LSRO: Chapter 16 - Learning Curve (Patreon)

Maybe the learning curve is a little steep? Orrrr maybe it's just fun to write? HAHAHAHA

Anyhu - Welcome to a beautiful rough draft of 16 

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Chapter 16

Learning Curve

Quinn was certain she screamed as pain ripped through her. And not just in her head. But a full throated, audible scream.

The beginner's shielding didn't seem to be protecting her at all. The pain extended to every single nerve she was aware of, and many that she didn't know existed. It felt as though it bled through her body, her blood vessels, and into her very bones. There was a sharp jolt that ran through her system. And, suddenly, everything was gone.

She blinked her eyes open to find herself sitting on the same couch, cross-legged, with her hands still splayed on each side of the book. The only change to her posture was that her head was leaning back against the couch. As she moved her head forward, a tear dropped onto the page. She raised her hand, wiping it away.

"That hurt. Can you warn me next time?" she said to Lynx, her voice cracking ever so slightly.

"Damn it. I'm sorry. I thought you'd remember the reaction from the sword book and realize that there was always going to be something. I apologize." He didn't really sound contrite at all.

"It's okay," she said, even though it really wasn't okay. But it had to be, and frankly, she realized she was mostly fine. Her body wasn't sore at all. It didn't leave a lingering trace of anything. But it felt like it had somehow strengthened her, maybe reinforced her.

"What exactly did this book do for me?" she asked, not really feeling much different and at the same time not quite the same.

"Maybe you should have read the, like, blurb on the back first. It enhances your skeletal structure. And you'll be able to find it in your interface, it'll let you know how to think to activate your outer shield. You just need to think, 'activate shielding' when you want to initialize the protection. You can sort out any specific mental commands within yourself. It's very basic, beginner-level stuff. It'll make your bones tougher, and you'll take less damage as long as you activate the outer shield before the incoming damage hits you. That's pretty much it," Lynx said, somewhat flustered. Maybe he hadn't expected her to scream so loudly. The elves, it seemed, didn't care. They were still locked in some sort of silent mental conversation.

Anyway, she took a deep breath, closed the book, and picked up the next one, 'Machetes for Dummies'.

"Is this one going to cut me?" She asked, eyeing it suspiciously.

"Oh, no. It's going to do the same thing the sword book did. It'll rush through you, make you feel a little, tweak some different muscles, and imprint the theory behind wielding a machete in combat."

"Great," she said, splayed the book open, put her hands on the pages, and whoosh, the information entered her brain. The sensations were slightly different from the sword book and far less painful than the shielding one. It felt like her brain was expanding, firing on all these different wavelengths with knowledge immediately accessible. Now she just knew things. If studying had been this easy in university, life would have been so much easier.

She sighed and cracked her neck from side to side, suddenly a little stiff. Closing the machete book, she opened the next with some hesitation.

"Hey, Lynx, 'Poison or just disgusting'? Am I going to taste this book? Is it going to poison me to give me poison immunity? What's this one going to do?" Her gut was telling her this was definitely not a book she should take lightly. The pungent odor that wafted about the pages seemed to reinforce that fact.

"Oh, well, yes. This one is just the first step. It'll slowly help you start to build up an immunity to poisons." Lynx shrugged, like it was all self-explanatory.

"So it's going to train me to build up immunity over several years so the poison just doesn't work on me?" It sounded good, if she wasn't sure she'd also have to go through some measure of withdrawals while becoming accustomed to those poisons. Even if it was magically enabling or something.

Lynx narrowed his eyes and repeated himself slowly. "Like I said, that's pretty much what it's going to do."

"Then I'm going to keep this one for after I get back from the death-defying mission that I need to go on to retrieve books?" She put that one to the side and picked up the next one. "Building up immunity to poisons is something I don't want to risk just in case."

"'Bright light starter' it is," she said, ignoring Lynx's wide eyes as he realized she was probably right.

She placed her hands in the correct positions again and closed her eyes. The information flooded her mind again, and it was warm. It suffused her entire body heating her up from the inside like a delicious chicken-soup did when she was sick. The feeling was bright and airy, like a spark in her soul.

She closed the book. "I liked that one a lot better." She clicked her fingers, and a tiny spark of flame emerged for just a moment before it went out. She'd need a lot more practice but she could already see the benefits.

