"So… what's so special about this side room?" Aimee asked.
"It's one of those 'do not disturb' rooms." Camile Jensen answered while leading the way: "There are books and documents in this library that the academy has banned from renting out. So a lot of scholars just rented the 'do not disturb' rooms and read these books and documents in them. These rooms were also fortified against most kinds of magical impact, so that scholars and students could experiment with the dangerous spells and arrays if they so choose."
"And what is suspicious about this one?" Caroline played with a translucent orange and red crystal ball with her fingers.
"Well, as the main librarian here, I am often in charge of arranging the clean up of these rooms after scholars and students are done with them." Camile Jensen sighed: "One thing I noticed - well, it's very hard to explain, maybe I should just show you, here follow me - "
They stopped in front of a metal gate on the far end corner of the library - none of Aimee, Thomas, Caroline and Jason had been to this place inside the library. And it was pretty clear why - there were not many bookshelves near this corner, and there were only a few magical lamps on the floor to provide lighting while there were no windows on the wall to let the natural sunlight in, which made the entire area dark and even more unwelcoming.
The four students walked behind Camile Jensen in a close enclosing formation, they were unsure what Camile Jensen would do, but they were still trying to prevent her from escaping.
"Here, let me open the gate for you." Camile Jensen chanted a small spell then placed her hand on the metal gate.
With a hydraulic sound like that made by civilian elevator doors, the metal gate opened from the middle, revealing its interior - it was not like any other rooms any of the team of four had seen in the library, but they had seen plenty of similar facilities like this room somewhere else - the student training ground: the floor was intentionally made uneven, with pillars of rock and dirt connecting the ceiling and the floor and strangely shaped boulders and rockeries dispersed through the area.
Camile Jensen walked into the room first and pointed at one of the pillars: "This pillar was here, it was not like this last time I was here. Do you wanna come here to take a look? There's some kind of weird magical material residual - "
"Hmm..." Jason walked to the pillar trying to see what Camile Jensen was referring to on the pillar, while the other three still remained behind Camile Jensen and kept their eyes on her.
Just when the four came closer to the pillar, Camile Jensen raised her arm, and a small medallion in her hand released a flash of extremely bright white light. All three students behind her were blinded for a brief moment. And when Jason turned around, he was kicked in the chest and was sent flying and banged his back against the pillar. Jason felt that he was prepared, but he'd never thought a librarian wearing a red mage robe would have that kind of power.
The next moment, Camile Jensen's entire body became shrouded by a wall of wind, instantly pushing everyone around her away. Caroline tried to grab her, but the wall of wind threw her into the air and Camile Jensen jetted herself out of the gate and with a flash of some kind of spell, the metal gate closed and was locked from outside.
"Holy fuck!" Thomas rushed to the gate and banged on the gate: "Camile! Let us out! God fucking dammit!"
"Mother fucker, did she really just pull a 'look what's that' on us?!" Caroline squeezed on her translucent orange and red crystal ball and had it change into her axe and shield: "Jesus fucking Christ!"
"Yeah, she pulled a 'look what's that' one on us." Aimee slapped herself on the forehead: "Let's call someone immediately. This door looks tough, I don't think we could easily break it open"
"You are the actual students here. Go ahead and call everyone you know for help. Jason, let's try and see if we can break the door open." Caroline said while infusing her axe with her Xuanli.
"Alright." Jason nodded, and a silver metal ball floated up from his hand and turned into a long spear that looked kind of like a pen.
"Okay, on three - three, two… one!"
"Boom!" a coordinated attack from both Jason and Caroline left a small dent on the metal gate, and the reaction force almost threw both of them on the ground.
"Fucking hell! What's this door made of?" it took Caroline many steps backwards to stabilize her stance.
"It's not the material, it's the protection array." Jason answered with a frown: "There's some kind of energy and shock absorbent array in this entire room, looks like she was not entirely bullshitting, this room was built for absorbing energy shocks and impacts from within."
"How's the call going?" Caroline nodded and looked back to ask Aimee and Thomas, who were both on the phone.
"There might be some sort of jamming array here as well." Aimee shook her head: "We can't reach anyone, even with blessed lines."
"Try ours." Jason threw his phone to Thomas, and so did Caroline to Aimee.
"Okay, Jason, you're the array and circle nerd, anyway we can break through the array and get outta here?" Caroline turned to Jason and asked.
"It's hard to tell, we'll need to hit it from different angles multiple times with different kinds of attacks. " Jason thought for a while and said.
"Then you say where we hit next, I'll hit it with you." Caroline's entire body seemed to light up in orange and red flames.
"Shit, maybe it's them? Who'd you tried?" Thomas got another busy line.
"I tried Glenda, I tried Professor Kapur - I'm trying Professor Barnes next - " Aimee said.
"Boom!" Caroline and Jason launched another wave of attacks at the center of the ceiling. Their attacks left another dent on the ceiling, but nothing more than that. The energy and shock was almost completely absorbed and dispersed to all corners of the room.