The Library

~ Longwood Mansion ~

"So! Danny! What happened yesterday?" asked Claus from Danny who was sitting silently on the couch.

Danny, Hannah and Conor were sitting at the couch by the fireplace. They went straight to the Longwood Mansion after school.

"Well... A player attacked us!" said Danny. Then he gave him all the details of the fight to Claus. 

"Huh! Two beasts that looked like his pets! That's a tamer skill!" said Claus. He knew exactly what it was.

[ Tamer : A skill achieved by some systems after getting to a certain level. The skill allows you to tame Veil Lurkers and summon them as pets or companions ]

"Well... Considering the tamer skill, only two systems have that I think! It's the Hunters, the Demons and the Goblins!" determined Claus.

"And from the looks of it, that was a demon!" said Draco. Draco had more knowledge about systems than any of them.

He came from a family of system users, so he had a wide knowledge about the systems. He had numerous codexes about systems.

"Well... Draco confirms it! Then it's true!" said Claus as he stood up from his chair. 

"And! I have to talk about something today!" said Claus as he walked closer to the fireplace and stood there. "I couldn't ask you guys this before, but... How did you find out about the wolf pack that you fought the first time we met!"

Danny looked up at the man. How could he forget the man who took Linda's life? He could never forget that awful face!

"That motherfucker! We hunted it down!" uttered Danny, angrily. 

"Hunted it down? It looked like you were hunted by the wolves!" howled Claus. 

Danny knew it was stupid. He could've died back then, if he hadn't met Claus. 

"Yep! That was, some messed up day!" said Conor.

"Well... What about that pack?" asked Hannah. 

Claus suddenly went silent. 

"About that? Well it's the current players we were hunting! They have been running around Calliberone increasing their pack in numbers." said Claus. 

"Hunting the motherfucker who killed Linda! I'm already in!" 

Danny uttered excitedly. It was the thing he wanted to do from the beginning.

But Claus had suspicions about Danny. He was seeking revenge, so he doesn't care about levelling up. Claus only hunted people to level up, not for revenge.

But he thought that Danny could handle one or two werewolves. He just had to keep Danny away from the higher ups.

"Hmm... You got guts! One fact I loved about your little team!" said Claus. "Saturday morning! We scout the city!"

There was a thrill in the hearts of the three newbies. 

"Finally! Something awesome!" said Danny. 

The newbies were already bored of hunting ghouls. But they did have some fun battling the demon. 

"Nice! We're in!" said Conor. 

Draco and Reno nodded to agree with Claus. 

"And.... What happened to your survival quests guys?" asked Draco from Hannah and Conor. 

"Didn't finish them yet!" said Conor.

"Me neither!" said Hannah. 

"Well what are you guys waiting for! Danny already did his! Let's go for the quests today!" said Draco.

"Yes! You two haven't completed them either! You better go!" said Claus to Reno and Draco.

Then as usual, Hannah and Draco got in the bike and rode to Corby's Late Nights. Reno and Conor got into Claus's jeep and rode away to find a good life form to kill. And Danny and Claus were alone in the house. 

Danny sat on the couch and Claus pulled out his Mac to check on the daily crimes. Then he took his pipe from the pockets of his jacket and puffed 

"So... What should we do?" 

Danny asked the old man.

"You're level 2 right? That's a level where you can't do anything except rapidly doing newbie shit to level up!" said Claus as he surfed on Google.

"But... Can't we go hunting?" asked Danny from Claus.

Claus looked at him and placed the laptop on the table. 

"No! If we meet some monster who's more than a ghoul... You might die!" said Claus. 

"But we even fought off the demon and the two beasts!" yelled Danny.

"Still no, idiot! The forests are far more dangerous! Most of the Veil Lurkers are powerful... At least the ones that survived through time, not getting extinct!" uttered Claus. 

Danny was bored. He couldn't argue with Claus because he did know much more than him. 

"Then what should I do? Oh wait- can I read those codexes?" asked Danny from Claus. 

"Oh... Yes you can! Go to the library... Upstairs third door!" 

Then, Danny went up the wooden stairs to the upper floor.

Claus looked at the boy who was climbing up the stairs.

"Danny!!! Wait!"

Claus called out to the kid. Then, Danny turned around. "Yes?"

"Reach level 10 quickly kid! I'll teach you how to fly!" said Claus and went back to the research he was doing. 

Danny smiled at Claus. "Yes sir!" said Danny and went on, up the stairs. 

