The Scholar's Resource

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 7, Post Number 158

-Capital Crocus Mall, the First Floor, 1:00 P.M.-

Wearing her green, gold, and white outfit without her Argent Gloves, weapons, or backpack, only the list of books Dr. Anna had edited for her less than a day ago, Leona stepped through the sliding glass double doors of Capital Crocus Mall and entered the brightly lit structure with a set goal in mind. Today she was here to pay a visit to The Scholar's Resource and find at least one of the books that the good doctor had suggested Leona purchase as part of the latter's research on the kingdom of Museria. Leona was confounded at how a simple attempt to read a lengthy scholarly work on the Ancient Muserian language had sparked her quest for a better understanding of a desert kingdom that had been conquered centuries ago, but part of her wanted to do something other than fight all the time. While she knew that she was not going to blaze a new trail in the academic world, Leona wanted to try and prove to herself that swordplay and magic were not her only skills.

Leona also wanted to get the books while the topic was on her mind and her determination was at its peak. The Wizard Saint had been pursuing scholarly endeavors lately and was doing her best to give the endeavor an honest effort, but her mind kept wandering back to the thought that she should be out in the world fighting evil instead of trying to play scholar. Very few people cared about Leona's quest to learn more about Museria or its language. A lot of people cared about keeping their homes from being destroyed and keeping their families from being killed by bandits, rogue mages, or dragons, threats that Leona could have stopped were she not running around Capital Crocus buying musty old books for her latest pet project. The Wizard Saint promised herself that as soon as she finished her business at The Scholar's Resource she would look for a job that took her back into the field to do what Wizard Saints were supposed to do, which was fight evil and save the world.

Still, translating the Muserian Focusing Stone was a worthwhile project that could pay off in other ways. So could learning more about Museria, Sand-Splitter, and King Saarghon.

Leona had entered the mall an hour past noon, which meant that the lunch lines would draw quite a few people out of the stores and make her goal easier to accomplish. As she approached the food court from the entrance the Wizard Saint stopped and carefully looked up in case more Wizard Saint dolls were going to rain down on her, but today there was no gathering of the Wizard Saints to bar her way. Leona immediately took a right turn away from the food court and made a beeline for The Scholar's Resource. The bookstore staff should be back from lunch break by now and the store should be open for business... at least she hoped it was.

Leona had eaten at the guild hall before heading for the mall, so today the food court lines were of no concern to her. She had also done the clothes shopping she had needed to do the last time she was here, so thinking about expanding her modest wardrobe was not going to distract her. She had bought all the figurines she cared to purchase for the time being. Furthermore, she had decided to put going to Electronic Gateways on the back burner until she had taken care of other business, namely buying the books she needed for research on Museria and doing a few jobs that took her out into the world to fight evil. Today the blonde was focused solely on visiting The Scholar's Resource and perusing their wares for anything that could aid her research.

Leona walked to the bookstore and found that it was open, meaning that today's trip had not been wasted after all. Taking a moment to step back and let a gaggle of shoppers on their way to the food court pass, Leona waited until they had all passed before walking towards the entrance to The Scholar's Resource and passing through with an electronic DING-DING to announce her presence to the bookstore staff.

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-Inside The Scholar's Resource-

Leona stepped into a neat and clean bookstore with a rectangular layout featuring wall-to-wall bookshelves plus numerous shoulder-high shelves standing in the middle of the floor. Between the bookshelves in the middle was a clear path that led all the way to the back of the store. All of the bookshelves were neatly labeled with white signs above them that told customers what category of book was contained on the shelf. All the way in the back of the bookstore was a waist-high wooden counter manned by a young blonde woman wearing a black polo t-shirt with the store name written in brass letters and khaki dress pants with brown dress shoes who looked remarkably familiar. Other similarly dressed employees were busy stocking the shelves, sorting their contents, or helping the few other customers in the store make their selections.

Leona stopped off to the right side of the entrance pathway to let an older man in a gray tweed suit and black dress shoes pass by while she looked for the shelf with HISTORY books. She soon found it tucked away in the far left corner about twenty meters away from the back counter and slowly made her way to it while being mindful of the other customers and the staff. She was hoping that the HISTORY section would have at least a few of the books she needed.

Once Leona reached the appropriate section she looked down at the list clutched in her left hand and began to read over what Dr. Anna had recommended to buy without hesitation, what to approach carefully, and what to leave on the shelf.

The Palace Of Knowledge: Real Or Myth? was in the must-buy category. Dr. Anna had noted that Dr. Annette Klaus did the same quality research as her husband and wrote in the same style that made her husband's work understandable to laypeople.

