Chapter 100: 2.50-The Arcanum

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Without further ado and detours, Avan and Jen arrived in front of the city library and stood in front of the rather inconspicuous building. The library reminded Avan a bit of the western town halls, with wooden braces and built in an old half-timbered way, while all the other houses in Tria seemed quite unimposing and mostly made of brick, or the richer craft houses by mana shaped stone without any joints.
The wing doors that served as entrance doors had on each half of the doors a left and right side of an open book, while crossed over the book was a quill. Some people in robes that looked suspiciously like researchers and scholars went in and out, while the right side of the doors remained open with a wedge.
Avan and Jen soon stepped through the doors and turned to the counter at the entrance, which was located on the right side directly behind the doors and was occupied by a sullen-looking young scholar with reading glasses. This young man seemed to have had a bad day, or even got up on the wrong side of the bed, and immediately looked even grumpier when he found the two new visitors in front of him.
"What? More of you adventurers who think you can cause trouble here?! The Arcanum doesn't take kindly to people treating our property with such disrespect! And if you don't want to pay the entrance fee of one gold coin per person per day, you can leave again immediately!" Came the brisk and immediate from the mouth of the young scholar, as he addressed Avan and Jen without further ado. "And no, don't even try to sneak in, use force, or make any other threats! The last group didn't fare well when one of our masters had to go out of his way to get the garbage out!" 
Jen looked at the young man indignantly and angrily, as if no one had ever dared to speak to her like that before. *Which is probably the case, if she is indeed a princess of this kingdom and that guy is a subject.* Avan smirked slightly to himself, then turned to the young man with a dangerous frown.
"Point taken." And fished out two gold coins to flick them directly at the annoyed scholar, who barely reacted in time, catching the two coins in surprise. "And another pointless threat to guests who haven't done anything to you, and you'd better be careful not to leave the house in the dark..." Avan added a threat to intimidate the cheeky young man a bit, without actually meaning it himself, because he had no desire or time to deal with such a stranger.
Without waiting for the angry scholar to turn red, Avan walked past the counter, dragging the gobsmacked Jen behind him. Avan himself couldn't say why he had overreacted so much, but the young man's behavior really got on his nerves. 
Jen herself had stared at Avan with wide eyes when the otherwise peaceful Avan had uttered such threats, and was simply silent and let herself be pulled behind him, slightly perplexed. 
After only a few steps, the two disappeared into the hallway and were soon standing in the entrance area to the library's interior. A circular room twenty meters in diameter opened up in front of them, and all the walls were covered with bookshelves several meters high, while only one other corridor led out at the opposite end of the room.  The bookshelves were easily 5 meters high and one could reach the highest books and scrolls only with the ladders standing around, while in the center of the room were round tables with small stools where quietly murmuring and whispering scholars were absorbed in their books. A glass dome lined the ceiling, revealing a slightly cloudy sky above the heads of all present and allowing bright daylight to flood into the interior.
Around the circular room in the middle there was a circular corridor, with evenly spaced doors leading to small reading and study rooms, which could be occupied and a small wooden sign hung on the door knob to show others that the room was occupied.
Avan looked around the interior of the city library somewhat in awe, since he had never seen such a magnificent medieval library on earth, and had only visited one or two university libraries in his life. Jen, on the other hand, didn't seem to think much of it, but didn't look disdainful either, just as if it didn't impress her and as if she had visited far more grandiose libraries.
"Let's each find a few books that interest us or help us for tomorrow's quest, and then meet in the left reading room there. What do you think?" Avan whispered softly to her, trying not to disturb the other visitors, while he already had several topics in mind that he would like to look up and find out about. Not only were there the obvious things like runes, the system of this world, magic, or other new things that he hadn't really been able to research deeply, but Avan was also looking for information about the other continents and especially dungeons of this world after having had the vision in the last Blood Dungeon.
Jen was still a bit lost in thought, but also had a few things to look up about runes after Avan surprised the whole group with them, and she especially wanted to find out more about what kind of magic Avan actually had. However, she didn't tell Avan about it, even if she didn't really do it behind his back, but she just didn't want to bother him with it and therefore wanted to educate herself. Avan's element was celestial, that much was immediately clear to everyone when they saw the glorious and otherworldly composition of his mana manifested in this radiant gold and silver. But that he could so effortlessly command floating objects of various forms, she had not yet encountered.
So the two of them separated to gather their own books on their subjects, and then met in one of the empty reading rooms on the left side of the building.

Avan was actually the first of the two to arrive in the reading room, over a dozen books stacked in his arms. From runes, to magic for beginners, to the guilds of Aorus, and much more. He had added an overview of all the guilds when this book caught his eye. The title "Arcanum, and the other guilds of Aorus", printed thick and bold, had literally stared at him, and he had wanted to read up on what this Arcanum was that the young scholar at the entrance had mentioned so boastfully.
With a thud, he set his two stacks of books down on the round table in the reading room. The room itself was comfortably paneled in wood and, like the entire library itself, was also round in shape, while comfortably upholstered benches were located all around the table directly against the wall.
Avan left the door open so that Jen could find him immediately if she was looking for him, and started with the first book in front of him, the "Arcanum, and the other guilds of Aorus", while he noticed for the second time that this book seemed to definitely emphasize the Arcanum more than the other guilds of this world, judging by the title.

