"Don't we get a reward?" Gladwyn asked, looking around before answering his own question, "Ah, over there!"

There were two chests waiting next to the ramp leading down and the three of them went over to them.

"You should take the Relic Chest, Gladwyn," James said. "I'll take the Upgrade Chest."

The Shield Wall nodded and gestured to Adam, "If you wouldn't mind blessing my dice roll with your luck."

"Of course," Adam replied with a grin.

The chest was made from stitched-together flesh with seams bound by coarse black string. Not wanting to touch it, Adam kicked it below the lid and it popped open. It showed a hooded robe of the same material as the chest, the torso of one of the Mana Hoarder constructs they'd killed on the first landing, and lastly a scaly dark-green tail.

< < Relics Available > >

< Flesh Smith's Skin-Robe (Rare) — Reduces damage from elemental effects by 40% | Reduces Dodge chance by 15% >

< Mana Hoarder's Torso (Rare) — Increases Mana by 10 and restore 5 Mana with every kill | Increase Defence by 25% | Drains 5 Mana every minute and prevents passive Mana regeneration >

< Grafted Tail (Epic) — Grows a tail on your body >

Adam thought it was weird the Skin-Robe was named after the Flesh Smiths which hadn't worn any clothes.

Gladwyn looked at the options, and James quickly came over after picking his upgrade.

"That Torso armour is quite good," he commented.

"It's only Rare," Gladwyn replied. "And I don't use Mana."

"That's good. It means I can easily pick it up after the Stage in the shop, if I don't find it in another chest here," James said.

"None of the armour pieces have a durability effect," Adam noted.

"I think I'll pick the tail," Gladwyn said and reached out to grab it.

It immediately appeared from his lower back, pushing aside his Sanctuary Defender's Robes. It was a lot longer than Adam had expected, reaching at least a metre and a half.

"That's a strange feeling," Gladwyn muttered.

The tail swished about, even coiling all the way in front of him which was a lot more dexterous than Adam had expected it to be.

"It should help you balance and climb," James said.

Adam reached out and touched it with his obsidian hand. A zap rolled through his arm as soon as his finger-tip connected, and Gladwyn instinctively pulled his new tail away.

"What did you just do!?" he asked, backing away from Adam.

He couldn't respond, because he was in the middle of reliving the memory of the grafted tail, seeing the monstrous creature it had once belonged to. The memories washed over him as though he was standing under a waterfall, until suddenly he saw the final moments of the tail being chopped off by a grinning lady with a large butcher's blade and a body covered in sores.

Adam gasped.

"I think Alepheria's Mandate has a hidden effect," he said.

"It felt like you just pinched me," Gladwyn replied.

"Sorry."

"What's the effect?" James asked, staring at Adam's black hand.

"It lets me see memories. Like, the memories of things I touch. I felt it too when I touched the crystal sword embedded in that tree. I could feel how long it had been waiting there."

James offered his hand. "Try it on me."

Adam hesitated for a moment, but then reached out and put his index finger on James' dark skin. Another zap shot up his arm and James pulled his hand away, shaking it like he'd just touched a live barbwire fence.

Adam saw hazy moments starting from the first Stage of the Trials, all of the memories focused on James' hand and how it had been used for holding a shield as he fought the slimes, and how in the following Stage he'd used the shield to pummel the goblins to death. He saw random moments in-between the Stages too, and how he always ordered the same drink at the Tavern and used his left hand to hold it. The memories sped up and blurred together, leaving Adam with just a vague sense of the fights James had been through.

"You okay?" Gladwyn asked him as Adam took a step back and shook his head.

"It's a really bizarre feeling," he replied. "Also, you drink a lot of chai latte," he told James.

The Spellblade laughed.

Gladwyn swished his tail around. It seemed to respond to his emotions somehow, which was strangely adorable, in an absurd body horror kind of way.

"Let's continue," Adam said, resummoning his barriers.

"According to Emelia, the Tower Crawler appears at the top of the Tower and works its way down," Gladwyn told James.

"We should be quick then," he replied.

Adam shaped his three barriers into simple sleds. "Get on," he told them. "The next special landing should be the library, and it's quite open, so we wanna get to it before the Crawler."

"What about the floors we're skipping?" James asked.

"We can come back to them later," he replied.

They trusted each other enough at this point that there was no need for him to convince them, and they got onto the barriers without a fuss. Adam commanded the barriers to carry them up through the middle of the tower, without following the ramps. It was riskier, but they were able to pass the next three landings without triggering any of the enemies.

