~LoneJones POV~

New Title: The Nightmare

Not everyone is capable of driving others insane on such a large scale. You have driven over 500 sentients insane with fear, leading most to suicide. A task, not insignifcant. Others will sense something from you, an unreasonable fear at the back of their minds.

Effects:

+New Skill: Fear

Fear - Beginner 1 (0%)

The ability to be feared is earned not learned. You give off a strong sense of fear scaring all those around you. Some with high resistance or willpower can shrug off this effect. Other factors can influence success.

Effects:

+Abilites that sense danger are amplified by 100% on you

+Mild fear can be directed

I flinched as the screens opened, confident that the bright blue would hurt my eyes. Instead it seemed because it was part of the system I could see the screens no matter what. With no consequence. I noted the title and was surprised. Five hundred sentients? It was after I read about my new ability that I realized who I drove insane. The Knowlguarts. So many books were knocked over by the Contos Spellcraft manifestation that a wave of Knowlguarts had to enter the fog. It was the only explanation.

"-fog sucks man." Slurred voices assaulted my ears.

"Two wasted books." A green blur said.

I tried opening my eyes but all I saw was a glaringly bright blur with no definition. My mind felt torn apart, there was liquid pain flowing though my brain stem. The throbbing was piercing at the same time. The pain from mana loss made my body feel slow too, probably from affecting my brain or thoughts somehow.

"Agh. Hngghh." I perfectly expressed my pain.

My vision gave way to Gaius who was fussing over me. I was lying in comfy chair in one of the ubiquitous resting areas. Cobb seemed annoyed, the kind of annoyance he gets when something is bugging him. JST was trying to defend himself as Cobb was blaming him for something. It's usually his fault though.

"Brother, how do you fare?" The ancient warrior asked.

Terrible. "I'm fine." I groaned.

"No he's not I know how complete mana loss feels and I know you feel like shit." He was running his finger over the bindings of multiple books, scanning the titles.

"What are you even looking for?" JST was doing the same thing but he wasn't as invested.

"Is it true, brother?" This big, bulky man was playing mother hen.

"Gaius i'll be fine in a few minutes, alright?" I laughed at the irony. Then winced at the pain.

JST and Cobb looked up and shared a small smile before going back to work, the mood was lighter.

"I'm telling you. You don't know how difficult those books were. They could actually be worth a lot to defeat them." JST was defensive again.

Cobb paused. "Well, I don't know what kind of idiot would be willing to eat fruits, realize they're posionous, and then keep eating them because he's hungry. We'll have to see. I don't know how difficult eating addictive flowers are either but I have no idea what would've happened if the fruits didn't kill off the addiction. " Cobb was giving it some genuine thought. Whatever it was. "Huh, we might get something good from that."

"What are you talking about?" There was no reason to be talking about poisonous fruit and addictive flowers so why were we?

JST simply gestured to the small table beside me and the stack of books on it. Coregath Field Guide, Contos Spellcraft, Most Painfully Rewarding Fruits, Magical Addictions of the Glade. They were stacked neatly to my left.

"These are all the books we've opened." JST flipped through the fruit book and was drooling. "This one was delicous." He pointed to a page with apples and grapes.

"Why didn't you just choose a book without poisonous food? Are you stupid?" I gave the page a cursory scan.

"I was hungry. And it said it tasted the best so why settle for anything less?" That sounds logical when you discount the fact that they were extremely poisonous.

"Ok, but what made you eat something from the second book?

"I flipped it open and it said they were edible and tasty. Simple." He said it so matter fact. His face devoid of anything resembling recognition that he was an idiot.

"Oh my god you're such an idiot." I facepalmed.

"Thank you!" Cobb yelled back.

There was a moment of comfortable silence before Gaius talked.

"It is good to see the bonds of combat bring people together. You three have an air about you, all can see the bonds that tie you as brothers." His voice was distant as if he was somewhere else.

For the very first time, I saw a spartan, hunched over, defeated. A glorious warrior brought to his knees. Why?

I looked around. Searching.

"They have passed." Jack was ominously silent, leaning against the bookshelf behind me. Only a few meters from him the rest of the bookshelf was destroyed, just like everything past it.

