Thirty minutes passed by and Jake had cleared the entire library.
Sweat heavily dripped from his head, showing that it had not been an easy task for him to do that in a short period of time.
His [Spatial Ring] felt heavy, indicating that its inside space had been filled to the brim.
However, this wasn't an issue for Jake.
He walked up to the group he had killed and stripped their [Spatial Rings] from their fingers.
By the time he was done, he looked like a rich man, possessing many valuables on his body.
Looking at the empty library shelves, Jake sighed, "One down, five more to go."
Yes, there were five more to go!
The library was not a one-floor building. It had multiple layers, multiple levels, one floor per layer.
This was made to arrange the books in order of importance.
So, the floor above him possessed books far more valuable than the ones he currently "borrowed".
Jake knew this himself as he had visited the third(3rd) layer himself and read a few books there.
However, that was as far as he could go!
Each layer had a requirement, which was the Identity level, also called the Authority Level, of a person.
Above the third layer required one to be as important as a duke, or even beyond.
It was said that only a few royals could access the fifth layer.
Jake, himself, was only able to enter the third layer due to one of the rewards of the competition, which was [Increased Authority Level].
Originally, he was a commoner, but his level was increased by two(2) levels.
It was meant to be only increased by one level, but Cheyenne, the winner of the competition, had already reached the limit she could attain without holding an exceedingly important position, so the reward was given to Jake.
Now, he was akin to a Noble, not it was important right now.
After finding the staircase that led to the upper floors, Jake proceeded forward.
He had already prepared himself for what it is to come.
Plus, he wasn't just stealing library books.
As stated before, there were five layers of the library, including the ground floor.
However, there were six floors in the library building, which would mean that there was an additional one layer, which was hidden from the public eye…...but not from Jake!!
Jake had a librarian as a lover, so it was normal that he possessed high knowledge of the structure of the library.
He even knew the best routes to take off-hand.
As it turns out, the hidden sixth layer was not related to the library in any way.
It was one of the most important locations in Aztec, as it stored most of its valuables that pertain to cultivation, including [Techniques], [Cultivation Methods], [Meditation Techniques], Cultivation knowledge, and many more.
Jake reckoned that if he had chosen to accept his remaining competition rewards, he would have entered the place.
Still, he was going there now, anyway!
Reaching the last step to the second layer, Jake widely opened the door.
He smiled as he spotted a few security and several groups of people who were also hiding from the chaos outside.
Proceeding to close the door, Jake sighed, 'What a sad life?!'
He had expected the guards to also be positioned here, but he didn't think they wouldn't choose to escape but instead opt to fulfill their duties.
As the guards strangely looked at the newcomer, Jake, the said newcomer, also looked at them.
He was trying to ascertain their cultivation base.
After a few seconds, he knew it, 'There are ten guards. The strongest is at [Realm-2 Stage-4]. The weakest is at [Realm-2 Stage-1]. Still within limits.'
As the stages of each realm were quantified based on energy levels, it would normal that people could fight against those multiple stages above them.
This was the case in the competition!
Jake, himself was capable of doing that. In fact, he had done that multiple times.
So, he understood very well that stages are not an accurate measure for combat strength.
This was also why he didn't panic at the sight of the guards.
After examining Jake, the head guard shouted at him, "What is the situation on the ground floor?"
His question was reasonable as Jake could only come from the ground floor. Those above usually come down through another set of staircase, different from the one Jake took.
Expecting to get a reply, the guard was perplexed when he didn't get one.
He was about to ask again when he saw the newcomer dash at him at great speed.
Instantly going on alert, the guard took out his sword, but it was already too late as Jake appeared next to him with his hand piercing the guard's chest.
From this, one could tell the difference between the first group Jake killed and the guard. At least, the guard could see him…..but did it matter?
After killing the head guard, the entire layer descended into silence, and Jake took advantage of that to finish off the remaining guards and the group.
He took their [Spatial Rings] and stuffed all the books inside the rings.
Now, he had two rings on each of his fingers!
After he was done, he took the staircase and went upward
......…..
On the sixth layer, a guard, with red armor, talked to his comrade, "Did you hear that?"
The red guard was positioned at the door leading downstairs, and so, he was able to hear a few things.
His comrade gave a nonchalant reply, "Hear what?"
"Screams. Do you think the zombies have entered?" said the red guard.
He asks his other comrades and they all gave the same reply, "No way!"
The group of guards protecting the sixth layer had checked through a window and found out what was going on outside.
However, with their experience, they didn't panic and continued to do their jobs, betting their safety on the quick response of Aztec's army.
"No, I definitely heard a scream--"
*Shiu!*
Before he could finish his sentence, a knife burst through the door, but the red guard, with quick reflex, blocked it with his sword!
The attack made the other guards on alert as they waited for more action.
