Novels2Search
DIVE
Dive 12: An Unexpected Quest

Dive 12: An Unexpected Quest

Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

Voice wanted info on alchemy so Susan told him to go the library. Once he got there he started and failed a quest. He made a LOT of potions. He dried the health potions into powders. He used those to make OP (Over Potions). He donated those potions to the church. He got a pan, and had it enchanted. He failed the librarian’s quest again. He also mastered knowledge on the green healing herbs.

Back guys!!! Three days isn't really that bad, right? Anyway here's the chapter for you guys. I have already started the next chapter. Minor spoilers:

Spoiler :

It talks about his past a little, it helps understand a small part of his view point.

Voice went to the library first thing in the morning. It was eight a.m. by the time he got there, just when the library opened. As he greeted the librarian, he started quickly arranging the books on the shelf by floor. He noticed the same book that he couldn’t find the location for last time.

“Hey,” he asked librarian, “So can I check this book out?”

“Sure,” the librarian replied, “but I do have to warn you, you won’t complete the quest until you can return the book to where it belonged.” The librarian smiled as she said this.

She was happy the thirst for knowledge had been kindled in this boy, and if he continued to fail his quest all the better.

He decided to check the book out. Since his workout yesterday was so effective in increasing his stats he decided to go ahead and do it again.

Might as well milk this thing for all it’s worth.

Improving on the method he had used in the past, he categorized the books by author, and for the third floor by content.

This should speed things up quite a bit.

After arranging all of the books he noticed the books had multiplied again. There were about ten thousand books to put away now. That was about 2.5 times the amount he had to do yesterday. He managed to do those in eight hours; so he could reasonably say that he could do these in about twenty hours.

Unfortunately he only had sixteen hours.

Well even if I don’t have a chance at success, I’ll still be able to increase my stats.

Voice ate an apple and a small bowl of porridge that the librarian offered him.

With his satiety full, he went immediately to work.

He worked for many hours, laboring tirelessly to finish the returns. For some books he even had to insert them between two authors that would be alphabetically outside them. He was exhausted throughout most of this, but thanks to his high stamina regen, coupled with the librarian providing food, he never got worn out. When he was about three quarters done, he had only spent ten hours.

I can do this! Voice was excited to finish the quest. The librarian might not consider it done until he had put the gibberish book away, but he would.

At the point where he figured he could do this he found a book that belonged to the first floor, but the interesting thing was that it was called a ‘translator’.

He asked the librarian about it, she said that they have translators for most languages. He could not find the location for the translator.

Realizing that the librarian probably wouldn’t tell him where it went he came up with a plan, which he enacted exactly two and a half hours later. It was ten thirty, the only two books he had left were the translator and the gibberish book.

“So where are the rest of the ‘translators’?” he asked, hoping to find under which author they were published.

The librarian smiled at him, “The same place you should have put the other one.”

Damn it, it didn’t work. Well can’t blame a guy for trying.

“Ok, you caught me, I couldn’t find the area. Will you at least give me a hint?”

She thought about it for a minute, “Sure, it doesn’t immediately help normal people.”

What is this a riddle?

You have been given a ‘Librarian’s Riddle’. If you solve it you will be able to gain intelligence, and the location of the other translator books.

Gah!

Voice was very unamused by the systems blatant taunting. It was starting to become a habit. It was done in such a way that he wasn’t really sure if it was taunting, but it had that quality that could only come from an intelligent being. He didn’t know if the VI was messed up, or if some engineer, maybe Bit-Bee, was messing with him.

He decided it was a matter for a different time.

‘Sure, it doesn’t immediately help normal people.’

The clue has to be in there somewhere, if I can just find it. Hmm, it doesn’t immediately help. Maybe the clue is the immediate part? But it also says normal people. So it might be of immediate help to people that are not normal. Abnormal people? How the fuck am I supposed to say who is abnormal. Depending on who you are different people would be abnormal.

Voice reasoned it out for a few very excruciating minutes. He decided that it didn’t go on the bottom floor because those books were designed with normal people in mind. At the same time it couldn’t go on the second floor as those books were for pleasure not help.

