Chapter 54 - The Librarian's Tree

As soon as Rynold poured Mana into the Teleport Key, a bright magic array appeared from where they were standing and extended a few feet in diameter that made it wide enough for it to envelop Rynold and the group.

It was time to leave Rynold's hometown as there wasn't anything left for him over there. Despite the grueling journey so far, the upcoming location that they would end up in is filled with uncertainty.

Rynold, however, was quite excited to try this place out. After all, he was confident that he had become stronger these past few days, and his relatively robust understanding of Mana would sure come in handy. Well, so far anyway.

From the outside view, the rooftop of the radio tower building looked like it was sending a beacon of light as a signal. In reality, however, it was Rynold and the group.

The Mana Array that circled around them shot out a pillar of light that sent the group to their destination.

Aptly named, the Teleport Key managed to do its job as the next thing that Rynold saw when he opened his eyes was a gigantic tree that stood tall. So tall, in fact, that he couldn't even see the very top of the tree; it was more trunk and branches than anything else.

Rynold looked with determination at the door at the base of the tree, its roots extending more than a few miles to accommodate for the tree's massive structure.

"I guess that's where we're going, huh?" Jack asked the group after regaining his eyesight.

Rynold shook his head while Oliver just looked at him with an expression of serious expression. "No shit, dumbass," Rynold said without even sparing Jack a glance, "next time don't actually stare at big bright lights."

After a sigh of disappointment, Rynold walked forward to the giant door that was fitting for the size of the tree.

He pushed the door open, prepared to expect the unexpected, but what happened turned out to be a lot more unexpected than what he had expected. Rynold was ready for a fight but what actually occurred was, well, different.

From the very moment that he took a step in the dark corridor, he was teleported to what Rynold guessed a place inside the tree trunk.

Rynold quickly looked back and tried to check if the rest were behind him but he and X were the only ones there. He cursed inwardly at the unexpected turn of events since getting separated might be the worst thing to happen right about now.

If he guessed correctly, X was the only one with him because it made sense that he was Rynold's Mech Knight. Then, if that were true, that means Oliver was with Strider while Jack and Eileen were both alone. He had no problem with Jack but what worried him the most was actually Eileen.

A child her age with no way to defend herself would only lead to one thing.

Dissipating the bad thoughts from his head, Rynold focused on what was ahead of him. He looked around, there were sconces of lights in a relatively narrow corridor that forced him in one direction. A window suddenly popped up.

[The Librarian's Intelligence Trial]

Difficulty: Extreme

A trial perfectly suited to a challenger's skill set that would push them to their limits. Varying difficulties scale with the challenger's overall strength and power.

"Oh, you're fucking kidding me," Rynold swore, aloud this time.

The challenge that was made for him was practically the hardest one there is out there. Right now, though, there was no way around it.

X noticed his Master getting enraged and asked curiously what happened. To which, Rynold simply dismissed it as nothing much and proceeded to walk forward.

Although the lighting was simple and appeared to be the same series of lights that is equidistant from one another, it didn't take long for both of them to reach the end of the corridor.

They entered a big circular dome that was big enough for a greenhouse. There were bookshelves that circled the entire room but the very center was relatively empty.

It was odd, Rynold noted, that the room was large enough for a lot of things to go on but it looked empty, apart from the bookshelves that housed somewhat old books. Thinking not much of it, Rynold proceeded to walk forward.

He continued with a slow pace before arriving at the very center of the room. It had some sort of engraving that looked like a crest.

It was circular in shape but inside the circle was a magic creature of sorts that Rynold couldn't identify. The crest then had connected lines that stretched to the very corners of the room, like they were the same roots of the tree. Some lines thick and long while others were thin and short.

Rynold observed the crest but it was really nothing worth taking note of. He just thought that it was an interesting floor decoration. He looked around for a few minutes but was suddenly interrupted by a book that was thrown at his back.

"Oof," caught off guard, Rynold let out a sound as the book managed to make him lose his balance.

He picked up the book and tried to figure out where did the damn thing come from. His concentration was thrown off, though, as another book was thrown to his back.

This time around, he was annoyed and picked the other book up. Both of the books looked really old and seemed that they would provide really good and ancient information. There weren't any other similarities with the book apart from its anciency and the unusual script.

So, the question stands, who in the right mind would throw books like these and with a great force too.

"Thump!"

Another book was thrown at Rynold whose back was turned. He was getting pissed now and really wanted to see where did this come from. So, Rynold ran to the bookshelves of where the last book was thrown.

As soon as he reached the overhang that held the bookshelves on the second floor, Rynold jumped up and held onto the railing. He then tried to pull himself up but he was suddenly thrown out by an invisible force.

Rynold landed into the center of the room once more and landed on his back. Cursing, he stood back up and looked at where he tried to grab onto the railing.

There was nothing there. At least nothing to see, that is, because Rynold sensed some sort of repelling Mana that made him propel back a few feet.

X saw his Master getting swatted by a fly and back to in front of him. "Are you alright, Master?" his mechanical voice ringing in Rynold's ear.

"I'm fine," Rynold said while rubbing his back before looking at X. It was then that he noticed that the books only targeted him. The books landed and hit him but there wasn't anything that happened to his trusty Mech Knight.

Rubbing his back, he formulated a plan that might work, but his concentration kept getting interrupted by books once more.

Getting really pissed, Rynold thought to execute the plan immediately and screw the consequences that may happen.

"X, can you -ugh," a book was thrown to his back once more, "can you grab the railing and pull really, really hard?" Rynold pointed at the railing that was on the second floor.

The plan was simple, so simple that this might be the most brainless thing that Rynold could possibly think of.

Since Rynold was the one being targeted, problems would be had if he were the one to move. So, instead, he used X to do the job for him as whoever is doing this doesn't seem to consider the Mech Knight as a threat.

X moved as soon as he received the command and walked to the same area that Rynold approached earlier. Meanwhile, Rynold tried to enhance his senses.

Since the books weren't really a threat that would kill him and the attacks seemed to be omnidirectional, it was the perfect opportunity. This was the opportune training spot for him, actually, as there weren't really any scenarios that would make or let him grow as now.

With that, Rynold started to circulate Mana while X got to work.

Rynold tried to leak a bit of his own Mana around him but it proved harder than he had expected. Despite being able to use his Mana Channels and put Mana onto a medium, he found it hard to just expand his Mana around him.

That, of course, was the issue he had with his current predicament but every attack just forced him to actually develop his senses further. As an Augmenter, this really wasn't in his strong suit but it was a better fit than Equipping, that's for sure.

All the while, X got to the overhand but tried to jump up from the ground and grab the railing. Unfortunately for him, though, there was some resistance. Not much resistance from the bookshelves themselves, but it was more of he couldn't jump that high.