Mercenary Wars

Chapter 115 Secret Passage
The library is normal.

But the kobolds' library...

At least for Gaucano, the existence of this library was indeed somewhat unexpected.

Judging from the neatly stacked books, very few people read here.

There were no books worth reading at all; the entire library felt like some kind of superficial, pretentious decoration, which suited its function as a "hidden secret passage" quite well.

However, Gaucano searched the library for a long time with his illumination spell, moving all the bookshelves, but found no trace of a secret passage or keyhole.

"Isn't this the place?" He sat at a desk, touched the mottled dust on the surface, and muttered to himself with a furrowed brow.

He searched the library and its surroundings for another two and a half hours, but still found no clues. He had no choice but to leave and go back to rest.

Along the way, Gaugano saw miners still working hard, with the sounds of chiseling echoing everywhere.

The difference is that the kobold miners are full of energy and will express their gratitude to the Gavin Merchant Guild during their breaks, while the human miners are gloomy and will secretly curse the Gavin Merchant Guild from time to time.

When Gao Jiano returned to the tent, he found Ryan fiddling with something while holding a black unidentified object.

"What is this?" Gaucano asked.

“I found a dwarven black steel lock that looks a lot like the one on the Silverfang Vault door.” Ryan said, gently fiddling with the wire. “Once I’ve mastered lockpicking, I’ll get a level 5 thief badge, and then I won’t have to take any more tests!”

Job badges of levels one to five require passing an exam to obtain, while badges of level five and above are usually obtained through a recommendation-based system without an exam. For those at level five and above, job badges have become less significant and are more of a keepsake.

After all, regardless of the profession, once you reach level five or above, you have already transcended the category of ordinary people and can receive more lenient treatment.

Watching Ryan diligently practice, Gao Jiano suddenly felt a little tempted to learn lock picking techniques.

But on second thought, I decided against it.

He has already learned enough, and wants to learn even more, but a person's time and energy are ultimately limited.

Gaucano recalled the blessing he had received before, which granted him the ability to "pause aging for twenty years".

At that time, he was still in his adolescence, so choosing this blessing was naturally not worthwhile. Now he is twenty-one years old, which is almost the most energetic period of his life.

If he were to receive a similar blessing again, he might choose it.

Of course, he felt that twenty years was a bit too short.

It would be great if it could be two hundred years old.

Gaucano indulged in a moment of fantasy, then crawled into his tent to rest.

The next morning, a scream suddenly rang out, waking Gao Jiano from his sleep.

He poked his head out of the tent and found Barons standing there, stunned.

Edwin chose to leave, while Barons stayed, intending to work until his contract expired and collect his "expiration bonus" before leaving.

"What's wrong, Barons?" Gaugano asked.

“I…” Barons hesitated for a moment, then leaned closer and whispered, his face showing a hint of fear and his voice trembling slightly, “I have awakened my holy name!”

Gaucano: "That's a good thing! Why do you look like that? Isn't the Holy Name Nicholas?"

Barons scratched his head and lowered his voice: "Not only is he not Nicholas, he doesn't even belong to the Mosaic Church!"

Gaucano: "It doesn't matter as long as you don't want to work for the church, it's not like it's the devil's real name."

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this name before!” Barons said in anguish. “Why is this happening? Why isn’t my first name ‘Nicholas’? I pray to Saint Nicholas every day!”

Gao Jiano thought for a moment: "Generally speaking, the holy name you awaken must be one you have heard of. If you don't remember it, it's probably because the holy name you awaken has a prefix and suffix. After removing the prefix and suffix, you should know who the name giver is."

Barons paused for a moment, then looked on with realization: "So it was him!"

At this moment, Ryan said, "Barons, if you worship the Mosaic Saints, you'd better also worship your Namer, who may very well bless you." He poked his head out of the tent, still fiddling with the dwarven black steel lock, as if he hadn't slept all night.

Barons frowned: "But..."

Ryan interrupted, "Is there a blessing?"

"Yes." Barons' tone was a little hesitant.

“Then that’s even more right,” Ryan said. “If you don’t worship the God who blesses you, are you going to worship those gods who ignore you?”

“Alright,” Barons sighed, “but I still want the holy name of ‘Nicholas’.”

"why?"

"It sounds good."

"..."

"Time to get to work!" the foreman shouted.

"Coming right now!" Barons said, munching on a piece of bread as he picked up his pickaxe and ran to his work station.

After he walked away, Ryan couldn't help but mutter, "Honestly, I think this guy isn't very smart."

Gaucano shrugged: "It's alright."

Ryan added, "When I was resting yesterday, I saw him get a chair for the kobolds—a human chair. He seemed completely unaware that human chairs could almost be used as tables by kobolds."

Gaucano chuckled twice, then his expression froze.

Wait... tables and chairs?
His eyes gradually brightened, and he quickly put on his coat and left the tent.

"Where are you going?" Ryan asked, but Gao Jiano had already walked away and did not reply.

He shook his head and continued to focus on practicing his lock-picking technique.

Gaucano then returned to Silver Fang's library.

The library remained deserted; both kobolds and humans were either busy or showed no interest in what was there.

Upon entering the library, he quickly found a set of tables and chairs.

really!

He hadn't noticed it yesterday, but today, after Ryan reminded him, he suddenly remembered that although the tables and chairs in the library were somewhat low by human standards, they were still larger than what a kobold's size required.

These tables and chairs seem to have been tailor-made for some kind of creature whose size is somewhere between a dog-headed human and a human.

Realizing this, Gao Jiano further realized that he hadn't paid much attention to the areas covered by the tables and chairs during his inspection yesterday.

After all, tables and chairs can only cover a limited area, making bookshelves far more suspicious in comparison.

This time, he focused his inspection on the tables and chairs in the library.

A short while later, as he moved a desk aside, a round hole in the corner of the wall came into view.

The hole is very small, but its shape is very regular, clearly indicating that it is not a naturally formed defect.

After confirming that no one was near the library, Gao Jiano took out the black key, groped his way into the round hole, and then tried to turn it.

A soft "click" was heard.

Then, to Gaucano's surprise and anticipation, a nearby wall slowly opened.

(End of this chapter)