So I must have missed something on the third floor.

He had an hour and a half before he would consider it a failure for not returning the ‘translator’ book.

The title of the book was:

‘The Ancient Elven Language Translator (Elven Pre-Split)’

He didn’t know what the Split was, but this book would be newer than that, so he looked for references to the Split. Having nothing to go on it took him an hour to find a book about the Split on the third floor.

He found a series of books called:

‘Post-Split Elven Magic’

A series of books that glancing through, Voice could tell, researched the magical properties left in the area known as the Veil. The Veil was the place where this magical split had happened. It was so contaminated with magic that humans could not tread there without arcane, or elven help.

Since he only read for about two minutes he was quite proud of the information he had gathered. It also helped that the research put a synopsis of each chapter at the beginning.

You have gained the skill Speed Reading for reading books very quickly.

“Identify skill: Speed Reading”

Speed Reading

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

By doing tasks reading books quickly you have gained the skill Speed Reading.

Leveling this skill does not improve its abilities, unless a rank has been gained. For every rank you increase this skill you will read twice as fast.

To level this skill you must read books quickly.

He was excited for a new skill, but his time was running out so he ignored it for now. He looked around this area.

He quickly glanced through a few pages of the translator. It first gave alphabetical translation, i.e. a is £, then it went into words. It seemed as though all words would be directly translated into the corresponding ‘human’ word. Both alphabets had 26 letters, and each letter corresponded.

He read the entire alphabet in only twenty minutes. He realized he still had some spare time so he continued, forty minutes later he finished the book and received:

You have gained knowledge of the Ancient Elven Language. You may now communicate to all Ancient Elven type life forms.

This language does not allow you to communicate with High Elves, or #(&@^s.

Well, I guess that name probably means a different race. Maybe that is what the Split was.

You have gained three intelligence points for understanding a difficult concept without proper education.

Three whole points? That’s amazing!

Voice was very impressed. He didn’t realize just figuring out things like this could be so lucrative. He now only had half an hour to find the place where translators were kept.

He thought that maybe the translators would be in the cultural research section, because they would help translate for the people doing the research. They were not.

He finally gave up and went to give the book back to the librarian. She wasn’t there so he went to put it on her desk. For no reason in particular he went behind the desk. Then he saw it. There were a total of sixteen books in the hollowed out shelves behind the librarian’s desk. Since he had never been back here before there was no way of knowing she had books back here.

When he looked at the books he noticed that only two were translators, the other fourteen were in gibberish much like his impossible to place book.

The little snake! I bet the gibberish book goes back here too!

He place both books on the shelves. When he went to place the gibberish book on the shelf he noticed that he could read the book’s author.

It was a man(?) named Hermit Mirror, quite the odd name. He placed both books on the shelf.

You have figured out the librarian’s riddle. You have gained two intelligence.

You have completed the librarian’s quest. Talk to her for your reward.

Intimacy with the librarian has increased.

The librarian came in and sighed when she saw him behind her desk. When he had put both books back she knew he had figured it out.

“Alright,” she said in a bit of a letdown tone, “I told you I’d show you to her room. We might as well get this over with.”

She left without looking to see if he followed her. At first he didn’t; he was sure she had some other type of ‘test’ for him. When she didn’t stop he ran to catch up with her.

She took him upstairs to the third floor at such a brisk pace, he doubted that she was not someone obsessed with workouts.

On the third floor she went up to a bookcase that held no books. She gently pushed on the left side. The shelf slid noiselessly to the right.

For such a well hidden room Voice expected it to be a bit more lavish.

The room had brick walls, a small desk with a candle, and a large bed. The bed was the only thing in the room that was even semi-ornate. It looked extremely comfortable. Voice sat down on it.

“So when will she be here?” He asked this in a bit of an impatient tone.

The librarian replied, “She’s already here.”

She looked expectantly at his face. She was rewarded with a face that could only be described as saying: ‘I knew it. Obviously it was you.’

