Chapter 378: The Hidden Library

Books.

There was an entire bookshelf filled with books behind me, where the window claimed there was open air and light.

The obvious answer was the window was an illusion, filtering in “natural” light for the benefit of the students. The windows weren’t everywhere though, and up until now, they’d always been consistent with each other and how the outside of the library looked.

The library could be spatially warped, but given the power requirements not only to set a spatial warp, but to maintain it, I had my doubts.

The easiest solution was to skim a half-dozen of the books with my new skills – I could read through walls! – and see what section they belonged in, then go to that section and see what it looked like from the other side.

My language acquisition had gone decently. I was fluent enough in the ‘keystone’ languages of the world, although that didn’t mean I’d be able to speak to anyone. I had none of the ‘minor’ languages that were in active use, although when pressed I could possibly identify the language when presented with the written words. I didn’t have any ‘dead’ languages, or any way to even guess which dead language something was written in.

I mentally started paging through titles, [Reading] combining well with [The World Around Me], looking for one that was in a language I recognized. A number of titles were in dead languages, and some of the book bindings and pages were… creative.

I found the first title I could read in high elvish.

Daedalus: The Complete Guide to the only Self Correcting Wizardry.

I paused at the title. Maybe this section was all about obscure wizardry languages? Lothar had mentioned that there were dozens, if not hundreds, of other languages, and the School only focused on a few. I took a peek inside the book, reading over the words.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm] has leveled up! 22 -> 23. +40 Vitality, +40 Speed, +100 Mana, +100 Mana Regeneration, +300 Magic Power, +300 Magic Control from your class! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power from your element! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)!]

[*ding!* [Spatial Affinity] has leveled up! 22 -> 23]

[*ding!* [Reading] has leveled up! 22 -> 23]

[*ding!* [Astral Archives] has leveled up! 22 -> 23]

[*ding!* [Hunger for Knowledge] has leveled up! 22 -> 23]

That was fast. A benefit to taking a class doing things I wanted to do anyways!

The more I read, the more excited I got. The language was indeed self correcting. It recognized patterns in runes, and could easily restore runes that got slightly damaged or worn out automatically! The mana consumption was higher at first, and making true ever-lasting runes required a small arcanite supply, but only a tiny one.

This language was brilliant! I made a mental note to study it further, a little sad that I hadn’t discovered it in time for my biomancy modifications.

I mentally closed the book, resolving to check it out, put it into my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard], and read it tonight while I was sleeping.

I decided to check one or two more books before going to the obscure wizardry section of the library, and seeing what the wall looked like from the other side.

The next book was in Roami, a language I recognized but didn’t know. The language of the Kalea, of the ocean dwelling folk. I skimmed through it, but there wasn’t anything I recognized as a rune in the book. There were a few obvious spells in a wizardry language I didn’t know, but it wasn’t a guide to the language. Those had a certain look, for lack of a better word. The same way I could recognize a dictionary from a novel.

I skipped along a few more books. This section had an unusually high quotient of non-keystone language books! I eventually found the next one I could read.

The Sealing of Thraximundar the Terrible.

This didn’t look like a wizardry book at all.

Thraximundar was a familiar name. I poked my [Astral Archives], and the memory jumped to my mind.

A notification I’d gotten when I first exited the fairy ring.

[*whoop whoop!* Whoa, you won’t believe this one! Thraximundar the Terrible has wished for true, genuine, Immortality. Nothing can kill him! Nothing can stop him! I can’t wait to see what he does! Good luck everyone!]

I started to read the book, curious what was inside.

Welcome, members of the council of five who have unlocked this book. Inside details the location and bindings around one Thraximundar the Terrible, an ogre who wished for true immortality.

His reign of terror was legendary during our time, but we recognize that during the inevitable march of time, his name will be lost to myth and legend.

Unless the world itself is at risk of crumbling, do not unleash him. He will promise everything, and inevitably betray those he deals with. It is his goal to stand on top of the world, and have all subservient to him.

