Beneath the Dragoneye Moons
Chapter 644: Professor Elaine IV

Night stepped back, and with a subtle shift of his body, went from my friend and student, to my commander.

“Sentinel Dawn. Please correct me if I am wrong. At this time, I suspect you are unlikely to be rejoining the services of the Exterreri Sentinels anytime soon. Is that correct?”

I wanted to do a double take, but Night was being a little too serious. I lifted an eyebrow.

“I wasn’t aware there was an Exterreri at this time.”

Night smirked. Just a little.

“There is always an Exterreri, as there are always Sentinels. The name and shape may change from era to era, but the deep cultural ties remain, the torch carried on by scattered survivors. No, I suspect you will find yourself further afield, an itch in your wings driving you forwards. Just know that should you find yourself in Exterreri, you are free to use your badge of office as if you were officially sworn in.” Night shrugged. “You will not be the first, the last, nor the only Sentinel to take on the role in a more part-time fashion than others.”

My lips quirked in amusement.

“Free Sentinel, all the benefits and none of the pay!”

Night grinned, his fangs on full display.

I nodded. Unsaid was the responsibility.

“Mmm, perfectly. Well, since we understand each other so well, I’m sure you’re aiming to be the best at medicine possible. After all, a chance to improve your skills like this doesn’t come around too often, and from the [Mother of Modern Medicine] herself? In addition to the essay I assigned, I’d also like a 40 inch paper on the best places on each elvenoid for maximum vampiric drain rate, what the rate is, and other implications.”

Night looked like he wanted to laugh, and was barely holding it together.

“Mostly for my own education, of course.” I told him. He finally let loose.

“Ah, little otter, I suspect my time here will be more entertaining than I first anticipated.”

I continued to grin at him.

“I aim to please. On a more serious note, if you need help getting across the campus, I hope you’ll trust me to once again shield you from the sun.”

“I very well might take you up on that. Now, with my apologies, I will be late to my next lesson.”

With a dramatic sweep of his robes, Night strode off to continue his education, leaving me with time to think.

Huh.

I was effectively a Sentinel again. All of the rights and privileges, with minimal responsibilities. Yeah, I could live with that. Dropping in when I wanted, having a badge I could pull out in the area, but no need to be on deck or on call.

If there was a serious plague or something, Arachne probably knew where to find us, no matter where we were. It was probably worth whispering how to contact me in the ears of other [Intelligence Brokers] or the like.

Or wait! An even better idea!

Have Iona make friends with everyone, and let them know how to get a hold of us. The children sent to the School today were the nobles running the country in a few decades, and everything from monsters, bandits, and plagues were problems we’d be eager to jump over and solve.

Whistling a merry tune, I headed over to the library. I had a bit of time before my next class, and I wanted to see my second - no, third - favorite place. I broke into a light jog as I got close, seeing a familiar face. Oooh, Iona was around as well!

“Martin!” I practically exploded into the library. “You made it! How are you?” I asked the aged demon [Librarian]. Immortality or not, he looked old. Maybe it was deliberate?

“[Hush].” He pointed at me, invoking his signature skill. I rolled my eyes as he adjusted his non-prescription glasses.

“Why, by my sin, is that Elaine? Little Elaine, all back and dressed up nicely?”

I snorted at the [Librarian].

“Laying it on a little thick, don’t you think?” I told him. “I’ve always looked like this, and you’ve seen me dressed like this. And don’t even think of giving me the overdue book line, I’ve got a perfect memory.” I remembered the prank he tried to pull on me. He snapped his fingers in a ‘drat’ motion, the sound muffled by skills.

“Speaking of overdue books. Elaine, I’m sure you’ve noticed the state of the library. I seem to recall you were something of a packrat. Do you have any books you could spare to donate? Ones that would be read and beloved for generations?”

Ouch, Martin, ouch. Right in the feels.

I liked my book collection. Loved it. My class had started as a ‘hoarding books’ class, and there was a small, petty part of me that raged like a dragon with gold, insisting the books were mine. How dare someone try to take them away from me! I was a book gremlin, through and through.

