Mystic Overlord: Reading Gives Strength
Chapter 387 - 386: World’s Metamorphosis?

Chapter 387: Chapter 386: World’s Metamorphosis?

"A week isn’t too long when you think about it."

Ronald spent his mornings reading books and afternoons going to work, his days passed by with considerable stability, occasionally making time for some scholarly discussions with the Countess, and time moved forward peacefully.

And so, the time agreed upon with the monks at the secluded monastery arrived.

He arrived punctually at eight in the morning at the Three Spirits Secluded Monastery, and as soon as he entered the courtyard, the old man who had greeted him on his first visit welcomed him again.

That’s right, this old monk was named Ande.

Through a week’s contact, Ronald had begun to get a preliminary understanding of several monks in the monastery,

Out of the total of six monks, four male monks were middle-aged and elderly men around sixty or seventy years old, while two female monks were also quite aged, with the final one being the only young person.

The old man named Ande approached Ronald.

His expression was still the usual imperturbable one:

"Mr. Ronald, the application you submitted earlier has a result,"

"..."

Ronald knew that Ande always maintained such an expression, so he nodded in response without much concern:

"Then, Brother Ande, how did this matter turn out?"

"You have been granted permission," the old monk said, delivering news that made Ronald quite happy. However, Ande then turned his gaze toward the library and continued in a lingering tone, "However, the importance of these books is extraordinary, and even though they are opened up to you, please complete your reading work within today, after which we will continue to seal them away."

"Although it may seem presumptuous, we hope that what you see inside will remain only in your memory, preferably without being disseminated to the outside world."

"..."

His trip here was probably the right move.

Hearing the old monk’s words, Ronald immediately had a premonition.

This kind of religious organization, which has inherited from the Dark Age to the present without any interruption, and so formally hides information within, must truly touch upon the reality of that bygone era.

Because he truly felt a bit excited, Ronald even clenched his fists tightly and almost shadowed Ande to the library.

Under the old monk’s lead, the two of them entered the entrance of the library.

However, this time they did not ascend the stairs, but directly approached the fireplace at the far left end of the long corridor.

The fire was still burning, not very fiercely.

The old monk deliberately squatted in front of the fireplace and calmly reached out his right hand into the fire.

The holy white "Magic Power" emerged and immediately covered Ande’s thin, bony fingertips.

Ronald saw it all very clearly.

Under the protection of this special magic power, the old man brushed aside the burning embers in the fireplace and then grabbed something inside that looked like a handle.

Click—

A soft click was heard and the sound of some mechanical contraption twisting emanated from the fireplace, spreading swiftly to the outside.

Accompanied by the sound of mechanical movements spreading through the walls, traces of magic power distorting began to emerge on the wall beside the two of them.

A spell slightly different from the Investigative Bureau’s wall-hiding techniques activated, and at last, a crack opened up in the wall next to them, revealing a dimly lit enclosed space.

At the same time, the old monk who had risen to his feet picked up a candlestick from the side and lit it inside the fireplace, then handed it to Ronald:

"Mr. Ronald, please be sure to protect the precious books inside."

"The church granting you, an outsider, reading access is a rather rare act, so I hope you will cherish it deeply."

Ronald responded earnestly:

"I understand, I will be careful."

Taking the candlestick from the old man, Ronald turned and walked into the passageway.

He could hear the old man’s breathing lingering in place behind him; the monk simply stood at the entrance of the passageway and did not follow Ronald inside.

It was that Ande was not interested in the books here.

"Or maybe it’s that even insiders within the church face high restrictions when it comes to accessing the books in this place..."

Why am I thinking about this?

The thought had just surfaced in Ronald’s mind, but he quickly shook his head to dispel it.

A day was neither too long nor too short.

He had to make good use of the time, striving to collect useful information as efficiently as possible.

The light from the candlestick in his hand wasn’t particularly dazzling.

However, with Ronald’s excellent vision, he could still clearly see all the books at this spot in such dim light.

Perhaps calling them books wasn’t quite accurate...

In this secret library, resembling an underground passage over twenty meters long, were numerous wooden hardshell boxes lined up on shelves, and neither the shelves nor the boxes had any labels on their surfaces.

"Tsck..."

Ronald clicked his tongue and randomly picked a few boxes to take down.

He blew away the dust, unlocked them, and found they mostly contained assorted loose pages, manuscripts, or hand-copied texts of original records, with bound books few and far between.

Yet from the color of these text-covered pages, it was obvious they had a considerable history.

"This is it!"

Without a doubt!

This must be the pre-Dark Age textual records Ronald had always sought!

And this time, it was not like the personal memoirs within the "Scroll Study Association" or the details revealed through fragments of speech in the "Nine Commandments Secret Meeting."

Just take the few wooden boxes Ronald had opened in his hands.

The content was built on the backdrop of that bygone era, entirely different from Ronald’s current time.

Strange characters recording unfamiliar words.

Empowered by his linguistic comprehension ability, Ronald did not hesitate to read out the text in his hands:

"The magic wolves of Long Moon Forest suddenly broke through the barrier set up by the Casters, and even an entire village of residents were slaughtered, with only a handful managing to escape and spread the news.

Under such circumstances, we had no choice but to dispatch the Knightly Expedition to subdue them, hoping to quell the wrath emanating from the forest.

Goddess above!

What wrong had those innocent civilians done?

Heretical deities like Yordanie driving such magical creatures to take their lives..."

The text seemed to record an incident involving magic wolves that had roamed from the forest, harming civilians, along with the subsequent response.

It appeared ordinary on the surface.

But if placed within the context of this world, it was a different story altogether.

Where had the world anomaly gone?

The emergence of magical creatures, even the slaughter of an entire village, was certainly terrifying, but there were quite a few civilians who managed to escape and spread the news far and wide.

If that were really the case, the number of "Seeds" would surely exceed the threshold.

The common knowledge of world anomalies on the mysterious side of modern times was absent, and there wasn’t even a mention of related issues in the texts.

How could this phenomenon be explained?

Frowning, Ronald placed the documents back into the box and neatly shoved it onto the shelf.

He lifted his gray eyes, gazing profoundly at the over twenty-meter-long library.

Could it be any clearer?

He had indeed come to the right place!