We tried everything. He cannot be killed. In desperation, we sealed him away in the deepest labyrinth, a thousand and one enchantments laid down to prevent his escape.

This book details the location and protections surrounding his imprisonment.

[*ding!* [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] leveled up! 7 -> 12!]

This… this was not a wizardry book. [Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes] and the opening lines of the book suggested that this was an encrypted book, one I’d casually ripped right through.

On one hand, I felt having knowledge of a literal unkillable monster might be dangerous. On the other, it’d be one hell of a feat for upgrading my class to read the book.

I was getting nervous as I flicked through another dozen or so books before landing on a third one I could read.

The Sunless Death. The title proclaimed.

The Sunless Death was a curse-plague placed on the sun in the year 18573, by the Miasma Classer [REDACTED]. Any being who looked at the sun was infected, and the curse-plague ate at the brain, driving the victim mad. They tended to wildly lash out at everyone around them, spreading chaos and destruction, before dying in agony. The most characteristic mark of the curse-plague was the eyes going entirely black, hence the name, The Sunless Death.

It only lasted a day and a half before the Classer was slain, likely due to Guardian intervention. The lessons learned from the event, and the details of the skill in question, are worth preserving for future knowledge and learning, to better contain and prevent similar episodes.

I stopped reading as notifications popped up.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm] has leveled up! 23 -> 24. +40 Vitality, +40 Speed, +100 Mana, +100 Mana Regeneration, +300 Magic Power, +300 Magic Control from your class! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power from your element! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)!]

[*ding!* [Spatial Affinity] has leveled up! 23 -> 24]

[*ding!* [Reading] has leveled up! 23 -> 24]

[*ding!* [Astral Archives] has leveled up! 23 -> 24]

[*ding!* [Hunger for Knowledge] has leveled up! 23 -> 24]

Okay. Wow.

This was not the harmless ‘obscure wizardry’ section. This was something else entirely.

My guess was it was like the banned and closed-off areas of the Museum of All Things, a forbidden section of the library.

What the book didn’t mention, and I had some sneaking suspicions about, was the Classer might’ve ascended. If I could heal the entire world, all at once, I’d have level up notifications flying past me so fast I wouldn’t be able to keep up. I’d hit the cap in hours.

Someone going out and trying to murder a significant portion of the world population? That either ended in death, like the book suggested, or ascension. It was probably not mentioned, because who wanted to start going around saying ‘hey, murder as many people as you can as quickly as you can, and become a god!”

It made me think back to the war class I just had, and what the professor had mentioned about Immortal wars.

How many were triggered by an Immortal saying ‘forget the slow and steady way, let me just farm as much experience as possible, become a god and get out of here?’

The implication was terrifying. I had new respect for the Forbidden Four elements, and the pseudo-global ban on people taking them.

They were the ‘kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible’ elements, and cutting them off at their knees suddenly sounded like a wise idea.

The next book was a stupidly impractical one. [The World Around Me] let me use all my senses in my sphere of perception, and I was well familiar with blood, in dozens of different forms. The book was written in blood, and the leather was probably something uselessly macabre, like human skin or some nonsense.

Honestly. There was a reason paper and ink was standard, and it wasn’t because blood was secretly superior or something. The time and manufacturing costs alone meant whoever had written it could’ve made 20, 50 copies instead! What a waste.

Right then. There were a few different ways I could tackle things from here.

First, I could just sit on this wall, and read as many books as possible. They seemed to have a certain weight to them, the System granting me levels just by skimming through the introduction. Something about the rarity, difficulty, or gravitas was helping me level, and level quickly. When I was done, I could just move along the wall, find the next spot, and keep reading. I could build a whole ‘outer perimeter’ of the hidden library, reading what books I could find.

I could then collate the languages used, and try and pick up the most commonly used language, or bring a list of titles to Iona to translate for me. I could pick out the most promising books, and translate those, one word at a time while I made a copy for myself.

