[The Next Day]
Mikhail walked down the 46th street of the City of Sparrows with a small sticky note in his hand.
It was a card with his details along with the seal and signature of the principal.
He had already done all the work, and all he needed to do now was visit the library.
Most of the streets were empty, partly because of the visit of a well known pastor.
'People of this world sure are religious.'
When Mikhail first arrived in this world, he had been really surprised to learn this.
Humans with their ego and unprecedented power bowing in front of someone else?
That didn't feel right to him, knowing the full nature of humans as he did.
But the more he understood about the class system, the more it became clear to him why religion was important.
With different thoughts in his mind, Mikhail arrived at the front of the Sparrow Public Library.
The outer walls were coloured in a mix of blue and white while many graffiti pieces had been made by artists on the hall.
Mikhail looked for a long while at the graffiti that depicted the death of the God of War.
He opened the door, walked inside and was immediately greeted by complete silence.
There were three floors within the place, with the lower floor being accessible to those of citizen rank while the higher ones were for Awakened ones.
Mikhail walked towards the desk where a lady sat with a book in her hand.
"Ahem."
With a cough, Mikhail grabbed her attention and passed her the paper in his hand.
The lady looked at the paper, closed her book and smiled. "How can I help you?"
"I need a skill book." Mikhail replied with the same smile. "Preferably a scholar one."
The lady nodded her head, stood up and said. "Please follow me."
Mikhail did as told, walking with her towards the staircase and then up to the third floor.
She took out a key from her pocket and opened the door of the first room.
Inside, two soldiers were already stationed playing cards, who gave them a look before returning to their game.
"As you know, public libraries only have citizen rank skills." The lady said, turning back. "The rest can only be found in colleges and universities."
Mikhail nodded. "I know."
She nodded back and opened another door. Inside were multiple books secured properly.
"You can take one book at a time." She said gently. "I will give you a few minutes to look around."
Mikhail nodded and stepped inside the room, looking around.
Skills, as Mikhail understood, were nothing but a set of different tasks done together. If a person could do those tasks, they could perform a skill.
In the rank system, an Emperor or Empress was the highest rank for mortals.
An Emperor could learn all the skills of those below his rank, but the opposite was not possible.
Though it wasn't without restriction — one could only learn skills that were practical and not conceptual or mental.
Like one could learn a sword skill from a Knight Class but couldn't learn a skill from an Illusionist Class.
Mikhail looked around the citizen rank skill books available in the library.
There were a total of seven classes in citizen rank, so there were a lot of books in the place.
He kept on looking around until he reached the scholar section where only seven books were placed.
He looked through them, touching the skill books which were made by churches in the process.
Finally he found what he was looking for, "Scholar's Aura."
He picked up the book and looked at the words written on the front.
"With a fix in posture and change in voice, the scholar can make people relax around him and detect if someone is lying."
Mikhail smiled. 'This is going to work perfectly for me.'
He took the book and walked towards the lady who was standing at the door.
"I want this." He said, passing the book to her.
The lady nodded her head, looked at the skill and then looked at him.
"You can only have one skill from the public domain that is subsidised to hunters." She informed him. "Are you sure you want this?"
Mikhail nodded his head. "Yes."
With a shrug she walked back down the stairs and Mikhail followed after her.
She began doing her work while Mikhail noticed a small orb that resembled the one he had seen in his school.
"What's this?" Mikhail asked.
"That's a status update orb." She replied. "One can use this to check their level and rank along with what skills they have."
Mikhail nodded his head and thought. 'It's the same as my status screen but without blank points.'
Though one more thing that Mikhail noticed was that it was government owned.
Anything used to check your status was government owned.
'I bet they are collecting data from all the hunters to one day use against them.'
That was the only logical reasoning he could think of for such items being placed here.
The lady did the paperwork and handed the book to him. "Congratulations, you own this." She said. "Please use it carefully."
Mikhail replied with a nod. "I will."
He picked up the book and placed it in his bag as he walked out of the library.
Mikhail planned to learn the skill once he returned home.
For now, he was more excited to meet someone.
He took out a card from his pocket that had the address of detective Daniel Smith.
Mikhail really liked the man because of something that had happened five years ago that made him infamous.
One day, the prince of the Aegon Kingdom had asked Daniel to look into the history and life of his fiancée, who was the princess of a neighbouring kingdom.
Daniel did his work, found out that the princess had been having an affair with eight different men, and told the prince.
This resulted in a war between the two kingdoms and destroyed a relationship that could have made the lives of both kingdoms better.
Since then, Daniel Smith had been hiding in a small city like Sparrows.
Mikhail smiled just thinking about the entire event.
Mind you, the image of the princess had been carefully made and maintained.
Daniel had found something that no one was supposed to know about.
'I really want to learn from this guy.'
Mikhail thought as he began to walk towards the address.