Finding Old Books On Ancient History

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Job Sign-Up: Page 6, Post Number 146

-Capital Crocus, Jobaasa's Rare Tomes, early afternoon-

Striding into Jobaasa's Rare Tomes in her green, white, and gold outfit, Leona had left PG-13 back at Silver Wolf Guild Hall and had also left behind all of her weapons except for Ses Revanche, which was secure in her right boot. She had also worn her Argent Gloves in case trouble broke out when she was on her latest errand to Fiore's capital, but the only trouble she had expected to get into here was dealing with all the dust that would be kicked up while she searched for books on the history of Ancient Desierto. Speaking of which, in her backpack was a list of books on Ancient Desierto she had picked out from the Works Cited section of the tome on the Ancient Muserian language she had tried to read almost twelve hours ago. While Professor Henry Rosetta's work was hard to read, it had still given her background information on the Kingdom of Museria, what their culture valued, myths about the Palace of Knowledge where records of all their discoveries were kept, and how their kingdom came to an end thanks to King Saarghon, that conqueror with ambitions as vast as Desierto. Compiling the list took about three hours, but if it helped Leona learn more about Museria and/or the magic sword named Sand-Splitter, all the time she had spent reading part of Professor Henry Rosetta's ponderous 1,000-page work.

Leona looked to the right towards the wooden counter and saw a red-haired young woman standing behind it along with two other store employees... Jobaasa must have hired more people since Leona had been here last. The Wizard Saint recognized the redhead as Claire, the young woman she had rescued from bandits several months ago along with her boyfriend who worked in another bookstore in Capital Crocus. Claire instantly recognized Leona and greeted her.

"Welcome to Jobaasa's Rare Tomes. Jobaasa is sick today, so I'm running the store in his place. What can I do for you, Miss Jarnefeldt?" Claire asked Leona. Leona set her backpack down on the counter and fished out her list of books, then handed it to the employee. Claire's eyes began to dart across the list as she looked it over.

"Hmmm... Ancient Desierto by Professor Henry Rosetta, King Saarghon: From Farmer To Monarch by Professor Edgar Thomas, Museria: The Kingdom Of Sand And Mystery by Professor Barnabus Klein, The Palace Of Knowledge: Real Or Myth? by Dr. Annette Klaus, Shifting Sands, Shifting Fortunes: The Decline Of Museria by Dr. Alan Klaus..." Claire named a few of the book titles that Leona had written down on the list. Once she had finished listing the other dozen titles on the she looked up and spoke to Leona.

"Those are some really old books, Miss Jarnefeldt. I'm not entirely sure if we have any of them, but you're welcome to browse the shelves and see if we have them. We just finished reorganizing our books and dusting the shelves about a week ago, so things aren't as you remember them." Claire said to her and warned her about the bookshelves being different from the last time the Wizard Saint was here. She then handed Leona her list back. Leona took it into her left hand and turned towards the shelves.

"I'll go look for them anyway. I need them for some research on Ancient Desierto that I'm doing and time's no object." Leona replied to the warning. Claire pointed towards the far wall behind Leona.

"Our shelf of history books is on the far wall. If you need help don't hesitate to come to the counter and ask for assistance." Claire pointed Leona in the direction she needed to go to begin her search.

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind." Leona replied before going to the far left wall of the bookstore and beginning her search for some books on Ancient Desierto. While she would have liked to acquire some more modern works on the subject, she did not mind buying some older books to use as the foundation of more extensive research. Besides, maybe the older books had some bit of obscure information that newer books did not. It was not a guarantee that they would, but part of being a member of Silver Wolf was leaving no stone unturned during the exploration of a place or subject.

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-Jobaasa's Rare Tomes, one hour later-

Leona had spent an hour carefully searching the three bookshelves of the History section for any of the books on her list, but the search had borne little fruit so far. So far she had only managed to find Ancient Desierto by Professor Henry Rosetta and Shifting Sands, Shifting Fortunes: The Decline Of Museria by Dr. Alan Klaus. The two books were carefully cradled in her arms while the list sat just below eye level on the second shelf of the second bookshelf in the History section. Just like with his last work, Dr. Rosetta's book was a certified doorstopper at around 1,200 pages while Dr. Klaus' book was a more manageable 600 pages. Still, finding two of the books was a small victory for Leona, who had been told earlier that none of them might have been in stock by an employee who had helped dust the shelves and reorganize their contents less than a week ago.

While she continued to browse a young male employee with black-rimmed glasses, a blue short-sleeved polo shirt with the store's name in gold, and khaki dress pants with brown loafers walked over to her.

