Oz stiffened. He looked around. “What was that?”

Another screech rattled through the air.

The wind blew through the grasses, a lonely whisper. The four of them stood still, completely motionless, lone trees amidst the sea of grass. Heavy heads of grain beat their hips as the grass swayed.

A dozen meters away, the grass shook. The disturbance shot toward them.

Roan drew his sword. Linnea backed behind him, her eyes wide, hands close to her chest. Oz clenched his fist. A book…

Aisling leaped forward. Her hand darted like lightning, snatching something out of the grass. She froze, then snorted.

“What?” Oz asked, nervous.

She turned, holding Sid by the scruff. The calico gave them all an exasperated, heavy-lidded gaze and meowed.

Linnea laughed aloud. Roan rolled his eyes, sheathing his sword.

Oz stood, shaking his head. He reached out for the cat. “Sid, girl, your hunting cries are too—”

The grasses burst open behind Aisling. A massive, pitch-black spider reared up behind her, bristles jabbing out from its carapace, fangs bared.

“Aisling!” Oz screamed.

Throwing Sid to Oz, Aisling spun. Mid-spin, her foot snapped out. The spider’s head burst open, splattering yellowish ichor across the grasses.

Roan frowned. He stepped forward, squinting down at the giant corpse. “Spider demons? But why…?”

From out of the grasses, black, bristling bodies pushed forth. Glassy, unblinking eyes turned toward the four of them. Each spider stood at least as tall as Aisling, bulbous, hairy abdomens drooping from their eight meaty legs. One of the spiders trembled, and a shrill screech escaped its fangs.

Oz whirled, narrowing his eyes at Linnea. More bugs?

To his surprise, Linnea backed away. Eyes wide, she blinked rapidly, horror written all over her face. She sprinted toward the World Door.

“Hey!” Oz chased after Linnea. Jumping out of his arms, Sid ran alongside him, her ears tucked flat against her head.

Behind them, Roan ran toward Aisling, drawing his sword again.

The World Door slammed shut before Linnea could reach it. Before Oz’s eyes, golden light shone over the door, bursting with a top-to-bottom sheen, then vanishing.

Linnea slammed into the door. She struck the barrier and bounced off, falling back into the ground.

At the same time, a loud bam! sounded in Oz’s ears. He flinched. “Ow!”

Climbing back to her feet, Linnea rounded on Oz. “Let me in!”

Oz pressed his lips together. “I didn’t lock us out. The library did that itself.” He looked at the tattoo on his forearm, turning his wrist. Scanning his eyes over the symbols, he held his breath. I recognize some of these symbols from the books. Something useful, something…

Oz froze.

A single tick marked his wrist. The count of occupancy remained at one, not zero, despite all of them standing outside.

Someone’s still in the library. That last tick… it didn’t count me?

Shit! I was careless. Oz spun his wrist again, looking for a symbol that meant barrier, or unlock, or anything useful.

As he twisted his wrist, one of the symbols gleamed silver. Oz jabbed it, hoping for a miracle.

Instead, he received a message. A deep male voice played in his head. Library is auto-locked due to impending danger. When the library is safe, the door will unlock automatically.

“That’s great, but I’m on the wrong side!” Oz grumbled.

Library is auto-locked—

“Thanks, yeah. I get it.” He jabbed at another symbol. Another message played in his head.

Library defenses cannot activate outside the library’s perimeter. Barrier, Attack, and Expulsion inactive.

Oz twisted his lips. “Damn.” It makes sense. The library’s barrier isn’t going to save me if I go for a stroll around town, and this is a secret realm, and entirely separate world from the library.

Still, that’s annoying. Aren’t the defenses meant to keep me alive? Hey! I’m dying out here!

To his surprise, the automated voice replied. Library defenses do not protect the Librarian. Library defenses protect the Library.

Oz scowled. Why does it make so much sense?

“What? What’s happening?” Linnea demanded

Oz threw his hands up. “It’s auto-locked. We’re stuck here until the danger passes.”

Auto-locked… or whoever’s still inside locked us out. Oz pushed his suspicions away. Now isn’t the time. The message said it was auto-locked. Unless the person inside is able to communicate through my library-control tattoo, I’m just being paranoid.

Or they’re able to activate the library’s automatic protections…

“Useless!” Linnea looked around, then sprinted off behind the World Door.

“I’m pissed, too,” Oz complained. He looked over his shoulder.

Heat simmering around her fist, Aisling smashed a spider’s head in. A wave of fire chased after her fist, scorching it to a crisp.

Hissing viciously, another spider struck at her from behind. Its fangs closed on bare air as Aisling’s body blurred. She reappeared behind it in a shimmering heat haze, skin glowing from within, and stomped the spider with both feet. The spider crumpled to the ground and laid still, oozing out.

Beside her, Roan flourished his sword. Light refracted off the blade, beaming right at the spider’s eyes. Screeching in pain, they hid their eyes with their forearms.

Seizing the moment, Roan closed the distance. His sword flashed, and the spiders fell in pieces.

