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nWalking up to the balcony, Tyler was surprised to see snow in the demon continent, for some reason he had assumed the place wouldn’t snow even though he had noticed the weather getting colder each day.

nThe wind blew past him and he felt a slight chill. It wasn’t as bad as he expected so maybe he had some cold resistance. He would have to schedule a test for things like that pretty soon, it was too bad he didn’t have a system or something that could help him measure his stats.

nHe walked back into the room and tried to renter the library but the door wouldn’t budge. “Worth a try I guess.” It was a bit far-fetched but, for some reason, he had associated opening the library door to first going to the balcony and back since that had been his routine the two times he had entered the library.

nHe sighed deeply before activating his magic vision and sure enough. There were layers and layers of advanced magic runes on both the door and its frame.

nNaturally, he couldn’t understand them but recognize some runes that confirmed his theory. The door was connecting the massive library that was located in a different dimension to this plane and the spell must be getting weaker, which is why the connection was unstable.

nUntil he could learn some advanced magic runes about concealment and dimensions, he would have to wait for the connection to restabilize itself.

nStaring at the dozens of scrolls scattered on the floor alongside his now torn shirt, he let out a yawn, there must’ve been over a hundred scrolls on the ground which gave an inkling of satisfaction.

nFeeling a little stiff from being cooped up in the library for so long he decided to take a bath, it had been a while. Since it was currently dark out he felt like he could take it easy this night before he had to deal with the troublesome situation outside again tomorrow. He also needed to think of what to do with the group from the settlement as well as the others.

nNow that, he was feeling a lot more confident, he felt like he couldn’t just leave them be. Even if he no longer needed to stay here, he would need to set them up in a safe location. “This requires some investigation.” He unconsciously said out loud. He walked into the bath and spent almost an hour just relaxing and not thinking about troublesome things.

nAfter getting out of the bath he realized he had no towel and needed to air-dry himself. ‘I need to go shopping, maybe the so-called winged city or the distant sun city might be better.’ He thought as he walked into his closet to get one of the other brown shirts and brown pants procured for himself a while back only to witness a different situation here than when he left it.

nThere were more clothes here now than before, he also recognizes some of them from Albert’s spatial space. His brows twitched, ‘I thought I locked the door.’ sprinting to the door he was surprised to see it open. Now that he thought about it the room was sparkling clean, not even a peck of. dust could be seen anywhere. He frowns a bit as his mind raced.

n‘Did I let to my guard down? What exactly were they trying to do? Do they know about the library? Damnit I was too much in a haste. What should I do now? If they are after the secrets of the castle since they can’t enter without me should I kick them out?’ He scratched his head as various thoughts went through his mind at once increasing his paranoia.

nTyler walked back into the closet and got dressed. He wore a black shirt, white pants, a grey boot, and an equally black fur coat. They were all clothes of decent quality and the style was simple enough for him, he could even tell the boots and belts were ordinary magic items.

nHe looked at the clothes in the closet again and thought. ‘Why would they leave all this behind if their aim was the library, wouldn’t they rather just leave the room as is so I wouldn’t find out… Mmm… Did they only enter to clean? Then where would I say I was, knowing them they might not even ask. Mmmm this is most likely the case but I should still take some more precautions, I guess I’ll have to use my new skill earlier than expected.’

nWith that settled he was relieved, he didn’t need to bother with the topic again and could just focus on the future. Since the people from the settlement said they’ll obey him, he might as well put them to good use. ‘I wonder if they have any rogues amongst them, I should ask them about that, it would be good to have them scout the surroundings. It’s high time I stop being passive, it has only brought me problems.’

n‘Mmm… This may be temporary but I should fortify this place as much as possible. Even with the barrier, it’s always better to be cautious.’ Tyler made plans on what he would like to do next, he would have to visit the nearest city soon to gather more valuable information and even earn some capital. It didn’t matter which world it was money was always an important factor in any culture.

nThe only difference was how money was earned. Strength in this world made earning money a lot easier so he should be able to earn quite a lot with his current strength. He also had a few reasonably strong fighters amongst the residents of the settlement he could put to use. “I should have the old guy compile a list of everyone’s strengths and weaknesses for me. That should help me make better use of them.” Tyler had a slight smile on his face as he was feeling quite pleased with himself.

