Chapter 22

Crimson walked down the library stairs to the first floor. Even with Lena’s encouragement he still hadn’t cheered up. I can’t believe that my speed is so slow. If what Lena said is true about what someone else could have accomplished in that time then I’m about half as fast as someone with a teacher! It’s frustrating but I don’t know what I could do to make it go faster. I even asked Lena when my [Runic Language] skill will level up and she told me: “when you memorize all the [Lesser Runes].”

He noticed a hooded figure standing in the shelves holding a book. What are they doing? The figure lit the book on fire!

Most protagonists would immediately charge in and try to stop the figure, they would “do what is right” without any hesitation. Those protagonists are morons.

Crimson, before acting, took note of as many of the figure’s defining features as possible. Because of the cloak and hood it was hard to tell the gender, but he could figure it out based off the build of this guy. His shoulders were far too broad to be a woman and the muscles on the arm holding the book were far too large to be a woman’s. He also didn’t notice any of the other features that a woman would have.

The reason he did that is because he acknowledges his limits. This person is almost definitely someone who Crimson won’t be able to catch, he will get away; if he doesn’t take note of this guy’s defining features then it will be nearly impossible to catch him.

The things about this man are as follows: first he is a man, second: he is human the hood he was wearing didn’t jut or raise where a Beast-Kin’s ears or an elf’s would. The third detail is that he is a head-and-a-half taller than Crimson.

After taking note of these three details he called out to the man.

“Hey amazon lady!”

The figure dropped the book and ran.

Crimson ran over to the book, set Lena on the ground, and took off his shirt. He used his, military standard issue, shirt to pick up the book and wrapped the shirt around the book and hugged it to his chest to smother the flame.

“Geh, hah, ouch!”

It burned his chest, but it did put out the fire, barely. The book had been soaked in oil making it hotter and harder to put out, and there was a giant pile of books right next to him: all of them soaked in oil.

This guy had been trying to burn down the library.

“Master! Are you okay??” Lena ran up to him. She’d had to back away when he rolled on the ground, in pain, trying to put out the book fire.

“It hurts…but I’ll live.”

Crimson lay sprawled out on the ground gritting his teeth.

A little known fact is that it is dangerous to leave burns unattended; some burns will continue to damage the body if it isn’t treated. He could tell that, that situation was one of those types of burns. It wasn’t hard to figure out: his health was sitting at 40/100 and quickly dropping after all; there was a [Draining] tag on his health.

It was draining rather, see extremely, quickly so there was no time to panic. He probably had a [Burn] status effect.

There wasn’t anything better on hand so he reached his hand up to his mouth, while grimacing in pain, and spat into it. It would be just enough to prevent the wounds from causing continuous damage. He spread the spit over the burns; the pain was still there, but the [Draining] tag disappeared. The really bad news was that his Status now read thus:

Name: Crimson Hokori

Titles: Delving Guard, Lena’s Master, Blessed Luck

Class: WorldWanderer

Sub-Class: [Empty]

Sub-Class: [Empty]

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Health Points (HP): 13/75 r/s 1.0 [Damaged]

Magic Points (MP): 100/100 r/s 1.0

Stamina (STA): 100/100 r/s 1.0

Strength (STR): 10

Agility (AGI): 10

Constitution (CON): 10

Vitality (VIT): 10

Intelligence (INT): 10

Wisdom (WIS): 10

Perception (PER): 10

Willpower (WIL): 10

Charisma (CHA): 10

Luck (LUC): 90

His health’s max value had dropped and there was a [Damaged] tag on it and it hurt like, well, a burn. Every breath and every movement sent a dull roar of pain through is body. Honestly? He wanted to pass out, but he couldn’t. There was a chance that the hood-guy had set more of these fires.

Crimson hauled himself to his feet.

“Master you can’t be moving yet! You’re hurt!”

“I can’t just lay around! There might be more of them! Lena, you’re not big enough to climb the stairs yet so I’ll check up there. You search this floor. See if there are any more fires!”

“Master! You can’t-“

“We can’t afford to waste time Lena! Please, just listen to me! Please trust me!”

Lena looked like she wanted to cry, and it hurt to see her like that. It made Crimson want to cry with her. He was ignoring her concern for him, but…he couldn’t leave the room unstarched when there was a possibility of there being more fires.

She responded to him in a small shaking voice that broke with her words, “Yes master. I do trust you.”

Lena turned and scampered off while Crimson forced his body to start running. Even if his health was only at 40/75 his Stamina was maxed, moving this quickly was just a matter of ignoring the pain.

He ran over to the stairs leading to the second floor and ran up them, his vision was starting to blur. His only saving grace to keep himself from face planting into the stairs was his [Balance] skill.

it hurts, It hurts, IT hurts, IT Hurts, IT HUrts, IT HURts, IT HURTs, IT HURTS! I want to stop! I want to sleep! I want the pain to stop! But, it doesn’t matter what I want! I have to do this!

One thing Crimson learned from his 16 years of constant pain is that it is possible to use lesser, more annoying, pain to distract from major pain. He’d discovered that little trick when he bit his tongue after he fell out of his wheel chair. The pain in his legs was definitely worse than his bit tongue but, it didn’t feel as bad.

He decided to make use of that little trick of his and bit down on his lip just hard enough to taste blood. It was enough for him to make it to the top of the stairs.

He ran around the second floor checking everywhere it took him awhile to check it all because his running speed dropped after his Stamina went under 20 and he almost passed out, but he was able to check the entirety of the second floor.

There wasn’t any piles on the second floor, but when he called out to Lena to check her progress she told him that she’d found three more burning piles.

Out of energy and unable to run any more he slowly trod down the stairs. His vision was starting to blur again.

I need to be careful. I don’t want to fall down the stairs again. That would be embarrassing…crap I’m starting to fade, it’s hard to focus. It…still…hurts.

He was barely able to make it to the bottom of the stairs, again thank [Balance] for helping him not fall over even when he could barely walk straight from the pain.

Crimson slowly made his way across the room using the bookshelves as crutches. He was barely aware of Lena catching up to him, he could tell she was talking to him, but he couldn’t hear her over the ringing in his ears.

His stamina dropped under 10 and he collapsed right in front of the open library door. He only had enough energy to roll onto his side to try to reduce the pain from the burns as he fell unconscious.