They’ve got it handled. Linnea and I need to focus on escaping and surviving. Oz whipped back around. “Linnea—”

Linnea backed away slowly, her hands trembling.

Easily twice the size of the other spiders, an enormous spider loomed over Linnea. Eight flat black eyes gazed down, motionless, dark as night. The spider bared its fangs.

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Oz reached out. Instinctively, his qi surged. His hand clamped down on a solid, heavy volume. Swinging with all his might, he smashed Gossip into the side of the spider’s head.

Linnea staggered back. She stared at the book in his hand, startled. “Where—how—”

“No time!” Oz grabbed her arm and ran, sprinting across the grasses. I don’t know, so I couldn’t tell you if I had time!

He ran back toward Aisling and Roan, only to find them surrounded by a sea of relatively smaller spiders. Averting his steps, he raced off into the grass instead, drawing a right angle from the huge spider and the spiders attacking Aisling and Roan. Fuck! Where am I supposed to go on these wide-open plains?

A chirp sounded from beside him. Sid galloped up, turning her head to make eye contact. She turned away, leading him out into the grasses.

“Got it!” Oz chased after her, still dragging Linnea.

“You’re following the cat?” Linnea asked, flabbergasted.

Oz rolled his eyes. “Do you have a better idea?” Sid probably knows this place better than I do.

She pointed. “The lake. We can hide underwater!”

“I have to breathe,” Oz reminded her. Do mages not have to breathe?

“You don’t know a turtle breathing technique?” Linnea asked, exasperated.

Oz hesitated a moment, running through all the techniques he’d read as they ran. Most of them were the most basic of basic techniques. Breathing. Qi circulation. The basics of beginning to learn magic. Few of the manuals he’d read so far included techniques of any description, magical, turtle breathing, or otherwise. Some of them described hand-to-hand, sword- or weapon-combat, but none of the ones he’d read covered turtle breathing.

He shook his head. “The first floor is all basic manuals. There aren’t a lot of magical techniques. It’s almost all basic theory and breathing techniques.”

Linnea grimaced. She shook her head. “Useless.”

Oz looked over his shoulder. The giant spider scuttled after them, eyes flashing with vicious anger. Giant black spider… Roan called it a spider demon. Opening the bestiary in his mind, he flipped to the spider demon page.

Spider Demons. A large variety of these creatures exist. From hairy tarantulas to venomous black widows, these ferocious beasts possess a near-boundless hunger, and yet, an uncanny patience. These solitary creatures build dangerous traps, then lure unsuspecting victims inside. Once wrapped in their thread, little can break you free. A venomous bite will finish you off and dissolve your insides for—

Oz closed the book. He whirled, running back toward their lunch. Something dragged them out of their webs. If I had to guess, based on that entry—these spiders are hungry!

“Oz?” Linnea shouted, startled. Looking between him and the lake, she hesitated.

“Run!” Oz called.

The spider bore down on Linnea. With a hiss, it stood tall over her. Venom dripped from its fangs.

Frozen, Linnea gazed up at it. It gazed down at her. For a moment, everything stood stock still.

Oz reached into his robes and threw one of the roots at the spider. It isn’t pork, but it smells like pork. Maybe it’ll distract it!

The root bounced off the spider’s head. It skittered to the side, rounding on the fallen root. For a second, it hissed at the root, but then those glassy eyes locked onto Oz. The two of them stared each other down, Oz gazing up at the enormous monster.

Oh, fuck. I distracted it.

With a hungry roar, the spider leaped toward him.

Turning, Oz sprinted for the pork pit. Grabbing up the mostly-intact pork leg, he brandished it at the spider. The charred bone burned his palms. He ignored the pain, holding on for dear life. “Here it is! Come and get it!”

The spider jumped, reaching out with its forelegs. Oz tossed the pork leg away and rolled to the side. The spider grabbed the pork leg with its front legs and twisted its abdomen under itself, pointing its spinneret at the pork leg. Manipulating it around and around, it began to wrap the leg in silk.

Oz backed away, watching the distracted spider. He turned. Aisling and Roan continued to tear through a seemingly endless number of spiders, wandering further and further from Oz and their picnic spot.

He frowned, pulling up the bestiary entry again. Hold on, there’s something wrong here. Solitary creatures? Build traps? But here they are, charging across the plains en masse, not a trap in sight.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think someone had riled up these creatures to try to kill me. It’s not like I have something extremely valuable that someone has tried to use bugs to get from me before… oh, wait. He turned, looking at Linnea.

Linnea sprinted off in the other direction, racing toward the lake at top speed.

Oz clicked his tongue. “Sid, can you follow her?”

Sid chirped. She leaped into the grass and vanished.

In front of him, the spider continued to wrap up the pork leg, totally distracted. Oz looked at its distracted rear, putting a hand on his chin thoughtfully. He weighed Gossip in his hand. I somehow summoned Gossip. How?

He held his hand out flat before him, picturing the bestiary at the same time. Nothing happened.

