Ryo cracked his fingers, his body snappy and hyper-responsive due to the newfound mana surging through his body. "Back to the library we go! I want to learn some new spells!" He exclaimed, teleporting himself and Aragoth out of the throne room. A key difference this time was that he had teleported Aragoth without touching him, whereas he had to place his hand on someone before. Mana, which was overflowing from Ryo's body, could bypass, or, rather, overcome such restrictions.
The two of them appeared in the lobby of the library, Aragoth looking around with a confused expression. While transporting multiple people before, it'd take a second for them to materialise in the location, such as when Ryo teleported himself and the child to the nearby village. Ryo stared straight ahead, his attention entirely devoted to the spellbook that lay open on his lectern embedded into the desk.
Inquisax walked up to him, pointing at a blur in his vision, trying to grab his attention, but Ryo paid him no heed, at least for the moment. He teleported behind the lectern, moving the 'Magnificent Magic Mutations' book out of the way. He read page two hundred and one of his 'Comprehensive Guide To All Things Magical', the thing that had kicked off his fight with the Glasya-Labolas.
[Conceptual Magic Canopy Spell / Parent Spell]
'Theoretical Advancements'
'Theoretical Advancements: The ability to see past what is deemed possible, delving into magic that is not considered natural. These spells have vaster, more terrifying effects, but in turn, rely on more mana to function.'
'This spell allows one to learn Conceptual magic.'
'In order to learn this spell, moreso a technique, you must be willing to disregard the meaning of all that is considered natural. You may be surprised by the spells, but to learn them, you must simply accept that they are real.'
Ryo closed his eyes, the sounds of Inquisax's voice growing louder. Ryo had, for a moment, been ensnared by the promise of stronger magic. He attempted to think of things that had no natural reason to exist. The Glasya-Labolas? Its purpose was to protect dungeons. The Hollowkind? There was no natural reason for that to have been made. He pictured it in his head, its stretched skin, orange veins and arteries, as well as the voices that echoed from its chest.
Ryo felt something shift inside his head. It wasn't tangible, but he could feel something not too far from being a key turning. Similar to the locks on the book inside his head that Clone was guarding, he felt a small restriction get lifted. Was learning higher tiered magic this easy? If so, why did Humans restrict themselves to six basic types after the war? He opened his eyes, stretching his arms upwards. He turned to face Inquisax, who was staring at him with an almost uncanny expression. "What? What happened?"
Inquisax shook himself back into consciousness, pointing at a group of tied-up adventurers. "These guys tried breaking into the dungeon. So, I used a bit of rope that was in the bedroom upstairs to restrain them." Inquisax told him, giving Ryo a second to eye them up and down. An armoured man with blond hair was at the back, facing the wall. A guy with short, black hair and an apparent penchant for cursing was beside him, opposite a lad with long golden-blond hair. Two girls were tied beside them, one with pink hair and the other with brown. Finally, facing Ryo, there was a man with short, white hair, staring him dead in the eyes.
"Arthur Elthrim." Ryo said, breath leaving his lungs. "And if you're here, that means that…" Ryo trailed off, walking around to look at Andreas straight in the irises. Andreas' pupils shrunk at the sight of him, trying to pull his arms out of the tightly-bound rope.
"You! Hyandean! Get us the fuck out of here! Now!" He yelled, causing the other people in the group to perk their heads up. They knew that tone of voice from Andreas whenever it was spoken. Kevin began whispering some things underneath his breath, but Ryo wasn't able to pick up on them.
"What to do, what to do…" Ryo said to himself, feigning idiocy. He walked around, taking a look at each and every person. Arthur had a neutral expression, while Kyoka Relt and Andreas Thim could almost kill him with the glares. Amelee Relt and Uriza Markol seemed almost pleasantly surprised to see him, as if they were thankful that he wasn't another Demon. He couldn't see Kevin's expression since he was facing the wall.
'These guys could be great to get Defence Points from.' Ryo admitted to himself in his head. 'Six people, five points each if I don't kill them, that's thirty. I could experiment so much with that amount.' He continued. 'If I killed them, I'd get sixty, but I think I'll actually get more by leaving them alive. They're the type to keep coming back.'
Ryo looked at the almost pitiable group of people in front of him. "I've decided that, in the spirit of being nice, I'll let you guys leave. However, in exchange, you have to let me injure you. Don't ask why, I have my reasons." Ryo told the group, closing the library doors with his Psychokinesis whilst untying the ropes around them. "What even brought you guys to this place? This place filled with 'scum' as Andreas loves to put it?"
Kevin stood up, wiping a bit of dust off his chestplate. "We don't have to tell you anything, Ryo." He deadpanned, staring past Ryo and locking eyes with Inquisax. "Why is there a Demon here? Don't tell me you've decided to sacrifice your Humanity? With this lanky, weak Demon that only has the ability to be fast?" He continued, almost making a joke out of it. Inquisax began to step forward, but Ryo stuck his hand out.
"You couldn't be farther from the truth, Kevin. I've uncovered information that I feel you'd be too blind to see, and have learned types of magic you'd never imagine." Ryo told them, appeared behind Kevin, hand on his shoulder. "Like this, for instance. I learned this in a few minutes, and I used it to mess with you before." He told Kevin, using Teleportation to avoid a swift punch to the face. "See?"
Uriza looked absolutely ecstatic. 'He's like me.' Ryo recognised, noticing that Kevin's expression had soured.
