LSRO: Chapter 98 - With a Vigor (Patreon)

Hi there wonderful people

So... I have actually made some changes with chapter 87. Just with Quinn's reaction. I'll update that on Patreon soon as well as any resulting adjustments. There may be the occasional reference in future chapters to something Quinn now does... a habit.

Other than that, it doesn't really have bearing on the story, just on Quinn's character development. She's more proactive about her choices and her own agency. I felt she lost a little bit in the whole synchronization deal.

Hope you enjoy the chapter!

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Chapter 98

With a Vigor

Later that evening, after her stomach was extremely full, Quinn sat down to go over the lists that the Library had been intermittently making for her over the last couple of weeks. She was amazed by how much better it felt to have her thoughts on the synchronization matter sorted, spoken out loud, and relatively discussed. Sure, something might pop up later that would make her backslide or maybe even have to deal with the emotions as they had come through originally. But overall, she felt pretty comfortable with her place in the universe.

She had a massive roof over her head, ridiculous amounts of knowledge, books, power, and food. Any type of clothes she wanted were made by the Library. It was like living in a dream where she didn't actually have to spend money to get anything, just power, energy, mana, and stuff that she'd been raised to believe wasn't even real. How magical was that?

Maybe things would be different once the novelty of magic had worn off, but just being able to do something because you said so? She didn't think that was ever going to get old. The lists in front of her though? Those were definitely getting old. There was so much that she still had to do.

She opened the priority listing for her as the Librarian and frowned.

Priority listing - Librarian: Quinn.
Prioritize:
Strength - progress halted - immediate attention required
Fine definition - in progress 18%
Pillar Activation - in progress 3/10
Task Delegation - in progress 21%
Library Returns - in progress
Energy Amplification - missing components

She had to prioritize all of those things. And then, well, how was that even a listing? She totally understood some of the designations on these. But the whole Energy Amplification missing components thing? That she didn't get at all. What components? Probably something she needed to ask Misha.

She flicked through trying to pull up the other listings and finally found the one she wanted.

Repair the filtration system.
Calibrate and find the corrupted and missing files.
Book return status, including all of the branches.
New assistants required.
Replenish building and operational supplies.
Train in defensive applications.
Train in offensive applications.
Train in mind magic applications.

Well, she'd already repaired the filtration system and she had new assistants she'd acquired. Although the latter appeared to be an ongoing thing.

She'd also spoken to Misha about replenishing, building, and operational supplies, but the rest of the stuff she was never going to get to cross off. Calibrate, and find the corrupted and missing files? She still had no idea how to go about finding all of that, even though they were trying.

And there were so many books still to return.

She clutched her head trying to force some productivity into it. She added several things to the last list. Okay, open the culinary branch specifically. That's the closest one. And then she added activate the fourth filtration pillar because she'd already activated the third and the fourth was pretty much ready now.

"So I might have to talk to Lynx about that."

Lynx is currently out of commission, the Library spoke into her mind.

"What again? I don't like him not being around," Quinn said before she could think about what she was actually saying. But if she pushed a little, she could feel him there, like he was fast asleep.

The Library sounded like it was smiling. I only answered because you were speaking out loud to yourself. If you'd been speaking in your mind, I probably wouldn't have heard you. I'm getting better at my control in much, much better, the Library said. Also, I hate to have to remind you of this, but you are going to need to talk to the Serpensiril some more, especially Tenejo after what happened last time.

"Yeah, I thought we might have to," Quinn said, although she was extremely irritated by the fact.

"There's something bothering you, Quinn."

Quinn shrugged. "I don't know. We have so much to do. Not to mention we have to find and locate the restricted books."

How about you just identify them first? the Library said in a soothing tone. We have a lot of time now. Now that we're out of immediate danger of depleting our energy, the fines are bringing in more power, and we have you. You just need to make the list and work through the list.

"You know, lists are always a great idea, but I'm very bad about ticking them off." Quinn grumbled.

Let's take today and see if we can rectify that. Anyway, how's it looking?

