"Alright everyone! Let's start cleaning up the library!"

He divided the gathering of helpers into three groups: move, bug killer, rest. He put the move group in charge of transporting all of the tables, shelves, and books into one area within his library. Afterwards, the bug killer will move in to kill all of the bugs and throw their dead bodies away. The rest group will replace exhausted members of the other groups. With approximately 100 people working in this manner, it probably won't even take an hour. As stood aside and watch the move group get to work, Edgar walked over and patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm surprised. To think you'd make reasonable arrangements for my colleagues..."

"You... What do you see me as?"

"Before, you appeared as a parasite who saw us as nothing but aspect vending-machines."

"Vending machines? Not sure what that is, but how about now?"

"Now, I think you see us as clever puppets."

"I see that your hate for me is as strong as ever."

"Did you think otherwise?"

"After going decades or even centuries filled with nothing but contempt and toxicity from our military academy? I'd have to be some kind of hopeless, naive moron to believe that a few meetings would help me overcome your contempt. Stop treating me like an idiot. Having the people of Fortuna act like that towards me is already more than I can handle." After receiving a glare from him, Edgar took a surprising action: he smiled. This caught Alternis off-guard.

"Wh-why are you smiling? Are you secretly a masochi-"

"Absolutely not! How you came to that conclusion worries me a little about your future."

"Look, I'm just amused that even a student at the most 'honorable' academy had to go through experiences similar to our own."

"...It's not that surprising. Tier 0's are considered to be no different from trash. It's only because of Fortuna's government mandates; can't let people abuse potential soldiers to death. Rather than let people like us be killed by the common people, why not admit them into the academy and send them out to be worked to death in the front lines or the suffocating workshops. In the eyes of the people and the authorities, we're just tools to be used and thrown out."

"..."

The librarian did not think humanity had taken a turn for the worst as a whole. After suppressing his somber feelings, he asked, "If you're treated so poorly, what do the people at your academy teach you about the Moltimania?"

"...Besides maliciously forcing you people? Well, we were taught to never spend much time or effort on our unique quests and to stay away from technology at all costs."

"......Interesting. Very interesting."

"What about it?"

"The fact that the moving group is finished with their tasks and you failed to realize it."

"...!" He looked in the direction of his library and realized that he forgot to participate with the moving group. While looking at this sight, he observed a number of odd objects in the hands of the bug killer group. He turned to Edgar and asked, "What's with the weird metal bottles?"

"...They're bug sprayers. They kill bugs very efficiently. Go ahead and ask them to teach you how to use them. If you stay here and keep talking with me, those helpers will lose their motivation and walk away from you."

"Right! Thanks for the hard work moving group! Go ahead and take a 20 minute break! As for the bug killer group, I'll be joining you guys!"

As Alternis actively mingles with the assistant, Edgar stared at this sight while ruminating on his conversation with him.

Around three hours later, after actively leading and assisting his helpers, he finally completed all of the tasks that were listed on the quest log.

"Yes! We did it!"

"It went by so fast!"

"It's completed!"

He brought up his quest log and confirmed it.

"Congrats, you've managed to complete everything within only a couple of hours. Although, that's only thanks to the willingness of all my co-workers."

He looked at Edgar and agreed with him. If the librarian aspect was considered to be more useful and popular, then a lot more people would have visited and taken up a lot of helpers. In this situation, he wouldn't have even managed to recruit more than five helpers, the absolute minimum amount of help provided to each participant. All of this assumes that the Unique Quest doesn't require the users to complete at least some of their tasks all by themselves.

He turned his sight back to the people who helped him reach this point. This quest turned out to be one of the most pleasant times he ever experienced in his life. Whenever he asked them questions, they didn't snub and insult him five times before deciding whether to answer his questions, but instead patiently explained and further demonstrated the info that confused him. They were the best teachers he met by a remarkable margin in his entire life. He dearly wished that they could've been his teachers at the academy instead of a certain sunflower or the cold, distant adults. After comparing his experiences of both his days in the academy and the hours spent on this quest, it was no different comparing night to day respectively; to even think of comparing them is an insult to both Edgar and his wonderful colleagues.

He stepped out of his thoughts, looked at his library, and announced to everyone, "Thank you very much for being this accommodating to me. Due to all your efforts, what should've taken around two weeks, actually took only a few hours. I also want to express my gratitude for helping me complete all of my additional requests."

Some of the people looked back into the library to see the small potted plants placed on the tables and the circular desk filled with office supplies, such as writing utensils, papers, folders, etc. There were also signs posted onto the bookshelves and hanged from the ceiling. The other people looked back at himself and started asking questions.

"We didn't mind doing the extra stuff, but what are they for?"

"Why did you decide to complete all of the tasks in the first place?"

"I heard that you tra- *ahem*, students like to only complete one of the tasks before finalizing the facility as their aspect and quickly move on to other aspects. Why do this?"

"...These are all good questions, I'll answer them one by one. First, the signs help me to keep track of the different types of topics that the books record info about, such as Magic, Close-Quarters Combat, Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, etc. The circular desk is to help me keep track of every single book that exists within my little library and their precise location.

As for why I decided to not go along with my classmates' behaviors, it's because all I wanted to do was prove my pathetic teachers wrong. They did everything to teach us that the Moltimania and everything inside it are only tools for us to quickly use and throw away. They also taught us to stay away from technology and just do our best to get all of the aspects we can get while only completing one or two tasks, since they would make us weak and waste our time respectively.

