Tyler was stunned by the sight in front of him. He could not believe that there was a library inside the Demon King's chambers, mostly because he couldn't imagine the Demon King reading a book. It took him a while to compose himself and organize his thoughts. He then took a step forward into the library to get a better understanding of what was inside.
The moment he entered the hall, the door behind him closed. He felt something shatter around him, but he did not notice anything out of the ordinary. Just like the rest of the castle, the library was lined with gold, almost as if gold was a common metal. The walls were carved with strange symbols and drawings. There were no colored crystals to light up the room, but it was strangely bright, as if under the sun.
Tyler started to walk towards one of the bookshelves closest to him to take a better look at the books on them. The Demon King must have used an insanely advanced concealment spell to hide the library. For a spell that had managed to last almost 1000 years after the death of the Demon King, it must have been something even above the legendary Tier 7 Magic.
Getting closer to the shelf, he could see the titles of some of the books:
Silent Incantations
Greater Magics
Magic Circles
Fundamental Modus
The Book of Death
Apart from that last one, each book he saw was extremely valuable. To any magic user, this was a treasure trove that all races would die for. "Was this the real reason humans started the war?" Tyler frowned slightly at this thought. If the humans had somehow found out about the knowledge possessed by the Demon King, it made sense why they were so bent on invading the demon continent. They probably deceived the dwarfs with their promise of rare ores and high-level beast cores. Even if the dwarfs noticed something later on, their interest in the materials from the high-level monsters would be more important to them. After all, there wouldn't be too many books here that would interest the dwarfs; their main focus was weapons.
Tyler didn't hurriedly pick a book. He casually walked through the library to get a better understanding of the place. The hall was large, and it would take him a while to look through the entire library. It was a shame he wasn't skilled in using magic. His potential was not even at the Tier 1 standard. Even after trying all he could to learn basic magic spells, he couldn't perform any of them. The only reason he had any magic was because of an innate ability he had, Potential Break.
At first, he had thought this was a cheat ability he had received for being reincarnated. But he later found out that even though it was a unique and rare ability, there were a few people who had innate magical abilities as well, before even learning magic.
Innate ability is a unique ability that is different for each individual. It would have been awesome if he were able to use magic, as Potential Break was able to forcefully increase a magic user's potential, turning a Tier 2 mage or Magic Swordsman into Tier 3. But in the end, Tyler could only use it on one person and for only 60 seconds because of his limitations. Still, this was an incredible ability for his companions, which was why he was able to join a relatively strong party and learn from a Tier 3 Magic Swordsman in order to become a D-Ranking Adventurer.
"Sigh... what a shame," Tyler said as he began to compose himself again. He started walking around the library, seeing various magic books and even magic scrolls containing various support-type spells. The latter was quite common in the human continent; he had quite a few himself when he was an adventurer. He secretly decided to take as many of them as possible when he left the castle. After all, the library was too valuable, and the books might be easily tracked. He didn't believe he could protect himself if he took a book to sell.
After deliberating about it for some time, he started walking again to continue his exploration of the library. There were books and scrolls on the shelves on both sides of the hall. He read the names of each book and even took a look at the scrolls. An hour later, he arrived at a corner of the library. There were no books nor scrolls; the shelves here contained different types of accessories, artifacts, and various items (possibly magic items). There were rings, bracelets, masks, crystals, etc.
The items displayed in a magic library would be special. Although Tyler was interested in them as he thought he had found a way to become stronger, he still didn't touch them rashly. He had heard of how dangerous magic artifacts were, not to mention a magic artifact belonging to the Demon King. Plus, the fact that he couldn't use appraisal magic added to his caution.
There were many artifacts on the shelves, about 150. To Tyler's disappointment, there were no weapons, but there was something that caught his attention. It was something he recognized.
It was an orb the size of a volleyball, dark in color like it was absorbing all the light around.
The orb was used to test the magic potential of people. Tyler had used a similar one in his evaluation in the Adventurer Guide. He could still remember the looks of the staff members present in the room when he found out he wasn't even able to be a Tier 1 Mage.
He creased his brows at the thought. 'Those staff members were totally mocking me, weren't they? It's not like any of them had a magic potential to brag about. Bunch of dumbasses.' After cursing at the dead, he thought about using the orb again. Maybe after so many years, his potential had improved a little, or whatever kept him alive underground might have done something to improve his potential (potentials are usually permanent). But he was still a little hesitant. It took him a while to get used to the idea of not being able to use magic after being reincarnated to a world with magic, and there have been people along the way who had mocked him for being weak and even told him his innate ability was wasted on him. If he took the test just to be disappointed again, he might die from the emotional impact.
It was not a very hard decision, to be honest. It wasn't like he had much to do, and even if it was the same results, he was already a warrior swordsman and could still use one of the other artifacts and magic items and crystals to complement his vast weakness. So why not?
Tyler had finally decided to test his potential again after contemplating for a while. His reason was that he had no fatigue right now. As a matter of fact, his body felt amazingly fit. He had incredible balance and control over all his limbs. He had instinctively assumed that all improvement was related to him being a swordsman, but he had no idea what happened to him or why his body was in such great shape. So maybe his magic potential was better now. If he could get a Tier 3 potential, it would be insane. And if he got the same results as last time, he would be fine because of his improved physique. More importantly, no one else was here.
