The Monastery

As Serie made her plan public, it was like a sudden thunderclap in a calm night sky—the originally peaceful town of Oysaster was quickly ignited, and news related to it began spreading like a virus.

Guter walked through the town's streets and could already feel the shift in atmosphere quite directly.

Although the vast majority of Oysaster's residents weren't magic users, that didn't stop them from optimistically pondering what opportunities and impacts the establishment of the Continental Magic Association would bring to their city.

Leaving everything else aside, just the fact that it would increase the number of magic users in the city was enough to make the residents overjoyed.

After all, this was still a world plagued by monsters and demons. Even though the Demon King had been successfully defeated by Hero Himmel's party over twenty years ago, the demons and monsters' harassment of towns and villages had yet to cease.

And every human magic user was an indispensable force in times of crisis.

The more human magic users in a town, the more at ease the residents could rest.

Though Oysaster had already become much livelier than when Guter first arrived, he knew in his heart that this was nothing yet.

After all, news of Serie establishing the Continental Magic Association had only just begun to spread, and its reach was still limited.

Once a few more days passed and this news reached the Northern Highlands and the Empire's territory, the repercussions would be far more dramatic.

By then, countless magic users from the Northern Countries and the Central Countries would flock to Oysaster. Magic users from different regions of the continent gathering together—the scene would probably be so lively it'd be hard to imagine.

But as for this upcoming excitement, Guter had no desire to join in. Bound by the [Secluded Existence] trait and having already spent a considerable amount of time in Oysaster, he only wanted to find a quiet place to hide and minimize social interaction.

Fortunately, after exploring the city for a while, he actually managed to find a small monastery on the outskirts of Oysaster.

In this monastery, the only person left was an elderly ascetic.

And because of his advanced age, this last ascetic only came by the monastery once every two or three weeks.

For Guter right now, there was no more suitable place to settle down.

Silently returning to his room to pack his luggage, without saying goodbye to the innkeeper he'd almost grown familiar with, and bringing enough dried rations for half a month, Guter moved into the monastery that very night.

Luckily, the tables and chairs in the monastery still showed traces of having been cleaned, suggesting the old ascetic had probably been there not long ago.

If he was fortunate enough, he might even avoid running into that old ascetic during his entire "stay."

The next day.

"Shh-shh-shh-"

As sunlight poured down, the small monastery on the town's outskirts echoed with the sound of "spring silkworms nibbling leaves."

The source of this noise was, naturally, the monastery's only current "guest."

Guter hunched over the desk, one hand holding down a worn-out book while the other quickly transcribed the old book's contents onto blank pages.

This task—copying the contents of deteriorating old books onto new ones—was the most common work monks did daily, and they considered it part of their cultivation.

Thanks to the generations of nameless ascetics who upheld this practice, much of the knowledge and culture created by humans during the Mythological Era, Ancient Era, and the Unified Empire period had been preserved for future generations.

Even Hero Himmel's party, who had defeated the Demon King, had once encountered an unsolvable problem during their adventures. It was only in a long-abandoned monastery, relying on a legend from the Mythological Era that had been transcribed countless times, that they found a way to solve it.

Thus, the work of ascetics was absolutely meaningful.

It was just that pursuing that meaning came with its share of hardship.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations, Host]

[Daily Quest: Daily Good Deed has been completed]

"Phew, I've finally reached the transcription quota, huh."

Guter tossed aside his pen and shook his slightly numb wrist.

Who would've thought that even with his current physique, writing too much would still tire out his wrist.

But seeing the quest completion prompt from the system, the morning's hard work wasn't for nothing.

Transcribing books, as an indispensable part of an ascetic's daily cultivation, bringing the wisdom of past sages to future generations—that certainly counted as doing a good deed.

In fact, ever since Guter had transmigrated, more than half of his daily quests [Daily Good Deed] had been completed this way.

After all, for someone like Guter, who treated an abandoned monastery as home, it was hard to find other opportunities to do good deeds.

Meanwhile, in the Empire Territory, Imperial Capital Eisberg.

Having just recently ended a sweet trip with his wife and returned to his post, Court Mage Duncan knocked on the door of his close friend's office.

"Lairn!"

"It's me! Open the door!"