While research proves that a realm mageknight’s increase in strength and magical powers equals the sum of abilities of a realm knight and a realm mage of identical realm, the longevity seems to remain the same for all three across the different realms.

  — Excerpt from Introduction to Realm Cores

  Day 13, 11:30 PM

  I returned to the library a while ago, satisfied with how I’ve solved the problem. My class was already a scholar, and I had cleared up the turbulent portion of my life, almost certainly removing any notions of rebellion and assassination from Dandelion’s former henchmen.

  I still planned to keep my eyes out for any threats whenever I left the library, doing otherwise while Redo was red equaled disregard for life. But for now, my focus was on the scholar class, which I should level soon.

  I enjoyed a random lunch at Basil’s on the nineteenth day, and on the twenty-third, I got a level up notice.

  [You have read a hundred books.

  You have leveled up.

  Select a skill within sixty seconds or a random one will be assigned to you.

  Initial Fast Reader- Your reading speed increases without the reduction in comprehension.

  Initial Spell Checking - You find grammatical errors in the texts you read without error.]

  The second looked like a nice little boon, one which could make a man quite popular in certain circles and despised in others, but I pick the former. What I wanted was to push it as close to the master tier as possible, but I would take whatever the class had to offer.

  I checked my level up condition, and it was a rather scholarly one - debate a book you have read with a fellow scholar.

  It was a bit early for my lunch, which was due the day after tomorrow, but I returned the book to the shelf and headed out into the reception room.

  “Good evening, Ruby,” I greeted the librarian. “Might I interest you in dinner?”

  She gave me a cold look. “I heard you killed a flunky of yours in the castle.”

  I smiled like the winner that I was. “He tried to kill me, I have plenty of witnesses. I also roughed up the mastermind behind the poisoning, but it seems we’re related, so I thought murder was not the best solution. Any thoughts?”

  “You should’ve killed them all.”

  Such cold words from such a sweet smile. Her looks were as deceptive as mine, as books had taught me. She claimed she was at the fourth realm, meaning she was probably more than a hundred years old. I was at the third, but my appearance was a bit more advanced in the years compared to hers. She and Dandelion were born around the same time, give or take a decade.

  “That would’ve put me in a tough spot,” I said, my smile not faltering in the slightest. “The imperial family pardoned our crimes because we could act as muscle in this insignificant part of the world, as you called it.”

  She smirked, and there was no need to finish what I wanted to say. We both knew my value would significantly drop if I had no fodder to offer. The imperial administration might even get rid of me.

  “Now, about that dinner?” I batted my eyelashes at her, and the woman laughed.

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  “Are you trying to seduce me?”

  “Not really. You’re a beautiful woman, smart and powerful, while I’m what? A washed up former criminal with no future worth mentioning.”

  The last days of my previous reincarnation really changed me. I could never guess whether my beloved Manny had reincarnated in the same world I did. It would always hang above my head, like a damn sword. But if she had reincarnated in the same world, the only way to find her is by getting to know everyone.

  A futile effort, of that I was well aware, but still it remained the only way to succeed, to find my goddess, despite the odds. Ultimately, I think my approach would have made her happy, knowing I was trying to lead a normal life while looking out for her. Especially when the alternative was me being a broken mess stumbling through life.

  Unaware of the shades haunting me, Ruby smiled and leaned across her counter.

  “You’re selling yourself short,” she whispered in my ear, her lips brushing against my lobe before she turned around and spoke in a louder voice. “I’m heading out for dinner, sir!”

  The dinner was nice, debate on the Introduction to Realm Cores was nicer, the level up notice was the nicest.

  “You are by far the most contemplative and erudite knight I have ever met,” Ruby said while I was choosing my skills. “How many books have you read in the library so far?”

  “I haven’t kept count, but more than a hundred.” I answered her question, then focused back on my choice.

  Initial Library Navigation would allow me to find the books I was looking for with greater ease, but it only worked inside libraries. Initial Reference Checker made books, source information, and physical evidence draw my attention if I was researching something related, without the location stipulation.

  Both were nice for scholars, and they explained how the absentminded geeks seemingly found what they needed more easily, but neither was too useful for me. The former really mattered little, since every library I planned to visit I would read in its entirety, so I chose the latter, and found out that my next level up condition was to read five hundred books.

  Utter nonsense. Even at twenty books a day, which I can’t manage, it would take twenty-five days to achieve the feat; twenty, if the one hundred I had already read counted against the total. And that’s not adding five or more nights’ worth of sleep I would have to slip in.

  Maybe Everrain’s crazy pace left too much of a scar. Less than a month passed since my reincarnation, I had done three loops, reached level two of the class I chose as my starting one, and removed all immediate threats. Perhaps it was fine to take my time and level up a class which would help me all the way along the long path I’m intending to take while trying to become this world’s greatest power.

  “You are very single-minded,” Ruby said, and we continued the intellectual chat we were having. One thing led to another, and soon enough she was assuring me she could use water manipulation for contraception before we gave her technique several rounds of practical tests in her private quarters.

  Ruby slept next to me, mouth cracked open, drool dripping onto my chest. The distinguished realm mage was as graceful as an average passed out child. Unlike her, I could have still gone on without sleep for more than a day, but I grabbed the chance and relaxed, sinking into unsettling dreams.

  I was a fish, swimming in an infinite absolutely black domain. Bigger fish swam around me, I could feel their existence, but not their exact location. The only thing I knew was that the big fish were after me and others like me, while I was also on the prowl, searching for fish small enough to devour without putting myself at risk.

  Then I smelled blood, and saw a tiny golden crack.

  My eyes snapped open, all my inhuman willpower and composure struggling to keep me from screaming and jumping out of the bed. It’s the same dream, the one I have had ever since I sealed Everrain from the outer gods out to devour it.

  I was fairly certain it was just my imagination. Gods couldn’t possibly have such primitive brains focused on nothing but sustenance and danger. Right? Besides, I was certainly no god swimming through the void in search for chunks of energy which would increase my strength and allow me to snatch even bigger meals until I reached the top or something devoured me.

  Ruby stirred, and I kissed her forehead. She opened her eyes a crack, focusing on me.

  “I’m going to the library to read, you should rest a bit more.” I slid my torso from under her.

  She mumbled an unintelligible protest, squeezed my inner thigh, and went back to sleep with a snore.

  A fling with the librarian was definitely not getting a reset. Constant looping of time and redoing of events had messed up my mind in the past. And the cure I found were grounded, human interactions. Another way to make things easier on my psyche, was to loop events without human interactions for as long as possible, then sandwich them with other things.

  Then there were the unavoidable events, those vital disasters I wanted to prevent or avoid, but doing so demanded me to ignore the other rules. I died a true death in Everrain because of one such incident, but at least it netted me an achievement in exchange.

  I entered the library hoping this world would be one free of monsters which would demand me to make a choice between myself and myself plus the rest of humanity. For a moment, I saw a glimpse of a tentacled monstrosity behind the counter, but it was just a man, Ruby’s teacher, who eyed me and nodded.

  I wondered whether he nodded because he knew what I and his student were doing, or because he knew who I was and that I had subscribed myself for a lot of books from his library. The funny thing was, in his eyes, I would never get my money’s worth of the gem I paid, when in truth, I was robbing the imperials blind.