The Two Leaders

The sight that lay before him was more reminiscent of an art museum than a library. Countless decorations added flair to the level, while the bookshelves and even the books themselves looked like ornaments on display.

Not a single speck of dust could be seen on the immaculately polished hardwood floors and the surface was covered in beautiful engraved patterns. The upper area was quite roomy, with a hall-like design, and a balcony extended from the second floor. Even on the second floor there were countless bookshelves, arranged as if they were peeking into the room. The semi-circular ceiling was covered in grand frescos and luxurious carvings.

There were even books in the numerous glass bookshelves across the room. There were many source of light in the room, but none of them too glaring. As a matter of fact, a regular human would frown, claiming it was too dark.

It was impossible to take in the whole interior at one glance because the bookshelves covered the scenery at every angle.

Amidst a silence befitting a library, the doors slowly closed behind Mare. It turned darker since there was no light coming in from the entrance. The stillness in the air panned out to create a creepy atmosphere that made silence sound like another noise.

Of course, for someone like Mare who could see in the dark just as well as during the day, it was not creepy at all.

Mare headed towards the inside at rather fast pace.

This was the “Room of Logic”. For the most part, the library was divided into three large rooms; the

“Room of Wisdom”, the “Room of Logic”, the “Room of Magic”. There were also several smaller rooms designed for specialized uses and the individual rooms for the staff. His destination was quite far away considering the size of the area.

To either side of the tunnel were rows of bookshelves with countless books arranged on them.

The books in Yggdrasil could be divided into five large categories.

The first category was a collection of recorded monster data, which was required to summon said monsters as mercenaries.

There were three types of monsters inside Nazarick. The first type consisted of monsters that were created in a similar manner as player characters. The next type consisted of automatically spawning monsters that were under level thirty, and the last type consisted of monsters that were summoned as mercenaries. Mercenary monsters needed to be summoned using a book, a special summoning ritual and adequate amount of gold. Thus, they could not be summoned without a book.

The second category was magic items.

Certain data crystals could only be imbued into a book-shaped object. Items shaped like books usually tended to be single use magic items. The difference between a scroll and a book was that while scrolls could only be used by certain classes, anybody could use a book.

The third category was event items.

It was not uncommon for an item to be required when advancing into a special class, and some of these items came in the shape of a book. Even Ainz needed a “Book of the Dead” when he evolved from a Skeleton Mage into an Elder Lich. There were other books such as “Bibliography of Weapon Research” or “Anecdotes of the Four Great Spirits”. There were also books that taught new magic.

The fourth category was cosmetic skin data.

These books contained the cosmetic skin data of objects like swords, shields and armour. Players with certain blacksmith skills could put new skins on items with this and other appropriate materials.

The fifth category was novels in the form of book shaped items.

Normally, there would be old and classic literature whose copyright ran out a long time ago, but there were also background stories distributed by the development team and original novels written by players in Yggdrasil. There was also fanfiction based on the worlds of YGGDRASIL or game guides in the form of diaries or novels.

The majority of the countless books in the library belonged to the first category, to summon monsters as mercenaries. Of course, there was no need to actually hoard so many copies of them.

Even if they used the guild’s entire gold supply, they still would be unable to use even 1/10th of the books. Because the monster data was not very expensive, the guild members started making a massive number of duplicates. The intention had been to hide valuable items amongst a mass of useless ones.

Mare gave the books a sideway glance as he walked past them.

Then a ghastly shadow suddenly appeared from beyond the bookcases, as if stopping him.

It wore a black hooded robe that seemed to blend into the library itself. On its belt was a jewelry embedded wand, with various straps interweaved with crystals. It had a pale face that looked as if it had been embalmed. Every time it moved, darkness swirled around it ever so subtly.

It was an infamous monster amongst undead magic casters types, an “Elder Lich”.