"I'm sorry, but could you say that again?"

She must have misheard. After all, what she did was traumatize a little piglet in the most eye-catching, horrendous fashion. Why on Abellis would anyone seek her tutelage after witnessing her actions? As if reading her mind, Alternis answered, "Please teach me and help me obtain my Mana Tower Aspect! Your figure as you burnt away the filth from this world in this most agonizing fashion has inspired me to seek your guidance! Please accept me!" At the end of his explanation, he bowed his head towards her.

'.......I really don't want to, but it's my duty to help these students, provided that they don't try to physically persecute myself. This kid seems different, but we'll see if that's truly the case with time.'

"......I'm a strict teacher who'll work you to the ground. Even with my help, you'll be having a hard time. Are you still sure about this?"

"...That is exactly what I need. I need someone who can constantly help and encourage me to complete my tasks and develop my magic skills in the process. Only someone who doesn't take any crap thrown their way can do that."

"...Then come with me."

She walked over to a nearby desk, rummaged through the drawers, and took out a dull-gray key. It was similar to the first decrepit-looking key, except the body's shape was a diamond instead of a square. She guided him up to the upper floors of the tower and its numerous hallways. She finally stopped walking in front of an ordinary-looking black wooden door. She inserted the key and turned it, causing it and the door to shine subtly. She opened the door and threw the key over to himself.

"Welcome to your future Mana Tower Aspect."

Alternis entered first at her insistence and saw a room filled with countless lines and runes inscribed into its walls, floor, ceiling, and the eight pillars evenly placed in a circle with one bigger pillar placed in the middle. As he expected, the lines were worn away at various places. The various grooves traveling everywhere in the room were filled with all manners of gunk and mold. The last grim-looking decoration to this facility were the numerous magic crystals left strewn about on the floor. This place was as much of a garbage dump as his own library was at the beginning.

"Let me give you your tasks first."

"Do you have any questions or requests? You better voice them out before I search for four other assistants to aid you."

"Actually, I have one thing I need you to do for me."

He took out a letter addressed to Mystic Forces' Sage and handed it over to the woman.

"This is...?"

"It's a letter written for your boss. Would you please deliver it while you're out searching? I'll also go out and try to recruit more helpers."

"...Who wrote this? .........!!! Edgar!?"

To his surprise, the helper ripped open the letter and began reading its contents intended only for the sage.

"Hey! What are you doing!?"

He extended his right arm to take back the letter, but she waved her wand and blocked his attempt with a shield made out of air.

"Quiet down. There's no need to panic."

"You're not the Sage! Only she is allowed to read it!"

"Then luckily for you, you're in her presence right now."

"What...?"

He couldn't help but be confused. The information he learned with his aspect told him that the uniform the lady was wearing signifies that she is only one of the facility's many assistants.

"Let me introduce myself, my name is Adelle. I am the Sage and Master of this Mystic Forces tower. And I'm VERY surprised that you got the stubborn bookworm's endorsement."

"...Wait, you're the Sage!? Why didn't you tell me beforehand!?"

"You never asked, now be quiet for a second. He says that you're not downright scum... And he says that you are a hard-worker... You managed to get a good aspect!?"

The last piece of info within the letter surprised her the most, since the people nowadays preferred to order the helpers around and only complete a few tasks. Obtaining numerous Trash aspects is their raison d'être within Moltimania's Tier 1 Ascension Ritual. Their first interaction with each other eluded to this fact, but it's still surprising to meet a kid that went against this trend and achieved such unbelievable results. After organizing her thoughts, she folded up the letter and put it inside her robe.

"Alright, since you were heavily recommended to me by my friend, I'll come back with 20 assistants to help you. I would get more, but I first need to see you in action. How does this sound?"

"...Fantastic. I may actually finish all of these tasks and then some after a week or two."

"Considering your quality library aspect, you actually sound believable. Then I'll call for my assistants."

She tapped her staff onto the ground and a translucent blue bird appeared on top it. The bird jumped off, cloned itself into 20 separate birds, and flew out the door.

"While we wait, let me give you this tool."

She grabbed a small wand out of her robes and tossed it over to him.

"Whoa! Careful!"

"Eh, you'll be fine. Now since you have the library aspect and learned all kinds of things, explain how you use this magic tool."

"...Alright. This is an inscription wand, used to create magic circles, runes, and magical circuits onto any material. It is used as a training tool to help students create magic spells by writing magic circles into the air. After they're used to this, they move on to creating these spells my moving mana into specific patterns within the body. To use it, all one has to do is feed the wand their mana while making writing gestures with it. The mana circuits will be drawn the way the wand is directed."

"Excellent! As expected, its a perfect answer! Now get to it. I'll guide you on the side so that you don't make any mistakes."

With Adelle's guidance, the knowledge recorded into his [Last Cradle of Wisdom], his high mental and dexterity stats, he rapidly obtained and leveled up the [Enchant] skill. He was making decent progress on repairing the inscriptions, but with the eventual arrival of the helpers, the repairs were accelerated. It made his room look hectic, as many people were crawling and running around all over the place, repairing these inscriptions. He felt reassured that he'll be able to complete all of quest's tasks in a quick fashion.

He went back to fixing some runes in charge of transporting the mana from the channels to other runes. As he fixed more of these runes and the [Inscription] skill kept leveling up, he began to form a rough picture with his recorded knowledge within the library serving as the base.

'If I fully comprehend this aspect's enchanted system, would it be possible to further improve upon it? The base form of the aspects already have all of the tasks and pieces laid out for the user to perfect them. However, to get the [Legendary] rating like with the library, I need to be creative and do something more than what's required of me. In the Sadistic Collector, I was inspired by Edgar's neat organization of his books using signs and keeping records of every books' locations. In my groups' break time, I'll ask my teacher to give me a tour of the tower; perhaps I'll find my inspiration in this manner.'

At the end of these thoughts, he finished up his repair for the runes within a magic circle and moved onto another nearby set of worn-out runes.

Curious-Wanderer

In a lot of novels, skills represent sources of power that they add onto their owners; the owner with the high-leveled skills is powerful, but take them away and they become weak. The skills in this novel work a little bit differently: they represent their owner's level of understanding and experience with the skill's abilities. Of course, the skills also serve as tools to help the user execute its abilities and understand how its own mechanics work.

For example, a person with the [Fireball] skill can have a level above the person's own level of understanding of its inner-workings. However, as the person takes the time to feel the movement of the mana, how it's moved, and what pattern it takes as the skill is executed, the person comprehends more on the skill's execution and levels up the skill in the process.

This is why the Library aspect, when properly obtained, is so powerful; it literally allows the person to obtain skills and level it up easily, so long as the owner has the appropriate knowledge written into its records.