How Many Steps Does It Take to Stuff Three Bookshelves' Worth of Books into Your Head?

Manus was in the library, like a mouse that had fallen into a rice bin.

After stuffing the first edition of The Standard Book of Spells, upper, middle, and lower volumes included, into his head, Manus snapped his fingers and summoned Nati.

"Nati, I want every book here that records Charms. Other things like stone tablets will do too."

"Uh..."

Nati had barely bowed and opened his mouth when Manus's command cut him off. After freezing for a moment, Nati chose to answer Manus rather than continue the routine greeting he had been about to give.

"Young Master Manus, there are more than five bookshelves' worth of books here that record Charms. Are you sure..."

"Just bring them to me. There isn't a complete catalog of titles here. I need to see their names before deciding whether to read them."

Upon hearing that, Nati lowered his head.

"Yes, Young Master Manus. Nati will bring them to you right away... By the way, would you like Nati to make you a complete catalog?"

Manus gave Nati a surprised look, then nodded.

"That works."

"Then Nati will do his best to finish the catalog before your next visit to the library."

With a pop, he vanished. Manus blinked at the spot where Nati had disappeared.

"Apparition...?"

That set of The Standard Book of Spells truly deserved its reputation as "the most comprehensive Charms textbook." It documented all sorts of strange and varied Charms, including this teleportation magic.

But the problem was that he had also seen Anti-Apparition Charm in The Standard Book of Spells. A place this important had no reason not to be protected by anti-Apparition magic, did it?

His thoughts on magic lasted only a moment before Manus recalled Nati's surprisingly capable performance just now.

Apart from the times when he had touched upon points where Nati did not regard him as an effort, Nati's behavior otherwise seemed relatively steady.

Unfortunately, that was all. Compared to the risks, the advantages of house-elves were not all that appealing.

For the next while, Nati kept appearing and disappearing. Each time, he brought a huge stack of books, followed by copies, scrolls, sheets of paper, rubbings, and more.

Manus continuously used Scholar's Touch to stuff the information into his desperately hungry mental sea, occasionally stopping to sort through the previous information before moving on to the next book.

From Nati's perspective, Manus was simply picking through the books, occasionally pausing as though hesitating over whether to read one. Even when he opened one, he only glanced through it before putting it down shortly afterward.

"Hm?"

Manus suddenly stopped. He discovered that the book in front of him had magic cast directly upon it—and it was Enchantment School magic?

His gaze swept across the spines of that book and the small stack behind it.

Dialogue with the Mind, Mysteries of the Soul, Most Venomous Magic, A Thousand Curses, Bone · Blood · Flesh, Make the Incomplete Whole, Set Corpses in Motion, Revealing Advanced Dark Magic...

Oh? So it was Dark Magic.

Although the definition of Dark Magic in this world was not yet very clear to him, it was probably magic that could not be used for good deeds. Any magic that would land someone in prison if they were caught using it counted as Dark Magic.

Manus raised an eyebrow. Under normal circumstances, if he had asked for these books, Nati probably would have realized he could not give them to him.

But he had asked for all magical books. Nati had probably become muddled from carrying so many that he had mixed these in with the rest.

He had to read them quickly. Who knew when he would next naturally come across records of Dark Magic?

Before reading them, Manus cast several protective spells on himself. Aside from several protective charms from this world, he also used Spirit Armor from the protection school, Mechanized Mind from the Enchantment School, False Life from the Necromancy School, and more.

"Hm? Strange. Why are there no signs of my magic power running dry at all?"

Previously, he had cast at most a few Zero-Ring Magic spells, which naturally did not consume much magic power, so Manus had never paid much attention to this.

But this time, Manus had intended to carefully budget the magic power he currently possessed in case of all sorts of possible attacks. Yet after layering seven or eight protections over himself, he found that he still had plenty of magic power left.

"...Forget it. I'll study it after I go back."

Nati appeared once more, set down another stack of books, and vanished. This little interruption made Manus give up on investigating the matter further for now. After adding another two layers of protection, he began trying to use Mage Hand in place of his own hand to cast Scholar's Touch.

It worked too!

The next moment, Mage Hand fluttered endlessly, and Manus's speed of acquiring information from books soared. Within a few breaths, he had finished several suspicious-looking books whose combined height exceeded his own.

"Now that's a wish come true... Are wizards really this absurd, or was I actually born with Ninth-Circle Wish?"

Knowing that some wizards possessed certain innate magical abilities, Manus could not help muttering a complaint. But the next moment, he focused on dealing with the information blocked by his false mind.

Though he had made plenty of preparations, most of them came from before he had crossed into this world. There might well be underhanded tricks in this world that his defenses could not stop.

After checking through that information, Manus cast several detection spells on himself. The results showed that everything was normal.

"Perfect!"

Nati appeared again. Manus casually picked up another book and flipped through it. Once Nati vanished, he used Scholar's Touch to read it.

In the end, Manus let out a long breath, returned to his seat, and closed his eyes for a while. As he rested them, he looked over the information in his mental sea, like a farmer gazing upon a fertile field.

Suddenly, Manus spoke without opening his eyes.

"Nati, bring me a cup of hot milk with a spoonful of sugar."

The contents of nearly six bookshelves' worth of books were indeed extensive, but much of it was repeated or useless information. Only after finishing these books did Manus truly appreciate the value of The Standard Book of Spells.

After deleting the low-quality and duplicate information, what remained could barely fill three bookshelves.

Still, although Manus's mental strength was powerful enough to hold so much information with ease, his body was only seven years old. His brain could not sustain high-intensity operation for too long.

After being flooded with so much information, even though nearly half of it had later been deleted, he still felt somewhat unwell.

He needed to replenish his energy.

"Yes, Young Master Manus. Please wait a moment."

Before long, Nati returned with the hot milk, and it was at just the right temperature to drink.

As he sipped the hot milk, Manus looked at his skill panel.

There was no particular purpose behind it. There were simply too many Skill Trees and far too many skills on the panel. Manus neither wanted to think nor move right now, so it was perfect for passing the time.