Braxton plopped all of the books and scrolls onto the ground, producing a hefty thud.
Michael began looking through the literature, noticing that most of them were quite...extravagant.
Usually, books found in the Magic Tower were ancient scrolls and torn-up books that were stored to preserve the history of the world.
But these were different. Some were lined with actual gold, making them look like it was a holy artifact. Some were made out of material that were extremely rare according to ChatJK5. There was even one book that was literally bound up in chains!
"Uhh... where did you get these books?" he asked Braxton.
His chubby bestie waved off his concern. "Oh, it’s nothing really. I just took them in our private library back in the Guild of Arcana."
He stared at Braxton. "The Guild? You mean, the organization controlling all Magic Towers in the world?"
"Yeah," Braxton replied. "Don’t worry. They probably won’t need that. Probably."
As it turned out, Braxton went back to the very headquarters of the Guild of Arcana and stole all of the sacred books and scrolls that pertained to Zephyrs, Darkwood, and Elves.
Although Braxton was a future Mystic Master, stealing books from their sacred library was definitely considered a crime. And it was especially bad giving it to someone that wasn’t even part of the Guild!
"You’re giving this to me? Aren’t you going to get in trouble?"
"It’s fine!" Braxton replied. "Anything for my Bestie!"
Michael had a feeling that Braxton would have still done this even if he hadn’t given him the Mithril Artifact wand. He was just that good of a friend.
"I really appreciate this, Braxton. I’ll give it back to you as soon as I read it."
"No problem!" Braxton replied. Then, he quickly went back to the pig game and used his new carrot wand to command his pigs. It seemed to be working as they all followed the wand like a mindless hive.
Michael then picked up every single one of the books and found a nice quiet spot on one of the winding hallways of the Magic Tower.
Then, he began reading the titles and found them to be exactly what he wanted to read.
{The History of the Elven race}
{Elven Kingdom topography}
{Darkwood Experiments Ver. 284}
{Zephyr Expedition by Lazarus Cadaver}
{Secrets to Elven Archery -unfinished-}
{....}
There were about fifteen books in total, each one tackling a specific area of the Elven Kingdom. Some of them were nice to know in general, like their hierarchies, culture, and other things that would be useful if he wanted to visit the Elven Kingdom in the future.
But there were a select few that he was truly interested in reading.
The first one being the {Darkwood Experiments Ver. 284}.
Does this mean that they had already performed 283 versions before this?
Curious to see what kind of experiments they performed with Darkwood, he eagerly opened the first page.
Then, he let ChatJK5 do her thing.
Immediately, his personal AI assistant began processing the information at incredibly fast speeds.
It didn’t even take a second after he opened the page did a notification arrive in his vision.
[Would you like me to give you a summarized version of the book?]
That would be great, thanks.
[Darkwood Experiments Ver. 284]
[This book contains the numerous trials and tribulations that the Guild of Arcana experienced when they tried to grow Darkwood all on their own.
The first hurdle they went through was the soil. They tried numerous alternatives to Elven-grown soil, but have come up short every time. Even when they tried to replicate every single aspect, Darkwood still refused to stay alive past two to three days. They have concluded that Elven Soil has an intangible aspect that Darkwood needs to survive.
The second hurdle was finding the perfect balance for heat, wind, and sunlight.
Darkwood needed to face the sun constantly, even during nighttime.
This is possible in the furthermost point of the Elven Kingdom where the days are longer than the nights. But in the Royal Continent, there is no such place that receives more sunlight than others.
The unnamed experimenters used magical Light mana to replicate the effects of sunlight, to no avail. Darkwood refused to grow. They have yet to find a suitable solution to this problem.
Its heat and wind conditions are also one of the things they struggled with the most. Darkwood needed the right amount of wind and heat at different points of the day, needing constant care and attention. The experimenters struggled to keep up, and one slip up caused the Darkwood to immediately die.
Another aspect they had to worry about was moisture. Darkwood needed a constant watering source, but only in its roots. Once its main stem receives too much water, it will soften up and become unrecognizable to Darkwood.
....]
ChatJK5 continued on, giving him an extensive summary of the hardships that the experimenters went through, only to fail in growing Darkwood beyond seven days.
They weren’t kidding when they said it’s hard to grow Darkwood.
And surprisingly, the experimenters also thought of growing Darkwood in a completely isolated space. They did most of their experiments in a Pocket Dimension as they tried to get rid of any unnecessary contaminants.
This meant that having an Isolated Space won’t necessarily allow him to be able to magically grow Darkwood.
But he wasn’t planning on doing that in the first place.
He was going to use his good, old fashioned knowledge from his previous life.
Agriculture back there was on a whole other level, with farmers being able to control temperature, water quantity and quality, and even soil acidity to make sure that crops grow with the best conditions possible.
Mages and Wizards may be able to make fire out of nothing, but they couldn’t quite measure how hot it is compared to normal humans.
With technology, controlling every single aspect of farming could be very feasible!
With ChatJK5 at his side, creating those high-tech measuring technologies would be easy.
The only thing that he needed to find out was the exact requirements for Darkwood to grow.
And thanks to this book, he knew exactly what they were, which meant that he could grow it right now!
He couldn’t believe how lucky he was that he had a friend like Braxton. The man just gave him the most valuable piece of information he had ever received in his life!
Just then, he suddenly heard stomping echoing around the hallways.
"BRAXTON!"
He heard Lucius, the Tower Master, angrily calling out to Braxton.
Michael walked towards them, seeing Lucius looking all disappointed at his Bestie.
"Braxton, I can’t believe that you stole documents from the sacred library. Do you know how valuable they are?" Lucius said angrily. "We treat knowledge just as valuable as gold, and you just gave it away?"
Michael immediately stepped forward. He didn’t want to be the cause for all of this.
"Lucius, it’s my fault. I asked Braxton for help," he said.
But before the Tower Master could even say anything, Braxton waved his wand in his face, showing his new carrot wand.
"But look at what Michael gave me. I couldn’t not give him anything in return, could I?"
Lucius shook his head. "A carrot wand? Do you know how valuable those books are—WHAT THE F–"