'Master you have been master of this library dungeon for a day now and you have made no changes yet! All you have done is go through hundreds of books looking for damage.' I hear an authoritative male voice say somewhere behind a huge wall of books. I try to move around between the walls of books around me looking for a way out.
'Library dungeon?' I wonder out loud as a hardback book falls from one of the walls and hits my foot. I jump from the pain and a wall of books crashes to the ground.
An owl with a scarf made of pages from books around its neck continues to berate me. I just don't really remember this one so I have no idea what to do.
[System can grant user information:Y N]
I think about picking the yes option.
[Warning! This will end the tutorial phase!]
I just pick yes again.
[Tutorial has ended now punishments will be administered after this chapter!]
OK can you please give me the information for this 'chapter'!
The chapter seems to enter my mind like I'm rereading it and after I've finished I understand what I have to do.
Apparently in this chapter the MC had battled the boss of the dungeon in a battle of wits and had become the owner of the dungeon. This chapter was basically all filler with him wandering around the library learning about this different world such as its continents, monarchs, magic system, etc.
At the end of the chapter though he manages to find a book that almost seemed to give him static electricity on his fingers when touching it.
I have apparently spent 2 hours wandering around the library looking for this book according to this annoying owl, who has asked me to address him as the book keeper. I wander from shelf to shelf flicking through books paying no real attention to what they say trying to find a specific book. If this was earlier today or yesterday or even a month ago I would have salivated at the thought of being in a dungeon in another world peacefully reading their books, but that was before I had been cursed with a system that took something a love and made it into a nightmare.
After about 10 more books I finally get so fed up that I beg the book keeper to just tell me where it is because it is impossible to find, in the novel it was a lot easier because the library was smaller however my version of the library has been mixed with my school library. I have looked through shelves that had biology textbooks next to hard bound books on necromancy and the gods it may stem from. Not to mention extra shelves have been put in from the school library as well as rooms stemming off the library being amalgamations of modern day high school and medieval fantasy world dungeon/library.
'Master if what you have been doing is searching for a book then you should have called on me sooner' He chirps holding a smug face. His scarf seems to throb and gyrate, coiling and uncoiling around him as though it were an origami snake that had come to life around this owls neck. I see one line of the scarf glow and realise that it is a book title and words begin to flow from the scarf dancing around until they swirl like a tornado and a book appears and drops into my hands. There really is static electricity being produced from it and it's cover appears to be completely plain no words nothing just a haunting dark blue. I realise that this is my chance to gather books I wanted to research so I ask the book keeper for three specific types of books and this time three separate word tornadoes are created which I try to catch but 2 of them fall on the floor.
I gather them in my hands and the book keeper gives me a sigh and a look of exasperation at having let his precious books touch the floor. But I can't worry about him, after all he won't exist in a second or two after I open this book or do these worlds continue to go on after I'm gone maybe I'm just in control of the characters body for a while but then when I'm gone they pick up where I left off? I didn't have time to wonder about that as I opened the book the dark aesthetic of the dungeon scrolls up and is replaced by my tiny school library.
I'm standing in front of a man behind his desk, wearing a tie that looks like the page of a book and he is stamping my 3 books that I had asked the book keeper for.
'Make sure to bring these back by the due date. I wouldn't want to have to hunt you down for them.' He smirks at his own joke but I stare at him with a furrowed brow because he has the same voice as the book keeper. He notices my facial expression and says, 'I was only kidding... mostly.'
For me over 2 hours had just passed but looking at the clock I had only been in the library for under 10 minutes. I must have just picked up the books and gone to the desk but I had also just spent 2 hours checking books with my fingertips and looking inside them without reading so I wouldn't have to relive the world within the pages, I had also been able to eat some food I had found in a storage room and have short conversations with a talking owl.
I packed the books into my bag promising myself I would read them later because I had no idea what might happen if I read books in the real world, and I go to my next class.
After what feels like a couple days I'm finally back home, having finished class and getting the bus back. I had been only a high school student who liked reading just this morning but since then I have been a swordsman-in-training, a merchant, a prisoner and a dead man. I hoped that this was all a dream or a result of my head injury from this morning and part of me hoped that when I fell asleep things would go back to the way they were. I open the door to my house and I'm greeted by my dog but no one else as my parents are both still at work and I won't see them for a few hours, so I proceeded with my usual routine of taking the dog for a short walk up and down the path outside my house (a benefit to living in the middle of nowhere is that you can take a walk with your dog in complete peace). I get back and decide even if this is just a dream or hallucination or if it only goes on for today I may as well check out the books I had taken from the library.
I had decided to take out a book of fairy tales, a history book on pirates and a travel book about Paris. I had seen these books in the library dungeon and decided that I could use them to test out my theories. Fairy tales, as I wanted to see if I could become a character other than an adolescent boy and to see if I could go into stories that weren't Web novels. Pirate history book, as I wanted to know whether I could go into a non fiction book and whether I could go into something with no clear goals or missions or quests. And lastly the travel book on Paris, I needed a book that was set in the modern day and when I had found this I wondered what would happen could I read a section on a cafe and find myself there.
So I began reading...