In the meanwhile where he was fighting his enemy, Silvana had her own to worry about. Flying at dangerous speeds, she maneuvered her broomstick through the ceiling-tall bookshelves. Going after the bookkeeper that kept running away, she had become a bit infuriated.

Lorine raised her hand after dodging an array of paper arrows in front of her. On a finger’s tip, a small magic circle appeared before a large, fiery ball exploded towards the boss as fast as a flash of light.

Nonetheless, the attack missed, exploding a bookshelf beside her. Ducking together with her broomstick, the girl started avoiding the incoming strikes once again. Another flock of magical birds had come at her, but she was far too fast and nimble, despite being in the air.

A blue energy coated the broomstick and Lorine sped up even further, slowly catching up to the skinny, long woman floating through the air.

The book around her glowed brightly, making the witch prepare herself. Almost instantly, another paper wall appeared, trying to halt and impede her movement, but it was all for naught.

With a sharp glint filling her eyes, Lorine cast a magic circle on her body, a hard coating of mana appeared on her skin and broomstick, tearing through the paper as though it was nothing.

Beyond the wall, a surprise was waiting, but it didn’t catch her off-guard. Changing roles, the mini boss was surprised as Lorine almost doubled her speed all of a sudden. Standing up on her broomstick mid-air, she felt the robe stick against her body as the wind tried to make her fall down.

A circle appeared in her hand. Crushing it ruthlessly, the boss noticed how space around the place was twisting and contorting, something dangerous being created near Lorine.

A condensed magical spell. Appearing in her hand, the long, threatening spear made up from countless magic circles cut through the air, not letting the boss create any sort of a protective spell.

Right where her heart was, the space dissipated, along with her body. Behind the frail, golden glasses with cords, the already blind eyes lost any sort of gleam whlist harshly hitting against the circular, short register of the library.

Without even checking on the boss, Lorine quickly dismissed her spear before flying at horrifying speeds towards her partner in delving.

A minute later, she was already above them, watching as a certain, paper monster jumped around the place constantly.

The relatively big bunny interchanged between the shelves and carpet around the library, all while targeting the human boy. A few times, small rocks also appeared in the air, aimed at the same knight.

Yet, no matter how many times the bunny attacked, he seemed to reply perfectly, despite the many superficial wounds loitering his small body.

With each attack, the bunny became smaller and smaller, all until it simply fell apart, next to the other pieces of paper left on the floor.

“Fuu, that was annoying.”

Sighing, Conall turned to the girl above.

“Have you dealt with her?”

Nodding gently, Lorine came closer to the ground, gesturing for the boy to ride her broomstick, which he didn’t decline. Holding onto her waist safely, they traveled as quickly as she could muster, all the way to the center of the library.

Sprawled across the register, the bookkeeper was as dead as even an undead could be. In the hole Lorine had made, a large, blue crystal was pointing out, which they gladly took for themselves

A sudden idea also came over the witch, and she quickly used her broomstick to fly back for the books on the pedestal. While she did so, Conall looked over the bookkeeper’s body, especially her right ear, where a certain golden earring was.

Taking it off, he didn’t have to wait long before Lorine came back with a joyous look in her eyes. Emptying out her inventory ring, she dropped the five blank books to the ground, beside the mini boss’ corpse.

“What are you holding?”

She noticed the earring and couldn’t help but ask. being perfectly round in shape, it kind of looked like a bracelet.

“It’s one of her earrings. It seemed off for some reason, so I tried to inspect it. Though, I can’t use mana.”

Stretching out his arm, she immediately realized his message, pouring her mana inside while taking it away.

“What?”

She sounded surprised, feeling something very deep inside, hidden incredibly well. Swiftly nearing the accessory toward her eyes, an odd sight stood before her. The five books stacked on top of each other seemed to be leaking with mana from the inside.

Quickly opening the one on top, she started flipping it to the source of mana, which was in the very middle. Hundreds of lines filled the two papers on the laid-flat book. And when Lorine took away the jewelry from her vision, blank pages reappeared.

Laying out all of the remaining books in the middle pages, as though it was a puzzle, Lorine rearranged them before all of the pages made a small circle in the middle, a perfect size for the earring.

Placing it in the place, she watched as nothing happened, leaving her perplexed.

However, like a guardian angel, a voice from the side proposed a perfect idea to her.

“Maybe it needs the mana of the owner?”

Conall said, hinting at the library’s secret.

Taking away some of the bookkeeper’s blood, Lorine then poured it in the middle of the earring, instantly getting a reaction.

What used to be blank pages started to be inscribed with bloodied words. Despite the rank smell coming off of it, they kept on watching as the hidden letters of the books turned greenish-red while taking in the mana of the bookkeeper.

The newly-printed books lit up in a blue light, along with the golden earring on top of the books. Not able to do anything to it, all of the items began merging together, into one, coherent mass that resembled a small, compact key.

Looking at the small, golden key laying on the red carpet, Lorine grabbed it promptly before inspecting with her mana sense.

“It looks and feels like the most average key.”

