LSRO: Chapter 32 - Food and Facts (Patreon)

Okay so. This is very necessary information that I've tried to present in a fun and light way. Let me know if I've achieved that or failed abysmally.

Hope you enjoy it. Also - you should make sure you're not too hungry when you read this chapter.

~~

Chapter 32

Food and Facts

Every part of Quinn’s body hurt.

Dodging and rolling from fireballs strategically placed to trip her up was definitely not her favorite past time. But at least now her muscles moved in accordance to the information in her head.

Speaking of information in her head.

It was like the chip she ate had finally begun to kick in.

As she walked slowly back into the main section of the Library it was easy to breathe in and inhale that amazing aroma of books and dusts and knowledge. The light shone down, no flickering or glitching at this exact moment.

It really was wondrous.

The Library finally looked like a library.

All of the benches in the middle pathing area had been righted, as well as the tables. Those that were broken were back in action. It made for a comfortable seating and research area for anyone who might visit.

There was room for a lot of people.

There were times when Quinn was skeptical of just how busy the Library might get, but... that was for once they officially opened.

Thanks to the information that was slowly soaking into her brain, she could see copious amount of doors littered through the entire place. Where there was a space on a wall, she could see a door.

Sometimes just a potential door. Like it was somewhere a person could come through if they summoned the Library. But with this brain boost - she understood the entire concept more than ever.

Maybe the training had done more than develop some combat muscle memory. It seemed to have jolted her entire nervous system to be more synchronized with the Library.

Dottie walked around a corner with a couple of sofas trotting behind her. Quinn didn’t quite have the guts to walk up and introduce herself, but she couldn’t help thinking she’d like to get to know more talking furniture.

She stood at her vantage point, able to see back the way she came, and through the odd hundred feet to the check-in desk. The Library was gorgeous.

“What are you doing?” Malakai asked, stepping out from the corridor that led to Farrow’s worms.

"I'm observing." she didn’t even move to look at him.

"Observing what?"

"My library. Have you seen how beautiful it looks now it's not all Gloom-ridden and musty?" And she took another look, just for good measure. The pillars were clean and shone. The books were in the bookcases. Return trolley’s bustled about, obviously bringing books to Tim and Tom.

The damaged books always made Quinn angry.

Books shouldn't have been harmed.

The Library was almost ready for patrons again. She could feel it in her bones.

"Okay, so what do you think?" She looked across at Malakai. She couldn't help her eagerness at feeling like they were at a precipice; standing on the verge of opening the library back up to the public. She couldn't help but be extremely nervous about the fact.

Malakai paused, scanning the library himself. "It's not bad, perhaps still a little more dilapidated than I'd have expected. But I'm no expert. I'd have to ask my grandfather because I never saw this in its heyday. I am pretty young. I'm only 30."

"In elf years?"

"Yes, in elf years. What other years would there... Oh," he paused. "Sorry, I forgot that human earth years are, well, much more limited, shall we say."

"That's a good way of saying short-lived," Quinn noted.

"Yes, I was rather proud of that." Malakai bowed deeply. "But you don't have to worry about that. You realize that, right, Quinn?"

She blinked at him. "What do you mean? What wouldn't I worry about? Longevity?"

"Exactly. You're not fully human anymore. You're a librarian. You are now part of the library. The core lives within you. You're only going to die if somebody kills you." He sounded like he thought that would make anything that wasn't great, better.

"Oh," Quinn mulled that over in her head, unsure how she really felt about it. She'd heard Lynx speaking about Karradine. Maybe, maybe that meant Quinn was going to live for centuries. Whoa, that was one daunting thought that she pushed out of her mind and decided to completely ignore for now.

Malakai snapped his fingers, drawing her attention. "Anyway, let's not talk about that. Do you really need a break from training?"

Quinn groaned. “Look. I have to absorb those energy books, and I need to eat. Like - do you not eat?”

Malakai shrugged. “I do. I’m just a bit of a snacker.”

She squinted at him. “I’ve seen you snack like once.”

“Rogue snacker. You’ll never see me eating.” He wiggled his eyebrows, oddly independent of one another. Must be an elf skill.

Quinn laughed. “Okay. Fine. But… how are my levels. Have we done what we needed?”

Energy Usage
98/592

Tome Knowledge: 5

Affinity level: 5

Determination: TBD

She raised an eyebrow at that last one and sighed. Bring up the task listing.

The Library of Everywhere is ready for patrons.

Please complete the following procedures to unlock the doors.

• Complete the Library reshelving - C
• Complete the Bookworm habitat rejuvenation - C
• Activate the book restoration workshop - C
• Assign combat instructor to Librarian - C
• Increase Librarian defensive and combat power by 5
• Recruit a minimum of five (5) assistants through a universal call out with requisite minimum qualifications as specified in the manual

“Hmm” She flashed the list to Malakai.

