On a lonely ledge overlooking a vast forest, with a low-hanging mist. Jasper maintains a comfortable demeanor, his gaze fixed on the trees. The calls of many species may be heard coming from the jungle. Despite this, he remains still. 

‘Not yet…’

The entire woodland is filled with a loud wailing sound that drowns out all other sounds.

‘Almost…’ 

His hand starts to get surrounded by icy blue energy, and he builds a bow for hunting. He draws back the blue string while pointing the bow down at the forest, causing a brilliant blue energy arrow to appear.

Suddenly a figure emerges from the trees below at an incredible speed. It flies high in the sky as it begins to wail loudly. The harpy, which has human-like features and the body of a bird, hovers high above Jasper's head.

“Bingo…!”

He releases his grasp on the arrow as it flies at the harpy. The harpy, who belatedly notices the attack, wails louder and creates a small sound wave. 

With a simple hand gesture from Jasper, the arrow twirls around the sound wave and pierces one of its wings. The harpy releases a shrill scream as it plummets back down into the forest. 

He jumps off the cliff’s edge and begins chasing the harpy. He easily locates the injured creature as it drags itself across the ground in a feeble attempt to escape. Jasper pulls a curved dagger out of one of the many pouches lining the left side of his belt. 

He plunges the dagger into the harpy’s neck and blood starts splurting out. It tries to scream but chokes on its blood. Jasper wastes no time as he rips out a portion of the harpy’s neck with his dagger, subsequently ending its life. 

He stands over the corpse and looks down at it with a mysterious look in his eyes. He sighs deeply shortly after and then starts dissecting it.

“Hmmm… Let’s see,” He pulls out a paper and begins going over its contents, “Forty harpy feathers, twenty harpy teeth, and two fully intact harpy wings.”

He looks back at the corpse and sees the badly damaged wing.

“I guess I have to kill another one.” He slumps down on a rock beside him, looks to the sky, and then exhales boringly, “There hasn’t been a good quest in months. Should I just go back home? I hear they’re about to start a war with the Chantico tribesmen. The only reason I came to this school was to fight strong people like the heirs, but they’ve got their heads way up their asses.”

He starts remembering August’s battle with the golem and how he felt watching them.

“Maybe I’ll stick around until next year…”

A low growl can be heard coming from behind Jasper, however, due to the thickness of the mist, he can’t make out the creature.

‘A spirit fox? Or is it a great dane?’

Unsure of what the creature is, Jasper stands and fashions an icy blue straight sword.

“Please at least offer me some semblance of a challenge.”

With a single swing of his sword, the mist gets replaced by freezing winds. Although the mist is dispersing, the rotten stench the creature is giving off is still present.

Bloodied razor-sharp teeth with chunks of meat caught between them. Deep, burning crimson eyes decorate a skeleton visage with enormous antlers protruding out on either side of its skull. And the beast stands a foot over Jasper with a wolf's body that exposes bones. It’s a wendigo.

‘A Knight ranked monster huh? This is gonna be interesting.’

***

Elsewhere, August and Zachry are standing in front of a rather old building that is reminiscent of a small castle.

“So this is the Reverie Aethanaeum?” August asks rather disappointed.

“Why so glum?”

“You said this was the only library in the empire right? So I had thought it would’ve been a large and majestic building, not this rundown shack.” He answers rather loudly.

Puzzled at first, but then he chuckles softly as he begins to understand the situation in front of him.

“You misunderstood what I said. I said this was the only one around. There is another one in the royal castle. But since we’re already here why don’t we go in?”

‘He said that last part rather expectantly…’

“Sure, maybe what I’m looking for could be in here.” August answers.

Not even waiting for August’s answer, Zachry is already halfway through the door. With a sigh of annoyance, August follows behind him.

The inside of the building, even though it’s old it is still well-kept. With only a few windows offering light and the overall dark paint job, the library exudes a gothic vibe. As their eyes gloss over the many paintings decorating the walls, they see a stairway leading up to a second floor.

“Welcome to the Reverie Aethanaeum where you can easily get lost in the archives of literature. What kind of book would you be looking for today?” 

The blue-eyed librarian greets them in a monotonous tone. Even though she greeted them, she didn’t avert her gaze from the book she was flipping through.

“Well, aren't you just peachy?”

Upon hearing Zachry’s voice she hurriedly looks up and sees the pair. She props herself up from her desk and hugs Zachry tightly. He blushes slightly and hesitantly hugs her back.

“Zachry it’s been forever since you last visited me. How can you treat your childhood friend so cruelly?” She says happily.

