MMS – Volume 1 Chapter 15

Previous Chapter | Project Page | Next Chapter

---

Volume 1 Chapter 15 – The Library Girl from Spirits

For all other purposes, although Ouyang Tao achieved favourable results in the first battle, the fact was that…… He shall now face an even bigger challenge much earlier than he was suppose to.

All students had to participate in a sparring match monthly, and based of the results of the match, they were graded and the grades would affect their end of year results.

Every start of a new term, midterm and end of term, students would have to battle their seniors in a guidance match. Similarly, the results are also recorded.

More importantly, because Ouyang Tao tied with Tia, it substantially decreased the amount of opponents for his future guidance matches.

Taking Go as an example, Ouyang Tao’s situation today was as if he had a four Go advantage. Logically speaking, he should have a three Go advantage the next time. However, due to his performance, he was immediately promoted to an equal foothold.

What’s worse was that from what his teacher said, Tia would definitely select him as her opponent next time, which was two and a half month from now.

Ouyang Tao had already felt Tia’s skill first hand and knew her skill level well —— she was indeed strong. Today’s result was purely luck.

So, in order to not lose, within this two and a half months, Ouyang Tao had to put in one hundred and twenty percent of hard work.

Therefore Ouyang Tao’s teacher had given him three tasks. The first one was to learn the structures of basic machines and robots, and how to construct them. The second one was to learn how to use magic stones as a source of energy. At the same time, he saw that Ouyang Tao specialised in defending and therefore, his third task was to improve his defense techniques.

Other than those tasks, Ouyang Tao also had a series of daily training programs he had to accomplish. He had to practice using his magic, do physical exercise, and learn social etiquette, etcetera.

In conclusion, the amount of work he had to do in this two and a half months was astronomical.

Lu Yun knew that Ouyang Tao was not suited to sit down and listen to a lesson. Hence, he gave him the freedom to plan how he wanted to learn by himself. Furthermore, he put down the restriction that only when Ouyang Tao met with a technical difficulty, or during his weekly reports, was he then allowed to find him and ask questions.

Also, although Ouyang Tao did not realise it, he had already gotten used to battles. That was because his fighting spirit had been fired up. Since he tied on his first match, he didn’t allow himself to lose his next battle.

Therefore, the first thing that he needed to do was to study how to use magic stones and learn the basic foundations of creating a machine. Simply put it, he needed to read.

Read where? Of course it’s the library. It was already noon when he finished watching the battles between the other students. Ouyang Tao said farewell to his teacher and left for the canteen to have a good meal to replenish his strength. Also, he felt that he had almost recovered from the lethargy after the battle.

And so, he sprinted to the library.

Augustus Academy’s Library was a massive building that took up more than ten hectares of space. The main building was a twin tower which was mainly blue in colour, like water putting out a fire. The main building used a double eaved format, with a peacock blue glazed tile roof, a pale gray ceramic tile outer wall, granite stone steps, and white marble railings. This made it seem ancient, yet majestic.

Since the first day Ouyang Tao entered school, he had already wanted to come here. He couldn’t wait to come here to acquire knowledge.

Entering the hall of the library, Ouyang Tao instantly saw the map and summary of the library —— Oh boy, adding the basements and the levels, there were twenty storeys used to store books, scrolls and case studies. All this amounted to millions and millions of copies.

So many books?! What the hell…… Ouyang Tao felt as if he was suddenly thrown into a forest, and did not know where to start.

Luckily, Lu Yun had already prepared beforehand. Ouyang Tao removed a checklist from his pockets. The checklist was filled with reference books that Lu Yun had listed —— even though there were a lot, but at the very least, he knew where to start.

Passing through the halls, he entered the first floor of the library. Going to the counter, he saw a girl dressed in black sitting there. On the counter was a golden plaque that wrote “Manager”. It appeared that she was the person in charge.

As he got closer to the counter, Ouyang Tao realised that girl was not in uniform. Instead, she was wearing a flowery white dress with a black cardigan, but in front of her chest was a school emblem —— the cross that signified death and redemption, it was the Spirit Department’s Emblem.

Seeing that emblem made chills run down his spine.

The Spirit Department communicated with souls. They specialise in talking to the dead. Things like death very easily evoked a person to instinctively be fearful. Also, being associated with demons and ghosts —— as far as an ordinary person was concerned, the Spirit Department was a true ghost story.