“I know. I can see it too. Any of us who are marked as an assistant can.” His tone was a little smug.

She shrugged. “Why isn’t mine crossed off. My Affinity is 5.”

In response the Library popped another message up in front of her.

Affinity Level 5:
Defensive capabilities 5 - Combat power 4.

She turned and glared at the elf.

“Fine. Learn the other tome. But replenish some of your energy first.” Malakai gave in.

Quinn grinned and moved toward the kitchen. “That’s precisely what I was doing when you so rudely interrupted.” She could sense his footsteps following. While it might be something she should question, she was beginning to learn that the Library would eventually be an extension of herself.

Right now it was just little things, but soon…

When they had more power, when they were fully operational again. She simply knew everything would be so amazing.

Best way to regenerate energy and mana? She pushed the question inward.

Energy and regeneration are regained through:

Sleep

Rest

Mediation

Sustenance

Potions and Alchemy

Gee thanks. She thought directly at the Library. If she didn't know better, she almost felt like the massive repository of knowledge shrugged at her.

Cook was already at the stove when she walked in. But that’s all she noticed before she turned around to get a really good look at the place.

It had a massive - what appeared to be - eight burner gas stove. The range above it shone like it was newly minted. The silver walls could be seen through the gloom and all of the terrariums were freshly trimmed and the ones without contents had freshly turned earth in them.

The dining tables, plural, stretched out where there had once only been one. Each had ten seats spread around it. Light filtered in through here too, given it an almost sunny disposition.

And whatever Cook was cooking, smelled oddly like cinnamon.

"Come in, don't dilly-dally," the voice of Cook was somewhat robotic, hollow, like the sound a bell might make that wasn't quite right. Yet, in some way, it was still soothing. Like grandma when she used to bake cookies as far back as Quinn could remember.

She smiled and stepped farther into the kitchen, making way for Malakai to do the same.

"What is troubling you?" Cook asked, whisking something in an implement that looked like a wok, but rounder. Quinn still didn't understand the kitchen. All Quinn understood was how drastically it had changed in a day.

"Oh, nothing's wrong." She said, but her stomach growled and gave away her lie.

"Would you like a doughnut?" Cook asked, their syllables clanging oddly over the middle sound.

Quinn blinked. "A doughnut? Like a sugar doughnut?"

"Yes, I believe cinnamon sugar."

"How do you know about cinnamon sugar doughnuts? I only ever had them once on a vacation." She was genuinely shocked. Those were some amazing treats.

Cook winked. It was a straight-up wink. Quinn laughed.

"Okay, so let me guess. You've been researching Earth?"

"Earth and what the Library senses from you. I believed that was the best way to understand the new librarian." Cook's words were stilted, not quite as flowing as a human's, but it didn't matter. There was sentiment behind them, and Cook... Quinn definitely liked Cook.

"Sit. I will make you food. You will eat. Then you will go find more assistants so the Library can open."

"I like that plan," Quinn said.

In no time, there was a bowl of what looked like oatmeal, porridge, whatever you wanted to call it, sitting in front of her with a delicious cinnamon and apple aroma that Quinn didn't even want to know how Cook managed to replicate. The point was, it was there, and it smelled delicious.

And right next to it was what looked like a freshly made cinnamon sugar donut. It was perfect.

It was nice to have these aromas floating around what had once been an extremely musty library.

Cook even plopped a serving down in front of Malakai who eyed it with suspicion.

“Eat it. If it tastes anything like the smells, trust me, you’re in for a treat.” She gently took a spoonful of the food and blew on it because she could see steam billowing up from it, and put it in her mouth. It just exploded on her tongue like apple pie on acid. It was amazing. She may have let a very small moan escape her.

"Is everything okay?" Cook asked, probably alarmed, or at least about as alarmed as a golem cook could get.

Quinn nodded and shoved another, hotter spoonful into her mouth. She didn't care. This was amazing and delicious, and everything she needed right then. "Thank you, thank you so much."

"Excellent. I will use this recipe again then."

"Please do, for everyone. Every single person needs to taste this." Then she corrected herself. "Every single organic person needs to taste this because nobody else can."

Cook flashed what might have been a smile in her direction. At least the line that made up Cook's mouth sort of moved more than just up and down. Quinn was going to take that as a win.

She glanced at Malakai who was still digging into the food, a small look of wonderment on his face. “I take it you like it?”

He nodded as he scraped another spoonful. “This is amazing.”

“I know.” Then, satisfied that Malakai was hooked on her homeworld cuisine, she turned back to Cook. “Have you seen Lynx?”

