Emil examined the student card the Gatekeeper returned to him; it seemed this Library of the Knights of St. John was indeed unique.
Descending the stairs carved with strange runes, Emil noticed that between the bookshelves on these floors, he would occasionally see oddly dressed people.
These individuals seemed stuck in the last century, either wearing solemn church robes or strange figures with hoods and full-body Cloaks.
These peculiar individuals, who clearly weren't Columbia University students, cherished every minute in the library.
They rarely communicated or argued with each other.
Everyone was engrossed in studying the scrolls in their hands, and occasionally, a few diligent ones would close their eyes, muttering something, as if trying to memorize the knowledge in the books.
Emil curiously asked the Gatekeeper who was leading him: "Who are they? What are they doing?"
The Gatekeeper humbly nodded to Emil and said: "As you can see, they are reciting spells from the books."
Emil was startled: "Spells?"
The Gatekeeper proudly introduced: "Yes, the Library of the Knights of St. John here is the largest magic library in the World."
He paused: "Perhaps, only the private collection of the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange Stephen, can compare, but his collection is definitely not as comprehensive as ours."
The name Doctor Strange Stephen sounded somewhat unfamiliar to Emil.
He wasn't sure if the word the Gatekeeper used was "Doctor" or "Dr.", as the two meanings were often confused.
However, he silently noted the name in his heart: "Sorcerer Supreme? Aha, another You-Know-Who, how interesting."
In his previous life, Emil had only briefly watched the Avengers series of movies.
Besides Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow, he was already quite impressed that he could remember Spider-Man!
The Gatekeeper perhaps felt he had said enough, and he looked at Emil, saying: "Mr. Emil, you have now also become a member of the Knights of St. John, and I'm sure Father Terence will soon impart this knowledge to you."
Emil looked at the eighteen-story building of the library, filled with countless ancient texts and classics, and suddenly felt a chill.
Emil pointed to the people who were silently reciting and asked: "Can't the books here be borrowed, and must they only be memorized by recitation?"
The Gatekeeper glanced at the strange individuals reading among the bookshelves and chuckled: "Of course, all the books in the library are protected by the Knights of St. John.
Without the permission of the Knights of St. John, not only can you not borrow books from the library, but no notes are allowed to be taken out either."
Emil understood.
The Gatekeeper had made it very clear that without the permission of the Knights of St. John, it was absolutely impossible to take books out.
Conversely, if he could get the approval of this Knights of St. John, then everything would be fine.
The Gatekeeper led Emil to the reading room on the lowest floor and said: "Mr. Emil, the Library of the Knights of St. John is built underground.
You have official membership in the Knights of St. John, so you can read freely across all eighteen floors.
However, as a Guardian, I must still remind you that there are many books that should not be touched too early before you learn magic power that transcends mortals."
Emil nodded.
He generally understood what the Gatekeeper said, just like in the novels of his previous life.
Books that record powerful magic inherently possess a certain protective force; if one's strength is insufficient, forcing oneself to read them would only cause self-harm.
However, Emil clenched his fist.
He had now gradually mastered his Vengeful Ghost Yin Power; was he still considered among ordinary people?
The sound of his conversation with the Gatekeeper was very low, not at all disturbing the inherent quietness of the library.
Watching the Gatekeeper return to his post, although there were quite a few people in the entire library, besides the occasional rustle of turning pages, there was no other noise.
It seemed like this was indeed a great reading environment, but he didn't know what books were housed here...
Everyone who came to read in the library had made outstanding contributions to the church, but even so, their time in the library was extremely limited.
Once the borrowing time ended, they had to be politely "asked" to leave by the Gatekeeper.
Unlike them, Emil was an official member of the Knights of St. John, which meant that as long as he wished, he could stay in this library indefinitely, without being constrained by the pitiful reading time.
The Gatekeeper probably thought Emil already knew the rules here, so he didn't bother to introduce them further.
This resulted in Emil still not having an objective assessment of the status of the Library of the Knights of St. John.
He casually pulled out a thick, seemingly leather-bound book from the nearest shelf.
The text engraved on it was very strange.
It was neither Chinese nor Latin, but it allowed one to understand its meaning at a glance.
Just by looking at the strange script on the cover, the meaning of the four characters would naturally be understood—"elegy of the evil spirit."
Books collected in the library were not like the web novels Emil read in his previous life; each one could be said to record the World's top secrets.
"elegy of the evil spirit" was no exception; just for the emergence of this one book, the church had engaged in hundreds of battles with demons from hell during the Middle Ages.
It was only after countless heroic sacrifices that this holy book, which could make Satan in hell tremble, was collected here.
It was because he didn't understand that Emil held such a holy book as a pastime.
He even had the leisure to wonder: "I am now a Wraith Body; I just don't know if ghosts will appear after death in this Superheroes World?
Speaking of which, a Vengeful Ghost can actually be considered a type of evil spirit, right?"
As he mused, he gently touched the cover of "elegy of the evil spirit."
Emil's predecessor was, after all, a top student at Columbia University Divinity School, and he could still recognize that the pattern carved on the cover of "elegy of the evil spirit" was the holy emblem of Saint Benedict.
It was composed of a vertical line of letters: "C.S.S.M.L" and a horizontal line of letters: "N.D.S.M.D," forming the holy emblem cross.