Library

After's Aisha sudden breakthrough, Andrew only felt the urgency to advance even more. After all, there was no way he would leave this burden to Aisha alone. He thought about ways in which he could increase his advancement speed and Night came to his mind. Though, he really doubted that the man would help him wholeheartedly.

[But then, even if I am shackled by my mana root, and my cultivation speed can't be that fast, that doesn't mean I don't have other advantages.] Andrew thought about the System and it's ability to absorb knowledge.

[Sigh..]Andrew sighed as he really wanted to see how Night would help him before making his own decision.

...

Night proved to be exactly what Andrew expected. The next few days, he only met the man once and it was to talk in detail about the vision he had. Other than that, Night has made it clear that until Andrew reached the Soul Burst stage, he wouldn't provide him with much help nor would he make it public that he took him in as a disciple.

"Taking you in as a disciple at your power level would upset quite a few people. It might even create some friction between the existing factions." that's the reason he gave.

Andrew felt that this was not the only reason, but he didn't push for an answer as it was clear Night has already made his decision.

There were, however, advantages of being the disciple of one of the strongest people in the world. Night left his personal symbol on Andrew left hand. It was a red drop of blood surrounded by two helixes.

"I've sealed a fraction of my mana in that symbol. Should you be in any life-threatening situation, you just have to pour mana into the symbol and the sealed mana would activate. It should be enough for one deadly attack against anyone under the World Law stage. Also, do not show that symbol to anyone." Night added.

Another advantage was that Andrew gained full access to the Academy Library. And that was all he needed to make his decision.

When he heard about the Academy, he wanted to properly test himself. He wanted to go through what everyone else was going through, without making use of his cheat, the System.

However, after that vision, he realized the importance of gaining strength and knowledge fast. As such, he decided to use the System to it's full potential and absorb all the knowledge in the Library.

The classes he took already started a few days ago but he didn't go to any of them. In truth, the Academy didn't care if you went to classes or not, as long as you passed your exams. And to Andrew, that was the easiest part as he had the System.

[System, can you store the knowledge from a book without absorbing it, and then infuse it into my mind?] Andrew decided that it's important for the knowledge to be his. After all, maybe one day the system would disappear, and having all the information stored into the system and not his head would leave Andrew with nothing.

[Affirmative, host. However, the process would take longer than by absorbing the book. In order to not overload the system, when a book is absorbed, the information is directly infused into host's mind and not saved in the system. Then, the System would analyze host's memories to optimize solutions.]

[If the book is not absorbed, the System would have to first analyze the whole book and copy it into the System's personal storage. System has a different set of understanding parameters than host. The information inside the System's personal storage would not be understandable to host. As such, translation would be needed. In the end, the information would have to be erased as to not overload the System.] the System continued.

[That's fine. How long would this process take?] asked Andrew relieved that this was possible. After all, it wouldn't really be nice if all of the books in the Library disappeared overnight.

[Calculating...The duration of the process is dependent on the size of the information and it's complexity. The lowest estimate for a simple, normal-sized book is 1 minute.]

[Tsk, saying that it would take longer and then saying it takes 1 minute. If someone heard me complaining that I can read books in 1 minute...they would probably be smashing my head on the floor.] Andrew laughed in his mind.

...

The next day, he left his room early in the morning while his three roommates were still asleep.

He did get closer to Sebastian and Troy these past few days. It seems they are not so bad as he initially thought. Seidon, however, was an entirely different matter. He would be spending most of his time meditating and he hasn't said anything at all so far. Thinking of that outburst of power he had a few days ago, the trio just left him be.

The Library was located at the highest floor of the Academy. With all the Space Compression Formations lying around, Andrew only reached it after an hour.

A wooden door without a handle and filled with all kinds of patterns greeted his view. On the right of the door, there was a small round opening.

"I guess that's for this thing?" Andrew said as he took out a bronze badge from his pocket. This was the "personal ID" Shawn gave them when they enrolled.

A few days ago, the siblings smeared a bit of their blood on the badges and information appeared in their minds. The information was mostly what they had already told Shawn about themselves when they enrolled. Aside from this, it talked about the usage of the badge. It was mostly used for accessing different things in the Academy.

Depending on your status, clearance would be added to your badge. For example, the badges of the second year students lets them access the second floor of the library while for the first years, only the first floor was accessible.

That was not the case for Andrew though. As he inserted his badge into the small opening, the patterns on the door changed as a handle appeared.

As Andrew opened the door he was greeted by a strange sight. In front of him there was a small white room with a simple chair and a small platform in the middle. There were no books to be seen in the room. To the left, a young woman was sitting at a desk. As Andrew looked at her, his heart started beating faster.

She was beautiful beyond anything he has seen so far. She had long and curly dark hair paired with crystal blue eyes. She wore a simple red shirt and brown trousers. However, the reason for his heart beating faster was not her beauty, but the fact that he knew her!

[Sarah...]