Robert crossed the gauntlet between the void and reality. Colors returned to the world as he gently let Amanda down on the hardwood floor.

Donning their Minotaur armor, now a commercial production model, the two took in their surroundings.

They were in a depth three Realm, a labyrinthine library filled with ancient, magical tomes and artifacts. The shelves stretched endlessly, and the books whispered eldritch secrets.

At the edge of their vision, the books shifted on their shelves slightly, hinting at the danger of this place. It was filled with traps and living book mimics who could strike at any moment. A strong distortion field blocked all sorts of magical detection. Robert had to rely only on his five senses as even his fairy eyes were useless in that place.

It wasn't all books. Some shelves held tarnished artifacts and some obvious magical trinkets, such as a floating ball of water that endlessly splashed on a cup and floated back up.

"Let me take the lead," Robert said as he wrapped himself in his mage armor.

Amanda went right behind him, sparks jumping between her fingers, ready to zap any hostile tomes.

As they reached the first crossing after the passage portal, one of the bookshelves wobbled and dropped dozens of books on them.

The book mimics opened their covers, revealing sharp paper teeth and ribbon tongues, all coated in a strong and corrosive adhesive.

"Chain Lightning!" Amanda shouted as she raised her hands. Half a dozen lightning bolts shot from her fingers, striking the books and jumping between them, sending a shower of sparks and flaming paper debris down on them.

Robert placed a slanted Wall of Force above them and let the damaged books slide down. Some of them twitched. He fired a volley of magic missiles at them.

Amanda drew her sword and stabbed the book mimics. She wasn't about to repeat the mistake of a bunch of dead children kidnapped post-mortem by fairies. Once they were sure no monsters remained alive, they moved on.

*

*

After some time, they saw the first non-book threat. It was a gaunt figure, seven feet tall but thin as an anorexic waif. It wore a hooded cloak and frayed robes, leaving only two pinpricks of light visible behind the hood.

"Intruders," the spectral figure said with a British accent. "I have a spine but no bones—"

"You're a book," Amanda shot.

"Correct." The ghastly librarian said. "I'm not a tall building, but I have the most stories of them a—"

"You're a library," Amanda interrupted.

"Yes. That is correct," the phantom inquirer said, a little annoyed. "I have lots to say but never speak. I can open but you cannot cross—"

"Also a book!"

"Wait, what if he's an audiobook? Do audiobooks speak?" Robert asked.

"I don't know," Amanda said. "Is it the book speaking or the recording speaking? Hey, fashion disaster!" She addressed the incorporeal caretaker. "Is an audiobook even a book?"

"I don't know..." The librarian replied. "... what is an audiobook?"

"You lost three to zero. Let us pass!" Amanda demanded.

The ghost moved to the side and waved with a hand.

"Gosh, you are so smart, Amanda!" Spidersilk cheered from the shielded unit on Robert's shoulder.

*

*

An hour of fighting book mimics later, they reached the next phantom librarian.

"Riddle, riddle, diddle a fiddle," Amanda lilted.

"I have a spine, but--"

Amanda cut it off, "It's a Bo--"

Prescience warning him of Amanda's impending doom, Robert cut her off, "Bookkeeper!"

"Wrong!" The librarian flared its robes menacingly. It hissed at Robert and flew toward them.

Robert moved forward, sending a psychic attack at the monster. It flinched, pausing for a moment. Amanda sent a bolt of lightning, shocking and singeing the clothing.

The librarian faded and shot forward, ignoring the Mage Armor and entering Robert's body. It appeared inside his mind palace, outside the massive star fortress.

Cannon fire from the battlements rang thunderously at iRobert's command. The librarian's psychic projection was destroyed and its essence was absorbed.

Back in the library realm, Robert staggered. Amanda tugged on his bracer, "Are you okay?"

"Yes. I defeated it. Weird, the monster entered my mental palace. I think it was trying to possess me."

"Wow! Are you okay?" Amanda asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. It couldn't breach my defenses, far from it. But can we let the monster speak the entire riddle before answering?"

Amanda hated receiving chastisement. She made a face between disgusted and angry. But she had a strong sense of responsibility. After a while, her inner turmoil settled. "Okay, agreed."

Robert couldn't remember a single instance when Amanda had apologized. Maybe back in the Mollusk passage, when she ran away from certain death without looking back. And not looking back was what saved her.

