Under the not-so-bright lamplight.

Ronald, following Taylor's reminder, started searching for his target on the fifth bookshelf to the left in the library.

The books were arranged neatly, with the names on the spines clearly visible.

Even those originally without names were thoughtfully marked by later individuals.

"'The End of the Magic Age — Vanished Nations', 'Chronicles of the East Coast of the Sunken Ocean', 'The Legacy of the Underwater City Lamocles', 'The Funeral Records of the Phineas Family'..."

His gaze brushed over each of these books.

As Ronald softly uttered the names of these books, his emotions grew more and more astonished.

The scale of Kappen Library was not only impressive above ground.

Even this hidden archive underground contained extremely ancient and precious texts!

Although some of the contents overlapped with records Ronald had seen in the big city of Grid, much more was entirely unheard of knowledge.

"This is incredible..."

His gaze left the fifth bookshelf, and Ronald couldn't help but look around again.

This tightly packed maze of books contained even more collections!

If just the bookshelf in front of him was like this, what kind of astonishing sight would all the collections combined be?

Gulp—

Ronald couldn't help swallowing a greedy mouthful of saliva, then began confirming the arrangement pattern of the books here.

The underground library's collection was actually strictly organized in chronological order. On each bookshelf marked with an era, books with similar types were arranged in the same row for simple differentiation.

But if manuscripts made of scattered pages were encountered, they would be rolled up and placed in protective cylinders, then stored in frames at the bottom of the shelf.

"..."

"Just how many secrets are hidden here?"

Ronald couldn't help but marvel once again.

If he had the chance to come to Kappen at the beginning of his journey, accessing this underground library to browse through the materials, many things might not have posed a problem at all, simply consulting them casually would yield quite reliable answers!

"Alas..."

Just facing such a rich collection of books.

Ronald hesitated for a few minutes and finally sighed.

To thoroughly study these books would take far more than a few short days.

Even though he had a strong desire in his heart for it. But thinking of Il, who was now completely obedient to him... Compared to a living person's life and priceless knowledge, he decided to first address Il's issue.

After all, knowledge is knowledge, it won't run away.

It's still more appropriate to utilize this precious opportunity to first clarify the situation with his companion.

Ronald then purposefully searched the shelves.

On the shelf designated by Taylor, he quickly identified his target and found three books documenting significant events, epidemics, and mystical changes before the founding of Irini.

To ascertain Il's issue, there's no mistake in searching these three books!

First up was "Chronicles of the East Coast of the Sunken Ocean".

The book's contents appeared neat and comprehensive, and even had a table of contents with the names of detailed events for easy lookup by future readers.

Ronald flicked through the pages, and in just two or three minutes, found the information he wanted from this book.

It was a disease epidemic called [Boating Plague].

During the epidemic, the specific conditions of the sick were identical to what Il exhibited.

And according to the subjective records of the author of this book.

At that time, the initial infected person was a fisherman who had gone to sea, hence the name. The epidemic finally disappeared two months after it began to spread.

In the entire event, besides the fisherman going to sea, there were actually some clues about the disease's appearance.

The timing of the epidemic's onset coincided perfectly with the death of a great mage named Ormont.

This Ormont had played a very important role in the battles to end the Dark Age and was considered the highest leader in the nearby regions.

So although his death and the start of the disease were completely coincident, there was hardly any record of this detail for the sake of the other's identity and reputation by the local mystery side.

Only the author of this book, claiming to create a true and reliable and very important book for posterity, boldly recorded this issue in the book.

"..."

"No wonder this book can only be found here."

Clearly, local big figures and organizations completely avoided talking about such matters, but the author of this book insisted on recording this. One can imagine how people of that time would have viewed such records.

Ronald showed a somewhat touched expression.

He then carefully memorized the contents of the book, gingerly put it back in its original place, and began examining the second book which recorded surrounding epidemics—"East Coast Epidemic Summary".

Compared to the well-preserved "Chronicles of the East Coast of the Sunken Ocean".

This book, recording many epidemic and plague situations, clearly had been in normal use for a long time before being collected and protected in the library, so it was in much worse condition.

With more careful hands, Ronald leafed through the pages along the timeline of the records, finding the section on the [Boating Plague].

This time, Ronald made a substantial discovery.

The book clearly documented the investigation status of the disease, along with some reference to detailed conditions.

The compiler asserted very clearly—

According to the investigations by the mysterious side people responsible for such matters at the time, they found no trace of any pathogen in this suddenly spreading disease. Even the casters specialising in this field, i.e., the school of the current Kappen Hospital head [Haistong], couldn't find a clue.

In other words, this disease was not a common epidemic issue.

Upon obtaining this result, the then responsible mysterious side people began a subsequent investigation. Unfortunately, just when there was slight progress, the disease disappeared without a trace as suddenly as it came, leading to the corresponding investigation by the mysterious side being halted under the influence of reality.

The eventual mage responsible for investigating the plague.

Could only leave some speculative and somewhat unreliable ideas in his report—

He believed the real cause of the epidemic was.

Closely related to the dead great mage Ormont!

As the most powerful mage on this coast at the time, the lord controlled a total of three original texts. And following his death, the surrounding magical environment even plummeted drastically.

This investigator suspected that the plague was due to individuals with pre-existing magic power in their bodies being unable to adapt to the suddenly changing environment, leading to the outcome.

As for the rapid disappearance of the disease.

It was because after two months, even individuals with the weakest constitution had naturally adapted to the current magical environment.

Additionally, the severe change condition also vanished from this land.

Therefore, the epidemic naturally ended and vanished without a trace in the world!