Rare, forbidden books in [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] could also do nice things for that skill, then [Dream Reading] would kick in hard.

The second was more daring. Trace along the edges of the library until I found a door. Open the door, my new sphere of awareness letting me know exactly how the tumblers in a lock were arranged. Sneak into the library, and read all the books, not just the ones at the edges.

The third?

Well, I wasn’t great with people, but I wasn’t a complete idiot.

“Martin! Just the demon I wanted to see!” I cheerfully called out to the [Librarian].

He slowly put down the book he was reading, peering at me over his half-moon glasses.

“Elaine. You’ve returned all the books, yes?” He asked me.

I nodded.

“Yup! All shelved back exactly where they belong. Even fixed a few misplaced books while I was at it!”

He gave me a small smile.

“Excellent! What can I do for you?” He asked me.

“Can I go into the hidden section of the library?” I asked him.

He sighed.

“There are no hidden, forbidden, secret, cursed, extra-dimensional, or other unknown parts of the library.” He recited. “You know this. Indeed, I’m sure I’ve heard you tell other students the very same thing!”

I crossed my arms and lifted a doubtful eyebrow. I looked around his office.

“Is this place properly warded against eavesdropping?” I asked him.

He snorted at me.

“No, because there’s nothing to protect against. Nothing sends up a flare of ‘I’m talking about secrets’ like a bubble of complete and total silence, and I have nothing to hide.” He emphasized.

“Well, alrighty then. You don’t mind if I work through the wall on the fourth floor and read Daedalus: The Complete Guide to the only Self Correcting Wizardry,The Sealing of Thraximundar the Terrible, or The Sunless Death, do you?”

Martin froze.

I stared him down.

“Is there a procedure to checking the books out? Anyone special I need to consult? Or do I check them out as normal?”

He unleashed a string of inventive curses in his native Frisian.

“All copies of Thraximundar are magically encrypted, how did you break it?” He complained.

I shrugged.

“New skill of mine lets me selectively break encryption on books.”

“So you just waltzed in and started looking?” Martin grumbled.

“Nope! Second new skill lets me see through walls.”

He eyed me unhappily.

“And read through walls. That’s a different skill!”

He threw his arms up in the air.

“Fine! Yes! It exists! We don’t tell people there’s a forbidden section of the library, because then every Tom, Dick, and Harry tries to break in and read things, convinced that the answer to their problem is inside! No, you may not check out books in there. I’ll talk with some of the other librarians to see if we need a student to do the cleaning inside. Just remember, half the books in there are cursed.”

I grinned, and suppressed the urge to manically rub my hands together. That would be a bad look.

“Great! My new class is all about reading books. Think I can bother the Acquisitions team or the archivists to let me read some of their stuff to help level up?”

Martin glared at me from over the rim of his glasses. He was great at the look, but I was immune.

“I’m not sure you understand the gravity of your request, especially the implied one about reading books in the forbidden section. Knowledge should be preserved, but some knowledge shouldn’t be spread. The Sunless Death murdered hundreds of thousands at a conservative guess, and tens of millions on the high end in a single day. The book gives all the information needed to recreate the curse, although power and mana are major bottlenecks. Thraximundar is still alive, still exists, and wants nothing more than to be free to trample over the world again. Daedalus goes wrong, and when it does, you end up with the Labyrinth of Abydos. It keeps shifting because the language is constantly trying to correct itself. There is not a single harmless book in the collection, although if you find one, please let me know. We can return it to normal circulation.”

I sobered up at Martin’s speech. He was right. I’d been giddy over finding a cool ‘harmless’ secret, catching the School in a lie. The prospect of thousands of hidden, banned books, each one fantastic experience for my class, the entire section of the library singing like a siren about improved [Bookwyrm] evolutions, had gone to my head. He was right to chastise me over it.

“Is there a double-secret hidden library? Like, is the one I found the ‘decoy’ hidden library, and there’s a second one with the really, really dangerous stuff in it? Or is there just one.”

Martin gave me a look, and didn’t dignify my question with a response.

