446 Gnaway and the Sand Ravagers (1/2)

”Don't touch anything,” Zero warned his party members. Although these books looked harmless, Zero knew that they were far from it. The different instrumental sets and equipment reminded Zero about Merlin's messy lab. His mind thought about how Lovina was going to cope with his messy teacher.

Most of the paperbound books were decayed and would crumble to dust if anyone touched them so Zero ignored the tomes. It was a shame but the most important thing in this library wasn't the inked records.

”This is it,” he said and looked at the wall full of carvings. This was a language that Zero recognised and understood. As the student of the most famous alchemist and magician, Zero could read it fluently.

”Congratulations for clearing the second trial! Welcome to the secret Book Heaven of Gnaway. During its peak, this was the pride and joy of gnomes who built the golem army you defeated. Your third and final trial would be to use the information found here to locate the tomb of the gnome king who laid down his life to guard and protect his people against the sand ravagers.”

Sand ravagers were also known as cannibal locusts. These insects didn't eat crops in the desert, they ate anything that was living, including livestock and people. Zero shuddered at the name and Truen looked confused. The ruin master said no more and waited for them.

”Let's look for anything that has text,” Zero told them and they split up to search. Jermine's job was once more to hold onto the dinner supply bag while the elves searched for anything that might contain a clue.

Zero didn't just look for texts about Gnaway's history. He took some pictures of texts created by gnome engineers. The blueprints for the golems they defeated were found and while it wasn't complete, Zero knew that there might be one person who could restore this technology to their former glory.

Raj was part djinn and part gnome so he must know a thing or two about his ancestor's projects. It should be in his blood.

Zero took pictures of all the blueprints he could salvage and Truen walked around to examine the writing on the wall. These were strange symbols that he saw Merlin using once or twice. Was this alchemy?

”Zero, is this alchemy? What does it say?”

”I don't actually know this but I should take a picture and send it to Teacher. Lovina might know it too but not me.”

Once the picture was sent, Zero resumed his investigations in the massive library. Truen didn't find anything else of importance and looked at Zero who was too immersed in learning everything. The library was a far worse trap for Zero than the golems were. With an undefeatable enemy in front of him, all Zero had to do was keep them in his massive void pocket and the problem was resolved. However, when Zero was tempted with new interesting stories or knowledge, he was like a leech that couldn't be gotten rid of.

Turning to Jermine, he told the girl to find somewhere to nap for a while. ”Zero's going to do this for hours and there's nothing I can do when he becomes like this. The trial is side-tracked for a while. I'll inform Bob to go hunt for something for dinner, we are not clearing this within a day.”

True enough, Jermine heard Zero talking to himself and praising his find. It was slightly surprising to think that Zero could be so deeply engrossed in something that he would disregard what was truly important. Then again, maybe for a doctor, nothing was more important than new knowledge and saving lives. The world can fall to the void and Zero would only be concerned about the wounded people and not the end of the world.

The djinn was bored. Why were they still not here? He gave them such a huge hint. Zero should have found out about the history of Gnaway and where the tomb was located. In fact, they passed it earlier twice. Why weren't they making their way over?

Curious and slightly frustrated at being kept waiting, the djinn decided to spy on them. What he saw made him speechless. Zero was completely side-tracked from the trial and was indulging himself in the records of the gnome researchers. Could he even understand the complex alchemy theories? Deconstructing alchemy arrays were not the same as inventing new alchemy devices.

”Oh my! Truen! The gnomes are geniuses! They actually managed to make a flying machine powered by the wind and the sun. Raj has always been talking about making a device that can make non-magicians fly in the air. The gnomes actually did this, do you think I can take this back? He has to see this! It's possible to create great things without magic.”