Grand Foreigner (Chapters 1- 200)

Chapter 163

"No, not this one... " Ainz pulled out a book from the shelves, glancing through it as quickly as he could before setting it aside, finding nothing of interest inside it, or at best gibberish. "No... "

As the huge stacks of books beside him suggested, Ainz had been in the secret archives for hours. As the number of discarded books stacked, he had put them aside on the floor so as not to confuse them with those he had not yet looked through. A number that was rapidly dwindling by the minute. "No, not this one either... Why is it so hard to find books for beginners! They should've been as common as dirt!"

The secret archives of the Clock Tower held many books, stacked in bookshelves located in several halls. Dozens and hundreds of manuscripts, the rarity, and value of each, that even Medea or Da Vinci could not hide their interest if they should find one.

Though, it is unlikely that even Da Vinci would have even attempted something like Ainz was doing.

The most varied of treatise, the most powerful, and the most forbidden. Tens and hundreds of volumes, works that many mages had considered forever lost, grimoires that for many mages had become an object of fixation, or even an unattainable dream. All of them could be found in this archive. Works which Ainz, once he'd quickly run through the first pages, simply put aside like trash. "Not this one either... How long have I been under here?"

As an undead, Ainz had no physical sense of fatigue, and his ability to suppress strong emotions, had blunted any sense of frustration that might have stopped him in his quest. But, even with all that, his mental exhaustion nonetheless kept piling up. "Once again, a no-go..."

Ainz had already made his way around several such halls, browsing through the books one by one, and yet he could not find one book that he could use. Of course, among them, there were some that looked like textbooks that taught some magecraft or other, but they were still no good. Even if Ainz was somewhat interested in any of these books that described clearly why a particular spell could be used, and how exactly it caused an effect, they all used information that Ainz did not possess!

Is it so hard for any of the books to have a glossary or something!?

What the hell is a Magical Crest? Why do they keep popping up in the books and without any explanation to what they are? What even are Magic Circuits? And Magical Formulas? Books that told him from the beginning that he had to be at least of the rank of 'Pride' to even try to cast this spell? Was it really a condition for using the spell, was it a description of something, a boast? The Bartomeloi family, who were they?

Even though Ainz was undead, all the same, he could feel himself slowly continuing to sink into the abyss of depression with every book he read, in which he rarely understood anything beyond the first page, if that.

"Do all the people of this world know about this sort of thing?" Ainz sighed, "Well, I suppose that's possible, I didn't even graduate high school in my world... "

Of course, in the distant future of his world, the information that could fit into four years of elementary education far exceeded both in volume and depth what was studied in the elementary school of the current world. So, it could not be said that Ainz was that much inferior to the common man of the current world who had not graduated from a specialized institution. And, even without higher education, through his interaction with his Guild friends and the life experience he has, Ainz actually has quite a good knowledge base.

Especially for his world and his position in that world.

But it was true, that regarding mages and magecraft, much less when compared to the people who might have visited the secret archives of the Clock Tower in search of any secret knowledge hidden here, Ainz really did not possess even the most basic knowledge that every mage of this world absorbed in their very early childhood.