I picked up a piece of brick and threw it through the hole to distract the creature.

 

As soon as the stone hit the other side, the creature stomped its way toward the sound. It was about to run into the wall, but it kept going and walked through the wall, smashing it in the process.

 

Fortunately for me, with the smashing of the wall, the second and third floors on that side of the library and parts of the wall collapsed to block the creature from coming back again.

 

I used the noise of the collapsing library to smash the glass unnoticed and took the book.

 

The creature seemed not to have noticed that I was here and thought that the shattering sound was also caused by the collapsing library.

 

I quickly started running before the library further collapsed and killed me as it happened in my first life.

 

This time I was able to exit before the ceiling above me even started collapsing.

 

After this encounter, I noticed that the feeling of dread was not emitted by the creature from the library. The feeling was still coming from the same direction as earlier, not the library. The library was just on the way.

 

I planned to return now that I had what I came here for, but there was no other way than the direction where the feeling of dread was originating from and the library, which had by now collapsed enough to block my way.

 

The only way was through the seemingly never ending hallway that got darker the deeper in I looked.

 

I gulped hard and started walking. No use in waiting if there was only one way to choose.

 

The hallway had no windows, doors, or other hallways I could walk through. All the other hallways were already collapsed.

 

The further I went, the more cracks the walls had and the darker it got. The self-lit torches seemed to emit less light for some reason.

 

I was now walking for a few minutes already and the feeling of dread was getting much stronger and the torches were already unlit at this point.

 

In the distance, I could barely make out some light.

 

The exhaustion I was feeling at that moment already caused me to have to sit down. I should've read the book while it was still bright. It's too dark for me to search for spells now.

 

I leaned my back on the wall and closed my eyes. I whatever was emitting this aura wasn't moving and I couldn't face it with this level of exhaustion, so I went to sleep.

 

It didn't take long for me to fall asleep after closing my eyes. When I woke up again, I was feeling much better except for the hunger that I felt. Fortunately, I was smart enough to pack some food to keep myself satiated.

 

I took out the bread and went to eat. During my sleep, my body and mind had gotten used to the dread and I wasn't as scared anymore.

 

After finishing my breakfast, I drank a bit of the water I had packed as well and continued on my way through the long hallway.

 

I lost track of the time I had spent walking here, but when I reached the light my body had fully woken up.

 

I was now standing in front of a brightly lit door that was only half as big as the one in front of the castle, but it looked just as impressive. The aura of dread here was much much stronger than before and it caused my body to shiver all over again.

 

Whatever the cause of this fear I was feeling was, it was in there! I couldn't act rashly anymore. I decided to rest here to get my body used to the feeling before heading in.

 

I entered what looked to be the throne room of the castle. It appeared empty, but I knew that I wasn't alone.

 

It is hard to describe it. I didn't feel anything or anyone looking at me, but I could feel that whatever this thing was, was aware of my presence and waiting for me to walk into its hungry grasp.

 

I looked towards the giant throne, which was where I felt the feeling was coming from. Suddenly, a hand the size of an adult human emerged from behind the throne, followed by an arm and multiple other hands and arms like that on the other sides of the throne.

 

Whatever this thing was, it had at least over 10 such arms which it now used to push itself over the throne. I didn't see much of it, however, as the arms were so long and big and had way more than just one elbow to bend themselves with. These arms covered most of the main body and I couldn't make out its shape.

 

What I did see, however, was a big eye connected to its body by a very long limb that moved like a snake. That eye stared straight at me while this thing emerged.

 

With all of these arms, it was much bigger than the hallway I had just walked through, which was already bigger than the gate of the castle.

My body froze out of fear. I couldn't move my legs to run away.

 

'Snap out of it Elayna! You need to save your village.' I bit my tongue like characters in fantasy novels normally do in such a situation, giving me back enough control over my body to run away as fast as I could.

 

I stormed out of the throne room and ran down the hallway. As soon as I took a glance back and saw that monster thing breaking through the wall with the doors to follow me through the hallway.

 

Its arms grabbed the walls, floor, and ceiling around it to drag itself through the hallway that was too narrow and small for it, which didn't seem to bother it though, as it just kept dragging itself through, destroying the hallway in the process.

 

The only reason it hasn't caught up with me already was that the falling debris and the walls were slowing it down.

 

I stopped glancing back and kept running. Maybe the hallway it destroys can keep it away from me? Maybe the library hasn't fully collapsed and I can still fit through some of the debris that blocked the way.

 

No!

 

Thinking like this was hoping for something to happen without doing anything. I need to be able to do something, right? This was a dungeon after all.

 

I opened the book in my hands while I ran away. I needed a spell that could stop this thing.

