Aside from the bloody dagger, Brunswick also discovered some other powerful weapons that ended up on the same shelf. However, most of the items he found were items he couldn't figure out the use of if they still had one. But those items were still pieces of incredible craftsmanship and most likely made using valuable materials. After putting those kinds of items on their own separate shelf, Brunswick moved on to the next category of loot.
Books.
Books were usually stored in libraries. However, the books Toz and the cats brought back from the Blue Lounge treasury were looted from just that, a treasury. If it had been someone who loved books, it wouldn't be weird to want to store them safely. However, the treasury would have been overrun by books in that case. Not to mention how Stris didn't exactly seem like a book lover. The books could only be considered valuable enough to be stored in the treasury if they were actual treasures, which meant they contained valuable information or were magic books.
And from the looks of it, most of the books were indeed grimoires and martial manuals. Although martial manuals technically weren't books regarding magic the same way grimoires were, it was close enough for the two types of books to get the same categorization.
Brunswick didn't have to check the authenticity of the books since it would require more effort to imitate a grimoire than it took to actually make one. However, he had to check the remaining magic in the grimoires.
The other mages could check the grimoires of the same attribute, and anyone could inspect the manuals. Doing so risked using up the magic or martial energy imprinted into the books. However, Brunswick could use his eyes to inspect all the grimoires, despite having only neutral attribute mana, and he could do so without consuming the stored spell. Without the right element, it was impossible to learn the spells, so Brunswick could inspect the grimoires as much as he wanted without caring about whether or not he would deplete the magic.
Brunswick had to be slightly more careful when looking through the martial manuals. But since he didn't have any familiarity with fighting, the martial energy didn't seem very inclined to teach him the skills and techniques within the manuals.
After Brunswick finished going through all the books, he sorted them into four piles. Two piles for unused or barely used grimoires and manuals, and two piles for almost depleted grimoires and martial manuals.
The others looked at the three books that made up the two most important piles. Two grimoires and one manual looked weak in comparison to the more than a dozen each of the other grimoires and manuals.
However, Brunswick didn't think it was an outcome to pout about due to the contents of one of the grimoires and the manual.
Brunswick smiled as he handed over one of the grimoires to Hayar and the manual to Wulf.
A poison spell for Hayar, and a great-axe technique for Wulf.
The Blue Lounge League of Pirates, who controlled the largest part of the markets in Pirate Haven, had probably snatched the magic books as soon as they arrived at Pirate Haven, possibly even before that. All to make sure that they didn't end up in the hands of the infamous captain and vice-captain of the Bunglehoppers.
The two strongest members of the Bunglehoppers were notoriously powerful even without spells and techniques, so if they got a hold of something that suited them perfectly, they would be able to cause a lot of trouble.
However, the magic book business wasn't exactly booming in the Void and Pirate Haven, and most of the loot passed through the big three crews, so it was easy to keep suitable magic books from reaching the Bunglehoppers. Poison and great-axes aren't exactly among the more common attributes and weapons either, so it wasn't as if the Blue Lounge had to put in a lot of effort to snatch the magic books before they could reach the Bunglehoppers.
The Bunglehoppers weren't exactly an ancient crew, but they had been around for a while and steadily built their reputation. So the Blue Lounge, and possibly the other big two crews, had probably kept an eye out for grimoires suitable for the Bunglehoppers for a while. However, even after all that, the Blue Lounge still only ended up with one poison grimoire and one great-axe manual.
Wulf and Hayar accepted the magic books with confusion at first since there weren't any obvious markings that told them what they were. However, as soon as the book was in their hands, they sensed the compatibility.
After a moment of stunned silence, Wulf and Hayar gave Brunswick a large hug of gratitude. Just saying thanks wouldn't be enough, and since Wulf had used all of the Bunglehoppers' funds to invest in a treasury, there wasn't anything material to thank Brunswick with either.
A hug would have to do until they found a way to repay the debt to Brunswick. And Toz and the cats. After hugging Brunswick, the two pirates realized that it was Toz and the cats who looted the Blue Lounge treasury and found the magic books.
Unlike Brunswick, Toz easily avoided the two pirates' hugs.
"It was teamwork. You guys occupied the slightly less weak blue bastards, and I looted their treasury using that distraction."
The two pirates reluctantly gave up on expressing their gratitude after Toz's reasoning, but they swore to each other and to themselves that they would find a way to properly express their gratitude.
After staving off the two pirates, Toz looked through the nearly depleted manuals, hoping to find one he could learn.
Since the last unused grimoire was blood attribute, no one was interested in it.
Toz put down the last manual with a sigh. There wasn't a single sword manual that he could learn a technique from.
Although manuals were made using martial energy, martial energy was still originally mana, so even mages could learn techniques. And fighters are also capable of learning spells, depending on their control over aura and their inclination.
The techniques and spells might not exert their full power when used by the wrong hands, but they were still a way for a mage or a fighter to grow more powerful.
Unfortunately, Toz hadn't found any suitable sword manuals in the pile of manuals he looted from the Blue Lounge treasury.
The only one with some success, aside from Wulf and Hayar, was Vaner, who found a spell to make it rain. The grimoire was nearly depleted, and making it rain wasn't a direct increase in his combat strength, so Vaner found it hard to celebrate.
