The group descended the stairs, and when they finally reached the end, they were twenty meters under the first level. In front of them was a single door with a book symbol on top of it.

A book? We must have reached a library. Those people must have held it with importance, who build a level twenty meters under the first one? At this level, their library should be able to sustain a nuclear explosion. I hope the books are still in good shape, we could get useful information from them. I would like to get hold of those spells and engraving techniques. Also, I wonder what happened to this race.

Marc opened the door, the group was stunned by what they saw. From the base of the walls to the ceiling, everything was covered with books. Even the ceiling wasn’t spared, there were actually books over there, and the tomes were somehow able to hold over there without falling. Instead of a classic library where the books would be arranged in rows, here, the books were arranged in various shapes.

The ones on the ceiling were arranged to form a blooming flower, and small stone arcs with green lines were separating the books to form the patterns. On the walls, the tomes were mostly arranged in tree shapes. The arborescence of the trees was going up to the ceiling almost reaching the flower. Between the trees, several doors were leading to other places.

Each tome had its name written in a strange language on its spine. The language was looking like cuneiform that Edward had seen in some historical documentaries. The writing was glowing with the same green light that the lines. This time, there were also white spots on the ceiling between the different shapes. Those spots were akin to stars in the sky and were providing additional light.

The library was a circular room with a diameter of sixty meters. The floor was entirely free, there wasn’t a single seat on it. It was made with a smooth black stone, and the lights from the ceiling were being reflected on it. The floor reflecting the lights made you think of a serene lake reflecting the starry sky. For the spectator entering the room, it was like walking in a forest of knowledge in the literal sense.

Wow, ok, now I understand why they build the second level so deep. Jesus, the ceiling must easily be ten meters high. If they wanted the visitor to feel humble they have achieved their aim. How many books are in there? How even are the tomes not falling from the ceiling? And did they use magic to reach them? I can’t see a single ladder.

Marc looked excited, he went close to one of the walls and took a book out of it. The book was still in perfect shape, it wasn’t made with leather, but with the fibers of some strange plant instead. Marc turned the pages, the whole book was written in cuneiform. Marc put the tome back in its place but didn’t seem discouraged by the fact that the books were written in an unknown language.

He looked around and saw that one of the doors was having a drop of blood symbol on top of it. The other doors had an opened book symbol instead. A flash of greed appeared on his face. “Everyone, we will take a break here. You can look around but don’t wander too far, I’ll scout ahead.” With those words, Marc opened a door with the drop of blood and left just like that. The members of the expedition looked at each other in dismay. Was the leader of the expedition going to leave them alone just like that? However, it seems that Marc didn’t care about their concern. Even Marc’s group of guards was surprised by this development.

Whatever he is searching for, it should be nearby for him to get this excited. I hope he finds it so that we can go back before we encounter more trouble. If we meet another of those lives draining engraving, it will be difficult to destroy on our own. We will have to destroy it from a distance and I don’t know how to shoot this crazy laser sword energy like Marc. We depend on him for the rest of the expedition and he is just leaving on his own like that.

The group spread into the library, admiring the different patterns and the sheer size and magnificence of the room.

Edward wandered in the library, opening a book here and there, but all the books were written in the same cuneiform language. The pages were soft to the touch and although they were flexible, they seem resistant to tearing and small damage. The lights of the ceiling were providing enough radiance to read.

Marc came back a few moments later frowning, whatever he was searching he didn’t find it.

“Alright everybody, form groups of two, we will explore the rooms with an open book on top of it. We will regroup here in five minutes. Tell me if you find anything.”

“I was certain it was there...” he whispered so low that nobody else heard him.

Edward formed a group with Adrien.

-“This library is quite something eh.” Adrien told Edward.

-“Yes, even back in my world I have never seen anything like this.”

-“You will have to tell me more about your world, you didn’t talk much about it when you arrived, you were too busy asking questions about this one.” Adrien said laughing. “It must be fascination coming from another world. There are always stories about people or monsters coming from another world, well mostly monsters, to be honest. I’ve never met a world traveler before you know.”

-“There are good sides and bad sides to it, from my experience I have mostly seen the bad ones. My world is quite convenient but it can be soul-crushing. I never felt as alive as I am in this world, in my world I had no future.”

-“Tell me the good parts first.” Adrien asked while opening the door.

Behind the door was a small room with a desk and a chair, more importantly, there was a skeleton sitting in the chair.

Adrien and Edward looked at each other.

“It appears that they didn’t all leave this place, at least this one stayed behind,” Adrien said.

They approached the skeleton, it was only wearing an amulet. All the clothes that he must have been wearing had turned to dust long ago, only this amulet remained. It was tree-shaped with a golden color.

“Should we tell Marc about it?” Adrien asked.

“No. I don’t feel like telling him after all that he has done. We will take the amulet and we will just tell him that we found a corpse.” Edward answered.

“Ok, keep the amulet for the now. Beware though, remember he said he would search to check we didn’t take anything with us. Seriously Marc should be put on trial after we come back, the way he is managing this expedition is a complete disaster. But sadly, I don’t think that will happen, he is an awaken and only Caspian and Balin are awaken in the village. They won’t want to confront him.”

Edward took another look at the amulet before putting it in one of his backpack’s pockets. He looked once more at the skeleton, no injuries were visible, and the skeleton was resting calmly in the chair. In front of him, on the desk, one book was opened. Once more the language was incomprehensible. There was nothing else in the room. The only peculiar thing was, that instead of green lines, the lighting was provided by white star shapes on the ceiling.

“It looks like a reading room,” Edward said. “There is nothing for sitting in the library, so they made those rooms instead.”

“I can see why they would do that. When you enter the library and see all those books and the whole space available it gives quite the sensation. With seats covering the floors the impression wouldn’t be the same.” Adrien answered.

With nothing else to see here, Adrien and Edward left the room to go back to the library and to announce their discovery, minus the amulet they found. The others were coming back from the different rooms just like them. Marc was already back.

“So, any of you found anything?” he asked.

Most of the expedition members shook their heads, however, one of the group said something else.

“We found something strange in this room, we tried to come closer but there is an invisible barrier preventing us from getting near it.”

Marc who was previously troubled and unhappy suddenly smiled. “Is that so? Show me.”

The rest of the people followed the group to the room where they found something strange. Compared to the other room, this one was heavily decorated with symbols made of green lines. In the middle of the back wall, was the same symbol of the tree that Edward and Adrien had found on the amulet. At the bottom of the trees were all kinds of different flowers, in the background, behind the tree, was a chain of mountains.

In front of the wall, there was a single pedestal, seemingly growing out of the floor. This pedestal looked organic in nature. It seemed like a small tree had grown from the stone, several vines coiled around it. The extremities of the vines and the tree branches were forming a half sphere where you could lodge something on it.

Seeing this pedestal Marc said, “At least I didn’t completely lose my time.” He then tried to come closer, but he was stopped by the invisible barrier just like the ones who found this room earlier. Marc moved back for a meter and drew his sword, took a good posture, feet rooted to the ground, holding his sword with two hands before making a big slash. The others went further away from him seeing this. A big crescent of energy came out of the sword before crashing against the barrier. The crash made it visible to everybody, tendrils of energy spreading on it before dissipating. The barrier hold unswerving in front of this assault while Marc got on one knee exhausted by the effort. He had to use this move several times today, and he was injured on the top of that. “Fine, everyone, we are staying here for the night, we won’t move until I destroyed this thing,” Marc said through clenched teeth.