I could barely believe my eyes. We weren't in the library for more than a couple of minutes, and they were already about to fight each other. No, not just fight. A fight would be fine. Throwing a few punches wouldn't actually be dangerous, even though in this environment, who knew? No, this was different. It was a duel. The two of them were about to fight with sharp and dangerous weapons more than capable of getting them killed. Unsure what to do, I reached for my own knife, accidentally dropping it to the floor before I could even turn on the blade.

"Nu-uh! You don't want this, rookie," the hunter spoke to me. "You pick that weapon up and you'll be a part of this. I've killed people before, you know? Ask yourself if you really want to try your chances against a real killer."

I didn't know what to do. Part of me wanted to help Gier out, but my fear was simply too strong. I had absolutely no training when it came to fighting. The idea that I might die here even before I'd try to reach grandpa's research completely paralysed me. Out of nowhere, Amy grabbed me by my backpack and started dragging me away.

"Hey!" I shouted at her.

"You can't get involved! This is too serious!"

She was right. That man was a hunter of knowledge. Someone who regularly delves into the library, collects whatever he can, and then sells it on the black market once he's outside. Such people often worked alone and were hated by most of the academic personnel. Someone like him would definitely be able to fight. Be it against the many dangers of the library, or against other delvers.

I watched as the two experienced explorers eyed each other. The atmosphere was so tense I could feel it. The moment they'd start, they would both be in life-threatening danger.

Out of nowhere, another knife came flying by. Before the hunter could even notice it, a blue blade cut his hand, drawing blood and forcing him to drop his weapon. Confused, he turned to the side, facing the beautiful dark-haired woman.

"Quit your theatrics, would you?" she spoke and drew a second hilt from her belt. The light blue blade that flew out of it was way bigger than what we'd seen thus far. That was no longer a dagger, it was a full-blown sword. I'd heard that the academy gave stronger weapons to more experienced delvers, but not even my grandfather, who worked for the university all his life, had ever gotten a blade like that.

"Before you go and try to pick your weapon back up, I would like to give you a fair warning," the woman spoke again. "I've been a delver for twenty years now. I've entered this place over seventy-six times, and have sometimes stayed for even up to a week. What is happening right now is a lot more common than people think. Every once in a while there is some asshole who thinks he's hot stuff, waiting for the right moment to murder someone, steal the books, their gear, and so on. I hate this behaviour. In fact, I believe that the world would be a much better place without people like you. And since murder isn't illegal in here... Well, you can figure out the rest. I've killed so many hunters already. So now you have a choice. Either you will cooperate and we'll all get what we want, or I'll make the world a better place without you in it. What will it be?"

The hunter looked at her and I'd swear I could see sweat sliding down the side of his head. The way she stood there, with one hand behind her back and the other holding her blade ready, clearly indicated that she was a trained swordfighter. Against her, even all of us together wouldn't stand a chance.

"You've been delving for that long... So you're a Deep Delver?" the hunter asked.

"Indeed. I do not like to present myself as one since I have never technically been all that deep into the library, but yes, I am among them, even though I do not wear the usual black. Cristina Harrow, by the way. Maybe my name rings any bells?"

The hunter shook his head. "Means nothing to me, sorry."

I heard Amy gasp from behind me. "But it does to me!" she squeaked. "I've absorbed the knowledge from like at least seven of your books. You're like the best delver there is! The way you describe the individual places one might find in the library and all that you can find there is absolutely legendary!"

"Glad to hear that girl, but you might want to hold your enthusiasm on a short leash for now. We've still got a criminal among us," she turned back to the hunter. "So? Your answer?"

"Okay, okay, I'll play nice. Heck, I wouldn't kill him anyway. Just wanted to give him a little scare."

"Scare or not, you posed a threat to us. Do it again and I will not hesitate to cut off your hand. Is that clear?"

"Yeah, yeah, clear as day."

"Good. Then apologize now."

"What?"

"For what you did. Apologise to Gier and the rooks."

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"Ugh! Okay, I'm sorry, I was just trying to scare you. Are we good now?"

"Almost."

"Almost? What else do you want from me?!"

"Your name. I do not like working with some unknown stranger."

"Rogier."

"Rogier who?"

"Rogier Lacron"

"I want to see your ID."

"You can't be serious!"

"Why? Out here, you know you can escape me. Pull twice on that rope and they will yank you right out, thinking it's an emergency. But I want you to not be able to hide from me even in the outside world. Using a fake name is easy, so please, your ID."

Rogier rolled his eyes and reached into his back pocket, eventually tossing Cristina a small paper card.

"Oh, so you were actually telling the truth. Hmm... you are smarter than I expected. Alright then. You better not cross me again then, Rogier Lacron." She tossed him his card back.

"And who are you?" Amy turned to the other rookie.

