Chapter 625 - In the Library

In this loop, the Champion Dion doesn’t die. Or at least, they do not find his body. The usual day when he dies passes, and there is no information on it, no panic spreading through the Academy. Everything continues as if nothing happened.

Such a change of schedule can be caused by the Examiner or, more likely, by a Candidate. It also means that for some reason, someone is killing the Champion and it’s not on this floor´s "schedule.". It also means that, in some incredible way and through some fuckery, there is someone capable of killing the Champion.

Or I'm wrong, and someone actually saved the Champion, disrupting the original schedule. At this point, I bet even the system doesn't know what's going on anymore.

I'm also reminded of the Floor quest that says: Locate and protect the Ruler Candidate.

The wording, as silly as it is, also hints at something. There are, according to highly unreliable Ari, three Candidates remaining. Protecting any Candidate probably won’t work, the system wouldn't be so nice, and make it too easy for us.

So I come to the conclusion. One of the Candidates is someone who, in the real world, became the disciple of the Ruler and their heir. Someone who could be called the Ruler Candidate. So it is up to us to find out which one of the three it is and to protect them, with us likely replacing the role of someone who helped that person to survive, or doing something the Examiner did that allowed the candidate to “win”?

Maybe there is a small change that would make that Candidate die, unlike the real history, that change made to create this quest for us?

Like some butterfly effect, but stupider. One missed coffee break, and now the heir to the Ruler gets assassinated if we do not stop it. Wouldn’t even be the weirdest thing we’ve seen in the tutorial.

That also likely means that if we leave things as they are now, the “true” Candidate will die. If that happens, I'm sure nothing good will come of it. The way this floor is set up, I think failing the quest would trap us in this loop until the tutorial ends. It's possible the 'record' would be destroyed when all the Candidates die, and we would disappear along with it. Which would be a very on-brand ending.

Congratulations, you solved nothing and got deleted.

That kind of stuff.

If my thought process is right, that likely means Ari either isn’t the Candidate, or that she is, and she will die soon, and would only be able to survive with help?

Or I’m just hallucinating and thinking bullshit.

Wouldn’t be the first time.

As much as the mental exercises and testing done with these shapes pain me, the unanswered questions here do as well.

In the end, there are four people we suspect. Ari, Tyven, the ten-year-old girl, and Vance.

The ten-year-old little monster is someone the others don’t suspect that much. Her personality doesn’t seem like someone who would follow the schedule or be tricky. She also enters the Academy on day 8, so this is against her. Yet her talent cannot be underestimated, and she stays on the list for now.

As for the assassin who tried to kill me, it is almost surely one of the Candidates who somehow got access to such an incredible toxin. That, or an Examiner who manipulated a native into killing me while somehow avoiding the rule that kills them if they harm anyone other than a Candidate. I'm sure the rule wouldn't be so loosely defined that 'hiring' help would count. Of course, that's only if Ari was telling the truth.

But even here, Group 4 doesn’t come to one certain conclusion. Some say it should be possible for an Examiner to hire someone to kill people, while others think such a cheap tactic wouldn’t be allowed, and they would be killed.

We also start searching for the core that triggers the resets. Controlling something like that would be incredible, and at this point, it is certain someone here knows what it is, which explains the different duration of the loops.

And we continue to abuse the mechanisms of this floor as much as possible. Knowledge gained or bought, lessons from skilled Professors, passives, skills tested. All these shards we have make our group likely the richest in Earth’s tutorial by a wide margin.

Even though everything seems fine, it doesn't last long because the same person who tried to kill me now tries to kill Tess.

While guarding her target, she gets hit in the arm with the same kind of dart that hit me. Knowing what is to follow next, she destabilizes primordial lightning inside her body and blows off her entire arm, together with a huge chunk of her shoulder.

In a show of wild determination, she doesn’t use the healing mark from Lily, worried that if the toxin is there, it will spread faster, and then she follows in the direction where the attack came from as the attacker escapes.

Like some nightmarish lightning brought to life, she smashes through a window and leaps from rooftop to rooftop, leaving a trail of blood behind her.

She almost catches them. But just as she’s about to close the gap, the floor resets. All of us are pulled back into that small room.

That also confirms whoever attacked me and her knows where the core is.

***

POV Kim Min-Jae

Another loop starts, and I’ve already spent most of my shards on passives. I continue to test. One supports my Gravitational Wavelength Eye, and the other allows me to massively strengthen my [Telekinesis]. As far as I’ve tested, I think these are the ones I’ll keep, with both being mid arcane.