She was quite put off about this turn of events. “I really am her you know?”

“Yeah, I figured it’d be something like this. ‘Oh you solved the quest? Well here’s why the quest never mattered.’”

Lydia narrowed her eyes at him. She was hoping for a more shocked expression.

“Well now that you’re here, what do you want?”

She said this with exactly the same tone as the first time he came here. Voice was irritated that he had to do all of this work, and only got to meet her as a reward. Especially when they had already met!

Voice forcefully calmed himself down.

I guess I can’t be too upset, I did get a nice bit of int, vit, and end. Although I only got two vit today, and no end. I guess it’s because I got used to the exercise.

“Susan told me you could help me. I need a book for refining potions. I want to make potions with less impurities.”

Lydia thought for a moment. “Couldn’t Susan have helped you out? I mean she is an alchemist with some experience.”

“Maybe but I wanted to trying reading the material first, so that I can have a strong grasp incase I do need to ask her.”

“That’s kind of cyclical logic, but ok. They would be on the first floor. The author is Susan Perot.”

I guess France is a place here? Wait did she say Susan? It can’t be.

“Did you mean, like, that is my Susan?”

Lydia gave a suggestive smile. “Oh ho! Your Susan now is it? I’m sure she didn’t realize. I’ll make sure to tell her next time we meet.”

“You know what I meant.”

“Yes, it is YOUR Susan that wrote those. In fact most of the alchemy books here are from her.”

“Is she really that accomplished?”

“You should already know the answer to that. Well if that’s all you needed I’m going downstairs. Unless” She motioned towards the bed, “Unless you wanted something else?”

Voice gave her a flat stare and left the room.

The book was exactly where the librarian had said it’d be. He had took it to the front desk, and asked to check it out along with the book that was gibberish earlier.

She gave him a white card and told him to put a drop of blood on it. When he did, though dubious, he saw his name, age, and picture displayed on the card. He also saw three numbers, they were all zero.

Lydia explained, “This is your library card. If you want to borrow a book you must have this with you. The first one is free, if yours gets lost or stolen then you have to pay a fine of fifty silver to get a new one. It uses blood magic, so if anyone other than you tries to use it, it won’t work. Also the three numbers indicate, from left to right, the amount of books you’ve checked out, the current fine you have, and how many times you have had a fine. If you keep that last one at zero librarians are more likely to lend you more expensive or rare books.

Of course each library is independently owned, so the librarian there may refuse to lend you books. But having a low fine total will help persuade them. You have two weeks to return each book you borrow, if you don’t you are charged a fine, even if you are a few seconds late. The fine is equal to the value of the book plus ten percent. The time you can borrow the books is exactly two weeks from the moment you walk out of the library with them. You must make sure the books are given to the librarian that you borrowed them from in those two weeks.”

“Ok, I’d like to borrow these two please.” He told her, indicating the gibberish book, and the book on purification.

“Normally I wouldn’t lend that out to you,” pointing to ‘General knowledge of the unknowable’, “but since you have helped me out so much here, I’ll make an exception.”

He thanked her and went to leave.

“Oh, and the card turns different colors depending on how rare the rarest book you’ve borrowed is. That’s to help out other librarians to know if you are trust worthy. On the back it will give an exact total of the books you’ve borrowed. Just make sure you return them on time; I mean you don’t gain extra intelligence points for keeping them longer.”

“What do you mean?”

Lydia looked incredulously at him. “What I mean is that you gain int, by reading books you’ve never read before. Didn’t you know that?”

Voice felt a flush of excitement wash over him. He waved a goodbye, and returned to Susan’s place. His three rabbits woke from their slumber as he left the huge library doors. The stood up and chased after him, sometimes falling behind sometimes running ahead.

He had expected to leave today, but with this new font of intelligence farming learning, he decided to stay a while longer.

On the way back Voice looked over his speed reading skill. He tried to fuse it to all of his other skills. They all said that the skills couldn’t be fused. All except one. Speed reading and Automated seemed to be compatible.

