Chapter 10: The Weight of Words

“…?” Soohyuk tilted his head upon seeing the message.

Wisdom increased?

Why did his wisdom suddenly increase?

Because I read the book?

No matter how he thought about it, there was only one reason. Reading the book. It had to be why his wisdom increased.

Swish.

Soohyuk shifted his gaze from the message to the book.

Will reading a book again increase stats?

Would re-reading a book he’d already read raise his stats again?

After staring at the book for a moment, Soohyuk started reading it again to resolve his curiosity.

“No increase,” he said, having carefully re-read the book. No message appeared, confirming that re-reading a book didn’t increase stats.

Unread books—those sparkling—seemed to be the ones that increased stats. Of course, this wasn’t certain either.

Soohyuk moved the twice-read travel journal to the right and picked up the top book from the stack on the left. Still unread, it was full of sparkle. He opened it. This book was also a travel journal.

Swish.

[Wisdom increases by 1.]

After reading the entire journal, the sparkle vanished, and, like before, a message appeared saying his wisdom increased. Soohyuk opened his character window.

Level: 8
Experience: 51%
Health: 2040
Mana: 300
Satiety: 52%
Strength: 14
Agility: 15
Stamina: 38
Wisdom: 15
Bonus Stats: 10

His wisdom had increased by 2, reaching 15.

Then there’s no need to save bonus stats, right?

Soohyuk had been saving bonus stats to become a mage. The mage job required level 10 and 30 wisdom. If reading books increased wisdom, there was no need to save bonus stats for it. He already had 5 bonus stats to spare, didn’t he?

No, just in case.

But it was possible that stats only increased for the first few books. It might not continue.

Let’s prepare.

For now, Soohyuk invested all 5 of his freely assignable bonus stats into stamina. Then he closed the character window.

Fill satiety first.

He had just checked his satiety: 52%. It was time to fill it. Soohyuk opened his inventory and took out a hard bread.

“…!” And at that moment:

“No eating inside!” Kejan shouted.

“Oh! Yes,” Soohyuk replied, standing up.

He had hoped it might be okay since it was a game, but no such luck. Standing up, Soohyuk left the library, quickly chewed the hard bread, and filled his satiety. Returning to his seat, he resumed reading.

Swish.

After finishing the book, the sparkle disappeared. This time, it was different. Only the sparkle vanished—no message appeared. His stats didn’t increase.

“As expected,” Soohyuk said with a smile.

It seemed the number of stat increases was limited, as he’d predicted. But he couldn’t be certain. It might increase again, so he had to keep reading to find out. One thing was clear, though:

It doesn’t always increase.

Reading a book didn’t guarantee a stat increase, even if it was unread and sparkling.

Good thing I didn’t use them.

He was glad he’d saved some bonus stats. Feeling relieved, Soohyuk placed the sparkle-less book to the right and picked up another sparkling book from the left. Thus, he continued reading.

Destroy 5 training scarecrows! [Training Scarecrows: 4/5] Quest Reward: 5 gold, Training Knight

One more!

Only one scarecrow left to destroy.

Lia closed the quest window.

Swish!

She swung her sword at the scarecrow in front of her.

Slash!

[Training Scarecrow has been destroyed.]

One hit. The scarecrow was destroyed in a single blow. Lia looked at the fallen scarecrow with a satisfied expression. Then she shifted her gaze to her sword.

As expected, it’s incomparably better!

Its performance was overwhelmingly superior to the training sword.

“Lia!” At that moment, a voice called her.

Lia, smiling contentedly at her sword, turned around.

“Jia!” The voice belonged to Jia, who had started Pangea with Lia.

“Finished?” Jia asked as she arrived.

“Yup! You?” Lia replied.

“Me too!”

Like Lia, Jia was also on the verge of completing the Final Test quest. They chatted as they approached the training instructor to complete the quest.

“I destroyed them!” Lia shouted.

“I destroyed them too!” Jia echoed.

They arrived in front of the training instructor and called out simultaneously.

“Well done,” the instructor said after a brief pause, responding to their lively shouts.

[You have completed the quest Final Test.]

A message appeared with the instructor’s words, confirming the quest’s completion. Seeing it, Lia smiled and extended her hand.

“Give me what you promised!”

“Me too!” Jia added, also extending her hand.

They held out their hands to receive the quest rewards.

“Wait,” the instructor said with a chuckle, pulling two pouches from his pocket and handing one to each.

“The promised tokens are inside,” he said after distributing the pouches.

“Wherever you go, I hope you do well.”

The training instructor’s words were brief. After speaking, he fell silent. Having already met all the other instructors, Lia and Jia bowed and left the training grounds.

“Kyaa! Finally, the special…” Jia exclaimed with a broad smile as soon as they stepped out, but her shout was cut short.

“Jia!” Lia interrupted.

“Sorry,” Jia said, realizing why Lia had stopped her, her expression filled with apology.

“It’s okay, let’s go,” Lia replied, quickly scanning their surroundings.

Fortunately, the nearby users didn’t seem to care about Jia’s outburst.

Step, step.

“But are you really going?” Jia asked as they walked.

While both were moving together, their final destinations differed.

“Yeah, I have to,” Lia answered.

“You really think there’s something in the library?”

“I’m not sure, but I feel like there might be.”

Jia planned to leave Oren, but Lia’s destination was Oren’s library.

“For 50 gold, there’s got to be something,” Lia added.

She had learned about the library through the guidebook’s map. Wondering what it was for and if there might be a quest, she had visited it before. But using the library required 50 gold.

That cost convinced Lia there was something special there. After all, 50 gold was no small amount, especially in the tutorial area of Oren, where it was a fortune. There had to be something worthwhile.

After that, Lia traveled everywhere to gather 50 gold, which led her to discover the special job “Training Knight.”

Even if there’s nothing…

If the library had nothing, she could still be satisfied with obtaining the Training Knight job. Without the library, she wouldn’t have learned about it.

“It probably won’t have anything special,” Jia said, differing from Lia’s certainty. She didn’t think the library would have nothing, but she doubted it held anything extraordinary.

50 gold was an absurd amount. Even after completing all the Training Knight quests, Jia only had 37 gold in her inventory.

Needing 50 gold suggested there was something, as Lia said, but Jia doubted it would be remarkable.

“Here, 20 gold,” Jia said, taking it out of her inventory and handing it to Lia.

“Thanks!” Lia replied.

“No problem. But is it really okay if I head down first?”

“Yeah, go explore down there! I’ll catch up soon.”

“Okay,” Lia said.

At a fork in the road, they stopped to talk. After their conversation, they parted ways: Jia headed to the central plaza, while Lia went north.

What could be there?

Walking toward the northern library, Lia wondered what it might hold.

What if I don’t need to change to Training Knight?

She had a token in her inventory to become a Training Knight, which would allow an immediate job change. But she might not need to use it if the library held an even better option.

“Hehe,” Lia giggled, her steps quickening with excitement.