The sound of a heartbeat filled Ryo's ears. A light breeze brushed past his face as he remained still on the floor, facing the ground. His body refused to get up, still recharging mana. Voices, melting together, pierced through the rhythmic thumping in his chest, yet it refused to spur him from his inactivity.
Something fell onto the back of Ryo's head, landing against his red hair, acting as a cushion. Footsteps grew distant, people murmuring different things that Ryo was unable to pick up on. His mind flickered in and out of consciousness, attempting to keep him awake, yet the lack of mana kept him faceplanted.
Darkness overwhelmed his body, the sound of his heartbeat being the only thing that he could distinguish from the amalgamation of noise that surrounded him. His mind went blank, and his body fell still, his dagger and his spellbook under his chest, guarded like national secrets.
A picture of a book pulsed through his very soul, thumping as if it had a heartbeat that matched his own. It shared a similar cyan hue to the almanac at the base of the dungeon, yet, for some strange reason, it didn't appear to be the same. Its pages flipped, flying from left to right, illegible texts filling each and every part. It closed, flipping itself around to showcase a name in a language that Ryo couldn't understand. Slowly, one word translated itself, the first word.
[Viscera].
Ryo woke up in a cold sweat, his clothes stuck to his skin. He rose to his feet, still a slight bit groggy from the mana depletion, but not nearly as bad as before. Night had fallen, and Ryo could see the moonlight shining in through the massive windows that stretched towards the roof, illuminating the otherwise dark library. Ryo felt an itch on the back of his head, and as he went to scratch it, he felt a small scrap of paper where the itch was.
Ryo pulled the small piece off the back of his head, plucking out a small amount of hair with it accidentally. He walked over to the window slowly, attempting to use the moonlight to read what was on it.
"Thanks for keeping what's ours safe. We decided to keep a little memento as well." Ryo read aloud, looking at the signature at the bottom right of the page. "RS."
'The Rising Sun.' Ryo recognised, dropping his spellbook and dagger to the floor while teleporting over to the area where he kept the books he wrote. The cupboard where they'd been stored was now opened, yet it only seemed that they had taken those books. Ryo scanned the desk, noticing that the book Kyren had returned was now gone as well.
"Wait, if those guys got their hands on 'Magical Mayhem: Maniacal Spells For All Demons To Know', as well as the book I wrote for Amelee about improving mana usage, are they seriously going to try force Uriza or Amelee to learn the spells there?!" Ryo realised, his eyes growing wider. "Shit, that's not a good sign for either of them!"
Ryo quickly teleported to the destroyed village, the embers and smoke having died down, yet he could see no sight of them. A small yellow Goblin was patrolling the area, but Ryo decided to pay it no heed for the moment. He teleported to different parts of the forest that he'd entered.
He scanned the area where he had fought the Goblins, noticing a distinct lack of Monster Cores on the ground, even small ones. 'Did the Slimes take them?' Ryo asked himself before teleporting again, looking at the different openings in the treeline and using those to scout out the area, but to no avail. It was as if they had simply vanished from the face of the earth.
Ryo teleported back to the library, specifically to the core, where the Almanac and the previous owner currently resided, housed in his skeletal body. "Is there any way to track a book that has been stolen from this library?" Ryo asked the skeleton, who perked up upon hearing this.
"Oh? You got something snatched for the first time, eh?" He commented. "Sadly, no. Unless you tie your soul to each and every one of the books in this library, you have no way to get them back."
Ryo felt an indescribable anger well up inside him. He knew what Kevin was like when he wanted to get something done, and if he suddenly learned about Demon magic, he'd do anything to get the only two people capable of magic to learn it. He had pushed Ryo to use nature magic more than any other type, and even now, that still holds true.
Ryo wanted to find the Rising Sun party, take the books back, and do something that'd stop Kevin. However, without knowing their location, he couldn't do anything about it. Even if he knew, he wouldn't be able to teleport there if he hadn't been there before.
Ryo felt a flash hit his mind, a reminder of a type of spell that he had seen in the spellbook. He teleported back up to the window, grabbing the book with incredible speed, flicking back to the index, and there was his saving grace. "Observation And Communication Magic!" Ryo exclaimed, flipping to page one hundred and fifty-eight, skipping the title and summary that took up two pages.
[Observation Magic Canopy Spell / Parent Spell]
'Monster Sight'
'Monster Sight: The utilisation of Observation Magic in order to extend your sight into that of a nearby Monster.'
'This spell is the basis for all magic that involves Observation. The caster, while using this spell, forgoes their own vision in favour of that of the chosen Monster, willing or unwilling. Whatever it sees, you see, but not the other way around. Pair this with Linked Communication to utilise its effects to the maximum.'
'To perform Monster Sight, you must first identify a Monster that you wish to transport your sight into. Pour mana into your eyes, imagining an invisible beam connecting you and that Monster. Then, you must imagine your vision overlapping with theirs. Even if it's not an accurate representation of what their sight will be like, it's enough for the mental image.'