Automatic Reading

Allows the user to automatically read books in their inventories.

Current level: Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%

This skill will automatically read books in your inventory. This skill does not need to be activated, but it also cannot be deactivated. This skill gains experience from using it.

The higher the level this skill is, the faster it will automatically read the books (stacks with speed reading). For every rank you gain in this skill, you can automatically read one additional book at a time.

Currently you can read one book at a time, at a rate of one page per four minutes.

This skill will compile all information in the book, and present it to the user. Any knowledge gains will be transferred to the reader.

Jackpot!!! He couldn’t wait to use this broken skill.

Susan was still up when he got to her place. Voice looked curiously at what she was doing. He couldn’t tell very with the dark atmosphere so he asked.

“What do you have there?” Voice could have sworn he saw her jump a little.

“Oh hi, I thought you said you were leaving town?”

Voice happily replied, “I decided to stay a while, I’ve discovered a piercing thirst for reading.”

Susan thought she heard a small spark of evil in his voice. She ignored it, “Well you are welcome to stay as long as you want. In fact, you can even help me by making some more potions to sell if you are so inclined.”

Voice thought about it; could prove useful read about the surrounding areas plants and their properties. He could then make potions out of them, but only if he had time.

He went to the room Susan had allocated for his use, and started reading ‘General knowledge of the unknowable’. He also noticed above the potion purification book was a small blue bar. He guessed it was the time until he had ‘read’ the book. He turned his attention to his other book. He read:

’This is one volume in seven that I have scattered across the lands of mortals. Read it if you wish to gain power. Stop if your thirst for knowledge can be easily quenched.’

Voice didn’t know what this book was going on about, be he decided to keep reading.

‘The city rose from the desert…’

As he finished that one line he felt himself… The only way to explain it was that he felt himself shift. Not from a physical force, but a magical one. As he was shifted he felt, and heard, a monstrous amount of wind pass by his head. Disoriented he looked around.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

What he saw both unnerved and excited him. He had been transported into a building, or at least what used to be a building, that sat under a green ominous sky.

The walls of this building had crumbled long ago. The only thing that was still intact was the archway he sat under, and a pedestal that held a book. Curious about why only this book looked undamaged by age he went over and opened it.

He was again shifted somewhere else to the sound of roaring wind. He noticed he still had the book ‘General knowledge of the unknowable’ in his possession. He began to read it to see if anything was in it that could explain what happened.

As soon as he opened the book he appeared back in the room Susan let him use.

Is this some sort of interactive book? Why the hell did Lydia not give me a disclaimer!?

He checked downstairs, and sure enough Susan was still working. She seemed unperturbed by the noise.

Or perhaps I’m the only one that can hear it.

He went back to his room and opened the book again, fully expecting to be transported. His expectations were validated. As he entered the story he noticed his three rabbits had come with him. He had not noticed them before.

I need to pay more attention to my surroundings.

He was in the same place as he started when he first read the book. He again went up to the pedestal holding the undamaged book. After opening it he was shifted to what he decided to call room two. He started compiling a mental map of the area as he walked.

He was in a large empty chamber. It was at least several tens of feet high, with a domed roof, and a large number of shelves lining the walls. It looked as though it could have been a library, except all of the shelves were completely empty. Nor were there any books in the chamber.

He instructed the trio of rabbits to stay near him.

If I need a distraction I can use one of them.

After they exited on one side of the chamber they came across a long, seemingly endless, hallway. On both sides were lined doors. All of the doors were closed, and all were made of the exact same wood. The exact same, even the grains and imperfections were identical.

Voice forced let Rabs go in the first door on the left. He told Rabs to let the group know what was in there.

After a few second Rabs came out.

“Nothing much in there sir.” Rabs said in his peculiarly high pitched voice. “Just a bunch of books, tables, and chairs.”

Voice decided to look into the room since he knew it was safe. He looked at all of the books. They were stacked haphazardly across the room. He randomly picked one up and began reading. He didn’t know how long it took him to read it.

