The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

On the first underground floor, he was met by a large wooden door with heavy metal hinges which had been drilled into the grey stone walls.

There was a Lumnos Stone next to the door which cast light on the words inscribed in the wall. They were another set of 'topics'. Isaac presumed these were the topics covered by the books on this floor, but they still didn't include what he was looking for so he went down again.

No, no, no. None of the next 3 floors had what he was looking for. Only when Isaac descended to the 5th and final underground floor did he read the words he had been searching for.

'Bookcases 5500 - 6000   Rank 2 Anima Formulas'

Isaac heaved the heavy door open and stepped inside. The whole room was lit by Lumnos Stones – actually, rather than a room, it would be better to call it a cave of books. Isaac couldn't see past the first row of bookcases so he had no way of knowing how large the place was, but he imagined it was pretty vast – after all, this floor alone held 1000 bookcases.

He went to close the door behind him, but then noticed a small alcove next to it. Isaac noticed a pair of ethereal spectacles resting in the alcove, shimmering dimly. He extended his will towards the Librarian Anima and easily accessed it. It gave him a detailed description of what was on this floor and where he could find it.

With these directions, Isaac headed right and made a few decisive turns before he arrived in front of a large stone wall. This wall had many alcoves dug out in it and many Librarian Anima resting in it. Information such as advancement formulas were too valuable to record in books so they were registered in these Anima. Of course, 1 Anima could only hold a limited amount of information, so there were thousands here.

Isaac walked up to the wall, picked an arbitrary Anima and used his will to probe it. It contained many, many formulas which all used the Rank 1 Bestial Bloodlust Anima as a base.

Of course these formulas were of no interest to Isaac since he didn't cultivate the beast style which the Sect specialised in. He brought his will back and then glanced down at the Librarian Anima in his left palm. This was the one which told him where everything on the floor was.

He accessed it and quickly located where formulas for sword sub-style Anima were stored.

Soon, he began to browse them and look for formula which used the Spirit Sword Anima or the Nihility Intent Anima as a base.

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An hour and a half later, Isaac left the library. In this time, he'd already sifted through all the library's sword sub-style formulas and remembered a few of the best ones. He'd also had a look at some formulas for advancing the Snowshoe Anima.

With these formulas in mind, he visited a different building.

There were many locations where rank 1 Anima were stored in the Rank 2 district. These Anima were often rarer and more precious than the Anima stored in the Rank 1 district, so Isaac headed to one of these storage locations.

When he arrived, he had to answer another set of security questions to prove his identity and redeem his 2 opportunities to pick Anima.

Now, he'd already considered which Anima would be best for advancing his current set to Rank 2. Snowshoe Anima had many advancement paths but, if you ignored its glaring weakness, it could be said to already have half a Rank 2 Anima's ability. Its speed and agility were outstanding, so advancing it to Rank 2 wasn't a priority right now.

Spirit Sword Anima was Isaac's main attacking method and, despite being from the rather unpopular sword sub-style, it also had many advancement paths. Most of these formulas used the Spirit Sword Anima as a side ingredient which could give the final product the properties of 'sharpness' or 'piercing power', such as the formula for the Rank 2 Ice Blade Anima. However, there were still some formulas which used the Spirit Sword Anima as the main material and advanced it to Rank 2, so Isaac wasn't worried about this either.

The true problem was Nihility Intent Anima. Isaac desperately wanted to advance it, but he couldn't find any formulas which included it! Indeed, this was an oversight on his part and he should've predicted this.

After all, he could find several formulas for Spirit Sword Anima since it was one of the most common, fundamental, core Anima of sword sub-style and even the whole of weapon-style. In comparison, Nihility Intent Anima was a rare and obscure Anima which only sword-users could utilise. It was understandable no formulas used it.

As the saying goes, a wise man submits to circumstances. Isaac had given up on advancing the Nihility Intent Anima for now and created a new plan.

He picked 2 new Anima.

In fact, his choices were rather surprising. He selected the Ravenous Phantom Anima and the Spectral Hand Anima, neither of which had anything to do with sword sub-style or the formulas he'd researched.

He refined them quickly since the Anima were being subdued, and the Spectral Hand Anima flew into his left palm while the Ravenous Phantom Anima took up residence in his tongue.

After taking possession of the 2 Anima, Isaac set off someplace else.

He went back home to eat lunch, but his true purpose for returning was much more important. After he finished his meal, he supplied a jolt of sky blue Qi and suddenly, letters began to appear on his forearm. They spelt out a name in inky black characters,

'William Jensen'

This was the name of the Sundersen faction's envoy and also the person who'd lent Isaac this Instant Notes Anima.

Isaac picked up a fountain pen filled with black ink and carefully circled the name on his arm. The name glowed faintly, then disappeared.

After it was gone, Isaac began writing a message on his arm. Basically, it was saying that he was ready to join the faction.

While he was writing, the start of the message began to disappear as the ink it was written in dried. Any letters dried, they were transmitted to William Jensen, who also owned an Instant Notes Anima which was linked to this one.

Somewhere else in the Sect, William was reading Isaac's message which had appeared like a black tattoo on his arm. The letters faded and disappeared after a short while, and William began to write his response.

When Isaac received the response, he saw a time and place were written in large but elegantly penned characters. He would be meeting William and another Sundersen faction representative today.

There were still over 4 hours until the appointed time, so Isaac went to the training ground to practice swordsmanship. As a novice sword expert, he felt that his movements were far more fluid and unpredictable than before. More than that, he simply had a better understanding of how to use sword Anima in combat.

Isaac spent a long time contemplating how to maximise his improved understanding of the sword and properly utilise his unpredictable swordsmanship in combat.

He came up with a few ideas and new moves, but they all needed a lot more polishing and weren't ready to be used yet. Unfortunately, he didn't have much time since the meeting was near.

Isaac went back home to take a shower and prepare. Then he walked to the business area of the Rank 2 district where he found an elegant café with a white and cream coloured exterior.

Isaac pushed at the glass door of the café and it glided open easily, without a sound.

The café was full of people sitting around tables and chatting quietly, but only the people near the door noticed Isaac.

Isaac walked over to one of these tables and sat down. Opposite him was a man in a grey greatcoat and a woman wearing circular glasses and a fluffy white coat which reached all the way down to her knees.

The man, William, spoke,

"This is Olivia, one of the Sundersen faction's Rank 3 members. She's here because someone of a higher rank than you needs to oversee your recruitment process."

Olivia gave a smile and a small wave, and Isaac reciprocated with a nod and a quiet "Hello."

After that, things proceeded without a hitch. William gave Isaac some papers, which he read and signed. Then he made an oath on the Death Pact Anima.

The terms were loose and unrestrictive, and the key condition was to not betray the Sundersen faction. The moment he swore on the Anima and helped activate it, a lump of thick, dark cloud flew into his head and nestled in his brain. If he violated the pact's terms, this cloud would obliterate his will and kill him instantly.

However, Isaac had demanded to include a condition where, if the Sundersen faction betrayed him, then the pact would be broken and the dark cloud would disperse and cease to bind Isaac. This way he wouldn't be helplessly betrayed with no way to retaliate, and he also had a way out of the pact.

After Isaac formed the pact, William smiled brightly,

"Good! You're one of us now and we'll announce that you joined the faction tomorrow. Now, we can move onto more important matters. The faction has been handed a mission and is currently in the process of creating a team to take it. I think it would be a great chance for you to gain experience and accumulate some merit."