Stealing from...No copying from the library.

My idea was rather simple and complex at the same time. Basically, the reasons I couldn’t escape surveillance from the library were as such: the library logged which books I checked out, the library blocked magic, and the library logged skills that I gained when I returned.

I could ignore the last one, but the other two were problematic. First off, I saw several books which I couldn’t really check out without people noticing and being suspicious, and I couldn’t use magic to hide the fact that I took them, or to copy the books.

But, abilities weren’t blocked. I realize that I have the storage ability, which functions like an inventory, and so I could steal a book without being noticed, unless there was a check in place for suddenly missing books.

Then came the next part of my plan. I could devour the spell which caused magic to fail, and in the instant it was down, use it as a skill. Then, until I released it I could cast my spells. If that didn;t work, I could store the books and copy them inside of my inventory.

My plan was to scan the books from left to right, and detect where the paper, ink, and leather were, then make a copy of that like a 3d printer. This would be complex magic to use normally, but I could just learn it as a skill. Actually, now that I think about it I could have used that to bring my food back. I’m an idiot.

To test this out, I stored a small amount of ink, and a piece of paper, and spent the next hour trying to write hello inside of the space on the piece of paper. Eventually I was successful, and gained the skill and an ability augment?

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New skill: Spatial storage manipulation - the ability to manipulate objects stored in a spatial storage. Objects can be moved, modified, or stolen depending on the defenses of the storage, skill level, and target awareness.

Ability augment: Storage space - storage space has upgraded from 15 storage slots, to 17. Storage space has gained the ability ‘modify’

Modify: The user can interact with objects stored in this storage space.

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That’s awesome, now all I need is to learn the vibration skills. I practiced the scanning spell, the vibration spell, and the sense vibrations spell.

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New skill: Scan - scan an area or space, the parameters, sensitivity, range, and spread of the scan is variable and based on mana input and intent.

New skill: Cause vibrations - vibrate an object or entity, the intensity of which id dependant on mana input and intent.

New skill: Guide vibrations - vibrations can be guided to avoid or pass through objects or spaces.

New skill: Sense vibrations - The user can sense vibrations and their intensities within the field targeted.

‘Devour’ has leveled up!

  Ability augment: Devour - Can now repeat ‘devour’ on a skill to level it.

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Woah! My devour skill leveled up! That’s actually kind of cool, but it’s a distraction for now. I packed up my belongings and set out on my grand quest to steal from the royal library.

I arrived at the library like normal, turned in my books, and had my skills checked, before I walked deeper into the library.

Being in the middle of the library, I used devour on the space I was in.

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New skill: Block spellcasting - Blocks spellcasting up to a certain level and mana cost, decided by the user when used. Size and strength decided by mana input and skill level.

New skill: Detect spellcasting - Notifies the caster when a spell is cast within the perimeter of the spell.

New skill: Magic wall - magic walling, which resists attacks and damage up to a certain limit, based on mana input and user intent.

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After I used my devour ability, all of the enchantments shut off, and I didn’t feel them come back until twenty seconds later. I waited for a bit, and it seemed like no one noticed what I did, so I made two decisions. One, I’m going to copy all cool or important looking books in my first run, and second I will quickly level in this very room.

I walked to a book that looked rather interesting, it was a large grimoire about healing magic. I deactivated the room’s spells, scanned the book, and moved onto another section. I found a book about combatting black magic, and scanned that. Next was a book with necromancy, which I also scanned, and a tall book made up of complex spells for war. It was scanned.

I scanned several collections of research papers, and two books about spellmaking. Next was a book about enchanting, which I also copied. I had four slots left, and so I copied a book about curses, a book about herbs and magical plants, a book about golemancy, and a book with magic for combatting demons. Once everything was copied into my inventory, I moved onto just taking the spells from the room repeatedly.

I spent about two hours in the room, and reached level 18 on all the room’s spells, which was amazing. A skill had twenty levels to itself, and normally one had to master it to even get half of that. A spell actually did something, a skill was just knowledge and experience with said spell or ability, alongside some powers for it, just to note.

