The Library

(Sunday, 16th of Dawnstar Moon, 2021)

"And then what happened?"

"There....was nothing there!"

Jack was back at Sanctuary, telling the story of what happened back in Christus. Mifu, Eve, Damini, and Jack looked everywhere, but he couldn't find what happened to the deceased cattle. While they did find some residue of the dead cattle in the abandoned shack, it looked like they were moved before they entered the shack. Eve tried finding the cattle, but they couldn't. They cut their losses and informed Billy of what had happened. While they didn't find the cattle, they did find the cause of the infection, so he called that a win. He sent the money back to Sanctuary and gave each of them some cuts of beef before they left. Before Jack forgets about them, remember those five guys they captured? Well they were brought to Sanctuary with the Guardians in training. So after all that, here Jack lay in his room, telling the story to his friends. In the room with Jack were Alice, Nico, Rico, Zane, Othelia, Galahad, Mifu, Eve, and Damini. Mifu made some beef udon for all of them, while Alice was fangirling over Mifu making a 'Hinodian delicacy'. Damini and Eve were sitting next to each other, with Damini's arm over Eve's shoulder.

"So you guys couldn't find anything even after all that?" Zane asked while he sat on the couch, and Jack nodded from the bed he sat on.

"Nothing other than those guys we captured, so we're not sure if it was a successful mission or not." Eve was charging her robot using the window to let in sunlight from the setting sun, allowing the robot to absorb the light using solar panels on it's chest. "Right now, they're in the holding building until we decide what to do with them."

"So what do you guys think is gonna happen?" Damini asked the room while Mifu walked by and handed the girl a bowl of udon. "Do you think they're gonna be executed? Thrown in jail? Sent to Dhahabu to work in the mines?"

"Is Dhahabu like a dictatorship or something?" Jack wondered, since he was still bad with the geography and world politics thanks to the whole amnesia ordeal.

"No, their country is incredibly metal rich, so they're constantly looking for miners who can get the metals." Mifu explained while she handed Jack his bowl of beef udon. "The other countries often send prisoners there for rehabilitation. Though it's not entirely one sided, Dhahabu set up strict rules for mines and mining companies. If those rules are broken, then the violators are forced to join those in the mines. Plus, when the sentence of the prisoner's is over, then they're free to go back to their original country or stay in Dhahabu as a citizen."

"Wait, who cares about Dhahabu? We wanna know about those guys you guys got." Alice sat down next to Jack while he set his bowl of udon on the nightstand. "So what were they called?"

"We're not sure, we just fought them and knocked them out." Damini informed everyone, Jack looked down at the ground at the mention of this. "Except Jack, he killed one of them."

"Please don't remind him of such an event, it's the first murder that's hardest for everyone." Mifu requested the lion girl. "If I were to guess the fates of those people, they would be charged with property damage and animal cruelty. However, given the nature of their operation, I predict their punishment will be more severe."

"I wonder why they did it though." Jack asked as he undid the seal that allowed his leg prosthetic to stick to his leg, then he set the prosthetic aside to let the limb breathe. "Turning cow corpses into whatever those things were...seems kind of random don't you think?"

"Maybe they did it as a prank?" Rico guessed out loud while his twin brother stuffed his face with noodles.

"If it was a prank, then how did they get the bacteria?" Eve asked the red haired boy. "Remember the bacteria is made up of a bunch of unknown proteins. So if they did it as a prank, how did they get that bacteria?"

"Don't forget the fact that the dead cattle were nowhere to be found no matter how hard we searched for them." Mifu recalled the missing cattle. "Even in that kind of atmosphere, those cows shouldn't have just disappeared like that."

"Man, this is making my head hurt." Galahad took a seat right next to Zane, and the blue haired boy suddenly gained a pink colored tint. "Look, let's just assume they're working for this kingpin fellow, do you think they'll give up who the kingpin is?"

"Assuming they even know who the kingpin is." Eve sat beside her robot and held her bowl. "If they don't know who it is, this might happen again."

"Damn, you guys got it bad." Nico finished his udon. "Rico and I just needed to impersonate some dude for like a day so he could go on vacation. What about you, Alice, Othelia, Zane, Galahad?"

"Zane and I had to perform some maintenance on one of the mecha that people use for mecha boxing." Othelia answered while drinking the udon's broth. "I got some new parts for my mech."

"Meanwhile, Alice and I had to perform an exorcism because some guy sold another guy a haunted flashlight that was possessed by the ghost of a prostitute." Galahad explained. "I took care of the guy who sold it in the first place."

