After a couple of hours, Valkorai fully grasped the language and could read fluently. Most people in the library dismissed her as a child that was pretending to read. Valkorai quickly grew annoyed at the stranger's constant chatterings about her and started reading aloud to shut them up. She never knew her corner would get packed with recommendations. She had brought a bigger task on herself, distinguishing fact from fiction. She had a small stack of books next to her, that she verified as real, and read from one while eyeing her uncle Phikin like a hawk as he flirted with one of his co-workers and he even squeezed her ass cheek.
The book Valkorai was reading was called; 'Malakin's Treasure'. The book was about the highlights of a human called, Malakin and his rise through the ranks of an ancient kingdoms army. After being betrayed by his king he became the sole reason the kingdom fell. He then made a castle out of the gold he found in the treasury and hid all his knowledge, his inheritance and items. The location was lost to time but there was a riddle that was in the book talking about where it is hidden.
'I watch over all, reaching me is a feat rather tall, unless the flame is high you will find nothing but a waste of time.' Valkorai pondered the meaning behind the riddle. 'The first part is talking about a high point where you can "watch over all" and reaching it is literally a tall feat. It is probably a mountain peak but the second part, how high must you make a flame for it to work. That doesn't matter for now as it could be the peak of any mountain on the continent. Unless I find out where this kingdom was when it fell then I could find the mountain.'
She looked up and her uncle was still flirting with his assistant. She then went on reading the other four books on the stack. She was looking for ancient experts tombs and inheritances as she did not want to rely on her the techniques she found in her previous life. She did not plan on giving away her identity as Zaatox at all. That means she couldn't use most of the cultivation methods and battle techniques and these inheritances would come in handy.
All but one of them had hints of the location of the burial places and hidden treasures of 4 different practitioners. They were all alive around the same time as you could see their action's consequences in the lives of the others. The last book was the most interesting. The other books talk about a kingdom that fell 100 years ago and the lives of these experts took place in the fallout, this very book talks about that kingdom and is the help Valkorai needs to find out where exactly the pivotal moments of the expert's lives took place as they would refer to places the same way.
This kingdom spanned the whole continent and had many high-level experts in its midst. The fall of this kingdom was probably the reason that the continent's base power level fell after all if you have many different factions squabbling for power either two things could happen. They will hone each other's skills and make each other stronger or many talents and experts will die fruitlessly and there would be a huge waste of resources that could be used to develop the younger generations. The latter will happen more often if you have selfish and short-sighted people as the heads of the factions and from the number of factions that rose up from the ensuing chaos of the kingdom's fall it is clear that the latter happened.
Even the lack of information bothered Valkorai, the history of the continent was wiped out. "Ahem, Valkorai, how are you doing?" said a familiar voice, Valkorai was pulled out of her hypothesising and looked up at who had the nerve to interrupt her. Staring right into her eyes was her aunt "So did you just forget about the deal we made? Where is the bastard?" she said threw he smiles but Zaatox knew it was just a front. She could tell that her aunt was seething.
"They are currently in the back. She needed help with something, that was about 8 minutes ago. To answer your first question, yes I do remember. I saw him grabbing her everywhere, a lot. She told him to stop then went into the back." Before Zaatox knew it she had lept over the counter and exploded into the back room. You could her moans as soon as she kicked in the door, and all hell broke loose. She swore and threw Phikin across the library. "I have half a mind to feed you to the beasts in the forest outside
!"
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Six years later Valkorai was sitting outside the library enjoying the sun while reading up on some books. She was still trying to find out as much as possible of the kingdom and all she knew was its name Tifint. At this point in time, she saw a group of boys. Three exactly, there was a tall one with red hair, a short stocky one with black and medium-sized one with blue hair. The short one lifted a stone the size of a watermelon and climbed a building the others watched and waited. Their antics intrigued Valkorai as she looked around to see if there was anyone else in the street but there was only a rich man walking down towards the library. He clearly thought highly of himself even though he was reaching his thirties but was only in the beginning stages of the body refinement stage.
The 2 boys on the ground ran up to the man with tears in the eyes and looked like they were begging for help. The somehow managed to lore the man into a trap. As soon as he turned the corner into an alleyway he was hit with the massive rock from above, then 2 pipes smacked him across the face.
It wasn't enough to knock him out but enough to daze him long enough for the two kids to rob him blind and run. The didn't expect the man to recover quickly and he chased them as the bolted into the library. Valkorai sighed it seems her research was interrupted by more people. She stood in front of the rich man blocking the entrance. "The library is closed today, you will need to come back later. If you wish to rent a book please inform me of your housing location and we will send it to you." She said as he threw her aside. 'All according to plan.' Vlakorai thought as she tumbled into the ground.
Valkorai let out a scream loud enough for her father inside to hear, she could tell that this mans cultivation was no match for her fathers. Soon the man was sent rocketing into the ground on the other side of the street. "You dare hit my child! You dare hurt my family!" Onit bellowed as he appeared behind the man "It seems like you wish to die."
The man's face soon paled. He grabbed his head and let out a bloodcurdling scream then passed out. Onit flicked his wrist and the man turned to ash and he walked back to Valkorai. "Are you hurt? Let me see," he said as he looked at her elbow. He smiled "You will be fine now let go inside, I think you have had enough of the sun." he said looking around, the street was still empty. After entering Valkorai looked for the kids and found them hiding in the corner she used to read. "Ahem, I think you owe me some of those spoils boys," she said as she poked her head into their group. She saw lots of jewellery and gold coins between them. Their face turned to shock when they saw her. "Errr, no we don't. You never done anything to help us. Why should we share with you." the red-haired kid growled. "Oh, we have an idiot. That man would have found you if not for me. The owner of this library wouldn't let anyone get hurt in here but he wouldn't allow you to keep your stolen good either." Valkorai snapped back.
"How would you know bookworm?" the short one asked in a condescending tone.
"It's like you said I am a bookworm. I stay here all day, I know the owners pretty well if I do say so myself."
"Yeah it's not like you have proof of it anyway, why would he trust you?" the blue-haired one replied
"I don't know, would your father trust me over you?"
"Oh. Fine I will give you this ruby and sapphire ring." The blue-haired boy said.
"Not interested, why don't you let me in your next heist? I have been bored and I would like to get some good exercise in before I start cultivating."
"Fine but only once."
"Deal. I am Valkorai but please just call me Val. You guys are?"
"I am Sikun, the short one is Morog and the ginger is Pokin. Nice to meet you."