I nodded grimly. If there was anything else we were experienced in besides gaming, it was loss.

I tried standing but immediately I wobbled and Gaius caught me. I was thankful but only now did the absence of the other two spartans sink in. There was a question burning in my mind but it was not the time to ask it. Can they be saved? It was the same question I asked myself back then. The same one burnt into my skull, over and over. The same one that resurfaces every year.

"I am sorry. Your loss is mine as well." I caught the gaze of the man, just long enough for him to know my sincerity.

"Thank you." The words were a soft whisper and ran contrast against the physique and power of the man.

"They aren't your only family, bro." The words came out before I could stop myself. The mood fell again.

Cobb had stopped scanning titles, resting against the shelf, lost in his thoughts, upon his face rested a small bittersweet smile. JST was much the same, only allowing the positive thoughts to show on his face. Jack was the same quiet samurai he was. Gaius was mirroring my brothers. I looked around before JST said something. Something that we rarely talk about.

"What has it been? Twenty years now?" Rarely does JST ever become serious, usually it's in the heat of combat but we were far from danger.

"Four years outside in two months." Cobb's was resting his arms on his knees, twirling fire between his fingers, then staring as his hands. I sunk further into in my chair. The memories were painful. Too painful.

"It's funny, it's been four years for everyone else. We've had close to twenty." I sunk below the armrest, enough to hide my face. To hide my tears.

"Twenty years. Twenty years, and it seems like we're still hurting the most." Was it Cobb or JST? It didn't matter. Old feelings woke up and I remembered, remembered everything.

It was maybe half an hour later before I stopped crying, time was meaningless when lost in memories. I never cried out loud, tears flowed down my face and sadness enveloped me but I never made a sound. My face was twisted in despair but no sound. I don't know why I did it. In honor of them? Who knows? It was something that I always did from the very fateful day it happened to now. There was no sense to it. Only that it felt right that way. That something was in my control. That I could do, something.

Maybe at some point Gaius realized I was crying, maybe Jack did too. If they did, they were really good actors. They ignored me, pretended to at least. Gaius gave it away, he wasn't even looking in my direction. That could work with Jack since he was always stoic but with Gaius it was different. He was curious and that meant looking around. When he wasn't something was clearly up.

I could stand up now, so that's what I did. JST got up from his spot, dusting himself off. Cobb had a book in his hand but was still looking for something different, absently he killed the Knowlguart that appeared to his left with a wind assisted uppercut. A small breeze dusted off the books as he moved down the shelf.

"What's the next book?" I said, finally having gathered myself.

"I've got Tribesmen of the Greater North. I'm looking for something else though." He eyed me, concerned. I ignored him.

I walked over to the nearest shelf and began scanning the titles. Hound Fleas, Methods to Forget, Weather on the plains, Demon Summoning. I kept looking, the only thing challenging didn't seem particularly fun to fight. I asked just in case.

"How do you guys feel about Demon Summoning? Doesn't seem fun." I questioned them trying to move past recent events.

"Hold it for later." Cobb said. I took it off the shelf. A minute later the guardian Knowlguart came and I tested Fear on him. It hesitated and I cut it down.

"How about Flavei's Pastry Monsters?" JST had succummbed and looked through the titles as well.

"No." Me and Cobb said in sync.

Absently I noticed JST take it off the shelf and hold it for later. He killed the Knowlguart that came after it.

Ten minutes later and three dead Knowlguarts later we came together, I put down Demon Summonings. Cobb placed Tribesmen of the Greater North, Yolt, Wyrmic Races, and Mage Golems down. We had amassed a small pile of books and potential challenges. All that was left was to choose our battle.

"Well these are the four I felt we could-" Cobb started.

JST placed down Flavei's Pastry Monsters on top of the pile. "Don't forget this." He said. "If we can eat what we kill why not?" JST asked. The cover was delicious looking pastries, it looked like an average cookbook except for the last word in the title which was bold and underlined.

"What's Yolt?"

"There's a short summary on the back of some books. It's how JST found what he wanted to eat. When you read it the knowledge doesn't manifest and you don't have to fight anything. In short, Yolt is the legend of a lightning beast that traveled around destroying crops and metals."

