The shabby book is an item involved in the quest Elemental Workshop IV. The book outlines Vitruvius' experiments with chaos energy. It also states that his apprentice was infused with Chaos energy when he was 'tinkering' with Vitruvius' Automaton.
The book reveals that Cosmic gloves need to be worn in order to charge a Primed bar with chaos power, when creating chaos bars, as they insulate the user from the dangerous energies to which they are exposed when activating the machine.
You need this book in your inventory in order to make Chaos boots.
The book is found in the Chaos room in the Elemental workshop or in your POH's Bookcase.
Transcript[]
With Vitruvius's experiments proving to be a success, and his old apprentice (and Da-vi) on hand to help out with the more menial tasks, he threw himself back into his research of the effects magical energy had on the elemental metal, this time using chaos magic. His plan was to construct a machine through which he could give the mindless Da-vi simple instructions, something that his previously flesh-and-blood apprentice still seemed incapable of.
Inspired by the likes of the golems and Rune Guardians he'd heard about to the east, Vitruvius used chaos energy to construct a machine to feed instructions to his new, non-sentient mechanical worker. His newly crafted cosmic gloves proved to be a necessary insulation against the machine's chaotic power. From a combination of simple inputs he devised a way to give the automaton complex instructions; from simplicity came wonderfully chaotic complexity. Others who saw this machine thought it 'a wonder of the modern age', though some, perhaps reacting more to its basis in chaotic energy, simply dubbed it a 'chaos engine' or simply 'that infernal machine'. Philistines.
While Vitruvius had his head in his workshop building the chaos machine, his old apprentice was growing accustomed to his new cosmic-powered body. At first, he was upset that he was no longer technically human, but he still had his own memories, thoughts and dreams, and soon landed on the thought that being a huge metallic thing was actually 'pretty cool'. Towards the end of the chaos machine's construction, he was even back helping out his master by building programs for Da-vi. It didn't take much longer for his old apprentice to prove once again that you can't teach a new cosmic-powered entity old tricks...or anything at all really. Seemingly, the boy had learned nothing from his earlier prank that had landed him in this mess, and one day, while Vitruvius was out of the workshop, the boy was 'tinkering' with the chaos machine. Let's just say that he entered a program he shouldn't have, there were tears and regret on both sides, and words were said. Unbeknownst to either of them at this time, though, the boy had accidentally imbued his cosmic shell with chaos energy. The consequences of this would soon become apparent to them both...| Part 4 of the Elemental Workshop quest series | |||||
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 Notched book Keyblade Cosmic bar Cosmic gloves Shabby book Astral token Chaos bar Chaos boots | ||||
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