Chapter 20 - Palas Book

 'It doesn't matter?  Didn't he understand that a speck of high quality light could mean the difference between life and death six months from now?' Thought the butler who no longer knew whether his master was an eccentric or just a great fool. But in the end, he resolved not to intrude into matters that were not his anymore.

 Soon three days had flown by to Pan, between meals the comfortable bed and the luxurious bathroom, he was having a really comfortable life.

 But all that's good is short-lived, Pan was now in a room with ten other apprentices from class forty-five to class fifty, apothecary didn't seem to be very popular. 

 An obese instructor was currently delivering a monologue straight from the pages of a book she was looking with bored eyes and reading even more bored.

 'For salt, a trained monkey would teach better.' Thought Pan, seeing no sense in the instructor's explanation.

 But Pan had never intended to trust the instructors in any way. And when the tedious botany class was finally over, he headed through the halls of the building until he reached the apprentice-level library.

 "Where is the botany section?" Pan asked the librarian who was almost asleep behind the desk.

 'Is it just me or are most crusaders female?' Pan began to notice that there were far more women than men among the crusaders.

 "The botany section is over here," said the young woman, pointing with one hand to an end session on the left and the other hand on her cheek. "You can take up to two books to your room at a time," she informed him in a bored voice.

 Following the librarian's instructions, Pan found himself in front of a large, tall bookcase filled with books of botany. The books on the top were completely dusty.

 'It doesn't seem to be a very popular topic at all.' Thought Pan seeing that the Order barely bothered to clean the session decently.

 But even though it wasn't a popular topic, there were still a decent amount of books for the novice level.  Pan spent a few minutes reading through their titles before selecting a book that appealed to him, both for the design and the title itself.

 'Mandrakes, their dangers and their medicinal wonders.'

 'Hello dear readers, my name is Palas, I'm a researcher and an enthusiast of everything green has to offer.

 Crusaders, especially the new and inexperienced ones, tend to bang their silly, hard heads in battle specializations, only to die from stepping on the wrong mushroom, all ignorant fools.

 Tired of seeing promising young people die stupidly when faced with the subtle dangers of nature, whether corrupted or not, I, Palas, decided to create a collection of books, a course on how to defend yourself and above all, how to take advantage of these wonders of nature.

 The focus of this book in question is only on mandrakes, but you can find many other books written by me in any self-respecting library…'

 'What an arrogant fellow.' Thought Pan.

 'So let's start with the most common but no less dangerous of the mandrakes. Commonly called grass mandrakes, these little green devils are harmless, until you step on them. Grass mandrakes manage to use some of their vitality to harden and stretch their roots and end up impaling unsuspecting fools who step on them. Also, as if being deadly and silent weren't enough, the little devils can also grow legs and run around, making it difficult to capture them for medicinal uses, medicinal uses that are, of course, their strong point.

 You, dear reader, can see the image of one of these little creatures personally drawn by me on the opposite page, as well as the safest methods of capture and preparation…'

 Turning the page, Pan could see a detailed image of the grass mandrakes, the small "living root" looked like a brown ball of stunted roots and had what appeared to be a small, green eyeball in the center. In one of the images portrayed, this little ball had two little legs made of curled roots. But the image that stood out the most was the representation of the defense system of the "living root" in the image portrayed in the book, you could see a thin arm coming out of the side of the ball only to thicken as it extended, until it ended in a tangle of sharp thorns of the adult male size.

 On the drawings side were tips and guidelines on how to find and capture grass mandrakes before they were able to notice you and also tips on how to fight them in case you end up stepping on one.'k

'I take the arrogance off, this guy is brilliant.' Thought Pan.