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Levi sat alone in his office, staring at three Royal Gold Coins on his desk, and wondered if he'd accidentally become part of a fairy tale.
The coins gleamed under the lamplight, each one engraved with a griffin in mid-flight, wings spread, claws extended. They hummed faintly with enchantment, the kind of magic that made the air taste like metal and old promises.
These weren't normal currency. They were artifacts. Tokens of narrative weight. Physical manifestations of a story's turning point.
Three coins for forty-six hours of babysitting an unconscious princess who face-planted into enlightenment. Is that fair? Overpriced? Underpriced?
He had no idea.
"System," he said aloud. "Was the payment appropriate?"
The familiar blue window materialized.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Payment was accurate.
Patrons instinctively know the correct amount based on their narrative shift.
Underpayment is rejected by the Library.
Overpayment is rare but allowed.
Levi raised an eyebrow. "So she paid what the story demanded, not what she thought it was worth?"
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Correct.
Payment reflects emotional stakes and resolve, not monetary value.
She paid for transformation, not time.
"How dramatic," Levi muttered.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
You run a Library where books knock people unconscious and teach them sword techniques through visions of immortal romance.
Everything here is dramatic.
Levi couldn't argue with that.
He opened his inventory and deposited the three coins. They vanished from the desk with a soft chime.
A new window appeared.
[CURRENCY CONVERSION]
3 Royal Gold Coins detected.
Exchange Rate: 1 Royal Gold = 10 Dimensional Crystals
Convert now?
Levi confirmed.
The coins dissolved into light within his inventory, reforming as thirty glowing crystals that pulsed with condensed spatial energy.
[DIMENSIONAL CRYSTALS: 30]
Levi leaned back in his chair, satisfied. Progress.
"Show me the Skill Store," he said.
The System obliged.
Six skill cards appeared in the air before him, arranged in two rows. Each card glowed with soft light, displaying a name, description, and cost.
The top row was combat-oriented.
Force Palm (15 Crystals): Project kinetic force through physical strikes.
Flame Snap (20 Crystals): Ignite targets within line of sight with a finger snap.
Reactive Barrier (25 Crystals): Automatic shield deployment when struck.
Levi studied them for a moment, acknowledged their usefulness, and immediately moved on.
I'm a librarian, not a battle mage. If I'm getting into fights, something has already gone catastrophically off-script.
The bottom row was different. These were narrative-focused. Utility skills designed for someone whose job was understanding people, not punching them.
Emotive Insight (25 Crystals): active emotion detection. Sense emotional stability, resolve, and narrative shifts in others.
Authoritative Tone (18 Crystals): Enhance persuasion and command presence when speaking.
Mental Thread (22 Crystals): Establish temporary empathic links with willing participants.
Levi's eyes lingered on Emotive Insight.
Passive emotion detection. The ability to read people's feelings like open books. To sense when someone was stable, when they were breaking, when their story was about to shift.
And it synergized with Archivist's Insight, the skill that let him see people's genre arcs.
If Archivist's Insight tells me what kind of story someone's living, Emotive Insight would tell me how they feel about it. That's actually perfect.
"System," he said. "Recommendation?"
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Analyzing current skillset...
Archivist's Insight (S-Rank) detected.
Synergy confirmed:
Emotive Insight + Archivist's Insight = Emotional Shift Forecasting
This combination enables prediction of emotional breakdowns, breakthroughs, and narrative pivot points.
Strong recommendation: Purchase Emotive Insight.
Levi nodded slowly.
Reading genre arcs told him where someone's story was heading. Reading emotions told him how close they were to getting there.
Together, they'd let him anticipate problems before they happened. Guide people through their pivotal moments instead of scrambling to fix the damage afterward.
That's not just useful. That's essential.
"Purchase Emotive Insight," he said.
[PURCHASE CONFIRMED]
-25 Dimensional Crystals
Remaining Balance: 5 Dimensional Crystals
Skill Acquired: Emotive Insight (A-Rank)
Synergy Activated: Emotional Shift Forecasting
The moment the skill integrated, Levi felt it.
A subtle expansion of his senses, like his perception had gained a new dimension. The air in his office suddenly felt different. Thicker. More textured.
Invisible threads filled the space around him, faint lines of emotional residue left behind by everyone who'd been here recently.
Celine's presence was the strongest.
He could feel the ghost of her emotions still lingering in the room. Hopeful determination, tangled with lingering fear and newfound resolve. The threads glowed faintly gold, stable but delicate.
Levi focused on them.
Information appeared in his vision, overlaid on the emotional threads.
[EMOTIONAL IMPRINT: CELINE VON REVOLA]
Dominant Emotion: Hopeful Determination
Resolve: Stable (Current)
Warning: Vulnerability spike likely at first combat trial or emotional confrontation.
Narrative Status: ?????
Levi exhaled slowly.
He could read emotional states like stories now. See the shape of someone's feelings, predict when they'd crack, know when they needed support before they asked for it.
