Chapter 61: D-Rank Labyrinth — Library of Sin (4)
Chapter 61: D-Rank Labyrinth — Library of Sin (4)
— Kraaak!
The specialty of the Blind Crow was reconnaissance and search.
Thanks to that, I was able to quickly regroup with the siblings who had briefly scattered.
“Kar!”
A relatively safe space surrounded by bookshelves.
The moment I stepped inside, Marlin ran toward me at full speed and threw herself into my arms.
She buried her face in my body, her shoulders trembling.
“Were you worried?”
“….”
“It’s okay now.”
While I gently patted her shoulder, Abel also approached and let out a sigh of relief.
“…Patron, my heart really dropped.”
“From now on, don’t worry. Unless it’s at least an A-Rank labyrinth, I won’t die during exploration.”
“I know you’re not such an incompetent explorer that you’d collapse in a D-Rank labyrinth. But even so, you fight far too recklessly. Please don’t do that in the future.”
Am I being scolded by a twelve-year-old right now?
Strangely enough, it didn’t feel that bad. I figured this kind of unusual experience was something worth going through once in life.
Still, since the kids were so upset, I probably needed to restrain myself a little from now on.
Not that I intended to completely stop throwing myself into battle, of course….
“I’m glad you’re safe.”
The bald expedition captain who had fled together with the siblings and protected them snickered as he handed me a single Mystery Tome.
《Third-Tier Mystery Tome — Bewildering Tongue》
《Allows the tongue to extend long like a whip, but slightly reduces sense of taste.》
“This Mystery isn’t that defective, so it’s quite usable.”
“That’s true. Thank you.”
It did have the drawback of looking rather grotesque when used, but it also had the advantage of letting you briefly feel like you had become a frogman, a minority race.
“We’ll rest here a little longer before leaving. We’ll definitely survive and tell Valentin about Cultist Kar’s heroic tale!”
“Yes, thank you for taking care of the kids.”
After giving a polite bow, I left together with the siblings.
Marlin, who still had her face buried against my body, slowly walked beside me and quietly muttered,
“…If you do that again, you’ll die.”
“Sorry. I won’t do it again.”
Honestly, I couldn’t promise that.
If a similar situation occurred, I’d probably do the exact same thing again.
But there was no need to say that in front of a child who was already crying, so I simply stroked her back silently.
— Kraaak!
The Blind Crow that had gone out scouting cried loudly in the distance.
It was the signal that it had found the terrain I asked it to locate.
Not long after, the creature returned through the eye socket and displayed words before my eyes.
《As you said, I discovered terrain that does not resemble a library at all.》
《Route: Move straight → then go ↑.》
Thanks to the extremely clear and intuitive explanation, it was easy to find the way.
《↑ It’s that way!》
The point where the guidance of Eye That Perceives Truth ended.
There was a forest inside the building.
Bookshelves formed the trees, their lower halves brown and upper halves green, growing densely like a woodland.
The ground displayed detailed colors that looked like lush grass and blooming flowers.
“Kids, observe carefully.”
I spoke while entering the forest with them.
“There should be exactly one bookshelf with an empty slot. Insert the book we prepared there as a ‘donation.’ That’s the second Hidden Piece.”
“So we just put it in?”
“Right. Nothing special.”
The Bartimir expedition probably donated two books by now.
The difference in progress speed still wasn’t impossible to overturn.
After all, I had the Blind Crow specialized in searching.
I was greedy. I intended to monopolize both Hidden Pieces and win by a landslide, so I had no intention of moving leisurely.
— Leave the library…!
While we were examining the forest, a knight made of books wearing armor rose from the ground.
《Library Guardian (Level 7)》
《This one doesn’t require detailed explanation either. Run!》
That sounded reasonable.
“This way!”
The moment our eyes met the monster knight, I sprinted with the kids.
It was tough but heavy and slow, so even a frail cultist and children could outrun it.
— Leave the library….
“Yes, we’ll leave immediately!”
— Leave…?
“I said we’re leaving!”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Even though I agreed to its demand, it kept chasing us.
When I subtly had the siblings move aside to both sides, the Library Guardian focused its pursuit solely on me.
The reason was obvious.
— Arsonist…!
Setting fires so flamboyantly earlier had backfired.
The book knight was quite persistent. If you didn’t shake it off completely, it would keep chasing even after leaving the forest.
Time to change tactics.
Crackle!
I transformed my right hand into lightning and electrocuted the Library Guardian.
Since its body was made of books, it naturally wasn’t very effective.
— The arsonist must be punished!
The book knight shook its body to disperse the black current and swung its sword aura.
Slash!
My left shoulder was severed.
At this point, injuries like that were basically scratches.
With my intact right hand, I generated a sphere of lightning and swallowed it in one gulp.
Crackle!
As the stinging pain slid down my esophagus, my entire body began to convulse violently.
My body was slowly becoming black lightning.
《Due to [Sin: Gluttony], your body has gained the same properties as the lightning of the filthy Sue’je that you just consumed!》
The effect of Sin: Gluttony, a Mystery obtained from the Hidden Piece that releases the seal of the Nameless Demon King.
It allowed the body’s properties to change to match consumed substances or energies.
At this moment, my body was composed of the same substance as the black lightning of the Exalted One.
Naturally, it hurt terribly.
But I wouldn’t die.
Because I possessed Fragment of the Colossus, which prevented damage from status abnormalities affecting the body.
《Please moderate the abuse of your body!》
I’d prefer fighting with less pain too, but there was no choice.
The weakest class, the cultist, would otherwise just become a walking evil-god-worship scarecrow in battle.
Crackle!
Lightning settled inside my body.
My entire form flickered violently.
Blood, muscles, nerves, organs, bones.
