(CS) Chapter 12. D1 (Patreon)

Dinner was uneventful. Nisha was still in her Cooking club, and Zach had his own group, so Arik sat by his lonesome, eating his stew.

As soon as he’d finished his meal, he went to the main hall, and asked a receptionist if there was a library. She assented and directed him to a wide, open room on the first floor. He tried to thank her, but the sound didn’t come out. He tried again, confused, but again, no sound came out. She smirked and raised a finger to her lips, as if to shush him. She then gestured at the Essence Runes on the wall, likely some type of silence enchantment.

Arik shrugged and gave her an awkward thumbs-up. She gave him a weird smile and walked off.

Well, at least it’s nice and quiet here.

He walked to the shelf and started looking through some of the books, which were organized first by subject, then by author. He didn’t look for long, though, since he already had some books he wanted to read. Arik turned to inspect the space, and found a row of couches and coffee tables to one side, set up as a reading nook.

Arik ventured over and took a seat, pulling his books out of his bag and laying them on one table. On the bottom, he placed Bare-Fisted Knight, laying Path of the Paladin on top of it, followed by The Art of the Greatsword. A Guide to the Celestial went straight into Arik’s lap, and he turned right back to where he’d left off.

And so, Arik learned about stars, moons, planets, asteroids, and black holes.

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Arik had no reason to question the book, but it just didn’t make sense anymore.

Black Hole: An object with such great density and gravity that not even light can escape it. Black holes are invisible to the naked eye, and can only be observed through their distortion effects. Black holes can be smaller than other objects with similar density, but are known for their raw destructive power.

Essence: Black holes give off extreme Gravity and Radiance Essence, and also contain large amounts of Celestial Essence.

What?

Neutron Star: This Celestial body is what remains of a star that has died and gone supernova: a dead core. They are incredibly dense, and have powerful magnetic fields, which can result in the formation of pulsars: neutron stars that spew beams of Magnetic and Radiance Essence.

Essence: Neutron stars have extreme amounts of Magnetic and Radiance Essence, as well as large amounts of Gravity and Celestial Essence.

Supernova: A final act of destruction, carried out by a dying star. A supernova is the most destructive explosion ever.

Essence: Supernovas carry extreme amounts of Fire, Destruction, and Explosion Essence, and a high amount of Radiance and Celestial Essence.

How does a star even die?

There were countless other entries, covering numerous phenomena that he’d never heard of before, and honestly had no idea how anyone even knew they existed.

Arik closed the book. He’d need some time to think about what he’d read in there before moving on. He felt that it would be important for him to understand what was actually in space, before he learned about what gods ruled it.

He picked up The Art of the Greatsword and flipped to the first page.

The book had a number of styles relating to the use of two-handed swords, but mostly the greatsword. Arik’s favorite part was a breakdown of what the book called the “Five Master Cuts,” five attacks from Hulendorian martial arts that focused on quick motions. They were designed primarily for unarmored combat against other humans, but with enough Physique and limit, they could become effective even against Beasts.

The Art of the Greatsword was especially focused on teaching that the greatsword was not just a sharp club. Instead of its raw strength or length, the book highlighted its ability to change angles at a quicker pace than other swords might be able to. Sure, you might be able to cleave an enemy in two if you got enough force behind a strike, but you wouldn’t often be able to get a chance to generate such a wide swing. The Master Cuts helped with that, though. They provided options to avoid being parried and attack your opponent with heavy swings and thrusts at the same time. For the most part, they started on the shoulder, and expected to impact an enemy’s defenses, but they abused the angular momentum of the greatsword to turn it into a good thing.

All-in-all, it was a book that Arik would have to look over again if the Sword Fighting teacher chose not to teach. His current theory was that the teacher had some kind of weird teaching aura that increased the speed at which people around her learned sword skills for as long as she was in that bladedance.

Arik reached for the next book. Path of the Paladin explained most of the common styles that Paladins would pick. His, for example, was considered to be a more aggressive path, while others may choose to focus on spells or defense, or some combination of them.

He himself wanted to focus more on attacking and auras, and one of the first things that he read about doing that was that it was important to avoid just picking up every aura he could. In fact, it told him to just ignore the first couple, since they were likely to be ones he’d want to replace later on anyways, which would just be a waste of points.

In the same vein, it told him that any Strike or Smite abilities that were offered at 5th level were ones that he could probably just ignore. Of course, he knew there probably wouldn’t be any, unless his blessing handed him some, but it was still good advice.

The last significant thing it mentioned was that, while Paladins were most well known for melee spells and auras, it was important to keep in mind that sometimes the best solution to a problem is chucking ranged magick at it until it falls apart. Perhaps Arik would have to consider any ranged spells he might be offered in the future.

He waffled over skimming through The Bare-Fisted Knight at that point. He looked at a clock on the wall, which said that it was a bit past 21:00, giving Arik almost an hour before curfew. He was surprised by the time, but then again, he had been quite absorbed by the books, and there had been no interruptions of any kind within this silenced space.

Arik came to the conclusion that it would be wise to return to his dorm room and prepare for the night. It could be useful to read The Bare-Fisted Knight right away, he just didn’t think he’d need the information any time soon. With The Art of the Greatsword teaching me how to avoid guard-breakers and disarming strikes, I don’t think I’ll have any particular use for this book quite yet. Sometime, in the near future, I’ll read through it.

The Stellar Paladin headed up to his dorm room, none the wiser to what events were transpiring within the very walls surrounding him.