Elemental Cats

Toz shuffled and weaved through the piles of grimoires he and the cats had lined up on the floor. Mindle, Scrael, and Asilean noticed what he was doing, and they followed his trajectory to see Nil locked on the grimoire in front of him. Nil was so focused on the grimoire that he was the only one who didn't notice Toz's movements.

The three cats looked on curiously as Toz went over and bent down next to Nil so that he could read the description on the grimoire.

After reading it once, Toz understood why Nil read it again, but he didn't understand Nil's entranced look.

However, as Toz read the description a couple of more times, he began to understand why Nil had gotten caught by it. It only seemed like a useless grimoire at first, but as he started to understand what the spell did and how it was supposed to work, Toz realized that it was what they were looking for in the back room. Probably.

If an ordinary grimoire was like a recipe for a dish, in that it told the mage what they needed and exactly how to prepare and use it, Garden, the grimoire in front of Nil, was nothing more than a piece of paper. It was up to the mage to write the recipe on their own, as long as they followed the most basic requirement, metal mana.

Since a grimoire told the mage how to arrange and use their mana in order to awaken their mana's true nature, a grimoire that didn't tell them anything like that was definitely useless. At least, that was what the description sounded like it did.

However, it wasn't that useless. It was probably hard to use it to do more than the bare minimum that the grimoire itself showed the mage how to do. But it also provided a medium for the mage to try creating spells on their own, or rather the effects of spells. It was slightly different from spells directly.

But Garden was undoubtedly an incredible tool if one could use it correctly. It was just that it took insight, experience, talent, skill, and a deep understanding of metal for anyone to begin even trying to learn Garden.

Nil didn't think that he could learn Garden just yet or even in the near future. But he could see how much it would help him in mastering metal magic. First, he had to snap himself out of the daydreams he had where he stood in a world of metal and obliterated any foe before they could even think about resisting. He also daydreamed about creating majestical traps and constructs using the power of Garden.

Nil wasn't even sure that Garden would be as powerful as he thought it was, but he could hope. And based on that hope, he resolved to ask Toz for the grimoire. He hoped that Toz would understand what he saw in the grimoire's description.

But since the description basically told the one who read it to figure it out by themselves, Nil was a little worried, even if he trusted Toz.

Toz had been quite vocal about how expensive everything was and might not want to buy something if it didn't seem useful.

However, Nil's worries were for naught. Since it was Nil's heartfelt request, Toz would have happily obliged, even if he didn't understand the potential of the grimoire. But after reading the description enough times, Toz had started to realize some of the spell's potential, even if his thoughts didn't run as deep as Nil's.

Nil didn't even have to ask.

He looked up as soon as he noticed Toz hanging over his shoulder, and when Toz saw that Nil was no longer entranced with the grimoire, he took it and went to the sleeping receptionist.

Since the receptionist was asleep, mostly due to how much Toz traumatized him, Toz didn't bother waking him up. He just left a note and paid for the grimoire before they returned to the remaining grimoires.

They could have waited to buy the grimoire until they left, but Nil wanted to read it at once, and for that, he had to buy it to loosen the enchantment binding it shut.

Nil immediately went to a corner to read the grimoire while Toz and the other cats continued scouring through the shelves. Although they had found one grimoire that seemed to be filled with hidden potential, there was nothing that said they couldn't find another. There was also the fact that there were still bundles of inspiration to be found in the grimoires whose descriptions they hadn't read yet.

There wasn't much for Toz and the cats to gain when they had already read through more than half the grimoires, especially since a lot of them were duplicates, but they didn't want to miss anything just because they were lazy. And since Nil had found something that he at least thought was incredible, the other cats also wanted something.

Well, Scrael and Toz had the grimoire that Toz got from Hassandra, so they weren't as desperate in their search for something. And Asilean had gained newfound hope about maybe being able to find a suitable grimoire hidden away in some deep corner. Mindle also wanted something so that she didn't fall behind the others.

Unfortunately, Nil's Garden was the only thing the group found aside from inspiration within the back room of Dexter's Den. They checked through every last shelf and grimoire, but nothing seemed to be worth the contribution points they cost.

So, Toz and the cats left after wishing the receptionist a restful sleep.

Though, Toz handled a customer on the way out. Since the customer seemed to know what they wanted, Toz didn't have to do much, just make sure the price was right and then show them where to touch their bracelet.

After doing that, he left another note for the receptionist telling him about it. He signed it with a tongue-out smiley.