"We'd be glad to hold onto and reserve those books for you while you shop, Miss Jarnefeldt." He offered. Leona was glad to take him up on that offer since worrying about holding the two old books just the right way to keep them safe was distracting her from the task of finding more of the books she needed for her research. She carefully handed them to the young man and winced as he wobbled after taking possession of Professor Rosetta's doorstopper with Dr. Klaus' lengthy but less cumbersome book on top, but he soon righted himself and carried both books to the counter with the balance that came from practice and experience. Once she saw that they had been ferried to the counter safely Leona turned back to the task at hand.

Having searched the second shelf up and down, Leona picked up her list and moved over to the third bookshelf to begin the search anew. Leona's eyes slowly darted across the top shelf of the bookshelf and came up with nothing, so she then shifted her focus to the second shelf and began scanning for any of the other books on her list. One of the ones she wanted to find the most was entitled Sand-Splitter: Blade Of The King by Dr. Edward Crouch. It was a book that laid out the doctor's research on the subject and detailed all the myths surrounding King Saarghon's sword, which was rumored to have the ability to control the sand of Desierto and make it do the holder's will. Some scholars were uncertain as to whether Sand-Splitter's power was literal or if it was just a metaphor for the power wielded by an ambitious king who united all of Desierto under his rule many centuries ago.

Leona wanted to acquire the book and find out what Dr. Crouch had to say on the matter. She also wanted to find King Saarghon: From Farmer To Monarch by Professor Edgar Thomas and learn more about the ancient king who seemed to pop up everywhere during Leona's travels in Desierto. The second shelf did not have anything of interest, so Leona leaned down and began looking through the third shelf to see what she could find there. Barely ten seconds into the search she found Museria: The Kingdom Of Sand And Mystery by Professor Barnabus Klein. Leona gently used her right index finger to pry it out of its resting place between two books on Capital Crocus and took Professor Klein's work into her hands. It looked to be almost as thick as Dr. Klaus' book, but thumbing through it showed that it was only 500 pages.

She took that book into her arms and resumed the search, coming across Dr. Crouch's book within twenty seconds of locating Professor Klein's. Leona pried it out and took a peek at how many pages she would be reading through; it was around 500 pages in length, which was long but not unbearably long. She stacked it on top of the first book and began looking again, hoping to keep the streak of good fortune alive by finding a third book she needed. However, the Wizard Saint's hot streak seemed to cool off because after finding Dr. Crouch's book she found nothing else on the third shelf or the other two underneath it. Leona stood up and made her way back to the first bookshelf to look and see if she had missed anything the first time she had browsed it.

-One hour later-

Not wanting to leave without making one last effort, Leona had searched through all three bookshelves a third time but had come up with nothing. Deciding to purchase her four books and call it a day, Leona put her list on top of the two books in her arms and carried them over to the wooden counter. Lowering them slowly due to their age, Leona gently set them down and claimed her list once the books were safely resting on the counter. She saw the same male employee from earlier lift the first two books and bring them over to the counter, setting them beside the two that Leona had just set down.

"Did you find everything you needed today, Miss Jarnefeldt?" Claire asked as she began ringing up the four books with the help of a scanner.

"Yes, I found a few of the books I'm looking for. Thank you." Leona answered calmly. About two minutes later they had all been rung up and Claire looked towards the screen of the cash register for the total.

"Your total's 60,000 Jewels, Miss Jarnefeldt." Claire informed her of the total. Leona fished out the necessary sum of Jewels and placed them in a small bag, which she then handed to Claire. The redhead peeked inside the bag and counted them up, then nodded and carefully placed the books in a brown cloth bag with Jobaasa's Rare Tomes printed in gold letters on both sides. She placed the receipt inside the bag and pushed it to Leona.

"Thank you for your patronage, Miss Jarnefeldt. Have a wonderful day!" Claire wished her. Leona put her list inside her backpack, then threaded her fingers through the cloth handles and picked up the bag. She lifted it off the counter and wondered if it could stand up to the weight of Professor Rosetta's 1,200-page behemoth... she should definitely hurry back to Silver Wolf Guild Hall before the bag gave way.

"Thank you. I'll be sure to come back here if I need anything else!" Leona assured the staff before walking towards the door with her heavy purchases in tow. While Leona had not found all that she needed, four books was definitely a good start. She would read them thoroughly and scour the Works Cited section of each one for the titles of any other books that might prove useful to her research. That would take a lot of time and effort, but the Wizard Saint was interested in the subject matter and that would go a long way towards making the task of reading the thick books much more bearable.

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