Cook shook their head. "Not recently, but the library has not gone anywhere, thus Lynx is here."

Of course, it would take a golem cook to speak the bleeding obvious to Quinn.

She scraped the bottom of the bowl, shoveled the last of the food into her mouth, and pushed herself back from the table before checking her regeneration progress.

Energy Usage
498/592

Excellent. That meant she’d be able to slurp down the remaining tome and have another offensive capability - and voila they’d be able to open the Library.

Everything seemed right with the world. The library was coming along. Quinn had good food that she could eat to sustain her while she trained and absorbed magic and became basically a wizard. Which was kind of cool, to be honest. Then soon, they'd be able to open the library and get all of those 18,000 books back.

She knew she didn't have to go out and fetch them all. Probably, hopefully not, but then they'd be done and the library would be operational and everything was going to be wonderful.

Quinn could see herself loving life as a librarian.

"Why are you not listening to me?" Lynx's voice pulled her out of her reverie.

"What, now you turn up?" She said, turning to blink in his direction, annoyed that he'd interrupted her perfect visualization. She wasn't in a bad mood, but she had been having a rather nice daydream and he'd interrupted quite rudely.

"Are you not seeing the flashing in the corner of your vision? Did you minimize your notifications? I've been trying to talk to you through your extremely obscene train of thought for the last five minutes." Lynx's mood seemed a tad volatile. He’d been in a much better mood earlier.

Quinn blinked at him and thought at her notifications and they popped up. There were a lot of them, a lot of them, correcting almost every thought she just had.

Leafing through them, she realized he’d been asking her to come to the console at the check-in counter so they could navigate getting the word out and recruiting the final 3 assistants that would allow them to reopen the Library.

But then she saw listings of books that she didn’t understand with branch divisions and collection timers, not to mention orders of importance.

So. Many. Numbers.

"Wait, what?" She couldn't quite make sense of it.

Lynx sighed, like he was just drained. And perhaps he was. She couldn’t imagine how much effort it took to restart an entire Library.

Especially one, she realized, that seemed to have a very distinct personality of its own that had nothing to do with any of them.

"I didn’t explain myself properly did I?” He asked, pinching the bridge of his nose in an odd mimicry of her own bad habit.

“Well…” she started, but Malakai cut in.

“You’ve been doing a bang up job of not explaining yourself like…ever lately. But do go on.” The elf grinned, finally putting his spoon in his empty bowl.

“Well would you like the good news explanation or the bad news explanation first?” Lynx asked.

Quinn wondered if he’d settle for neither of those but realized quickly that wasn’t about to happen. He’d probably speak directly into her mind next.

Well, I’ve been trying to respect your privacy.

“Stop that.” She snapped out loud.

Lynx actually grinned at her, before sobering at her expression. “Well?”

“Good. Give me the good so it takes the edge off the bad.” That was the best way, right?

“Great.” He genuinely seemed pleased. “We need to activate the search for our assistants. I need your help with that at the console, because this advertisement will basically scan them for the relevant skillset, and then, and only then if they choose to apply, will they have access to enter the Library for their interview.”

Quinn felt a real wave of relief rush through her. “That is fantastic! Do you have any idea how long that will take? What sort of worlds are we sending this to?”

Lynx held up a hand to stop the obvious tirade of questions. “There are several worlds rich with related affinities that I’ve chosen… after trying to get the system back on track.” He frowned at the end.

“Still having problems?” Malakai stood, his brow crinkling like he was thinking overtime.

“Some. Not that we’ve ever had to reboot and reset before… so I don’t have a precedent. But things are not working the way I assumed they would.” Lynx was being transparent for once.

Quinn wished this was the one thing he’d tried to couch in better terms. “Assumptions are the mother of all fuck ups.”

“What was that?” Lynx asked, frowning.

“Nevermind.” Quinn shook her head, not wanting to get stuck on the saying. “So what does that mean exactly?”

The manifestation shrugged. “Not the thing we’re worrying about right now. The Library needs to open and reactivate all its branches so it can regain the power it needs to right itself anyway. So let’s concentrate on that.”

“I will assist with the Culinary branch once we reach that stage.” Cook piped up.

“Much appreciated.” Lynx flashed the golem a smile and then turned back to Quinn. “Speaking of branches. That’s the problem. Once the 18,000 odd books have been returned or retrieved, enabling us to open the branches … well, then we have to retrieve those books that belong in those branches.”

Quinn blinked. “So. To not put too fine a point on it… the 18,000 books are just the beginning?”

Lynx smiled, apparently happy he’d got his point across. “Exactly!”

Quinn needed to sit down.

~~

I'd need to sit down too hahahahahaha

Poor Quinn

Much love

KT