The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

Page 948

　“Master,” the fox spirit suddenly called out.

　"Hmm?" Darke slowed his pace.

　"Youkomon" whispered, "Can we also attend the Christmas Eve ball?"

　After a brief recollection, Dak said, "Of course, but we'll have to wait until after the initial principal's speech."

　The "Fox Beast" nodded slightly, and after a while, it said, "Then can we also look forward to Christmas presents?"

　Dark laughed and said, "Of course."

　As he spoke, he resumed his normal walking pace.

　But a sudden realization struck him as he realized a major problem he needed to solve—he probably had too many Christmas gifts to prepare this year!

　……

　The library of St. Marian College contains almost every book that has ever existed in this world.

　Therefore, what often troubles students is not whether the library has the books, but how to find the books they want.

　Dark and "Renamon" are now in a similar situation.

　Books about summoners and necromancers only record history, famous figures, and very general introductions.

　Finding summoner and necromancer spellbooks on the more common, outer bookshelves is undoubtedly a pipe dream.

　But if you go any deeper, the countless books scattered haphazardly can be disheartening.

　To find what you're looking for among these countless books truly requires "the guidance of fate."

　As for Dac himself, he clearly did not have that "fate".

　He could only do his best to help the "Fox Beast" search, and the search took an entire afternoon.

　I didn't find the magic book I wanted, but I did find quite a few interesting books.

　He selected two of them to read in his spare time.

　"There's also an 'astrology class' in the evening."

　Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly noticed that the "Fox Beast" was gone!

　……

　"A fox beast?"

　Dark frowned and called out softly, but received no response.

　He could sense that the "Fox Beast" was right beside him, but he just couldn't see it.

　With a hint of doubt, he began to wander among the bookshelves, trying to find the "Fox Beast" by following his senses.

　But a few minutes after the fruitless search, the "Foxmon" suddenly emerged from between the bookshelves, now holding a book with a black cover.

　Dark looked at the book and asked curiously, "Found it?"

　"Youkomon" nodded slightly: "Mm."

　Dark asked, "How did you find it?"

　The "Fox Beast" glanced away and said, "We're lost."

　The bookshelves in the library are all the same style. The outer shelves have labels, but once inside, they are almost identical and look very similar.

　It is perfectly normal to get lost when there are no landmarks.

　But Dark still felt something was off.

　He glanced at the countless bookshelves behind the "Fox Beast" and quickly said, "Good that you found it. Let's go out first."

　With that, he quickly led the "Fox Beast" out and into the reading room.

　Most students at St. Mary's College have more options after entering their second year and generally don't spend long periods of time in the library's reading room.

　Therefore, Dark's assigned seat has been taken by a first-year student.

　He found a quiet corner and sat down with "Foxmon".

　Only then did he ask in a low voice, "What book is it?"

　"Demon Fox" then pushed the book in its hand directly in front of Dark.

　Dark frowned slightly, then reached out and took it, looking down at it.

　On the cover of this book, which has a black cover, three words are written in gold lettering.

　That's not the font used today. Given the level of knowledge of "Yokomon," it shouldn't recognize it.

　Only then did Dark realize that it wasn't that "Demon Fox" wouldn't tell, but that it simply didn't know what kind of book it was!

　But if it doesn't even know what kind of book it is, why would it take it off the bookshelf?

　Dark couldn't help but look at the "Fox Beast".

　"The Fox Spirit" clearly knew what Dark wanted to ask, and immediately said, "After I got lost, I saw a bookshelf, and this book wasn't originally on that shelf. But when I turned back, it suddenly appeared, so I took it out."

　Dark took a slight breath and said, "Is that so?"

　The "Fox Beast" pursed its lips, its brows furrowed in confusion.

　Dark paused slightly, then said, "This is a Necronomicon."

　"The Necronomicon, what is that?" the Fox Beast asked in confusion.

　Dark explained, "In short, it's a necromancer's spellbook. It usually records some kind of method for summoning the undead, which may be exactly the kind of book we need."

　The "Fox Beast" nodded, but did not lower its guard.

　It didn't believe in free lunches, so even though it had brought out the book, it still felt there was something wrong with it.

　But Dak knew that the problem was probably not with the books, but with the library itself!

　It was precisely because such things frequently occurred in the St. Marian Academy library that they were unable to determine whether the nameless book containing the method for cultivating "brain fluid demons" was deliberately introduced or obtained by a student from the library.

　Like the Necronomicon in front of me, it has no magical fluctuations and doesn't seem dangerous. It's not the kind of high-level magic book with subjective consciousness.

　However, the contents of this book may not be safe.

　Dark brushed the gold dust from the book's title and pondered, "If I remember correctly, this should be the Luling script that Professor Ryan Harks mentioned in the history of magic. It was once widely used in the Kingdom of Luling. It was a small country located underground, and it perished a thousand years ago. To decipher it, we'll need a translation book."

　"I'll go find it!" the "Fox Beast" blurted out.