She judged, as nothing could be felt from the inside. Seemingly, there were no inscriptions or enchantments on there, even though that couldn’t have been true.

Before long, they were already searching for the opening. First, Lorine and Conall checked the place they hadn’t yet visited, which was the registry. Going behind the round counter, she spread her mana sense underneath the wooden parts, however, nothing was there, all possible papers already stolen.

So, they needed to scour through every part of the library, both the sections, as well as the outer walls where there were bonus bookshelves. Had they searched through everything, it would probably take more than twenty-four hours.

Of course, Conall didn’t plan to spend so long here. Splitting themselves into two for a quicker search, he moved where the actual keyhole was.

“I think I found something!”

He screamed, letting his voice travel through the library before awaiting the reaction. Roughly two minutes later, Lorine was already beside him.

“Already?”

She stared at the bookshelves, at the very top, right where Conall climbed up.

“Lucky, I guess. Though, can you help me?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Conall grabbed the key Lorine had been holding before looking above. He was at the very top, right where the ceiling met with the colossal book storages.

Gazing at all the mythical creatures and heroes painted on it, his eyes traveled to somewhere. Flying with Lorine using her broomstick, he quickly went to where the keyhole was, strategically painted over so no one could see it.

Baffled as she herself still couldn’t see it even though he was already reaching out for it, it was no wonder people of the past weren’t able to find anything.

Putting the golden key inside, once he turned it, they could hear a loud, clicking noise spread throughout the great library. At the same time, the duo felt a large mass of mana moving above, inside the ceiling.

Hearing something, they looked up ahead and saw straight, dark lines appear on the painted, interior roof.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Going down before anything bad could happen, a long flight of stairs flowed downwards, positioning itself on the floor. The carpeted, red stairs led right above the registry, a dark opening at the end of it.

Glancing at each other, they didn’t wait any longer and simply flew straight to the top using Lorine’s broomstick.

The duo landed on the stairs only a few steps right before the hidden entrance, their surroundings quickly changing as they entered a small attic compared to the giant library. Being a round room that was only three meters in radius, as well as dark and unkempt, littered with cobwebs and dust, it was a starkly different environment to the well-maintained library.

Nonetheless, stepping on the bare wooden planks, Lorine lightened the surroundings with her mana, her jaw almost dropping looking at the piles of books.

Despite the room being dusty and partly dilapidated, the books remained in pristine condition, as though they had a barrier around them that negated any harmful particles.

The witch couldn’t help herself, and she quickly went through the piles after leaving a magic circle on the short ceiling to light up everything.

After a while, she had already gone through every first page of nearly all the books, realizing that most of them were either documentations of the royal family or the history of the lands from thousands of years ago. However, there was also something she desperately needed.

It was named simply, but it held a lot of value. Staring at the title of ‘How to control mana’ in old calypian, Lorine couldn’t help but wait until they went out of the dungeon.

There were also a few skill tomes she found, but they weren’t of value to neither her, nor Conall, at least most of them.

Looking at the two, certain books in his arms, Conall smiled with satisfaction. On his left, he held what seemed like the embodiment of death and misery, while on the right, the book was green as a forest itself.

Storing the grimoire, and the skill tome in his inventory ring, as well as most of the books and scroll papers, they emptied the stash, not caring for any future dungeon delvers.

Conall held no sympathy whatsoever, because he didn’t want to waste the valuable books that would get lost in the world otherwise. Although he felt bad for lying to the dean, he really didn’t intend to conquer the dungeon, but destroy it, on the other hand.

Once the Order had gotten hold of it, it was only a matter of time before the ancient curse stored here destroyed half of the continent after they released it.

Taking out a light scroll from his ring that they found here, Conall opened it before asking the girl.

“Want to visit the baths?”

…

Steam filled his vision while the large, luxurious bath started to overflow before moving down the drains on the marble floor. Going close to the wall, near the lion head that poured out abundant amounts of hot water, Conall slowly stepped inside the bath, feeling the warm and pleasant herbal water with a light teal hint soothe his body.

Taking off the towel around his waist as he lowered himself into the bath, he put it on the bath’s edge, where he also leaned his back onto.

Even better than when he bathed in the warm lake inside the cave back in Zineall’s domain, the boy felt as the water went through each pore of his skin, rejuvenating his body.

Relaxing in the water, he stared at the wall beside him, which separated the baths into two. One was for men, while the other for women, with no inbetween.

However, the wall wasn’t fully connected to the ceiling, leaving some open space for conversation.

“Is it not too hot?”

He asked the person that side right by the other side of the wall. Without waiting too long, a soft reply came back, a light smile spreading on his lips.

“No, it’s perfect.”

Judging by the voice, she clearly enjoyed the bath.

Time flew back quickly as they relaxed in the warm water, soothing both the body and the mind together. However, it didn’t take long before Lorine finally asked something which had been stuck with her.

“Conall?”

“Yes?”

Doubt gathered up in his yellow eyes as he heard a weird tone within her voice. It was… embarrassed? He thought, but he couldn’t be perfectly sure.

“Back when we were in the Lohi Mountains, I listened in on you and Juliette. You know, about the two of you forming a party.”