"Be careful of that around books." was all Lynx said while he handed her the next one.

"Well I liked that one. That's the fire starter. I can work with it." She had to push aside the part of her that was sincerely squealing with excitement at having done actual magic.

"Next up. 'Blink and I'm Gone'." This one rushed into her like a cool whirl of wind, and then it was gone. It felt far more subtle than the previous ones. It was just an ability to fade into the background. There'd been a television show she used to love that always made a joke about this girl who nobody ever remembered, even though she was there and she tried her hardest all the time. And that's the sensation this lent to her when she called it up. Blending, fading into the background so that people don't remember you. They don't remember seeing you. That was going to come in handy.

"Are you feeling okay?" Lynx asked, his tone serious.

"Yeah. A little full, if that makes sense, but I should be okay for one or two more."

He nodded and she picked up the last one. "Is there anything I should know about 'Watch Out for That Tree'?"

He smiled. "No, just get ready to be flooded with information. You know how it works."

She pulled all of the information into herself. This one didn't hurt. And it didn't feel like it had changed anything greatly. But she did realize this ability was intended as an escape tool, something to only ever activate if she was in a clear space where she wouldn't get sucked into a wall or a tree, or the ground. It existed to allow her just enough time to get a running head start to escape. This one lingered in a melancholy way, dusting her thoughts with an odd sadness.

A sudden wave of exhaustion washed over her as she tried to get up from the couch. She stumbled, falling back into it.

"Quinn, be careful. You just absorbed five books of information. Your brain and your body are still calibrating. You'll need to take some time to rest." Lynx placed a gentle hand against her shoulder, helping her steady herself.

But she pushed it away, exasperated. "Have you not noticed? We're down to 68 hours now, almost 67 left."

Lynx smiled softly. "It's not going to be as hard as you think."

"Are you sure? Are you me? Have you ever wielded anything ever before?" Are you stuck in a fantasy world that shouldn't, by rights, exist at all? She wanted to say the latter too, but was already too close to actual panic. So, Quinn took a breath.

This time it was Lynx's turn to look a little sheepish. "I'm sorry. One of the books is back and that's what's important. All you need to do now is get the other two. A day for each. It's not bad, with some change left over. You can do this."

"Sure, I can." She waved the comment away. "Is there anything else that I can take with me that's gonna help?"

All she wanted to do right then was topple over and fall asleep. It would be the best thing in the world to be able to just go to sleep right now. She took a deep breath deciding to let things go, when a thought struck her. "How am I supposed to defend myself? I need some ability I can attack with."

"You have the machete skill. What else were you thinking?" Lynx tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"Something that can do damage and protect me. I don't know. You're the catalogue."

"What about an ice skill?" Milaro inserted, having finished with his conversation. Malachi was standing with his arms crossed behind his grandfather, quite obviously sulking. "Why don't you give her an ice spell? She smells sort of icy. Maybe you'll be able to use mind bullets or an ice blast. You'd like those."

"She's not advanced enough to use mind bullets yet," Lynx said, and his expression was in distant mode.

"I didn't say she was," Milaro said, "but you could start her off with a simple icicle punch or just an ice blast. That might be the best thing for her right now. Or you could give her the generic understanding of the region so she knows how to unmake what's there."

"Yes, but she has to understand how it's made before she can unmake it. We don't have time for that right now. Stop jumping the gun, Milaro." Lynx was quite obviously losing his famous patience.

"Temper, temper," Milaro said, chuckling slightly. His eyes twinkled very merrily. "Anyone would think you'd been locked away for 500 years."

Lynx scowled. "You know I can do a lot more than just manipulate the magic in the library, right?"

Milaro waved the borderline threat away. "Oh, pish posh, old friend. You know I'm just kidding. Besides, you've just given her a lot of tools. She's going have to get used to using them. Give her something she can defend herself with. Wielding a machete takes time and close quarters. Casting an ice blast into somebody's face, though, that'll be good for her. And thus, she'll still be around to help you put the library back on track."

"You know I'm sitting right here," Quinn said. "Get me the book."

"Why can't you get up and get it?" Milaro said.

"Because I'm really bloody tired right now," Quinn said, using all of the energy that she had left to actually stay sitting upright. She was quite exhausted.

