I Will Devote Myself to Handling Dangerous Sealed Artifacts
The books were extraordinarily enthusiastic, their dialogue flooding his vision.
They were terribly envious and jealous of the book in Xie Yu's hands. Every one of them begged to have its pages turned, every one of them shouting.
Most of the things Xie Yu had encountered before had wildly different personalities, but these books were like 132 siblings born to the same mother at once.
Perhaps because they came from the same batch and shared the same fate, their personalities were remarkably alike.
A person's personality was shaped by both innate and acquired factors. If those were similar, the person would display similar personality traits. He hadn't expected the same to be true of books.
Xie Yu paused his reading, intending to spread his love among the remaining books and show them some care.
It seemed easy to raise the Affection of these lonely books.
But as soon as he reached out, he found that the book he had been holding was furious.
[Lonely book (knowledge magic) (Affection decreased to 30):]
[What are you doing? What are you going to do? Why did you close me? Why are you putting me down?]
[You're going to flip through another book! You're abandoning me!]
This book had turned on him even faster than he could turn its pages.
Xie Yu was shocked.
The other books turned on him just as quickly.
Their Affection really was easy to raise. He barely needed to do anything: just a glance or a finger reaching toward them, and every book his gaze swept over would start waiting eagerly for his hand, its Affection shooting up.
But it fell just as quickly. The moment he moved his hand away to take a neighboring book, the book that had thought it would be picked up would begin hurling abuse, and its freshly raised Affection would drop right back down.
It was practically an emperor's harem.
He had thought that since all these books liked having their pages turned and were so enthusiastic, he could grant their wishes. Once all their Affection was maxed out, the rewards would be unimaginably rich. Perhaps in an afternoon, or a day or two, he would become a master at conquering books.
But now, the books' enthusiasm and loneliness seemed like a double-edged sword. Trying to make them all like him at once by spreading his love around wasn't going to work.
"I was just teasing them. You're the only book I actually want to flip through."
Xie Yu immediately tried the opposite strategy.
He withdrew his hand and said solemnly to the book he held:
"See? I'm not even touching them, because you're special. I picked you out the moment I saw you."
[You only want to flip through me? (Affection rose back to 60)]
[Then flip my pages until they rustle loudly, right in front of all the other books! Right here, in front of them.]
[Lonely book (knowledge magic) looks at you expectantly.]
What kind of request was that? Even though Xie Yu considered himself an expert at conquering things, he was still a little baffled.
Had being lonely for so long twisted their personalities?
"Okay."
[Lonely book (knowledge magic) (Affection soared to 95) smiled contentedly:]
[I want a good look at their ugly expressions.]
The books on the table that hadn't been flipped through all seemed furious. Their Affection dropped to zero at once, and some of them hurled obscenities, which Xie Yu pretended not to see.
The book in Xie Yu's hands seemed even happier after seeing the other books' reactions.
Seeing that its Affection was about to reach the maximum, Xie Yu gave it one final push:
"Just having your pages turned might feel good, but that pleasure is too shallow."
"I want to read you carefully, see every one of your pages clearly, and read every word in depth."
He ran his hand over the lines of text, gently stroking the white pages:
"Let's enjoy this quiet reading time together, okay?"
[Really? You're not just flipping through me, you're going to read me too? Oh my god!!!]
The book seemed about to faint from being read. It said nothing for a long time, silently watching Xie Yu's eyelashes to make sure he really was reading.
Of course Xie Yu was going to read; he wasn't just putting on an act.
Conquest was one thing, but he also needed to absorb information.
He turned to the chapter about knowledge scholars and sealed artifacts and began reading.
[Magicians have a long history of researching sealed artifacts, but the field has never received much attention. The research process cannot be systematized, each artifact requires a separate study, conclusions are difficult to reproduce and patterns difficult to summarize, and researchers are prone to backlash from sealed artifacts. It has served only as an added pursuit for powerful magicians with plenty of time and money.]
[Finding sealed artifacts, activating them, and exploring and controlling their abilities all require a massive investment of manpower and resources at every step.]
[Even existing sealed artifacts present numerous problems, including improper storage, errors and omissions in their records, and private ownership. Unless a sufficiently powerful force intervenes to put sealed artifacts into circulation and provide guarantees and shared coverage for the risks taken by sealed artifact researchers, research may remain a cottage industry forever.]
[As the power of sealed artifacts has attracted attention at the Sage level, the kingdom passed the "Sealed Artifact Census, Archiving, Confidentiality, and Acquisition Act" in 1695, encouraging holders to sell sealed artifacts they cannot put to proper use at reasonable prices. It has also established schools across the country, investing in eight national-level sealed artifact academies and drawing on the strength of the entire kingdom to put sealed artifacts into circulation, giving young researchers interested in sealed artifact research opportunities to come into contact with enough of them.]
[Thus, the time is ripe for knowledge scholars to enter the field of sealed artifacts. They possess advantages unavailable to other fields in the study of sealed artifact records, the analysis of sealed artifact characteristics, and other such areas.]