"So what? You managed to learn one spell? What's next, you'll make a flower appear behind my ear?" Andreas barked, a small, harsh laugh escaping his throat. "Be real with us, Ryo. You know you can't defeat all of us if we decide to attack you." He threatened, pulling the two daggers from their holsters on his pockets.
"When did I ever claim that? Why would I feel like fighting you?" Ryo asked, floating into the air. "It's not like you could hit me unless I wanted you to." He added, remembering the Glasya-Labolas. Its swipes were strong enough to distort space, albeit to a limited degree that that only encompasses its claws, but still. Ryo ascended a small bit higher, making sure that he was just barely out of reach if any of them decided to make a swing at him.
Ryo looked down at the party that he had been ejected from. The Relt sisters stood side-by-side, with Kyoka staring him down, glaring at him with a look that could turn Medusa to stone. However, her sister, the pink-haired Amelee, looked at him with what appeared to be a mix of admiration and fear. Ryo noticed Uriza was quickly jotting down notes in a small hardback notebook. It genuinely reminded him of himself. "Poor soul, mixed in with this sour bag of grapes." Ryo commented, shaking his head.
Andreas tried leaping into the air, attempting to clip Ryo's legs with his daggers, but Ryo moved backwards slightly, causing him to miss, sending him to the floor. "If you're going to try something so simple, maybe wait until I'm distracted?" Ryo asked, trying to get a reaction out of him. He was trying to obtain some DP out of all of this.
"Come down here and face me like a man!" Andreas taunted, causing Ryo to smile. He appeared behind Andreas, his foot against his spine. Ryo extended his leg, shoving Andreas forward, taking joy in watching his head hit the ground.
"As you wish." Ryo replied, bowing slightly with an exaggerated pose. He watched Andreas push himself to his feet, getting himself into a combat-ready stance. Ryo used Psychokinesis to pull his dagger from his table over to his hand. He gripped it tightly, prepared to fight someone who had much stronger knife skills than he did.
Ryo watched Andreas move forwards, but something felt wrong. He was a lot slower than the Glasya-Labolas that Ryo had just fought. He effortlessly dodged around the first attack, and weaved in between a flurry of attacks, noticing how slow they felt. He hadn't even sped up his mind or his body, this was just how slow Andreas was in comparison.
Kevin tried to take a cheap jab at Ryo's abdomen with his sword, as he appeared concentrated on Andreas' attacks, but Ryo easily avoided it. He kicked the longsword away, sending it towards the other side of the library, albeit only around fifty metres away, shocking Kevin. Kevin was then literally shocked as Ryo sent a bolt of lightning through his armour, using the metal plating as a conductor for the charge. Kevin fell to the floor, cursing about the pain.
Ryo let out an audible yawn, shocking Andreas. "Come on. I thought you said you guys could beat me. I'm even using a weapon that you're meant to be stronger than me with. Prove your words true, Andreas." Ryo taunted, sidestepping Andreas' daggers before flicking both into the air with one quick movement. The blades circled in the air before falling behind Ryo. "Oh, wait, they aren't true, are they?" Ryo provoked Andreas. "Now, tell me why you're all the way out here."
Kevin was about to yell something at Ryo, but Amelee finally spoke up. "We were told to come here, okay! The Adventurers Guild told us that there was a surge of mana here a few days ago, and we were assigned to investigate it, alright?!" She yelled, shocking both Ryo and Kevin. Kevin couldn't believe the insubordination, and Ryo didn't realise that Amelee had the guts to speak up to Kevin.
Hearing about a mana surge, Ryo looked at Inquisax, who stared back, a smile on his face and joy in his eyes. "That was when you were summoned here, wasn't it?" He asked, Inquisax slowly nodding back. He turned his eyes to Amelee. "Thank you very much, Amelee. That's all I wanted to know." Ryo replied, teleporting to each person and lightly cutting the backs of their hands with his dagger. "Now that you've paid your price for intruding, you are free to leave. Don't heal until you leave this place, otherwise I'll leave a much bigger wound." Ryo told them, opening the library doors with Psychokinesis.
The Rising Sun adventuring party looked at each other with a confused look. "It was that easy?" Arthur asked, almost amused with the actions of his party members.
"I guess so." Kevin replied, staring at Ryo as he went and grabbed his longsword from across the library. "We're not done here."
"Oh, I'm sure. I'll be waiting here for when you decide to make your way back here. Tell the Adventurers Guild that they can send more people if they want, but all that's there is a library that's now open for business." Ryo replied, feeling something wet and not of his own body hit his leg through his now-tattered pants.
Andreas, after grabbing his daggers, decided to spit at Ryo to showcase his contempt. Ryo stared him down, grabbed him by the neck, choking him. He teleported to the door, embedding mana into his right arm, and tossed Andreas out towards the stairs, revelling in the noise of hearing him hit at least four of the ten stairs. "You'll find him outside." Ryo reassured the others, seeing a small notification pop up in the bottom left of his peripheral vision.
[You have obtained 5 DP!]
A small little 'x6' appeared beside it after each person had left. Six times five is thirty, so he was correct. 'What if I make everyone pay to enter by making them lose a little bit of blood? This way, I don't give out stuff for free, and they get books. I get six Defence Points per person who loans out a book! Genius!' Ryo thought to himself, smiling.
"Now, time to see what I can spend my thirty-one Defence Points on!"