With everything that I had gained, I returned to my room to see a piece of paper on the door. It said that my room had been changed, and gave me some information about cooking for the king in a month. Just what I needed.

I ran down to my new room, which was rather far from the others but closer to the library, and when I arrived I found Ulleah waiting there.

“Hey hey!” I said as I entered, and she slightly smiled before returning to normal. I sent her out to get dinner, and began to try to spread my soul. My plan was rather simple. I wanted to be able to make food on the level of special plants and potions, food that could raise someone’s stats. First though, I want to be able to raise my own.

I read through the necromancy book as I worked on sensing my own soul, and Ulleah returned while I was reading so I hid the book.

“Hey, did you like those carrots the other day?” I genuinely wanted to know, you know? Like, she seems to be part bunny, so does she like carrots more than meat or not?

“Yes.”

“Compare it to steak.”

“Pretty much the same.”

“Interesting...” So for her, I assume that foods rabbits like are also likeable to her, and that combines with what humans like? I don’t really know.

“What’s your favorite color?” I decided to ask some miscellaneous questions as we ate to pass the time.

“Red.”

“How old are you?”

“17.”

“Okay, well ask me a question.”

“What’s your favorite color.”

“Psssshhhhhh, blue, no purple. Yeah purple. Or green. Okay, well try asking a question I haven’t already asked?”

“..What’s your favorite food.”

“Hmm. A wise sage you are..That’s hard, but probably eggs. My dad made some good eggs, scrambled eggs, omelettes, tuna. You?”

“Cabbage, cabbage stew is pretty good.” SHe said, with a bit more enthusiasm than any of her other answers.

“Really? Well, what’s your favorite dessert.”

“Cake. Definitely cake.” She seemed far more comfortable with food?

Seems that she likes food? “Well, would you be willing to help me become a master chef?”

“Sure.”

“I might need someone to do taste testing. That would be needed, but if you want I can find someone wh-”

“I’ll do it! Anything you ask of me I’m ready to do.”

Ah, it seemed she was trying to hide her excitement eh? Well then…

“No no, I could see if it troubles you. I mean, I know that if I-” I decided to tease just a little.

“It’s no trouble.” She seemed on the verge of begging, so I decided to stop messing around.

“Okay then, you are the official taste tester.”

She accepted the role as she hid her excitement, and I decided to let her go to sleep like that. I placed our dishes into a dish bin, and went to sleep.

‘Wait, dish bin? That’s where she’s been putting the dishes? It just cleans them? Instantly!?’ I realized that I needed magic in the other world. Imagine if you just had to use a box to do your chores…

I stopped ‘sleeping’ and saw her laying down, so I began to practice my new skill. I repeatedly felt my soul, and began to spread it out to the verge of my consciousness collapsing, holding it there. I absorbed the skill, and it collapsed.

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New skill: Soul distribution - the user can move and manipulate their soul, to the limits of their consciousness and death.

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Now that I had this, I decided to practice into the night. I repeatedly distributed my soul to its limit, and held it as long as possible. Having your soul distributed across a large space was pretty much like sleeping, as your consciousness was so thin it couldn’t do anything, and my body was asleep.

I did this the entire night, and was woken up by Ulleah in the morning. She had breakfast already, and so we ate. With that being done, I discussed her new duties.

“Okay. as my fellow researcher, I need you to be diligent. This means three things. If you get tired, you can take a break, and can continue my research into the outdoors. Second, instead of bringing meals, you can bring ingredients, but you need to help me come up with a meal. Third, keep being awesome. Got it?”

She just nodded, and we finished eating. I sent her out to research the outdoors, and she would return at lunch with ingredients.

I noticed that I had a grilling space, a counter, and some cabinets, pretty much a whole kitchen, in my room. Obviously I noticed it before, but I was more interested in my research and Ulleah than it.

