skull masks obscuring their faces.
Despite his curiosity, Zal thought it inappropriate to ask, so he simply followed Sandro quietly.
Sandro took Zal up to the third floor to introduce him to the room prepared for him, which would be his quarters from now on.
After that, they went downstairs to check out the dining room before continuing down to the basement.
Upon reaching the basement, Zal was surprised again, as the area below seemed even more spacious and majestic than the building’s hall above.
It seemed the basement extended under other buildings or it could be a dimensional dungeon connected to the upper building.
Importantly, this vast, extensive room was filled with books.
Every wall and even each supporting column was filled with bookshelves put together, forming a library as large as the main library of the capital city, making Zal both amazed and excited.
“…From here to that end are books on becoming a mage across all three levels…
The other side has books and research on summoning magic…
Feel free to look around; I’ll go grab something and will be back soon…”
With that, Sandro teleported away instantly, leaving Zal slightly surprised but undeterred as he eagerly explored the summoning magic books.
There were numerous books, including entire shelves full of basic summoning circle designs.
Delighted as if he had discovered a treasure trove, Zal ran back and forth, picking out interesting books and stacking them on a table until they formed a small mountain.
After looking through the books on summoning magic, Zal ran to check out the books for mages.
This section had even more books, and just the books for apprentice mages filled up a room.
Zal picked several mage books and piled them up, planning to start reading them.
Suddenly, he noticed a corner of the library sectioned off differently from the rest, which piqued his curiosity.
As he approached, he realized that what appeared from afar was just a fraction of it.
This bookshelf was part of a large hall separated from the main library, but it contained no fewer books.
He thought about entering but found the entrance blocked by a magical barrier.
Although he could see inside, he could not walk through.
So, he returned to his table to start reading the books he had gathered.
A short while later, Sandro teleported back into the room, carrying several items: two wristbands, a necklace, and a ring.
She placed them on the table and began to explain.
“…This wristband is the ‘Mana Tide Bracelet.’ Besides showing the current magical power, it also increases the wearer’s mana capacity and helps regenerate mana about 50% faster…
…The other one here is the ‘Mana Leak Bracelet.’ If worn, it reduces the wearer’s mana capacity by 30% and cuts the mana regeneration rate in half.
However, it accelerates magical development in both mana capacity and regeneration…
…Wearing both together…
the effects on mana regeneration rate will neutralize each other, leaving a slight increase in mana capacity, but you will experience faster magical development…
The essence of summoning magic is mana capacity, to be able to summon higher-level minions, so keep both bracelets on all the time to rapidly develop your mana capacity…”
After Sandro finished her explanation, Zal looked at the bracelets with sparkling eyes, exclaiming with excitement:
“Both of these are legendary artifacts!
Especially the ‘Mana Tide,’ I’ve seen them going for 80-90 thousand gold on websites!”
“…That’s just price inflation by traders…
actually, they’re worth less than 50 thousand gold…”
“It’s still very expensive!”
In this new world, there was a universal currency, comprising three levels of coins: gold, silver, and copper.
One hundred copper coins equaled one silver, and one hundred silver coins equaled one gold.
Simply put, gold was the highest value coin.
To understand how much one gold was worth, one had to first consider the value of copper, the lowest denomination coin.
In this world, the average meal that commoners eat costed about 40-50 copper coins.
Actually, a single dish would only cost about 15-20 copper coins.
The cost of staying in a mid-range hotel was about 1-3 silver coins per night, depending on the hotel’s rating.
Rent for a three-person house was around 20 silver coins per month.
The usual minimum wage was about 4-5 silver coins per day.
Even if one was not an adventurer but knew how to work and earn a living, they could live comfortably as the cost of living in this world was relatively low compared to the income.
Items priced in gold were usually large or highly valuable, such as a quality horse costing between 3-5 gold coins.
A house with land of about 100 square meters would cost about 400-500 gold coins.
High-rank adventurer equipment like weapons and armor could cost hundreds of gold depending on the quality.
However, legendary items or artifacts were considered rare in this world, with only a few pieces existing.
This rarity could be due to difficult-to-source materials, a complex manufacturing process that few could achieve, or some pieces were the result of flukes in creation that could not be replicated despite the creator’s best efforts.
The wristbands that Sandro gave to Zal to use were considered legendary artifacts because they had high attributes and were rare.
For instance, the ‘Mana Tide Bracelet,’ which increased mana capacity and regeneration rate of the wearer by 50%, was a legendary version of the ‘Mana Flow Bracelet,’ which normally increased mana capacity and regeneration rate by about 20%.
