As he flew through the air, Alec got a bird’s eye view of the academy grounds. Although he wanted to take in the scenery, he had to cast a spell before landing. Or else, he would turn into a flesh mound with broken pieces of bones scattered throughout on impact.

With the help of the mana brain, Alec lowered his velocity to the best of his abilities. The further he got from the amphitheater, the fainter the explosions became. Fortunately, most of the student body was gathered there. Although it would have reduced the spreading effect of the demonic taint if they weren’t, it would have also made it harder to find the demonized students one by one and take care of them.

Trying to land on the ground heroically, Alec stumbled and rolled for a few meters, scattering dirt in every direction. Gathering himself, he jumped up and started running toward the library. The building was grandiose and could be spotted from almost every part of the academy grounds.

On his way, Alec noticed that his shoes had started heating up from all the friction. It would hold on for now but if his stats were any higher, they wouldn’t be able to handle the load.

‘I will have to deal with this once things are over,’ Alec thought as he made his way.

Arriving at the front of the library, he pushed open the gate and dashed inside. The place was eerily silent compared to how it normally was. Although there wouldn’t be any chatters, it was always possible to hear page shuffles, pen scratches, coughs, and footsteps. Now, however, none of those were there.

Still, Alec kept his guard up. He knew that this silence could be deceiving.

‘There could have been some students uninterested in the award ceremony who had come here to study, and then became demonized,’ he thought as he looked around with rapid eye movements. ‘I have to go to the second level, but don’t know where the stairs are. Maybe I can find a map of sorts around the librarian’s desk.’

Unfortunately, the librarian’s desk was further into the library. Alec had complained several times about this inconvenient placement. Now, however, this placement issue has become more than a simple inconvenience. To get there, Alec would have to pass through some narrow corridors formed by the bookshelves and would be open to getting ambushed from any direction.

‘Hm… This just won’t work,’ he thought. Alec was, by no means, a good fighter. He was good at planning beforehand, but whenever things escalated, he would get flustered very quickly. He had previously made many mistakes in the middle of fights, which could only be compensated by his absurdly high stats and a lot of potion abuse. ‘If I get ambushed, I will just fumble around. If the things here are more dangerous than I thought, I might just drop dead without ever reaching the second level.’

Looking around, Alec took a deep breath and approached a nearby bookshelf. He first placed one of his feet on one of the shelves and pressed down. The wood creaked but didn’t break.

‘Seems stable enough,’ Alec thought. He then pushed on the entire bookshelf and gauged how well it stood its ground. ‘It feels like these things are fixed to the ground.’

Confirming that it was stable enough, Alec climbed to the top of the four-meter-tall bookshelf in a few quick motions.

Once he arrived at the top, Alec took in the scenery. The library’s insides were very big. He had never paid attention to it, but the first floor was probably as big as a football stadium. The tops of the bookshelves were weirdly clean. Alec would have expected such hard-to-reach spots to be full of dust.

‘I suppose they use magic for this,’ he thought. Then, he looked around and located the section where the librarian’s desk would be. He straightened up and took a three-meter leap to the next bookshelf. Planting his feet on the thing, Alec noticed that it was much easier than he had previously thought. ‘Huh… I must be underestimating the increase in my stats. I barely have any memories with this body right now after all…’

Increasing his pace, Alec ran through the upper side of the library. It took him a few seconds to reach his desired destination. When he did so, however, he didn’t jump down from the top of the bookshelves and crouched to decrease his visibility. If he wasn’t jolted by the mana brain he might have even cursed silently.

‘What the fuck is going on there?’ he thought. Behind the desk, Alec could see a convulsing, pulsating pile of flesh sticking out. Unlike the demons from before, this thing had a more purplish color scheme to it. It had small, spike-like structures poking out from its skin, probably made up of bones. The miasma it was spreading was different from the ones Alec had seen previously. It was a gentle magenta. Fortunately, though, it wasn’t very thick, which seemed like a good way to measure the strength of these demons.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Placing his hand on his mouth, Alec looked around and noticed there to be no other demons in the proximity, which was either a very good thing or a very bad thing.

‘It’s either that this thing is completely alone, or it has absorbed the other demons around here,’ Alec thought. They exchanged some ideas with the mana brain, and Alec finally decided to bring out the good old deus ex machina.

When The Author’s Pen appeared in his hand, Alec felt relieved, and strangely excited. This was going to be the first time he could go all out without any restrictions.