I began to read other sections of the book about necromancy, as well as the book about curses. Over the next four hours I learned a lot about both, but the necromancy and curse spells usually required targets to demonstrate their effects. Oh well.

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New skill: Drain life - drain vitality from target, dependant on skill level and mana input.

New skill: Curse other - apply a target curse, the strength and conditions of which are created and designed by the user, and based on mana input.

New skill: Detect curse - detect curses, the level and strength of those that can be detected is decided by skill level and curse proficiency.

New skill: Remove curse - remove a curse below or up to a certain level, based on skill level and mana input.

New skill: Curse object - curse an object, the strength and conditions of which are created and designed by the user, and based on mana input.

New skill: Curse magic - use curses as any other magic class, shaping and controlling them.

New skill: Debuff Curse - apply a debuff to a target’s stats, the strength of the debuff is dependent on mana input and skill level.

New skill: Control undeath - control undeath energy.

New skill: Reanimate dead - revives a dead target as an undead, level and degree of undead based on skill level and mana input up to a certain level.

New skill: Control soul - allow for a soul to be manipulated, range and degree dependant on skill level, mana input, and mana control.

New skill: Absorb soul - absorb power from a soul.

New skill: Forge soul - shift or change a soul, the degree and strength of which is dependent on skill level and mana input.

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These were pretty cool skills to have, but with a low level in curses and the spells in general, they weren’t extremely useful. Ignoring that though, I looked at manipulating undeath energies and particles.

‘You can detect curses, but what about energy particles. What about hidden in mana?’ I began thinking about methods to manipulate and control others with mana particles. If particles were controlled instead of a person directly, and they were used to interfere with the brain or its signals, or even to puppet their body around, then most people wouldn’t be able to detect that they were being controlled.

I began to think that up, and Ulleah appeared with ingredients.

“Welcome! So senior taste tester, what will I be making today?”

“Soup, chicken noodle soup.”

I looked at what she brought, and saw noodles, chicken, and some veggies, so I began to make soup. It was an unexpected first request, but I worked with it, and made some delicious food. I also made sure to steal my own cooking skills, as a skill, resulting in one failed dish, but eh.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. They call me the miracle chef.”

“Really!”

“Yeah, they said I manage to make even the easiest recipes taste horrible. Thanks for becoming my taste tester, I asked half the building and they said no.” After I said that, Ulleah’s face lost its joy, and she seemed to fear what was to come.

“That was a joke. I’m pretty good.” I told her after a few minutes of her dress accumulated. I served the dish, and we ate. How did I cook it so fast? Magic, literally, and it was pretty dang good.

Ulleah seemed to have enjoyed it, and so I sent her to research the outdoors once more. While she was away doing that, I began to investigate the book of magical plants and researched spellcrafting.

I learned all of the basics of spellcrafting, and created a basic spell that did nothing to learn the spellcrafting skill. Then, I moved onto more advanced aspects after that, and did the same thing. Of course, I learned the fundamentals, but this still made the whole process easier, and with a skill I could either do it or I couldn’t, I didn’t have to finnick around to find out.

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New skill: Craft spell (Basic) - creates a new usable spell

New skill: Craft spell (Advanced) - creates a new usable spell

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Anyways, that took a few hours, but I learned the fundamentals of what improved one’s mana capacity, level, and stats in general. I attempted to apply this to energy particles, and it shouldn’t have worked as the particles immediately broke apart, but I learned a skill from my ability, which forced that to be possible.

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New unique skill: Apply permanent stat buff - applies an attribute to an object, which causes a permanent stat buff to be applied to those who use or consume it.

New unique skill: Apply temporary buff - applies an attribute to an object, which allows for a stat or level to be temporarily boosted when consumed.

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With this being done, I would be able to try combining my cooking skill and my new unique skills, so that I could attempt to become a chef for the heroes. My end goal is to find out who in the kingdom is on what side, heroes included, and eliminate whoever I disagree with. Why? So everyone else can enslave and kill, but I can’t undo it?

Anyways, with that being done it was time for me to begin testing my new skills on Ulleah…

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