It's not as bad as I initially thought.

While I do have to die and reenter every so often, I actually found out that the bookshelves are marked.

Each one of them has a number carved on the side.

It's pretty small, but not illegible.

All I have to do, is remember the floor number and the bookshelf number I left at.

Then, I just need to scan the bookshelf and find the book I last read.

The annoying part are the angels.

They also take the books and carry them around or read them.

And I can't just defeat them and take their books.

I tried.

If I do that, I instantly find myself back outside at the chalice.

And I can't even talk to them either.

They completely ignore me.

Like I don't even exist.

So I just have to wait for them to finish whatever they are doing.

Or alternatively I can find a different book to read.

I've been at this for quite some time.

Starting from the first floor, I read books from a bookshelf in the corner of the room and then went from there.

Although I have yet to find any mention of 'Claudia' or 'Tim', I found some other interesting books.

One of them is this beastkin encyclopedia.

The picture on the cover reminded me, that I haven't even properly looked at my new appearance.

I guess I was too eager to test out my new abilities...

And so, I got curious and created an ice mirror to look at myself again.

I found out a lot of peculiar things.

Firstly, my ears also expel dark mana.

It kind of makes my head look as if it had some kind of black flame on it.

And also my entire figure is submerged in some sort of black mist.

But for some reason, I never noticed it before.

The mist doesn't obstruct my vision at all.

It might be because of my eyes.

Since I supposedly have better vision, I must be easily seeing through this.

In the reflection, my red eyes were clearly visible, as if they were glowing, so that might be relevant as well.

The fur on my arms extends all the way from shoulders to my fingers.

But other than that, no more fur grew on me.

Well, that is only if I don't count my tail.

That thing behind me is the strangest thing of them all.

Although I accidentally smashed a wall the first time I tried to move it, I got used to moving it really quickly.

I found out that the tail itself, although long, is relatively thin.

Thanks to that, I can use it to catch things, like I did with that angel's spear back in the trial of endurance.

It's the really long fur that makes it look so voluminous.

It might get in the way at some point, but so far, I just use it as a weapon.

Other than that, the beastkin encyclopedia...

I don't know how to put it.

A lot of the pictures in there seemed familiar.

Like I have met these people before.

A certain foxkin picture even made my mind scream 'Kinua'.

But who or what is Kinua?

Someone I knew...?

Why can't I just remember?

...

Dammit...

|= ??? =|

'A magic greater than arctic volcano'

This book...

It describes magic more powerful than some expert level ice magic.

In other words, master level ice magic.

I'm not that skilled at ice magic, so I don't fully understand the details.

But the basic idea is exactly what I've been using for dark magic.

Discarding the spell pattern and shaping the mana manually.

Does that mean I have already learned master level dark magic without even realizing it...?

That's...not bad I guess.

|= ??? =|

I tried to guess an answer to see what would happen.

"Because she didn't like him."

"Wrong."

...

The angel then slowly turned around and started to walked away.

So what if I try to give an answer again now?

"Because she was already married."

...

He completely ignored me and kept walking.

So that's how it works, huh?

Well, it makes sense I guess.

But anyway, why is he always wandering around the library?

When I tried to find him now, he was all the way in the corner of the sixth floor.

Is searching for him also part of the 'patience' thing?

Annoying...

|= ??? =|

'The world beyond what our eyes can see'

This one is very strange.

At first, I thought it was some fictional novel.

But as I went further, it seemed more like a research diary.

It describes some 'worlds' beyond this one.

Some time ago, I think I helped in summoning someone from another world.

But it couldn't have been summoning from these worlds.

Because the worlds described in this novel don't seem to be habitable.

'They are like a mirrored version of the world, except...different.' is what was written here.

That sentence reminded me of the crystal back in the dungeon.

I saw a reflection of that god in it, but he wasn't actually behind me.

Was he in one of those other 'worlds'?

I can't quite figure it out...

|= ??? =|

I've been wondering...

Who wrote all of these books?

That god?

Seems unlikely...

The styles of each book varies greatly, so it couldn't have been a single person.

Maybe those angels in this library were the ones?

Some of the books describe the entirety of someone's life.

They are written in great detail and with a lot of emotion.

A learned a ton things I didn't want to know as well...

But, these angels are just so emotionless.

I can't imagine them being the authors...

Maybe the books were gathered from all around the world...?

Hmm...that seems the most feasible.

|= ??? =|

...

If this book is not fiction...

Then I...

No, that can't...

Holding my head, I stare at the book in front of me titled 'Worse than death'.

At first, it started like many of the other reincarnation stories in this library.

But then, the main character was suddenly sent a few days into the past.

Initially, he was confused, since he was the only one with the memories of the future.

For some reason, though, he quickly accepted it and continued living as normal.

But then...it happened again.

He was sent back in time to the same moment.

However, it happened at a different time than last time.

This time, he came to a conclusion, that he needed to do something to prevent being sent back.

He tried telling his close ones, he tried escaping his homeland, he tried everything.

But he was always sent back at some point.

The book describes his anxiety and fear of being sent back at any moment.

'Anything I did was meaningless, I knew that it will be erased at some point. The worst thing was, I didn't even know WHEN it would happen.'

And it just repeated.