Milaro took a step closer to her, bent down, and actually looked. "I need to touch your head," he said. He didn't ask, but he did warn her, and touched her forehead very briefly. His fingers were cold, but not uncomfortably so.

"Hmm," Milaro said. "Have you even been feeding this poor girl? You can't send them out on an empty stomach. I'm gonna go use your kitchen. I have some stuff in storage. Get the book and bring it over. She doesn't have any energy left because she just sucked it out by absorbing all that knowledge. Have you forgotten how organic life forms survive? Because you're not doing a very good job of it right now, Lynx. Do you need somebody to tune up your system? Are you sure nothing went wrong?"

Lynx seemed taken aback by that statement. "I... I don't think anything's wrong." His eyes began flickering again as if he was running through a plethora of programming alternatives, trying to figure out if something was missing. "I... I'll go get the book and then when they're gone, I will run a full diagnostic."

"See that you do," Milaro said as he ushered both Quinn and Malachi toward the kitchen.

"Here, chew on that," Milaro said as he plopped her down at a table. The bench was not dotty, was her absent thought, as she took the jerky of some sort and bit into it. A burst of flavors exploded in her mouth. It was divine. She took it out, looked at it in her hand, but no, it really just looked like a jerky stick.

"What is this?" she asked wanting to never stop eating it.

Malachi, who was standing between her and his grandfather who was now cooking, raised an eyebrow. "It's probably closest to a deer haunch, cooked in our family's traditional herbs and spices. It's a delicacy."

"Well, it's delicious," she said. She could almost feel the protein seeping into her system, the herbs rejuvenating her. It was pretty amazing stuff. "So like, you don't call them deer?"

Her would be companion shook his head. "But for now, that's probably the closest description you'd understand."

"Alright then," she said nodding. "Thank you for the food."

Milaro smiled. "It's okay. We've got to send you out there with enough power to function. You might only have sixty-five or so hours left by the time you've got enough spells and sustenance into you and a snack to take with you, but those hours will be more productive because you're not going to be falling apart when you leave."

"You make perfect sense," Quinn said around another mouthful of the beautifully spiced deer. It wasn't long before she was digging into a delicious, warm salad with more of the meat sprinkled through it. She had never felt so hungry in her life. Apparently, learning magical tomes made you legitimately ravenous.

She was cleaning the bowl when Lynx arrived and placed a tome in front of her. "There you go. I got you Icy Blast. It's the simplest to use, and the easiest to modify as you progress. It uses the least mana, and directionally, you don't have to have perfect aim."

Once Quinn finished her last bite she thanked Milaro. "That was delicious. I could eat that food nonstop forever."

His eyes twinkled again as he inclined his head. "Anytime, young Librarian."

Quinn opened the tome on the table and placed both hands on either side sucking all the knowledge it into herself. This time, her body experienced the rush of cold air, like when snow fell for the first time in a season and the breeze brings that fresh scent along with it.

The sensation suffused her very body, down through her veins and her bones. It took away the mild headache she'd been getting with all of the skill adoptions, and then it was gone. Instinctually, she knew if she flung out her right hand, that's all she had to do to throw some ice. She just had to will the Icy Blast into existence. It would cost energy, sap her of some of her strength, and drain the mind power she was learning was magic.

When she got back after this little retrieval expedition, she was studying the Library. Once all this danger was out of the way and things were stabilized for the time being. She was going to devour every single book she could get her hands on.

Now, armed with more knowledge and power, she finally felt ready to get started. "Let's go!"

Lynx smiled and ushered them out of the kitchen and toward the door. "Milaro and I have things to discuss and arrange, while you two will travel to Hirish Highlands and retrieve Tarlegish's Dicotomy of Herbal Evolution. After that, you'll need to come back before you head out farther."

"Why, can't we just go and get this done?" Quinn was genuinely curious about the answer.

"Well there are two reasons. The first is that returning each tome allows the Library to regain different functions. And secondly, it's easier to use the Library to get to your destination."

Quinn frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

But it was Malachai who interrupted as he swung one of the doors open. "That's something you have to experience for yourself."

And Quinn felt herself falling backward as his push caught her unawares.

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I make her fall a LOT. Just forewarning there.

Hope you enjoyed reading!

Much love

KT