It was a story about a brave knight that saved a princess. Typical fantasy story. Until the end, the knight took the princess to his castle. He had wooed and seduced her expertly. He took her to his ‘love nest’ and sacrificed her to his dark lord.

WOAH! Did NOT see that one coming! Voice was laughing. It was a good story. He quickly devoured the rest of the books in the room. They were all similar stories. Typical story that has a huge plot twist at the end.

He noticed that his rabbits had fallen asleep. He woke them up and continued on to the room directly across the hall.

It was a similar room as the one he just left. These books, however, were filled with stories of kings. All of the kings pretended to be peasants. The peasants would then gain a peasant rival. The king/peasant would then destroy the peasant in whatever game they decided, it was different for each book, then the king/peasant would consume the soul of the peasant.

I wonder if all of the rooms have basically identical stories in them.

He had Rabs run into the rooms first, then come tell them if there were any enemies. He kept careful track of each room they went into, even the order.

The rooms had no enemies. He didn’t know how long he was in this place, but he wanted to at least find the next place before he went back. He read a lot of books. By the time they had reached the tenth door he had read about two hundred books. He didn’t know how long each one took him because he seemed to lose focus for a second while reading. Then he would be done.

He continued this for several rooms. What the stories went like is:

The first room had a story about a knight saving, seducing and sacrificing a princess.

The second room had a story about a king that disguised himself, and beat and consumed the soul of a peasant.

The third room had a story about a young alchemist that went on a grand adventure, only to be tricked and trapped in another world.

The fourth room was about a young, ambitious, woman that desired power. She gained the power she so craved, but became a slave to the master that gave it to her.

The fifth room was about a man that came from another world. He came into this world only to be tricked by the god of knowledge to be trapped in the god’s realm forever.

At that point Voice started to get worried. Some of these stories sounded eerily like him. The fifth, fourth, and third rooms basically detailed his adventure in DIVE so far.

He continued on anyway.

Worst case scenario I lose a couple of levels and the rabbits.

At the sixth room he read a very interesting story about a novice enchanter that came upon a book by accident. The he sat in the same position for days doing nothing but reading the book. He did not even eat or sleep.

When he got out the enchanter developed major enchanting technology, including the use of mana manipulation to enchant gems to use in enchanting items.

Whenever he was asked about the book he would turn pale and start shaking. Eventually the enchanter got so bad he holed himself in his room. He was constantly enchanting things, but had no interaction with living beings. A few years after he read the book he went completely insane.

He built an army of enchanted iron golems. They destroyed the town that he had moved to, and had his castle built next to. After that any living thing that came near the man was killed by one of the hundreds of enchantments on his castle and golems.

The next three rooms he didn’t even pay attention to. He figured they just went along with the previous books. He still read them, but just didn’t pay attention.

He figured that if about half the books were about him, then the other half were about someone else. Perhaps a boss?

When Rabs went into the tenth room Voice heard a high pitch squeal. Troy and Heather were fearful, and tried to go help Rabs, but Voice stopped them. A quarter of a second later Rabs came out panting.

“There…,” Rabs tried to speak but was obviously too scared. After a few moments he said, “There is some black monster in there.”

“Calm down Rabs,” Voice tried to calm bait Rabs down. “Just tell us what he looked like. We can make a plan after that.”

Rabs looked as if he just saw a ghost, which he didn’t believe in. “You want to fight that thing?”

“No, I want to kill it. This is a great experience for all of us. We can all level up a little.”

Voice assured the rabbits they could win if they just stayed to the plan he had made before. Rabs was to divert attention while Troy tanked, and Heather attacked.

“Look, we either fight it now, or have it attack our backs.”

The rabbits decided that they would rather fight it head on.

Voice followed the rabbits into the room.

The figure was wearing a black robe made of some weird material, like frog skin. Voice approached it with his staff drawn.

When he was in range he gave the signal. Rabs jumped and hit the things face. Oddly enough the thing did not move until Rabs had hit it. It was as if the figure was in some sort of trance. Once woken, however, the thing was vicious.