Holding the pen in his right hand and bringing down its tip onto his left palm, Alec thought for a second. Then, he wrote down the magic he had wanted to try for a long time.

[Mana Ray]

As his mana drained, a pristine magic circle appeared in Alec’s hand. He had seen this magic executed by others before, but this was the first time he saw it from up close. As the magic circle formed, Alec unsummoned The Author’s Pen and pointed his palm toward the mound of flesh. The thing must have sensed the shift in mana in the atmosphere, as it jumped up from behind the desk and onto it.

When he saw the monster in its entirety, Alec felt suffocated. The mound of flesh had fused into a person. This person was the librarian Alec had previously interacted with before. The man was reading some weird stuff but seemed like an amicable person. At least, Alec could say that he didn’t deserve whatever this fate was supposed to be.

The man’s body was completely limp. On the face attached to his dangling head, his eyes looked dead. The pupils inside were colored an empty purple like the man’s soul had long departed. The mound of flesh had fused into the man’s crotch and spread from there like a tumor. There were visible veins supplying the mound with blood and nutrients. Probably because the blood supply had cut off, the man’s legs had atrophied, turning into twig-like appendages that retained none of their previous utility.

However, the most disturbing fact was that the man’s actual body was in a prone position, dangling in mid-air. The tumor had grown six insectoid, fleshy legs at some point, and carried the man’s body like he was its thorax. And if looked closely, one could see a pulsating, wriggly organ inside the lump of flesh, similar to a brain.

Gulping loudly, Alec involved the mana brain to help his aim. Before the monster could react, a blue ray of mana was released from his hand, launching toward it at breakneck speed.

Although the monster managed to twist its fleshy body in time, it still couldn’t get out of the mana ray’s path completely. The spell hit one of its disgusting legs, ripping it apart and blasting away the monster’s miasma in the process.

‘Shit!’ Alec shouted in his head. Now that the element of surprise was gone, he would have to fight fair and square. ‘I managed to get one of its legs. Hopefully, that will be enough.’

As he contemplated his advantages, the abomination skittered across the small opening and started climbing one of the nearby bookshelves. Its fleshy legs hitting the ground made disgusting noises. If he had to be honest, Alec would have much rather heard the normal pitter-patter of a giant spider’s exoskeleton than whatever this was.

Keeping his body low, Alec wrote with The Author’s Pen and jumped away.

[Seeker Fireballs]

Immediately, 5 fireballs appeared from the ground and launched toward the monster, smashing against its miasma. Before the miasma regenerated, Alec would have a short while to do another bout of attack.

Writing on his arm, Alec cursed at the fact that he couldn’t write on air yet. He had tried to use The Author’s Pen on air before but failed miserably. He had to be incredibly precise while writing, and there was still a very good chance he would mess up the depth of the letters he would write.

[Grease]

Grease was a first circle water-type spell that Alec had previously seen in one of his books. Although he barely remembered the magic circle, The Author’s Pen could fill in the blanks with a bit of extra mana.

As the friction between the monster’s legs and the bookshelves got reduced, it slipped and fell down on its tumor. Alec changed his direction and jumped down, writing another spell onto his palm.

[Telekinetic Bind]

The magic circle appeared, rotated, and disappeared in quick succession. Five small purple tendrils extended from the tips of his fingers and attached to the bookshelf the abomination had fallen off from. Grabbing his left wrist with his right hand, Alec utilized all of his strength and body weight to pull on the bookshelf.

With a creak and a couple of snaps, the bookshelf toppled over and fell on the spider monster, crushing it in the process. Alec didn’t stop there and cast another telekinetic magic to press the bookshelf down, not stopping until the thing’s legs stopped moving. Still not satisfied, he threw a couple of fireballs into the mix and incinerated the remains to make sure that it was over.

Plopping down on his ass, Alec wiped the sweat from his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt. He was left gasping for air, not because of the physical exhaustion but the mental load he had been put under.

After getting up, he walked up to the monster’s ashes and looked at them in deep contemplation. He closed his eyes in respect for the librarian for a few short seconds before turning around and walking to the desk.

On it, Alec spotted a couple of books, seemingly fantasy fiction novels. One of them particularly attracted his attention because of its absurd name.

[Academy’s Genius Spellbinder]

‘Is this some kind of elaborate joke? What? Any developed enough civilization will write shitty magical academy stories?’

Pushing away the novels and looking around, Alec managed to spot what he was looking for.

‘Finally, a map…’