Everyone said that only by listening to these teachings, would we become as 'strong' as them. Yet, we are still nowhere near achieving the Golden Age that our ancestors achieved twice, and our teachers and government leaders were barely able to ascend once or twice. If everything they taught is correct, then why do we keep failing to reach the higher tiers that our ancestors easily did in our history books?

As time passed with no answer appearing before me, my doubts had only increased with no end in sight. It was when I realized this that I decided to go against the fold and do one experiment before conforming to the university’s mandates. If I succeeded, then there’s no need to even consider listening to those horrid people."

After his explanation, the people couldn't help but discuss loudly in disbelief. Throughout their toxic interactions with the people of the kingdom, they made some predictions about how their nasty relationship with them came to be. However, the reasons were evidently more grim than they thought.

Even Edgar couldn't prevent himself from quipping, "You were right to follow through with your doubts. Otherwise, you would've irreparably jeopardized your own path and future, just like your so-called 'strong and respectable' teachers. Hard to believe that nobody had doubts about the situation like you did."

"......"

"Then what are your thoughts on technology? Will you still stay away or..."

"If what you said about those nobles are true, then there's no way I'll continue staying away from them. Clearly, something's wrong about this entire situation and I'm getting to the bottom of it."

Upon hearing this, Edgar smirked and said, "Then you'll do just fine. Just hurry up and complete the quest, we want to see the results of all our efforts."

He nodded and turned back towards the quest log. Upon reading his intentions, a prompt showed up in front of him.

"Yes."

The door to his library suddenly closed by itself and the key floated out of his pocket and inserted itself into the keyhole. Then it turned itself and locked the door. As all of this was happening, Edgar and his assistants reminisced with each other about the good times they had with Alternis-

"I bet 20 coppers on the kid getting a Rare-Ranked Library."

"Are you kidding me? Everybody helped him complete all of those tasks, there's no way he's only getting a Rare-Ranked Library. As the boss, I declare that he'll obtain a Special-Ranked Library for 40 coppers."

"You may be our boss, but you're still too young and inexperienced. I bet 1 silver coin that he'll obtain a Legendary-Ranked Library."

The people in this old man's surroundings became silent. In the elder's eyes, they were evidently silent out of awe and respect. How could they not have thought about this in the first place-?

"....pfft!"

"Ahahahahahahahaha! LEGENDARY!? After centuries of people failing to achieve this rank!?"

"I can count on two hands the amount of people who achieved that rank in ANY field! The old man has gone senile!"

"They all died with the two previous civilizations! Alternis may have worked hard, but there's no way he'll get legendary! What a riot!"

The elder, as the picture of intelligence and patience itself, was not deterred from his conviction. Instead, he calmly looked at his comrades, and said, "You impertinent brats! How dare you look down upon me! If you youngsters are so certain of your convictions, then bet against me! I'll take all of your silver coins!"

"Heh, you're on old man."

"You're gonna be in debt for at least a decade, you old geezer!"

As Edgar and the other librarians were participating in a respectable activity as befitting their stations, Alternis was focusing on the door and key as they both began to shine. As they became more bright and colorful, the material itself seemed to change from dusty charcoal to a dull metal. It continued to change materials: gray -> copper -> silver -> gold. Finally, after they changed to gold, the shine became brighter to the point of being a blinding white light. He and everybody else had to avert and cover their eyes.

After what felt like an eternity, the shine finally subsided, everybody slowly opened their eyes. After directing their sight to front, they finally witnessed a platinum door and key. After the key turned again, the platinum door turned into a million motes of light and were absorbed into the key, leaving behind the familiar-looking old decrepit door. The key dislodged itself from said door, and turned its tip towards Altneris's chest. It instantly sped up and disappeared into his chest before he knew it.

As he ran his hands all over his chest in a panicked attempt to check his fatal wound, he was overcome with an indescribable feeling deep inside his very being. He felt that he was becoming... more. He felt like his awareness, thoughts, and comprehension became clearer than ever before. He also felt energetic enough to run a marathon and still be left with energy to spare. As he was trying to understand these confusing feelings, he was interrupted by a notification. When he focused on it, he was internally surprised.

After surprise, came realization.

With realization, came relief and elation. He had finally done it. He proved those heinous leeches wrong. They all said that the undertaking wasn't worth the ability to quickly train in one or two skills. Those are erroneous conclusions; the aspects do so much more than just support skill progression.

They all continued to say that the quantity of aspects were so much more important than the quality, since everyone would get the same aspect quality no matter what. All of their careers were built on fallacies and inaccurate information. Now, he's on track to humiliate all of those scum for building their whole lives on a bunch of lies, experience schadenfreude at their expense, and experience the whole world on his own terms.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! A third of my monthly paycheck is gone!!!"

"This has to be a scam!!! A SCAM!!!"

"I'll have to starve myself on some days of each week..."

"Ahahahahahaha!!! This is what you get for your conceit, you little nitwits! Now the money is mine! All Mine!! I'M RICH!!!"

It seemed to him that there were cries of despair, the elated joy derived from schadenfreude, and a happy old man dancing in the midst of hopeless, corpse-like individuals. But surely, this languishing scene, a result from reckless gambling, is just a figment of his imagination. There's no way they'd do this while he's being moved by his rewarding venture. After all the time they spent working and talking to each other, he believes in their character; they are assuredly not doing any gambling at his expense.

With this peaceful and warm scene as the backdrop, he silently gives his thanks to the Goddess in a prayer for allowing him to accomplish so much.