Chapter 1539: Books and Library
Ning arrived at the library and met a Lieutenant who was standing by the door.
“Sir, I’ve been assigned the task of Freeing the books and reassembling the library,” he said.
The lieutenant was a little surprised to see Ning as he was a bit too young for who he was. He looked at Ning’s badge and could no longer doubt that he was a Chief Officer.
“Your Data Core, officer,” the man said.
Ning produced his Data Core and handed it over to the Lieutenant who quickly checked Ning’s identity through it. Once confirmed that Ning was indeed taking part in this job, he let Ning enter.
Before Ning entered, however, he turned toward the lieutenant once again. “I’m sorry, Lieutenant, but this is my first day as a Chief Officer, and this is the first task I’ve been assigned to. Could you tell me what I am to do inside?”
The lieutenant frowned. “Did your superior not explain?” he asked.
Ning shook his head. “I was told that I would understand what to do after seeing my fellow officers work inside,” he said.
“That you will,” the lieutenant said. “The task is simple. Before we left this place a decade ago, to protect the books inside of the library, we had them packed into small chunks, and had then surrounded that chunk by tough rock with the help of Carvers and Converters.”
“Now, your job is to release the books that are inside the boxes of rocks and then assemble the library, properly sorted.”
“Oh!” Ning exclaimed. Now that he heard what it was, he realized how simple the task was going to be. “Thank you, Lieutenant, for that explanation. I will get to work.”
“Go ahead.”
Ning saluted and moved past the man, arriving at the door. As he did, he heard a loud thump from somewhere in the room and felt a gust of air move past him.
He walked in and saw many boxes about 30 centimeters in length, strewn around the room with no care at all. The shelves had been left alone for a long time and had thus been useless now. So new shelves were created.
Ning looked at a woman grabbed one of the boxes close to her and took a deep breath. She grabbed onto the power raging inside of her and used it on the rock shell of the books.
Immediately, Ning saw the rock disappear. At the same time, an explosive thump sounded as air gushed out of the room at extreme speed.
The rock that was previously there had suddenly been converted into air, which took a much, much larger volume since it was a gas. And since the air needed to escape the room, that was where the gust of wind came from.
The woman breathed out softly, feeling rather weak after converting a moderately large item as the rock cover. She was most likely not tired from the single cover that she had made disappear, but from the multiple ones that she had done before Ning’s arrival.
Ning walked past her and saw others working the same way. Each one made gas and the occasional explosive release of air was quite loud.
No one converted the rock into anything other than gas.
Ning wondered why that was and quickly realized the truth.
He could not turn the rock into water or fire, because they had a chance of destroying the books they were currently protecting.
He could turn the hard rock into just sand, but then the sand would need to be cleaned later on. Anything else the rocks were turned into needed to be cleaned later on.
It was only air that didn’t need to be cleaned afterward. It was also the simplest of everything for these people to convert stuff into.
Ning decided he wanted to convert stuff from the rocks into air too.
He grabbed one of the rocks and walked toward a corner, away from the shelf. He was given a small vial of about 10 mg of Spark and he consumed a little bit of that.
Once he felt the power growing inside of it, he quickly used it on the object before him. He focused, and suddenly the rock in front of him disappeared, turning into air.
The gust of air hit him in the face as though he was standing in the middle of a field in a storm. The push lasted momentarily, and so did the sound.
When it was gone, he heard the small clattering of the books on the ground that had come out from the protective rock cover.
Ning took the books and read their title. They were all books that started with the letter ‘La’, so he quickly found the section of the library where these books would go.
He only needed an approximate idea for now as the real assembly and sorting could only happen once all the books were out. He placed the books on one of the many shelves grabbed another block of rock and moved to the side.
Ning once again consumed a little bit of Spark and waited for the power to grow inside of him. Once it was there, he used it on the block and immediately made it disappear again.
He was ready for the strong wing that time and he wasn’t even fazed by it. He also grabbed the books before they could clatter to the floor.
He grabbed the books and looked at the spine. The books were all protected in chunks, so they were all from the same section. This one had their titles beginning with ‘Re’.
Ning found the section of the library where these would go and put them there. As he put the last book, he read its title.
Relics of the Forgotten Past.
“Relics?” Ning thought. He was slightly curious about what it meant. He took the book out and flipped to the very first page which explained what a relic was in this context.
Here, the relics were objects or drawings left behind from a time that was no longer recorded in any history books.
Ning got slightly curious.
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