At the same time, they did me no good locked away in my [Manor]. Oh sure, the collection was impressive enough, but how often were they taken off their shelves and read? I had a few favorites I went back to time and time again, but I liked the novelty of a new book more than rereading an old one, and technically, if I wanted to, I could always reread them in [Astral Archives]. I didn’t need the paperbacks.

Actually… hold up.

I had a lot of books in [Astral Archives]. Forget bulk cargo, my next job was going to be a [Scribe], rewriting the tens of thousands of books I had memorized and the library currently lacked. It was probably too many books for any significant System weight, but I bet I could get a few levels out of [Everywoman]... and persistent experience while this era lasted.

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I sighed, wistfully saying goodbye to swathes of books, and mentally marking out everyone’s favorites. I wasn’t going to remove those, and another selection of books was marked for future-Sara’s enjoyment.

“Alright Martin, you drive a cruel bargain. Where do you want them?”

“Ah, thank you. Right here on the counter would be lovely.” He said.

Ooooh, he did not just say that. I wasn’t going to mistreat the books. I wasn’t going to hold them back. But I was going to make Martin regret carelessly dismissing the amount of books I had.

With a wave of my hand, I buried the entire counter in books. Three thick, from wall to wall, marble tile to ceiling, I bricked Martin in with a wall of books. In the most sickly sweet voice I had, I asked a follow up question.

“Well, this is just the start. Where can I put the rest?”

Muffled cursing was all I got back.

[*ding!* [Everywoman] leveled up! 656 -> 657]

“See you in a bit!” I skipped off into the library, my heart bleeding at the sheer number of empty shelves. The lack of students - there were a grand total of four souls in the entire building. Most of the shelves were dark, most of the corners were empty. The rooms were bare-construction-blank, not even paint on the walls. The entire place was only a single story, and struts jutted out into thin air, showing where more of the library would eventually be. Forget the hidden or secret sections, they plain didn’t exist. I found Iona pouring over first hand reports of various events around the world. I scanned them in a second, but didn’t feed Iona the answer. Not unless she asked.

“Elaine, I think I’ve found a lead.” She said, tapping on the papers. Iona didn’t look up at all.

“I agree.” I said. “Can you wait a week before heading out? We just got here.”

Iona nodded.

“I was planning on waiting three. The bandits aren’t going to be in the same spot, I’m going to need to track them down. There’s no huge rush right this second.”

I chastely kissed my wife on the cheek.

“Thanks love. I’ll keep an eye out for anything new while you’re gone. Do you think Auri will want to go?” It went without saying that Nina would come along.

I grabbed a loose sheet of paper and a quill out of [Manor], and started to list out the Island’s time and locations, starting three weeks and a day from now.

“Not to brag, but Fenrir, Nina, and I are already overkill. Auri… I’m not looking to send up a signal flare that can be seen from the next country over, and I don’t want anything precious melted. Plus, it’s not kind to Sara.”

“Alrighty then! Want to get lunch together? Since it seems like I won’t have to drag you out of here.”

Iona snorted.

“Please. We all know exactly who was dragging who out of the library! Little miss ‘please let me live here, I love it, I don’t need anything else.’”

“Like you kept finding your main source of joy in here?” I teased Iona. We’d been dumb college kids. It had been a ton of fun.

Iona looked at me quite seriously.

“Yes. Exactly like that.” Her pure-hearted earnestness struck me, and I felt bad for teasing her. She winked, and it was alright again.

I let my mind wander through the library, reading all the titles within [The World Around Me]. I spent a little more time with Iona, then wandered back over to where Martin was. He’d managed to dig out a little ‘window’ for himself in the stack of books.

“You know, I’ve got to thank you.” He said with way too much cheer. My eyes narrowed at the demon.

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“I would never have thought of improving the front desk like this, it’s great! Now, what can I help you with?”

I groaned, admitting defeat.

“I’m looking for primers on runecrafting.” I told the [Librarian]. “Anything from the basics, and if you know where the intermediate and advanced books are, I’d be happy to take a look. I’m thinking of a fairly ambitious project, gotta brush up. On that note, do you have the journals of any [Runecrafters] that tried to make medical runes?”

