Translator: Shizukuku

Editor: Lilia

Read at Watashi Wa Sugoi Desu!

Chapter 146 – What is this crazy gimmick?

And so, I visited the library the next day.

This time, I went earlier in the day with the intention of reading one of the books in the cabinet.

I wasn’t qualified to read the books on dark magic with the lock on them, but I was deemed qualified to read a couple of the books on curses. The librarian brought them out for me, and I was currently reading one of them.

It seemed that if you touched the crystal and it lit up, then you were considered qualified. According to the librarian, a person with a deep understanding of the matters related to a book would be deemed qualified to read it. For us players, it was similar to a skill level requirement.

From reading the carefully stored book, I vaguely understood that while corruption could occur quite quickly, curses seemed to require a certain amount of magic power. The wording was a little vague, and it was a little difficult to understand.

Come to think of it, Jhal Gar-san had mentioned something about his statue leaking petrification magic and that people were cursed by the aftereffects. Maybe curses are activated based on the conditions set by the caster. This could explain why beastmen and elves weren’t affected by curses. He did say that the curse only affected humans, after all. The book also mentioned that people with high magic power were less susceptible to curses because they had a naturally higher resistance to foreign magical elements.

I felt like sighing at the book, which was nearly impossible to understand without a proper education in magic and magical power. Since I was completely clueless when it came to magic, I thought I might try attending a lecture on magic. There were vocational training centers in Uno. Though, it probably wouldn’t be that beneficial. Even if I learned magic now, I’d become a jack-of-all-trades and master of none, making it even harder to excel.

To make things more confusing, the book seemed to be written by a human, and the content was a little different from what Jhal Gar-san had taught me, which was pretty disappointing. 

Jhal Gar-san had said that curses could be easily broken, but the book said that they could only be dispelled by the power of holy magic. Maybe it had been written by someone affiliated with the church.

The fact that the Dispel Potion I made worked pretty much proved that Jhal Gar-san’s explanation was more accurate. By the way, when I made the Dispel Potion, my pharmacist level went up by one. It’s probably thanks to the experience I got from creating something new.

In any case, for a book with a lock on it, the content wasn’t as impressive as I had hoped.

I let out a small sigh, closed the book, and handed it back to the librarian to put away. Then, I had her bring out the other book, thanked her, and sat down with it.

I flipped through the pages, staring intently at the text. About 10 pages in, I noticed a small scribble-like mark on the edge of the page.

It was written in the ancient magical language, and it said [ Magical Power Infusion ].

To someone unfamiliar with the ancient magical language, it looked like a child’s scribble, and the letters were distorted. 

It was almost as if it was meant to be noticed only by those who could read it.

When I looked up and glanced at the librarian, she had her eyes down, actively working with her hands. I wondered if being a librarian involved a lot of work. She seemed busy. 

Taking advantage of the fact that she wasn’t paying attention to me, I quietly appraised the book.

When I did, the text [ Fake Book: A book with something concealed. The text can be altered by infusing magic power. ] overlapped with the text [ Old Book: A book about curses created long ago by humans ], making the appraisal text incredibly hard to read. Maybe there was some kind of concealment that was just barely within the level of my appraisal ability. I’d been steadily raising my appraisal level, so it should be fairly high. Maybe it was at the same level as those materials I collected in that cave the other day.

With a rush of excitement, I placed my hand on the book. Since there was nothing more troublesome than half-baked knowledge, I transferred almost all of my MP into the book, leaving just a tiny bit for myself.

“…!”

I almost let out a cry, but I quickly covered my mouth with my hand and held it back.

Right in front of me, the letters on the page began rearranging themselves one after another.

What is this? Amazing!

I was so captivated by the letters crawling across the paper as if they were alive that I forgot to even blink.

Once the letters finished rearranging themselves, the page finally became quiet. It was a strange way to put it, but saying it became quiet was quite fitting because the letters had been practically dancing or crawling around in a way I could only describe as noisy. I couldn’t help but think that it was easier on the eyes when the text wasn’t moving.

With my heart still pounding, I closed the book and looked at the cover.