The girl in front of Ouyang Tao didn’t seem to be aware of his presence, and read the book intently. Her presence was weak. If not for the rustling from the flipping of pages, Ouyang Tao might have really treated her as a spirit. This made him shudder.

Eventually, Ouyang Tao gathered his courage and went ahead to the counter: “Excuse me……”

“Mn?” The girl finally lifted up her head, giving Ouyang Tao a clear view of her face.

This was a face without makeup. She had crystal-like glistening skin that shone in white light. Coupled with an expressionless face, it made Ouyang Tao think of one word —— cold.

The most outstanding feature the girl had were her eyes. Her pupils were a complete pale blue —— that was the basic gift of someone from the Spirits Department. They had a psychic eye that could see spirits.

However, when they were not using their spiritual eye, their eye should be the same as normal people. It was the first time Ouyang Tao saw someone’s eyes permanently in the spiritual eye state.

Aside from the fact that she was expressionless, and kept her spiritual eye constantly open, this manager ought to be regarded as a beauty…

“Need something?”

“Ummm, ahhhhh……” His muttered under his breath to compose himself. It was then he realised the girl was staring at him. “Sorry, but I’m looking for these books. ”

As Ouyang Tao said that, he handed out the checklist with both hands. The girl manager did not take it, but merely said to an invisible something: “Get it for me.”

As she finished, the checklist suddenly floated of Ouyang Tao’s hands and towards the girl manager. She glanced at the checklist before quickly turning to Ouyang Tao and faintly said: “All of it?”

“……” Ouyang Tao hesitated for a while, there were more than a hundred books on the checklist. There was no need to find all of them. “Help me find a few of these then……”

Ouyang Tao told her a few books that are about the basics of machines creation and the theory behind magic stones. She nodded and closed her eyes. A second later, she reopened them and said: “It’s at level four, section C and D, the will-o’-wisp will guide you there.”

Will-o’-wisp!? Don’t scare people…… Ouyang Tao was shocked by what the girl said. However, her attention had already returned to her book.

The feeling that the girl gave off was indeed scary. Ouyang Tao decided to not ask too much and went to quickly find his book.

A while after Ouyang Tao entered the library, he found two interesting points. Firstly, it was huge. Secondly, it was quiet —— because of these two points, the atmosphere of the library was very scary.

In the huge library, Ouyang Tao did not see anyone other than the manager. Other than the sound of his footsteps, there were no other noise. The silence made the library very creepy. Even a 2.3 meter tall guy like Ouyang Tao was so scared that he hugged his arms in fright.

Ouyang Tao sped up his footsteps. He wanted to leave the place as soon as he found the books. Soon, he found the light blue will-o’-wisp burning in front of a book shelf. When he walked over, he saw that it was at the book he wanted to borrow —— 《The Basics of Magic Stone Usage》

Once Ouyang Tao obtained his book, the will-o’-wisp disappeared. Although it was a bit frightening, he had to admit that the manager was very considerate. Soon, under the guidance of the will-o’-wisp, Ouyang Tao found all the books he needed.

Then, Ouyang Tao seemed to have heard some movement. It sounded like someone was sweeping. This caused the burden in his heart to be lifted since he realised that there was a living person here.

However, when he turned……

“WAHHHHHHHH—— !!!” Ouyang Tao suddenly screamed. He was so frightened that he slumped to the ground. The books that were previously in his hand scattered all over the floor —— There wasn’t even anyone there, it was only a broom and dustpan that swept the floor by itself.

“Please keep quiet in the library.” Luckily, when Ouyang Tao was frightened, the voice of the girl manager descended from the sky. “Also, that’s just routine cleaning. No need to be frightened.”

YOU SHOULD’VE SAID THAT EARLIER! —— Ouyang Tao wanted to shout it out loud. But after thinking about it, he decided to choke back his complaint. Spirit Magicians were capable of controlling ghosts. As a librarian, using a few ghosts to help her do maintenance should be pretty common. Also, as he thought about what happened at the counter, Ouyang Tao finally heaved a sigh of relief.

I shouldn’t stay here too long, better hurry…… Ouyang Tao picked up the books and quickly left.

But, wanting to leave, was it that easy……

---

Previous Chapter | Project Page | Next Chapter