The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

Granny Qi turned to look at me. "You're a Rank Two Liberomancer now, with excellent future prospects. Any young maiden who is looking for a ticket out of this place might find themselves suddenly falling head over heels for you… what I'm saying is don't fall for the flirtations of such gold diggers."

"Is that how you and your husband ended up together?" I asked, wondering if she was talking from experience.

I heard a "Pfft!" as Suki Tang spat out what she was eating and started giggling uncontrollably. "Some apprentice you're raising here!"

I could tell Granny Qi didn't quite find that as funny as her sister did - I had said that as an actual question and not as a joke, but I hightailed it out of there before things could get any more awkward.

Once I was outside the village boundaries, the question was where to head off next? I was seeking a stroke of inspiration here, but where was I most likely to find that?

The rice fields were over there, but I had already seen plenty of them during the trip over here, and they didn't exactly inspire much artistically in me.

Instead, I chose to go away from the farms and towards what was basically the wilderness.

There were things to watch out for, of course. If not large predators like wolves and bears, then things like snakes and the like. Still… I had seen some of the ordinary villagers go out into these areas, and if it was safe for them, it should've been safe enough for me.

So long as I didn't wander too far away from the village, that is. Who knows what kind of weird things I might run into?

I had two very strong offensive options now - [Crimson Lance] and [Fireball]. But they were not capable of dealing with every single situation I might run into.

I had not spent any significant time in a village before in my life being a city boy through and through, let alone a village in a different world - a fact I kept in mind as I reminded myself to be careful as there might be things I hadn't encountered before. Then again, unlike the villagers, I had magical powers, so that should've greatly evened out the playing field. No matter how acclimatized the villagers were to the surrounding areas, I felt like it still couldn't quite make up for the ability to shoot [Fireball] from my hand.

I hadn't bought anything to write with me while I walked because it was way too cumbersome to try to carry them with me - I was just trying to think of new ideas.

There were many things from my old life I could try to write about - a lot of them weren't the right length though for a Rank Two grimoire. I did have some ideas for a Rank Three grimoire and many for Rank One grimoires, but I needed something specifically for a Rank Two grimoire.

I had a lot of information stored away in my head, but I needed something that was organized enough on a specific subject to write somewhat at length about it. The issue was that I had already forgotten quite a bit of what I had learned. It would have been even worse if I had graduated and started a job (assuming I'd have gotten one after graduating) because then everything would've been even further back in the rear view mirror.

I could go on writing more about mathematics. I was sure that if I spent some time mulling it over, some of my math lessons would come back to me. Like trigonometry, I hated that when I first read about it, and because of that I never bothered relearning it, but I would've loved to have my old mathematics textbooks right now.

One of the benefits of mathematics over other subjects was that it could be built on comparatively easily compared to others if your basics were clear.

I began sketching out some triangles in the dirt with a stick even as I thought of this and how to build on what I could remember - but then gave up on the idea. I could probably write out two or three pages and with time figure out some of the stuff I'd forgotten, but I felt there was lower hanging fruit that I could try to reach for.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

After all, no matter how much effort you put into a grimoire, it would only ever fill up a single slot.

So if nonfiction wasn't an option - what about something like a poem or short story?

I wasn't very confident in my ability to write either of those however… and my success rate with them hadn't been very high either.

"Huh…?"

Something was… off about the ground. I had crested a small mound and noted the ground was strangely soft and mushy - almost like I was standing on a trampoline.

I even took a moment to sit down - yup, it was quite comfortable, strangely enough.

I noticed I had come a much longer distance from the village than I had initially intended, meaning that although I hadn't gained much in the way of inspiration, it was soon going to be time to head on back.

I yawned - I had been woken up a bit earlier than I was used to, not to mention that I had had to wake up early the day before as well to head out to the village.

I lightly tapped the ground and felt a strange fluidity from it, almost like a water mattress back home. Looking down from it to the rest of the soil, it looked like I was on top of a giant mushroom.

It was actually more soft and comfortable than the mattress they had given me here - not that I was complaining, I was sure that it was nothing but the finest relative to what you could find in this place, but it still was far harder and lumpier than I was used to.

Here though, it was far more comfortable and relaxing to lie down…

Yeah, I thought that wasn't a bad idea. I would take a short nap, and then tackle the problem of making a new grimoire with a fresh mind. I was close enough to the village that I wasn't worried about large wild animals finding me, and things like snakes would usually keep to their dens.

Granny Qi had told me stories of how she would sometimes doze off in places like this back in her younger days, so I figured it was relatively safe.

It was only going to be a quick nap anyway, I told myself before I drifted off to dreamland.

While Stefan was taking a nap, back in the village, Qi Nan and Suki Tang were conversing about old times and how things currently were in the village.

Truth be told, there had once been a large rift between the two sisters. When Qi Nan had married Hei Nan and left the village, there were quite a few people in her family who felt that she had 'abandoned' them for a better life in the city. Even now, Qi Nan was much wealthier than either of her siblings - she also owned a large portion of the land in the village in addition to her assets within Arconia, and part of the purpose of her journey here was to see how things were doing with her share of the land.

As such, there had been some feelings of resentment dwelling deep in Suki Tang's heart. Qi Nan did not understand why Suki Tang had behaved in such a way, though, eventually she too began to ignore her sister in kind. Yet, over the decades, Suki Tang had realized why her sister had done what she had, and after the two sister's both found themselves widowed; they found that their support was something that they had greatly missed during the years they had been needlessly cold to each other.

"Why not move back here?" Suki Tang offered her sister yet again. "It's clear as water that you're lonely there all by yourself. Why not stay here with me? My youngest daughter is still unmarried, your presence would make the wedding all the more vibrant. Not to mention my grandchildren would love to have a second grandmother to play with."

Qi Nan sighed. "I cannot… I cannot give up on the house and legacy he's left me," she said. "If I have but one dying wish, it is to pass away in that house, surrounded by the memories I have of that place."

Suki Tang nodded in understanding. "What then of that foreigner? Why did you ah… take him as your... apprentice?"

"Oh that's a long story," Qi Nan said.

The two were interrupted by one of Suki Tang's grandchildren, who burst into the room. It was Tai Lin, a ten year old boy who was out of breath. "Grandmother! Come! The villagers say they spotted an Elephant Frog near the village!"

There were many kinds of magical beasts in Libraria - the Elephant Frog was one of the less dangerous ones despite its enormous size which lead to it earning that name. It thankfully had no appetite for humans - there were many stories of one mistakenly eating human children and occasionally even adults, only to immediately spit them right back out.

Elephant Frogs clearly did not think that humans tasted very good.

Essentially, humans were of no more concern to the Elephant Frog than ants crawling on the ground were to humans. However, it was here that there was an issue - how often do humans pay attention while walking to make sure that they didn't step on any ants?

Similarly, the Elephant Frog was known to wander wherever it wanted to, and with its huge mass and ability to leap great distances, it could easily damage small mud huts, even the house that Qi Nan was in right now would be in danger of collapsing if it happened to leap onto the roof.

The best thing to do in such a scenario was to chase it off, as no one really wanted to kill it, but if it came to the village's safety they would do what they had to.