“Flame Trap!” Grace cast, creating a magic circle below the Librarian’s feet. A swirl of fire entrapped him and reduced his HP by 10%, but he did not scream in pain. “He’ll break free any moment now. Quick, Taylor, do something!”

Yeah, right... With my dick still in the air? Luckily, Grace’s spell gave me precious seconds to change into my full battle suit and equip my weapon.

“Ready!” I shouted before something heavy fell on my head. I looked back and found a group of books snarling at me. “Huh?”

“Books are a treasure! Do not mistreat them!” The Librarian shouted while sprouting two additional arms from his back.

“Why are you using these to attack me then?!” I cried while hitting the living, ferocious books. But before my hammer could smash them, they closed their pages and their hardcover withstood the impact.

“I’ll burn them up! Take care of that guy!” Grace ordered.

“Roger!”

I charged against him and struck with all my strength, but the once human-looking NPC stopped my attack with his back arms, and looked at me with a new set of bug-like eyes.

“Fool! I’m one of Count Dylak’s retainers,” he sneered while his legs elongated and his back grew a hump. “I’m the great—!”

I interrupted him with a kick in the face. “I don’t fucking care!”

“Did you skip his dialogue?!” Grace cried. “Eww, you’re one of those!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” 

Whatever. I concentrated mana on my next attack, and my hammer started glowing with power.

 

100% attack bonus on your next move!

 

“Hammer Smash!” I cast, but the damn arachnid librarian jumped away, sticking his feet on the ceiling. “Not fair! I’ll try this then! “Hammer Throw!”

I threw my hammer upwards, and the monster quickly counterattacked with a spider web net, stopping my weapon in midair and making it fall back, hitting my head. “Dammit!”

 

Warning! HP at 50%! Activating Pain Endurance Lvl 3.

 

I know I’m a Glass Cannon, but this is ridiculous!

“Who raised the freaking difficulty?!”

“This time we’re dealing with a humanoid enemy,” Grace shouted. “Of course he’ll be smarter!”

The librarian seemed to mock me from afar.

So we could either learn how to fight properly or die and lose our progress. I looked back at Grace, who could extinguish her flames at will to prevent burning the entire place. She seemed to progress quicker than me.

I clicked my teeth, annoyed. “Let’s switch positions!”

Grace did not say a word and quickly turned her back on the living books. One almost bit her butt, but I stood in the way, letting it taste my hammer.

“Why did you choose a hammer?” she asked while preparing a spell. “It doesn’t fit you at all.”

“Y-yeah... I’m starting to think the same.”

After smashing another book, I glanced at the librarian shooting another web, which got incinerated by Grace’s magic flamethrower. The librarian escaped before getting burned, and with a wave of his hand, it gave life to an entire shelf of books, which charged at me. 

“This has no end!”

“Why did he get so mad at just one ruined book, when right now he’s attacking us with a bunch of them?” Grace asked aloud, looking back at the empty shelves from where the monster books had jumped down. “You were right, T. Not all these books are real. Only those closest to the exit are programmed to be enemies.” She smirked like a demoness. “In that case.”

She stretched out her hand to the other side of the library, making the arachnid monster wail. “Those books are unique! They’re a treasure!” He jumped and used his body as a shield, receiving the entirety of Grace’s fire spell, getting his HP dropped to 50%.

“Taylor!”

“On it!” After pounding the ground and making an incoming group of books flip backward, I twirled my body and cast my Special Move a second before the hammer connected with the enemy. “Hammer’s Smash!”

I saw the librarian fold his four arms to protect himself, but it was useless. My attack broke his limbs and cracked his skull.

 

Enemy’s health at 20%

 

“These books are precious! Do not hurt them!” he cried, while his whole body turned crimson. Was this the classic ‘boss transformation’? He was regenerating his arms, so yes, this was his second phase.

I wanted to perform another Hammer Smash, but the message 'Insufficient Mana' appeared on my field of vision, and regular strikes weren’t making him flinch.

"Let's swap places!" Grace shouted. "I'll finish him!"

But something told me that the Librarian wouldn't play easy.

"Get back!" I warned while dropping my hammer to wrestle with him. When our hands intertwined, he used his additional spider limbs to stab me in the back, below my omoplates. "Graaaah! Son of a—!"

 

Warning! You were stung with venom!

 

"Books are irreplaceable, you're not!"

"Is it even worth bickering with this thing?" I cried as my strength faltered.

"Once I'm done with you, I'll use your skin to bind my most precious—" he didn't finish his sentence, since Grace was behind him, burning him.

"Don't let him escape!" she cried, as books tackled her and bit her legs.

