Spirit Taming

Chapter 474: Random Piles

The books all seemed to be the same from what Clark could see. Some were more worn than others, while some of them seemed to have been caught in accidents. Water damage, dust, and just general beatings from being used too many times. One or two even had scribbles on them from notes that others made.

One book that Clark found was more blank pages than written. It was astounding how little care went in to organizing these books for the bulk market. While it did make some sense that the merchants in charge would not waste the time, that meant that more goodies would be here than anyone realized.

There were one or two other people sifting through the books, but books would be hard to sell. Many people would need to read, understand, and restore these books for sale. That was an added cost and time that would need to be spent. For smaller merchants that came to the bulk markets, that was a waste.

The merchants looking at these books were those that specifically came here with the hopes that they might find older copies of books. Those that wanted to find the rare collectors items that rich people would pay whatever price they named. While rare, it was possible and these merchants had success before. Why else would they be gambling in a stack of roughed up books?

"Hmm, so I should be looking at the books that no one has touched yet…" Clark mumbled to himself as he started to circle around to where no one was looking. With so few people in this area, it was easy to find a spot that was still untouched. The lack of dust from multiple bulk market auctions was the proof that they had just been stacked.

With a single finger, Clark started to trail down the stack. He had a simple idea. "Just like I have seen in libraries, the best books are always the ones with soft pages." This was something only an avid reader would know.

There were always books in a public library that were taken out over and over. They were ready often meaning that they were considered much more valuable. Even in some popular bookstores, there would be people looking at the display copies of a popular book making its pages softer. Instead of the sharper paper, there was no risk of a paper cut from a well used page.

It felt to some people, that the opposite would be more valuable. Why would someone want a book that so many people had touched? Yet, that was exactly what would happen to a beast plan that was left to sit. People would read what they could before asking to buy a properly copied one.

And since these books certainly came from shops, merchant stores, and other places someone might show off their books, Clark had to look for those read even more.

The first three books he found that stood out were thin and easy to slide from the stack. "The basics of typings for children, I expected this to be here. I already know this. How to clean your oven without wasting soap, ha, that's kinda useful. No wonder a city would have this as a popular book. This one looks perfect though, the obsidian ant hunt."

The book that Clark held was the thinnest, but it had drawings that took up the pages showing off the life and birth of the black rock ants. However, he was sure that there was more to it. Notes about the process along with a few other small faded writings on the edge of pages. Lastly, without any explanation there was a drawn picture spanning two pages.

It was a much larger ant with a black exoskeleton. A massive set of pincers along with spikes legs for latching on to walls and cave ceilings. After that, the pages were still blank. However, Clark noticed a few blood droplets on the pages.

"Ella, come look at this." Clark handed Ella the book. She had stuck nearby so that she could see what magic Clark pulled from the book stacks.

"Oh! The obsidian ant! I have heard of this beast before. It is very rare and the growth plans for it are very hard to come by because they are a species that can only be thought to grow with very specific materials. It is all up to luck for the few that have managed to grow a black stone ant and make it in to an obsidian ant. We need to find one to make the plan successful.

That means we should…"

Ella trailed off in to her own theories as she looked at the information. But Clark was already moving down the stack of books. The system had replied to the quest as well.

'Flash quest- on your own- completed

Requirement- discover a beast plan journal with your own eyes and no assistance from the system skills.

Reward- slight boost in system intelligence.'

'Congratulations, you have gained a reward much faster than expected!'

The small blurb from the system was new. Clark had not seen this before but contributed it to the fact that the system had just gained some intelligence. It was going to be nice to have a little more positivity from the system here and there when he completed quests or accomplishments in general.

"Now. Let's see what this almost untouched book is about." Clark had found a book that had actually given him a papercut. It was one that he saw in the stack with nearly perfect pages. As if someone had gotten it as a gift then never read because it wasn't something they would like.

"The lost dungeons of Terra. Hey Ella, why would this book just be tossed out?" Clark thought that this would be somewhat interesting. Many people would want to look for lost dungeons and manage to get glory for it. Why would Terra City be different?

"That book?" Ella was a little confused. She figured that Clark would understand this easily. "Because Terra city is underground. The lost dungeons are lost because they are buried in cave ins, in the middle of beast nests, or they had dungeon breaks that became monster nests and were sealed off."

The understanding flashed through Clark's eyes as he realized the dangers of underground dungeons. Other than those that were held behind cave ins, there were dungeon breaks and beast nests. "That means that this books has a decent mapping of where we could go to spy on beasts that were left alone for a while. Beasts that might be rare or have changed because no one has gone looking for them?"

Clark's question stopped Ella from looking deeper in to the new beast plan she had been given. Instead, the idea that Clark was getting at dawned on her. "The research potential is much larger than I believed. I will purchase that book as well." Ella didn't hesitate to follow Clark's lead. Especially since he had a good point.

"Good, then we have a few plans for after tonight's auctions. Other than this, I think everyone is doing well." From the books, Clark spotted everyone. He could see the different tables selling energy crystals, broken equipment, and even a few roughed up monster materials from general stores that went out of business. Everyone was at one or the other gathering the materials they had been assigned.

The more that Clark thought about how great this palace was for someone like Isa, the more he wondered what other gems might be here. His eyes were naturally attracted to the mess of stuff being tossed aside. What many would assume was a garbage pile. But this spot had the most small time merchants sifting through it.

"So this is basically the spot all items that are taken from failed sales, or just random places gets piled." Clark was talking to himself but a kid digging through the pile glanced at him and replied.

"Yeah, the trash pile always has a few good pieces of silverware or even some random pieces of carved wood. Some of the blacksmiths even sell off scraps that end up here." The boy kept sifting through things and pocketing small bits of metal. It was easy to tell that this was the miscellaneous mystery pile. A great place to use Clark's analysis skill over and over.

His eyes started from the top of the pile of randomness and started to shift down. Naturally, he focused on large objects and ignored most things. He wanted to find what might be the most valuable since Isa needed it to make a large bulk sale. She would be busy right up until the auction selling things to have enough gold coins to participate and then make a bigger sale.

'Jade moth leg- ultra rare

This small green piece is often thought to be a scarp from jewelry makers. It is actually a fallen leg from a jade moth. A very rare insect type beast that only lives in deep caves…'