Bar provides the books requested, also including one about the kind of vampire this Nick is.

"Skimming through books by famous Sheikah people I already know stuff about! Found one history, seven religious journals, three novels, two travel guides, and an ecological study of the Gerudo Desert so far. I was hoping for more science but I'll find it sooner or later!"

"Bar, are there any books by Sheikah with titles that translate to anything like How To Build A Robot or Guide To Repairing Flying Machines or Everything We Know About Science In This One Convenient Book Series?"

Nothing quite that convenient.

Several textbooks appear. "Essential Theories of Mana" seems promising (and Purah quickly grabs her own copy).

He skims the books from earlier periods in case there's anything really interesting in there and lets Purah figure out the textbooks.

"Can you sell us the kinds of materials needed to repair old Sheikah tech or are they inherently magical?" he asks Bar when he gets bored of skimming books.

The book on vampires declares that they are usually evil not to be trusted! Also very strong and dangerous, but vulnerable to sunlight.

Early Hylian books are probably fascinating to historians or anthropologists, which Valanda is not. Nothing super compelling is in them.

Unfortunately, it seems that almost all of the tools required are inherently magical.

"I can make a lot of this stuff!! And if Link goes and finds my friend Robbie, he can make a lot of this stuff too! Also last I heard Robbie had an ancient utility robot in working order, which makes doing all the other stuff way easier!"

Evil and untrustworthy sounds like Valanda's kind of person! Known to be evil and untrustworthy while surrounded by people with morals sounds like an uncomfortable position, too, and one Valanda can get him out of easily.

So he goes over to him.

"Hey, I read a book about you and it seems like vampires don't have morals but other people you deal with do. That sounds pretty uncomfortable. Want some help?"

"That book is wrong. It's just that it's much easier now to ignore the squishy little morals-voice in my head people call a conscience. Not that everyone and his mom hating us vampires makes me feel particularly indebted to humanity or society, but I do have standards."

"Then it sounds like your problem is that people around you react like they're moral and you're not. Which is also a problem I can solve, no one in my world would care even if you were evil, you could move there."

"...Not an instant 'no', but I would need to know more about the place first. Thank you for bringing it up."

"World peace enforced by the worldwide Hari Empire. Member states enforce most of their own laws but it's illegal under imperial law to commit murder, assault, theft, trespassing, vandalism, perjury, breach of contract, tax fraud or cause a person who can't follow the law to become free. The magic we have there comes in twelve kinds, some people can magically learn things, some people can magically edit someone's genes, some people can change the temperature of things, some people can make other people unable to do anything they don't want them doing... I can ward you against any of these, by the way, I'm the kind of mage that can do that."

"Ah, slavery's baked into the system? Well, can't have everything. I would want some protection if I go through with this. How hard would it be for me to buy blood there? Human is best, and I don't like hunting animals unless I truly have to."

"Another species also drinks blood but their preferred prey species is different. There are a small number of humans, maybe one in a hundred people is human, so you'll have an easier time if you're willing to branch out and eat other species but you certainly don't need to hunt. Depending on how fresh it needs to be you might be able to just buy some at a market but that won't be human. If you find yourself someplace where it's not for sale that way just make it known you'll pay a human to let you drink their blood, you'll eventually get some takers."

"Good enough. I'll eat animals too, no matter. I'd also need the local language, though I have my shiny vampire brain and an artifact to help with that... I'll pay you something to stick around for a couple hours while I read about the Hari Empire and decide whether to jump on this chance to get away from those bastards in New Orleans once and for all. How much you want?"

He hesitates, thinking of letting Nikolas name a price in case it's higher than Valanda would've considered. But then he gets an idea.

"For staying here a couple hours of my subjective time and opening my door if you decide to move there I'd like to have your crystal ball answer some questions for me. Say, six questions?"

"Hah! Good one. Very well, I'll take that deal on the condition that you ask the questions before or within twenty-four hours after I go through the door with you - I won't make myself unavailable in such a case - or they expire."

"Deal. Hey, Link! You can ask the crystal ball now if you want!"

"Oooh, great! Be right back, Varrin."

She meanders over. "That guy's cool, he can do water tricks. And he hunts seals under deep ice for a living and fights evil fire-tricks guys sometimes."

"Hi, Varrin! Why do the evil fire-tricks guys need to be fought?"

"The Fire Nation is trying to take over the world, that's why! And it's water and fire-bending. Not tricks."

"Sorry!" Link calls out.

"Right. Anyway, Fire Nation is taking over the world and the Avatar - who's supposed to stop stuff like that - has been missing for thirty years, ever since the Air Nomads were massacred."

"Why would it be bad for the Fire Nation to take over the world?"

"...Because they're the Fire Nation? They kill people because they can, fathers dueling sons, they burn down whole villages for nothing more than refusing to pay absurd taxes that were invented yesterday! They're going to destroy everyone's cultural heritage! They already slaughtered all the Air Nomads! They're going to do the same to us, the Water Tribes, and then move on to the Earth Kingdom, until everything is either Fire Nation or ash!"

"Wow. They sound like a really bad choice to have rule the world. Want to be fireproof? It's just... whatever ninety rings is in your currency. What's your currency?"

"Yes, I want to be fireproof. We, uh, I have some carved arrow heads, a few sealbear-circles - those're Water Tribe coins - and a couple of Earth Kingdom silver pieces... Bar, a little help?"

Two sealbear-circles are equal to approximately 100 rings.

"I'll give you those, then - after you do it and... I try to burn myself." He looks dubious at the idea of that.

"Deal. Want me to do it now? I can also make you immune to frostbite, it's not much extra work when I'm already fireproofing you and you'll already be overpaying a little."