"And you thought we can handle that? Lightning beast seems kinda out of our league here."

"I'm sure we could come up with something."

"I'm telling you guys. Flavei's. Pastry. Monsters. It's a no brainer." JST looked smug.

"No." We both snapped.

"Tribesmen of the Greater North is probably the safest best, unless we really want those better rewards we should stick to this." I held the book in my hand.

JST sighed. "If we're not doing the pastries." We glared at him. "Then we should either do Mage Golems or Demon Summonings. I agree with Jones, Yolt seems too dangerous, if something has a legend it's for a reason. Wyrmic Races is off the table. I've had enough reptilian, amphibian, geckan, snake things the last few days to last a month. Demon Summonings and Mage Golems both have some risk involved but we should be able to handle it, both are inherently tricky but we've handled them before. That book you're holding Jones, it's gonna be way too easy for us." He reasoned, quite logically I might add.

"You. Have a point." Cobb conceded, defeated.

"Flavei's Pastry Monsters is probably our best bet though." JST said in the same logical and matter of fact way of speaking he used earlier.

"No!" This time we both raised our voices a bit. JST wilted.

"George get ready!" Cobb yelled upwards to the sniper's nest. I had forgotten about the last thing I saw before passing out.

"You gave him a Barrett. 50. Cal? A sniper?" I was incredulous, remembering what I saw.

"Yep." Cobb smirked. "Now which one should be open?" He had both books in front of him.

"I don't know." Shaking my head at Cobb. Only he would find a way to get a working sniper rifle in George's hands in the middle of absolutely nowhere. "Just choose one."

"Should I flip a coin?" A coin of dirt formed in his hands.

"Actually, shouldn't we think of what we can handle best?"

"You're right we should probably make a plan for both and see which one is more viable." He rubbed his chin, reading the titles.

"We should read the back too, can't be too safe." I suggested.

"I already the backs, can't hurt to do it again though." He picked up Mage Golems and began reading the back.

"Oh for fuck's sake." And JST flipped open Demon Summonings.

Cobb looked up from reading the back of the contending book. He placed it down gently, sighed and prepared his magic. Gaius and Jack who had been waiting for us to decide and silent since the emotional turmoil earlier took up our flanks. I was positioned behind us and went invisible. There was that throbbing pain again so I stopped my magic and gripped my daggers instead. JST grinned and drew Drip or Riptide, whatever. His shield came up and I wondered if Cobb had been renewing our sand equipment this whole time. These were supposed to be temporary constructs, or so he said.

A black swirling vortex came from directly in front of us it sucked up all the surrounding bookcases, a stone altar that I knew wasn't there before appeared directly under it. We spread out, fearing the enemy would attack immediately like the magic user. Jack pressed against a nearby bookshelf, his katana half drawn. Gaius had moved up with JST and held his shield up. The black swirling mess collapsed in on itself, forming a small black rip that glowed with purple light. Small demons poured out of it each one increasing the size of the rift. They approached me but I flared Fear and they stumbled and fell in front of me. I didn't waste time to bend down and strike them, I just jumped on them, and dislocated their heads. It was easy why they were scared and immobile. I noticed the rift stabalize as we killed the demons.

"Kill the demons, it keeps the portal small!" I called.

Jack was a blender. His katana cut cleanly, and blurred in the mass of small demons. His face was the same stoic Jack but his katana screamed with all the emotion that wasn't on his face. I wonder if the loss of Marcus and Lucius hit harder on the samurai than I thought. As I watched he bisected a leaping demon perfectly. He kicked another up to waist level and sliced that in half as well. One that got too close was sent back to hell as Jack unsheathed his tanto and had it back in its sheathe before the body hit the floor. Black blood splattered on the samurai's face, the only emotion present was in his eyes and his sword. From his shoulder down was a blur as he sent demon after demon to hell. The demons used small magic, mainly fire. It served only to throw Jack's shadow across the horde.