Eventually, he just stopped trying and decided to commit suicide.

But even then, he was sent back.

And so, he just gave up.

He kept reliving the same few days over and over with a bit of remaining hope for a miracle.

Sometimes it took a little longer, sometimes it was shorter.

But he was always sent back in time to the exact second as always.

It went on for almost an eternity.

But then one day...he was sent into a different place in time.

Barely few hours into the past.

He was astonished, he couldn't understand what was going on.

But he believed, that that was a sign.

A sign that he wouldn't be trapped forever.

And what he hoped for, eventually came true.

After getting sent back to the new place in time a few more times, it suddenly stopped.

Ten days, twenty days, a month.

His life continued normally, he wasn't jumping back in time again.

His family and friends thought he has gone crazy, because he cried tears of joy.

And so, he wrote a book about it.

And he did it surprisingly quick.

In just a few days, a personally hand written book about his suffering has been finished.

...the book ends on a happy note.

But...something is bothering me...

I feel like his time jumps were related to mine.

The book mentions, he never found out what was the cause of these jumps.

As if it was random.

But...if I am to assume that my deaths were the trigger...that would make a lot of sense...

I didn't always die in the same spot and the same time, so it varied.

And when he mentions getting a new place in time he would jump to, that's when I got a checkpoint.

...

I don't know how I feel about this now...

Was it my fault this person had to go through these experiences...?

...

No...

It was the god's fault.

I tried my best to escape.

And...I don't even know it for sure if this story is really related to me.

It might have been a coincidence.

...

But if it is...why is he keeping his memories?

I'm pretty sure none of those who I met kept theirs.

So why him?

What is so special about him?

Did the god also do something to him...?

...

|= ??? =|

Finally!

It's this book.

'Heart of Harsten'

It's a tragic romance novel...

It takes place in a village far from any cities.

The main character is named Tim, and Claudia is some woman who apparently loves him.

It really doesn't make sense to me.

Tim is a really...boring guy.

Instead of being a hunter like most of the other guys, he became a gardener.

The book explained, that Claudia, who also was a gardener, fell in love with him after he talked about some plants to her...

But she never told him anything about it and they ended up as just friends.

Later on in the story, the village was raided by some bandits.

Although both Tim and Claudia survived, Tim's younger brother was killed.

Tim blamed himself for being weak and not being able to fight the bandits at all.

And so, he finally quit being a gardener and joined the hunters.

It made Claudia sad, since she wasn't able to meet him everyday anymore.

They continued their lives and nothing much happened.

Tim took his hunting job very seriously.

He even refused any girl who approached him, so they wouldn't get in the way.

But as years went by, even he got lonely.

One day, when he saw Claudia in the gardens again, he decided to go after her.

But when he approached her and proposed to her, she rejected him without saying why.

The end.

...

Wait.

So why did she reject him?

He finally stopped being wimpy and she rejected him...

...did she prefer when he was a weakling?

...I...guess?

How does this love thing work...

It makes no sense.

Feeling a little confused, I get up to find the angel to give my answer.

This time, I find him relatively quickly.

He was just descending from the ninth floor.

"Because she preferred weak men."

"Wrong."

...

The angel walked by me and entered the eighth floor.

Wrong...?

Then what is it?

Why did she reject him?

Bonus:

Let's talk about the fabled status screen.

But just the 'stats' section for now.

Monsters and humanoids all have a set of stats they can increase.

The central number is their level.

To level up, they either have to fight other monsters and humanoids or study combat techniques.

As their level rises, so do their stats.

But they can also rise their stats by other means.

So, what do each of the stats actually do and how to increase them?

Health and mana are fairly self-explanatory.

Health is how much beating you can take before you die.

Outside of leveling, you can increase it by just taking damage.

Mana is the total amount of mana your body is able to hold at once.

You increase it by expelling it out of your body with spells.

Next, vitality slightly increases your health and natural regeneration as well as general resistance to damage, poison etc.

It's raised by the same means as health, but also includes ingesting poison and other minor things.

Strength increases your physical abilities independently of your actual muscles.

Ironically though, working out increases your strength as well as your muscles.

Intelligence slightly increases your maximum mana capacity and mana regeneration.

It also increases the complexity and power of the spells you can handle.

However, it doesn't increase the actual 'intelligence' of a person.

Contrary to what you might think, a person with lower intelligence stat can be smarter than one with higher intelligence.

The intelligence stat is increased by things that would increase your regular intelligence as well, like studying, experimenting etc.

Stamina indicates how long you can keep going before fatigue starts to hinder you.

It's increased by almost anything you do, as long as you do it for extended periods of time.

Lastly, speed affects your physical speed as well as the speed of your thoughts.

To increase it, you want to run a lot or solve mental problems in a short period of time.

Also, if you happen to cap a stat before you evolve, you will get an invisible 25% bonus to that stat.

"Booo!"

"A wall of text!"

"Nobody is gonna read all of that!"

Don't underestimate a curious reader.

"Don't overestimate a casual reader!"

...

I mean, it's totally okay if they don't read it.

That's why this is called 'bonus'.

There is no need to read this unless you are interested in the details of this world.

"But it's part of the chapter, so they feel like they do need to read it!"

Whatever...