He then walked to the shelf with the orb and picked it up. Taking a few steps back, he concentrated as he had done in the past.
The orb was dark with lots of light gathering in a cluster in the center. In order to use it, one must be holding the orb and will their mana into it. The orb had the characteristic of attracting light out of the atmosphere, which is a form of energy. As a result, it can attract the mana from whoever holds it. This makes it easier to sense the mana within, so even a novice would be able to sense his mana when holding the orb. Once the orb contains the mana, the specks of light scatter within it, and it, in turn, glows. The more powerful the mana, the more excited the light within is, and the brighter the orb glows, which shows the magic potential of the one holding the orb.
As Tyler held the orb and injected his mana into it, he slowly opened his eyes to look at the orb nervously. Crack...
BOOM!
"It exploded?" Tyler stood rooted to the spot as he watched the dust from the shattered orb fly everywhere.
••••••
At the Red Riverbank,
Rain and Liz were taking turns watching the area while the other got some rest. Rain was standing a few meters from the campfire when she sensed something moving within the forest.
*whoosh...
It was fast and agile, and she didn't get a good look at it.
She slowly retreated to where her friend was resting and whispered, "Hey Liz, get up. Prepare to leave; we have company. The noise will attract other creatures." She said while tapping her friend's shoulder, keenly aware of her surroundings.
Liz got up without saying anything and prepared to leave, being on high alert and ready to provide backup for her friend. Even though her leg wasn't healed, she could use various enhancement spells to regain full control of her body for a while. It was how she made it to the river, to begin with. Now that she and her friend had regained some mana, they weren't afraid of the monsters that patrolled the outer areas of the forest.
As soon as Liz had gotten up though, three flashes of light flew at her from the forest at lightning-fast speed. They were silvery-white claw-shaped energy attacks. Even though she was expecting an attack, she was still a moment too slow to react in time.
"Water Barrier!"
Water drops were extracted from the air as they formed a barrier around Liz at high speed. Tier 2 Elemental magic - Water Barrier. Rain had reacted in time as her left palm that had formed the magic circle was stretched out facing Liz. She instantly raised her right index finger at the spot the attack had come from and cast a spell.
"Twin Max magic Lightning ricochet!"
Two thick bolts of silver lightning shot out of her finger straight at the spot the monster had attacked from.
Whoosh...
The monster instantly left its location and appeared to the right of the girls, away from the terrifying attack. It was a silver wolf, almost the size of an adult male. Its eyes glowed with a red luster, his fang was large and sharp, and it had a hint of intelligence as he prepared another attack to finish off its prey. It had used the silver wolf innate ability °Speed Bust° and successfully evaded its prey's attack.
Thanks to its fast reaction and insane speed, it had escaped the attack before it even reached him, giving him a chance to finish off its prey with its next attack. After all, it knew they would not be able to cancel the attack halfway through, and even if they were able to cast another spell, it still had a few more °Speed Bust° in him; it could simply repeat the process.
Its fur started to stand on end as he prepared for its most powerful attack °Rage Destruction°, which would enable him to launch an endless barrage of a more powerful and faster version of the previous attack it had used °Silver Claw Slash°.
At that moment though, two thick bolts of silver lightning struck him right in the head as it streaked through its entire body, sending an electric current to attack its internal organs, taking him down in his confusion.
As the silver wolf was overly confident in its speed and was in the process of casting a spell of its own, it wasn't able to react at all to the speed and might of the Tier 5 spell - Lightning ricochet. It didn't notice the magic circle that had appeared in its previous location and redirected the two bolts of lightning to him with greater might. In the end, its body fell to the ground convulsing.
After seeing her friend's spell make contact, not taking any chances Liz immediately cast a follow-up spell of her own.
"Max magic Ice spikes!"
The moment the magic circle appeared under the silver wolf's body, the ground around it froze. In the next second, incredibly sharp ice spikes grew from the frozen ground. The convulsing silver wolf stopped breathing.
"Phew... if it was more than one we might have been in trouble. It's almost dawn; we should start heading for the Demon King's Castle." Rain said with relief in her tone. She hadn't known what kind of monster would come out of the forest, but she could tell it was fast, so she prepared to counter its speed. She hadn't fully recovered her mana so she was unable to cast any Tier 6 spells. If the silver wolf was with its pack, they might have had to retreat into the river and hope no monsters appeared.
Liz looked at her friend and nodded without saying anything else. After Rain retrieved the wolf's core and cut out some flesh for their trip, the two women started to walk along the river bank towards the direction of the Demon King's Castle.
Some distance away, deep in the Darknar forest, a figure was sitting on the branch of a giant tree with his eyes closed. His right arm was on his right knee cap, and his right leg was on the tree branch, while his left leg swayed below. He slowly opened his eyes and stood up, turning his head towards the east in the direction of the Demon King's Castle.
His lips curled up as he smiled and said in a low voice, "Interesting." After the words left his mouth, he slowly faded away like an oil painting.