Chapter 34 – Making a Name (2)

A quiet corner of the vast library, the temple of knowledge.

“*Groan*… what time is it now?”

I, who had fallen asleep using my luggage as a pillow without realizing the passage of time, ran my hand through my disheveled hair, sat up, and looked out the window.

“It’s already this time…”

Before I knew it, it was deep in the night.

The moon, which hid in the clouds and cast soft moonlight, was already crossing over to that side, suggesting that morning was drawing near.

This body had only its stamina to rely on, and since I had slept for nearly ten hours straight, I could once again realize how grueling the journey had been.

‘And even after that, ten hours. Seeing that I’m already fine, this is definitely an abnormal level of stamina.’

However, considering what I had been through, it was simply amazing that this body of mine recovered all its fatigue in ten hours.

However, since my mind was still tired, my brain kept urging me to rest.

But since my body was fine, that was all just an excuse.

“Let’s master the culture, starting with the culture.”

Standing up with my arms full of luggage, I immediately headed to the culture section, pulled out a book, and began reading.

Once I received my license in seven days, I would have to return to our Ember, which had no such thing as a library. Before that, I had to pack as much information into my head as possible to become familiar with everything in this world in general.

It meant there was no leisure for me to idle away my time.

In that way, I began to read all kinds of books indiscriminately, except for magic engineering books.

In the midst of that, I finally arrived at the ‘history’ section, which could be called the foundation of .

“What should I read…”

Although there was no field that was not important to me, an ‘outsider’ who had possessed Ailen Vail, history carried a particularly different meaning.

Because the only way to return to my original world was highly likely to be either building the greatest Ember that would never exist again, or bringing an end to this ice age.

The common denominator of both methods was that it was only possible by becoming the supreme leader who ruled over the Embers of the entire continent.

‘To do that, I need to know what kind of relationship binds the thousands of Embers.’

Naturally, this was only possible by understanding history, such as the power of each Ember and their power dynamics.

Yes, recorded here was the history of the struggle and development of all Embers.

Which Embers survived or fell, who was strong or weak, and what kind of relationship they were bound by today was all contained within these books.

To put it simply, everything from the past, present, and even the future power dynamics could be seen as contained within these small books.

So there was no field more important to me than this.

Perhaps even more so than magic engineering, which was said to be the salvation of the era.

‘Since, in the first place, I must become a leader, not a magic engineer.’

These books, like a game guide, would serve as milestones that provided core information on what decisions I should make in the future.

“Hmm.”

In that way, I began to carefully examine the history books.

That time lasted for well over an hour.

‘I cannot just read anything. I must choose the best book.’

The first history book I encountered, whether I wanted it or not, would become the standard by which I viewed the political situation.

Since reading biased content would also narrow my vision with prejudice, I had to find a history book written objectively.

It was absolutely not a waste of time.

[On the 605-Year History of the Ice Age, Its Rise and Fall]

[The Flowering of Civilization: The Birth and Development of Ice Age Civilization]

[The Shadow of the Ember: From the Great Dark Age to the Golden Age]

[The Arrival of the Era of Grand Magic Engineering: Herman Melville and Odin]

[The Calendar, How the First Ember Era Calendar Became the Immortal Ember Era Calendar]

.

.

.

Befitting an ice age that boasted a long history turning 605 years old this year, there were over thousands of history books.

The authors also numbered in the thousands, and they were people from different eras or born in different Embers.

‘Selecting a book is a problem in itself.’

Although I had already picked up and put down dozens of books, it was not easy to select one.

Isn’t there a saying that history is written by the victors?

History is inevitably distorted.

Thus, although searching for an objective history book was nonsense in the first place, I still had to find a history book written from the most objective perspective possible.

Thinking like that made the classification a bit easier.

‘First of all, I should filter out all authors from the First Ember.’

The books I had to examine had already decreased by more than half.

Not only was this the library of the Immortal Ember, but they were also the victors with no rivals to stand against them, having decorated history for nearly a century.

Naturally, the authors and the number of volumes had no choice but to be overwhelmingly many.

‘Exclude all history books related to specific Embers as well.’

Whether it was the first, tenth, or hundredth… I excluded all books with the name of a specific Ember in the title.

Although information on individual Embers would also be important, for now, I needed broad content encompassing all Embers.

And it went without saying that the more a book dealt with the overall context, the more the trust in its objectivity would rise.

When I narrowed down the candidates by establishing a few criteria in that way, only two books remained in front of me.

“Hmm.”

One was published last year, authored by ‘Shane Barockman,’ a leader of a city as small as our Ember.

The title was ‘On the History and Future of All Embers Born in the Ice Age’.

The other was published this year, and peculiarly, the author was ‘Merlin Hayve,’ a yellow-hair magic engineer like me.

The title was ‘The History of Struggle and Prospects of the Ice Age’.

First of all, there was no problem with the authors of both books.

Since both were third parties who did not even have the power to join the power struggle, yet their occupations were enough to call them intellectuals.

Therefore, the objectivity and reliability of the content could be seen as guaranteed to some extent.

‘Well… if there’s anything strange, I can just filter it out myself.’

Since they were the two remaining books after filtering and filtering, there was no need to worry about which one to read first.

However, there was a point to keep in mind.

‘People said that the power dynamics between Embers shifted greatly starting this year.’

It was a statement referring to the First Ember.

