He had scored a top-grade Grimoire with an amazing history for free and he had snatched it right from under Hermes's nose.
Noah's mood could not have been better.
Even though he could not open it yet, the fact that Hermes was selling something so important meant that bastard god must be desperate for money.
Dayum.
The thought made him even happier! What a shame he could not see that clown's panicked face!
Noah put away the Grimoire and quickly left the dark forest.
As far as he knew, when a person read a Grimoire, their mind would be pulled into the magic.
This would leave their physical body completely defenseless, as if they were deep asleep.
Because of that, he decided it was best to read it in a safe place.
Returning to the inn without making a sound, Noah blew out the candle in his room and set up magic alarm spells at all the doors and windows.
With his Spell-Weaver skill he create many different kinds of magic based on what he needed.
Even though most of them were low-level spells, they were incredibly useful in real life.
This alarm spell, which would ring a loud warning whenever something passed through it, was one of those useful tricks.
Using the heavy Grimoire as a pillow, Noah had a good night's sleep for the first time in a long while.
Maybe it was because he had just stabbed Hermes in the back, but it was the best sleep he had gotten in years!
When he opened his eyes the next morning, he felt totally refreshed.
"Hey, what is the plan for today?"
After breakfast, Bete was the first to ask Noah what they were going to do.
Honestly, since he had already gotten a Grimoire, Noah felt they could just head back home.
However, Bete definitely knew he had snuck out last night.
After all, it would not be hard for someone with a werewolf's nose to notice that Noah's scent had left the room.
The fact that Bete asked this question confirmed Noah's guess.
"Let's see. For today, let's try to find more information on Grimoires," Noah said with a faint smile.
It was not just an excuse to cover his tracks.
If there were more Grimoires out there, he really did need to buy another one.
Grimoires were one of the only ways to learn magic.
But a person could only learn a single spell from one book, not multiple.
After receiving a Falna from a god, a person would learn how many magic slots they had.
Some people had none, while others had a few.
The lowest number was zero, and the absolute maximum was three.
However, having a magic slot did not guarantee you would actually get a spell.
In Noah's case, he had one magic slot, but it was completely empty.
Without at least one magic slot, a person could not learn magic even if they read a Grimoire.
Having zero slots meant their magic talent was absolute zero, so there was nothing for the book to unlock.
Even though Noah only had one magic slot right now, one of the hidden effects of his new Grimoire had a small chance of opening new ones.
Even if it was just a chance, if he managed to unlock a second magic slot later, he would need a second Grimoire to learn another spell.
And even if he never opened a second slot, an extra Grimoire would not go to waste.
Back home, he had a little fox girl with amazing talent.
Haruhime still had an empty magic slot.
If she read a Grimoire, she might be able to unlock her ultimate spell, Kokonoe.
As one of Orario's three greatest "cheat" characters, Haruhime possessed not only her level-boosting Uchide no Kozuchi magic but also a second, world-breaking spell: the concurrent chant magic, Kokonoe.
Its power allowed her to grow magical fox tails that could store the effects of her spells.
Each tail could hold one cast of Uchide no Kozuchi.
This meant she could cast her level-boost magic on multiple targets at the exact same time, raising the levels of her entire team at once.
Yes, it was that overpowered.
Kokonoe, just like its name suggested, could create up to nine tails, turning Haruhime into a legendary nine-tailed fox.
Once she reached that point, Haruhime could cast Uchide no Kozuchi nine times at once, boosting the levels of nine different people.
Take the Loki Familia, for example.
At their peak, the Loki Familia had seven Level 6 first-tier adventurers.
If Haruhime had unlocked Kokonoe, she could have boosted the Loki Familia's entire main fighting force up to Level 7 in one go.
Seven Level 7 adventurers would be enough power to completely crush all of Orario.
Even the Freya Familia, their biggest rival, would be crushed by that kind of power.
Of course, the same would be true in reverse.
If the Freya Familia had Haruhime and boosted their Level 7 captain Ottar up to Level 8, he alone would be strong enough to fight the Loki Familia's entire main force by himself.
As long as she could unlock Kokonoe, Haruhime alone had enough power to decide the winner of any war and change the fate of Orario.
Just imagine if the legendary Zeus and Hera Familias had Haruhime back in the old days.
The Level 9 Empress of the Hera Familia would have possessed the power of a Level 10!
The Level 8 captain of the Zeus Familia, Maxim, would have reached Level 9!
The mighty "Gluttony" Zald and "Silence" Alfia were also boosted to Level 8...
Even the legendary One-Eyed Black Dragon would have been forced to kneel!
Perhaps it was just fate.
There was a limit to the number of "cheat" characters a single era of history could handle.
Orario was the center of the world.
Here, epic tales were an everyday thing, and a popular rumor could turn into a legend sung for a thousand years.
Countless powerful fighters with the hearts of heroes gathered in this city.
Even so, there were only three absolutely game-breaking people in history—Orario's three great cheats!
If these three rule-breakers from different eras could have teamed up, the impossible Three Great Quests to slay the legendary monsters would have been finished a long time ago.
...
Noah spent half the day running around Rivira, asking questions, but he could not find even a shadow of another Grimoire.
It was exactly what you would expect for a treasure wanted by countless adventurers.
A Grimoire was countless times more precious than a Magic Sword.
They usually only showed up on the black market once every few months at best.
Noah guessed that Fels probably sold his Grimoires very slowly just to avoid drawing too much attention.
Or, maybe it simply took a very long time to craft a single Grimoire.
Noah was more willing to believe the second reason.
If Grimoires could be easily mass-produced, the entire world would fall into total chaos.
"It cannot be helped. Let's head back to the surface then," Noah decided, feeling a little disappointed.
After all, making four Level 4 bodyguards sit around town with him was a huge waste of their time.
Even though Finn had ordered them to protect him, they probably only agreed to it to repay him for building their new weapons.
"Nothing fun happened today at all! How boring!" Tiona complained.
She walked with her hands clasped behind her head, looking completely starved for action.
"Honestly, what goes through your head all day?" Tione sighed.
"Hehe, I just wanted something a little more exciting!" Tiona laughed.
Clack.
Rumble.
"Hm?" Noah heard a strange rumbling noise and felt a subtle vibration shaking the ground under his feet.
'Do earthquakes happen inside the Dungeon?'