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Before seeing the library of Kamar-Taj, Rimuru had been extremely curious about everything inside it.
After all, humans are naturally curious about the unknown.
But once he actually opened the books, Rimuru suddenly found himself bored out of his mind.
Thanks to the skill [Magic Perception], Rimuru had no trouble understanding languages. No matter what language the information was written in, it would automatically be converted into something he could comprehend.
Unfortunately, understanding the words didn't make the content any less dry and difficult.
The books felt exactly like advanced mathematics textbooks.
You could understand every word and every diagram individually, yet the knowledge itself was so deep and tedious that it made you sleepy.
As the saying goes:
Writing your own operating system is hard enough—writing the operating system for that operating system is even worse.
Without hesitation, Rimuru activated "idle mode" and let Great Sage handle the studying for him.
As a result, the mages of Kamar-Taj witnessed an astonishing sight:
Rimuru was "reading" books at an absurd speed, flipping through pages frantically inside the library.
Could someone really understand a book by reading it like that?
Many sorcerers couldn't help questioning it.
"If you don't understand it, why pretend you do?"
Take the Sanskrit texts, for example.
They were incredibly difficult.
Ancient Sanskrit was basically considered a dead language now. Nobody spoke it anymore.
Even someone like Doctor Strange, with his near-photographic memory, still needed to constantly consult dictionaries and painstakingly decipher the meanings little by little.
And then there were the Latin magic books.
The incantations were long, obscure, awkward, and unbelievably complicated.
You had to remember every word perfectly.
This was magic, after all.
If you mispronounced a spell, at best the magic would fail. At worst, the spell might backfire and kill you.
On a battlefield, forgetting or miscasting a spell could easily mean death.
At that moment, Rimuru finally understood why Kamar-Taj had so many melee-oriented sorcerers.
Thinking about students who were terrible at memorization but still insisted on majoring in science suddenly made everything make sense.
Once again, reality proved a cruel truth:
Unless you fail upward while having an amazing father, there's no future in being incompetent.
Three percent depends on talent.
Seven percent depends on hard work.
The remaining ninety percent depends on your parents.
When a few senior students in the library questioned Rimuru about his bizarre reading style, he merely smiled faintly and offered no explanation.
Some people appeared relaxed on the surface…
But in reality, they were even more relaxed than they looked.
As long as Great Sage learned a piece of knowledge, it was equivalent to Rimuru learning it as well.
And if Great Sage's explanations became too complicated?
Then Rimuru could simply ask Great Sage to simplify the difficult parts into easy illustrations and plain explanations.
Just like a teacher using pictures to explain complex concepts to children.
Too difficult to understand?
Forget the technical details—just look at the diagrams.
More importantly, once Rimuru successfully learned a spell, he would never need to chant it again.
No explanation was necessary.
This was the life of a cheater.
Mad?
Being mad was useless.
Although Great Sage was practically cheating on his behalf, Rimuru still obediently followed the Ancient One's advice and started from the basics.
If the Ancient One hadn't specifically warned him, secretly reading advanced books wouldn't have mattered much.
But since she had said it clearly, casually disobeying her would be inappropriate.
This wasn't merely about ability.
It was about attitude.
It was the most basic form of respect toward a teacher.
…At least, that was the official explanation.
In reality, Rimuru was thinking something completely different.
Someone as powerful as the Ancient One definitely wouldn't leave him alone in the library without secretly observing him somewhere.
At times like this, naturally, he needed to behave properly and leave a good impression.
Only by earning the Ancient One's favor could he continue receiving greater benefits from her in the future.
After all, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
And Rimuru happened to be extremely skilled at acting cute and shamelessly taking advantage of people for perfectly "reasonable" gains.
Still, it had to be admitted:
The reading order recommended by the Ancient One—from shallow concepts to deeper theories—was genuinely brilliant.
As Rimuru absorbed the knowledge, the first thing he gained wasn't stronger magic—
It was an entirely new worldview.
A completely different perspective on the multiverse itself.
Many ideas in these books directly contradicted one another, and many also conflicted with the education Rimuru had received in the past.
Some concepts even left him genuinely confused.
For example, in Rimuru's original understanding of philosophy, matter was the origin of the world.
Matter determined consciousness, and consciousness was simply an objective reflection of matter within the human brain.
When a person died, consciousness disappeared.
But according to The Book of Illusions, there was no distinction between matter and consciousness.
The appearance of the world depended entirely on one's "perception."
Some people spent their entire lives only seeing the tiny patch of land before them.
Others could see the stars, the universe, travel through time and space, and comprehend the multiverse itself.
These books had a tremendous impact on Rimuru.
In fact, there were many viewpoints he still didn't believe at all.
But that didn't stop him from continuing to read.
Whenever he encountered something incomprehensible—or something that sounded like complete nonsense—Rimuru simply skipped over it.
As Tao Yuanming once said:
"Enjoy reading, but do not seek excessive understanding."
As the reading continued, a magical tree of knowledge gradually began taking shape within Rimuru's mind, growing roots, trunks, and branches.
Strictly speaking, Kamar-Taj's magic system resembled the Daoist philosophy of "following the natural flow."
It emphasized harmony with natural laws.
You could slash at water with a blade, but the water would simply flow together again.
A sorcerer's task was not to "cut the water apart," but to understand the flow and use the power of the current itself.
Borrowing force to move something far heavier.
Although Great Sage handled most of the difficult processing, Rimuru still benefited enormously from the experience.
Previously, he knew magic existed in a practical sense but didn't truly understand why it worked.
Now, however, he was beginning to systematically and deeply understand the principles behind magic itself.
Unlike the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj, Rimuru also possessed countless spells and skills originating from the Jura Tempest world.
When magical civilizations from entirely different worlds collided, sparks of wisdom were inevitable.
And that excited Rimuru immensely.
Although Rimuru feared the Ancient One somewhat, he didn't revere her with the same almost religious awe as the other disciples.
Whenever confusing concepts accumulated to the point of slowing his reading progress, he naturally sought guidance from her directly.
As a result, many disciples of Kamar-Taj were stunned to discover that Rimuru—who had only recently become a student—was already having extremely pleasant conversations with the Sorcerer Supreme.
Sometimes he even made the Ancient One laugh openly.
Naturally, this caused jealousy among many disciples.
After all, not everyone had the privilege of receiving personal guidance from the Sorcerer Supreme.
Some disciples had trained in Kamar-Taj for years without ever even meeting her face-to-face.
How could they possibly think this was fair?
Before long, unpleasant rumors about Rimuru began spreading among the disciples.
Some claimed the new student was shamelessly flattering the Ancient One.
Others insisted Rimuru was simply incredibly skilled at sucking up to powerful people.
In response, Rimuru merely laughed.
"If nobody envies you," he said, "then you're just mediocre."
Besides…
So what if he was good at flattering people?
If they had the courage, they could try doing it too.
What Rimuru didn't know was that among the many people secretly observing him…
There was also a man named Kaecilius.