　Dark smiled helplessly and said, "I'll go find it myself."

　After another half hour, Dak found the translation book containing the Luling script based on the label.

　He didn't linger in the library any longer. He went straight to the counter to check out the books, then went to the cafeteria for a quick meal before returning directly to his dormitory.

　After he sat down, he glanced at the wall clock and muttered to himself, "Six o'clock sharp. I still have an hour to spare. I can take a look first."

　So he opened the Necronomicon and looked it over from beginning to end, comparing it with the translated version.

　The Luling script is not complex, but it is very troublesome, and the characters are not easily distinguishable, making it very difficult to read.

　This was Dak's first time delving into the Luling script, so progress was slow at the beginning; it took him a full half hour to translate the first page.

　However, as proficiency in character recognition gradually increases, translation speed also increases.

　An hour later, he had largely finished translating the preface to the Necronomicon and finally gained a basic understanding of the book.

　First of all, this is a Necronomicon.

　It looks very thick, but that's actually because the pages are made of thick material, so the book doesn't actually contain much content.

　As mentioned above, the subsequent content mainly discusses how to collect fragments of the soul from a corpse and then sew them together to form a usable "complete" soul.

　The author of this book refers to the mended soul as a "corpse soul".

　Because "corpse spirits" are made up of fragments of different souls stitched together, their consciousness is extremely chaotic. They are essentially evil spirits without any thoughts and can only obey orders to do simple tasks.

　Furthermore, the corpses he used to collect soul fragments were all stolen from mass graves, and their quality was extremely poor, resulting in very weak souls after being stitched together.

　However, even the smallest of people have ambitions. The author of "The Necronomicon" fantasized in the book about collecting the remaining fragments of souls from the corpses of the powerful and then stitching them together to form a powerful "corpse soul".

　In short, this is not a normal book that should be in the hands of students.

　Dark closed the book, took a deep breath, and stuffed it into the drawer. He then instructed the "Foxmon," "Don't look at it before I give permission."

　The "Fox Beast" that had been standing beside him immediately nodded.

　It also sensed the danger lurking in the Necronomicon from Dark's attitude.

　This is a forbidden book.

　……

　During the "astrology class," Dak was distracted. He could have learned 30% of the content, but he only learned 20%. He had to spend time figuring out the remaining 80% after class.

　After the astrology class ended, he quickly returned to his dormitory, made sure there were no signs of disturbance in the drawer, and then took out the Necronomicon to continue reading.

　The necromancer's understanding of the soul is indeed profound.

　In their hands, souls are as easily manipulated as pieces of paper.

　They recklessly use tools and magic to cut and piece together souls, creating countless ugly and twisted things.

　The author of this Necronomicon used only fragments of souls left behind by corpses as material, which is considered a relatively simple approach among necromancers.

　But this does not change its blasphemous nature towards the dead.

　The soul of a person after death can linger in the world for up to 168 hours, while an ordinary soul will dissipate within 24 hours.

　Therefore, if it wants to collect fragments of the soul, it must be from a fresh corpse.

　This behavior is unacceptable to society, both morally and logically.

　The reason why Dark continued translating was because there were indeed many things worth learning from this Necronomicon.

　Desecrating the dead is taboo.

　But if we want to save them, we need to understand them.

　Doctors need to dissect cadavers during their training.

　He simply acquires knowledge from books.

　The first thing is "mending".

　Although the author of this Necronomicon is not very famous, his methods of mending the soul are indeed unique.

　It's important to understand that even a Frankenstein's monster can break down due to conflicts involving its physical body and bloodline, let alone a more fragile and sensitive soul.

　The author of this Necronomicon was able to piece together a human form from countless fragments, and the "corpse soul" that was eventually sewn together did not collapse due to the differences between the souls.

　If we could learn this "mending" technique, it might become a secret strategy when we encounter similar situations in the future.

　Furthermore, "corpse souls" are ultimately aggregates of souls. How does it prevent these aggregates of souls from dissipating?

　This approach is also worth learning.

　But apart from that, there's not much to see.

　Even if the "Fox Beast" could indeed use this method to create "Shikigami," he would not allow it to use it.

　"Instead of doing that, I might as well go to the dungeon and catch a ghost-type monster..."

　At this point, Dark suddenly had a flash of inspiration and thought to himself, "It's not a bad idea!"

　"Shikigami" are essentially spirits, belonging to the ghost category.

　Even if you can't turn monsters into "shikigami", what about magical spirits?

　The talisman system used by Onmyoji is quite similar to that of Magic Cards.

　If we compare talismans to magic cards, then wouldn't "shikigami" be like magical spirits?

　Dark suddenly realized that he had a seemingly feasible idea on how to help the "Fox Beast" acquire "Shikigami".

　"No rush, let's finish reading this book first."

　He muttered to himself and buried his head in his work.

　……

　The Necronomicon is indeed not very long.

　The "Astrology Class" ended at 9 p.m., and it was only a little past 1 a.m. when Dak finished reading the entire book with the help of the translation.