ALL NOVEL Chapter 37: An Unexpected Friend
Once the two made it out of the temple, High Priestess Hella escorted Maria to the northwestern part of the city and quickly arrived at the city's Library.
"This is the library, Lady Envoy. Down the road to the left you will see a tall spire. Look, you can see it from here," Hella said as she pointed at a tall black spire with a colorful magical wave of light constantly orbiting around it.
There was a large black orb floating on the very top of the spire with 2 small rings and 3 larger rings rotating around it. Once she got a good look at it, Maria immediately knew that was the Magic Tower.
"That's the city's Magic Tower, the haven for all mage-type classes. Once I've had a word with the Library's Director, I'll go ahead and talk with the Magic Tower's Arch Mage."
"Th-thank you... Miss Hella!"
"It is nothing, child, for you are our God's Envoy. This is the least I can do."
The two quickly made their way inside the library and Hella went off to talk with the Library's Director. Maria was left alone at the lobby, so she decided to go find some books and try to read them.
The librarian didn't dare to stop her despite the girl not having an entry permit. In fact, High Priestess Hella was basically her entry permit at this point! So Maria was free to roam about the library.
She took a thin book down from the shelf and opened it, but when she flipped to the first page of the book, all she saw were incomprehensible symbols and letters.
[You do not have the required skill to read this book!]
"Figures..."
Maria pouted a little before placing the book back on the shelf. She went around picking more books up, but she couldn't find a single one that she could read.
"Muuuhhh...I feel stupid..."
From afar, a party of players was currently witnessing the peculiar scene of an angel going back and forth between shelves, taking down a book before pouting in dissatisfaction and returning it.
It was kind of hilarious and it didn't suit the image that this particular angel had on the society. The party's leader went over to the girl and called out.
"Hey! Aren't you that Fallen Angel girl, the one from the Promo Vid?"
Maria heard a girl's voice from behind her. She turned around to face the person since obviously, the only fallen angel player in the game was currently just herself. She saw a group of players with a succubus girl leading them.
"Hm? Do you need something?" Maria politely asked with a smile.
"Eh?"
"Woah...she's actually pretty approachable!" One of the players behind the succubus girl said.
"..."
As the players gawked at Maria's rather friendly personality that went opposite of what the rumors depicted her to be like, Lilith stepped forward and immediately struck her hand out.
"Oh?"
"My name's Lilith! You're pretty interesting, wanna be my friend?"
Maria's eyes widened a little and she—
"YES! Yes, please!" Maria immediately took her hand and shook it furiously. This was her first potential in-game friend! There was no way she'd miss this opportunity.
"O-oh...geez, you sure are much different than what the rumors say you're like!"
"Hm?"
"Ahaha~ never mind. Let's add each other to our [Friends List]?"
"Yes, please!"
The two immediately added each other as friends. Maria was smiling brightly when she saw the additional name in her [Friends List]. Now the total number of people in the list was now 5.
"So Lilith, did you need something from me?"
"Hm? No, not really~ I just thought you were interesting so I just wanted to come over and talk to you!"
"Eh? Ahahahaha~ that's an odd reason to go befriend a stranger," Maria laughed.
"Well, you have to start from somewhere, right? Hey, if you're not busy, wanna go grind some monsters with us? Maria?" Lilith asked.
"Sure!"
It was an immediate response, followed up by an immediate rebuttal. Lilah who was floating next to Maria immediately quipped up right after hearing her response.
"Master, we're here to learn [Linguistics] and [Book Keeping]! Please don't go off to somewhere and leave Miss Hella here! That'd be rude since she went out of her way to help us!"
Maria was caught up in the moment and nearly forgot about why she came to the library. She was just that happy to make a new friend. In real life she didn't have many friends apart from her small little group, so any new friend was something she very much welcomed.
Of course, she had a pretty discerning eye for people so she wasn't easily tricked. It was also because of this trait of hers that she had a small amount of 'true' friends. Maria felt the same vibe she got from Lizzy and the rest coming off of this newcomer, Lilith.
"Ah...sorry Lilith...I'm a little busy right now, so maybe next time?"
"Yeah, sure, sure~ we just came over to hand in our quest. Looks like you're after the [Linguistics] skill as well, huh? Well, if you need help for the quest, we can help you out!"
"There's a quest? Aww...this is gonna take a while then..."
