Restricted Library
What Velios didn't account for in his equation was that they were happy, and extremely so. If Velios tried to get away for even a second, at least three of them would chase him to drag him back. In their show of gratitude, some had gained a massive increase in respect for Velios, while others were so happy that tears of joy ran down their faces as if they were waterfalls. One of the girls who cried the most was not the one with poison or ice but the one with healing powers. "I-I-I-I-I... I can f-f-finally h-heal everybody!" She seemed to be so happy after realizing that she had control over her powers and for good reason. Velios had learned that she basically transferred all of the pain the person is feeling to herself. She gets to heal the wound, and it's not like the wound itself is transferred over, but all of the pain, every single last bit of pain is transferred over to herself.
"I don't know how we could ever thank you." Velios jumped up in confusion. The biggest and most brawny guy out of them, the one with physical enhancement magic, had a soft-spoken voice. It was neither deep nor high-pitched. It was far more monotone than Velios was ready for. It was the type of voice you would use when you talk to young children or animals, but from what Velios saw, he could determine that it was instead that guy's natural voice. "Oh... Uh... Would you guys mind doing me a favor?" Velios asked it casually enough for it to seem like something small, and with everything he has done for the dragons, they couldn't help but think that it would almost be too little for them to do in comparison. "What is it that you want to ask of us?" The same guy had responded. "You see, there is this dragon that has a problem with. I won't order you to kill him, but I want you to steal something. What I want you to do is basically..."
Velios was the last one to get out. He had told them to meet him just by the entrance to the sewers, but they weren't there yet. Velios wasn't the least bit worried that they had been caught or that something had happened. They were still a group of assassins after all. They could just kill anybody that will interfere with them. Despite his boredom, he still decided to wait outside the entrance patiently until they showed up. After a while, Velios could sense a person approaching and was confused that it was only a single person, but he decided to wait anyway. When the dragon approaching was finally visible, Velios knew directly who it was. "Sorry it took so long!" Crow was the dragon that had come first. He was holding a thick cloak with additional clothing that Velios knew he hadn't ordered. "Crow, where are all the others?" Crow handed over the clothes before sitting down to take deep breaths. "Well, since you helped everybody control their magic, they wanted to take some time to explore the capital. Especially Mei."
Velios took the clothes he had received. Velios did want to ask about the extra clothes, but he wanted to put them on first. It was basically already an outfit. It had a cloak, of course, but there were even a pair of pants and a jacket, all made out of the black scorpion's skin. There was no doubt that this is the same black scorpion skin Velios used since it matched the cloak. "Was this the thing you asked for, sir?" Crow had seen the confusing look on Velios' face as he checked out his outfit. "Oh, yeah. It's great. But I thought I just asked for the cloak; what is all of this?" Velios had to ask if he wanted to know. "Oh right, you did only ask for the cloak. We found out that the shop owner had made a whole outfit with the materials you provided, so we thought that we might as well steal all of it." Velios gave him a smile of approval. "I won't hold you back for much longer, Crow, but I want to tell you something that you will share with the rest of them. First of all, send my thanks to them. Second of all, you will all enter the dragon tournament taking place in a few days' time. Third of all, I am not a dragon." Before Crow had any time to respond after Velios finished his sentence, he had disappeared.
Velios found himself yet again strolling around the streets looking for something to do. The outfit together with the cloak made him look more mysterious, but it also somewhat made him blend in more since many of the citizens had clothes made out of different animals or monsters fur or skin. After walking for a while, Velios had arrived in front of a huge building that looked interesting. After scanning around, he noticed that it was heavily guarded and that the only people that would occasionally enter had a card as to show identification. The building itself was huge and was multiple stories tall. Velios could also sense that there was a huge hole underground indicating multiple stories below ground as well. Velios knew exactly what he had to do. No one would know who he was with the clothes he had on anyway, and he simply had nothing to do. He had decided that he would sneak into it.
It was rather simple for Velios to sneak in. As long as he was fast enough, none of them could see him, and as long as he could control the air around him, not even a small gust of air would be created. If it was witnessed by anyone, it would look like teleportation, but it was simply a mixture of Velios's physical and magical prowess. Velios decided to go into the lower section of the place to make himself less conspicuous, since the majority of dragons stayed on the ground floor or went up. What Velios might have missed was the sign that read 'restricted area'. As he got deeper and deeper, it also got darker and darker until a light from the floor beneath could be seen. Velios walked down there to find a massive library with so many bookshelves that Velios didn't even bother counting it, and that was just the number of bookshelves. Each respective bookshelf had hundreds of books, which all amounted to a paradise of information.
Velios didn't know how much time he had been there, but it had certainly been multiple hours where he had read book after book, absorbing all of the knowledge in every different section he chose. During this time, he had opted to use mana to read the books as fast and effectively as possible. The books he read consisted of information about the dragon kingdom and the royal family's history. Never did I think that a monster species so proud of themselves would ever have a monarchy. There were also a long series of books explaining the whole history of the kingdom from the start, important dragons, and important events. What interested him the most, however, were two things. The library was stacked when it came to books on magic theory. One of the reasons the lower part of the library itself was restricted was that most of the magic theory wasn't about fire magic. It was instead a broad collection of stuff even Velios hadn't thought about before.
The second thing that interested him, however, was probably the real reason this part of the library was shut off to the public, most likely because of one of the major events in the city's history. Dragons are known as the most powerful species in this world, but that doesn't account for the worlds known as 'Heaven' and 'Hell'. From the world known as 'Hell', powerful demons live, and in the series of books he read on this specific event, a single fourth-tier demon had caused so much destruction that the whole city with all of their dragons was on the brink of destruction. It took the sacrifice of some of the most powerful and capable magicians to seal it inside a cursed book hidden within the chambers of the Royal palace. Normally, Velios wouldn't place any historical event over something practical he could learn so it was weird that Velios regarded the demon incident higher on the list of priority than all of the magical knowledge he accumulated combined.
The sole reason Velios valued the knowledge of the incident that could have happened hundreds of years ago over the magical knowledge was that the demon was still there. All of the books were historically accurate and every single one of them had the same line of text. 'Hidden within the chambers under the Royal Palace exists the cursed book with the demon known as Mahadeva, sealed within'. Velios had got an idea from reading all of this, for the better or worse he didn't know yet. Velios' ideas were usually never that good from an outside perspective but Velios couldn't help but smile at the idea. All of the pleasure and satisfaction he would feel, the adrenaline pumping through his body and all of the pain he would experience. Velios wanted all of it as his idea was to sneak into the chambers of the Royal Palace and free the demon known as Mahadeva.