Stepping onto a soft rug, he walked into the room with his makeshift shiv clutched firmly in his hand.

He looked to be in a library, with grand shelves lined up in neat rows and occupied with thousands of books.

The same magical lights skirted between shelves, illuminating everything with their pure rays.

Picking up one of the books, Thomel stabbed his shiv into the shelf so he could use both hands and then he began to rip out the pages. Using them to clean himself and wipe off the remnant pus and eye fluid.

Once he was done he threw the book aside and grabbed his weapon, before continuing his search.

Walking along the dusty, melodic books, made him feel unnecessarily anxious, like he was disturbing a cemetery.

Rather than employ the method he’d used earlier, he instead decided to just walk in a straight line. It was fairly easy, everything was very orderly and well laid out.

Having reached a stone wall, Thomel picked the shelf just to his right and walked back that way.

Halfway through his journey, he got the idea of knocking over some of the books so that way he could see the other aisle but he discarded that course of action before he even began it.

Somehow it wasn’t how he was meant to do this, he had to travel each individual aisle otherwise he would miss what he was looking for.

That didn’t stop him from knocking off the occasional book so that way he didn’t mistakenly double back.

It was unlikely to the extreme but still, he might get lost, this place was rather uniform.

It took him nearly an hour before he found what he was looking for. He was expecting it to be an inconspicuous little book but instead, it was a giant one that would definitely require both hands to read.

If the internal screeching that demanded he grabbed ahold of it wasn’t enough, the transparent gems inlaid into the cover were.

He could easily halve his debt just with those special minerals alone, plus they looked like they were enchanted.

Not that his debt seemed to matter anymore, he’d been claimed by a new master.

“Did it actually ever matter.” He murmured.

If what the God had said was true, then the Lonel corporation would probably have just lobotomised him once his debt was cleared and he was free to go.

Flipping open the book he immediately found what he was looking for, a giant hole had been carved in the centre of its pages and contained a pulsating red glob of fluid.

The blob was constantly crystallising partiality and then those little crystal shards would break apart and become liquid again.

Thomel found it hypnotising to watch, mouth-watering even. He barely managed to stop himself from touching it and taking a bite.

“What has it done to me?” He grunted, ignoring the hunger pangs shooting up his spine and drilling into his brain.

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Carefully he closed the book again and headed back towards the broken door, placing the heavy book gently on the ground.

There were still more left here, he could feel them. So he resumed the search. Walking down aisle after aisle, following his instinct and hunger.

It took him nearly an hour before he’d finally gotten the last shard, in total there’d been nine. Which seemed to him like a rather small number.

It was a fortunate number though, he didn’t think he would be able to carry any more than nine.

If he had ended up finding any more then he would have had to begin tearing up the carpet and trying to fashion some ropes for himself.

Even now that still seemed like a good idea to him so he got to work ripping up the carpet and doing his best to try and tie the torn threads together.

By the time he was done crafting just a single piece of rope, the only reason his hands weren’t raw and bloody was because of his regeneration.

Deciding to call it quits, he placed the books in the centre of the rug and pulled it up, tying his makeshift rope around it to create a sack.

Hurling it onto his shoulder he hoped he wasn’t being too rough with the precious cargo and then he set off back towards the portal.

The layout of this base confused him to no end, it seemed too well made to just have a single hallway and then three rooms.

So when he got back to the portal, he set the sack gently beside it and headed back to the first door he’d come across.

It felt wrong to do, like there was nothing left here that was important and he should simply leave.

But nevertheless, he ignored this new-found inner voice of his and stalked through the hallway, coming across the locked door he started to batter at it like he’d done to its twin.

It took more hits than its predecessor but eventually, the soft, metal handle broke off.

Slipping inside Thomel found himself taken aback at what greeted him.

It was an expansive room filled with orderly shelves just like the library, except these shelves contained weapons, armour, and what looked like potions.

The shelves were also sparsely populated with these items, judging by how some of the potions were knocked over and a couple of swords were hanging lopsidedly because of that Thomel figured it was because they’d been equipped in a hurry rather than the armoury being left half-finished.

Walking through the aisles he eyed up the variety of stock this room held, claymores, longswords, spears, spiked shields. It had every sort of weapon and with glee, Thomel noticed with glee that it also had a variety of armour.

Slipping off the crusty and disgusting remnants of his suit he hurriedly put on a pair of leather pants and after some rummaging around he found himself a rough fabric shirt as well. It took a bit more effort to find some boots but eventually, he had a nice pair.

Using one of the longswords as a mirror he looked at his reflection and marvelled at just how much of a peasant he appeared to be.

He would fit in a mediaeval historical movie perfectly. He already had the main things he needed but he still continued to look around anyway.

This was the first taste of a different civilisation he’d had since he first began this world-hopping job of his.

It was incredible just how similar their equipment was to the iron age, if he’d been shown some of these items back on Earth he would have honestly believed they were either very well-kept artefacts or replicas.

the only difference between them was the fact that most of these items had enchantments.

After spending a few minutes marvelling and admiring the various pieces on display and being tempted to drink a potion or two, Thomel left it behind and headed back to the portal.

He would have loved to have taken something with him but he doubted he would be allowed to keep it upon returning to the facility.

That thought made him pause briefly as he considered if he would ever be returning there, the God had implied he would go back but it might also just use some sort of portal of its own to hurl him somewhere.

Shaking off those troubling thoughts he walked into the portal room and grabbed his sack. Before hesitantly plunging into the corrupted rift.