13 The Great Library

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"Here it is! The Great Sanctuary Library!" The priestess excitedly proclaimed.

The priestess had led them into the Library, and Eve couldn't help but be surprised at how many books there were.

There were two floors with dozens of bookshelves nearly thirty feet high and fifty feet wide, all crammed with books of various sizes and thicknesses. There were also a lot of tables with chairs where some priests and some civilians enjoyed a good read.

It looked like a public library in her old world, Eve thought. Lily and Lin surveyed the library with very little interest. Lily didn't like to read, and neither did Lin.

"Gratitude: Thanks for getting us here, however, I have a question," Eve said to the priestess.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Inquiry: Why is the Temple Library open to the public? Aren't you afraid of some theft? After all, they are the Sanctuary books."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, see there!" The priestess answered, and pointed to some knights present in the Library. "These knights that are everywhere are the Temple Punishment Squad! They patrol the Library inside and out regularly."

Then she pointed to a round artifact that appears to be made of metal that is held onto a small pedestal. "These circular artifacts that are all over the library are detection artifacts. It is forbidden to use magic inside the Library, for obvious reasons, and if one uses magic, the artifact will detect the mana and beyond and alert the knights, it also has restraining spells that can be used to capture the rule-breaker, so it's almost impossible for someone to steal or try to vandalize the Library." She explained.

"Reply: I see. Thanks for bringing us this far, we can fend for ourselves now." Eve replied, and dipped her head slightly toward the priestess in thanks.

"Okay! If you need more help later, you can reach out to me! My name is Catherine, and I'm the High Priest's aide, so I usually hang around the sanctuary most of the time!" The priestess said and then left the library to finish her errands, leaving Eve, Lin, and Lily to their own devices.

'All right, let's get started.' Eve thought, but just as she took the first step, two knights stopped the three of them, or rather, they stopped Lin.

"Excuse me, we'd like to ask you a few questions if that's okay with you?" One of the knights asked, and Lin, not sure whether or not to answer, looked at Eve, and Eve nodded.

Turning to the knights, Lin replied dryly, "Okay."

Eve doesn't know what the knights wanted, as they've barely entered the library. In any case, she was prepared to blow the place up if anything goes wrong.

"So, we've seen you walk in with Catherine, and we'd love to know where you bought this armor set!" One of the knights says with stars in his eyes.

"Yea! We've never seen such a sophisticated and beautiful set! Our temple sets aren't ugly, of course. But yours is much nicer!" The other knight said a little embarrassed.

Lin tilted her head in confusion, and Eve sighs in relief.

'So it's just two young knights who were impressed by Lin's armor, thankfully.' Eve thought.

Turning on the transmission skill, she said to Lin, [Order: Lin, just make something up and keep them busy, but under no circumstances act hostile. Remember, we are here as tourists who have come from another country to learn about the Four Gods.]

[Understood.] Lin replied.

Eve then leaves Lin behind with the knights, but then realizes that Lily has disappeared.

'Where did that brat go?!' She thought with concern, and then sighs. 'Sometimes I forget that I programmed Lily to be a free-spirited extroverted airhead, the complete opposite of me. Well, as long as she doesn't get into trouble, that's fine.'

Forgetting about Lily and focusing on her goal, Eve goes to the center of the library while she acted interested in the books.

'Time to put the plan into action.'

Eve went to an empty corner, hidden from everyone, and then closed her eyes. A few seconds later, she opened them again, and her honey yellow eyes were now a bright blue color, and a robotic voice sounded in her head.

[Connecting to the MainFrame...]

[Connected! Welcome, Eve-sama. Please enter a command.]

"Order: Start Laplace protocol, command 010166." She muttered.

[Laplace Protocol 010166. Confirmed.]

[Activating Protocol...]

Meanwhile on Alpha Prime, in the Dark Tower, when Eve connected to MainFrame again, aka The Reactor, the gigantic futuristic machine glowed neon blue.

[Protocol activated. Starting Scanner...]

Suddenly, from Eve's eyes, an invisible bluish cyber network rapidly expanded, engulfing and scanning the entire library.

[Scanner started successfully! Downloading data...]

[...1%]

[...2%]

[...3%]

Eve gave a small smile. The Scanner she used, there wasn't an iota of mana. [Scanner] is a copy of the [Appraisal] skill. The difference is that [Scanner] is an exclusive ability for Automatons, because [Appraisal] needs mana to work, and the Automaton race doesn't use mana until later in the game. The advantage was that there was no mana cost, meaning it was undetectable to magic users.

[Scanner] there were also its demerits. Unlike [Appraisal], which could be used successively without a cooldown, [Scanner] needed ten seconds to be used again.

It may seem silly, but appraisal skills were used a lot in PVP, as it was very important to know the stats of the opponent's items, so it was very important to know how to use them wisely, for just a second could determine defeat or victory.

Normally, Eve could only scan one item at a time, but connected to Alpha Prime's Reactor, and using her eyes as an intermediary, she could scan everything around her over a great distance.

Eve had several other abilities that with her machines, the range and power are tens of times greater. However, she was not the first nor the only one to do something like this, it was common in YGGDRASIL for end-game players to exploit their abilities to the fullest to gain a great benefit.

But don't underestimate Eve. She wasn't the pioneer, but because of her genius at putting skills and machines together, players gave her the title "Goddess of Machines".

The scanner continued to work, and Eve picked up a random book to read.

'Now I just need to wait.' She thought as she opened a book titled [How to Train Your Dragon].