"How are you feeling?"

"KYAAAAAAA!"

I ended up letting out an embarrassingly girly scream. I quickly scanned the room to try and find who talked, but the only "living" things in the room was me and the shadowy snake. Wait, can it . . . talk?

To confirm my suspicions the snake looked up at me and repeated "How are you feeling?"

Its mouth moved but the expression on the mask didn't change. While it may be asking caring question, the sentiment didn't really get across for a blank, soulless face sprawled over its front side. For now I decided to answer honestly with,

"Uhhhh... I feel a little confused, I guess?"

No response came from the snake. It just continued to stare at me for awhile. It seemed to to lose interest after the silence started to feel awkward and returned to staring into nothing in particular. 

Honestly seeing Mi'ara's face in a constantly emotionless state is unsettling. Whenever the snake stares at me I feel like its looking inside of me. Its almost like its watching the chemicals in my brain work in real time. I really don't like it, but there's not much to be done about it. The thought of striking it down comes to mind, but is quickly dismissed. It doesn't seem hostile and besides I couldn't slay something with my wife's face, even if its a blank version of my wife's face.

Putting the snake aside, I decide to start investigating the area more. Seeing as there's a ton of books, I decided to pick one up. The contents of the books seem to be complete gibberish, like someone had a stroke at their keyboard.

"Like seriously, how the hell are you supposed to pronounce 'wavbuoy ryktifv'?"

"BRUH"

Was that the bruh sound effect just now? Looking around, there is still nobody here except me and the snake and I doubt the snake is capable of perfectly replicating that soundbite. My body also became slightly more transparent, not a lot but its noticeable. Did I...?

"Wavbuoy ryktifv"

"BRUH"

Yeah, I just stumbled upon a new spell by complete accident. After experimenting I found I can replicate pretty much any sound I've heard before perfectly. I have become a soundboard. Seems like a wind based spell, so definitely not dragon magic. I didn't realize that apparently there were normal spells I didn't know.

Another revelation that this has provided me is that my current form seems to be made entirely from mana. Using spells makes me fade away as my reserves get lower and lower. Makes sense that the soul is made of mana I guess, but I should probably avoid dragon magic as that'll drain me real quick. Who knows what'll happen if I run out of mana completely. Nothing good I imagine.

Maybe I should try and find some mana recovery items, natural mana regen by itself is kinda slow. Actually, considering my gear was all left behind, it might be worth using some of my precious mana to enchant whatever random object to help increase mana regeneration. Items that provide passive mana regen were rare in-game and often came at a cost, although there's one I might be able to replicate.

 If I remember correctly there was a character in the game, named Yulk, who enchanted a tome they used to keep track of magic spells they could use. The book could be acquired through a side quest if you did it in a certain way, resulting in the Yulk's death. The item provided passive mana regen each turn at the cost of your max health due to Yulk's spirit cursing the book. The book probably already had the mana regen when the Yulk was alive though, as either choice you make, you end up fighting him in the side quest and he passively regens mana during the fight.

I considered just grabbing any random book and enchanting it but I think I should try and copy the state of the book as perfectly as I can. Maybe it being a book of spells is important. The first book I read that taught me the new spell might work, but after trying to say the other words, only that first one I read was a spell. Well there's bound to be blank paper here somewhere considering its a library, so I got to exploring. The snake even decided to follow me.

--------

After walking around until my ghostly feet became sore, found nothing I could use to write a book. All the rooms I've encountered have looked exactly the same. The only difference is the jiberish inside the books. While perusing them I've even found some that make the occasional proper word. Hell in one I found a grammatically correct sentence. I have no clue how these books are written. Maybe its a different language?

While I haven't found anything I've been looking for, I have started to hear a distant clickety-klack kinda sound recently. Sorta like someone operating a typewriter. I've changed course and started heading toward it.

It was kind of a bitch to find based on sound alone because of this libraries repetitive architecture, but I eventually came across the source of the sound. It was a shadow in the shape of a monkey typing away at a typewriter. Maybe it's willing to let me use it? 

"Hello there! Can you understand me?"

Judging from the shadowy figure's sudden movement, I seemed to have startled them. Upon looking at me for a second they seemed to relax and spoke,

"Ahhh, you're the pest control that the death god was supposed to send."

"Pest control? I'm not quite sure what you're talking about, but can I use your typewriter?"

"Hmm? You're a strange case. Usually only those who have gotten on the death god's bad side don't get debriefed, but you also have a prize from the boon wheel."

"Uhhhh... Are you just gonna ignore my question?"

"Well I suppose I'll have to fill you in. This library is a collection of every piece of literature ever written. However it recently has been disturbed by a brutish beast. Your job is to kill it."

"Can I use the typewriter after I kill this beast?"

*sigh* "sure."

Thus began my quest to kill whatever this beast is.