“As for the Acquisitions team, I don’t know, why don’t you go ask them instead of bothering me. Shoo!” Martin flapped his hand at me, banishing me from his office.

I was totally going to check for a double secret hidden library.

“Are you sure you’re going to sleep in the library?” Iona patted her bed lovingly, trying to entice me to stay with her.

My heart was torn. I wanted to stay and snuggle with Iona, but I also wanted the chance to level up [Bookwyrm] and improve the class quality.

“You know it’s best for me to spend a night now and then in the library.” I told Iona.

She’d been given the rundown about the forbidden section after promising not to tell anyone. With her [Vow], I fully believed it was an ironclad promise. She couldn’t lie, and saying ‘I’m not going to tell anyone’ was good enough for me.

“Yeah, I know. I’m going to miss you.” The [Paladin] said.

“I’m going to miss you as well. But hey! It’s only for one night a week.”

We lingered over the goodbye. There was no reason to linger, I’d be back in the morning, but there was no rush.

I was back in the library in no time at all. The way to get into the forbidden section was interesting.

First, there was a false wall. I needed to pull the book How To Avoid Large Ships off the shelf, which triggered a mechanical wall to open up.

Inside was a cozy little reading cubby. There were some sofas and plush chairs, and a pair of bookshelves on the walls. The only books in here were common books that could be found all over the library, in the most available language. In other words, books that nobody would be inspired to pick up and idly look through.

Students occasionally found this room, and that was fine. The whole point of the room was to hide exactly how anyone accessing the forbidden library got in.

Rumors about the library occasionally ‘eating’ people suddenly made a lot more sense. Students saw librarians enter the room, but never leave. It wasn’t possible to perfectly hide that something was going on, although clearly the more oblivious students – like myself – completely missed what was going on.

The trick was getting through the second set. A round dozen books needed to be moved, picked up and replaced, rotated, and pressed in sequence.

Once that was done, a wall panel slid back for a few seconds. An illusion over it made it difficult to detect if a student happened to miraculously stumble upon the right sequence. A brisk walk through, and I was in the forbidden library.

I hadn’t found any double secret hidden libraries, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. I’d walked along every single outer and inner wall of the library, searching for secrets. The only thing I’d found were a half-dozen books secreted away by old students then forgotten. Martin was delighted with my find, and I didn’t mention the circumstances of why I was looking.

A bored [Sentry] had a cozy desk and a pile of entertainment, the last line of defense against anyone sneaking in. Maybe I could get my job reassigned to that role, and get paid to sit and read rare books.

It didn’t look like anything particularly special or amazing. There were no books flying through the air, no magical constructs wandering the aisles. It was just… emptier, and the occasional bookshelf had shimmering barriers over them, the books on those shelves all cursed.

I was not going to try and tango with curses that even the experts at the School couldn’t break. It wasn’t like they wanted a ton of cursed books, but the [Cursebreakers] were only so good.

I browsed a few books, trying to find a few that were acceptable.

The Secret of the Pekari

Purple Gold Demonic Heaven Devouring Eclipse Technique

Ritual Sacrifice and You: How to Properly Tenderize Sacrifices to Maximize Output

Finally I found a fat one that made me curious enough to pick up and put in my [Bookwyrm’s Hoard].

The Kamo Report. Reading the synopsis made me clench my jaw, the book as ugly as the rest of the ones here. I might, just might, be able to learn something practical from the book, although getting the knowledge would be… painful.

The Kamo unit had been part of the Kalea marines during a war against Ralakar, and they had a creative interpretation of what prisoners of war meant. A check of the dates indicated that it predated the Treaty of Kyowa.

[*ding!* [Bookwyrm’s Hoard] has leveled up! 10 -> 11]

I settled into one of the chairs, drew a quick little glyph with [Lepidoptera] that turned into a floating sign that I was just sleeping, and everything was alright, and closed my eyes.

It took a few minutes for me to enter my dreamscape, [Dream Reading] kicking in and letting me read in my sleep.

