Surprisingly, Blair wasn’t upset about the fact that her machine blew up after less than 30 seconds of use. She was grateful I had brought the pieces back. Somehow it had allowed her to know exactly what had went wrong. Even after she explained her reasoning, I still didn’t fully understand how she could get so much information from the metal scraps left behind by the boom.

Much of the device was unrecoverable. Many pieces of it had been blown through the Earth so far that I couldn’t find them. I may have been able to if I had spent more time digging, but that would have just been annoying and I didn’t want to waste the time on it.

After leaving her air bubble of a base, I headed straight for floor 35. I felt like I had relaxed enough now after having plowed through 4 floors in a row. I didn’t really have any guesses as to what the boss fight could be. The past few floors weren’t as intertwined with one another as floors 11 through 15 and floors 21 through 25 had been. It had been similar to the first five floors, where there were basically no similarities between floors.

Upon entering the thirty fifth floor, I could tell that it was going to be at least a decently interesting fight. The floor appeared to be a massive library, with hundreds of bookshelves holding what must have been tens of thousands of books. They were probably meant to serve as an obstacle given that they extended all the way to the ceiling 50 or so meters above me. They were in neat rows, with about 5 meters between each bookshelf. Depending on the boss, that could prove to be a serious hindrance.

Floor 35: Halls of Knowledge (Boss)(Semi-Instanced)

Defeat the Head Scholar of the library or escape through the exit unseen.

The “head scholar” wasn’t anywhere to be seen. At the very least, they weren’t nearby. If they were, I would have been able to sense their aura. My ability to sense them had a much larger range than my actual aura did, but it wasn’t as reliable at locating far away targets as simply seeing them was.

I tried giving one of the shelves a good punch to test how much of an obstacle they would actually be, only to find that my fist had barely chipped the apparently very strong wood.

Seeing no other way to progress, I started walking through the library. Through the occasional gaps in the books I could see that there were more shelves beyond them. Overall the place was similar to a massive labyrinth.

It made sense for the boss to not be near the entrance of the floor. The description of the floor made it clear that fighting this boss wasn’t actually required, which got my hopes up that it might be stronger than most other boss monsters.

My searching proved to be fruitful after about ten minutes of walking. At the very edge of my senses, I could detect an aura slowly moving around in the distance. It was moving slower than my walking pace, and it was headed in my direction. At least, I assumed it was. It was moving towards me, but I didn’t actually know if it was getting closer in terms of moving through this maze of books.

I started slowly navigating towards the aura. I had to backtrack several times after reaching dead ends and loops, but eventually I got close enough that whatever the aura belonged to noticed me.

There was an ear piercing scream as the aura suddenly moved far faster. In the distance, I could hear something massive drop. It sounded like it was made of metal, and I had a feeling that was the exit to the floor slamming shut.

The monster headed my way seemed to know the maze far better than I did, and it quickly reached my location. The entire time, it hadn’t made a sound. I realized why as soon as it turned the corner and spotted me.

The “head scholar” of the library looked like a very old woman. Her skin had deep wrinkles and sagged under her chin. Her hair was snow white, though it was actually very thick and full of volume contrary to most her age.

She wore black robes and rode upon a massive book. She hadn’t made a sound because she hadn’t even needed to touch the ground. She once more screeches louder than anybody should be able to, and I use identify as I cover my ears.

Head Scholar (Level 95)(Boss)

The screeching stops a few seconds later, but it is quickly followed up by the sound of hundreds of nearby books floating off their shelves. They flutter open and pages begin tearing themselves out, folding themselves into sharp needles before flying towards me.

I begin firing mana bolts towards the old woman, occasionally shooting one at the books to reduce the amount of incoming attacks. They blew apart easily. They might be made of some stronger materials than normal books, but they were still just books. A single mana bolt could easily shred them.

The incoming paper needles were a bit stronger. Each one was infused with some mana to reinforce them. Hundreds of the needles began poking at my shield, crumpling upon impact. The mana cost for blocking each of them was miniscule, as they weren’t very strong, but there were so many of them that the cost was starting to add up.

I reduced the size of my barrier, making it only cover my head. The attacks began smacking against me, but not a single one of the needles was capable of piercing the through the tough armor. The titan had been strong against large quantities of weak attacks, so it made sense that armor made from its body was similarly effective against them.

The librarian seemed to realize the futility of these attacks, and several more books lost their pages as they were ripped out and began folding up against one another. I tried using mana blast to interrupt the process, but a barrier of paper formed and blocked my spells. She hadn’t stopped sending the needles my way, and even if they weren’t doing any damage they were damn good at tanking the damage of my spells before they could reach the boss.

The paper finally finished its dance of origami, and soon a paper sword nearly 3 meters long was swinging towards me. I was forced to conjure an actual shield of mana on my arm to block some of the attacks, as the weapon moved faster than I could reasonably dodge. It was pretty light and thus easy to parry, but that lack of weight was made up for with the speed.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Every time I landed a spell on the sword and knocked a chunk of it off, it was almost immediately repaired by the paper flying all around us. She couldn’t have an infinite amount of paper. I might be able to keep destroying her attacks until she runs out. Looking around at the library, that plan was almost immediately crossed off the list. I don’t know why it had even crossed my mind in the first place. Sure, I’ll just go ahead and hope that a library the size of a small town could run out of paper.

I released a charge of mana blast from my staff as I equipped my cloak of flight. My mana barrier extended to cover the cloak from being torn to tatters as the particularly strong cast of mana blast destroys most of the material on the paper sword.

I launch up towards the Head Scholar, taking advantage of the small opening to get close. Barriers of paper appear in my path, but after reforming the shield in my hand to be a sword, I cut through them easily. I activated empower as I got close, putting all the strength I could into swinging for the old woman’s neck.