Not that long ago, I honestly believed it would take a lot more time before I could even hope to get my hands on any proper upper epic passives. It always seemed like something far off, like one of those goals that stay just out of reach no matter how much you grind.

It is an incredible amount of shards. But the knowledge in the library is incredible as well.

Somehow, even though I tell myself to hold back, I keep spending more time here. The temptation is constant. With every book I open or mana stone I touch, a dozen new ideas form in my head.

At this point, whenever I’m here, I rarely follow my schedule. I know I shouldn't, and Tess and Nat wouldn’t like it, but I’m tired of their rules. I just read what I want and keep mapping the books and mana stones I plan to bring to another floor. There’s so much to learn, it makes my head spin. It’s like drowning in ideas, in a good way. The deeper I go, the more I realize how little I really knew before.

Some in the group, the twins, might tease me, but I’ve already learned enough to improve how I use mana and gravitational energy for future plans. I’ve also discovered better ways to use [Telekinesis]. The skill isn’t very rare, so there’s a lot of knowledge about it. I’ve found ways to lift heavier objects more easily and reduce the mental effort needed to control multiple projectiles.

There’s even an obscure method buried in a flawed theory book that suggested syncing [Telekinesis] with external vibration frequencies. It sounded ridiculous, but it worked. A bit. Just instead of vibrations, I try to connect it to Gravitational Wavelengths.

Most of what I learn, I keep to myself, planning to surprise everyone when the time is right. At this point, I’m confident I could defeat both Dennis and Aaron at once, especially with all the work I’ve put into seeing through their illusions and countering their speed.

The others have warned me to be careful around Tyven, especially after Nat and Tess were attacked. With how I’ve been behaving lately, there’s no way he hasn’t noticed me. Every Candidate probably suspected we were “bugs” since our first loop, when we appeared out of nowhere. That’s why I don’t agree with the need to stick to the schedule, like some in the group say.

If they’re already watching us, what’s the point in pretending? I'd rather dig deeper while I still can.

Tyven spends a lot of time in the library, and from what I’ve seen, he follows the schedule exactly. Same door he uses to enter, same time, same table. Even the bottle he brings is always filled to the same level, with the same drink.

He always takes mana stones from the same shelf and reads them at his table. Every single day, without fail, no matter how closely I watch.

If this floor is really over three years old, and the Candidates are 100 loops in, it's hard to believe it's possible to keep exactly the same schedule for over three years, especially with Ari so close to him and watching the entire time.

Maybe I’m feeling off after the early reset, or maybe it’s from one of my friends almost dying, but I start breaking my schedule even more. For the first time, I walk over to Tyven’s table and sit across from him.

“Is it free here?” I ask quietly.

He looks up in that shy way of his and nods. Then he glances back at the mana stone in his hand. He does that often, even though you can’t read them by looking directly. Still, I’ve noticed it helps with concentration, the same way waving my hand helps me focus when using [Telekinesis].

“My name is Kim,” I whisper. “What are you reading?”

“I’m Tyven,” he replies softly. “Foundations of Basic Arrays by Solen Vey.”

Then a small smile appears on his face. “It sucks.”

“Solen Vey? Didn’t he write Advanced Studies in Magical Geometries? I wanted to burn that thing five minutes in.”

“Just be sure to use an advanced geometric structure when you set it on fire.”

That makes me laugh briefly, and I glance down at my own mana stone. The stone in my hand is old, slightly chipped, but it pulses with steady light. I run my thumb over one of the surfaces without thinking, feeling the warm hum through my skin.

I look up again when I notice something moving in the corner of my vision. Tyven is waving slightly to get my attention.

When I meet his eyes, he shifts his jacket. Underneath, a spider clings to his black sweater. With its legs spread, it’s about the size of my palm, excluding fingers. The spider is missing one of its eight legs, in the same way Tyven is missing one of his four arms.

Tyven smiles shyly, and the spider, still clinging to his clothes, wobbles from side to side as if greeting me.

“That’s Septa,” Tyven whispers, gently petting the spider with the tip of his finger. The creature moves excitedly, even nipping his finger in what looks like a playful gesture.

“Septa is very cute,” I say, and I mean it. As much as I dislike arachnids, Septa moves in a way that actually makes her seem adorable.

The thylarin boy nods and pulls his jacket back over her, then says in a voice mimicking one of the strict professors I also know, “No pets allowed in the library, Mister Tyven, unless they’re annotated with a three-part classification system.”

He lets out a soft laugh, clearly amused by his own impersonation, then glances at Septa. She peeks out from under the jacket and taps his sleeve with two of her remaining legs, as if playing along.

I shake my head and turn back to my mana stone. Tyven does the same, and the Library falls quiet.

***

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