"Wait, what was I supposed to do with the prostitute ghost?" Alice asked Galahad. "Cause I kind of added her to my collection of ghosts."

"Why do you have a collection of ghosts?" Damini tilted her head in confusion to this.

"I have them for different things." Alice answered. "I use the ghosts of soldiers for fighting, the ghosts of magicians for magic stuff, and the ghosts of spies for recon."

"And the ghosts of prostitutes?" Jack asked as he continued to eat his beef udon using a fork, since he can't use chopsticks at all.

"For spooky orgies." Alice answered, and Jack almost spat out his udon. "Just kidding! I just help them pass on."

"Thank you, so much for that mental image." Mifu sweatdropped while Jack choked on his noodles.

"Ew." Zane and Galahad answered in complete sync to one another, causing them to look at each other.

"Really? I'm surprised you two aren't nose bleeding like those two over there." Damini pointed at Rico and Nico, whose noses were bleeding.

"Well no offense, but I've never been interested in girls." Galahad answered, and Jack saw the brightest glimmer of light go off in Zane's eyes, then he looked up to the heavens and started praying, thanking the gods.

"Meanwhile, Zane is just unlucky with romance." Alice finished eating her udon after she said that. "Like he had a crush on the same guy for 10 years, but never got the chance to ask him out. Only to finally learn that the guy was a homophobic dick and post his nudes on the internet."

"Oh yeah, I wonder how that guy is doing." Othelia thought to herself. "Like he was an asshole, but didn't you also release his browser history or something?"

"That and basically all his records of him bullying people." Zane corrected, and Galahad laughed.

"I can now see how you're dangerous!" Galahad laughed while patting Zane's back. "Please don't do that to me though."

"O-Oh, relax, I won't ever do that to you!" Zane was now as red as cherry, and it was painfully obvious that he liked Galahad.

"Just get married already, you two." Alice ordered, and Zane shot her a glare, causing the goth girl to start laughing.

"Shut it, Alice!" Zane picked up the unlit candle on the coffee table and threw it at Alice, and due to his athletic skills being horrible, he hit Jack dead in the forehead. "Oh my gods, Jack, are you okay?!"

"It's okay, at least the candle isn't lit or anything like that." Jack grabbed the candle and examined it. "So anyway, do we have any homework?"

"Nah, classes here don't really give out anything to help accommodate our schedule." Galahad answered, and Jack took a sigh of relief. "Why do you ask?"

"Not sure, just feel like heading to the library to investigate for a bit." Jack finished his udon and set the bowl on the nightstand again. "Sorry, but if y'all wanna continue this party, you guys may want to do it somewhere else. I don't trust Rico and Nico in my dorm alone."

"Fair, let's go to my room guys, and don't worry, no ghost orgies will take place, I sealed them away!" Alice smiled as she got up from his bed, walking to the exit. It still feels weird when Jack walked on a prosthetic like his.

"Or we can have it in my room, with no chances of ghost orgies." Zane suggested, and everyone was a fan of his idea, mostly because some of them were scared of ghosts.

"Alright, I'll see you guys later, and to those of you who are done, you can leave the dishes in the sink, I'll wash them later."

"Aye!"

(Later, in the Library)

Jack was in the library, looking around the various shelves of books to find something. What was Jack searching for? He was looking for something that could give him the answers he seeks. Jack was looking for answers for his weapons and the use of the cows in that state. Jack decided to check the mythical objects and alchemical ingredients sections of the library. For a combat college, this place has a lot of books, Jack was honestly not sure if he could find the book he was looking for. Jack's only option was to ask the librarian. Jack looked around the room before his eyes landed on a book cart, meaning a librarian must be nearby. Jack walked towards the cart with books on it, expecting to see a frail elderly. What Jack didn't expect to see was some soldier-looking dude wearing a gas mask and carrying an uzi to start placing the books on the various shelves. Jack wanted to hide, but the masked man noticed him before he could hide.

"Do you need something?" For some reason, the man was exclusively speaking in sign language. Jack considered himself lucky to know sign language himself, not sure how though. Must be because he learned hand magic from that guy at the docks.

"Yeah, I'm looking for two kinds of books." Jack answered back to the man in sign language. "I'm looking for one book based on the possible alchemical properties of messed up cows, and another based on magical and possibly ancient weapons. Namely Stone Breaker, Fire Maiden, and Harlequin."