Although some could perform better, those doubling the usual properties were almost countable on one hand and hence were very expensive.
In simple terms, one of these bracelets alone could buy thousands of quality horses or hundreds of medium-sized houses.
Zal carefully took the two wristbands and wore them on each wrist with precision.
Once on his wrists, the ‘Mana Tide Bracelet’ transformed into a tattoo with blue mana lines on his wrist, while the ‘Mana Leak Bracelet’ also transformed into engraved glyphs resembling tattoos around his wrist. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
This was a high-level artifact wear system that converted the equipment into inscribed characters on the wearer’s skin to avoid hindrance in movement.
It was one of the modern technologies that artifact inventors had only developed in the past few decades.
After Zal had properly put on both wristbands, Sandro reminded him again,
“…Don’t worry too much about their cost…
Remember, always wear them together to get the best results…”
“Hey…
if I ran out of mana, wouldn’t it be better to take off the ‘Mana Leak’ while waiting for regeneration?
That way, my mana would recover faster, right?”
“…Restoring magical power is also an activity that leads to magical development…
The more frequently you restore your mana, the more you develop both the capacity of your mana and the rate of its restoration…
It results in more mana and faster restoration rates…
Thus, wearing it to accelerate the rate of development will be more beneficial in the long run…”
“Ah, so that’s why you told me to use up my mana before sleeping.”
“…Yes, and this necklace is the ‘Burdened Amulet’…
It’s another cursed item that increases the gravitational pull experienced by the wearer…
I set it to 1.2 times…
which means you will feel 20% heavier…
Here, put it on…”
Sandro handed the necklace to Zal, who looked at it quizzically since the necklace seemed only to have disadvantages without any apparent benefits.
“Eh?
Why should I wear something like this?”
“…Physical capability is important as well…
But considering the subjects you’re going to study, we can’t spare time for physical training…
So, I use this necklace as a substitute for physical training…
If the body have to bear more weight, the muscles will develop to adapt…”
“Wow~ there’s a method like that?
Awesome!”
“…I didn’t come up with it myself…
but got the idea from stories of legendary warriors I read about in the records of the old world…”
“Legendary warriors, huh?”
“…Yes, the records say that this warrior trained his body under immense gravitational forces…
gradually moving from 10 times to 20 times, 50 times, and up to 100 times…
and eventually he became what’s called a ‘Super Saiyan’…”
“Super Saiyan!
Sounds cool.
Can I become a Super Saiyan too?”
“…If you train up to 100 times the gravitational pull, you might…
But right now, it’s set to only 1.2 times…
If you start getting used to it, we’ll adjust it up gradually…”
Sandro put the necklace on Zal, and immediately he felt his body become heavier, but it was still manageable.
This necklace did not transform itself into glyphs like the ‘Mana Leak Bracelet’ because Sandro thought it would be easier to remove in an emergency, which Zal understood.
“…Finally, this ring…
It took some time because I went to make this ring…
It’s a communication ring that can be used to contact others within this realm…
and I’ve added maps of Malachite Keep and the library to it…”
Zal put on the ring and spun it around his finger to activate the map, and the ring projected a detailed map into the air, including locations and names of places.
It even detailed the library’s book categories in each room.
Meanwhile, he remembered the room that was blocked by a magical barrier, so he scrolled through the map and found that it was labeled as ‘Records of the Old World,’ covering the entire grand hall that Zal had seen.
“This, the room labeled ‘Records of the Old World,’ is that the room Sandro often mentioned, book storage?”
“…Yes, that’s right…
It’s a room that houses books which are records of the old world…”
“Why is there a magical barrier around it?”
“…You’ve seen it, haven’t you?
…Well, it’s alright…
But it had to be sealed because it contains dangerous things…”
“Dangerous?”
Zal did not fully understand what she meant, so Sandro led him to that part of the library and asked,
“…What do you know about the records of the old world?”
“Hmm…
I know they were written by the first humans who survived the old world.
They tried to convey as much as they could remember about the old world—its history, traditions, and culture—in the records, so that future generations would know about the old world.”
“…That’s correct…
But do you know why the records of the old world were classified as forbidden documents that must not be owned by anyone…
except for some volumes that have been approved by the Peace Keepers…”
“Ah…
It seems that a hundred years after the world was established, there was an outbreak of counterfeit records which demons manipulated to lead people back into degradation.
To eliminate the problem, all records of the old world were seized for inspection or destroyed.”
