Rapid Research [Job w/ Yuvon]

This place reeked of solitude. Unfortunately, it was to be expected, since it was but a manifestation of Yuvon’s magic - this plane known as Apocrypha or The Bane of Ignorance - but it still triggered him that he was the only one, repeat, THE ONLY ONE who had access to this place at will. He had half a mind to just pull someone with him the next time that he wanted to hone his memory or devour new knowledge… speaking about devouring knowledge, that sounded like quite the arcane idea for a splendid spell. To be able to steal and absorb moments, days, even years of experience from a person in the matter of seconds stimulated Yuvon’s creativity. Information that was normally unobtainable, secrets that were normally locked away from the outer world; to have that stored here felt rushing. Yes! His next, grandest spell tome would revolve around that subject, and if he found himself talented enough, it would become a reality sooner or later…

But what did Yuvon enjoy more than gaining knowledge? Knowledge! For it was the only thing that connected the self-explanatory truths together - the very fact that everyone thought and knew of death was a branch of knowledge, instincts were a branch of knowledge, even automatic movements of the body was due to adapting and experience. Why was he just standing there, in the middle of a world of green fogs, tentacles, guardians and books upon books upon books and much more? Maybe he should return to Earthland for a chance… he had been here long enough. And he didn’t have anything in mind other than to try his luck- you know, new information and knowledge didn’t come when you asked for it. One had to simply let his life spread out like a net for random fish. That was the most efficient way to build up experience and strength.

Okay, the guild’s library would be a good place to pop up in. Yuvon had little care for other places at the moment, and perhaps they had gathered some new, interesting things that he could feast his eyes on. Silver Wolf was mainly active with the ensuring of artifacts and ancient tomes seemingly lost in time. Therefore, he always encountered new things, new books and letters, new armors of old legends and strange stones. Hmh… oh, he was getting more and more eager to develop that new idea for a spell of his. Reading and observing was trivial, but it took time. What if he just had to walk pass the object in order to know all about it? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Oh! From the corner of the hole where his eye got to look through the mask, he noticed the presence of a blonde girl who was in the middle of a serious reading. She was accompanied only by a few other books near her, and upon further scanning, he managed to read most titles and conclude that they were connected to the psyche of a human’s mind. What was she reading that for? What purpose wished she to fulfil with the knowledge that those books gave her? Also, he had read those books before, so maybe he could help her and see where it led the two of them.

As he approached her discreetly, he took a seat on the very desk and threw an instant glance at the page. Assuming the next line that she was reading up, he recited: “-in humans and animals, fear is modulated by the process of cognition and learning. Thus fear is judged as rational or appropriate and irrational or inappropriate. An irrational fear, for instance, is called a phobia…” His eyes widened a little by that word, since he remembered a certain event previously where Poko showed signs of fear in the presence of a few others… it was most likely the manbeast, wasn’t it? She was afraid of canine creatures?

“Say, Poko… you want to free yourself from the fear that binds you, I assume?”

WC: 673

Huh. He had just arrived, but apparently, his presence was like that of a merry thief - all surprising and mystic. His way of expressing himself was important to form a picture of him in the minds of people, so that they could remember him well. Although, that was up to fate, and not only to his own intentional choices of words and actions, that settled such a picture. He had to go with the flow as one would express it, finding himself in the currents of destiny that he had no power over. But alas, he planned for more with the life that he was granted. “Ah, cynophobia?” he expressed his curiosity, immediately remembering the guild’s very symbol of a wolf… this was remarkable. If he had to compare, then it would be like having the fear of Lamias in Lamia Scale. She truly poked his interest, but reasonably, she wasn’t fond of this issue with her mind and its obstacle. It was certain that she wanted to get rid of the fear.

Combined with storm and lightning, it wasn’t a lucky combination within the mind and flesh of the lovely lady. Being violated by these fears would prove unfair for her, and his chest filled with compassion for what struggles that she might have gone through. And she sought help in the books of wisdom whose pages were dedicated to helping and aiding people’s experiences with that of almost ‘synthetic’ ones to build up the mind’s walls with. How friendly of her to treat his subjects well like that. “O-Oh?” he stuttered a little with a voice that, unlike all the other times, sounded young and hesitant. Heck, you could almost guess his age from that voice; she remembered the first time that they met when he stored the books in Apocrypha. Despite the apparent disappearance, he hoped to blend out smoothly back then… it kind of backstabbed him, but in a soft and soothing way. It meant that she was interested in his affiliation with books, didn’t it?

“O-Of course, I love reading!” he stated out proudly, “Nothing’s better than covering the hours of the night with a sweet novel or a lexicon…!” He was even petting her sun-colored hair as if she was some child, but this got him all joyful and excited. “I have all the time in the void… but rather, I bet that not much is needed to help your case,” he stated, “Every child of mortal blood, heck, even a good handful of immortals, have fears… just like the flow of time, they change. Some disappear, new take roots, and it’s a constant room in your mind that keeps altering its views on certain subjects. That’s why the Arcane Hand of Relativity can help. Now, if you want to know more about this, feel free to step by at Apocrypha - I can take you there whenever you want - but to summarize, it’s a spell that can only be learned through a spell tome within a certain book that I managed to catch… it involves the sharing of two persons’ inner thoughts that, in some way, nullify each other. You have told me your fear, so… I, for instance…” Slowly, he turned his face around to check if anyone else was nearby - save the small rabbit in her hood - and as things looked clear, he slowly took off his mask.