Adam only saw what awaited them on one of the floors and he was glad they were skipping it for now, because there were four armoured and armed brutes guarding the doorway to some kind of treasure room, and they seemed likely to put up a serious fight.

When they reached the library, it was similar to the laboratorium in that the landing ringed around the entire floor, hugging the Tower's walls. Bookcases at least fifteen metres tall covered the walls, cutting off the spiralling ramp and making the way up to where it continued only accessible by a series of strange ladders criss-crossing the walls, unless Players could fly like Adam.

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< < Optional Stage Objective > >

< Destroy the Library >

"This should be simple enough," James said and hopped off his barrier, landing on the wooden floor of the ring.

Gladwyn and Adam dismounted as well.

Before James could set fire to his sword and burn down the whole library, Adam stopped him. "My Patron item should be here somewhere," he said.

"If we complete more optional objectives, it will empower the Crawler," Gladwyn added.

"Are we going to try and avoid that?" James asked.

"I think that's for the best," Adam said, "there's only three of us, after all."

The Spellblade nodded. "What are you looking for here?" he asked, but before Adam could reply, Gladwyn moved in front of them and slapped his shield with his sword.

"Incoming!"

Adam hadn't noticed them until now, but humanoid bird creatures made of bone and wearing black hooded robes moved around the bookshelves above, meticulously organising the thousands of books, though their attention quickly fixated on the three of them.

He couldn't help but draw strong parallels between the Tome Keeper's domain and Alepheria's Tower, and it seemed like she had been a student of the Absolute somehow, copying many of his areas of interest. Still, her tower and creations were like the work of a child imitating their parent.

Gladwyn slammed his shield again, taunting the bird men as they swooped down towards them.

[These are Alepheria's Librarians,] Adam's cube announced.

He shaped his three barriers into simple spikes and commanded them to strike the birds in their wings. It proved to be a very effective way to deal with them, since they were all laser-focused on Gladwyn due to his taunting Relic.

As they crashed down around them with loud snaps and cracks, James moved between them and finished them off by chopping their heads from their bodies. Soon Winter Dancers emerged from Adam's lantern and then the slaughter truly began, as the summons danced through the air and froze the Librarians' bodies, sending them crashing to the ground and shattering on impact thanks to the ice turning them brittle.

Once nothing but headless and shattered humanoid birds were all that remained, the three of them looked around for clues to Adam's Quest Object.

"They're notes on Chimaeral Transmutation," he told them, though none of them knew what that would actually look like.

"There must be like ten thousand books here," Gladwyn remarked. "No way we're finding one book amongst all of these."

"I thought for sure the item would stand out," Adam said.

Gladwyn's Quest Object had been pretty obvious in hindsight, but it had also been slightly out of the way and they'd only noticed it thanks to James.

"You know, I think this floor might be a trap as well, somehow," James said. "It would be quite easy to burn it down, but given that everything including the floor is made of wood, I think we'd end up collapsing this whole area and potentially blocking the floors below."

Gladwyn nodded.

"Also, doesn't it seem weird to keep special research notes just on a random shelf?" James continued.

"Not to mention," Gladwyn continued, "if I was a megalomaniac wizard who lived in this tower, I would keep my special books somewhere out of the way."

"Like a hidden chamber?" Adam replied, thinking the same thing.

James spun around, holding his telescope Relic to his eyes and looking for clues.

After a moment he said, "Some of the books have different colours."

Adam looked around as well. Although he didn't have the benefit of the telescope, he quickly spotted a book with a green embroidered cover sleeve. Most of the books were grey, brown, or black, so it stood out, but since there were so many books, it wasn't immediately obvious at a glance.

He used a barrier to fly up to where it was positioned six metres off the ground and reached out to grab it.

The green book didn't pull all the way out, but just tilted and produced a click. It was like a switch.

Adam looked around to see what it had opened, but there was nothing.

"There's a red one a bit down and about eight metres to your right!" James called from below.

He followed his instructions and flew towards the book he'd indicated. When he pulled on it, it produced another click. The first book he'd pulled out tilted itself back into the row of books, as though triggering this second one had reset it.

Adam flew back down to his friends and they both got on separate barriers, allowing him to lift them up into the air with them to make it easier to spot other books.

After a minute, Gladwyn noticed a blue one that was all the way at the top of one of the bookcases. When Adam flew over and pulled on it, the red book tilted itself back into its row, similar to the green one.

"Hmm," Adam hummed contemplatively.

"There's gotta be some kind of order to them," Gladwyn said, his barrier floating right next to Adam's.