nHe took a seat on the now sparkling clean sofa, before taking out the items he had in his current pants pockets and held them in his hands. He was going to place them in his new special storage ring as a test on how it worked. He thought about placing the items inside the ring and focused on them. It didn’t take him long to figure it out as the items faded out of his hand like they were erased out of existence.

nHe then stared at the scrolls in front of him and extended his arm to them. He wanted to see how far the range of the ring was and if it could store anything. Focused on the scattered scrolls, he activated the ring and all the scrolls soon faded away. It seemed he could store things from a distance but it took Mana. Storing the artifacts earlier hadn’t so he was intrigued to learn more.

nHe tried to store the desk in the room but it seemed it was too far, the range wasn’t that impressive. ‘Mmm… I wonder if I can distort the distance between me and the desk so I can store it.’ It seemed further experiments were needed and other factors might be able to affect the rules of the ring. Just as his thought was starting to wonder though, it was quickly jolted back by a loud sound.

n*Knock. *Knock. *Knock.

nA knock came from the door the moment he was done placing his torn shirt in his storage space as he thought of various possibilities. Tyler didn’t bother getting up this time, they had already entered the room before so it made no sense to stop them now. He raised his voice slightly and told the person outside to enter. However, he was stunned by what happened next.

nThe moment the door was opened he could no longer find the door to the magic library. It was like when he had first walked in here and thought maybe he hadn’t noticed it, but now it seemed the door had some sort of concealment placed on it. His drive to study everything about concealments spells went up a notch.

nWhen Albert entered the room he saw Tyler sitting leisurely on the sofa in the room as if in thought. He had also changed his clothes and Albert was please he didn’t look pissed at the fact that they entered his room without permission.

nTyler saw Albert enter the room and bow before him, it seemed he had noticed Tyler’s absence and had most likely sensed his return when the aura of the ring merged with his. Albert spoke cautiously and informed Tyler about the situation outside in the forest and the first image that came to Tyler’s mind when he heard that was of the frozen magic beast he had seen in the forest.

nThat reminded him, he still had the magic crystal from the beast and the dagger of the dark elf girl which he should probably return. He had kept the dagger in the drawer of the desk in this room before he entered the library and had taken the magic crystals with him which were now in his storage ring. He was quite lucky as the two crystals he had used in the library were from the magic beast from the settlement.

nHe still had the one from the frozen beast in the forest that was purer and had more energy, he was interested in researching the best way to use it and didn’t want to waste something so valuable. He had also placed the remaining crystals in his storage ring to be safe, there were five left in total. Albert also proposed to Tyler what they should do next which Tyler was intrigued by.

nSending a small group out to investigate was what Tyler also wanted and he immediately agreed but it was already too late to send them out right now. Most of the creatures in the forest would move around at night and with the extra activities going on in there it would be too dangerous to send anyone in. Tyler turned to face Albert as he said. “Alright prepare the team you think can handle this, I’ll send them out first thing in the morning.”

n“At once sir!”

n“Also, compile a list of everyone in the castle for me, including all their skills and abilities, can you do that?”

n“Of course, it is only natural for you to be aware of all the abilities of your underlings.”

nWith that Albert swiftly left the room to get everything set up by morning. Tyler sighed as he thought of the conversation he had just heard and realize something. The forest outside was incredibly valuable. It might even be of equal value to the Great Five as the magic library.

nThis meant they didn’t just camp there to keep an eye on the castle but to make claim to a section of the forest. And to enable them where these so-called safe zones. If he wanted to limit the spread of information on the happenings of this region to the Great Five, he might have to kill the scouts and maybe even find a way to render these safe zones unsafe as he didn’t have the manpower to manage such a large forest.

n“Manpower huh? That’s not something I can increase so easily, Perhaps I need to learn some summoning spells. Hmm, I should research it first.”

nFirst of all, he should learn more about these four kings, perhaps even find a way to subdue them, killing them may not necessarily be the best option with the amount of commotion just killing one had caused in the forest, killing another would be a disaster.

n“It all boils down to a lack of information, setting up an information network should also be a priority.”

nTyler thought out loud as he rested his head on the sofa, he wouldn’t be able to rest well for a while so maybe he should now. After expanding his Mana body and giving the abundance of Mana within him some room to breathe, he had felt a false sense of vigor but now he was exhausted again and he slowly drifted asleep.

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