Slowly, the red guard walked closer to the door and attempted to open it.
Instantly, he saw a blur come out of the door and he blocked it with his sword.
After he calmed down his adrenaline, he focused on what he blocked and saw it was a smooth young hand that broke past the door.
Using his experience, he deduced that it must be a human and not a zombie, so he shouted, "Who is there?"
However, the wooden door swung in sporadically and slammed his face.
The door wasn't able to injure him. Instead, it broke, but it distracted him and gave whatever was behind the door a chance to attack!
The figure behind the now-empty door appeared and bypassed the guard's armor to stab his heart at an insane speed.
The figure was revealed under a ray of light to be a young beautiful adult with two different eyes.
It was Jake!
However, he wasn't given time to revel in his kill as an array of elemental attacks was shot by the other guards at him.
Quickly, he took the body of the dead red guard and used it as a shield, while he was blasted by the force of the different elements, back to the stairs.
After a while, he stood up and arranged his broken bones back to their normal position.
Despite using the body bag as a shield, he still managed to get frozen, burnt, and cut in many parts of his body.
He was now bleeding in multiple places.
Even before he got attacked in the sixth layer, his body was already blackened by the guards at the lower layers.
He had realized that he underestimated their sheer power and destructive capabilities, which Jake didn't possess.
Knowing this, he sighed, "F*ckery!"
He decided to go full power and dashed back to the sixth layer.
*Zing!* *Zing!*
Everywhere he appeared, blood would follow and by the time he was done, he was the only thing alive in the sixth layer.
He slumped to the floor and stayed down for a while.
It couldn't be helped as to unleash his full speed, his body was put on an astonishingly high amount of stress!
After recovering, Jake smiled and swept the layer clean.
Since he already had everything he needed, Jake brought out different maps from his ring.
The maps contained the full sketch of the underground system, but they were different from one another, most likely to mask the actual underground system.
This wasn't hard for Jake to solve. All he had to do was compare the different maps, and extract the true map from them.
After he did that, he got the locations of the tunnels that led to the underground system and the channels in the system.
Knowing that the group behind the masked men might also be underground, Jake chose a channel that, while still connected to other channels, gave a more direct route to the Dark Forest!
The tunnel he chose was the closest to him, situated in a building besides the library.
All he had to do was jump through a nearby window into the building and find the exact room the tunnel entrance was located at.
After that, he would be on his way to the Dark Forest, and from there he would go to the south beach and take a ship to the Owl Island, where the branch of a sect was stationed.
Withdrawing the maps, Jake looked at his body and decided to change his clothes which were colored in blood.
Putting on a new set of clothes, he took the longsword of one of the guards he killed for protection.
This was especially needed as he had spotted many special zombies outside.
Special zombies weren't the actual name of this category of zombies. They were called mutated zombies.
This type of zombies rivaled the strength of cultivators.
Mutated zombies, as the name entailed, were zombies that had began mutation.
The first sub-category of them was the [Normal Mutated Zombies]. This class of zombies was "normal" but had physical attributes that rivaled [Realm-1] cultivators.
The second sub-category was the [Gray-Eye Zombies]. These zombies had already surpassed the [Mutated Zombie], and have achieved a number of kills or forcefully mutated to get to this stage.
Despite their lack of intelligence, they possessed the innate ability to manipulate [Nether Energy].
Not only that, upon evolving to this stage, they would receive a physical mutation that heightened their physical attribute. Plus, they countered [Realm-2] cultivators by instinctively manifesting an energy storage device called [Nether Crystal] in their head.
It was basically an overkill!
However, they are easily noticeable due to their fully black eyes, and huge bodies.
The third sub-category was the [Black-Eye Zombies].
In this evolutionary stage, the zombies would gain unique abilities and would be able to use them instinctively, despite their low intelligence. Plus, some of them would possess a separate element apart from [Nether Energy]!
There was also a fourth sub-category known as the [Zombie Lords], but not much was mentioned in the books Jake read, apart from it having its own sub-category that corresponded with each cultivation realm.
When Jake read it, he finally knew how zombies were able to possess a threat to Aztec.
He also noted that they were lucky as they used an evolutionary system to progress, with the conditions for advancement having a lot of loopholes.
Perhaps, that was why they had low intelligence. It was the price to pay.
Finishing his thoughts, Jake realized that he had gotten to the house where the tunnel was.
He wondered whether the people living in the house knew if the tunnel.
However, it seemed that they couldn't use it as they had become zombies, who were now standing in front of Jake.
Quickly, he killed them all and moved to the ground floor.
After minutes of searching rooms, he found the right room and thereby, the right location.
Open the rug used to cover the tunnel, Jake jumped inside, not bothering about the chaos in Aztec.
His next stop, Dark Forest!