"I see an orange book all the way at the bottom over there," James said, pointing off to their left. "And a purple one a bit above it and further to the right."

They flew over to these and Adam pulled on them as well, resetting the previous ones every time he activated the next in line.

"There's a white one almost at the top on the opposite side," James said. "I don't think there are any others besides those."

Adam flew them over to it, but Gladwyn immediately frowned. "If they are only activated once and its some special sequence, then there's a six factorial number of combinations."

"That's… 720 combinations," Adam said.

"We don't have time to test all those," Gladwyn replied.

Not before the Crawler gets here, that's for sure.

Emelia hadn't said anything about how fast the Stage boss moved, but Adam guessed it wasn't super-fast, since they had neither seen nor heard any sign of it. Still, it was better if they got to choose where and when to fight it, rather than letting it get the jump on them.

"Maybe we go according to the colours," James guessed. "Or maybe top to bottom or something straight forward."

"I'm guessing they wouldn't make it ridiculously complex," Adam commented, "after all, people who can't fly should be able to do this. Or I'd at least assume it's balanced that way."

"Is there anything special written on the books?" Gladwyn asked.

Adam hadn't actually checked but he reached out and pulled on the white book in front of him.

Click.

There was nothing on the front and back of the book nor on the spine.

"Nada," he replied.

"Float us back to the middle," Gladwyn told him and Adam obliged.

"Let's see," he mused while looking around.

Adam followed his gaze, from top to bottom the colours were: blue, white, green, red, purple, orange. He noticed the spacing was weird as well. From the floor to the books, the spacing of each colour was: 0 metres from the floor, then 2, 4, 6, 10, and lastly 16 metres off the floor from the very top.

"It can't be related to the floors below," Gladwyn muttered to himself.

Adam agreed, it didn't match the pattern they'd seen, since there had been nine simple landings and two special ones between them and the ground.

Perhaps James was onto something by looking at the colours.

I'm willing to bet that the white book is either the first or last in the sequence.

Depending on which way you look at it, the combination for the rest could be: green, blue, purple, red, and orange. Or it could be in reverse.

Orange might be the first, since it's at the bottom of the floor.

"I'm gonna try something," Adam said and flew them down to the floor.

"I'll wait here," Gladwyn said and stepped off.

"Me too," James added. "It'd be difficult to concentrate while you fly around."

"Exactly," Gladwyn agreed.

Adam stepped off the barrier and crouched to pull the orange book.

Click.

He got back onto the barrier and floated up towards the red one.

Click.

The first book pulled itself back in.

Damn, maybe this isn't right…

Unless they always reset themselves when the next is triggered.

He flew down to the purple book, then the blue at the very top, and finally the green.

Just the white book now.

It seemed fitting to start with the orange book at the bottom and finish with the white near the top. When he looked at how the criss-crossing ladders were placed, going between the books like he had done was one of the many possible routes. Granted, that also meant it could work in reverse.

When he flew up and pulled on the white book, it produced a loud click before pulling itself back in.

Adam waited a moment but nothing happened.

Still, that's a good sign. I think that means there's a time element I didn't fulfil before, since it didn't reset itself, but the order is clearly wrong.

"Try that same pattern but in reverse!" Gladwyn called from below. "The ladders draw a path between them."

"Oh, you're right," James realised.

"I was just about to try that," Adam yelled back.

He pulled on the white book and it produced a normal click.

Then he flew back down to the next, and then up again, and so on, until returning to the bottom where the orange book was.

Adam stepped off his barrier and crouched to pull on the book.

A loud click echoed through the library.

Then the books clicked and pulled themselves out in the reverse order he'd activated them, until reaching the white book and producing another loud echoing click.

"I think that did it," Gladwyn said excitedly.

Opposite from where the orange book sat at the very bottom of its bookcase, a loud scraping of wood-on-wood drew their attention.

Where two bookcases met was now an open seam and they continued to swing outward, cut off from the rest of the shelves about eight metres up the wall and revealing a dark hole.

Two glowing eyes stared back at them from within.

As the bookcases parted, the creature in the darkness stalked forward, its yellow eyes growing bigger and bigger until the light of the Tower fell on its head as it emerged from the hidden chamber. It had large snake eyes with slit pupils, the head of a serpent but with slightly strange proportions, and the body of some large feline although covered in dark-green scales. It was the size of a polar bear, but quite a bit longer.

[This is Alepheria's First Chimaera.]

"You don't reckon I'm wearing its original tail, do you?" Gladwyn asked with a horrified expression.

The chimaera immediately leapt across the ringed floor, sailing through the air towards them.

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