Gaius copied JST's form, the large warrior not used to fighting monsters or smaller enemies. He mimicked sweeping low cuts, like golfing with one hand. His shield kept them out of his face, while his feet kicked them away. Gaius was struggling when the tide increased and Knowlguarts joined the mix and he looked wide-eyed at JST when he glanced for more instruction. My older brother almost looked like he was tapdancing, each tap stepping on an arm, leg or head of a demon before sending them on their way. His sword was in complete focus though, never missing and never faltering, each swipe taking no less than three enemies to the River Styx. It didn't matter what foe came demon and Knowlguart alike died. His shield blocked with only the sharp edges, not only keeping them out of his face but also crippling and bruising the leaping demons. The injured demons that came back were destroyed efficiently. Each part of his body was doing something, all of it was used to kill.

Cobb looked as though he was fighting an invisible enemy. He punched, spun and kicked at nothing. He elbowed, uppercut, and jabbed at nothing but the air. His knees met no enemy, his feet met no foe, his fists found no threat. Yet only a handful of meters in front him, chaos. Pillars of earth launched handfuls of demons upwards, jarred from the impact, they were met with a crescent of fire that cut them in half but didn't seem to burn them. Heads exploded seemingly for no reason concurrent with Cobb's kicks. He implemented Bagua Circle Walking in one of his moves and a tornado caught a mass of demons and Knowlguarts, forcing them close together and ripping them apart. Surprisingly some demons got through and bit at him with shockingly white teeth, they were shortly met with his physical attacks as demons in the background met the magical equivalent. A handful of demons that were too close were drowning in their own personal bubble of water, struggling against it, they were suspended in the bubble. At that moment, I could see one his stupid analogies of magic come to life. The painter and the canvas.

Medium sized demons started to squeeze through and at the same time the Knowlguarts arrived. One approached me hesitantly, fearful. It ran at me on all fours eyes full of hate and I frontflipped over it and jabbed my knife into its back, cutting it in two as its momentum brought it forward and my knife dragged down its rear. Another group of smaller demons approached and I charged them. They leaped at my face but I rolled forward, catching one midair with the bottom of my foot and hammering it into the floor as I finished my roll. Close to the ground, I looked around. Surrounded. I windmilled, knocking more away. One approached from the floor, more intelligent than its bretheren. I kicked it upward into the path of another leaping demon, when they collided I held my dagger point facing down and stabbed through both of them at the same time. My other dagger moved on instinct and killed another almost unconsciously. Two medium demons came and I heard a piercing gunshot echo throughout the library. Sparing a glance at the portal, I could see a dead body, headless, lying on the ground behind it. The lead demon roared at me, loud despite its average size and leapt straight at me. I ducked under it, speared it on both my daggers and threw it at the second demon. It dodged the body, but my dagger had already found it's throat. I took another glance at the dead body by the portal, the summoner? The body was connected to the portal by the hands via a small thread of black energy, the thread pulsed and the body shriveled.

The portal got larger. Something pushed through, a red demon tried to enter the now larger portal but was stopped at waist height, its hands grasped the sides of portal and pulled but ultimately failed, it roared. Its attempt cut off the flow of demons which quickly resumed as it backed off. Now medium sized demons took precedence, pushing the smaller ones out of the way. A blast of fire sent directly into the portal wiped out a small portion but the rest were relatively unharmed. The Knowlguarts were now more plentiful, they fought the demons as much as us however.

JST and Gaius were actually moving forward, pushing through the medium sized demons. It became clear the portal had to be closed to win. I moved to climb the nearest bookcase but more medium sized demons came, I sighed and crawled the short distance down. They were swept away by a wave of water and I nodded to my brother before climbing up again. From my perch I could see the body of the summoner, the energy still flowed in copious amounts. I looked backwards and up to George, who I could see easily thanks to my increased Perception. He was looking down the scope of his sniper and I waited until he saw me. I signaled for cover and he looked up from his sniper and nodded to me. Instantly the bigger demons around the portal started to dwindle as bullets ripped through them. The stronger ones were actually guarding the portal and corpse.

My brother and the spartan had stemmed the tide quite a bit, Cobb was containing the flow on the left and Jack had the right. The concentration of demons got higher but the area they covered was now much smaller. Which basically meant that Cobb could get to work. And he did. Fire didn't work so he created a vortex of water sucking demons into a deep hole in the ground. I could only hear screams from the inside, it sounded like the wailing and moaning of grown men. Cobb was standing off to the side, he didn't even seem to be doing anything, his hands were folded behind his back and he stood in a relaxed posture. The only indication this was the man responsible for the spectacle was the look of concentration on his face. I could make out sweat on his brow, he was maintaining a lot of magic. From my Sensitive Hairs I could feel the wind and knew exactly what Cobb was doing.

