Scott strolled up and and down every single aisle of the library after allocating another stat point to his intelligence stat and downing a mind fortification potion, all the while reading Monsters Compendium Vol.46, Monsters of the Mid-eastern Archipelago of Inth. It was as equally thick as the field guide, and he lingered on the illustrations of monsters that captivated him. Most interesting to him were the details which included the average experience point gained upon slaying the subject. Values ranged from near zero experience to millions.

  This was what he needed! All the details were there, even likely habitats and specific locations! Just to think that in a matter of hours all this knowledge would be ingrained in him. Now, he could level up. To hell with Eirdam! The city held nothing he needed! He would climb the city wall after dusk and never look back. Never.

  Throughout the day and throughout his rounds, the shafts of sunlight which the giant round windows let in lifted. Scott saw them as oars that were rising to breach. When they lifted completely, twilight let in a glow, and then starlight and firelight bounced in the library.

  Upon closing the book, the title morphed into unintelligible scripture.

  The Monsters Compendium Vol.46, Monsters of the Mid-eastern Archipelago of Inth has been ingrained.

  Euphoria suffused Scott’s head, and he staggered off balance into a shelf. Books clattered from the shelves and clapped upon the floor. After shelving the books, Scott hurried out of the library.

  Argan bade him goodnight, and Scott perceptibly bowed at the man.

  The night air was cool, and the wind gasped in bursts. The occasional lynan strolled the streets. Scott aimed for the wall he’d climbed over on the way in.

  Wisdom gained.

  That’s right, Scott had allocated a stat point to wisdom twenty-four hours ago. He felt something in him grow into understanding, as if universal truths had been revealed to him. Their specifics evaded him.

  All his experiences in the last twenty-four hours sharpened. He knew the layout of the street he traveled intimately. He understood his knowledge of wild foods and monsters on a more intimate level: which ones to hunt first, which ones to hunt for value, which monsters to slay for a low risk and high value return. He understood deeply the tricks to stay awake, methods of reading faster. He understood that Argan had seemed suspicious of him. He knew the layout of the library without mistake, and he knew what books lay in each section. He knew which subjects were more niche and which ones had been expanded in several noble works. But of the noble language he retained nothing.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  With the aid of his tree pads ability, Scott eased himself up onto the top of the stone city wall. He gazed upon the starlit and firelit street he had traveled up and down. He frowned, for he felt that he had just spent a lifetime there. But it had only been a single day! Ah, what a strange thing. Was that all the wisdom stat did? Make it feel like he’d spent years in a place? No, there’s got to be more to it than that. There’s just got to be.

  Scott descended the other side of the wall. The smell of grass and earth replaced the smell of stone, dirt, and the brass and wood of the city. He trekked northeast, away from the city and away from the base of lynans in the south.

  The jungle was alive with hoots and howls and skittering beetle legs and rustling jungle floor debris. The night wind pushed canopies, and leaves swayed and flapped.

  An hour into the jungle, Scott swung up into the trees. He leapt from one to another, and then climbed a third whose bark was smooth. In its branches, he lay upon his cloak.

  At that height it was chilly, but Scott was too exhausted to care. He had to get some sleep where it was safest. In the morning he would resume his hunt for the briar pik. It would require a month's worth of travel, but the experience he would gain from battling them would be worth it. Along the way he knew where to forage for food and herbs for crafting fortification potions. All that information, just from books! Ah, what excellent choices he’d made in reading those two noble works. No regrets.

  Scott lay back upon branches which dug into his back and arms and neck. Through the chaotic sway of the canopy he saw a swath of night sky. A flight of stars sprayed across the sky, and Scott gasped. He’d never seen so many shooting stars at once! Ah, what a crazy fucking planet.

  As exhausted as he was, Scott couldn’t help it that his thoughts raced. At the forefront was the knowledge that the trees he slept in were ukim trees. They bled brown resin when tapped which could be used in salves to speed the regeneration rate of self healing. And he was covered in scabs from his first serious battle with the scavenger beetles. The wounds were itchy, but he forced himself not to mind. Same with his blisters.

  Another flight of stars sprayed across the night sky. Each had a lasting tail, and almost every one had a different hue. They cast enough brief light to brighten the green of the ukim leaves and to deepen their shadows upon his body and the branches and the jungle.

  In that brief light, Scott’s gaze drifted. He caught sight of three monkeys in the heights of another ukim tree. By their size he guessed that they were tauw monkeys. Two were asleep. The third eyed him unblinking.

  They didn’t come at him like their skeletons did, so Scott relaxed, turned his gaze back to the canopy, and sighed. Paying close attention, he heard the wind muffle through their furs. By the muffles of winds through fur, there were more in the vicinity. One of them scratched themselves. One of them yawned.

  Scott yawned. He shut his eyes.