Chapter 12: The Study

Solo and Lulu were teleported to a stone room. The room was spacious and well lighted, despite the fact that it had no windows or torches on the wall; instead, there were tiny crystals inserted into the walls, ceiling and ground, which gave the impression it was broad daylight in the room.

The room was a study as it had one large table and an armchair. The table was made of mostly wood, and it was massive. It was large enough for even two people to use it. The surface of the said table was made of white stony material. The furniture had four drawers on its right side, but each had a tiny lock on them.

The room only had only a double door, which was currently open, and it was located right in front of the table on the other side of the room. The door was large, massive and thick; it was made of sturdy metal. One side of the door had a symbol resembling a sword, while the one on the other side depicted a shield.

The first thing Solo noticed was a few pieces of paper which were nicely placed on the table, right at its centre; as he took a closer tool, Solo also saw that Fayn was lying next to the pile of documents. The tiny girl didn't seem to notice that Solo and Lulu had arrived as she was sleeping.

"Wow, I didn't think she would write them down... I had the impression she would just tell me, well, this is better." Thought Solo as he walked over to his chair.

As he got there, he sat down and took a deep breath, intently waking Fayn up.

"Oh, sir, you are finally back... I am sorry, I fell asleep... Also, I hope you will find the details you have requested satisfactory... Unfortunately, the man seemed to have quite limited knowledge..." Stated the freshly waken girl

"I see, thank you... You may leave." Said Solo coldly, and looked into Fayn's eyes, then into Lulu's eyes.

The girls nodded and followed Solo's order. Fayn quickly flew onto Lulu's head and sat down. As for Lulu, she quickly walked to the door and closed it before leaving. As soon as the door closed, Solo leaned back and smiled.

"Yeah... this world is better than my previous one... Why would I want to go back, now that I think about it?! Alright, let's get to reading this... Wow, Fayn has such beautiful handwriting..." Mumbled Solo as he slowly grabbed the stack of documents.

Solo proceeded to read what Fayn had collected. No matter how well Fayn managed to use words to her advantage to give the impression that there was a lot of information, in reality, it was shallow. Although Solo read slowly on purpose, he managed to read it in a mere few minutes.

In terms of geography, he managed to learn about two countries. The kingdom of Balsum and the kingdom of Brinia. The kingdom of Balsum was mainly populated by humans, and they persecuted many other races, such as demihumans. As for the kingdom of Brinia, it was a multinational kingdom, but its current ruler was demihuman.

The forest in which the demihuman village and Solo's base were located fell into the territory of the kingdom of Balsum. Although a tiny part of the forest belonged to the domain of Brinia, the two countries had a non-aggression-pact with one another. But since the village was in Balsum's territory, they decided to eliminate it. Despite the agreement, border friction was a common occurrence; thus, the forest was called "Fricted".

Solo also managed to learn about three major powers which exist in the world and what they use in order to fight. The most common is Mana, used by mages. Unlike in Gates of Ardion, the Mana is drawn from the surrounding area, and its purity could have a detrimental effect on the spell. The second most commonly used one is Aura. It is the opposite of Mana. It is condensed within the user, and using it drastically increases the physical abilities of the user. As for the last one, it is Qi, the only information Fayn wrote was that the users are called cultivators, nothing more.

"Well... It really was quite limited... It didn't even say where these two countries are... Also, I want to learn more about these three classes... Wait... these are not exactly classes... Well, I am sure I will have plenty of opportunities in the future... I did send the lord and the mage home... I will pay the ma visit later..."

"More importantly, I have to come up with some sort of reward system. I believe both Lulu and Layn did well today, and I should give them some sort of reward to keep them motivated... But I am not sure what they might like..." Thought Solo as he started tapping on the table with his index finger.

He started looking around in the large empty room in order to search for inspiration. Minutes went by until he finally looked at the doors.

"A type of currency, which THEY can exchange for rewards... Yeah, it sounds plausible..." Mumbled Solo.

After a brief pause, he quickly grabbed the lock on the first drawer, which instantly opened. He then promptly looked into the drawer and put the lock on the table. The drawer was filled with sheets of paper, so he quickly grabbed one of them and placed it on the table.

"Now then... I will have to come up with a design, a material for this idea... I can't just use the currency which was used in Gates of Ardion, as that would be stupid... I need to make this one unique." Thought Solo.

Solo slightly leaned closer to the table, and in his right hand, a pencil appeared; however, he just kept on staring at the blank piece of paper. The room was so quiet that it was still audible at the other side of the room every time he tapped his finger on the table.