 

'Flood, Earthquake, Dark Fire...' The book was indeed filled with mighty-sounding spells, but as I could only cast fire and holy magic as of now and I needed something that I could cast while running, I needed to search a bit.

 

Most of the spells that were holy magic or fire magic did not have the concentrated attack effect that I wanted or took too long to cast.

 

I needed a spell that was mighty and did a lot of damage, but that didn't make the hallway collapse onto me or even hit me due to the area of effect.

 

Holy magic simply wasn't as violent as I needed it to be, so I could only search for fire magic. There weren't many holy magic spells in this book anyway.

 

'Beam of Annihilation?' It sounded strong, if even a bit edgy, but that was not the point. It was a destructive and powerful but very concentrated attack. Just what I was searching for.

 

I started reading through it while running faster than I ever did before. Even then, that abomination was still slowly closing in on me.

 

I knew some basic magic and, thanks to my supposedly high fire attribute talent and comprehension ability, I was able to understand and comprehend what was written there. It was not Japanese this time though.

 

Back in my first life, I was the best student in school due to my comprehension skills, and even became class rep and student council president thanks to my capabilities.

 

The monster was just a few meters away from me now and was still coming closer.

 

I stretched out my hand towards it and formed a magic circle. It was pretty big and emitted a lot of mana.

 

'Please work!' As I thought that, the magic circle activated, and out of it shot a beam of fire that shot toward the monster.

 

It moved some of its arms to block the attack, but it did enough damage to cause the monster to screech and fall onto me.

 

Its falling body missed mine by a tiny distance and crashed into the ground, causing it to crack and collapse.

 

There has been so much collapsing in my life now that I am pretty sure surviving all of this with only an ordinary human's strength and body could already be counted close to a miracle.

 

The floor beneath us gave in and we fell down a tall room.

 

I will die if I hit the ground at this speed, so I quickly opened the book in the fall and was barely able to somehow cast the wind spell on the first page. It allowed me to slow my descent enough to only my left leg on impact. I didn't even know I could use wind magic, let alone learn this spell in a matter of seconds and cast it in less than a second. Maybe the talent measuring device was right and I had top talent in all attributes but just couldn't use any magic except for fire and holy magic for some reason.

 

I looked through the book to find a holy magic spell that could heal my leg or at least relieve the pain.

 

As I did so, the monster that had hit the ground with me started moving again to get up.

 

'Curses! Of course, it can't be this easy.' I thought and healed my leg with the first healing spell I could find.

 

I quickly got up and started running. There was only one way to go now, which was towards a door even larger than the hallway that we just fell down from.

 

I climbed through the mountains of debris that were lying around as fast as I could.

 

The monster had now gotten up and was unrestricted by the hallway, which also meant that it could move way faster than before and caught up to me in a few seconds.

 

I was now standing in front of the humongous door with engravings of a sword surrounded by tens of people that were incredibly detailed. Some of those people somehow looked familiar, but that wasn't what concerned me.

 

"Dead end!" I muttered. There was no way I could open that door if I couldn't even open the gate of the castle. They looked heavier and thicker than even the vault doors of my previous life.

 

I turned around just in time to see a ton of fists coming my way. That thing wasn't even trying to keep my body intact so it could eat me anymore. It was angered and just wanted to kill me now.

 

I was barely able to move out of the way of the fists before they could hit me, causing them to hit the doors instead.

 

The doors, however, didn't even budge nor get damaged in any way. The thing that shattered instead were the monster's fists.

 

The monster retracted its fists in pain and started approaching me again.

 

'This is it!' I thought 'This time I will die for real.'

 

I backed off in fear until my back touched the door. What came next shocked me and the monster equally. When my body touched the doors, they opened as easily as if they weren't there in the first place.

 

My body tumbled into the room. The monster, however, backed off and looked at the room in... fear?!

 

When I noticed its look, I turned around to look at what it was so scared of. And then I saw it.

 

A black and blue sword that resembled the one that was drawn on the doors.

 

The sword gave off a holy aura and an aura of incredible power.

 

I felt a force compelling me to walk up to it and pull it.

 

And that was exactly what I did. I put a hand on the handle of the sword and felt indescribable power fill me.

 

And then I pulled the sword out of its pedestal.

 

Suddenly, I heard a girl's voice say "Congratulations! You being able to reach this far and pull me out of the pedestal means that you have proven your origin, talent, intelligence and especially courage."

 

A blue light gathered in front of me and turned into a small fairy-like girl with horns and wings made of blades that gave off a blue, warm and mighty-feeling light.

 

"Greetings, Hero. I am Mytheria, the Hero's sword, and now your personal weapon. I am at your disposal, master."