Martin grimaced at the last question, and shook his head.

“Elaine… I’m sorry, no. If you’d asked thirty years ago, I probably could’ve dug up a few. But the records of a failed project? I don’t even have to look to tell you none of them made it to the vault. I-”

Martin looked like he wanted to say more, but the thought of so much destroyed knowledge, of the great fires that had ravaged the place and consumed countless works hit him where it hurt.

“I’m sorry.” I told the demon, meaning it. He visibly tried to perk himself up.

“Well! If you’ve got more books like this, that’d be great. There’s a lot of books from…” I could see the penny dropping, and Martin narrowed his eyes at me. “Elaine. Are you the one that robbed the grand library of Ithil?”

“With only a tiny bit of shame.” I said, practically putting two of my fingers together. “The city was getting sacked, it looked like the place was about to get burnt down. I decided to save the books.”

“You are my new favorite person.” Martin said. “You can check out thirty books at once.”

“How generous.” I teased. The normal limit was twenty-five.

“What are you working on?” Sara asked, peering around my arm.

“Medicine!” I told her. “Writing a letter to an old teacher of mine, seeing if he can give me some advice on runecrafting.” We’d just gotten a letter from Artemis, letting us know she was planning on coming over in the next year. It had inspired me to write my own and reach out.

“Huh.” She studied my letter. “Can I help?”

“Sure! Let me see what I can find for you.” There wasn’t anything right now, but the early embers of enthusiasm needed to be fanned and encouraged.

Auri was trying to arrange a baking contest. Fenrir had, impossibly, found a case, which meant it was pouring rain outside. In the middle of Ankhelt.

I’d given up on trying to understand the phenomena.

Titania had managed to find us all hot chocolate. The fireplace was roaring and crackling. Iona had a lead on her sisters. The steccato twacks of quarterstaves meeting was music for all of us, as Nina and my wife sparred in another room. Sara was settling in and eagerly learning. Artemis was coming back soon. Amber was making loads of money somewhere, and would stumble upon us sooner or later, when it was luckiest. Night was around.

Everyone was happy, everyone was content.

All was right with the world.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 139]

[Mana: 46,157,900/46,157,900]

[Mana Regeneration: 103,327,641 +(598,999,126)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 287,657 (Effectively: 2,301,256)]

[Dexterity: 311,913 (Effectively: 3,321,250)]

[Vitality: 935,466 (Effectively: 14,616,656)]

[Speed: 922,698 (Effectively: 18,161,465)]

[Mana: 4,615,790]

[Mana Regeneration: 10,727,542 (+ 59,899,913)]

[Magic Power: 5,921,716 (+ 453,603,446)]

[Magic Control: 5,920,573 (+ 453,515,892)]

[Class 1: [The Elaine- Celestial: Lv 1532]]

[Celestial Spirit: 1532]

[Domain of the Healer: 1532]

[A Drop of Eternity in a Sea of Starlight: 615]

[Luminary Mind: 1532]

[Universal Cure: 1532]

[Clad in Twilight: 590]

[The Mantle of Dusk and Dawn: 975]

[Elaine Eternal: 1532]

[Class 2: [Dawnbringer - Radiance: Lv 1489]]

[Radiance Mastery: 1489]

[A Light Shining in the Darkness: 945]

[Radiance Beams: 1489]

[Sun Blades: 505]

[Celestial Dew: 1489]

[Sunrise Halo: 1489]

[Essence of Flight: 1489]

[Featherstorm: 1489]

[Class 3: [Sage of Eternity - Spatial: Lv 1485]]

[Spatial Mastery: 1485]

[Scripture Savant: 1485]

[Teleportation: 1485]

[Timeless Manor of the Eternally Curious Sage: 1485]

[Portcullis: 211]

[Reality, Writ As You Will: 1485]

[Astral Archives: 1485]

[Endless Pursuit of Knowledge: 1485]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 715]

[Everywoman: 657]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 1532]

[The World Around Me: 766]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 1532]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 1532]

[Persistent Casting: 1532]

[Tender Gardening; Industrial Farming: 906]