She came a long way, in less than a year.

*

*

When they found the next spectral librarian, Robert raised a hand.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"I want to try something with this one."

"Take care," Amanda stayed behind.

"Answer me this, intruder! I hold knowledge yet I am dumb. But I'll give you answers if you can use your thumb!"

"You are a booksh... Books."

He said the wrong answer on purpose. The librarian moved to attack. iRobert then blasted the monster with his Mind Blackout spell, powered by his two stars. Once inside the monster's head, he dominated it with a beast bond spell.

He then had the creature enter his mind and his mind palace. It was a novel thing, to have a guest there. As an experiment, he ordered it to get out. It used thirty points of essence to summon the monster but it otherwise worked as intended.

"I caught it!" He said.

"I can see it," Amanda said and waved a hand at the librarian. "Is it undead?"

"Not really. It only looks undead but it is a psychic entity. It's body is an Ether construct. I believe that energy it used when you severed a limb is it's true self."

"Let's move on!" She urged.

Those buffs were expensive to keep up. But canceling them and re-casting all soon after was worse. They needed to keep going or make a long pause to recover essence. Amanda's impulsiveness made her choose the former

*

*

Robert stopped and raised a hand. "We found the head librarian. Are you sure you want to solo it?"

"Yup!" Amanda chirped. "I want to show you what I can do now! I didn't spend all my vacation going from omiai to omiai, you know?"

Robert was glad the mirrored faceplate didn't let her see his face. But he still felt bitter about that wasted vacation. They got separated right after they started dating.

"Good," his voice came dry and detached.

They cleared the last shelf of book mimics and entered the boss room.

The head librarian was eight feet tall and wore fancy mage robes. His body was white and desiccated, reminding them of a mummy but without the bandages. His long fingers ended in claws three inches long.

Behind him, floating over a lectern, was a scroll surrounded by a bubble of Force.

"Intruders. You are not welcome here!" It shouted.

Amanda started reciting her spells. It wasn't necessary unless it was a stage four or a unique spell but she wanted to let Robert know what she was doing.

"Superconductive Nerves. Hydraulic Flex. Nature's Wrath." She activated three buffs and vaulted forward. A sword appeared in her hand as she closed in and slashed at the librarian. A dark green energy wreathed the sword.

She moved almost as fast as Robert with his Haste buff. The spells moved her limbs so fast that her tendons and muscles were at risk of rupturing from the effort.

A white arm blurred to block the sword, drawing a loud clang. The Head Librarian hissed as the Nature spell jumped from the blade to his flesh, creating a dark patch on the pristine white arm.

"Shock Grasp!" Amanda shouted as she ignited both of her stars. A wild electrical discharge raced down her blade. The lightning wrapped around the Head Librarian sparks coursing over him. Paralysis set in for a brief second.

Her Water spells were basically puppeteering her body. At this rate, the Lightning spell that accelerated her reactions was struggling to catch up. But it was doing a good job of keeping up with the Water magic, easing the feedback damage.

"Flowing Blade!" Amanda shifted and moved the water in her body, adding strength to her backswing.

Another arm shot up to block, the claws bashing the flat of the blade away. On a graceful display of fencing skill, Amanda eased the force on her wrist and let the sword move along the block, spinning it around and chopping the forearm.

A purplish-black energy coursed inside the Head Librarian's body. It shot out of the stump, with jagged edges and a crackling sound as it moved. The physical limp dropped to the floor with a dull thud.

The monster clawed at Amanda. The energy claw went through her sword and poised to strike at her heart.

"Tesla Coil!" She shouted. Lightning moved in a loop around her chest, sending tendrils at the incoming claw. As the distance shortened, the lightning linking the spell to the claw intensified, breaking the claw down into flakes of energy that floated off and vanished.

Then, the remaining energy surged forward in an arc that fried mummified flesh and robes alike. The Head Librarian's clothes caught on fire.

Amanda's sword flashed as she delivered dozens of powerful attacks in as many seconds. Each delivered Nature's Wrath and a shocking grasp.

The Head Librarian was on its last legs. Staggered, weakened, dazed, and low on energy, it was too slow to catch the nimble and equally low-on-energy woman.

Robert thought Amanda had used more essence than she could have as a two-star Arch. Which only meant she got her hands on an Artificial Core Satellite. Knowing what he did about Samson, it was most likely a five-percent one.

