Chereads / The Dungeon Hunter / Chapter 2 - Prologue 2: The Return

Chapter 2 - Prologue 2: The Return

The room was dimly lit and completely silent. There were several chairs in a row and shelves filled with books, it was almost empty except for one person standing in front of a small counter that was in the center of the room. The room was dusty and full of insects, she seemed to have had no visitors for a while. It was by no means a place anyone would want to stay.

The man standing had black hair, an oddly pale face, dry, scarred lips, sunken eyes, and looked incredibly thin. He looked immobile, whoever saw him might think he was dead.

Suddenly, the front door to the room opened, a hooded person stepped forward and walked towards the man.

The man, who had previously seemed motionless, suddenly stirred and said, "I've been waiting for you."

The man moved in a bizarrely robotic way, as if he had no control over his movements. He went to one of the shelves and picked up one of the books that were on it.

The book had an ugly red cover, its condition seemed to have been affected by the unpleasant environment in the room. The person quickly grabbed the book and headed back to the door.

When she was about to open it, footsteps were heard, the more time passed, the closer the footsteps got. The person, who had previously been apparently calm, suddenly became anxious. "Damn, they're already here!"

...

After a while, the steps stopped and a man wearing armor opened the door, he had long, oily blond hair. He was wearing shining armor and carrying a sword at his waist, behind him were two men, probably his guards.

He walked into the room, looking around and analyzing every detail, after watching for a while, he approached the counter and said, "Hello Edward."

"Hello, Mr Gimlet, why would someone as respected and noble as yourself come to this old library?"

"I'm looking for a person, some local residents said they saw a hooded person entering this room."

Gimlet had a serious tone, it looked like he wouldn't give up on finding who he was looking for regardless of Edward's answer.

"Sorry sir, as you can see, this library has been abandoned for a long time, no one comes here but me."

Gimlet trusted Edward's words, as he was the eldest citizen of the town of Greenbell, everyone knew Edward and respected him because of his knowledge. However, after an incident involving one of the library's books, many people decided to seek knowledge by other means.

"My guards will search your library, you don't mind, do you?"

Gimlet wanted to see what his reaction would be, if he was covering up for someone Edward would refuse.

"Sure, no problem, as long as they don't touch any of my books..."

Edward's answer didn't sound like someone who was lying, however, Gimlet felt he should look it up anyway.

After a while looking, there was only one shelf left, the two guards had separated, so if someone was hiding they would find it more quickly.

The soldier approached the shelf, he was nervous and with his guard high, so he looked behind the shelf...

He didn't find anything.

The soldier let out a slight sigh of relief, as he prepared to head back to Gimlet, he noticed something strange.

One of the books was strangely out of place, it seemed on purpose, as all the others were stored differently.

The soldier, without thinking twice, touched the book...

...

Gimlet was sitting in one of the library chairs, he had his arms crossed and looked impatient.

The pope ordered him not to return to the church until he had captured the fugitive. He didn't know why, but the pope had a strange obsession with this person.

Of course, he didn't ask why, but it was a curious fact.

After a few minutes of silence, Gimlet decided to speak.

"Why do you insist on protecting this old library?

Edward stopped for a few seconds, seemed to be thinking of a convincing answer.

"I don't have any reason, maybe because I've lived here so long, I feel somehow connected to this place."

Edward was a mysterious person, no one knew his origins and as he lived before coming to Greenbell, the older people who lived at that time seem to avoid talking about him.

"You..."

Before Gimlet could speak, an explosion interrupted the conversation.

BANG!

One of the guards suddenly came running from the explosion site, his armor looked damaged and he was injured, the soldier ended up falling in front of Gimlet and said while pointing at Edward:

"It was him..."

Gimlet unsheathed his sword and pointed at Edward

"I hope you know the consequences of what you just did."

Edward didn't look scared by the threat, on the contrary, he kept showing the same calm expression from the start.

"I warned you not to touch my books..."

Gimlet ran to Edward intending to end his life, however, before his sword touched him, Edward's body began to melt like wax, and he disappeared.

Gimlet holstered his sword again and prepared to leave the library.

"Sir... Me... Help..."

Gimlet approached the soldier, and as a form of pity, pointed his sword at him, causing a strange light to come out of her and end her suffering.

...

As soon as he picked up the book, the hooded person noticed footsteps coming from outside the library, his expression changed as he noticed that he had no way out of this situation. "Damn! They're already here!"

Trying to think of a way to escape, the person looked at Edward again, however, now there were two.

"Take her to the passage, and don't let anyone touch the book."

Edward spoke to himself and without hesitation he obeyed.

He walked past the hooded person and said "follow me."

After walking a few meters, Edward stopped in front of a bookcase, it was like the others, but when Edward touched it, it started to disappear and revealed a giant tunnel.

"Go straight and don't stop until you reach the last door."

"Is that you?"

"I'll take care of the guards"

The hooded person soon ran towards the tunnel as Edward came back and closed the passage.

...

The tunnel had a sinister atmosphere and emanated a dark aura, as he ran, the hooded person noticed that doors were appearing on both sides of the tunnel, and some eyes were watching her from inside.

"Edward…what kind of person are you?"

She followed Edward's instructions and continued in a straight line, until she came to a large metal door, the door was ten feet high and the metal was extremely thick, the lock was square in shape, she was protecting something.

As she approached, the book in her hands began to be pulled like a magnet, she couldn't resist the force and ended up dropping the book that went towards the door lock. As soon as the two connected, the book gave off a strange glow and the door finally opened.

An aura emanated from the room and traveled the entire tunnel, entering the doors and exiting through the passage. It was a dark and icy cave, in the center of it was a large figure sitting on a throne made of bones, just like his throne, the person sitting in it was a skeleton, on his head had two two-inch horns and his back was covered with black wings, his hand was propped up on a cane with a purple crystal on top. As powerful as he looked, this figure had long since died.

The hooded person knew who he was and knew what he had to do, he approached the skeleton and bit his hand, causing blood to drip onto the floor, using his blood, he made a round symbol with a star in the middle and started to say a language different from what she spoke before, as soon as it ended, the blood trail that was on the ground forming the circle began to burn until the end, after burning completely, the cave began to tremble and the eyes of the seated figure began to glow.

"Welcome back, my king."