“I know. I felt the mana falter the same way when you realized I was a half giant.”

“I see. I’m sorry for eavesdropping back then.”

“Don’t be. It was our fault for being so loud.”

For a few seconds, the baths were completely silent, only the flowing water disturbing it. However, Lorine quickly voiced her words, leaving him stunned, plainly because he didn’t expect them.

“And, have you formed it?”

“Yes, but we did it mainly because of a problem she’s facing.”

“Is that so? … Conall?”

“Yes?”

“If I ever wanted to form a party with you, would you agree?”

‘What’s gotten into her?’

Although he had that abrupt thought, he quickly cleared his head up before replying.

“Well, I don’t think I would ever be able to decline, even if Juliette disagreed. So, the answer is I would.”

“Thank you.”

“Could you repeat? I didn’t hear you.”

He asked, hearing only an inaudible mumble beyond the wall. She wasn’t willing to, though. It was almost as though he could feel the smirk behind her face when she said the next words, making him think that the hot water got to his head.

“No, it’s nothing. Instead, can we tell more about ourselves? Everything we’ve done so far was a favor in exchange for another one. And I don’t want that. I wish for our friendship to have an actual frame.”

Maybe it was weird. After all, she had already revealed quite a lot of herself during her talk with Midena and Harmis, but at the same time, the meaning was completely different. Hearing the question, Conall couldn’t help smiling, forgetting about everything prior.

“Alright, we can do that. What should I start with, then?”

He asked himself, staring at the mana lamps on the bath’s ceiling.

“I was raised in a small village named Avanam, a few kilometers from the border of Etra and Taeyr.”

“Avanam? The home of the forsaken hero?”

“Yes, Saffin of Avanam came from there. The one that died trying to fight the guardian.”

“What did you do there?”

“I had a quiet life. The only things I used to do was train my sword while my mother watched from the side, gardening.”

“What about the scars? Ah, I’m sorry if it’s something you don’t want to talk about.”

With a chuckle, he calmed her down.

“I don’t mind. These scars are from when I was a child, running around the forest while killing monsters. Although mom used to always scold me, she always treated me with magic right after.”

“Was she a mage?”

“A pretty good one at that, though she never told me her level. Right, I don’t think I ever told you. I’m level twenty seven.”

“Is it because of your giant’s soul? I didn’t understand it when you spoke about it with my parents.”

“It is. Unlike a human’s soul, it needs ten times as much experience, the most out of any creature on Hestrea. Even beasts and monsters have an easier time.”

“What?”

Bewilderment struck through her voice, as she couldn’t believe him. At the same time, a sudden idea came through inside her mind, thinking that Conall was pretty much the same as her.

“Was your father a-”

He didn’t let her finish.

“No, that bastard is only a human scum that left my mother. My soul is only the result of me being cursed.”

One more time, shock overfilled Lorine yet again. Another curse? Didn’t he already deal with a curse using her father’s heart?

Chuckling inwardly, he knew what she was thinking.

“There are still a few you don’t know about, but it was a result of my wish and the goddess’ work, so don’t worry.”

Silence spread on her side as she tried to think of his words, not pressuring him on the controversial topic.

“I really can’t figure you out, no matter what.”

“You don’t have to. You will naturally understand me.”

“I will trust that, but what if you’re wrong?”

“Then that means I must have failed.”

Having said that, another spark of silence met its way inside the baths. Only after a minute did Lorine finally speak. This time, it was her to reveal some things, looking for ones she had forgotten during the first and last stay with her parents.

“I don’t remember much of my time there, but my master always told me she found me in the streets of the empire, on the brink of either death or becoming a slave at a black market.”

The boy listened to the story intently, unable to interrupt.

“I quickly became a part of the Witch Tower, but that was all it ended with. Despite being hailed as a generational talent because the Tower Master took me under her wings, the other witches quickly realized my problems.”

“I always had problems with my mana control, right from the beginning of my journey as a witch that had an eternal body, but didn’t have to sacrifice a part of herself.”

“As a child, I wasn’t even able to make mana flow properly through my body because it suddenly stopped listening to me. Quickly, my status as a prodigy was forgotten, overridden by other, more talented witches. However, despite my troubles, master was never angry at me while always comforting the untalented disciple of hers.”

He didn’t agree with the last statement, and he didn’t fail to show his thoughts.

“How is your mana control the best out of everyone I have seen, then?”

However, with a dejected voice, she quickly replied.

“It isn’t, truly. Because of it, I’m not able to go into Grade A, and I had to sacrifice a lot to receive a fraction of other witches’ powers. Sleep, emotions, even parts of my body, I sacrificed them to enhance my control, only to be able to reach Grade B.”

“I’m sorry, I had no idea.”

“It’s fine, I can only thank you for the kind compliment.”

Lorine began explaining to him the rest, especially how she went to the academy, in search of her parents and to enhance her mana control, as well as to get away from the countless witches that ridiculed her.

Spending some more time bathing and chatting, they left it after a while, heading towards the stairs leading to the first floor using the map they obtained in the library’s attic.

…