“W-Well, you know… the classes I take at the academy… are… difficult. S-So I have to study extra hard.” He says as he averts his gaze.

‘Is this… Tea?!’

August, the odd one out, becomes deeply interested in the situation unfolding in front of his eyes. He dares not intervene, but his presence alone is treading on, and in his terms, treacherous territory.

The librarian finally takes notice of August and begins introducing herself.

“Oh, are you a friend of his?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m his new roommate.” He answers kindly, however, his thoughts completely contradict the words he’s saying.

‘Nooooo!! Why are you involving me?! Ignore me and continue talking to him!’

“Sorry for the late introduction. It’s because this guy refuses to see me these days. My name’s Valencia, It’s a pleasure to meet a friend of his.” She says as she holds her hand out to August.

“I’m August and the pleasure’s all mine.” He holds her hand and bows courteously.

She bushes a bit and withdraws her hand. 

“Was that bow really necessary?” Zachry asks.

“To me it was.” He answers immediately.

Zachry groans at his response and changes the topic to the real reason why they’re there.

“Anyway, my ‘friend’ here is looking for a place called the Solace Library. Have you heard of it?”

“The Solace Library…?” She thinks for a bit, “I don’t recall hearing about such a place. But if it’s a library, then you’d be looking for a book of sorts right?”

“That’s classified.” Even though he answered with a smile, his words held a menacing feeling.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of help to you, but feel free to look around the library to your heart's content. I have a lot of catching up to do with Zachry.”

“Happily.” This time his words and thoughts are in perfect sync.

‘Yes! Now continue the drama.’

Valencia and Zachry start chatting about the happenings of their lives while August wanders around the library. Although he checks in on them now and again. 

The shelves of the library are lined with many different books. He skims through most of the books with a bored expression, however, he does find some books that interest him. 

A while later he stumbles across a book under one of the bookshelves.

“Hm? What’s this?”

He kneels and picks up the book. The book is old and dirty but the title is still readable. August blows away the excess dirt and reads the title.

“The Heavenly Demonic Aura Breathing Technique.” He reads the title with a hint of confusion on his face.

Upon opening the book, a faint white aura envelopes his entire body. He flips through the pages of the book with an even more confused expression. The contents of the book include aura techniques, various martial arts, and even philosophical texts.

“The fuck is this shit? How can something be heavenly and demonic at the same time? That doesn’t even make any sense.” He turns the book to the side, upside down, and looks at the back and then the front. “Are you supposed to be some overpowered ability or something? And here, it’s talking about merging the positive and negative energy in your dantian to break through to the Open Heaven cultivation realm. What the fuck even is a dantian? This is utter bullshit.”

In the end, he threw the book in the trash, hoping no one would ever have to read it again. 

‘I guess it was underneath the bookshelf for a reason.’

***

Back in the misty forest, roars and howls are emanating from within its woods. The cold winds conjured by the movements of an icy blue straight sword have frosted a portion of the trees. The dissected body of what was a harpy lays frozen in a shard of ice all while a fierce battle is being fought around it.

Blood splatters all over the undergrowth as the wendigo lets out a pained howl. The severed arm of the wendigo lies at Jasper’s feet.

“Come on, you rotten dog! Is that all you’ve got? He taunts the beast even though he has more wounds than it, “At this rate one finger is all I need to put you down.”

The infuriated wendigo launches itself at him the injured Jasper. It bears down on him with its claws. However, Jasper’s quick footwork allows him to dodge the beast's onslaught.

With a hefty stomp, he freezes the ground around him. He bears the sword in both hands and attacks the wendigo whose legs are frozen in place.

The wendigo foolishly tries to block the attack with its remaining arm. But the sword easily dismembers it and leaves a deep wound on its chest. The pain of losing its last arm ensues a loud and painful howl.

‘So damn noisy!’

Jasper goes to behead the wendigo. However, using all its strength it breaks free of the ice and evades his attack. It begins to flee in fear for its life. However, Jasper already has other plans regarding its life.

The blue sword shatters and then reforms into a great bow. Jasper aims at the back of the fleeing wendigo and begins charging a large arrow.

‘At least you entertained me or a bit…’

He unleashes a powerful shot from his great bow. As swift as the wind, the cerulean arrow freezes all in its wake. The attack tears through the wendigo’s torso and crashes into the cliff.

Jasper exhales and the great bow disappears. The clouds in the sky part and the rays of the evening sun shine through.

‘Hm… It’s high noon. I have a class to attend.’