"Okay, I've added open the culinary branch. Activate the fourth filtration pillar. Talk to Tenejo. Name the restricted books. Find and locate the restricted books. Retrieve the restricted books." Quinn frowned at her list. It felt like a broken record.

Well, don't forget that you also have to retrieve the relevant culinary books in order to open the actual culinary branch.

"Yeah, I know," Quinn leaned back against the couch and propped her feet up on the coffee table as she went through more of the information in her HUD. "Okay, well, how about all of my abilities?"

Your abilities are leveling fine, Quinn. You don't need to check them every couple of days. They're not going to make that big strides just because you're constantly watching them boil.

Quinn laughed. "You almost sound human sometimes," she said to the Library.

I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult, the Library said. I have work to do with Lynx. I will send him back in a few hours. We are working on some ways to ensure that he isn't still compromised.

"Thanks," Quinn said. "It sounds weird, but I'm kind of used to him being around and things don't feel right when he's not."

I understand, the Library said. Trust me, I understand more than you realize.

Quinn smiled as she felt the Library's presence slip away to the back of her mind. It was never gone anymore. Nothing was ever gone. Just like she could tell at this very moment, two dimensional doors were opening at exactly the same time from completely different areas in the universe. Now that would never stop being fascinating.

Malakai cleared his throat, and Quinn looked up from where she lounged on a couch in the middle of the library.

"Not in your office, couldn't knock on the door," he said, crossing his arms as he looked down at her.

"I felt like being surrounded by the library, in a very literal sense," Quinn said. She peered up at him. "What's up?"

"It's very difficult to train you when you don't turn up," he said, snapping off the last word. "And to be frank, you're probably going to need to be able to defend yourself and the library sooner than later. We all know that, so can you just make an effort to be on time, Quinn?"

She raised an eyebrow. She'd almost forgotten her own name; everybody kept calling her 'Librarian'. She liked that Malakai called her Quinn.

"Sorry, lots on my mind...in my mind. You know how it is?"

"You have a very encompassing mind, Quinn. I'm sure you can partition some of it," Malakai said with a wink. He fell into the seat beside her. "Come on, talk to me. What's up? What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to be productive," she said, dismissing the lists in front of her as being too full of frustration to actually be the productive she was trying to be.

"Sure you are. You know you can't avoid training forever, right?" Malakai said, nudging her.

"I'm not avoiding it. I just have a lot to do." She could feel everything swirling in her head. It was overwhelming.

"How is Lynx?' Malakai asked, sounding concerned. The sudden change of subject made Quinn blink at him.

'How's Lynx?' she echoed the question, even though it was what had been asked of her. She reached out to sense him again, but apart from currents of power running through him and the Library obviously doing whatever it did in calibration... she could discern nothing. Which only meant she didn't understand yet what was happening.

"I don't know. The Core is currently trying to figure out how much we can trust Lynx with, how deep the interference lies, if and how much he's being compromised, and it's just a big cluster." She sighed and tugged at her ponytail.

What was with the loaded questions lately?' Everyone was asking her big things, like, 'How is Lynx?' and 'How do you feel being a genetically modified person?' She sighed. She felt pretty great, actually. Overwhelmed wasn't the right word. She'd been alive a relatively short time. In that time, there were things that she needed to accomplish. Finish school, get into college, finish college. But now she was her own person and her own guider of destiny. So what she needed to do was figure out the order in which she wanted to do things.

"You know, Malakai, I'm really glad you came to find me." She said, idly making two smooth ice balls appear in the palm of her hand. They were like fidget toys. They soothed her when her mind went into overdrive. Which had happened relatively frequently since the synchronization.

Malakai raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah. So how about you sit here with me and help me figure stuff out?" This... rare though it was, the downtime in the Library with the hum of people all around them, learning magic, discussing texts and methods... yeah this was what made the Library home.

"You realize I'm sort of a sword-wielding, jumping, and killing thing person, right? Not necessarily your intellectual type of delver."

Quinn laughed. "I think you're a lot more than you're giving yourself credit for."

"Fine," he said, a small smile playing on his lips. "I'll take you up on that. What, pray tell, my dear Librarian," he said with a flourish of his hands, "would you like my wisdom to assist you with?"