Lilith saw the dejected look on Maria's face and found it funny. Normally, a player would be ecstatic upon receiving a quest, but Maria looked like she loathed doing any sort of quest.
"Well, just give me a message if you need help! See ya around, Maria~" Lilith said before turning around and walking back to her party.
Maria was just about to turn her attention towards another book but suddenly heard a voice call out to her.
"Lady Envoy?"
Hella had come back and there was an old demon next to her.
"Lady Envoy, allow me to introduce to you, Zelundo, the Library's Director. He'll be the one teaching you the [Linguistics] and [Book Keeping] skills."
"Quiet girly! I did not agree to anything just yet! I only came down to see whether this little missy is worth my time to teach!"
"Zelundo! I do respect you, but do NOT disrespect our God's Envoy!"
"Yeah, yeah, pipe down girly!"
"Y-you!!"
The old demon ignored the fuming Hella and walked up to Maria, he scrutinized the girl for a bit while grunting and mumbling about something.
When the old demon saw the small pair of white wings on Maria's back he raised an eyebrow and nodded.
"I'll teach the little missus...however, do remember what you promised me, girl."
"Just make sure you teach her properly, you'll get what you want once our Lady Envoy is satisfied!"
"Yeah, yeah... come 'ere missy!" Zelundo flew up to the higher floors of the library and waved for Maria to follow after him.
"Thanks again, Miss Hella, I guess I should go?"
"Yes, Lady Envoy, I'll be off to the Magic Tower now. You can visit and learn what you'd like after you've finished with that old geezer."
"Ahaha~ okay~"
Maria spread her wings and flew up to follow after Zelundo.
******
"Did you guys see that?" A large demon knight said. The name displayed on top of his avatar was Exel.
"Yeah...even in here, with the help from High Priestess Hella, she's being treated like royalty again...just what kind of status does that girl hold to be treated like that?" The other male player in the party said. From his equipment, he was an Archer-class Drow/Dark Elf and the name displayed above his avatar was Curio.
Lilith and the rest of her party could only stare at the girl as she flew up to follow behind the old demon.
"That's the Library's Director..." Lilith said.
"Hey, Lily~ did you really manage to become friends with that girl?" said a pink haired demon girl whose name was YuNotCute.
"Yeah, she was actually pretty friendly. She wasn't standoffish or anything the like. In fact, she seemed a little...absentminded...or should I say, airheaded?"
"Pfft, airheaded? Seriously?"
"Earlier, weren't you guys listening in on us? She actually had an appointment with the library's director, but when I asked her to hunt with us she immediately replied with a yes! It was only when that small fairy reminded Maria of her previous engagement that she reluctantly declined..."
"Wow..."
"Who would have thought, huh?'
"That was quick. You two are already on a first name basis!"
"Are you stupid? What else would we call ourselves other than our IGNs?" Lilith replied.
"Hey! Since she has a good relationship with Hella, maybe we can ask her to help Felice out with learning the class skills?" the pink haired demon girl said.
"Hey Yuno, don't go blabbering on like that. I don't wanna owe her anything! Seriously, how can you be so shameless?"
"Felice! Don't go around spouting my real name! I'm not an idiot like you and Lili to actually use my real name as my IGN!"
"Yeah sure, and yet your name is still in your IGN," Felice rolled her eyes at her.
"Hmph! At least I'm not using it outright like you two!"
*****
Up on the Library's upper floors, inside of a large office, Maria was sitting down on a wide desk currently stuffing her face into a pile of books. She was able to read the first few pages of the book with Zelundo's guidance, but immediately a quest had popped up in front of her.
[Learning How to Read 1
You are currently illiterate, but you had the brains to come to the library to learn to read! With the help of High Priestess Hella, you have been given the chance to learn directly from the Library's Director!
Learn the [Linguistics] skill from his guidance!
Objective 1: Learn [Linguistics]: Progress: 1/100%
Hint 1: Spend 1 hour reading to raise the progress bar by 0.1%!
Hint 2: Reading Higher Difficulty books will grant you a higher progression rate!
Hint 3: Ask Zelundo for help when you don't know the word! However, if you can manage to decipher the word by yourself, there will be a large bonus progression rate added to the progress bar!
Time limit: 7 days
Rewards: [Linguistics], +100 Zelundo's Favor, +50 INT, Magic Quill x1, Scroll x50
"I can't believe this...in order to learn [Linguistics] I actually have to study..."