She leaned back, barely avoiding the brunt of the attack. The very tip of the sword just barely managed to scratch her neck, and she retreats while the paper sword once more comes around to attack.

While I am locked into a sword duel with the flying weapon, entire books begin flying towards me, not bothering to turn into weapons or anything. Out of the corner of my eye I see once of them flash with mana, and I instinctively turn towards it with my sword raised to cut it in half.

Once it gets close to me, the book explodes in a concussive blast, slamming me against the nearest bookshelf. I let out a wheeze as the air is knocked out of my lungs, but recover quickly enough to not get cleaved in half by the still threatening paper sword. I slice the weapon in half and begin closing the distance between me and the boss again.

I swing my sword in a vertical arc, once more barely missing the Scholar. Thankfully, she hadn’t been my target. The blade cleaves through the book she stands on, and she tumbles towards the ground. A few more books fly under her to support her weight, but I can tell her mobility is now severely hindered without the large book she used before.

I close the distance again, but a much louder sound of paper tearing brings my attention to the two halves of the large book behind me. I turn just in time to see that there are now three massive swords of mana looking to cut me in two. One of them is the friend I’d been dealing with before, while the other two are larger and made of the thicker pages that large book had held within.

My mana barrier once more wraps around my entire body as my focus is now fully taken up by the three weapons. I store away my staff and summon a second sword of mana to bolster my defense against the weapons. A quick glance at the scholar tells me her full concentration is being spent on controlling the three swords. There is still the hurricane of paper needles all around me, but they are moving considerably slower now. They were now only there to block any spells I might try and throw her way.

With a flash of movement, I take advantage of a brief break in the onslaught of attacks to shred the weaker of the three swords. This slows the rate of attacks coming my way long enough to dispel and sword and pull my staff back out. Both charges of mana blast stored within are now used and destroy the other two swords.

I know I don’t have too much time before the three weapons are fixed and on me again, so I use mana thrust to close the distance between me and the boss in record time. She summons thick walls of paper to defend herself, but half a dozen casts of mana spike shred the wall as I break through it easily.

With one hand, my sword swings to cut her head from her shoulders. With the other, a very powerful cast of mana blast is being released in the direction I anticipate her to dodge.

The plan works perfectly, and she moves to avoid my sword swing, running directly into my pre-fired mana blast. The attack leaves a large crater in her torso, and the force of the hit knocks her back into the path of my sword.

In an instant, the paper hurricane ceases as the Scholars head is sent flying far away from where it should be. The paper swords that had been headed for my back fall to the floor, now a useless pile of paper.

You have defeated Head Scholar (Level 95)(Boss)

Bonus experience earned for defeating a boss without assistance. Bonus experience earned for fighting an enemy of a higher level.

You are now level 90

You are now level 92

I stood there for a few seconds, waiting for the next notification that I had been anticipating. After it is clear that none is coming, I stare defiantly at my status screen.

“Where the hell is my innate skill upgrade?”

I’d gotten an upgrade to my innate skill every ten levels ever since I got it. I had been expecting for it to be completed once I reached level 90, but I guess that wasn’t the case despite the fact that the system had told me the skill would upgrade at regular intervals. I’d have to ask Talus about this whenever I saw him next. I should stop by and visit after leaving this floor.

I shake my head and loot the body of the head scholar. I take the robes she been wearing and the necklace she had around her neck.

Scholar’s Robe (Special)

Increases the mana regeneration of the wearer. The cloth of the robe is extremely resistant to magical attacks, negating any magical attacks below a certain damage threshold.

Focus Charm (Epic)

Increases the mana regeneration of the wearer.

Both items seemed focused on increasing mana regeneration. With how much mana the constant barrage of attacks must have cost, being able to mitigate the drain was probably the best way to increase how long you could stay in a fight.

I could wear both, but whenever I wore the robe I would need to unequip my cloak of flight. This was a topic I had discussed with Talus a while back. I had posed the question of why somebody couldn’t just wear a ton of armor and increase their stats by a massive amount, and his answer had been pretty simple.

“Because the system doesn’t let you.” He’d said. According to him the system just flat out wouldn’t let you benefit from more than eight articles of clothing at a time. It was a restriction put in place so that you couldn’t just put on 30 heavily enchanted shirts and suddenly be able to fight somebody double your level. There was also the restriction of not being able to double up on any one piece of equipment. I couldn’t just wear 8 really thin but strong pairs of gloves and have invincible hands.

I was already approaching that 8 article limit. My boots, pants, chest piece, gloves, and helmet all counted separately, bringing me to five. The cloak of flight brought me to six, and the amulet I had just acquired brought me to seven. That left room for just one more piece of equipment. Soon I would have to start seriously considering carrying around multiple sets of equipment just so I could counter whatever my opponents threw at me. Being able to store things in my aura made it pretty easy to unequip and equip armor pretty much instantly, so the only issue would be actually acquiring more than one set of equipment actually worth wearing.

For now, I would just stick to my titan skin armor. I stored away my cloak of flight and pulled on my new robe to test how it fit. As I did, something fell out of a hidden pocket on the inside of the robe. It looked like a scroll of some kind.

Unrolling it, I saw that it was actually a map of the library, and a very detailed one at that. Every single section was labeled, down to the very shelf. Everything was written in such small print that even with my extremely good vision, I needed to hold the paper close to my face to read it.

My eyes stopped on one particular part of the map labeled ‘restricted tomes’. I immediately start following the map towards the marked location. How could I just avoid going somewhere labeled as ‘restricted’. I mean seriously, who’s gonna stop me?

I passed by the severed head of the Head Scholar as I followed the map.

“Oh yeah, I guess you were supposed to stop me. Oh well, time to go somewhere that I am not supposed to!”