Ryo took a quick look over the spell that was on the other page, this 'Linked Communication' spell.
[Communication Magic Canopy Spell / Parent Spell]
'Linked Communication'
'Linked Communication: The utilisation of Communication Magic in order to converse with a Linked target.'
'This spell is the basis for all magic that involves Communication. The caster, while using this spell, transmits their own voice into the mind of the Linked target. This allows for both communication with a friendly ally or to relay commands over long distances. You must already be Linked with someone though, through sight, hearing, or another sense.'
'To perform Linked Communication, you must be already Linked, as stated earlier. Then, utilising the same imaginary beam as is common throughout all Observation spells, channel mana from your mouth into it. Speak a command, a phrase, anything, and all Linked people will hear what you say.'
Ryo read over these, realising something. Right now, he had no Monsters that would listen to him, and, because of that, he couldn't link up with anything. He could go summon a Monster from the Almanac, but there's nothing in there that'd be able to go anywhere he couldn't already. Sure, he could maybe summon a Umichron, but odds were that it wouldn't find them.
'Wait a second.' Ryo realised, a small smile on his face brightening his mood. 'They'll have to go back to Utopia eventually, won't they? They're probably on their way back already, and if Amelee's previous words are to be trusted, which I'm now skeptical about, they'll be there in five days.'
Five days. That's all the time Ryo would have to wait until he could confront those people once more. Five days, where, hopefully, the two magic-capable people won't be forced to learn Demon magic. Five days where he'd be able to learn more spells to make sure everything went smoothly. He teleported over to his desk, placing the spellbook down carefully. He closed the still-open library doors slowly, a loud thud echoing throughout the library despite him being careful.
Ryo wasn't tired at all, despite it being midnight. He teleported back down to the core of the library, disturbing the previous owner again. "Is there any way that I can obtain extra DP?" Ryo asked, trying to see if he could do anything to improve his progression. After all, if this was how slow it was going to be, he'd never summon something strong, something that he could entrust with the library if he, Aragoth and Inquisax were all out.
"I never thought you'd ask." The skeleton chuckled. "Flip past the Compendium, as you called it, past the Upgrade section, and read the "Challenges/Offering" section. It's how I got the library to be so large so fast." It explained.
Ryo quickly moved past those two sections, remembering he had thirty-two DP to his name. He read the "Challenges/Offering" section, his eyes glowing with excitement.
[Kill Three Goblins And Embed The Monster Cores Into The Dungeon Core]
{Progress: 0/3}
[Reward: 2 DP]
[Loan Out Books To Two Different People]
{Progress: 1/2}
[Reward: 1 DP]
[Kill One Intruder (First Time)]
{Progress: 0/1}
[Reward: 30 DP]
[Kill Fourteen Kobolds And Embed The Monster Cores Into The Dungeon Core]
{Progress: 0/14}
[Reward: 10 DP]
"I see, I see!" Ryo commented, his mind rampaging with plans. 'So, the rewards are structured so that you can't kill your own Monsters and benefit from it.' Ryo noticed, looking at that juicy thirty Defence Point reward. 'If only someone came in here looking to steal from us while I was actually conscious.'
Ryo turned to face the library owner. "Why wasn't this in the original description for the ownership of the Library Dungeon?" Ryo asked, piquing the interest of the owner. "We already have the special loaning feature, which was mentioned, but this was nowhere to be seen."
"That's because it's an invention of yours truly." The skeleton told him. "Most dungeon owners tended to make an idle system that allowed them to make two or three DP a day, with an upfront cost of three hundred DP, at least when I made this library into a dungeon. Multiply that over a few hundred years, and you can see why they'd choose that."
"However, not wanting to grow old and senile by waiting around, I decided to turn the idle system into a quest-based system. This system allows you to obtain a lot more DP, but it relies on a bit of luck and a lot more participation from the owner." He explained to Ryo.
"Well, I'm going to go get two of these done today." Ryo told the previous owner, but, to his shock, the owner revealed a crucial piece of information before he left.
"I spent around ten thousand DP to provide you with the next function. These quests don't have any cooldowns." He informed Ryo. "This means that once you get one quest done, you can immediately start on the replacement. However, this also means that, if you get four quests that you can't complete yet, you can't obtain any more quests."
Ryo looked at the owner in shock. An infinite quest system with the restriction that he couldn't change any of the ones he got. That meant he absolutely had to kill an intruder, and he had to make use of the loan system, although that was part of his plan from the get-go.
"Well, this just got a whole lot more interesting." Ryo commented before teleporting back up to the window where he had dropped his dagger. He picked it up, the purple Monster Core gleaming in the moonlight. "It's time I put you to some real good use, dagger. You're going to be helping me get a load of DP." Ryo told it, teleporting to the forest where he had fought the Umichron.
"I know that there's many of you around here. Goblins and Kobolds alike. It's time to put you to use."