I selected The Kamo Report from my stored books, and the scene started to slowly build itself around me.

I was on a beach, sand stretching as far as the eye could see, the ocean waves crashing against the shore. The sun appeared on the horizon, painting the tips of the waves red.

Pens appeared on the beach at regular intervals, sturdy constructions of wood and twine. As I continued to watch, each pen was populated by a number of dragonlings of all ages and sizes. Each one was faceless though, no visual details having been given. Levels, classes, and vitality populated over all of them, the book I was ‘reading’ having taken detailed records.

A number of aquatic elvenoids dotted the scene, armed guards patrolling between the pens. Every now and then they’d poke a trident into the prisoner pens, forcing the dragonlings back from the sides.

The scene zoomed into one of the pens.

Dragonlings withered and slowly died in the pen as the sun rapidly zipped across the horizon. Notes popped up above each one as they died, explaining how long it had taken each dragonling at what age and vitality to die of simple exposure to the elements, and the estimated cause of death.

Estimated formulas floated over a rapidly expanding pile of bodies, as the members of the Kamo Unit refined their estimates and calculations. One final equation was left floating over a pile of bodies, flies buzzing around them.

Interestingly, vitality started off rapidly having a powerful compounding effect on survival times, before plateauing hard. My guess was the early stats in vitality rapidly improved the body, and the improvements built off of each other. Then the cube root aspect to vitality’s improvement kicked in, dramatically lowering the returns.

IF the information was correct, it was useful. It gave me a framework to triage based on vitality, and who was likely to survive injuries like that, and who needed immediate attention. The syllabus of one of my classes mentioned I’d be learning similar functions.

Then I was moved to the next pen, as the section on simple exposure ended. Next up was a shaded pen, where the dragonlings were fed.

But not watered.

The dragonlings didn’t quite drop as quickly as the ones exposed to the elements, the meager shade delaying the cruel end. I watched a scene of some of the dragonlings killing each other, a “Useless Data” card floating over the slain dragonlings.

I got to watch a minor rebellion, a number of dragonlings bursting out of their pen, seizing weapons and turning them against their captors. It was ruthlessly suppressed.

The entire thing started off bad, and went steeply downhill from ‘let’s see how long it takes for people to die of dehydration.’

I flat-out quit the book when it got to the firing range experiments.

I didn’t need to know that badly.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 25]

[Mana: 635,470/635,470]

[Mana Regen: 319,486 (+638,272)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 1,339]

[Dexterity: 2,396]

[Vitality: 17,976]

[Speed: 18,008]

[Mana: 62,731]

[Mana Regeneration: 62,860 (+63,017)]

[Magic Power: 29,746 (+762,985)]

[Magic Control: 29,728 (+762,523)]

[Class 1: [The Dawn Sentinel – Celestial: Lv 513]]

[Celestial Affinity: 513]

[Cosmic Presence: 323]

[The Stars Never Fade: 11]

[Center of the Universe: 472]

[Dance with the Heavens: 513]

[Wheel of Sun and Moon: 513]

[Mantle of the Stars: 492]

[Sunrise: 471]

[Class 2: [Butterfly Mystic – Radiance: Lv 401]]

[Radiance Affinity: 401]

[Radiance Resistance: 401]

[Nova Lance: 401]

[Lepidoptera: 180]

[Nectar: 401]

[Solar Corona: 401]

[Scintillating Ascent: 401]

[Kaleidoscope: 401]

[Class 3: [Bookwyrm – Spatial: Lv 24]]

[Spatial Affinity: 24]

[Reading: 24]

[Lair: 1]

[Bookwyrm’s Hoard: 11]

[Beneath the Dragon’s Eyes: 12]

[Dream Reading: 16]

[Astral Archives: 24]

[Hunger for Knowledge: 24]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 380]

[: ]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 256]

[The World Around Me: 36]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 513]

[Sentinel’s Superiority: 513]

[Persistent Casting: 431]

[: ]