The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

Despite what Granny Qi had told me, I did not go to bed right away. If I wanted to learn [Grand Fireball] in time for it to actually be useful, I could not waste a drop of mana on doing anything else and would have to devote nearly all my waking hours to the task.

This was made doubly difficult by the fact that it was in a different language - if I had someone with me to translate it would've been much faster, but that person would also need to be a Rank Three Liberomancer. And where would I find someone like that willing to spend hours with me with an army at the gates?

Thankfully the grimoire wasn't hard to understand.

Because of the grimoire's bright aura, it was easy enough to read even in total darkness, almost like reading on a smartphone or tablet at night. Regardless, [Unobstructed Sight] would've taken care of that no problem.

[Grand Fireball] turned out to be far more useful than I'd initially thought. When picking up a grimoire, you would know what it did, but like when I had bought the grimoire that gave [Fish Haul] you could also know how that potential spell or skill would interact with the rest of your set. I saw that [Grand Fireball] and [Summon Tyrant Arachnea] could also be used synergistically - I had already seen something between [Fireball] and [Summon Tyrant Arachnea]. However, the output of a Rank Three spell and skill was going to be far greater than between a Rank Two spell and Rank Three skill.

Without a doubt, this was something that I'd be able to use with great effect during the upcoming fight. If we did fight, that is; some small part of me hoped that whatever unknown cause resulted in the dryads straying from their original path in the first place would strike again causing them to suddenly turn away from Arconia any day now.

As I read the grimoire late into the night, a thought struck me.

It was an excellent thing that grimoires vanished when you read them! I had been complaining about how annoying that fact was internally for so long it seemed strange to suddenly come to that conclusion in a sleep-deprived state. However, even when I woke up later, I felt that it wasn't the wrong conclusion.

If that was not the case, and grimoires could be used multiple times, this world would not be so peaceful. You'd probably see people willing to slaughter other Liberomancers and steal grimoires all the time - and Libraria would end up being nothing more than a place where the law of the jungle survived, where the strong openly preyed upon the weak, and the world would probably be run by psychopaths or anyone callous enough to screw everyone around them over for their own gain.

But because grimoires could only be used once - no matter how powerful you were, you had a vested interest in letting anyone who could create a good one live. Because that way they could make more for you and eventually your descendants, especially if it was in a different language!

I realized this while thinking about how Hei Nan had passed away, so he could no longer make copies of this grimoire. It probably would've made more sense to give this to someone who could've written in the language that he had written it in instead of me so that more copies of it could be made - but that wouldn't have mattered anyway in the short term of this siege so there was no dwelling on that right now.

Compounding to this was of course, the fact that no matter how good you were, you couldn't make a whole set of grimoires on your own. You might be able to make a grimoire to make [Blazing Heart] while the Liberomancer next door might make one that gives [Inner Heat]. And thanks to both of your efforts, Liberomancers in the future would be more easily able to make a fire elementalist build. Even someone who is Rank Three might benefit from swapping out one of their Rank Two slots for a new grimoire someone had made that just so happened to compliment their build.

These two factors combined meant that the benefits of cooperation greatly exceeded the benefits of no-holds-barred every-man-for-himself sort of thinking. And so Liberomancers worked within the rules of society, for that was the scaffolding that allowed them to navigate the world and prevented unnecessary conflicts.

After all, that was why Liberomancer Duels had been created in the first place.

Of course, the general temperament among Liberomancers was also different from common warriors by virtue of the kind of training involved. Not to say that all Liberomancers got along, far from it, but they would usually not resort to violence to deal with problems among themselves. Bookworms were not the kind of people to throw hands recklessly.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

While Stefan was reading late into the night, in the governor's palace Drake and Zeke had been called to their father's office. The meeting of the lizardmen strategists had concluded, but the governor still had several issues to tackle before getting a breather in which he wanted to speak to his two sons.

"Father, you called?" Drake said as he peeked inside his father's office.

"Yes, there was something I wanted to discuss with you two," Lance said. Zeke was already in a chair sitting across Lance.

