Eric calmly walked past all the guards, and no one noticed or felt anything since he was using his Disappearance ability.
Eric already knew the library wouldn't accept him, and even if they did, they probably wouldn't allow him to browse all levels.
After entering, he noticed broad stairs heading upstairs to his right, and in front of him was a huge hall with wide-open doors. He could see a countless number of books filling all the racks and shelves inside this massive hall.
After calmly ambling inside the hall, he noticed that there were many people here, both men and women; they were all well-dressed like nobles, while a few wore light armor that wouldn't make much noise. The hall was largely silent, with only a few people gossiping and giggling in controlled tones here and there.
Eric ignored everyone and gazed at the huge bookshelves. Even within this single huge hall, there was an upper floor with more bookshelves, filled with countless books.
The entire place was brightly lit with some artifacts that were sticking out from the well-decorated false ceiling far above.
Eric secretly controlled his desire to vomit upon seeing such a huge amount of books all around him, and quickly began checking the books and rows' titles as he walked past them.
He was currently dearly missing his sweet wife-cum-secretary, Riya—super cute and delici... ahem, extremely useful for these sorts of tasks. Sadly, she was currently hibernating like a bear, and now he had to personally read some informative books. What a pain.
He wondered if there were any Kamasutra edition books available in this world; he might as well check those too, to learn how Mana Wielders truly fought battles.
Other than that, he had a few things in mind to check, starting with the map of Batley City.
Soon, he found the section with books related to geography and history.
Looking at the number of books, Eric wanted to cry. So, he quickly recalled all the demotivational videos and dialogues he had come across in his past life.
If you don't like to do something, then don't do it!
So, after taking a few deep breaths and deactivating his demotivated mind, he started searching for the book that had the map of Batley City and its notable places.
After finding a book that might have what he sought, he glanced around the surroundings and noticed most of the people were busy with their own stuff and no one was looking his way.
So, he first pulled up his hood and then covered his face with the face mask attached to his dark cloak. After covering himself completely, he also put on gloves; only then did he quickly pick up the book, letting his Disappearance ability cancel. After picking up the book, he once again activated his ability, and now the book was invisible together with him.
Using this method, he could indeed take away books from this place and no one would suspect him, but he had no such interest. When Riya woke up, he would just do the same with another library in another city.
His current interest lay in learning where in Batley City 'evil' people did 'evil' business. This was one of his main goals in coming to the library. He wanted to avoid asking Caius and the others if possible.
He opened the book and started flipping through it. It took him a while, as it only provided information on where 'good' people should visit.
This was why libraries were not suitable places for an Evil Ultimate Boss such as himself. It was actually a horrible place that could turn all his evilness into holiness—an absolutely vile and disgusting place. Eric even felt his hands were burning from the holy powers that the book was emitting.
After a while of searching, he learned of a few locations where evil people such as himself found salvation. He placed the book back on its shelf and then proceeded to search for a book with a more detailed map of the Silvia Kingdom and its neighboring kingdoms.
Eric had changed his mind about going to Sildargrade. Since he now had a bird-plane, why couldn't he simply fly off to another big city outside of the Silvia Kingdom and then travel to other places using their Space Gateway? That way, the entire trouble the Silvia Kingdom was going through would have nothing to do with them, and they could finally enjoy their journey towards the school. And more importantly, after that, they could personally seek trouble instead of trouble jumping at them with the expression of—'SURPRISE M.F.'
However, after checking the map of the Silvia Kingdom, he felt his mouth spasm.
From Batley City to any neighboring kingdom from any side would take too much time due to the distance and the terrain.
The map of the Silvia Kingdom was shaped like a cylinder or more like a rectangle, though not entirely; traveling to any other side would take an equally long time, and then finding a city with a space gateway would take even longer.
Eric had a feeling that whatever trouble the Silvia Kingdom was currently going through was much bigger than what was on the surface, and there was a high chance that other cities within this kingdom had also lost their Space Gateways. Meanwhile, the chances were high that the one in Sildargrade was still intact and secured since it was the capital; the security must be high and they could also fix it quickly in case it was destroyed.
