I should’ve fuckin’ known in the beginning. I mean, how stupid was I to imagine that we’d have the library all to ourselves just because it was in the middle of the night?

They’re cultists, for fuck’s sake! And this is a library! Of course there’d be a librarian!

We ran into her within ten minutes of searching the bookshelves for what I remembered to be the “Enchridion of Agunta.” It was one weird ass name, but thanks to that, it wasn’t difficult to remember.

She was short, bespectacled, and cute. She had long black hair which reached below her waist and neatly trimmed straight bangs. Her overly-large round glasses made her face look smaller, which added to her cuteness. 

Not only that, but her outfit was just adorable! It had the usual black color scheme as the other cultists, but was more of a dress than a robe. If I had to equate it to something back on Earth, it’d be the spitting image of a gothic lolita outfit.

Basically, I was trying to say that she didn’t look like a cultist at all, except for the Agunta symbols that were on her dress and the fact that she was carrying the book we needed.

We certainly weren’t being attacked because I was stupid enough to be lured in by how cute she was.

Certainly. Not.

“Y-You still haven’t learned anything after our talk that night!?” Priya scolded me as she narrowly dodged a blast of purple-black energy aimed where she was just a moment ago.

“What!? How is it my fault!?”

“The fact that you’re not even admitting it is even worse!”

Okay. Maybe I was stupid enough to be lured in by how cute she was, but that’s only because she looked exactly like one of my favorite anime characters! I’m changing, Priya, I promise!

“Thanks to you, we’re split up now! Do you really want to let Antenora be alone with Lucrezia that much!?”

Huh? What’s up with Priya?

“I don’t know why you’re glaring at me like that, but... isn’t it fine? She’s Lucrezia’s servant, and the librarian’s focused on us.”

“...You are such a fool. Do you really think that Lucrezia was feeling dizzy earlier this morning from travel?”

“Wait... W-What the hell are you saying, Priya?”

I didn’t want to believe it, but what Priya was saying was perfectly plausible. I had no idea what Antenora would gain out of doing something like that, though. As I thought, I really needed to ask Lucrezia about the discussion she and Antenora had that night.

“Gah!” I gasped in pain as one of the librarian’s blasts struck me in the back. I really shouldn’t be thinking of shit that’d make me pause in the middle of running.

[Alert: You have been Poisoned.]

I dismissed the system alert and cleansed the [Detriment] using [Devouring Healing] before it started disintegrating my muscles. The magical poison in this world really was hardcore.

When we first initiated combat, I immediately used [Complete Analysis] on her to determine her strength compared to my own. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

Normally, I would’ve beat her ass with ease, but thanks to the buff she was receiving as the librarian, she had nigh-unlimited mana within its confines and could cast her spells instantly. 

Coupled with her high class levels in [Sorceress] and a massive overspecialization in poison and miasma magic, fighting her in this closed space was tantamount to suicide.

If I was by myself, I could probably still brute force my way into beating her through spamming [Devouring Healing] and slowly wearing down the thick miasma barrier that she’d manifested, but I doubted that Lucrezia or the others would be able to survive for that long inside the smog of poison that was rapidly filling the library.

“Stay where you are.” The librarian’s monotone voice rang out to Priya and I again.

“Hell no!”

Right now, the plan was to run around until Lucrezia and Antenora made their way outside of the library. After they signaled us, we’d either bait the librarian outside and finish her or I’d have to wait until Priya exited the library as well before throwing hands one-on-one.

Either way, we would have to beat her ass in order to get that book no matter how cute she was.

Fuck... I really should’ve just attacked the moment I saw her, huh? Well, you live and you learn.

Priya was still giving me a judgmental stare as we continued to flee away from the entrance of the library so I coughed and tried to change the subject.

“You know, I think it might be better for you to join Lucrezia and Antenora instead of trying to help me bait her outside the library.”

“Why?”

“If you keep glaring at me like that, I’m not gonna be able to concentrate.”

Priya pointedly looked away, and we continued running silently for a minute before she piped up again.

“There. Better?”

“Much better.” I grinned, letting the latest poison-filled bolt zip straight past me as I leaned to the side.

Honestly, I was only able to be this nonchalant about the whole thing because there was absolutely no way the librarian would be able to catch up to us. Her physical stats were way below mine and based on how Priya was having no issues avoiding her, they were probably way below Priya’s as well.

Not only that, but the librarian didn’t have any skills which allowed her to teleport or enhance herself. I was willing to bet that her usual gameplan when it came to combat was to just turtle up in that miasma barrier of hers while surrounding the area around herself in a shitton of poison just like what she was doing right now.

I doubt she even shot these poison bolts at people usually, which would explain her shit aim.

Honestly, it was a pretty smart tactic against your run-of-the-mill attacker. If they approached her, they’d die. If they didn’t, she’d just sit there or slowly advance toward them like she was doing right now. Plus, since she pretty much had unlimited mana inside of the library, she could outlast nearly anyone.

It was a slow and guaranteed death.

However, it was a different story when it came to me. Technically, it wasn’t her internal mana pool that was nigh-unlimited, but rather the amount of ambient mana in the air. 

The library was so mana-rich that she could just constantly draw in mana to replenish any that she spent. Even mana being consumed by [Devouring Healing] was instantly replenished.

Although I thought that Lucrezia could exploit this as well, it seemed that some sort of enchantment on the room prevented her from drawing in the library’s ambient mana. However, this enchantment only applied to the intake of mana into one’s mana pool.

In other words, it did nothing to stop skills like [Devouring Healing] which simply consumed the ambient mana in the air. 

I could simply spam the shit out of [Devouring Healing] even while inside of her bullshit poison and continuously cleanse myself until I broke through her defenses and put an end to her once and for all.

Based on the way that she was spreading her poison fog throughout the entire library, I was pretty sure that I could either break through her barrier using [Demonic Enhancement] or force her to focus on defending herself and stop the spread of the poison.

The sound of something shattering was heard above the entrance of the library.

Priya and I dashed out of the aisle that we were in and into the center hall that ran straight down the room starting from the entrance. Large chunks of ice were strewn over the ground. 

Lucrezia and Antenora had run just beyond the entrance after firing chunks of ice to signal us, safe from the poison fog that was now spreading itself to where they once stood.

I nodded to Priya who nodded back and immediately dashed behind me after I skidded in my tracks and whirled around to face the librarian.

I pointed to the book that she was clutching in her arms even as she advanced toward us.

“Give me the book and we can all pretend like this never happened.”

“No.”

She smiled smugly as she clutched the book tighter against her chest.

This bitch was taunting me.

I cracked my knuckles. Suddenly, I didn’t feel like baiting her outside of the library anymore.

What a shame.