King Saarghon: From Farmer to Monarch by Professor Edgar Thomas was another must-buy because it was noted that he did solid research and wrote in a clear, concise fashion with plenty of definitions for the technical jargon he employed in the book. Dr. Anna also added that despite the book being thirty years old it was still a go-to biography of the ancient king who united all of Desierto under his rule for approximately a century.

Leona looked further down and found a few works that were marked as "approach with caution" for various reasons.

Museria: The Kingdom Of Sand And Mystery by Professor Barnabus Klein was marked in that category for the same reasons Dr. Anna had given Leona yesterday. The book was easy to read, but the subject matter was sensationalized and the professor had picked sides instead of remaining objective when presenting the subject matter. The small note next to the title stated that Klein had demonized Saarghon as a mentally unstable, power-hungry maniac who indulged in wanton slaughter of his subjects one moment and indulged in excessive monument building the next. While Leona did not have enough evidence to know if the first charge was true, she had traveled through a few ruins in Desierto and saw King Saarghon's name chiseled everywhere with plenty of grandiose statements glorifying his rule, so Klein may had have something of a point on the second charge.

The next work to approach with caution was Professor Marcus Brian's work Saarghon: Builder Or Destroyer?, a biography of the king that was written around the same time as Professor Thomas' book. Dr. Anna remarked that while Brian had done solid research, his book had a dry writing style and precious little objectivity. The chief complaint was that it had so little objectivity that it bordered on outright bias by focusing mostly on negative events to paint the monarch as a bloodthirsty maniac. The example provided was that late in his reign King Saarghon had once ordered an entire village put to the sword for treason because it was slow to provide him with limestone for yet another monument to his reign despite the quarry the the limestone was mined from being nearly depleted. While that act was indeed an act of capricious cruelty, Dr. Anna stated that the entire book was filled with many negative acts and listed very few positive acts that might have helped to create a more balanced portrayal of the ancient king.

A third work was Professor James O'Neal's Museria: Kingdom Of Wonders that focused on Museria's rise and fall. The doctor noted that the writing style was good and engaged the reader with a detailed look at life in the kingdom, but the research that went into it was shaky and that a clear bias for Museria and against King Saarghon was present. It painted Museria as a hapless victim of an upstart tyrant and mourned the loss of a kingdom whose scientific advancements could have changed Desierto for the better had King Saarghon's conquest failed. The doctor's note slammed O'Neal obvious indulgence in counterfactual scenarios in the final chapters and claimed that O'Neal would have found his real calling in writing alternative history.

Leona looked further down and found quite a few works to avoid completely because they were either sensationalist drivel, outright biased, or just had shoddy research put into them. One or two exceptionally bad works were guilty of all three offenses. One of them was Dr. Harold Regan's Ruler Of All The Sands: King Saarghon, a title which Dr. Anna crossed out and wrote so many comments on that the list looked like it was bleeding. Among its numerous offenses was a clear bias for King Saarghon. One of the ways that bias was evident was that the author whitewashed many of the king's more questionable decisions such as the aforementioned massacre of the village that was slow to mine limestone; Regan claimed that the village was home to dissidents who had opposed Saarghon's rule from the start and had deliberately slowed work to try and extort higher wages from the king in a time of economic downturn.

The Wizard Saint saw one or two more strongly worded remarks written about Regan's work and decided to turn her attention from that to focus on finding some books. If she stood around and read the list she would be here until closing time. Leona looked up and began looking for Dr. Annette Klaus' work, which she found on the far left of the bottom shelf. Leona carefully knelt down and picked up a hardback book that was around 600-700 pages long. Once she had claimed The Palace Of Knowledge: Real Or Myth? her next priority was to find Professor Thomas' book on King Saarghon.

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With the list in her left hand and Dr. Annette Klaus' book cradled in her left arm, Leona continued her search for King Saarghon: From Farmer To Monarch. She scanned the shelves from top to bottom and eventually found it slightly right of the middle; it had escaped detection by being wedged in between two other books. Leona used the index and middle fingers of her right hand to gently pry the hardback book out and then grabbed it with her right hand, gently putting it on top of Dr. Klaus' book that was cradled in her left arm.

"Leona, is that you?" A young woman asked the blonde. A surprised Leona spun around and found the young female employee manning the back counter standing a short distance behind her. She had blonde hair in a ponytail and bright green eyes. She seemed to know the Wizard Saint since she used the mage's first name instead of "Miss Jarnefeldt" like some other people did.

"I'm Melanie, Dr. Anna's assistant from the Lestreki temple!" The young woman introduced herself to Leona. Now the blonde mage knew where she knew the young woman from. She was the assistant who had gotten the team past the Trial Of Knowledge by shoving the old book through the slot next to the door instead of shoving in the book bound in gold and silver.

