Now that he knew what exactly was going on, Villin was somewhat troubled. He had been too slow, too dense. He didn’t realize what was going on and was no longer the first to get to this floor with the letter. There was already a girl in this very library looking for what he also needed and as for how to deal with her, it was a tough call.
If he attacked her and knocked her out or killed her, he would be attracting a lot of attention to this location. Other ‘players’ may figure out something was going on in the library and come over, further complicating the situation.
Harry, Ron, and Dean, these were the three names he had to look for. Harry has the answer, Ron is untrustworthy and Dean never lies. It wasn’t clear whether these things only mattered after you found the books or right now, but he didn’t feel like he had time to think about it.
At the very least, Villin knew where the girl had already been in the library thus far and that she hadn’t found anything yet. If he began looking now, they would both have a fifty percent chance at finding it before the other. At this point, it was a bet Villin was willing to make, if he ended up losing he could always follow behind the girl and try to take the books from her later.
The library was entirely empty right now and there didn't seem to be anyone else than himself and the girl that found out about the game.
Because of this, Villin decided not to mask his intentions, the only one that might pay attention to him was the girl that was also looking for the clue and he was confident in staying ahead of one person.
So, like this, he quickly walked through the aisles looking at each book’s author, he could move quite quickly, helped by his high comprehension and great memory.
“Jack Storm, Jay Collin, Rupert Stacey, Roland Magni, Kately Hauwensein, The Delectables, Ksum Nole, HRD, J. Schlatt Stall-”
When he got to this point, Villin abruptly paused and looked back at the previous book. It was called ‘The Reaping Of Lives’ and it was written by H. R. D.
The book was black and worn out, hidden on the very bottom row where if you weren’t looking for it specifically, you would probably miss it.
Carrying it in his hands, Villin felt that the book was exceptionally heavy, a regular person would have a hard time holding it for anything more than a couple of seconds, even Villin seriously felt the weight.
This was surprising since even though the book was rather large, it wasn’t so much so that it corresponded with the weight. Either it was made out of some odd material or it had a secret compartment inside holding a heavy object.
Just as Villin wanted to try and open the boom on the first page, he felt a gaze coming from his left. When he looked he saw a woman in the guard uniform, she had a brown ponytail and was looking right at him.
Villin could instantly tell that she recognized him from earlier, and as soon as she did, she looked at the book he was holding intensely. It seemed that she connected the dots.
Even though it would bring some attention to him, Villin dropped the book and unsheathed his wand. When the book reached the ground a loud metal bang could be heard, startling the people who had been reading not far away from where they were and causing them to come over to check it out.
When all of the three readers arrived, they came upon a surprising scene. In front of them was Villin's back, and in front of that, they could see a woman with a brown ponytail. Both of them had their wands pointed at the other and had grave looks on their faces.
Something that was also rather obvious were the woman’s glances towards the book that laid near Villin’s feet, she seemed eager to get it.
Villin didn’t recognize any of the three people that just arrived, the first to speak was a blonde man that was below the age of thirty, “Oh, I think we should get involved.” he noted, gaining a nod from one of the two other spectators.
“Yes, we should get the book, it’s valuable you see.” said the second spectator sporting green hair and eyes, Villin thought that he felt rather slimy.
The third spectator was a grey-haired old man who simply sighed, “Who knows what we should do. The answer is always so hard to find.”
The slimy green-haired man quickly commented, “Come on old man, you always know the answer, don’t you? So should we attack this vermin or not.”
Hearing his words the blonde-haired man spoke hesitantly, “Attacking seems favorable to us, even though I don’t quite like his attitude.” The blonde said to the old man, talking about the green-haired slimeball who acted hurt.
“My God, why must you always be so honest, you are hurting my feelings you know!” he said but after some fake crying, he suddenly stopped since the old man seemed ready to make his judgment.
“We will wait here, when the time comes, we will grab the book.”
“What do you keep glancing at?!”
This time the voice didn’t come from behind Villin but it came from the ponytail girl a few dozen meters before him. He felt incredibly uncomfortable in his current position with an enemy before him and three potential enemies behind him.
He decided not to answer her question though as it seemed like it was most likely mocking him, either that or she wanted him to focus entirely on herself, an impossible expectation when there were three people just a dozen meters behind him.
When Villin glanced behind him again to make sure the three weren’t pulling any wands out, the girl took the opportunity to send out the first spell. It was a basic stunner that Villin managed to defend against relatively easily but he did have to take one step back since he had been dividing his attention, somewhat expecting the three to attack at the same time as she did.
“Oh god, I didn’t expect him to be so weak.” the blonde man behind him said when he saw Villin had to take a step back.
The green-haired man started laughing loudly holding his hips, “Oh my, a stunner like that! And you moved because of it?! How pathetic is this guy really?”
Getting both annoyed and distracted by the insults of the blonde and green-haired men, Villin couldn’t help but yell out, “God, could you just shut the f*ck up!”
“You! What did you just say to me!”
These words came from the girl who sent a stunner at him earlier, she seemed to somehow be thinking that his words were directed at her and got angry because of it. Sending out a quick but weak string of attacks, this time Villin didn’t move back since he was more prepared to deal with the threat.
“This guy really does seem a little slow.” the blonde man said emotionlessly.
“He doesn’t appear bright enough to look for the truth, a pity.” the old man joined in as he shook his head sagely.
“PHAHAHA, how long will it take this idiot to figure out what is going on? To imagine this guy is a contestant, Phah!” the green-haired man chipped in causing Villin to have an intense desire to choke him.
“These f*cking idiots,” Villin mumbled in a quiet voice that was unheard by the woman, he thought that if he said it louder, she’d probably think it was about her again. Thinking about it, she was probably some rich princess that thought that everything that anyone said was about her, stuck-up.
The situation he was in was extremely annoying, he had a woman that intended to fight him in front of him but even though he should be able to defeat her, he was afraid that if he committed to an attack, the trio behind him would take the opportunity to take him out as well.
He also obviously couldn’t attack the trio first, even if he could perhaps catch two by surprise since they weren’t holding their wands, by that time the woman would’ve already attacked him from behind and he’d have enemies on both sides.
“Villin, I believe we’ve been infiltrated.”
The voice came from inside his head, it was Ashera, but it was also the first time she talked to him when it was dangerous for him to lose focus, something that made Villin take it very seriously.
“How do you mean?” Villin asked while deflecting another shot from the ponytail lady who was still testing the waters.
I believe I sensed a disturbance, there’s something that somehow managed to get to your ears and eyes. If I am correct, it could turn off these two senses if it wishes to. We have to find a way to get rid of it right now.”
At first, Villin had a frown on his face, even though he would still be able to fight using his magic sense, without his sight and hearing it’d be a lot harder. Then, he realized something and he glanced at the trio behind him, “Stop ignoring me!” the ponytail woman said angrily as she sent more spells his way, he believed he figured out what was going on here.
