Chapter 128: Guild Expansion
"So, how did Erza's lap feel?" Sorano asked, looking at the just-awakened Noah with a teasing smile.
Still half-asleep, Noah answered honestly, "Very comfortable."
The nearby Erza's face immediately turned bright red. Sorano just sighed, then took a deep breath and perked up. "Next time, you should try mine!"
Everyone in the room took a sharp breath, and the younger girls let out tiny gasps, quickly covering their mouths.
The sound shocked Noah fully awake. He realized he had just said something rather unusual, and Sorano had replied with something even more incredible.
"I learned a very interesting magic and brought back a lot of books and data. Everyone, come take a look!" Noah waved his hand, and various screens made of light appeared in the air, displaying all sorts of information and data, which immediately captured everyone's attention.
"What is this magic? It looks amazing," Sorano said, knowing Noah was trying to change the subject but playing along.
Seeing someone take the bait, Noah immediately brightened. "This is called Archive. It's a magic that digitizes information via magic power and then processes it. With this magic, it will be much more convenient for me to handle all my experimental data, and finding information will be easier. I can store all my books and materials in it in advance, and then just search for what I need. With the increase in data processing speed, all my various research projects can progress much faster."
Noah went on and on about the benefits of Archive and even showed them some of the interesting books he had acquired from Blue Pegasus and Quatro Cerberus. Sorano just watched him with a soft expression, listening quietly. Erza, a blush still lingering on her cheeks, joined the discussion, asking her own questions, which Noah did his best to answer.
But very quickly, this situation was interrupted, because it was time to eat.
Noah, looking like he still wanted to talk, followed everyone to dinner. At the table, he continued to talk about his gains from this trip, and the others also shared some of their own interesting experiences. No one mentioned the incident from that afternoon again. After eating, they all went to their rooms to sleep.
Although Noah was a little flustered by what Sorano had said, the deep-seated sleeping habits that Erza and the others had forced him to develop won out, and he fell fast asleep in his bed.
The next day, having slept wonderfully, Noah woke up early, feeling his usual energy had returned. He first went to the guild and, after discussing it with Makarov, copied a portion of their books. He then took these, along with his freshly brewed medicinal wine, and delivered them to Master Bob of Blue Pegasus and Master Goldmine of Quatro Cerberus. Both masters were surprised by his visit, especially since he came bearing so many gifts, but neither of them refused and accepted everything directly. Noah also made an agreement with them that they would have more exchanges of books and information in the future.
After securing their promises, Noah returned to the guild and began to measure and plan the guild's expansion. His plan was to leave the original guild hall as it was and build on the ground behind it, constructing a much larger library. This library was planned to be nine stories tall, in the shape of a tower, making it much taller than the guild hall. Each floor would have numerous bookshelves. Noah would put all the books he had collected, along with the guild's original books, inside. He would then set restrictions on which books could be viewed by S-Class wizards and by those below S-Class, because reading some books without sufficient strength would only cause harm.
After finishing the plan, he found the guild members who had suitable magic and could help with the construction. He couldn't possibly do it all by himself. Besides, even if he could, shouldn't he let others feel a sense of participation? Thankfully, there were quite a few members in the guild with relevant magic. Those who didn't could just provide the labor.
After more than a month of everyone working together, the new Fairy Tail Library was finally completed. In truth, it shouldn't have taken that long, but Natsu and Gray were constantly fighting, and Erza and Mirajane were also having frequent duels, which meant that newly built sections of the building were often half-destroyed. On top of that, everyone else would frequently join in their brawls, so at the end of any given day, not much progress had usually been made.
In the end, Noah, who was in a hurry to get the library finished, had to forcibly suppress them all. Only then were they able to complete the new library in just over a month. He then chased them all out and began to lay down various magical enchantments on the building.
First came the outermost protective magic, building reinforcements, and dust-proof and moisture-proof spells for the interior. Then, he set a restriction on the lower floors preventing entry by anyone other than S-Class wizards. He also made a series of other modifications to make the library more convenient for reading and searching for books. For example, he borrowed the concept from Archive and set up a screen at the entrance. People could directly input the book they wanted and find out what floor and which shelf it was on. Or, they could input a topic they wanted to research, and the screen would display a list of recommended books and their summaries, allowing them to find what they needed. The center of the ground floor had many tables and chairs for reading. In the middle of the tower's interior, a spherical object hung in the air, emitting a soft light that illuminated the tower as if it were daytime, creating a better reading environment. Each floor was connected by stairs, and every level was filled with bookshelves, all clearly marked to help people quickly locate the books they needed.
After getting the layout of the library more or less settled, the most important step was to begin placing the books. First, Noah made copies of all the books he had gotten from Blue Pegasus and Quatro Cerberus and arranged them by major and minor categories. At the same time, he input the data into his Archive and also made copies of Fairy Tail's original collection to place in the new library. Finally, after inputting all the books from his personal library at home into his Archive, he also copied them and placed them in the library.
All told, this entire process took Noah several months to complete. After a final check, he decided this was good enough for now and that he could make further modifications later. He then officially opened the library.
With the new library complete, the happiest person was, of course, Noah; this was the result of his own hard work. The second happiest was Levy. The moment the library officially opened, she rushed inside and began to read.
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