Level 1 Fallen

Chapter 190: Karlson to the Rescue!

The books that I picked up were related to weapon training, such as sword techniques, staff techniques, as well as other weapons. Because of the feature where books were saved permanently after reading them once, I wanted to take advantage of the chance to gain some extra bonuses.

Once we were done with this dungeon, I could use the knowledge gained from here to more easily train my weapon proficiencies in the future. If I got lucky, I might even be able to read books related to blacksmithing to benefit my Shadow Forge.

As for the others, Diane was reading fantasy novels, specifically those with ninja themes. Bella had a stack of romance novels piled up next to her and was delightedly reading. Finally, Eilwen seemed to be reading books regarding the customs of various races and countries.

Even with four of us, we can only cover such a small selection, I mused, but that didn’t stop me from reading, committing each movement within the book to memory.

Reading books also had a secondary benefit, which was to slightly increase your Intelligence stat for every book you read. This benefit would likely aid me more than the others, since my base stats were already lower than anyone else. Thus, it wasn’t like I was getting nothing out of our time here.

After getting through her first book, Diane’s brand dimmed, indicating that she had logged out. Her Chosen did not continue reading Diane’s ninja fantasy collection, but instead moved on to researching runes and alchemy.

This continued for a few hours, at which point we all decided to turn in for the night. In the morning, we asked around, seeing if there was anyone who wanted to ask a question about the books that we had read, but their questions were all unfamiliar to us.

Resigned to our fate, we continued the impromptu study marathon.  It would be nice if there was some kind of pattern to the questions asked, but they truly seemed random. Anything from asking for the name of the protagonist in a specific series to how many children the empress of Evergreen had given birth to.

There was one question that was almost perfect for me, with one of the scholars asking about a spear technique from my collection of books. However, it was a book that I hadn’t gotten to yet, so I wasn’t able to answer.

At one point, Diane logged off, and we were going to use her connection with her Chosen to look up the information on her side. Even then, we only managed to get two questions right before the questions became too obscure.

When this plan failed, Diane grumbled, coming back online. With two questions answered, she had recovered a very small amount of power, specifically basic skills up to level two. Unfortunately, skills that low were basically useless in a fight, so it was as good as getting nothing at all.

Defeated, she slumped onto the bench, looking at the pile of books in front of her. “Do we really have to read all of these to finish this dungeon?” she complained, while I looked at the shelves thoughtfully.

There was one other method that we could try, but I wasn’t sure how likely it would work, or if it would be considered cheating. Still, it was better to take the chance, or else we could be here for months.

I rose to my feet, walking over to a nearby scholar while typing out a message. “I would like to take your trial,” I told him, and he turned to face me.

“Very well. In the kingdom of Athua, who is known as the ‘Bringer of Trials’?” he asked calmly, and I forwarded the question to Karlson, together with an explanation.

I’m stuck in the Sage’s Sanctum. We can’t pass unless we can answer a lot of random trivia questions. Hopefully, you can help, because otherwise we can’t do this dungeon…

It took a few moments for Karlson to respond, and I read the response aloud. “The Bringer of Trials is Jace Belreth, an inquisitor of the church known for his fierce devotion, and unwillingness to allow any form of injustice to stand.”

The scholar hesitated for a moment, before nodding his head. “You have passed my trial.” After saying that, the scholar’s robes shifted from black to green in my vision. Diane had told me that she saw something similar when she successfully answered a pair of scholars, though this only seems to apply for the one who is taking the trial.

Bella looked over, her eyes wide. “How did you do that? I know you didn’t have any books on Athua in your pile.”

Diane, on the other hand, widened her eyes in realization. “You asked Karlson directly?”

I confirmed her suspicion, shrugging my shoulders. “Karlson basically lives in the library, and has a trait that increases reading speed. And from what I know, he’s been moving from one library to another whenever he finishes reading everything there. I would not be surprised at all if he had skills related to books at this point.”

“Unfortunately, they don’t measure these rewards by giving you the power that you had at certain levels,” I said in a self-deprecating tone. “Otherwise, just answering one question would already put me at full power.”

Rather than lingering on that, I moved to the next scholar to continue the trial, relaying each question to Karlson as it came. Thankfully, Karlson actually seemed to enjoy this, seeing it as vindication for all of his hard work reading every book he could find until now.

