’Tsk, and here I thought he was up to some mighty revelation,’ Ryuk thought disappointedly.
"And how did your job as a book arranger go?" he asked, making sure to emphasize the ’book arranger’ part.
Old Jack shrugged. "Easy, at least."
Ryuk paused, expecting more, but all he got was Old Jack’s blank expression.
"Sounds cool," he eventually said with a shrug, diving into his food.
A bit of surprise flickered through Old Jack’s eyes, followed by a smile Ryuk didn’t fail to notice.
"What’s wrong?" he asked.
"What the—what do you mean what’s wrong? I can’t smile anymore?" Old Jack said, watching the young man grin.
"I don’t know the soft-smiling Old Jack. I remember the grinning one, though," Ryuk said, watching as the grin returned full force.
"You never fail to amuse me, bloody mutt," Jack said—and in the next instant...
BAAAANG!
The dining table shook heavily, jumping into the air.
"Hey!" Ryuk shouted, gripping his plate, scared it would fall to the ground—but it didn’t.
Then came the dust, which he quickly pushed aside with his hand.
"You greedy old bastard! Trying to pour my food?" He shouted, waving off the dirt—but when the dust cleared, something caught his attention.
It was none other than the object Old Jack had thrown on the table, which led to it jumping up.
Ryuk quieted down when he saw what it was. With furrowed eyebrows, he stretched out his hand toward it.
"Grimoires?" He asked in surprise.
Before him were two grimoires stacked on top of each other.
One glowed with an iridescent silver-grey hue, and the other shimmered a milky white.
What drew the most attention, though, was the fact that each had a gemstone plated into the middle of its cover.
These were elemental cores, albeit seemingly low-level, more decorative than powerful.
"The Library was unpacking these old books. Throwing them out, actually," Jack said.
"But why?" Ryuk asked, reaching for one of the books and picking it up.
"They said they’ve been there for centuries. No one bothers to read them anymore since they’re old materials."
"I picked them up because... well, I remember your special energy allows you to mimic energy, right?"
"Maybe you could copy the energy from the elemental gem on the cover, and then read about them to gain a deeper grasp on the elements," he explained.
In an instant, Ryuk picked up the silver-grey book, and his purple tattoos began to shift color.
From a shimmering purple, they ran into an iridescent silver-grey—the same color as the elemental core in the book.
"Just as I guessed," Old Jack said, impressed by the change.
He had truly seen the books being disposed of and, at the very last second, decided to take the two whose elemental cores still shone brightly and didn’t seem faulty.
The other workers didn’t care, and since the books were headed to be burned anyway, they didn’t mind the new guy picking up some "junk."
That was how he had gotten them.
Ryuk noticed his shifting tattoo, although he didn’t feel any real difference in strength or anything.
When he turned to the book’s cover, he could see the title.
"Introductory Manual of the Echo Mythic Element?" he muttered to himself, before reaching for the second book.
The second he touched it, the tattoos changed again.
The iridescent silver-grey vanished and was replaced by a soft milky white glow.
’So he can’t use two elements at once—just one at a time,’ Old Jack thought, noting how the silver-grey hue vanished, replaced entirely by white.
When Ryuk picked up the book, he could also read the title:
"Introductory Manual of the Lantern Mythic Element?"
"Lantern and Echo Elements?" he asked aloud.
Jack nodded.
"Weird, right?"
"Yeah... I’ve never heard of an element called Echo or Lantern," Ryuk mused beneath his breath.
Old Jack shrugged. "Maybe that’s why they were abandoned in the first place. But so far, they adapted to your tattoos, so they must be real elements."
"Just look through them. I’m curious what they do," he added.
Ryuk nodded, and both books disappeared into his shop space.
"Thanks. And seems like the oldie remembers me even while carrying books around," Ryuk said, not forgetting to rub it in.
Old Jack rolled his eyes.
"Don’t die overthinking things, bloody mutt."
"I won’t be dying before you, old man."
_________
HUUUUUU...
A deep exhale left his lips as he collapsed onto the bed, bouncing slightly before coming to a stop.
His mind was blank for a while, but only for a moment, before the thoughts and sounds surrounding him began drifting back in again.
His thoughts returned to the mission of the day:
The assassination attempt on a princess from a Royal Angelic family.
[If you had been an ordinary Arch Guard, that mission would have been the end of you,] the system notification blinked before him, and only now was Ryuk reminded of the dangers he had come across.
’Any Arch Guard signed up for that simple escort mission would’ve been at the Initial Stage of the Apocrypha.’
’And the enemies I faced? One was at the Peak of Eternity, and two others were also at the Apocrypha Stage.’
"What’s worse... one of them commanded an Illusory Art, the kind I was barely able to escape due to the sheer overwhelming power that can only be found in an Exignis Stage expert."
"If I were just an Arch Guard at the Initial Stage of the Exignis..."
"...or if I hadn’t fully merged with the power of the Beyonder Dragon..."
"Then chances are, I would’ve struggled to keep my life against enemies at the same level of power as me and possessing mysterious arts—let alone protect Princess Elfie."
’And if princess Elfie had died, who knew what would come from failing a Loyalty Quest, but the easiest I would have gotten off was having my Arch Guard halo taken away and kicked off the planet,’
’It... It truly was a close call.’