"W-What, me? W-Why do you need to know that? I am not a criminal," he defended himself and scratched his cheek. Only now did I notice how big and oval his head looked.

"I'm not saying you are! But we've all already introduced ourselves, so now it's your turn!" Amy tried to persuade him.

"O-Oh, okay. I'm... C-Call me Corwin. Sorry, but I don't have my ID. I forgot it a-at home."

"That's fine. We're not asking you to prove your identity. But it's nice knowing what we can call you at least, Corwin," Gier smiled at him. "Now, just as I was saying before, be careful not to look down. It can be quite a scary sight. Especially if you're afraid of heights.

To be perfectly honest, I did consider having a look myself. From my current position, I could only see the floor directly below us, and so the concept of gazing into infinity pulled on the strings of my curiosity. Nevertheless, I decided against that, and have simply asked my more experienced companions a question: "Is it actually infinite?"

"Nobody knows," Cristina replied. "I have only been on floor 103. The deepest documented delve reached 357, but even there, the delvers have said that they couldn't see the bottom. They even threw a light down there and waited until it disappeared. According to them, it would point to the existence of at least another sixty or so layers.

The number was unimaginable. the tallest building in the world had only a little over eighty floors, and so to picture something more than four times as big was feeding my anxiety.

"Is it actually all books?" I asked. "I mean... look at how many there are in here. Is it even possible for so much literature to exist?"

"Of course. There are over three million books, papers, and articles published every year. The university ships these from all over the world and dumps them into the library by tons. Considering that this place has been existing for at least three millennia, according to the historical documentation, that would bring us to..."

"Over nine billion books," Amy finished Cristine's calculations.

"Yes. But you would be mistaken to expect only literature in here."

"Right, there's the Glassrooms." I heard about those before. Pieces of strange environment ripped out of god-knows-where and placed into the library. Like massive terrariums with contents from other worlds.

"Indeed. They are actually a part of my current studies. Since they are usually located more towards the edge of each floor, I will split off from time to time. No need to bring you along, rookies. No offence, but you would only get yourself into unnecessary danger. Best stay near the middle if we run into a..."

We heard Corwin scream. It was so high pitched my ears were hurting even long after he shut up.

"What is that?!" he yelled at us and pointed toward the far end of the room. I knew the answer. Everyone did. I'm pretty sure Corwin did too, but seeing something like this with your own two eyes was completely different from seeing the drawings on the information posters, so I couldn't blame him for getting scared.

There, at the end of the corridor on the very opposite side of the room, stood an enormous hound. The creature looked like a poorly drawn wolf. Its head was a lot pointier, and its fur was completely pitch black. A pair of yellow eyes was watching us without moving or blinking. When I saw it, I couldn't bring myself to move. Even from this far away, I could still tell that the creature was a bit taller than me.

"Oh! That's a guardian," Cristina answered Corwin's question. Her tone was so lacking in any emotion that she almost seemed bothered that we asked her something so primitive. She then turned her attention back to her blue notebook and paid the hound no more attention.

"B-But..."

"Relax, Corwin," Gier reassured him. "Remember what the booklets said? Guardians can't harm anyone in the central room of any floor. So as long as you stay here, they can't do anything to you."

"And... if we leave?" I asked carefully.

"Then they kill you," Rogier replied, and with hands crossed over his chest, he kept eyeing the creature. "But every guardian has some weakness. Usually depends on their looks. I fought a lizard who was sensitive to cold. I'd say this one will be weak to light since it's all black and it's staying in the darkest part of the corridor."

"You're right. That's the Nerohound. Easy solution - shine a light in its eyes and it will back away. Everyone has their flashlights?" Amy explained and we all, rookies and pros alike, quickly checked our equipment. Fortunately, all of us had something that could produce light.

"See? Problem solved!" Rogier exclaimed as if we had already won. "Besides, this one is organic, so it can bleed. That's good news. The ones made of metal or stone can be far worse. You can't really cut those down."

"C-Can we kill it?" Corwin stuttered.

"Theoretically. But it is speculated that they simply come back to life. Multiple crews have killed the same guardian before but it never disappeared. Though no two guardians of the same kind were ever seen at once," Cristina replied. Through a brief glance into the open pages of her notebook, I could see her sketching the creature.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't want anything from these sections, so shall we head down?" Gier threw his idea into the wind.

"Go wherever you want," Rogier told him and departed on his own.

Without saying a word, Cristina followed him, preoccupied with her notes.

"Hey! And what about me and the rookies? What am I? Their babysitter?" Gier shouted at the duo heading down the stairs.

"Yup! Have fun!" the hunter yelled back and disappeared from our sight.

Gier sighed and rubbed the root of his nose. "Okay, fine, let's get going deeper. I will help you get some books worth writing a thesis about if you promise not to cause trouble, okay?"

The three of us agreed in unison, even though Amy and I could both tell that Corwin wasn't particularly happy about heading towards potential danger.