Granted, even he wasn’t able to answer every question. Whenever it came to books only found on different continents from where he stayed, he could only helplessly give up. But, this was good enough. Even if he was only able to answer a tenth of the questions that were being asked, that was solid progress, with every correct answer slowly lifting the restrictions on me.

After I had answered twenty questions with Karlson’s help, the unlocked skills were automatically evolved and elevated to the twentieth level of the intermediate tier. Following this pattern, I would need to answer the questions of one hundred scholars in order to unlock grandmaster skills.

And from what I could tell, there were exactly one hundred scholars roaming the library. Thankfully, they didn’t get upset if you asked repeatedly for a trial, as long as you did not ask the same person two times in a row. So, there was still a good chance that I would eventually get stuck at ninety-nine successes, only to fail the last question and be unable to fully unlock my abilities.

Honestly, though, I wasn’t worried about that. The boss here dropped an intermediate skill, so I couldn’t imagine it being something that I absolutely needed grandmaster skills to fight. I just wanted to make sure that I at least reached the master tier at fifty questions, which would give me the confidence to protect everyone else while fighting the boss.

Even if I could get Karlson to help me through these questions, I couldn’t ask him to do the same thing three more times. Even he might get bored of that.

As I was thinking about that, one of the scholars that I had already cleared approached me. “Sir, may I ask if you are consulting a friend for all of these answers?” he asked in a calm tone, though I was immediately worried that I had reached my limit of doing so.

“That’s right. I think one of you said yesterday that that would be allowed. I’m not breaking the rules or anything, am I?”

“Oh no, not at all,” the scholar said, waving his hands dismissively. “However, for you to have such a learned friend, one who has managed to accumulate this much knowledge despite never entering the sanctum himself, it implies that he is a great seeker of truth. The other scholars and I were discussing, and we decided to extend an invitation to the one you are consulting, with his consent.”

As soon as he finished talking, a quest appeared in front of me. The quest requirement was for me to convince Karlson to agree to enter the Sage’s Sanctum dungeon, and the reward was a single skill book of any skill offered by the dungeon’s rewards. Doesn’t this mean that I can just get the skill we wanted without actually fighting the boss?!

Admittedly, I wasn’t too keen on going through endless trivia just to beat up an old librarian. The fight did not sound interesting or challenging, and the process to get there was simply tedious.

However, there was one other issue. “I can ask him, but even if he agrees, the dungeon’s entrance is at the wrong library.”

The scholar chuckled at that, shaking his head. “No need to worry on that front. If he agrees to enter the sanctum, we will move the entrance to his current library for the time being.”

Listening to this, I had an odd feeling. These ‘dungeon NPCs’ were far too flexible in their methods, even to the point of controlling the dungeon’s entrance location? I gave a small nod, typing out two messages. The first was to Karlson, passing along the invitation, while the second was to Diane.

I don’t think we’re in a typical dungeon, I sent her, and she perked a brow.

I’m going to resist the urge to call you Captain Obvious and assume that you mean that it’s more than just a special rules dungeon.

I rolled my eyes at that. I think an organization like the League of Assassins created this dungeon as their hideout, and they’re using its mechanics as a way to recruit members.

That got Diane’s attention, causing her to look around in surprise. That would… make a lot of sense. So, you think that these NPCs aren’t actually NPCs at all?

That’s right. I think that they’re actors from the organization, in charge of testing potential recruits. Those who meet a certain criteria should be invited to join, while others are allowed to fight the manufactured dungeon boss for the rewards that they came for.Since they noticed me asking Karlson for help with every question, they thus believe that he meets the criteria for a special invitation.

As I sent that message, Karlson’s reply came in. He had been surprised because it wasn’t another trivia question, but instead an invitation to a secret dungeon, and suspected that there was a hidden quest at play. However, given the fact that the Sage’s Sanctum was the ultimate library that he dreamed of, he readily accepted the offer.

I looked back at the scholar, nodding my head in confirmation. “My friend has agreed to enter the dungeon.”

The scholar gave a wide smile. “Excellent. In that case, tell him to find the book titled ‘Pursuit of Wisdom’ in the back corner of his library, and knock on it three times. Once he does that, a special gate will open for him.”

“I haven’t even told you which library he’s at yet,” I pointed out, but the scholar simply maintained that same smile.

“No need. He has already agreed to accept the master’s invitation, so the book has been placed near him.”

Sure enough, a rush of energy emerged from the door of the library, revealing the redheaded halfling standing there with a surprised expression on his face. “Well, that was interesting!” he said, looking around the library in awe.