The severed limbs of the Animated Corpses didn’t spurt blood at all; only dazzling crystal fragnts flew in all directions, which looked sowhat pleasant.
His dazzling entrance instantly triggered the Monsters’ alarm, with Crystal Living Corpses erging from behind bookshelves, jumping down from above, bursting out by kicking aside books... practically ambushing Fingerley from any possible hiding place.
The deadliest part was that, the mont they appeared, a dark halo enveloped their crystal bodies, imdiately boosting the group of Monsters’ ferocity.
Fingerley instantly spotted the Six-eyed Preacher performing rituals from a distance. The greatest value of this detestable Monster’s existence is enhancing other Monsters’ physical qualities to trouble adventurers, earning it a place in the top ten most hated Monsters by adventurers.
Ignoring the oncoming Crystal Living Corpses, Fingerley dashed straight towards the Six-eyed Preacher, slashing an X-shaped deep wound across its chest with his Dual Blades upon contact.
But surprisingly, such an injury didn’t prove fatal; the Six-eyed Preacher, benefitting from the regional stat gains here, suddenly emitted a pale yellow aura, disappearing right in front of Fingerley.
"Not this damn Teleportation again!"
Fingerley couldn’t stand Teleportation, a skill only available to the Six-eyed Preacher while in the Duke’s Library, though not as tricky as Miriam’s disappearance, yet equally aggravating.
At that mont, the Crystal Living Corpses lunged at him; in this short ti, they had already gathered over twenty strong, charging mighty towards Fingerley.
He blocked the assault while strategically retreating, using the tables and chairs arranged between bookshelves as temporary defensive structures.
During this ti, he noticed that so Crystal Living Corpses were affected by the Six-eyed Preacher’s enhancing Magic, while others weren’t.
This distinction was too obvious, as the batch of Crystal Living Corpses to his left had special effects, whereas those to his right were just plain warriors.
It’s known that the Six-eyed Preacher’s enhancing Magic has a restricted range, aning that guy must have Teleported sowhere on his left-hand side!
Fingerley glanced over at the densely arrayed bookshelves; was he to check the gaps between each shelf searching for the Six-eyed Preacher?
No, of course not, because he had knees!
With a powerful thrust of his legs, he leaped into the air, grabbing onto a bookshelf, wall running efficiently relying on strong arm and leg muscles to leap between bookshelves, his mobility surpassing even those with maneuvering devices.
As for why not jumping atop the bookshelves; that’s because they’re about forty or fifty ters high, making it difficult to observe the floor below.
"Found you."
His figure blurred once more, charging toward the ground like a gale, slicing the Six-eyed Preacher hiding between the shelves in half!
"And now... how is there a second one!?"
The dark aura appeared again on the Crystal Living Corpses, and Fingerley imdiately noticed another Six-eyed Preacher not far away, teleporting as soon as it received his gaze, destination unknown.
Holding back curses, he engaged a few Crystal Living Corpses, ready to search for the Six-eyed Preacher, when the previously unnoticed Crystal Giant Puppet finally took notice, lumbering heavily to join the battle.
Inside this Duke’s Library lurk at least fifty Crystal Living Corpses, an unknown number of Six-eyed Preachers, plus an Elite Level Crystal Giant Puppet; such a number of Monsters presents quite a problem, consuming precious stamina to clear them
"Which is why I’m not fighting."
With a shrug of his hands, he dodged the sluggish attacks of the Crystal Giant Puppet, and when its fist punched deep into the ground, he had already climbed atop the bookshelf to rest.
Regular folks wouldn’t have the stamina or the idea to climb atop a bookshelf to evade Monsters.
While catching his breath and recovering, Fingerley surveyed the entire Duke’s Library with superior visibility, realizing that this wasn’t the whole library.
There was an elevator where the Crystal Giant Puppet stood, leading directly to a platform over a hundred ters high.
Using his excellent vision, he could see without using Magic that crystallized passages extended from the side of the high platform, appearing quite mysterious.
"Without killing these Monsters, I could probably activate the elevator; why did I bother fighting just now?"
Suddenly, he sensed hostile intent from behind. Turning around, he saw Crystal Living Corpses contorted like lizards had climbed up sohow, and another Six-eyed Preacher launched an attack from a nearby shelf.
Setting aside his combative thoughts, he leapt toward the nearest shelf to dodge, grabbing a book in passing.
He’s been curious about the thousands of books inside the Duke’s Library; if all the contents were taken out, several libraries could be filled, leaving scholars busy researching for ages?
Of course, replicating the Duke’s Library, a certain City Lord wouldn’t have written out the content of tens of thousands of books himself, so—
The mont Fingerley opened the book, a swirling vortex of indecipherable text appeared on the pages, and a transparent ghostly hand shot out, striking him in the face!
Touching the ghostly hand for an instant, he felt his spirit tremble briefly, as if rapidly corrupted, screeching as he fell through the air.
"Thud!"
"My back..."
Lying on the ground, his body curled like a shrimp.
If he hadn’t instinctively grabbed the shelf to lessen the fall’s impact, he might have died on the spot.
From the damaged shelf, a torrent of books collapsed, each extending phantom hands toward him.
"I knew reading wasn’t good for !"
Ignoring his injuries, he bolted, with books extending countless arms from the shelves, welcoming him with thousands greeting, enough to make one’s scalp tingle.
"I’ll definitely be off reading for a long ti after this!"
He deftly dodged the Monsters’ ambush, darting to the elevator and pulling the lever, with Monsters arriving belatedly as the elevator started ascending, leaving only the teleporting Six-eyed Preacher capable of reaching him.
"Phew, phew... seed quite straightforward."
Though Monsters densely populated the Duke’s Library, the map route was clear; even beginners entering the Dungeon could likely figure out what to do and where to go.
Although the Monsters’ heightened powers aren’t very newcor-friendly, no newbie’s likely venturing here.
The elevator halted steadily atop the high platform, and looking down from one hundred ters, the Monsters had given up pursuit.
"No enemies here, just one path forward?"
Without hesitation, Fingerley stepped into the crystallized passage.
This passage was so rugged it seed unhewn, incongruent with the Duke’s Library’s solemnity.
What’s more, as he walked deeper, the tunnel’s crystals grew denser, eventually clotting into clusters filling the tunnel, requiring Fingerley to proceed cautiously not to get scratched.
Finally, he reached the tunnel’s end.
In front of him was a chaotic white Fog Gate.
"Logically, given the Duke’s Library was such a simple map, the boss behind the Fog Gate shouldn’t be too strong, worth trying."
Thinking this, he placed his hand on the Fog Gate.
In an instant—
"Wait, am I hearing music?!"
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