[Job - Solo] Studious scholar

As of late, Eero could be found in his room, buried in various books. They were mostly on the topic of his longtime research of essence of magic. After this while of reading on only one topic, the boy yearned for something else to read on. There was no better place than the Guild's library for such a task. With a groan, Eero stood up from his desk and set a kettle with water to boil for a cup of tea, while he collected his notebook and ink and other items he would need for the night ahead. He had his comfortable grey sweatpants and a loose t-shirt on, perfect for when one needed to change positions while seated. Eero browsed his collection of teas and settled on some green tea, once again. It was great at restoring one's energy and keeping one awake aswell. Perfect for mornings or all-nighters. The boy let the water boil and then let it cool down a little bit, so that the tea leaves wouldn't get damaged and retained their flavour and health benefits.

After everything was set and ready, the boy grabbed his notebook with few additional items and his cup of tea and headed for the library. He didn't come across anybody in the corridors. The library seemed to be blessedly empty aswell. Eero set everything down on one of tables that were there for studying and went to look around the many shelves that were filled with books for one that would be his studying material for the night. He didn't want a pile of books to sift through, just one. One that he would read thoroughly. On what topic, though? That was the real question. The boy had spent probably too much time on trying to find the fated tome that he was going to read. He finally settled on a topic that he had little knowledge about - the area of the Neutral Grounds and the art of golems and automatons and other various machinery.

Eero knew that it would be a hard topic for him, but he very much welcomed this challenge. While he still wasn't sure what his primary field of research would be, he felt like it would benefit him if he had more general knowledge about other things and topic that were being researched elsewhere. He was currently researching magic itself, yes, but he was unsure if he wanted to dedicate his to it. Perhaps he would have to, who knew. But tonight would be different, to shake up his routine a little bit. Eero settled down in a comfortable position, pulling his legs up on the chair and sitting cross-legged. The book that he had set on top of the table in front of him had a certain modern look to it. It was still bound in leather, but it just looked sleeker, cleaner. It was just as heavy as he expected such a tome to be, though. Eero opened the book and flipped through the first few pages, landing on the contents section. The book was divided into several big parts and then into chapters with subchapters. There was quite a bit of reading ahead of the boy and it was high time he started doing just that.

The first part wasn't tough, but it explained a few things about the Neutral Grounds, such as the barrier that nullified magic and some landmarks scattered about. For the most part he just skimmed through it. For obvious reasons, the book didn't reveal any crucial information about the barrier and his inner traveler wished to see the place in person first. It had a few nice pictures in it, though.

The second part talked about the lacrima crystals and their many uses, especially in the technology used around the Neutral Grounds. It was getting progressively harder to read the book's contents. Not only it was about a topic that he didn't have that much knowledge about, but the way the text was written made it difficult to read. Eero suspected it would only get more difficult, considering he was somewhat familiar with lacrima crystals. The book described the many everyday uses of lacrima crystals, such as sources of light, powering various popular devices, such as the iLac, which was possible to obtain for free, if one visited the factory, where they were produced. It made Eero wonder as to how they make a business out of it. More importantly, though, he pondered the versatility of the lacrima crystals. He remembered hearing about people who contained magic within them and using them on themselves or selling them to others to pass on the powers contained within. Maybe the crystals held more secrets. He needed to make note of that and wrote it down along with some other snippets of information into his notebook.

The next part decribed metals and techniques that were used to extract them and then subsequently refining them for further uses. This part in particular was tough to read for Eero, as it contained names of many various metals that he had not heard about and the names were not exactly the rolling-off-the-tongue kind. The techniques were quite tough, aswell. The boy knew the classic smelting of ores and whatnot, but these were something else. /"Channeling light through a lacrima crystal to increase the brightness and intensity and cut through the ore to extract the good stuff?"/ That sounded like something that he could potentially use on something else, aswell. Maybe refining edges of weapons? Eero wasn't exactly sure. Mostly because he just simply didn't understand select portions of the text because of his low level of knowledge on the subject. It made him both sad and intrigued. Sad, that he couldn't know more now, intrigued because he had an another knowledge goal to strive towards. At some point he tried to force himself to read everything that was written down, but it almost made his head hurt from him trying to understand so hard.

Eero took a sip of his tea, which was now absolutely cold. The boy winced and put the cup down, deciding not to finish it. The last part talked about the factories that resided in the Neutral Grounds and produced technological items. Some were just refineries, but a few caught Eero's attention. One of them was the iLac factory, that he had read about earlier. The creation and assembly process of an iLac was described in surprising detail, but Eero was slowly becoming aware of his fatigue, that threatened his awakened state. He let out a great yawn that made his eyes water. The boy brushed away the tears and tried to focus once again. He had already written down a few pages of notes and random information he came across while reading the book. He had to get back on the track, though. His gaze fixated on the text about an another factory. The factory was using lacrima crystals to create lights for both indoor and outdoor purposes. It showed the whole process, along with detailed schematics for the designs of lights. Again, it was beyond Eero's knowledge. However, he could sort of understand as to why they placed the crystals where they did. It was surprising how everything that was described in the book involved no magic usage, what-so-ever. For example the lacrima - even if they were not used for magical purposes and lacked their usual properties, they could be used for other, more technological purposes. Eero's eyes were starting to close on their own from exhaustion, but he forced himself to read through until the end of the book, even if he couldn't understand half of it. With a loud thud he closed the book and stood up. His head spun for a second, making him dizzy from doing such a quick motion. The boy was unsure of how much time had passed. He decided to leave the book on the table, since he couldn't remember which shelf he took it out from at the time. Eero took his own personal items and slowly shuffled back to his room. He was extremely tired, but happy with the things he had learned and the things that he could set out to learn.