With a swipe of its right clawed tentacle it sent Rabs flying into a bookshelf. The rabbit hit the wall and lay still, dazed by the sudden attack.

Troy went to work. He ran in front of Rabs as the creature went out another clawed tentacle to attack Rabs. Troy was struck, but barely managed to hold his ground. Heather had already jumped in the air when Troy had bolted to Rabs side.

Heather bit down on the thing’s left tentacle, hard. It drew some sort of green ooze. Voice decided it was blood.

Way to go Heather! Tear into that ‘fearsome’ beastie.

Rabs got back up on his feet, although obviously disoriented. He didn’t want his friends to die because he was weak. Troy was glaring at the tentacle thing, and its eyes didn’t leave him. The tentacle thing tried to flick Heather off, but was so angered by Troy that he couldn’t.

Troy lunged forward, only to be smacked by a clawed tentacle. Voice had taken the opportunity that the tri had made for him and snuck around behind the tentacle monster. He used his staff to deliver a decisive winning blow to the back of its head.

The ‘decisive winning blow to the back of its head’ never made it. He was stopped by the tentacle that Heather was attached to. As the tentacle blocked his staff, Voice noticed a face of delight on Heather. She seemed to be enjoying the taste of the monsters blood.

Voice shuddered slightly. That just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover.

Voice hit the thing again and again, and was reflected again and again. The pool of green blood on the floor was getting bigger thanks to Heather, but the monster seemed unaffected.

It had started attacking Troy, but would encounter strong resistance thanks to Troy’s natural body; or would be attacked by Rabs. Rabs would do a quick attack, diverting the monster’s attention for a moment, and Troy would close in to get agro. Voice would attack sever times to each of Troy’s one attacks, but all of his attacks were rebuffed. All the while Heather was happily chomping away at the tentacle in her mouth.

Voice noticed that the monster, although fearsome and with a long range of attack, had not moved from its initial starting point. He thought about this and made a new plan.

“Heather let go and run outside. NOW!”

She did as she was told, although reluctantly.

“Troy, Rabs, guard this side of the door.” They rushed to comply.

He looked the monster in the eyes. He slowly walked closer, apprehension growing in both him and the two male rabbits. He was worried about his body, they were worried about his sanity.

As he got closer he started to think of killing the monster, and the loot it would drop. At this thought the monster twitched, and sent out a tendril of ink from its mouth. The ink would have hit Voice had Rabs not sensed it and tackled his legs.

Voice fell over and forced a thankful smile on his lips.

Gotta make it look like I appreciate it at least.

He got back up and stared at the monster. He moved towards it, it remained motionless. As he approached he faked an attack. Nothing. He went for a real strike and was instantly blocked.

“I knew it!” He went to the door and called Heather back in.

“Alright guys, this guy reacts to bloodlust. If Rabs, Troy or I attack him we get stopped. The only one he openly attacked was Troy.”

Rabs interrupted. “I don’t mean to be rude, but it felt like he attacked me too.”

Voice smiled, “No, he just defended himself against your attacks. My guess is that if we can hide our bloodlust we can attack him.” Voice turned to Heather.

“Now tell me Heather, how did you not exert any bloodlust?”

She shrugged. “I just really liked the taste of his blood. It was like eating the most high quality carrots!”

Voice shuddered. I will never piss her off if she gets strong.

“Alright I need Troy to get his attention. Rabs when Troy gets his attention I want you to attack the monster’s left side. I’m going to attack the back again. Heather this time focus on clamping on his right side. That way both arms will be weakened a little. Ready?”

The all nodded.

“GO!” Voice shouted as he sprang into action. He ran up behind the thing. Once he made sure that the other two were in position he attacked. The tentacle thing tried to block him, but had sent an arm to attack Troy, and was knocking aside Rabs. Heather had just caught on his arm when Voice landed his first successful attack of the encounter.

It didn’t seem to do much damage, but the thing staggered slightly. Rabs continued his hit and run tactics, while Troy continued to dodge and endure the beating the monster gave him.

“Heather, start on his legs!”