His face was young and brightful, having half-long, blonde hair tied in a single horsetail down his neck and a few bangs over the right side of his forehead. However, even more eye-catching was the scar of enchanted skin that ran down the left side of his face, drawing attention to his left, irregular, shiny eye. A look could project a very ferocious and almost bloodthirsty intent, but his face overall said the opposite.

“The amount of knowledge and information that I have gathered throughout the years… just for the sake of having them, just for the sake of knowing them, every single secret written down in ink… that’s why… I… I really hate goldfish…”

WC: 686 + 673 = 1359

She reacted to the eye, huh… even Yuvon had his questions of its origin. His honored father had the same thing, but it wasn’t as bloodthirsty with him as it was with Yuvon. If it was a result of evolution, then shouldn’t it have been the opposite? By time, the genes would mix with others through meiosis, and given that his beloved mother was fully ‘structurally’ decent and free of irregular traits, why did it only increase in magnitude for him? So many questions emerged with these illogical facts, and he wanted more than anyone else in the world to realize the answers to those questions as soon as possible. We were talking about heritage, his very roots, what he was made of and from whom he hailed. His parents never bothered telling him - partly his own fault and not theirs at all - and as he wandered the plane of mortalkind between ignorance and enlightenment, his heart yearned for the tale of his great ancestors and the connection between them and him. Not even Apocrypha, his eyestone and ever-loved, dared contain any information resolving around this issue. It was a pain, torturing…

And obviously, one who was scared of canines would laugh at one who was scared of goldfish… but his case was specific! Why did they forget throughout their entire lives, why were they suffering so much? Not only that, but how could they continue living throughout the ages as if nothing happened?! The goldfish would have it even worse than him - look at him! He was suffering! His heart was crying, it was apparent on his face! AND THEY WERE JUST SWIMMING AROUND EVER SO HAPPILY!

“…” He dared not say more, she had gotten enough laughs out for now. However, his awkward silence turned into a joyful confidence when she asked to see this Apocrypha. Aha! She would be the first mortal beside himself to see that plane, oh how eager he was to show her! “Y-Yes, absolutely!” he assured her, proceeding to grab her hand and prompt her to stand up, “There’s but a single wall between this library… and the library that slays ignorance and purifies the weak-minded..!” Immediately after that statement, tentacles erupted from the floor and enveloped them both, slowly pulling them down to the plane of Apocrypha…

The world was greenish and black, almost like a void. Although, it was much more than a void - the floor was made of pages! The stacks of books covered the field of vision, and a liquid filled the rest of the view like a sea. Tables, artifacts, even wandering giants with squid-like faces among the Lurkers could be spotted too. The air was pure and objective, the atmosphere light and elevating. “Watch out, or you’ll be drawn to the books and tempted to read them forever… hehehehe.”

Hmh. Her eyes seemed strange; they kept changing colors, but a mere observation wasn’t enough to pinpoint the function of the color-changing. Maybe it was a classic spell of hers that led her fathom things through her ocular vision in a new light? It wasn’t even that dark here in Apocrypha - it was more eerie than dark. Perhaps more… comfortably gloomy. Yeah, that was what he would use to explain the atmosphere here. Whilst the inhabitants of this world worked and chilled, the two of them had an issue to get rid of as soon as possible.

“This world uses, surprise surprise, books to transport yourself from land to land. You can spawn the transfer books at any time by saying this,” he explained as he lifted up a finger like some kind of professor, “Zu’u yah aan Kriid.” As his words escaped his mouth, a strange book erupted from the mass of acid-like fluid that covered the floor just above the pages.

“Now, try and look into the pages. It’ll reveal the knowledge that you deeply want to search for, and it’ll show you the way,” he explained, making room for the delicate guildmate to approach the transfer book.

Nice! The transfer book directly showed a trail to her destination, and just as Poko wasn’t hesitating in reaching what they sought for, Yuvon followed troop just as quickly. He was glad to see her so eager to obtain more knowledge - in that way, she resembled him a lot. However, was that truly a good thing? What if she began wearing a mask like him? What if her vocabulary turned into a mess? He wouldn’t dare change her already wonderful character like that, it was too dangerous. The mere thought caused a sweat pearl to trickle down his golden mask.

A certain shelf contained the book that she searched for. It was written in Joyan language, and he could see on her face that she was getting nervous. Did she fear that none of them knew of the language? Please, Yuvon knew all types of languages - Joya was a huge state, so obviously, he knew Joyan as well. He also knew Ca-Elumish, Midian, Nord, Dragoneese and Elvish. Grabbing the book, he began translating the tome for her:

“Joyan Tome Series, Volume 9 - Read the tome carefully as you undergo the spell… if you are the victim, then I must be the knife. If you are the living, then I must be the night. If you are afraid, then I must be the fear. If you are in trouble… then let the wall disappear.” Yuvon turned his face up to Poko promptly, “Alright, your turn. Just say the lines that I said.”