Chapter 31 The Adventurer with an Arrow in the Knee

"So you're willing to join the alliance?" Richie wrote a few lines on the ground. "Another peace-loving partner has been added."

"There are two, Mr. Richie, my wife and I."

"Oh, oh, two more peace-loving partners have joined us."

“My wife and I aren’t as noble as you think, Mr. Richie. We’re just after money.”

"I like guys who tell the truth from the start. The Brave Alliance has the support of big businessmen and politicians, so we don't have to worry about money. But once you're in this line of work, you can't back out halfway."

“Mr. Richie, could you simplify the words a bit more? It’s not that your handwriting is bad, it’s just that it’s too tiring for me to read.”

"Uh, that's a problem. I didn't consider that slimes don't have mouths before I left home."

Where are you taking me?

"Going to see an old friend."

"Is he a secret agent too?"

"The Hero Alliance isn't just the Special Agents Group; it also has a Research and Development Group, an Investigation Group, a Logistics Group, and an Intelligence Group. The person I'm taking you to meet is a member of the Intelligence Group, just like me. His fake identity is a librarian and historian."

“Mr. Richie, I need to watch you write the whole time, could you please shorten the word count?”

Just as Billy finished speaking, the skeletal man came over again, clutching a bunch of keys, one of which was gold. He saw the slime, and pulled upwards at what was neither a long eyebrow nor a long eyelash, revealing two empty eye sockets that gleamed with wariness.

"Is this your first time here?" the skinny man asked Richie.

Richie calmly wrote: "I'm looking for a book."

Which book are you looking for?

"The second column of the eighth row, the top left is 'Requiem for Another World'."

"Okay, sir, please follow me."

Richie and Billis followed the skeletal man to the far left of the eighth row of bookshelves, but there were only two fairy statues on the shelf. The skeletal man turned on a switch on one of the statues, and a hidden door appeared behind the bookshelf. The lock on the door was golden, and it matched the golden key perfectly.

After opening the door, there was a longitudinal passageway inside, with battery-powered lights on both sides. The skinny guy only let Richie in.

“Hey, I’m with him,” Billis said bluntly.

The skinny man said, "But when I asked you for the code, you couldn't answer."

"How rigid!"

You think I'm rigid?

Ruanni couldn't mediate the fight, and it looked like they were about to start arguing when the intercom microphone hanging at the entrance of the passage suddenly went off.

The skinny guy ran over to answer a phone call, and as soon as he heard the other end of the line say that he could pass, his legs immediately became as hard as stone.

Billis deliberately provoked, "So, you're saying I can go in now?"

Black grease suddenly oozed from the toothless mouth of the skinny man, and his words came out in a lisp: "Go inside, don't cause trouble."

As he spoke, he removed the finger bones from his left hand and inserted them into the access control slot. The screen immediately displayed the words "verification successful".

The battery lights on both sides of the passage were all lit, but they seemed rather dim compared to the sunlight outside.

Seeing that climbing up the muddy slope was difficult, Billy lifted Richie onto his body.

The vertical passage isn't very long; after climbing about fifty steps, you'll see the welcoming, open gate.

This is the only room in the library with a transparent roof, or rather, the entire room is transparent. Thirty identical floor-to-ceiling windows surround a golden bookshelf, and a simple astronomical telescope sits in the center. A golden key, symbolizing wisdom, hangs from the iron frame supporting the glass at the top.

An administrator wearing a pointed wizard's hat, a robe, and two wide black belts around his waist is arranging books on a moving ladder.

The administrator's head was triangular, somewhat like a lizardman's head, and covered with shimmering red scales.

When the manager saw the guests enter, he didn't come down the ladder to welcome them, but instead said to them, "Please hand me the copy of 'Fernan Moss's Biography' down there."

At this moment, the only one who could free his hands to hold the book was Billy.

Helpless, he rummaged through the bookshelf for a while and finally found the biography. After that, the librarian asked Billy to help find the second, third, and fourth books, each of which was placed at the bottom of the bookshelf.

Richie chuckled to himself, as if he knew beforehand that the administrator wanted his help finding the books.

An hour later, only five books remained in the basket, one of which was called "The Birth of a Wizard".