He was making a demon smoothie.

I jumped down and ran towards the body of the summoner, aiming to cut off the flow of power. A demon my size cut me off but its head was blown off by George. I ran past it and drew my daggers, feeling up to it I created a clone and sent it the other way. Pain, nothing unmanageable though. Three of the bigger demons stood over the body of the man and I charged them with my clone. George hit two of them, one's head blew off and the other one's arm came off at the shoulder. The one still in tact looked at the clone and myself and stepped in front the real Jones.

Good guess but bad choice.

I darted under its arm, drawing blood across its torso. It spun around and crouched low, protecting its vitals. I feinted but it didn't move. I feinted again and it didn't move. One more time and it didn't move. I used Fear, then feinted, and it moved surprisingly quick, dodging to the side wide-eyed and fearful. I ignored the demon, using the opening to run past it and cut the dead body's hand off. One the of the tendrils of black receded, the portals growth slowed. The demon came at me again and a gunshot rang out, I felt the displaced air take out a approaching demon behind me. I thanked George internally for taking that weight off my shoulders. I grappled the demon, being my size and vaguely humanoid martial arts actually became viable in this situation. I threw it on its back and choked the demon, realizing it would take too long I snapped its neck with some effort. I cut the other hand of the summoner off and the portal's growth came to a stop. It did not close immediately though, it was slowly shrinking, not fast at all.

"It's shrinking! Hold off the demons!" I could just barely hear JST over the chattering demons.

From behind the portal I couldn't see what exactly came out of the portal but a giant foot touched down on the stone which the portal was formed above. Another foot. Something stepped out of the portal and when it stood to full height the top of its head was just barely visible from behind the portal. I did see dark gleaming horns that rose far above the height of the portal. There were demons around me which I had to take care of so my focus was on them for a few moments.

I heard a roar and the other side of the clearing was covered in dark fire. I could feel the heat of the flames from my position and I was forced to scramble backwards as books lying about caught in flames. The fire the huge demon used was streaked heavily with black. Nothing could be seen from the other side and I feared the worst. Then I could hear, sizzling? I cocked my head and moved around the perimeter of the battle to get a good look at the last demon that was going to die. It was regal, dark red skin and patches of black scales covered the body. It was the most human looking demon aside from it's nine foot eight and two foot horns. It's face was decidedly human, and it looked confused. The sizzling was louder now, desperate. It sounded like a tea kettle past boiling, times a thousand.

The blanket of black fire exploded.

Standing there unharmed was everyone, in a ball of water. The sizzling was the water evaporating, the steam was captured by Cobb. My green brother grinned and wobbled. Then the horned demon's left arm disappeared. Chunks of flesh left its body as it realized what just happened. It roared in agonizing pain. Cobb had released the high pressure steam in a controlled beam, the attack was almost invisible. How much pressure is he holding in? Another shot of steam I could barely follow took out its right hand. A gunshot rang out and chipped one of its horns.

"Impudent mortals!" The demon talked. It's deep bellowing voice rumbled through our bones. "To stop a demon progenitor! To deface his body!" The demon could breathe fire too apparently.

"You stupid motherfucker you're gonna die today!" A voice small in comparison answered back.

"Who dares!" The demon yelled in rage.

I looked at JST and back to the demon who was deadly serious. Then Cobb fainted.

The world was white.

The steam was released and covered the whole area blinding everyone except JST and I. I could see fine with my Sensitive Hairs and JST had his Arena so he should be fine. The only problem was that we just lost our cover from George. He would've been useful, not that many things can stop a sniper rifle like his. He even managed to chip the horn of the demon. I didn't have a chance to use Examine Enemy on the horned demon, I needed to see him. The steam was hot and it felt like a sauna. I moved like a phantom in the steam, unseen. I could feel the demon moving lashing out at JST who was attacking his blind spots. I formed illusions of JST around the demon and had them dart in when JST moved to attack. JST molded to the rhythm of the feints like it was planned. His strikes met solid scales, practically armor, but I could feel scales coming off at the blows. Impressive given JST's strength. He ducked under the arm and slashed at the demon, a clone replaced him as he backed off. The clone was ripped to shreds and the demon laughed, it was cut short when JST moved again and struck his neck. He threw dark fire and it hit JST, glancing off his scales.