Oz frowned. A second later, he rolled his eyes at himself. Right. Qi. Magic doesn’t just happen, it needs qi to fuel it. Again, held his hand out, but this time, he circulated his qi to his hand at the same time, calling to the sensation, the memory, the scan of the bestiary. In his mind, he reconstructed the book, ordering the qi in his palm into a copy of the scan.

The bestiary dropped into his hand, falling open to an illustration of a giant centipede.

Unthinkingly, Oz closed it. He stiffened, then let the book fall open again. The page on giant centipedes spread wide. The illustration of the centipede curled across both pages.

After all the bugs lately? That’s a bad omen.

He snapped the book shut.

Bad omen or no, receiving the book is a good sign. If I can summon books here, I can defeat this spider.

I could run, like Linnea, but if we both run, the spider will chase us. It’s fast enough to catch up. I can’t hide in the lake like Linnea can, either.

On top of that, if I run, what says this whole realm isn’t infested with spiders? What if I run across the plains and exhaust myself, only to fall prey to spiders when I’m too tired to fight back? Linnea has infested the library and the dormitory so far. Better to stay near Aisling and Roan.

Which means I need to stand and fight this spider. He raised his hand, spreading his palm toward the spider.

The martial arts techniques I read about require years of training. I can’t use them as I am. I have no magical techniques. I barely have basic cultivation. In terms of skills and techniques, I have nothing.

What I do have, though, is a plan.

The spider finished wrapping the pork leg. It turned, clicking its mandibles at him.

Oz backed away. His heart pounded in his chest. Sweat ran down his back. Even so, he stood firm against the spider, hand outstretched. Taking a deep breath, he opened a book in his mind and gathered qi. It flowed more easily through his body now that his first meridian had been opened.

A plan. All I have is a plan. Holy shit, am I nuts?

The spider lunged, breaking through Oz’s thoughts. He jumped back, barely avoiding the spider. Qi gathered in his palm. A book began to materialize.

Oz pushed the qi away from him. The further he pushed it, the more qi left his body. He quickly dismissed the construct before the qi fully left his body and called the extra qi back to his core. Can’t spawn them too far from me? That’s fine. I don’t need them to be very far away.

The spider watched him. Completely still, it waited.

Oz backed away. In his mind, he gathered the shape of the books he’d scanned. One after another, shaping the qi in his hands into book after book. As each book drew close to manifesting, he pushed it to the side and began to shape another book, not allowing any book to fully spawn.

Breathing quickly, he waited, his face blank even as his heart raced. Mind split between reading to gather more qi and shaping yet more books, he stared up at the spider, unable to spare more than half a thought on watching it. A little bit of drool escaped from his slack jaw.

The spider pounced. Its shadow fell over Oz.

Oz threw his hands up. Pushing all his qi out at once, he finished manifesting all the books he’d been shaping at once. The books spawned over the spider and pounded down on its back all at once, hundreds of pounds of books weighing it down. The spider’s legs crumpled. With a shrill cry, it fell.

As his qi left him, Oz rolled to the side. Borne down by the books, the spider smashed down beside him seconds later. With a ripe pop, it splattered open, spraying yellowish-greenish ichor over the grasses and Oz alike.

Spitting a mouthful of ichor, Oz tried to push himself up, but his limbs wouldn’t reply. His whole body laid flat, barely twitching. His heart beat heavily, working hard from the effort he’d exerted. A wave of exhaustion rolled over him. Deep within him, his empty core gaped, devoid of energy.

Shit… that might have been too much. Lying flat, Oz tried to pull up a book in his mind, but without any qi, the words wouldn’t come to him. He tried to drag Gossip or the bestiary to his face, but they proved too heavy. With all his strength, he managed to lift one empty arm. Exhaustion-numbed fingers scrabbled at the pile of books before him. He snagged a lighter one with his fingertip and cracked it open to an empty page, tracing his eyes across the words within.

…quest for immortality, one must possess a steady heart. Kill your emotions and remove your self. Seek absolution and emptiness. The heart is weakness. Only rationality can—

Oz snorted. It had to be one of the weird ones. I need qi, though. Desperately. I don’t have the luxury of choice. He read on.

Qi swirled around him. A blue spark spiraled into his core, then another. As qi circulated into him, his stamina recovered and his strength returned. His hammering heart steadied, and his breathing evened.

With some effort, Oz sat up. He looked over at the spider, crushed under a mountain of books, and sighed. “That’s going to be so much work to clean up…”

He stood, taking the book in his hand with him. He put his palm on the cover. If I reverse what I did, can I send the book back to the library?

“Stop right there. One twitch, and I take this girl’s head off.”

Oz froze. He turned, slowly.

Two men dressed in black, wearing featureless black masks, stood behind him. One held a sword at Linnea’s throat. He pulled Linnea closer, pushing the blade into her flesh. Silent tears spilled out of Linnea’s eyes as a bead of crimson blood welled up at her neck.

Oz put his hands up. He swallowed. Fuck.