Filled with curiosity, Billis picked it up and flipped through a few pages, discovering that most of the paper was printed, with only a few pages being yellowed parchment.

"Hand me that book on the birth of a wizard that you have."

The administrator seemed to have eyes in the back of his head; he knew what book Billis was holding without even looking.

"Excuse me, I just meant to flip through it, I didn't mean to peek."

"What do you want to see? I can tell you."

"real?"

"You think it's fake? Look at my brain, it can hold half a library."

The administrator slowly climbed down the ladder; his left leg was clearly injured, and he walked with a limp.

"Do you need me to help you, sir?" Billis asked.

The administrator looked as if he had been whipped fifty times; he suddenly arched his hard back, and his expression grew increasingly grim.

"I'm not that old, I can still walk."

So Billy just stood there dumbfounded, watching the administrator fall flat on his face without helping him up.

Fortunately, this guy is quite sturdy, unlike most old people who fall and break apart. If it weren't for his lame leg and hunchback, he would actually be quite good-looking.

He was not an old man, but a disabled person with a limp who had difficulty walking.

"Don't stand there, go get me a cup of coffee, okay?" The manager pointed to a cylindrical coffee machine.

Just after Billy finished pouring coffee, the manager asked him to sweep the floor as well.

Richie, however, had disappeared, leaving Billie alone in the room to serve this eccentric administrator.

Consider it a test for joining the alliance.

Billy swept the approximately 500-square-meter library, mopped it, and even carefully cleaned the astronomical telescope.

The room suddenly became bright and airy, with sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows like rays of gold, scattering across the stately bookshelves.

The administrator was very satisfied and said with a smile, "You are the first person who doesn't lose his temper."

Billis paused for a moment, then asked, "And what about Mr. Richie?"

"Him? He can't even do something as simple as carrying my books properly."

"I always thought he was a very hardworking person."

"He's just a lazy bum."

How did you two meet?

“The Alliance’s intelligence team would often come to visit me, and over time we got to know each other.”

"Wait a minute! Aren't you part of the intelligence team?"

"When did I say I was an intelligence officer? I am Tom, a friend of the Alliance and the greatest historian in the Fa'an Otherworld."

“Scholar Tom, I am Agent Billist. When I first saw you, I thought you were a lizardman.”

Tom stuck out his tongue and said, "Then look more closely, what race do I belong to?"

Tom did not have the forked tongue and linear pupils unique to lizardmen; his face and back were covered in scales, clearly indicating that he belonged to the dragon race.

Billis has already confirmed that Tom is a dragonborn, but he deliberately keeps it to himself, as he needs to appear humble in front of scholars.

“I, I don’t know, Tom Scholar. I’ve had a headache since I was a child whenever I pick up a book, so I really have no knowledge of Faan’s culture and history.”

Tom opened his very knowledgeable eyes, his cheeks flushed as if he were receiving praise, and although he walked with a limp that was quite unsightly, he still chose to stand up and speak out of respect for his guest.

“You’re honest, and I like honest people! I can tell you right now that I’m a dragonborn.”

Billis feigned surprise: "That ancient and great dragonborn?"

"Compared to weaker races, the Dragonborn's bodies are indeed quite impressive; however, their large heads are not very agile."

"That doesn't stop you from becoming the greatest historian in another world."

"No, young man, I once wanted to be an adventurer, until I took an arrow to the knee."

Billis then realized that Tom's limp was due to a severe knee injury.

The golden key on the ceiling was blown by the wind, and the bright light moved from one book to another. At this moment, Tom suddenly thought of something, limped to the third row of bookshelves and pulled out a large book.

This is a book about wizards, published by the same printing house as the one Billys had read, and it only contains detailed information about the last eight years.

Tom licked his lips, flipped through a few pages, and put the book back. It seemed this wasn't the one he was looking for, and the one he was looking for was somewhere on a bookshelf.

Tom asked, "You enjoy studying wizarding subjects?"

Billy replied, "I've fought wizards before, and I don't know how to defeat them."

"If we encounter a wizard, it will definitely be a big problem."

"Didn't you say that your head could hold half a library? So you must know about wizards, right?"

"Of course you know! Dragonborn and wizards are old friends of ancient races."