The walk to the library from the restaurant was not too bad, he even stopped by a merchant section hoping to get lucky, however it seemed like his luck had run out.
Soon he arrived in front of a rectangular building, it was made out of a yellow stone, with large white pillars on the sides. The door itself was wooden with a large sign attached to the wall above the doors, reading "The Capital Read".
Entering the library, the atmosphere inside was quite calming and even a bit cozy. There were hundreds of shelves filled with books to the brim on each of the 5 visible floors. There weren't many people but even so the library was extremely quiet. As Apricus made his way to the counter placed in front of the door, a young lady seemingly around her early 20s popped up from behind the desk. Her jet black wavy hair covering her pale blue eyes, and pale white face. Her plain white shirt had a name tag on it reading "Charlotte A" while the shirt was neatly tucked into her black jeans creating a neat contrast, as her beauty was brimming, she spoke in a well mannered, soothing voice.
"Hello sir, my name is Charlotte, how may I help you today."
Apricus simply looked at Charlotte while thinking of what books he may need. However, after a couple awkward seconds had passed Charlotte was about to speak once again with a shy expression when she was cut off by Apricus.
"I need a book containing everything about Unholy Creatures as well as the soul, soul abilities, and soul tools. If possible I'd also like a book about all three types of techniques."
Charlotte seemingly slightly flustered immediately got to typing in her computer as she spoke.
"Uh yes I just need a second to find the best books for your needs."
Apricus simply stood there, observing the interesting paintings hung on the wall behind the counter, quite impressed by them. What caught his eye the most was a large sized painting on the left side depicting a demon hovering above a large flower as everything around him burned in flames, while the demon himself had 4 eyes total, 3 heads, 6 arms wielding flames, and a large tail. Furthermore the 3 heads had different expressions, the one on the right had a calm expression as the head bleeds with no visible injuries, the one in the middle seemed to be in distress and disbelief while the bleeding increased drastically and injuries become visible, while the one on the left seemed to have lost his mind however this head seemed to have no visible injuries or bleedings, causing for an interesting but sinister piece of art.
Just then Charlotte suddenly called out.
"Uhm, excuse me sir, I have the books you wanted."
Just as those words left her mouth, four different books flew towards her landing in her hand.
'Quite the convenient ability.'
Apricus was slightly impressed but envious, as such an ability could be quite powerful. However, setting those thoughts aside he changed his mind suddenly, taking only one of the four books.
"Thank you, but I'll only be taking this one, I've changed my mind."
Handing over the book to Apricus, the other three books flew away landing in different shelves.
"I see, I hope you have a nice reading session then."
After taking the book Apricus simply walked away to a nearby seating area. Apricus initially wanted to go over the soul to not only strengthen his own knowledge but make sure he would not miss anything while teaching Genso's student, however reading was already a chore for him, especially about something so boring. So he simply only took the book about Unholy Creatures, not only did he know about them the least but also because he enjoyed history and creatures, so much so he was willing to somewhat risk messing up his tutoring. There was also the factor of his own laziness, so he had to make sure he taught Genso's student right and perfect.
After he took a seat and got comfortable he observed the book for a couple of seconds, reading the cover which said "The Unholy Book About Unholy Creatues." "By: Minerva Apollo" while the cover art was simply horrid and terrifying looking creatures in disturbing ways. Ignoring it, Apricus simply flipped through the pages reading casually at a semi swift pace.
His own knowledge about Unholy Creatures was quite limited due to him being new to the experience, which led him to believe there were only four categories Unholy Creatures were divided into.
"Oh? There's seven, while the categories are based on going from pure evil, to whatever enlightenment unholy creatures can reach, and then to perfect neutrality. Gaining intelligence, knowledge, and strength on the way."
The pure evil referred to was simply known as "Beast", "Demon", and "Pseudo Cursed" in the category and although creatures couldn't be pure or kind all of a sudden they could reach a more humane stage by being enlightenmented in the "Pseudo Holy" and "Deity" categories. The perfect neutrality stage was "Unknown" and "Sovereign" representing the peak of Human or Unholy Creature strength.
"So while Beast is the weakest category, Pseudo Holy is right in the middle, and Sovereign are the strongest categories; they usually have the word "Unholy" right before their category to represent the fact they're an Unholy Creature. So in this case starting from the weakest to the strongest it would be "Unholy Beast", "Unholy Demon", "Unholy Pseudo Cursed", "Unholy Pseudo Holy","Unholy Deity", "Unholy Unknown", and "Unholy Sovereign". I guess the "Unholy" is necessary since humans use the same Categories although ours is simply "Beast", "Demon", "Pseudo Cursed", "Pseudo Holy", "Deity", "Unknown", and "Sovereign"."
The stronger and higher one's power, refinement, and mastery are in the soul, soul abilities, soul quantity, intelligence, and sometimes even physical strength the higher they go up the categories.
"However there is also a ranking system within said categories, which I seem to have kept mixing up before. The ranks from the weakest to the strongest seem to be E, D, C, B, A, S, and finally Z. To go up the next category you first need to go through all the ranks. The ranks also differentiates and ranks strength within a category."
While a Sovereign Category Z Rank would be the peak of human strength, shaking the universe itself, a Beast Category E Rank would be quite weak, only being stronger than a mundane human.
"Huh, there's never been a human sovereign before it seems only Unholy sovereigns. While there have been Unknown category humans there aren't any alive today. Unfortunately it seems like the same can't be said for Unholy Unknowns."
Humans would always be weaker than Unholy Creatures due to the fact Unholys are born with soul abilities most of the time having them more used to it, as well as the fact they are more physically stronger.
Apricus continued reading after going through a couple of more pages, his curiosity was satisfied.
"So that's how they're born."
The three main ingredients to an Unholy Creature being born or created are: large amounts of negative emotions and intentions from both animals and humans alike, remnants of lingering soul left from a skill or a large discharge of soul, and finally a dead remains of anything such as plants, animals or even other unholy creatures. Once these three factors mix and combine an unholy creature is born within the dead remains which transforms into a different shape depending on how much negative intentions and emotions as well as lingering soul is absorbed and combined.
But due to the fact that the lower unholy categories are unintelligent they mindlessly use their soul abilities. However unlike humans they devour anything they can and use their soul in any shape and form to get stronger, even if it's mindless chaos, after they reach a typical human's intelligence they are able to get stronger the same way humans do. However Unholy Creatures can also skip a couple of categories or ranks by absorbing large amounts of the first two ingredients during their creation or birth which humans are completely incapable of.
"And of course they always were a threat to humans, considering they could simply get stronger by existing and doing what their instinct told them to. I wonder if there are any Unholy Sovereigns still alive, that would be terrifying. Although I would think their history and past is pretty exciting, after all living with so much power must be quite calming."
Indeed, only the ones who held power and true strength could enjoy the true nature of this universe, while the weak simply struggled and whined under their rule.
"Speaking of history, I wonder if there's a book on the history of this village, it's a rather interesting place after all."
And so Apricus returned the book he was reading, borrowing another one with ancient ruins transitioning to a modern village on the cover with the title reading "The Magnificent History Of Aria!".