She complied by dropping to the ground and attaching herself to his left leg.

“Rabs focus your attacks on its right arm; the place that Heather just bit!”

Rabs jumped to kick the spot Heather just left. He was about to be swatted away when a dull thunk sounded behind the monster.

Voice had hit the back of its head just as it was attacking Troy and trying to block Rabs. Voices attack, in conjunction with the monster’s careful coordination, forced the monster off balance for a fraction of a second.

That was all the team needed. Troy jumped at the monster’s face, while Heather planted herself on the ground and kicked at the wound she just created. Rabs landed his attack, and while Voice pushed from behind, managed to knock the thing to the ground.

He gained a point in leadership and two in logic for beating this monster.

As soon as the monster hit the ground the group heard a voice. It was a voice filled with terrible anger, as well as some bitter amusement. It came from the spot the monster had hit. As the monster hit it turned into a black smoke. The smoke coalesced into a face. The face was hidden by a shadow, and a cape.

“Well, well. It looks like someone finally managed to knock over an intellect. What is your name?” The voice demanded this in a tone that made it seem like disobedience wouldn’t be tolerated, but would be punished. The voice held and unimaginable amount of power.

Voice decided to answer, not out of fear, just because it’s be rude not to.

“Uh, um, I’m Voice sir. Voice0fReason. These here are my friends Troy, Heather, and Rabs.” He indicated them from largest to smallest.

“Very well Voice0fReason. You may read one book in this room. Know this though, the book you choose will gain knowledge of you, just as you gain knowledge of it.”

Voice looked around, there were a dozen books in this room. Each had a unique title. Voice decided on picking up the book entitled:

‘Mirror’s Boon’

He read the few words that appeared in the book.

‘Mirror’s Boon allows the user to create a reflection of his or her self. The reflection can be conjured once a day. It has no cost. The reflection is summoned instantly when the user wills it. It will last for three seconds, at the end of which it will dissipate and restore its full life, stamina, and mana to the user.

The life, stamina, and mana of this reflection equal

(.5 x user total) x (Light Affinity + Dark Affinity + 1)’

After he gained this new spell, he was stupefied. He was getting used to getting new skills, but this spell was amazing!

“Now,” continued the ominous voice, “There are six more books strewn across Solun. If you can find them then you will be given a great power. If you can complete the other books you will even be able to wield that power. These books are each a part of me. As you access them I will gain more power, the last book you find will lead you to me. You will either become my slave, or my master. You may access this book whenever you wish. As you continue on in rooms you will gain more mirror powers. Be warned that each room is several times more difficult than the last.”

With that he faded from the room. Voice leveled up once. His rabbits did likewise.

All in all, it was a pretty good hall.

The books Voice had not chosen had disappeared along with the floating head, so he decided to leave for now.

He read the original book that acted as a portal. He was shifted to Susan’s room.

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassAnimal TamerHealth130Mana180Stamina290Level4Current TitleBunny LoverHealth Regen/Sec1.3Mana Regen/Sec2.0Stamina Regen/Sec2.6Strength13Agility10Wisdom20Intelligence18Endurance26Dexterity25Luck10Vitality29Charisma11Compassion35Leadership36Logic12Piety10Fame370

Skills WindowIdentify Novice Level 9 Exp 15.56%Skill Fusion Novice Level 3 Exp 00.00%Identify Skill Novice Level 5 Exp 00.00%Herbology Novice Level 1 Exp 40.00%Gardening Novice Level 6 Exp 60.50%Plant Location Novice Level 2 Exp 50.00%Alchemy Novice Level 13 Exp 88.24%Planting Intuition Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Alchemical Fusion Novice Level 5 Exp 77.77%First Aid Novice Level 1 Exp 60.00%Deception Novice Level 3 Exp 82.50%Critical Strike Novice Level 6 Exp 75.00%Automated Novice Level 6 Exp 25.00%Auto Aid Novice Level 1 Exp 60.00%Alchemical Aid Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Speed Reading Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Auto Read Novice Level 19 Exp 52.63%

Affinities WindowNature10