Even the Offroader that Heimdall had braggartly boasted about was like that.

Since they said it had not even been a year since the Immortal Ember began investing in mechanical magic engineering.

Coincidentally, the times when the two books were published were this year and last year, dividing precisely before and after that boundary.

And the Offroader was indeed a great invention worthy of being called a game-changer.

Because the Offroader was the main player that allowed them to escape the small stage of a single Ember, no matter how large it was, and expand to the global stage of all Embers.

Of course, the Immortal Ember would have interacted with various Embers even before the invention of the Offroader, but whether a vehicle existed or not was a different story.

I, a veteran of , could guarantee this.

Although there was no such thing as other Embers besides the home base in the game, I knew very well that the sheer fact that one could enter and leave the snowfields like their own home changed the volume and the landscape of the game.

That was probably why people were clamoring that the power dynamics between Embers had crumbled.

‘Shall I start reading?’

I first opened Shane Barockman’s book, published last year.

Although the order did not matter whichever I read first, I wanted to dramatically feel the difference in interpretation before and after the appearance of the Offroader.

In that way, I became absorbed in the history book.

Although it was dry content listing historical facts and the author’s perspective, to me, this world itself was a completely new fantasy.

The fact that it felt like a DLC of also played a part.

However, apart from the fun, there was not much to the content.

The city selected as the First Ember was the Ember of the Sun.

That Ember maintained a long, four-hundred-year reign before falling due to internal strife, and after that, all Embers had a neck-and-neck power dynamic of mutual destruction, leaving the seat of the First Ember vacant for a century.

Finally, the Arcadius family ascended as the leaders of the Immortal Ember, ending the vacancy of the First Ember.

Today, with the collaboration of Odin Arcadius and Herman Melville, the era of Grand Magic Engineering arrived, and they became an Ember that no one could look down upon.

…That was the overall context.

‘It’s simpler than I thought. Is it because it’s an era where magic engineering hasn’t developed?’

It seemed that was likely the case.

Although they said that only now had interactions increased as the Immortal Ember overcame the extreme environment of the boundless snow through magic engineering.

Because previously, they had to overcome the snowfields with primitive gear or crude levels of magic engineering equipment.

In the past, even if they knew there were numerous Embers in other regions, due to technical limitations, their main stage could not help but be that single Ember of theirs.

‘This one should be a bit different.’

I straight away opened ‘The History of Struggle and Prospects of the Ice Age’ published this year.

As expected, the description of the distant past was similar to the previous book… but the prospect part.

Especially from the moment the Offroader appeared, the interpretation began to differ greatly.

[The Immortal Ember’s Offroader is unworthy of its name. The fuel efficiency is the worst, devouring mana stones like a monster, and the engine is crude, so minor breakdowns are extremely frequent.]

‘Indeed, it is exactly as I felt.’

Perhaps because the author was a magic engineer, the beginning was negative, just as I felt.

However, the content that followed was full of praise.

[However, the invention of the engine and the birth of the Offroader render all those shortcomings meaningless. This is an innovation in the history of the ice age. It is a revolutionary lifeline that connects severed Embers and humanity.

One fact is certain. The Immortal Ember has opened a new era. This is an undeniable truth.]

It seemed excessively biased, but I could not help but admit it.

Although I did not think deeply about it since it was still a story of the distant future for the current me.

‘Since I was also drawing up plans for the development of our Ember under the premise of the Offroader.’

I was also contemplating how to obtain the Offroader from the Immortal Ember and how to utilize it.

Thinking about how great of an industrial, political, and military revolution the initial invention of engines and vehicles caused in the original history of Earth, sentences of this level were not even praise.

‘Then shall I take a look at some other things as well? There won’t be any harm in reading a lot.’

Since I had established a rough standard, now it was important to stuff in as much information as possible.

In that way, I read twenty more books, but the more I read, the more an inexplicable sense of aversion began to well up.

‘Am I being sensitive? I feel a strange sense of discomfort…’

The content of the twenty books was all identical. But if they were history books, that could sufficiently be the case.

Thus, that I felt discomfort was not in the content but in the expressions.

-The Immortal Ember, as the frontrunner leading the task of human salvation, must be immortal like its name.

-The Immortal Ember, which has achieved miracles that no other Ember could accomplish, deserves to be respected.

-Since the fall of the Immortal Ember would be the fall of humanity, the Immortal Ember must surely survive.

Must be immortal like its name, deserves to be respected, must surely survive…

Because those minor but blatant expressions of praise described the Immortal Ember as if it were the sole salvation of humanity.

Moreover, it would be one thing if the author was a magic engineer or from the Immortal Ember and was hyping up their own Ember.

‘But to think that even those whose occupations and Embers have absolutely no relation are all using similar expressions…’

It was definitely strange that these expressions were commonly found among an unspecified crowd of authors.

Still, it was too trivial to suspect.

So I, too, was likely only feeling a subtle discomfort and aversion.

‘Let’s not have useless thoughts and read more books.’

In that way, I put away all the history books and moved busily to master the remaining fields.

Concentrating entirely on reading every single day without exception, I was finally able to cultivate a broad and deep knowledge to step forward as a person of this other world.

“Today is finally the day, the results announcement.”

The day six days had passed since then.

The long-awaited day of the qualification exam results announcement, which all examinees had waited and waited for, had arrived.