“…That’s only half the truth…
The records weren’t forged…
They just could potentially lead humanity back to degradation…”
“Huh?
What do you mean?”
As they arrived in front of the room holding the records of the old world, Sandro raised her hand to dissolve the magical barrier that had been in place.
The barrier obstructing their path disappeared instantly, allowing them to proceed.
As they crossed the threshold, Sandro continued to explain,
“…The records of the old world were written entirely by humans…
no demons involved…
However, they contain a large amount of literature…
lots of it…”
“Literature?”
“…Primarily novels…
or stories that evolved from picture stories… Visit g.com for the full chapter.
The issue is that a lot of these literature reflects the depravity of the old world quite significantly…
The regional leaders agreed that it was best to dispose of all such records…”
“Reflects the depravity of the old world, what does that mean?”
“…Well…
for example, the genre called ‘harem service’ literature…
involves tales of a frivolous man surrounded by easy women…
acting as though he’s the only man left in the world, while women shamelessly fighting over him…
and filled with explicit scenes where the women go through events that would leave them unable to marry anyone else…”
“R…really?
That bad?
Sounds socially harmful indeed.”
“…And that’s just the tip of the iceberg…
There are other literatures far more morally corrupt, like the ‘Incest Core’ genre…
Stories like ‘My Sister Can’t Be This Tight’ or ‘Summer of Love’…
They are about actual siblings in romantic relationships…
some marry their sisters…
others share intimate moments with them…
The Ministry of Culture of Juris Kingdom once commented that this was part of the degradation that led to the downfall of the old world…”
Zal also had a younger sister, and when he heard that there were literature with such content, he briefly imagined himself and his sister in that forbidden relationship, which made him shudder all over.
“Yikes…
The more I think about it, the more horrifying it gets.
Did people in the old world really read this stuff?
And you’ve kept it all, Sandro, do you like it too?”
“That’s not really my taste…
For me…
I keep these because they are valuable…
Some old world culture enthusiasts are willing to pay hundreds of thousands of gold to own a copy…
especially ‘My Sister Can’t Be This Tight’…
I don’t know why but after reading all the volumes, more than half of the readers end up burning the entire series…
which makes them rare and highly priced in the black market.”
Zal felt like Sandro almost slipped something else out but skillfully diverted the conversation while still maintaining the main topic, which he did not feel like probing further as he was more interested in the current discussion.
“Hmm…
so it has a lot of immoral content, and that’s why it’s banned.”
“That’s one reason…
Another is the unclear history…
because every volume is either rewritten or passed down…
making it hard to distinguish what is true history and what is literary fiction.”
“Uh…
Shouldn’t the ‘Ten Sages,’ who helped create the world, be able to clarify this?”
The ‘Ten Sages’ were a group of ten men and women from the old world chosen by God to advise in the design and creation of the new world.
Some texts said the God merely listened to them, while others said they were given the right to create the world themselves.
The Sages, granted eternal life, were still alive today, though it was unknown where they reside.
Every year, they would gather at the ‘Pillar of Heaven,’ a tall tower that was once their workshop in world-building, to discuss potential adjustments or changes to the world to make it a better place.
That was the only time people on the world were allowed to contact them.
But when the name ‘Ten Sages’ came up, Sandro frowned and sighed softly.
“The ‘Ten Sages’ are a bigger problem…
Each one elevates their favorite pieces of literature as real legends…
making it even more complicated to study history…
They end up being unreliable references…”
“Huh…?
So the ‘Ten Sages’ aren’t a group of wise and responsible scholars chosen by the God?”
“I only know what I’ve heard.
The truth isn’t clear, but that them not separating literature from history seems to be true, making the history of the old world still ambiguous…”
“Hmm…
So the records from the old world are mostly bad stuff?”
“Not exactly…
There are many records with good information or stories…
Even in some of the darker literature, there are good ideas…
The important thing is to choose what to read and believe…
Don’t let the values in them influence your thoughts…
But it’s easier said than done…
If you’re really interested, I’ll open the ‘safe data’ area for you…
The rest, especially the ‘adult’ category, let’s wait until you’re older…”
After discussing the records of the old world, Sandro took him back to the main hall to start teaching various subjects.
Zal was quite interested in the stories of the old world and thought that after his lessons he would try reading a couple of the records.
However, the effect of the burdened amulet left him so exhausted even though he was just studying some basic spells and theory lessons which did not require much physical movement.
In the end, he had to go back upstairs to rest without getting a chance to read any records, but he was resolved to study the old world’s stories later.
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