Arcane Innovator

I stood in the middle of a great hall—a vast labyrinth of towering shelves stretching in every direction as far as the eye could see.

Dusty beams of light filtered through the narrow aisles, cast by the dozens of flameless lanterns lining the thick marble walls, and the only thing breaking the solemn silence of this extraordinary place was the sound of my own breath.

I couldn't help but smile wistfully as, for the first time in this second chance at life, I found myself in an actual library, and a truly massive one at that.

Alas, I couldn't afford to get lost in this wonderland of knowledge, for I was in the midst of a Trial that may as well determine my future.

However, my smile didn't last; it was quickly replaced by a deep frown as right at that very moment, I was busy contemplating an extremely important question: 'What the hell am I supposed to do now?'

I had previously detected several potent sources of essence within this maze-like library, but I was reluctant to rush in just yet.

The intended goal of this Trial was most likely to test our "cunning" by solving that stupid riddle and using it to locate the book in question. And I was pretty certain that although I was here seemingly alone, it would be quite dumb to think we weren't being carefully observed.

So, suppose I showed any unnatural ability and skipped the actual test by going directly for the key. In that case, there may be any number of unpleasant consequences ranging from simple interrogation all the way to outright disqualification.

Of course, that didn't mean I would forego my advantage—I simply had to make it look like I followed the clues so that nobody could accuse me of cheating. The problem was that there was more than one target, and I had no idea which one to go for.

'Perhaps there will be subsequent clues, and we must solve them in a specific order.' I thought. 'All the more reason to proceed with caution...'

This was probably the first time I had suffered from having too much information—there were simply too many variables and very few answers.

So, I decided my best option would be to take a step back and look at it from another perspective. 'Let's disregard magic sense for a moment and take it one step at a time. First, let's take a closer look at the clue… Hmm, according to this, the book in question should be about history and myths.'

Thus, still deep in thought, I began walking up and down the aisles, scanning the shelves for any sort of cataloging system. I reasoned that if I could find the right section, I would then be able to use my magic sense to pinpoint the correct book easily, making it seem like a lucky coincidence.

However, with just a quick glance, it was evident that the books were placed seemingly at random, creating a chaotic mess. But as I continued down the various aisles, carefully studying the covers, I soon noticed a certain pattern emerge.

'It looks like instead of categories, the books appear to be arranged by the year they were written...' I realized.

But that was not all; certain events also seemed to be grouped together. For example, if there was a book about some famous battle, it was more than likely that books about the same topic would be placed next to it.

So, in order to solve this properly, you not only had to be good at solving riddles but also have an excellent knowledge of the world's history.

'Yeah, no thanks...' I tried to learn a little about history from the books in Sir Roderick's collection before so that I wouldn't look too ignorant among Ereneth's high society, but I quickly gave up.

It was all a giant, convoluted mess of foreign-sounding names and countless dates that would take years to learn properly.

And that was only the Kingdom of Wittenwald's history. Here, the books seemed to be from all over the place.

But then I couldn't help but smirk, realizing that there was one crucial clue I could glean from all of this.

As the name suggested, myths were mostly about events that happened during the Age of Gods at the dawn of time, so it made sense they would also be among the earliest books written.

So all I had to do was follow the dates down the river of time to the oldest part of the library and then simply use my magic sense to find the key.

With that, I picked up my pace and walked further into the library.

***

'That's weird...' I paused, furrowing my brows. I was pretty certain I had already passed this row of books, but here they were, sitting quietly on their shelf, utterly unperturbed by my growing dismay.

No matter how fast I moved, my target seemed to always remain out of reach; in fact, it seemed like it was getting further and further away.

I cautiously looked around, but the solemn library was as peaceful and quiet as before. Then, instead of focusing on the covers, I decided to pay close attention to my surroundings as I carefully stepped forward.

At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But when I arrived at the next intermission and turned left, trying to get closer to the center of the library, I noticed a subtle, almost unperceivable change in the surrounding air.

I turned around, retracing my steps, only to find that the aisle was gone, and I was left staring at a towering bookshelf blocking my path. I couldn't help but widen my eyes as I came to a disturbing revelation: The library had moved.

'I'm so stupid,' I facepalmed. So far, I had treated this as any other room, albeit a huge one. But then I remembered that, according to the Overseer, we were supposed to be trapped in an illusion - anything was possible here, and I would have to adjust my approach accordingly.

I did some more experiments only to find some more disconcerting news. Each time I came upon a crossing and turned in the direction of my target - the section where the oldest books should be, the library moved in turn, in the exactly opposite direction, pushing me further away.

After giving it some thought, I came up with several possible choices on how to proceed forward.

The first thing that came to my mind was to disregard this stupid game of tag and blast my way through the shelves with brute force. The shelves seemed made of solid wood and would, therefore, be quite formidable, but I figured blasting them with a fireball would make a short work of them nonetheless.

On the second thought, I paused, reigning in my impulses. Not only would using a fire in a library surrounded by highly flammable books be an incredibly dumb and dangerous idea, but there might also be some hidden protections against this sort of thing.

So, I left it as a last resort if everything else failed. That left only two other options - I could either try to climb or propel myself over the shelves or do what the person who designed this test probably intended—outsmart this annoying book maze.

I looked up at the at least four-meter-high shelf in contemplation. If I shot myself up in the air, I wouldn't be able to see where I would land, and I couldn't remain in the air for long, not without expending a great deal of essence as I have yet to master the ability to fly.

Climbing would be much easier, but seeing the shelf overflowing with books made me reconsider that idea. 'Getting myself killed by a bookslide would be a very stupid way to go...' I reasoned.

'I'll try to figure this out first, and if it doesn't work, then I'll search for alternatives. I still should have plenty of time left.' I decided before delving back into the maze of winding aisles while trying to suppress my growing headache.

After another short instance of trial and error, I discovered another interesting thing—each time I made a move, the library moved in turn, regardless of whether or not I was moving closer to the center.

'Interesting... So it has to move, no matter what I do.' I smiled as this was starting to feel more like a game, and I was finally beginning to understand its rules.

I took a deep breath and activated my magic sense once again. I performed a quick scan of my surroundings, and my smile grew bigger.

Despite the various setbacks, I had already somehow made it quite far into the maze. So now, only a single source of essence remained in the area I was heading for.

'That's it...the key!' I felt exhilarated, as if everything had just clicked into place.

With the target in sight and having already understood the maze's rules, it felt like an elaborate puzzle, and I had just collected all the pieces. All that remained was to put it all together.