This changes everything.
He turned his attention to Luna, who was currently lounging on the windowsill, tail swishing lazily.
He focused.
Nothing happened.
The skill simply bounced off her. Like trying to read a book written in a language that didn't exist.
A warning appeared.
[EMOTIVE INSIGHT: FAILURE]
Target's emotional resonance is incompatible.
Entity classified as: ANOMALOUS
Recommendation: Do not attempt further analysis.
Levi looked at Luna.
Luna looked back, her yellow eyes half-lidded with smug indifference.
"Yeah," Levi said. "That tracks."
Luna yawned.
He closed the System window and leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers.
Five Dimensional Crystals left. Not enough for another skill yet, but it was a start. He'd earn more. Patrons would keep coming. Stories would keep unfolding.
And now he had the tools to navigate them properly.
Archivist's Insight told him what kind of story someone was living. Tragedy, comedy, redemption, revenge.
Emotive Insight told him how they felt about it. Hopeful, desperate, broken, resolute.
Together, they formed a map of the human heart in narrative form.
I can see when someone's about to break. When they're ready to grow. When they need a push or when they need space.
It wasn't combat power.
It was something better.
The ability to guide people through their stories instead of just handing them books and hoping for the best.
Levi stood and walked to the window, looking out over the city below. Streetlamps flickered in the evening dark. Distant sounds of carriages and late-night commerce drifted up.
Somewhere out there, Celine was probably still processing everything she'd experienced. The vision of Zhao Ling'er. The three Daos woven into her soul. The first layer of the Heaven Severing Imagination Sword.
She'd come back stronger.
But she'd also come back vulnerable.
Because growth always involved breaking something first.
And now Levi would be able to see it coming.
The job just got easier. And harder.
Easier because he had the tools to anticipate problems.
Harder because he'd actually care when those problems arrived.
Professional distance, my ass.
Luna meowed from the windowsill, a sound that somehow conveyed both judgment and amusement.
"Yeah, yeah," Levi muttered. "I know what I'm doing."
No, I don't.
He returned to his desk and sat down, pulling out a notebook. Not a magical one. Just paper and ink. Sometimes the old methods were best for thinking.
He wrote:
Patrons:
Velgrin (Fire Wizard) - Obsession with forbidden knowledge. Stable but dangerous. Monitor for escalation.Celine von Revola (Princess/Swordsman) - Trauma response to abandonment. Currently stable. Breakthrough achieved. Expect vulnerability at first real test.
Future considerations:
- Emotive Insight allows preemptive intervention
- Can now identify optimal moments for therapy vs. training
- Genre + Emotion = Full narrative map
He tapped the pen against the page, thinking.
This was what he'd been missing before. As a therapist, he'd always been reactive. People came to him after they were already broken, and he tried to help them pick up the pieces.
But here, with these skills, he could see the cracks forming before they shattered.
Prevention instead of repair. Guidance instead of rescue.
It felt right.
It felt like the job he was always supposed to be doing, just in a different form.
Luna jumped down from the windowsill and padded across the desk, sitting directly on his notebook.
"Really?" Levi asked.
Luna purred.
He reached out and scratched behind her ears. She leaned into the touch, eyes closing, and for a moment the smug anomaly was just a cat enjoying affection.
"You know," Levi said quietly, "I think I'm actually starting to hate this job."
Luna's purr intensified.
"Don't let it go to your head," he added.
She bit his finger lightly.
"Noted."
He gently moved Luna off the notebook and finished his notes, then closed it and set it aside.
Five Dimensional Crystals left. Not much, but enough to know that progress was possible. That he was building something here.
A Library that didn't just store stories.
A Library that helped people write better ones.
Levi stood and walked to the small kitchenette in the corner of his office. The kettle sat on its heating plate, and he filled it with water from the tap. The sound of water rushing into metal was oddly comforting. Mundane. Normal.
He lit the flame beneath it and leaned against the counter while he waited.
The emotional threads in the room were still visible to his newly enhanced senses. They drifted through the air like smoke, some bright, some faded, each one telling a story about someone who'd passed through this space.
He could learn to read them better with practice. Right now they were just vague impressions, colors and shapes that hinted at feelings without fully revealing them. But given time, he'd be able to parse the nuances. Distinguish between anxiety and fear. Between hope and desperation. Between grief and acceptance.
The kettle began to whistle.
Levi poured the water over tea leaves in a simple clay pot and watched them unfurl. The scent rose with the steam, earthy and slightly bitter.
He poured himself a cup and returned to his desk.
Luna had claimed his chair.
"Move," Levi said.
Luna blinked at him slowly.
"I was sitting there."
Luna stretched, taking up even more space.
Levi sighed and pulled over the second chair, the one Celine had sat in during therapy. It wasn't as comfortable, but arguing with Luna was a losing proposition.
He sat, sipped his tea, and let his mind wander.