The panel reset at six o'clock sharp.
Something on the back of his hand disappeared. The Rift Wind Slash timer had run out. The skill vanished from the panel. The second slot was still empty.
Liam Null closed the panel. Kept walking.
Near the passage to The Second Floor, an F-rank Ink Beast was resting at the base of a shelf. He activated [Death Transcript] on it, copying the temporary skill [Swift Thrust]. The second slot was filled.
The shelves on The Second Floor were twice as tall as those on the first. The only light came from the faint glow of book spines along the racks — enough to see obstacles, not enough to see detail. He was at row eleven, pressed against the shelf. Six meters ahead, an E-rank paper-armor beast moved in a slow arc.
Layered pages formed its armor. The core was a single ink point. You had to pierce through to hit it.
Easy target. Just tedious.
"A Scribe?"
The voices came from behind and to the right. Two people. Heavy footsteps — their gear gave away their rank.
He didn't move. Watched the beast's movement arc.
"Hand inscription's a quill. F-rank." The second voice, kept low, didn't manage to hide the contempt.
"The Second Floor isn't for you, trash." The first, voice rising at the end, like the very notion was absurd.
Liam calculated the angle. The beast turned toward the sound — armor-back forward, core side just exposed. Distance dropped to four meters.
He activated [Mist Form].
His outline faded into the shelf's shadow. His footsteps went quiet. He curved in from the side, pressed against the armor, found the seam. Three thrusts. Locked in.
[Swift Thrust]. First thrust probed the gap. Second thrust found it. Third thrust punched through the outer edge of the core.
The panel flashed:
[INSCRIPTION COMPLETE]
Skill: Swift Thrust → Permanent Inscription (Slot 2)
[TRANSCRIPT COMPLETE]
Skill: Chain Inscription (E-Rank · Paper-Armor Beast)
Rank: E
Time Limit: 23:59:43
Inscription Condition: Kill a target of higher rank than yourself using this skill
Ink spread from the core. The beast dropped.
The two E-rank hunters stood in place. The one who'd been talking shut his mouth. One looked at the other. The other didn't look back.
Two or three hunters working The Second Floor nearby stopped, glanced over, then kept walking.
Liam confirmed the timer and moved deeper into the shelves.
That was the plan.
"Hold on."
One of the two hunters from before — alone now — had caught up.
Liam didn't stop.
"Xie Chong is waiting at The Third Floor entrance," the man said, voice low. "Brought five people. All E+ or above. Says you made him lose face in front of his whole crew yesterday. He wants to pay you back."
Liam stopped.
"Why are you telling me."
The man was quiet for a second. "No reason."
Liam walked on. The man didn't follow.
Hand inscription timer: 23:57:08. The Third Floor entrance was about seven minutes away.
A problem. Or an opportunity — depending on how he used it.
The Third Floor entrance was an iron archway. The boundary marker was carved into the crown. The Archive's official rank threshold. F-rank hunters required a filed declaration to pass through alone; violations meant disqualification.
Xie Chong's five people spread into a half-arc, sealing the passage completely. Xie Chong himself stood at the center — B-rank inscription. Highest rank in this zone. Used to it.
As Liam approached, hunters on The Second Floor nearby stopped one by one to watch. This kind of thing happened every day. But one F-rank Scribe walking toward six E+ hunters was still worth a look.
No one moved to intervene. Also standard.
"Knew you'd come," Xie Chong said.
Liam stopped eight meters out, mapped the six positions — three left, two right, Xie Chong center, archway completely sealed.
Hand inscription timer: 23:50:44.
"What do you want," he said.
Xie Chong stepped forward two paces. "Hand over your temporary skills, then go back to The First Floor and stay there. We call it even. The Archive doesn't get involved in hunter business — you know that."
"I know."
Then Liam shifted his gaze to the tall, lean man on Xie Chong's left. Held it for a second. "Are you fast?"
The man blinked.
Xie Chong's expression shifted into something between contempt and confusion. "What does that mean."
"I need to use one of your people to practice a skill," Liam said.
About two seconds of silence. Then Xie Chong laughed — a real laugh, not a performance. "An F-rank Scribe wants to practice on my people."
He glanced at the man beside him. "Sure. Go ahead."
Liam activated [Mist Form].
What followed was fast.
He didn't go for Xie Chong. Didn't go for the one he'd named. He went for the one on Xie Chong's right — farthest from center, worst reaction angle. Mist Form buried him in the shelf's shadow for less than a second. Swift Thrust closed the gap to two meters before the target could turn. He left a light graze across the man's leather armor and stepped back.
Xie Chong shouted. All five began to close in, converging on the last spot he'd appeared. Liam was already running north.
Row eleven, north end.
Something he'd noted the night before — a larger paper-armor beast, armor edged with scale ridges, E+-quality. Moving now.
Pursuing footsteps, twelve meters behind. The fastest runner in Xie Chong's group, no hesitation, straight in after him.
Liam found the scaled paper-armor beast in row eleven, used Swift Thrust to score a line along its armor's edge, redirecting its aggression toward the pursuer.
The pursuer skidded to a stop. An E+ paper-armor beast spread its armor wide in front of him and snarled.
E against E+. Thirty seconds.
Liam cut in from the left, pressed against the scaled armor, found the seam, and activated [Chain Inscription] — three thrusts, find the gap, lock the structure, pierce through.
Core shattered.
[INSCRIPTION COMPLETE]
Skill: Chain Inscription (E+-Rank · Scaled Paper-Armor Beast) → Permanent Inscription (Slot 3)
Slots Filled: 3 / 3 | Remaining: 0
Rank-E Condition: Met
Processing upgrade...
Then the panel stopped.
Not closed — stopped. The progress bar hung after "Processing upgrade..."
Xie Chong came into the row with the rest of his people, sealing both ends. The pursuer had just finished with the beast. He turned, looked at Liam. His expression had no name.
Xie Chong's gaze landed on Liam's panel. Liam didn't close it — let him look.
That line: Slots 3/3.
The corner of Xie Chong's mouth moved. Two of the Second Floor hunters nearby who'd been watching glanced at each other. Neither spoke. Everyone in the row was processing it.
Then the panel pushed out a line none of them had ever seen:
[SYSTEM ANOMALY: Scribe Class Upgrade Path Not Registered]
Death Transcript Talent: Special Processing Initiated
Proceed to: Archive Core Zone
Archive Core Zone.
Below the fifth floor.
Xie Chong was talking. Liam stopped listening.
His sister had gone missing there.
Also below the fifth floor.