Chapter 196: Portability is a feature and a liability
“Wait a minute, why do I feel like there’s a little more to your statement than what what you’re telling me?,” Zhen Liu asked with suspicion in his eyes. Logos seemed more straightforward than Pathos, but they could very much be equally as annoyingly enigmatic as her as well.
However, he was quickly proven wrong.
=No such thing, kaijin lord. It’s just that your current circumstances and the amount of kaijin you currently lead makes your ability to access the Library’s material from long distances inefficient. But, since you are now an Aether Master, we can change that.=
“Does that mean if I had come back here as an Acolyte…”
=We wouldn’t be able to have this discussion.=
“Huh…okay.”
=Yes, yes…=
Logos waved her hand, causing three holographic panels to manifest before her and present themselves to Zhen Liu.
=Here are three proposals to which the Library of Nowhere can better be of service to you, milord.=
‘Wait…are these aether panels a normal thing for this world or a result of my memories being read?,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he looked over the proposals.
The first proposal was to apparently give the Library a carry mode like the kaijin. Just straight up turn the place into a carry case looking playset…or a pop up book…or a magic scroll… there were options, there were a lot of options on this proposal.
“Why do half of these designs look like toys from my world?”
=She’s also been going through our recent “pop culture” section in a rather vigorous manner,= Logos added,=she’s apparently got into the one genre of fiction that showcases kaijin as the main focus. Only as villains though, a tragic one sided view in my opinion.=
“Of course that got added…this seems too convenient, what’s the drawback?”
=In order to make the Library of Nowhere easier to carry, the protections in place will be scaled back to match your ability as well. Meaning if an opponent can easily destroy you, they can destroy the Library as well.=
“That’s significantly heavier drawback than I thought.”
“Of course.”
The second proposal involved installing a new technique into Zhen Liu’s brain: the ability to draw a door to the Library on any surface.
All Zhen Liu had to do was find a nice flat surface, channel aether into his left finger and draw out a door. At which point, he could use the door to go back and forth between the new door and the library at any time, until he dismissed this door.
The only issue was that he could not use this ability when it combat or when his kaijin were fighting.
=It takes a lot of concentration and aether for this technique to work, that something was tumultuous as combat will mess up the connection.=
“Of course it’s a shaky tunnel through space time…”
The last proposal was…weird. It was as if they took random bits of the first two proposals and stitched them into a third.
In this case, Logos and Pathos would create a secondary aether tool, like in proposal one, that would act as a door between wherever Zhen Liu was at the time and the Library, kinda like in second proposal. All that had to be done was to charge the tool with aether and throw it onto a surface to make the door.
=You should know that this tool, unlike the Library in this version, can still be destroyed by external forces or at the very least stolen and misplaced. If they get destroyed while you are here, we can make you a new tool though.=
To be honest, none of these proposals sat very well with Zhen Liu, or rather, Thomas Lee.
He had watched a lot of shows, read a lot of books and played a lot of games that had somehow form of easy transportation access via an external source, and it always seemed to go sideways at some point. That said, he decided to go with proposal number three.
“I would honestly like a break from information being forcibly installed into my brain, but also I’d rather have a homebase significant far away from whatever crazy bullshit I’m inevitably gonna get involved in,”
=A wise choice.=
Zhen Liu rolled his eyes at Pathos’s continued antics, and began to seriously look through all of the design options for the aether tool.
“Alright, let’s see here….another briefcase, a bag of darts…a trading card? And a…is that a smartphone?”
“I…thank the gods copyright law isn’t a thing in this world…just to clarify, do I need to find materials to make this thing?”
=Yes, but they shouldn’t be too difficult to find. Plus we can make the tool outside of the Library if necessary.=
“Neat.”
Please note that a human’s definition of difficult, and a magic ancient library spirit thing’s definition of difficult were very very different.
“Alright then, let’s go with this thing…,” Zhen Liu said as he grabbed one of the panels depicting a bronze key shaped like a demon’s head. On the back of the panel were the materials needed to make this tool.
“…what the fuck kind of materials are these?”
Zhen Liu hadn’t heard of half of the materials on the back of the panel, but hey, there was a whole library of information outside.
‘Surely an item called “Diabolic Dragon Whiskers” is a euphemism…right?’
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Meanwhile, back in Stone Claw City, at the Corrada Family Household…
“Matriarch! The rumors are true. The Wolfe Family’s Grand Elder has returned an Aether Lord, and brought back the corpse of a fifth grade Diabolic Dragon as proof of his power.”
“Of course that old mutt was still alive…”