"As oddly specific as the first one is, we do have a book covering the alchemical properties of livestock corpses, though most of those recipes require heavy modification on the livestock's part, so I don't approve of them." The man continued speaking in sign language. "However, we're not in possession of that book at the moment, someone else has it."

"Who has it?" Jack asked the man, still wanting to know if his ability to speak and understand sign language is correlated to his new hand magic.

"I don't recall, but I can go find the paper that he signed the book out with." The man then gave Jack another piece of information. "As for the weapons, I believe they're part of a collection of weapons called the 72 Artifacts. A book about them should be in the historical section. Fourteenth book starting from the south side entrance, second shelf."

"Okay, thank you." Jack was about to walk away from the man, but he stopped Jack by signing something else.

"Just for future reference, I'm just mute, I can hear people just fine, so you can speak normally." The man signed, and Jack nodded before heading towards the history section.

Jack was doubtful of the man's ability to remember accurately where he put the book, but he followed his directions to the letter. Jack went to the southernmost wall and walked along it, looking at the gold plated signs the library used to mark the sections. Jack found the history section after a minute or so and walked from the south. His eyes were glued on the second shelf before they spotted the fourteenth book, the King and the 72 Artifacts. That guy either had memory magic or cameras placed all over the place because damn he was on the dot! Jack picked up the book, noticing the thick layer of dust coating it, so he blew on the book to blow off some of the dust. The book's cover was a dark orange color with silver colored text with an old English font. Jack walked over to a table and sat down at it so he could begin reading this text.

"Long ago, there was a king. This king was the first high king in all of Desponia. The first king was generous and kind. At his time, the 13 nations were at war with one another and they were ruled by tyrants. The high king wanted to end the war, but he couldn't do it alone, so he went into the Enchanted Forest, a forest that still hasn't been explored fully even by modern technology. Within the enchanted forest, the first king came across 72 clans of different giants, fairies, spirits, and other fairy tale creatures scattered in the forest. He pleaded and begged each clan for one of their own to aid him on a quest and become his weapons. Each of the residents from each of the villages were hesitant, but without hesitation, the leaders from each clan stepped forward and were willing to stand by his side as a weapon. However, each clan proposed to the king a challenge that proves he would be worthy of wielding them. The king passed each test with flying colors, and using a ritual, each of the leaders became one of the 72 Slayer weapons. Each weapon is still around to this day, and each possessing the same power the race behind it held."

"What?" Jack asked himself outloud in a kind of hushed manner. "So all of my weapons were once living and breathing people? Wait, why doesn't this say where the weapons are located?"

"Because Artifacts are quite valuable in their own right, worth trillions of gold alone." A mysterious voice came from behind Jack, and he turned around to see it was Angelo. "However, they're fickle, so they only work for a particular kind of person. Someone they can get along with."

"Oh hey Angelo, why are you in the library?" Jack asked the man who walked past him and towards the counter to set down a book.

"I came here to return a book, I see you possess a particular interest in history." Angelo noticed what book Jack was reading, and he got chills. "Fitting for someone who's an archeologist."

"Yeah, I just needed to do some research because my last mission brought up some confusing questions." Jack explained honestly, and while Angelo didn't exactly strike Jack as a trustworthy person, he should at least be honest with him. "Like there were these cows that were turning into goopy messes, and they disappeared, so I'm confused as hell."

"Hmm...cows turning into messes huh?" Angelo asked Jack while thinking to himself. "Tell me, those messes wouldn't involve turning into eldritch-like beings would they?"

"Yeah, how did you know about that little detail?" Jack questioned Angelo, who chuckled to himself.

"What an odd coincidence, the book I borrowed from the library covers this exact subject." Angelo smiled to himself, but Jack got a hint of malice behind that smile. "Let me turn it in, then you can ask the librarian if you could borrow the book from me."

*Snap* Someone snapped their fingers, and Jack saw that it was that masked man from earlier, who exclusively speaks in sign language. "It's fine, you can just give Jack the book right here right now and I'll mark it right now."

"What did he say?" Angelo questioned, and that's understandable, the masked man uses a language not many people know.

"He said that you can give me the book right now, and he'd enter it into the records himself." Jack explained, and the man nodded to confirm that Jack was being truthful.

"Very well then, be seeing you around, Jack." Angelo set the book down in front of Jack, allowing him to see the deep blue colored cover for himself. "I look forward to seeing how you progress."

Jack looked down at the royal blue book in front of him, and the title of it was 'Alchemical Properties of Agricultural Livestock'.