Drake took his seat, stifling the yawn that threatened to erupt out of his jaws.

"Drake, what is your opinion on the human whom Zeke vouched for?" Lance asked.

"He seems willing to do the job," Drake said. His father's nostrils flared, and that told Drake that he had given the wrong answer so he hastily added an addendum to his thoughts. "I mean, I don't like him personally but…"

"Oh? And why is that?" Lance asked.

"Uh… well," Drake began. The truth was that he didn't like Stefan because he had so easily made it to the finals in the tournament, and so he had harbored bitter feelings towards the man ever since. But he very well couldn't give that as a reason, now then could he?

"Zeke, you?"

To Drake's relief, his older brother was none the wiser. So at least, in this aspect, the two of them were equally disappointing.

Lance sighed. "Alright, I suppose neither of you have been near the Liberomancer's Guild recently so you might not know - though they had reached out to me regarding the matter of that human."

"In what regard?" Zeke asked.

"The fact that they think he is a fraud," Lance said coldly. "And I concur with their assessment." He paused. "Do you know how many Liberomancers made a Rank Three grimoire - an original one, as their first Rank Three grimoire?" He held up his hand, raising not a single finger. "Zero. Zero up till now, not even in Hitutsa could I find someone like that. New Rank Three grimoires are so difficult to make that we give those who make them several special privileges on top of venerating them. And this human, in the span of a few months, makes not just one, but two of them back-to-back. Which is more likely? That he is a genius the likes of which has practically never been seen before in the world - or that he could make these two new grimoires so quickly because they had already existed?" Lance was accusing Stefan of having copied the two grimoires that he had submitted as his own originals, a very big offense. It was one thing to mistakenly submit something that you thought was original but already existed, it was quite another thing to maliciously lie to the Liberomancer's Guild not just once, but twice. Who would be so bold as to do that? Being ostracized by the guild would kill one's career as a Liberomancer, criminal penalties put aside. And yet, it was by far the more logical explanation.

"Why haven't you had him arrested yet then?"

"Because neither I, nor the Liberomancer's Guild can prove it," Lance said. Once Stefan had become even a Rank Two Liberomancer, it was near-impossible to have him detained without good reason - because there would be outrage to doing so from the Liberomancer's Guild. It was far less feasible now that he was Rank Three; while the Liberomancer's Guild might have their own suspicions they would still protect 'one of their own' from what seemed like blatant government overreach. The Liberomancer's Guild was extraordinarily influential, and not even someone like Lance could butt heads against them and come out unscathed. Now that the enemy was at the gates, Lance was even more reluctant to open this can of worms. "That is why they approached me to see if I could dig any further than they could to get real, solid evidence." He took out a grimoire from under his desk. "This is the language that man writes in. I could not find anything even resembling it, even after sending it to the University of Hitutsa for analysis."

"In that case, doesn't it mean that maybe… he is telling the truth?" Zeke asked.

"So where did he learn this language from then? If he knows this language, then naturally, there should be others who know it as well. He can't possibly be the first Liberomancer who knows this language, and so a grimoire that uses this language should've ended up somewhere, anywhere," Lance said. "There are over a thousand different written languages in all of the continent - many of them have fallen out of use, but the University of Hitutsa has written material in over five hundred of the most widely used writing systems, many of them predating the rise of the Ruler of the Astral Winds and are no longer used today. And yet, nothing similar to this. Do you know what I call that? Not improbable - impossible."

"Could he have invented this language himself, or found it through some ruins?" Drake asked.

"And then also made all of these new grimoires in that language? If he had that kind of talent, he really would be the kind of genius that only appears once in ten thousand years," Lance said. He sighed. "I do not know what is going on with him, but there is something murky in the water - very murky. I do not think he will obstruct our operations during the siege in any way, even a madman would know that they would be doomed if the city were taken, and he does not seem to be a madman despite all of his other faults. However, you are taking a huge risk by endorsing him like you did, because now anything that he might be accused of will stain your name and reputation by association." The last sentence was a warning aimed at Zeke, who was almost certain to be the next governor of the city by this point.