Much of my body tissue was turning into lightning.
“Hng…!”
Since Sin: Gluttony didn’t reduce pain, agony at the level of mental collapse surged through me.
Lightning surged out from every hole in my body.
It felt like my limbs were being torn apart, but I ignored it.
It was only a temporary guest passing through my body anyway.
“Stay still.”
Grinding my teeth to keep from losing consciousness, I suppressed the rampaging lightning—resembling that of the Exalted One—with Black Lightning Bloom.
— …I don’t know what you’re doing, but get out!
The Library Guardian strode forward and swung its sword.
The book longsword cut through my neck—
—and passed straight through.
My body had already become pure lightning, so the impact was greatly reduced.
Crackle.
My body rapidly restored itself.
It hurt terribly, but remembering when I had been “read” by the Large Magic Book, it felt slightly more bearable.
— Arsonist!
Perhaps confused that cutting my neck hadn’t killed me, the Library Guardian began swinging wildly.
As my body was chopped into pieces—sensations no ordinary person could ever feel—the lightning counter-shocked the guardian.
— This much…!
The creature stubbornly grabbed my small, precious head with its hand.
Just as its large grip was about to crush my skull—
Crackle!
Lightning far stronger than before burned through its entire body.
— ……!
The Library Guardian, which had previously endured the shocks without issue, flinched.
《Not much congratulations: Growth-type Mystery [Black Lightning Bloom] has evolved to Third Tier.》
The Tier-3 effect of Black Lightning Bloom, which grows whenever violent currents are controlled.
The power of lightning increased.
Crackle!
Sue’je sent down a wave of relief and cheering.
It seemed the deity had been worried that the half-elf’s only advantage—his face—might be damaged.
“Please do not worry. Even if my body is torn to pieces, I will protect my face. Continuing exploration with only my head remaining wouldn’t be such a bad experience either.”
My entire body ached from the “electric roast,” but I endured it and ran forward immediately.
There was no time to relax.
“Excuse me.”
With my fully lightning-transformed body, I pierced through the armor and plunged into the Library Guardian.
— …You!
“Please rest for a moment.”
Whoosh!
Flames burst from my left hand.
Fire erupted from inside the book knight’s body.
It wouldn’t kill a Level-7 monster, but it would buy enough time.
— Graaaah!
While the Library Guardian staggered, I slipped out and fled far away, pulling out a vial of blood from subspace storage.
《You still kept the blood you collected in the Grave of the Earth Elf without throwing it away!》
I had a practical personality that saved even trash with no obvious use, so I’d kept it carefully.
I uncorked the vial and drank a mouthful of the fresh, nature-scented blood.
《[Sin: Gluttony] activated. Your body’s characteristics have returned to their original state!》
Eating one’s own blood or flesh restores a transformed body to its original form.
If I say that was exactly why I kept it… it would make me look like a smart half-elf who planned everything meticulously.
So let’s just go with that.
“Kar!”
When I ran toward the voice, I saw Marlin crouched near the ground, her tail standing straight up.
“It’s under this tree trunk!”
At the root of a massive tree was an empty slot exactly the size of a single book.
“Good job.”
I patted Marlin’s back as she shrugged proudly, then took out a blood-red book from subspace.
Volume 1 of a novel series Odilon loved—full of ruin and destruction.
A story utterly inappropriate for children’s mental health.
I quickly inserted it into the empty slot.
Krrrk.
With a strange sound, a hole opened in midair and a sheet of paper fell.
It was a dull green sheet.
[Sharing Points: ■□□]
— Donate books two more times to receive a special benefit!
“Did it work?”
“Yes.”
Two more donations until the Hidden Piece activates.
“Let’s hurry and donate the remaining books.”
Magic books.
Monsters created by demons at the peak of their era using books as their base.
You could see them everywhere in the Library of Sin.
At least they went to sleep when morning came, so the safest strategy was simply not moving at night.
— Kiriririk!
But right now we were competing in an exploration contest.
Which meant we had no time to wait for morning.
“…Kar, they appeared again!”
Two hours after starting the second Hidden Piece strategy.
We had already succeeded in donating two books.
It hadn’t been an easy journey.
— Grrr…
— Kirik!
Because swarms of Small Magic Books kept rushing at us.
I couldn’t even remember how many times we had encountered them.
“These annoying books!”
Marlin clenched her teeth and swung First Breath, slicing the Small Magic Books apart.
Perhaps because she’d been fighting them nonstop for two hours.
Now she cut them down in a single strike.
Indeed, the best training method was real combat.
— Kraaak!
“I think we’ve arrived!”
A new terrain appeared ahead.
White bookshelves densely covering the ground.
A terrain depicting a snowfield and snowy mountains in fine detail.
This time it was a frozen plain.
— Kururuk….
Because of the cold, the magic books that had chased us relentlessly slowed slightly.
That’s what I was aiming for…!
Whoosh!
Flames burned the paper monsters all at once.
But it wasn’t a complete wipeout.
A handful of elite Small Magic Books that were unaffected by the cold still targeted us.
“We do the same thing again, right?”
Blocking an attack aimed at Marlin’s shoulder with my back, I answered.
“Yes. Only one book left. Hurry.”
“Patron, we’ll focus on searching. Please handle the magic books in the meantime.”
“Take it.”
I handed them the final sensational, blood-soaked depravity novel suited to Odilon’s taste.
“Let’s go, Abel!”
Marlin took the book and dashed forward with her brother in a low stance.
I watched their backs for a moment before intercepting incoming magic books with Sa · Yeom · Hwa.
“Do your best.”
An ability essential for an expedition leader:
Trusting your members and giving orders.
“You can do it.”
By the end of today, the siblings would become true explorers.