[Knowledge scholars can enter the second line of sealed artifact research, using their strengths to provide information support for frontline researchers and carry out overall planning, coordination, teaching, and other work...]
It was a second-line job, with no direct contact with sealed artifacts. Xie Yu was a little disappointed.
He was a "hands-on" talent. He needed to come face-to-face with sealed artifacts and become one of the "researchers" the book described. Working in the second line would clearly be a waste of his talents.
Xie Yu skimmed quickly, skipping the material about knowledge scholars and looking for more information on sealed artifacts.
Finally, he found a reference concerning the sealed artifact field in the notes at the end of the chapter.
[Summary of professional divisions of labor at each stage of seal research:]
[The search for sealed artifacts and preliminary investigations are best carried out by magicians of the domains of fate, wind element, and light element.]
[The activation, power exploration, and maintenance of sealed artifacts are best carried out by magicians of the same or similar domains as the sealed artifacts under study.]
[The archiving of sealed artifacts and provision of information support are best carried out by magicians of the knowledge and memory domains.]
[The sealing and storage of dangerous sealed artifacts are best carried out by magicians of the dream, void, geomancy, and water element domains.]
In other words, the frontline researchers who actually came into contact with sealed artifacts really did come from all domains. They used their respective areas of expertise to match the anomalies of the sealed artifacts, and no particular domain was especially suited to researching them.
The result left Xie Yu somewhat disappointed.
Case-by-case research that matched one person to one artifact wasn't what he wanted.
But as his gaze moved down to "the sealing and storage of dangerous sealed artifacts," Xie Yu's eyes lit up.
There was a chance to encounter more sealed artifacts, the working environment also sounded very private, with no outsiders interfering, and the danger of sealed artifacts came with "power"...
It sounded like a job for someone courting death, a job everyone would despise, but after a little thought, he found it surprisingly suited to him.
[Lonely book (knowledge magic) (Affection 100):]
[You're reading so attentively. I like you so much.]
Without his noticing, the book's Affection had reached the maximum too.
[Congratulations! You have conquered the lonely book.]
[You may choose one of three rewards:]
[1. Lifelong devotion] [Affection will never decrease.]
[2. Complete disclosure] [All personal information about the collector Weile.]
[3. Friend of Books] [The initial Affection of all paper products encountered from now on will increase by 0.5. Stackable.]
Naturally, he chose 3, Friend of Books.
Xie Yu closed the book and tossed it aside. It was no longer useful.
Without hesitation, he reached out and searched the row of books for four titles: "Dream Magic: A Complete Guide from Apprentice to Sage," "Void Element...," "Geomancy Element...," and "Water Element..."
[What are you doing? Didn't you promise to flip through me and no one else? Did your hand slip?]
[Lonely book (knowledge element) is shocked.]
Xie Yu ignored it and turned to the four books he had picked out.
"I was only playing along with it just now. It wanted my hands, and I wanted its contents. After giving it careful thought, I'm more interested in the four of you, and I'd rather flip through you. Would you like me to flip through you?"
"I don't want to touch it at all now. I think I like the four of you better."
Since spreading his love around didn't work, he could only love them one at a time. He had to be more efficient and couldn't waste time on a book he had already loved.
There were still so many books waiting.
The book had only wanted his hands, coveting that shallow desire. Once the pleasure was over, it was time to part.
[The four lonely books look at you suspiciously, eager to try.]
[All four books at once? That goes against the usual way of flipping through and reading books... But it doesn't seem entirely unacceptable.]
[Finally, they ask in unison:]
[Really? Flip through all four of us in front of it, in front of all the books.]
"Of course. Happy to oblige." Xie Yu smiled.
[Their Affection rose from 0 to 40.]
Nearby, Sealed Artifact 3-0771, which had grown drowsy from reading, glimpsed Xie Yu happily reading through its haze.
It had been quietly keeping an eye on Xie Yu's reactions all along. When it looked at "Knowledge Magic: From Apprentice to Sage..." tossed aside, it was seized by fear.
[Sealed Artifact 3-0771 believes you are a truly heartless person (Faith increased to 60). It has begun to truly fear that once it becomes useless, you will cast it aside without mercy.]
[To maintain its connection with you, it voluntarily reveals some secrets:]
[Master, I remembered something. The reason the old bastard was in such a hurry to kill Kaiming yesterday had to do with your sudden appearance. Once you and Kaiming became acquainted, the risk of him impersonating either you or Kaiming after replacing your life or Kaiming's would increase. And the reason he insisted on replacing the life of one of you seems to have something to do with Kaiming soon taking up a public post at the Black Pine City Geomancy Academy.]
[Congratulations! Your conquest has made entirely new progress. You have received an additional reward:]
[2. Complete disclosure] [Some unknown magical knowledge, as well as the past life and experiences of Sealed Artifact 3-0771.]