"I remember now. It's been awhile since we've last met." Leona said to her. In all honesty she had forgotten about Melanie since the expedition to Forgotten Deserts was so long ago, but the other blonde did not need to know that.

"I know, right? I'm still a student at Crocus Magicka University and I'm still working with Dr. Anna. I work here after classes to help pay the bills. Food, textbooks, pens, paper, clothing, student housing... all of that isn't cheap." Melanie explained what she was doing working at The Scholar's Resource. Leona could respect that. She was a Wizard Saint who also led a guild and food, books, maintenance of the guild hall, guild staff salaries, and weapons were not cheap.

"Anyway, what are you doing here?" Melanie asked Leona. Leona handed over the list.

"I'm here to find some books on Ancient Museria and King Saarghon. It's for some research I'm doing." Leona explained while Melanie read the list. The other blonde cracked a smile when she read the list.

"So you went to see Dr. Anna for her recommendations? I can tell because of the handwriting in red ink pen. She writes neatly when calm but when she's angry or upset she scribbles. She also writes plenty of notes and comments in the margins of a paper." Melanie asked before explaining how she knew that Leona had visited the doctor.

"I went to visit her in Hargeon Town yesterday." Leona answered truthfully.

"Dr. Anna's spot-on with her comments and I'm not just saying that because I'm one of her assistants. She's been in the field for over twenty years and has reviewed plenty of books, so she knows what she's talking about. I'd take her advice if I were you." Melanie assessed the accuracy of Dr. Anna's comments and advised her to take the doctor's advice. Leona did not need much convincing.

"That's why I'm here, Melanie. She listed this bookstore as a good place to look for research materials, especially some newer works on Museria and King Saarghon." Leona replied. Melanie's eyes lit up.

"OK, so you want Dr. Charles Steinburg's book A Balanced View Of King Saarghon plus Dr. Anna's book Desierto: Past To Present. Then there's Dr. Lana Strauss' book The Palace Of Knowledge: The Science Of Museria and Dr. Kevin Larson's book Museria's Last Years and..." Melanie excitedly listed several newer works before going on so long that she trailed off. She had listed many titles, so many that Leona had concerns that she was being sold more than she really needed. However, money was not an object and she really needed modern scholarly works to balance out the older books, so she would take Melanie's advice on the matter.

"OK, where do I find those?" Leona asked.

"Let me help you. They're kinda buried in here..." Melanie said before stepping to Leona's right and beginning to pick out some books for the Wizard Saint.

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-Twenty-five minutes later, the checkout counter-

Sitting on the counter in front of Leona was a stack of hardback books that was ten books high. At the bottom was the two older books she had found and on top of that was the eight more modern books Melanie had suggested Leona purchase. That was a lot of books and more than she had intended to buy, but if Leona wanted to conduct serious research she needed to use a variety of sources both old and new.

Melanie scanned the barcodes inside the cover with practiced ease and set each one aside until all of them had been scanned. She then looked at Leona and told the Wizard Saint her total.

"Your total's 30,000 Jewels." Melanie announced. Leona obligingly produced a bag of Jewels, measured out the appropriate amount, and handed them to Melanie, who counted them before putting them in the cash register to her right. Next she pulled out a tan cloth bag with The Scholar's Resource printed on both sides in brass letters and began to gently place the hardback books inside of it. Once the bag was filled she slid it to Leona, who picked it up by the handle with her right hand and dropped her list inside of it, then shifted the bag into her left hand.

"Thank you for your patronage, Miss Jarnefeldt! I hope you visit us again soon!" Melanie bade Leona farewell. Leona waved goodbye and then walked carefully towards the store entrance with her bag of books firmly in hand. She walked through the entrance and an electronic DING-DING sounded to announce her departure from The Scholar's Resource.

-Inside the mall-

Leona seamlessly merged with another crowd heading for the food court and veered left once she reached the entrance, departing through the sliding glass double doors without any trouble. She had gotten what she had come for and then some. She would go to Written Antiquities to see if there was anything else she wanted to buy, but before she made yet another trip to Capital Crocus for books she would take a few jobs that took her out of the guild hall. Evil did not rest just because Leona had went out shopping. She also suspected that her critics were complaining that the Wizard Saint of Courage had grown complacent and was resting on her laurels.

Leona would just have to perform another great deed to prove to them why she was called the Wizard Saint of Courage.

Leona had not forgotten what her responsibility to the world was. She would get back out there and fight the forces of evil soon enough. But first she really needed to get these books home and add them to her personal library. At this point Leona had spent about as much on books as she had weapons and clothing combined and she did not want to waste that investment.

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