She finished the monster by slashing its head off. More purple-black energy leaked but it was faint and almost transparent now.

A bell rang in the entire library as the shield protecting the floating scroll, their prize for clearing the library, went down.

The Head Librarian's corpse started to vanish as the Dungeon reclaimed it.

Before Robert could warn her not to, Amanda went and grabbed the scroll. The moment she touched it, green energy leaped out of her and dyed the scroll Nature green.

She unfolded it and read the spell. "Nature's Remedies; A heal-over-time spell," she announced.

Robert grunted. "Amanda, the client wanted the raw scroll! We were supposed to take it into a containment case.

"Oh, relax," she said and started to read the scroll. Bands of green runes detached from the vellum and entered her, settling inside her soul. The scroll crumpled to dust. "I'll pay the bounty value. Besides, we can run it again tomorrow."

"Fine," Robert said. "But you are matching any bonuses the client pays. We can do it tomorrow.

*

*

The next day, Amanda fought the Head Librarian using the same overpowering tactics as the day before.

"Your fencing skills really improved," Robert said.

"Thanks. I hadn't wasted my time during the vacation. Between meetings, I sparred with Tyrone every day for three hours."

Silence. Only the ruffling of the Head Librarian's robes and the creaking of their power armor could be ready.

Then a band of black flashed in front of Amanda's helmet, striking the Head Librarian's head and the bookshelves behind it. After it vanished and the room's lighting went back to normal, the head and the upper part of the Head Librarian's shoulders were missing. Along with a circular ascending hole on the back bookshelf.

“What?” Amanda shouted in surprise. The bubble released the scroll. She spun around. “Did something happen? Did you sense danger?”

Robert opened his faceplate. She stared at his face and felt the tension change. His feelings, his pain, it was all made clear to her. Amanda had no idea how to react to that.

“Babe,” she approached. Robert fought not to flinch. “Talk to me.”

He knew he’d screwed up. Despite all his powers, he still let his emotions get the better of him. Robert could only wonder what he would do if he didn’t have things like Jade Mind to help him keep his cool. Would he become a pathetic sobbing mess?

Robert used his primary talent to run away from the situation. He sat down, facing away from Amanda. Spidersilk landed on the raised faceplate of his helmet and reached down to touch his cheek. She leaned her head down, her hair dropping and swinging in front of his face.

“You should tell her the truth,” the fairy advised. “The trust you have in each other needs to be fueled by it. Also, I won’t judge you. It’s okay to cry.”

“Thanks. I think I just need some time to process this.”

“Are you going to use violence against the male who’s trying to poach your mate?” Spidersilk asked.

“Probably not.”

“You should. That guy gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

“Huh.”

“Did I use the word right?”

“Correctly? Yes.”

Her lips curled into a smug grin.

Robert did some soul-searching. He disliked Tyrone. He knew Tyrone had feelings for Amanda. The whole debacle about him punching him too hard during that exercise all the way back in book 1 (oops) was exactly because Tyrone saw Robert as a threat to his aspirations. And now this? Three hours a day every day, since when? Why? Wasn’t there any better close-quarters-combat (CQC) instructor other than Tyrone? And how CQ was that C training, to begin with?

He felt his negative feelings pouring out of his heart and mind. He had to work hard to push the idea of just removing Tyrone from the equation off his to-consider list. No. He should talk to Amanda first. Or not. He should just bottle it up and let Jade Mind make sure he would never have to readdress that.

He spent his time cycling his tempering techniques, purging dross essence out of his system, recovering essence (Void Heart only), and tempering more. The upper stages of tempering techniques required a lot of essence. It was heinously slow to progress.

When he returned, he was sitting down. Amanda knew he had used his talent the moment he suddenly shifted positions. Robert closed the faceplate and stood up.

“Robert, talk to me. What is wrong?” She asked.

“I misinterpreted something, then reacted badly to that. Sorry, my bad.” He said.

Amanda shook her head, then did her customary scan of his face to read his heart. “I know there’s more to that. But I also know you won’t talk about it right now. Whatever you are feeling, that’s okay. I’m a hundred percent with you. Okay?”

“Sure,” Robert replied mechanically.

“Let’s get the scroll and turn in the quest, then,” Amanda sighed. She’d later review the whole scene over and over, trying to find what caused Robert to react like that.