Did I even have some mana left to cast Valor?

 

Affirmative.

 

"Fire Boost, Valor!" I cast as the arachnid's body got warmer and desperately tried to escape from my grasp.

His wails were ear piercing and the way it moved was unnerving, as if he really didn't want to die.

His health was at 7%... 5%...

Grace was also grunting as the living books surely left bruises and cuts on her skin.

3%... 1%...

 

Count Dylak's retainer, Professor Spiegel defeated!

 

Congratulations! You are now Level 6!

 

"Great," I muttered before my head hit the ground. Grace's voice crying my name gave me a feeling of Déjà vu.

 

* * *

 

"She's waking up! How are you feeling?"

As I focused my vision on Dan’s gentle smile right beside me, the smell of something cooking traveled to my nostrils.

"Where is Grace?" I asked faintly, as she raised her cinnamon-colored arm from a distance.

"Right here!"

"You're tougher than you look, Taylor," Charlie said, approaching me to hand me a steaming bowl. "Eat this. It'll help you recover your strength."

I looked at its contents. It was soup and smelled of chicken and tomatoes.

"This looks great! Um, by the way, where are we, guys?"

"We're still in the mansion, in the kitchen to be more precise," Dan said after sipping from a mug. "Charles got rid of the Cook, and Steve and I fought a pair of creepy twin maids." He shivered. "They could turn their heads 360 degrees around! What about you? What did you encounter?"

I looked at the place I was resting, someone had prepared for me an improvised bed with a bunch of flour sacks and a blanket. "Some sort of librarian? I'm not sure since I interrupted his presentation."

"Hey, that's rude."

"Oh! And we also stumbled upon something else. Someone huge, carrying chains."

"That's the Housekeeper," Charlie said from his place near a stove. "We're hiding from him."

"I see. What happened after I lost consciousness? How much time have I been out?"

"You got severely poisoned, and you were out for a whole night," Dan said, pointing at Grace. "You can thank our mage for her quick thinking. She saved you."

I glanced at her, who put her bowl aside to puff out her chest. "I concocted an antidote! Am I great, or what?"

"An antidote?" I asked, frowning. "But how…?"

"Believe me, it wasn’t easy! I tried to suck out the venom, but it was worthless, so I rushed to the library's PC to search for the right book, and ta-dah!" She materialized it out of her inventory. "Hear this title, 'The Many Deadly Creatures of the Eurola Region and how to fight them'! But I can't take all the credit. After messaging the boys, they rushed to the library and Steve carried you all the way here, while Charles helped me get the antidote's ingredients."

"Everything was here, inside the mansion," Charlie said while bringing me a cup of coffee. "I suppose that whoever designed this challenge wanted players to survive."

"But only as a team," I whispered while watching my soup. "Did you prepare this?"

Charles grimaced. "Steve did. He's like the feet of this team, carrying us all."

I glanced at him, too concentrated on his food to gaze at me.

"Thanks, Steve, for helping me," I said aloud. "The soup is quite tasty too."

"It's nothing," he replied without looking in my direction.

It was painful to see him still act like that.

"Okay, guys, now that Taylor is awake, listen up! We have defeated the three stationary bosses, but since we spent the night here…”

“Yesterday you mentioned something about a boss respawning,” Grace interrupted.

“Yes. When I mentioned it, it was nothing more than a theory, but I corroborated it yesterday. On my first visit here, my team managed to kill the Cook, but he was very much alive when I arrived here again. So I’m pretty sure that the three already defeated bosses will respawn in a matter of hours if we waste more time.” Charlie crossed eyes with every one of us. “We must not lose our progress.”

I checked the time on my User Interface. 7:08 am.

"I'm sorry, Charlie," I said in a tiny voice. "You told us to defeat the boss before nighttime…"

"We were on a tight schedule anyway," he said, giving me a fatherly gaze. "Don't worry about it. The most important fact is that all of us have survived. I genuinely believe we can do this."

I felt terrible for compromising the quest, but I felt even worse because no one seemed to blame me, not even Steve. I wanted to be of help, but what could I do? I was pretty much useless against the damn librarian.

“What’s our next target, then?” Steve asked softly.

“As you have seen, the Housekeeper roams the entire mansion, but won't get inside the other bosses’ rooms. We could ignore him, but in the worst-case scenario, he could attack us while fighting the butler."

"I got a new skill!" I rushed to say, beaming. "I can detect enemies' presence through walls." I paused, looking expectantly at everyone. "Come on, guys. This is the time when one of you comes up with a plan."

While everyone remained silent, Dan slowly smirked at me. "That certainly gives me some ideas."