"Welcome, aspiring scholar! Before we talk with the description and the general situation, responsibilities and activities of the guilds on Aorus, it is important to know a first overview."
"On Aorus, besides our own guild Arcanum, there are many others. It is important to understand that these guilds are divided into branch guilds and thus cover different areas. This book, for example, is most likely to be found in the hands of schools, universities or bookstores. All of these professions and institutions fall under the auspices of the Arcanum, which is found on all continents and, along with the other guilds, represents the true power in magic, military, and politics."
"The Arcanum deals with everything that interests our scholars and is dedicated to the purpose of science and knowledge. The Arcanum has the following branch areas:"
"Runesmiths, Enchantments, Schools and Instituions of this kind, Bookstores and Libraries, Magical Faculties, Archeologists and Researchers." 

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"All these and many more even smaller subordinate areas fall under the auspices of our guild, the Arcanum. With these areas, our guild covers the most areas on Aorus hab and thus has the most influence on the continents and in the Council of Guilds."
"Now let's move on to the other guilds and subcategories."
"The Blue Rose is run by merchants of all kinds, so it covers auction houses, alchemists, blacksmiths, and of course all merchants."
"Black Corvus is a secret society of assassins and contract killers that unites bounty hunters or headhunters, as well as assassins and mercenaries."
"The last big named guild is called White Feather and is the most widely represented, thanks to its adventurer guild and its influence in all layers of society. Under the White Feather fall the aforementioned Adventurer's Guild, an honor-focused Mercenary's Guild, Quests of the People, and System Quests. The latter is, to date, the only recorded way in history that the mana system of the world of Aorus has actually manifested and communicated with a guild outside of any individual."
"Besides these big-name and influential guilds, there are of course countless smaller ones scattered all over the continents, but which have no combined political, military, or magical might to speak for themselves worldwide."
"The greatest caution must be exercised when encountering these smaller guilds, as there are also countless institutions among them that act without code, honor or taboos and are only out for their own good at the expense of all others. Often, such nefarious underground guilds are also supported by dark deities, or worship them with bloody and abnormally evil rituals. These underground organizations and guilds, unlike Black Corvus, the great assassin guild, are always involved in the most shady maneuvers and usually want only one thing: total chaos or even the destruction of everything as we know it!"
"Side note: In addition to the large influential guilds, there are of course also large and small religions, which also have some influence, but almost always only care about their own deities and their goals and otherwise do not get involved in other matters, if it brings them nothing themselves or no quest of their god asks them to do so."
"Now that we have created a rough overview of the powerful guilds and the general structure, we can return to the Arcanum, since this book was written by us and we naturally believe that our work of seeking knowledge serves the highest purpose and should require the most attention."
"The Arcanum has existed since the dawn of our thinking and was one of the first established guilds to be formed by the most diverse knowledge seekers of this world. We research relics of ages long past, our mages are the most powerful and wise when it comes to magic already known or to be discovered, our runesmiths have been responsible for the greatest discoveries and developments since time immemorial, and our accumulated knowledge is passed on in books, scrolls, and universities and schools to various social classes and strata. We encourage talent, and we welcome first and foremost anyone who brings a thirst for knowledge and/or talent in any of the myriad fields!"
"Our guild is a haven of knowledge and research in history, magics, technology and philosophy. So if you got hold of this book under the curiosity and inquisitiveness, do not hesitate to join us and be tested on your magical or mental talents!"
At that very moment, Avan looked up as he heard a door click shut, and looked over at Jen, who had just closed the door behind her, smiling slightly. A nod was all the two gave each other as Avan continued to rummage through the book in front of him, seeing only out of the corner of his eye that Jen herself had also brought a handful of books and sat down across from him.
The book about the guilds of Aorus now tended to digress into the description of the individual subcategories and what all they had researched or what achievements they had all made. The other guilds were only mentioned in small sections when there was an overlap of the Arcanum's own achievements, but were otherwise not mentioned much in the rest of the book.
Smiling bitterly at this small collection of arrogance from the scholars of the Arcanum, Avan's lips fell open, especially when he thought back to the young scholar in the entryway. *No wonder the guy talked so pompously and down to earth, when they grow up like that and always see themselves as something better...* But at the same time, Avan couldn't quite dismiss the fact that all the realms of the Arcanum were undoubtedly among the most powerful when it came to sheer power. After all, knowledge was power, as Avan himself knew and had always believed. Through knowledge one could reach new heights, while others with inner talent and without knowledge and thirst for more eventually became lazy and stuck. No matter how much talent and ability someone possessed, without the urge for more and an inner motivation to develop further, everyone eventually fell by the wayside and became part of the normal population.
As he skipped through the remaining pages rather than actually internalizing each word, Avan soon closed the book and began reading the other books.
Runes for Beginners appealed to him the most, as well as Enchantments and other magical topics he had picked out. As he read through the rest of the books, his inner urge to become a rune master and use runes not only for casting spells, but also for enchantments, only increased. However, he also wanted to learn the art of blacksmithing, so that he could make the blanks for enchantments himself.
The interesting thing of all, however, was nevertheless some of the marginal notes in the books about runes, in which briefly and incidentally something like formations and seals were mentioned. Formations were a perfectly arranged collection of runes, much like Avan had used for his own designed spells, but permanently incorporated into objects like teleportation platforms. Sigils, on the other hand, were dimensions above all that. If runes represented individual letters of an alphabet and could be used to "write" entire sentences and pages, sigils were entire books and thick tomes filled with runes! A single sigil could describe runic formations or runes by the page, all of which were combined into a single system so complex that they made up a sigil. Sigils were more myth than actual knowledge, as there were only rumors about Sages who actually possessed the knowledge of sigils and their true power.
As Avan absorbed all this theoretical information like a sponge, he could not suppress an enthusiastic smile as he thought of all the possibilities and what could be possible with his memories of technology from Earth.
So, together with Jen, he read through all the books, each caught up and engrossed in his own topics, with only short breaks in between to take some dried fruit and water.

 

 

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