Danny walked along the hallway and entered the library. It was a little room filled with bookshelves. There were book shelves even on the walls. And every book shelf was filled with books.

"Woah!" 

Danny was surprised. He had no clue what to read. He went closer to a shelf. There were many large books. 

Danny's eyes ran across the shelves reading every title of the book. 

"Spells of Level 10, The Vampire cheats, Tips of Taming, A Guide to Dungeon Crawling, A Hunter's Guide"

Danny came through a lot of interesting books. "A Hunter's Guide" book to his attention. 

He took the book from the shelf. There were some layers of dust gathered in the covers but he managed to wipe it off. 

Then, he took the one called Tips of Taming too. 

"Hmmm.. wonder what these are!" said Danny and took a seat on the small table placed in the middle of the library. 

The room had an air conditioner so it was cool inside. 

*Relaxing place!* thought Danny as he laid back on the wooden chair and placed the two books on the table. 

He got A Hunter's Guide and turned the pages of the book. 

He read what was on the first page. 

"If you are a Hunter who's reading this, then you have already passed the test given by your own system. As for now, this book will teach you a little about how I got through my adventure. It is the Hunter's Guide to Immortality!" 

                      - Allan Kingston.

It was a note from the author of the book. Danny was reading it but he couldn't quite get what the test was. 

Then he turned the pages of the book. His eyes scattered across the pages. 

There were notes about every level of a Hunter. There were notes about something called the main skills. 

[ Level 5 : Swirl ]

[ Level 10 : Spirit Bow ]

[ Level 20 : Tamer ]

[ Level 40 : Soul Slash ]

[ Level 80 : Mana Armour ]

[ Level 100 : Immortality ]

There was a special skill from level to level. "Woah! This must be nice!" said Danny. 

He turned to the next pages. There were some old drawings in the books. A drawing for each skill unlocked and a lot of descriptions about how to use them. 

There were some stories too. He didn't read the book much, but he got the ideas. 

Danny saw the Tamer skill on the hunter. It was unlocked in Level 20. 

*So the guy we fought was higher or equal to level 20! Shit!!! We could've died if the car didn't come!* reasoned Danny as he went through the pages.

"The tamer skill allows you to tame any Veil Lurker, even titans." he read the page. "Holy shit! What are titans??" he asked himself in confusion. 

He was learning a lot of things about the systems already. If he read all the books in the library, he might have enough knowledge about the systems and he would be immortal in no time. 

*Hmmm... I should ask to borrow this!* thought Danny as he closed the book and took the other book called "Tips for Taming". 

He opened up the book and turned the pages. There were a lot of pictures painted with colours in the book. 

"Hmmm.... Awesome beasts! So I can tame these!!!" Danny jabbered looking at the pictures.

There were wolves, snakes, dragons, creatures that looked like birds and all kinds of things. 

The size of the book was immense. It was even larger than a Dictionary. 

"WOAH! SO AWESOME!!"

Danny couldn't wait to try all the skills out and fight these beasts. Suddenly, he turned to the last pages of the book. 

"Holy shit!"

The beasts in the last pages were enormous. 

"Are these titans!"

He read the words above the pictures. 

"Titans : The largest type of creatures among the Veil Lurkers. These Veil Lurkers are incredibly large compared to the others. Thus the name titan is given. Each of these Veil Lurkers were once normal like the other creatures but these creatures have mutated in time and were transformed into massive beasts." 

*WOAH!*

Danny was utterly surprised. He couldn't believe his eyes. 

Searching through the books, the time has passed by. Danny looked at his wrist watch. 

[ 7:30 pm ]

The four who had gone to complete their survival quests weren't home yet. 

Danny took the two books and went downstairs. 

Claus was still working on his research in the Mac. 

"Hey Claus! I'm going off! Need to do some work!" called out Danny.

"Sure!" said Claus. 

"Would you mind if I borrow these two books?" asked Danny, showing him the two books he was reading. 

Claus turned back and looked at the two books Danny was holding. "Oh! Good reads!! Should give you some idea 'bout the systems!" said Claus.

"So... Ok?" Danny asked.

"Yes of course!" answered Claus.

Then he took the two books home with him.

Danny went home and read the books in the night. The more he read, the more he wanted to level up. The possibilities and the magical things got him addicted to the systems.

After reading the book he placed them beside his pillows. 

Then he wondered for a moment. *Doing the daily quests! That will level me up!*