So, they currently had two options: to take the risk and sidetrack to another city for a gamble that the space gateway there was still intact, or they simply travel straight towards Sildargrade, which would be far faster if they didn't waste time trying their luck with other cities on the way. Not to mention, as undocumented wealthy youngsters, they might receive too much attention and trouble from other cities for carrying so much illegal money.
After thinking for a brief moment, Eric sighed. Capital Sildargrade it was then. And if that still failed, they would just have to travel to another kingdom through further illegal methods.
As illegal foreigners committing further illegal activities would cancel each other out, they would become legal immigrants! This was basic mathematics!
Eric nodded to himself, considering himself smart. He was not that terrible at mathematics after all!
After obtaining these two pieces of information, Eric continued touring the ground floor, looking for any book titles that might interest him. And indeed, there were quite a few storybooks that interested him, but he was just checking and didn't have the time to enjoy reading them at this moment.
While strolling, something caught his attention—'uncensored' books!
He was very interested in reading those to broaden his horizons. He wondered if the people in this world were doing the same postures or if they had found some new hardcore positions that only the authentic Mana Wielders could practice.
After walking closer to that shelf, he halted and felt deeply helpless. It was not empty... In fact, it was crowded with women!
After observing for a while and noticing the girls had no interest in leaving anytime soon, he gave up while also feeling speechless internally.
Girls in this world were really bold!
But it was not too surprising, as being a 'Mana Wielder' kind of made both genders equal, which was great as a whole, and so their psychology was also slightly different from Earthlings'. Not everyone present here was a Mana Wielder; however, common people's mentality also subtly changed with the times and society they lived in.
Nonetheless, Eric could no longer check out those books, so he turned and left.
It was time to go upstairs. He still needed to find other information.
He guessed the information that he sought probably wouldn't be on the next floor either, yet he still gave it a sweeping glance. As expected, he didn't find anything of interest; thus, he headed towards the higher floors.
The people who were reading books on the second level were all Mana Wielders, while the lower floors still had some mortals. It wasn't hard to guess that from here on, only guild members with sufficient grades or points had access.
The number of books kept reducing with each floor, which wasn't too surprising. After another speedy tour, Eric climbed to the final level.
On this floor, there were four Rank 3s guarding and chatting among themselves. Thankfully, the door was left wide open, or else Eric would have had to knock them unconscious.
He walked past those guards while nodding at them as if he was very satisfied with their hard work, and entered the room.
This floor had an even smaller number of books, with only five or six rows. Eric browsed through the titles and soon stopped in front of a bookshelf titled—Contracts and Oaths. There were only five thin books on that shelf.
Eric looked around and saw no one, so he picked up one book to read.
He no longer bothered keeping his Disappearance active since this room was entirely empty, though he still kept his mask and hood up as a precaution.
This was the second reason he visited the library, something he had been very cautious of ever since he picked up the two binding scrolls from Jack's 2D body.
Those scrolls could enslave others without their consent or control. Eric didn't think it would work as intended against someone with a determined mind or strong spirit, but nonetheless, he still needed to understand what and how many ways it could be done, as well as its limitations and methods of prevention.
After speed-reading all five books, he finally understood what bindings, contracts, and oaths were.
One way of binding was through scrolls. This method was actually rare due to people not having the talent to inscribe these kinds of scrolls. This was a violent way and could severely affect the mind of the target individual to the point that they might lose their minds and become mentally unstable over time. This was the method used by Jack.
Another was through ingredients, pills, and so on. It was not easy to execute and had various limits. Of course, the specific method was not written in the book.
Another way was through certain spells; it was rarer due to people lacking such a unique element and talent. It was also significantly different from just binding scrolls. It was not omnipotent, but if the user was capable, resourceful, and had a high enough rank, they could use them. There were also many limitations to it, and it might not work on certain people.
There was a strange line across all methods that said it wouldn't work well on people who had 'Will in their hearts' and those with access to 'Will body'. Eric didn't understand, so he skipped it for now.