“It should be around here.” As Kenji was busy daydreaming, the girl started looking around for the book he needed.

  “Ah, this is the one.” Holding the [Introduction to Skill], the girl turned to Kenji and asked, “Is this the one you are looking for?”

  “Mary needs a little help here.” Out of nowhere, someone called the girl.

  “If you need help with anything, come find me.” Reminding Kenji, Mary went to check up on the situation.

  As Mary went away, Kenji came back to his senses and kept staring at the book in his hands with hazy eyes.

  “Mary... What a beautiful name.” Unknowingly, Kenji followed behind Mary. However, as Kenji was not familiar with the Library, he couldn't find her.

  After a few minutes, the raging chemicals in his mind began to calm down, and he found a table to sit at.

  An hour later, Kenji went through some of the book, and his face had a look of realization.

  The book helped him understand a lot about Skills. In essence, skills are just ways of using Ki in such a manner that it produces great destructive power.

  Take [Ki Blade] for example, by concentrating Ki in his hand and letting it flow along the swing, it creates an energy slash capable of doing some real damage.

  However, it isn't as easy as it seems, and to truly learn a skill, a person needs to spend months if not years mastering it. Some complex skills can even take decades to master.

  This is where the [Skill Books] come into play. According to the book [Everything to Know about Skill Books], a Royal Mage with the knowledge of a Skill’s core working can create a [Skill Book] with a few spells.

  When a person uses a [Skill Book], the spells break, imparting information and muscle memory unto the user, saving a person from tons of hardships

  .

  However, skills can still be learned the traditional way, and this is how Kenji was able to perform [Ki Blade], an E-rank skill.

  “That's why……

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  …..

  No way….

  …… So easy.” Soon, Kenji was so lost in the book that he completely forgot about Mary.

  __________

  “How was it, did it work?” A man in a grayish-blue cloak asked.

  “....Seems like it.” Mary recalled the mesmerized expression that Kenji had while looking at her.

  “Good. Now that the hard part is over, everything else will be easy.” The man in the grayish-blue cloak was pleased.

  “What about the…….”

  “Don't worry, once you complete the task it will be arranged.”

  Mary was about to ask about the things that man promised, but he cut her mid-sentence and assured her that he would keep his end of the deal.

  __________

  “I need…to come here…more often.” Closing the book, Kenji had a strange calm feeling wash over him.

  Spending the last three years in a hellhole, he almost forgot what it feels like to learn something new.

  Putting the book back from where Mary got it, Kenji browsed the shelf to find a book containing some [Skills].

  However, he didn't find anything. All the books just contained information, ideas, theories, and vague descriptions of experiments. Not what Kenji was looking for.

  Kenji spent another half an hour at the library looking for Mary. But unfortunately, he didn't catch a single glimpse of her. So, he left.

  After leaving the Library, Kenji spent the rest of the day practising [Ki Blade].

  [Ancient Calendar: 1 Mar 0001]

  The next day after waking up, Kenji continued practising. Yesterday he was able to form [Ki Blade] two out of three times.

  Today hopefully, he would be able to master [Ki Blade] and use it on command.

  “Kenji, aren't you tired?” Maria asked, seeing Kenji practicing for hours in the backyard.

  “No.” Replying, Kenji got up and swung his dagger towards the sky. A sharp Ki slash shot out from the dagger towards the sky and dissipated after a few seconds.

  “Much easier…..” Performing [Ki Blade] this time, Kenji didn't feel any resistance, it felt natural.

  Spending a few seconds memorizing the sensation he felt when Ki flew out of his body, Kenji sat down to recover the lost Ki.

  After recovering all his lost Ki, Kenji again performed a [Ki Blade]. With each [Ki Blade] performed, Kenji's mastery kept increasing.

  Around evening, Kenji had mastered [Ki Blade]. To celebrate, Kenji took a shower and headed out.

  He heard from one of the workers that recently the Fairy had started selling burgers, and he wanted to try them for some time now.

  Unfortunately, when he got to the Fairy Market, the burger point had already closed, and he had to return on an empty stomach.

  “Kenji!!” Just as Kenji was on his way back to the housing complex, he saw Mary at the entrance of the Library, calling out to him.

  A few days ago, a man approached Mary saying that he could help her reunite with her brother, if she did something for him.

  At first she didn't believe him. But when he showed her a video of her brother fighting a monster, she had to. The task that the man wanted her to do was ensuring that the boy named Kenji acquired a certain Gift.

  Feeling that it was simple enough, she agreed.

  Yesterday, the same man returned. He gave her some sort of love potion along with a detailed plan.

  “Wow.” The moment Kenji laid his eyes on Mary, his heart beat accelerated, and with every step Mary took, she became more beautiful.

  “Did you find anything useful from the book yesterday?” Mary asked, trying to make small talk.

  “Y..yes.” As Mary came up to him, Kenji got extremely nervous, and out of shyness both his ears turned red.

  “Wanna grab something to eat?” Seeing that Kenji was having a hard time talking to her, Mary was honestly surprised by the effects of the love potion.

  “S..sure.” Kenji agreed without any hesitation. At this moment, even if Mary wanted to take him to hell, he would happily follow.

  Soon, Kenji found himself sitting in a Fairy restaurant with a table full of dishes.

  “Teaching kids isn't easy. Most of them don't even know how to speak properly, yet their parents expect me to teach them how to read and write. On top of that, I’m also supposed to stuff common knowledge of this world into their heads.

  I don't have a knowledge transferring machine. I can't just push a button and voila, every kid suddenly knows their letters and numbers.…. We should eat.”

  As the food was getting cold, Mary stopped and signalled Kenji to not hold back.

  __________

  Author’s Note:

  Read advance chapters on Patreon:

  patreon.com/BurningSunlvl99