The cover of the book, which was previously titled [ Types of Curses ], had changed to [ Conditions and Types of Curses, and Methods of Dispelling Them ].

The book that described the confirmed types of curses mentioned that your emotions at the time and the will of the one who cast the curse would largely determine what kind of curse was inflicted.

The interpretation of why I was afflicted with a Silence Curse was that I had feelings hidden deep within my heart that I wanted to express but couldn’t.

It also mentioned other terrifying possibilities, like if a person with a grudge was cursed, it manifested as a powerful curse that took over their mind, or if someone who easily deceived others was cursed, their luck would disappear, and they would suffer from misfortune. Reading it sent a chill down my spine. It was scary. Did that mean that the curse someone was afflicted with could give you an insight into their character? If the church knew about this, then they could probably get a good sense of a person’s personality when they came to have their curse lifted.

…The concealment! If the church was responsible for keeping this concealed from the public, then they might be using it to give targeted advice to the people who came to have their curses lifted.

“…No way.”

I took a deep breath to calm myself and muttered quietly.

No way. There was no way, right? And even if they gave advice, there’s no way they’d do anything based on it, right? 

I shook off the thought that had suddenly crossed my mind and continued reading.

The only way to break a curse was holy magic. While the details of the magic were written, there was no mention anywhere of it being painful. And as I expected, there was also no mention of curse-breaking items.

I was curious to know what the text originally said. How much was altered by that magic infusion just now?

I decided to secretly take screenshots.

As I quietly read, I took screenshots of each page.

It was a relief that there weren’t a lot of pages.

Toward the end, there was a section that described the locations where curses occurred, so I took a screenshot of that as well.

Wow, there were quite a few. The fact that it even mentioned places as far as the frontier town meant that this book had documented nearly all the curse spots across the continent that the author knew about. I wondered if this information needed to be updated. 

While I was thinking that, the letters started moving around again. Did that mean the magic power I infused had run out? If I didn’t have speed-reading, I wouldn’t have been able to see until the end.

The letters moving around in front of me looked incredibly fantastical to my eyes. If this were happening on a screen, it wouldn’t seem so mystical, but the fact that it was happening on old paper that I was holding really stirred something deep within me. Ahh, don’t do it. If I awaken that part of me, I’ll become super cringe. 

As I followed the newly rearranged text from the beginning again, I noticed that the curses were classified by type and symptoms, with distinctions between relatively mild curses and life-threatening ones. I almost laughed at how completely different the content was. 

As I closed the book, I thought that both the surface content and the hidden content were quite substantial.

I thanked the librarian and returned the book. Now I was curious about the dark magic books and what other hidden gimmicks might be lurking in this world.

The more I do, the more strange things I seem to uncover.

However, I still didn’t know the reason why those unique bosses appeared here and in the frontier town.

Like yesterday, the librarian and I left the room together, I thanked them, and stepped outside, where the stars were twinkling in the sky again.

I missed going to see Kyle-san again today. I wanted to get some high-rank evening primrose, and the evening primrose that grows around here was usually of low rank.

As I walked the path back to the workshop, I glanced at the farm. It was closed, as expected.

I decided to go to the farm tomorrow, and I put my hand on the door of the workshop.

At that moment, a message pinged in my chat window.

Wondering who it might be, I entered the workshop, locked the door, and sat down in a chair.

When I opened the message, it was from Kairi, which was unusual.

[ Thanks for the tarts. I got one too. I want to thank you separately from Takahashi, so if you need anything, let me know. I can send you materials that are available here if you need them. Brave also wants to thank you, so think of something. ]

“Oh, great. The tarts arrived. They sure got there quickly, even though I sent them yesterday. The guild really is efficient… or could it be that—”

I suddenly thought of something. Could it be that Emily-san had Crash deliver it…? 

I roughly calculated in my head the time it would take by carriage to travel from here to the frontier town in a day, and the speed of it made me dizzy.

“It was definitely delivered by Crash. There’s no way it could reach the frontier in just one day!”

So maybe the package for me had already arrived.

No way.

I closed the chat window and, although I had just entered the workshop, turned back to the nighttime streets of Tre once more.