I could feel a sure-footed figure move in besides JST. His eyes were closed as he passed me. It was Jack and none of his steps faltered. He stepped right in front of the demon and breathed deeply. The right arm came down and Jack's katana moved like it could see for him. It caught the arm in the wound of the missing hand and dug deep, he ripped the skin open from the inside of the arm and the demon fell, clutching at the bloody mess. Rather than instantly getting cauterized by the attack the demon bled black.

It cursed in another language and a pentagram drew itself in the air. It stuck its ruined arm in and came out with a sword attached to the stump that was its arm. It screamed and its blade pulsed with a black power, sucking the magic from my illusions and revealing the real JST, who fell to his knees. They were close enough that the steam didn't matter.

"There you are pest." It spat a glob of black acid on the floor.

I moved.

Dashing through the steam and I made sure to approach slowly checking the effect the sword had on me. Jack had moved in front of JST eyes open now he met swords with the demon and his katana broke halfway. He pulled out his shorter blade and held them steady awaiting the next attack. When it came he had to block it or it would've struck JST, he held both swords up awaiting the impact.

A clang rang out and I winced, fully expecting to see a slaughtered samurai. What I saw was a spartan in all his glory, standing above the defeated and holding his own against a stronger foe. His cape flowed backwards from the shockwave and his shield was angled above his head, catching the blade of the demon. The demon roared once more and cocked his only arm back to slice again but Jack and Gaius had grown close, they moved together, Gaius covered Jack as he attacked the injured right side of the demon. Meanwhile I had moved behind the demon my figure hidden in the steam. It roared and breathed dark flame but JST had already recovered from whatever effects the black sword had on him. He moved against the flame and met Gaius struggling against it. The flame blew the steam away momentarily and the demon raised his sword hand again. It fell towards Jack who was caught out of position. He tried to dart forward using the flame as cover but the demon caught him and sliced his sword hand through his breath of flame. The second the sword was moments from connecting a gunshot pierced the air. It deflected off the sword of the demon sending it off course and saving Jack's life. It ricocheted through its torso, straight through the heart. At least, where it should have been. The demon still lived.

The trail of the bullet could be traced through the steam, off to the side George was prone with his sniper mounted on the bipod.

"Again and again I am denied! It is my right to conquer!" The demon yelled.

"You will suffer in the deepest depths of-" My dagger found its throat and it gurgled on black blood.

It should have died, but against all reason, it lived. I held on to its horns and as it yelled it coughed forth gobules of black blood. It had no more hands and it couldn't reach up with the sword unless it wanted to cut its own face. I held on as it tried to shake me off and the world spun wildly until eventually it stopped. I had hit the ground, dizzy.

"God damn privileged motherfucker." JST was standing over me spitting on the corpse and lending me a hand with his shield arm. His sword arm flicked black blood to the side, the condensed water on Riptide doing wonders to clean itself.

"Thanks." I took his hand standing up.

Jack was kneeling on the floor holding the pieces of his broken katana. Gaius was patting his shoulder crouching down as well, picking up shattered pieces.

A grim faced George walked up from the steam. "By the time I had a clear line of sight, I couldn't go for lethal, had to save Jack. Sir!" He was carrying Cobb in a fireman carry.

"All's good George good work!" He slapped the commando on the back. "How'd you get down anyways?"

"Sir Cobb had left a ladder." He gestured to my uncoscious brother. "It was a long way down, kid. But I had to do it after the steam blocked my line of sight. Otherwise I would've been useless up there. Only had enough time for one good shot though."

"I have a life debt to you, George." Jack stood up and put his hand on George's shoulder. "That weapon of yours perhaps I could learn one day."

"It was nothing, don't mention it friend." He removed Jack's hand, gently. "You probably could your instincts will get you far."

"That was the last one wasn't it?" I interrupted. "The last book?"

