Borrowing Books

Every game had its own unique features.

In Magic Martial Era, cards were the greatest feature, the core of this game world.

Cards, also known as Mystic Cards, came in countless varieties and served different functions. The most common were Weapon Cards, Summoning Cards, Sealing Cards, Skill Cards, Trap Cards, Storage Cards, Currency Cards, and so on.

After a Weapon Card was used, it could summon a weapon.

A Summoning Card could summon a demon pet.

A Sealing Card could seal the soul of the deceased.

A Skill Card could unleash a skill.

Trap Cards were used to create traps.

Storage Cards contained their own independent space.

Currency Cards were used to make payments, conduct transactions, and clear shopping carts.

Put simply, cards were portable storage devices. Whatever was stored inside determined what type of card it was.

Cards varied in quality and strength, which were divided by star ratings. One star was the lowest, with each higher star rating being stronger.

Winning over Luo Hongyan could earn him a random six-star card. Cards of that rating were already extremely impressive; any one of them would be worth a fortune.

"Even if it's just for that six-star card, I have to win Luo Hongyan over!"

Fan Lang was brimming with fighting spirit.

No matter what world one was in, picking up girls required strength. Without strength, everything was empty talk.

At this stage, improving his strength remained the priority.

Once Fan Lang had enough strength, it would no longer be him reaching above himself for Luo Hongyan. Instead, Luo Hongyan would be the one reaching for him!

Fan Lang took a deep breath and temporarily put Luo Hongyan out of his mind. Following his memories, he strode toward the City Lord's Mansion's library, which contained all manner of secret manuals, cultivation methods, combat techniques, and secret arts.

The library was a five-story building, lavishly decorated from top to bottom. It had clearly cost a great deal to build.

The higher the floor, the higher the star ratings of the manuals. With Fan Lang's status, he could only read books on the first floor, and he could only borrow them. Once he finished reading them, he had to return them.

The first floor was filled entirely with one-star books, which naturally failed to catch Fan Lang's eye. Fortunately, he knew that a high-grade three-star secret manual was hidden here!

"I hope that manual is still here. Don't let someone else have taken it."

Fan Lang silently prayed, showed his identity plaque to the guard, and entered the library.

There were guards outside, and people stood watch inside day and night as well. After all, this was an important place within the City Lord's Mansion, and nothing could go wrong here.

Numerous bookshelves stood on the first floor, every one of them packed full of books.

A white-bearded old man sat in the center, holding an ancient book without a cover. His old eyes were half-closed as he read with complete absorption.

Fan Lang recognized the old man. In his eyes, this was an NPC nicknamed Old White, though outsiders often respectfully addressed him as Elder Bai.

Old White was one of the pillars of the City Lord's Mansion, second only to the city lord in strength.

This NPC had no quests and no benefits to squeeze out of him, so Fan Lang did not pay him much attention and headed straight for the bookshelf in the corner.

Heart Shattering Palm, Seven Kill Fist, Tiger's Roar Wave...

Though the names of these secret manuals sounded intimidating, they were actually all worthless trash, not much better than Fan Lang's self-created Thug Fist.

Fan Lang ignored that chaff and searched for his target. His gaze swept over one book after another before suddenly lighting up.

He found it!

Fan Lang pulled out a book called "Body Strengthening Fist Technique." On the surface, it was a manual for strengthening the body, but it actually concealed something else within—a powerful three-star combat technique.

Fan Lang ran his fingers across the pages and could clearly feel that several of them were unusually thick.

The other secret manual was hidden within those pages!

"Heh heh."

Fan Lang smiled in satisfaction.

Taking just this one would be a little too few.

Fan Lang walked over to Old White and said neither arrogantly nor humbly, "Elder Bai, I want to go up to the second floor and pick out a few more books. I know the City Lord's Mansion's rules. If your identity privileges are insufficient, borrowing books from the upper floors requires extra payment. Here are three hundred taels of silver. I'll choose three books from the second floor."

As he spoke, Fan Lang flipped his palm and took out three banknotes, each worth one hundred taels. He had earned them all by completing quests.

Old White tilted his head slightly and glanced at Fan Lang from the corner of his eye. He stretched out his withered hand, accepted the banknotes, and said indifferently, "Go on up. Remember, you may only take three books. After taking them, return them on time. No matter how many books are borrowed from the City Lord's Mansion, they must all be returned here completely undamaged."

"Understood. Borrow and return, then borrowing again is never hard," Fan Lang said easily.

After reaching the second floor, Fan Lang selected three books: Light Splitting Sword Technique, Life Reaping Steps, and Spring Return Art.

All three were two-star secret manuals, one star below the hidden manual. They were just right for use at the Mystic Soldier stage.

There were naturally better secret manuals on the upper floors, but Fan Lang could not obtain them with his current status. Even money would not help; the rules imposed restrictions.

"Time to go!"

Fan Lang went downstairs, placed the secret manuals on the table, and spread them out for Old White to inspect.

Old White glanced over them, growing suspicious. "You've only just entered the City Lord's Mansion and are merely a Registered Servant. Can you really learn so many books? Be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. If you can master even one of these books within a month, that would already be quite good."

"I'm greedy. One book isn't enough for me. I have to learn several to be happy," Fan Lang said with a smile.

"Suit yourself." Old White shook his head, too lazy to waste more breath on an unfamiliar youngster.

Learning various secret manuals through normal methods truly took time and effort. Learning one took at least a month or two, often several months, or even longer.

But Fan Lang's method of learning was anything but "normal." He did not need to learn at a snail's pace, so learning several at once was no problem.

After leaving the library, Fan Lang found a secluded spot and opened the Body Strengthening Fist Technique. Finding the thicker pages, he used his iron sword to cut open their corners and carefully removed the hidden inner layer.

These sheets were covered in tiny writing, with a five-character title: Blazing Triple Wave!

Player discovered 1 hidden secret manual: "Blazing Triple Wave."

A system prompt appeared, displaying a string of data.

Blazing Triple Wave.

Star Rating: ★★★

Attribute: Fire.

Power: 360.

Description: Converts one's Mystic Power into raging flames and releases them continuously three times at one's feet, creating an expanding sea of fire. A typical area-of-effect attack.

Time Required to Learn: 8 hours.

"Ha ha, this is the skill! Essential for killing people, grinding monsters, staying home, and traveling!"

Fan Lang was secretly thrilled.

For a Mystic Soldier, Blazing Triple Wave was already considered a top-tier skill. Higher-level skills could not be learned at all.

Using five times the Mystic Power to unleash Blazing Triple Wave would be enough to blast away a whole group of Mystic Soldiers. Fan Lang could completely sweep through opponents of the same level!

Even better, as a player, he only needed a mere eight hours to learn this skill!

Skills that took others many days to learn could be mastered by Fan Lang in eight hours. That was why he had chosen several secret manuals at once earlier; fewer than that simply would not be enough for him to learn.

"The progress bar for learning skills can definitely be modified too. Once I tweak it a little, the learning speed will become even faster. It won't be long before I've learned all these skills!"

Fan Lang was eager to give it a try. He wanted to take a knife to the system again.

To him, the system was merely a tool to be toyed with in the palm of his hand!