Quinn laughed. This was just what she'd needed, a breath of fresh Malakai. She didn't have to do everything herself, despite the fact that she could literally tap into everything. Because even if she tried to do everything herself and take everything up on herself, it would A. defeat the purpose, and B. exhaust her to a point where she'd probably become useless.

And very likely put her in a really bad mood.

Yay for logic.

"Okay," she said, clapping her hands together and pausing as Dottie trotted up to them. "Hey, Dottie."

I thought you might enjoy some company. Both of you," Dottie added at the last as an afterthought as she spied Malakai. Aradie chose that point in time to swoop in and sit on Quinn's shoulder.

"Where have you been?" Quinn scolded the bird. "I've been going nuts trying to figure out how to approach some things, and you've been galavanting around."

Aradie looked her pointedly in the eye.

"Fine. I'm very glad you were taking care of our little friend. Is he doing okay?"

Aradie nodded. She didn't even hoot.

"Okay then. First things first. We have to identify the missing restricted books and see if we can trace them, and thus, if that's going to help us fix the system. So, Malakai. What did the assistants see? How much did you guys gather, information-wise?" Quinn dismissed the ice balls and got down to business. Maybe it was odd, but she missed their cool presence as soon as they were gone.

"We have three new book names apart from the ones that we already had. There are some more memories that we're going to have to filter through, but overall, here are the three names. Chmlienko's Guide to Dimensional Complacency, Channeling Elemental Energy as Life Force, and Creation's Bane of Chaos."

Quinn cringed because none of those books sounded like they were particularly friendly to their current cause. "Well, that's three of them. How many more do we still have to identify?"

"Well, apart from the two Milaro listed, we still need three? No, I think it's five," Dottie said. "I believe there are another five of them missing."

"Have you been in the restricted vault?" Quinn asked, somewhat surprised that the bench got around so much.

"Multiple times," Dottie said proudly. "Many, many years ago, but I do believe there are a couple more missing. I think I'll gladly take on this task."

"Really? Awesome. I'll put you in charge of it. You can take that, and Malakai will teach me how to kick some butt and take some names." Quinn grinned despite already feeling fatigued at the prospect of how much work he'd make her do.

"Kick butt, take names? You're not making any sense, Librarian," Dottie said, shaking her head. "Sometimes I think you don't eat enough and there aren't enough electrons running around in your brain."

Quinn laughed. "Oh, I think Cook would definitely disagree with you on the eating front. I eat more than my weight in his creations."

"Anyway, I will take on the books," Dottie said.

Quinn could tell that the little bench felt very important for doing so. "Thanks, Dottie."

"No problem. I will enlist a few assistants and we will methodically go through the rest of the memories. Rest assured, Librarian, you can count on me."

That gave Quinn room enough to breathe. "Fantastic! OK, so that means we have to list out the culinary books. Can you access that, Malakai?"

"Yes, you're missing... You're looking at Honour Among Pies: Regeneration at its Finest, Making the Most on the Road: A Field Cook's Guide to Culinary Reinforcement, Emergency Supplements and the Taste Palette, and then the last one I think we're missing is Dire Consequences of Misusing Monster Parts, How to Avoid Pitfalls."

Quinn blinked at the complex names of the cooking books. She turned her attention to the HUD and frowned. "OK, and if we ask the system to locate where the books are, they don't seem to be anywhere being kept by anyone. It could be a whole plethora of things. The last few centuries could have seen the ancestry die out, or get robbed... who knows."

But she sat back contemplating her lists of actions. Dottie would take on the memory delving for titles with the birds and assistants. Malakai would help her train, and locate the last of the culinary books. They'd locate all the books, figure out what the deal was with Tenejo, and everything would start clicking into place.

She jumped up from the couch with a vigor she hadn't felt for a while. There were directions and purpose with clear goals set out now. "No time like the present to get stuff done!"

That was the plan anyway.

~~

Best laid plans, right bwah hah hah. Don't worry I won't be too mean

So yeah - Quinn will be summoning ice balls for multiple reasons from here on in

Much love

KT