Congratulations! You are the first party to defeat Malvolio's Library in over 600 years! The quality of rewards has increased by 300%.

Dungeon Rewards:

For defeating the Coregath Field Guide, a moderately difficult enemy you gain:

+ Coregath Heavy Leather Set

+Coregath Light Leather Set

For defeating Contos Spellcraft, a high difficulty enemy you gain:

+Contos Spellcraft Skillbook

+Contos Practicioner Robes

+Contos Picture Staff

For eating the Most Painfully Rewarding Fruits, a high difficulty task you gain:

+Endless Apple

For overcoming the Magical Addictions of the Glade, an extremely high difficulty task you gain:

+Glade Blade of Whist Grass

+Bag of Popyoin Flowers

+Popyoin Seeds

+Access to the Glade

For defeating Demon Summonings, an extremely high difficulty horde you gain:

+Demonstone Sword

+Demon Familiar Stone

+Demon Summoning Skillbook

For being the first party to defeat Malvolio's library in over 600 years you are awarded:

+Dimensional Bag x3

For defeating one moderate, two high, and two extremely difficult tasks and enemies you have qualified for three greater reward upgrades.

Random rewards chosen:

+Dimensional Bag x3 has upgraded to Customizable Dimensional Bag x3

+Coregath Light Leather Set has upgraded to Enchanted Coregath Light Leather Armor

+Customizable Dimensional Bag x3 has upgraded to Soul Binding Customizable Dimensional Bag x3

By the time I finished reading the rewards I found myself seamlessly transported to the elemental guardian room.

"They passed." The earth rumbled.

"Not in six hundred and seventy three years has a party passed through the library."

"The one who speaks, the master mage, and the boy. He stays untouched."

"What is this?" The earth elemental was hovering over Cobb's body inspecting the splint he had made out of earth.

"That's a splint, friend." George answered. "Stabalizes the bone and the damage."

"The construct bears new knowledge? A product of the boy?"

It was annoying how they asked all these questions when the ones who held the answers were standing in front of them. We were in front of the fountain just at the entrance of the door. Laid out before the fountain were our rewards. The leather and armor set were laid out flat beside each other along with the robes. The Skillbooks were beside each other, those would probably go to Cobb. Under the robes and Skillbooks that Contos Picture Staff was laid across. A perfectly ordinary and ripe looking apple sat by itself, it sported a two leaves, one green and one gold. Next to it was a red oval stone I assumed was the Demon Familiar Stone and beside that was a mossy oval the same size. At the end sat three ordinary looking leather rucksacks.

I ignored the chattering elementals.

"How are we doing this?" I asked JST.

"Enchanted armor's yours, robes go to Cobb, I get the heavy stuff." JST had walked over to inspect the rewards which were laid upon a nice looking gray silk cloth. "I get the apple, drugs and whatever 'Access to the Glade' is since I beat those fucking books myself." He really just ate them blindly but whatever. "I guess you can have the dagger though." He said picking up the mossy stone. He blinked and put it down.

"A bag for each of us. You get the sword." I suggested. "Skillbooks go to Cobb, it's all magic stuff." He nodded, his eyes lingered on the mossy stone before he moved on.

"The staff too, obviously. I don't really know about the Demon Familiar Stone though."

We stuffed the appropriate items into each bag and when we slung the leather rucksacks over our shoulder.

NOTICE:

You can only have five items bound to your soul.

Do you wish to bind Customizable Dimensional Bag?

Successfully bound.

It said customizable so my first thought was whether I could change it to one of those sleek black futuristic cloth bags. Instead of having to manually change anything the bag shifted and formed across my back, hugging my torso. I was left with a shiny black backpack, multiple pockets, adjustable straps and a buckle that secured it against my chest. I glanced over to JST to check whether or not he bound his backpack, instead I saw him shoving his shield into a shark's mouth. He made his backpack a shark head.

"What?" He looked up trying to shove the whole shield into the shark's mouth. I facepalmed.

Cobb had woke up and we explained to him the distribution of the items and what happened after he fainted.

"I knew I could leave it to you guys." He grinned. "As for the Demon Familiar Stone, not sure if I want to use it but i'll keep it for now." He had put all his possessions into his bag, which looked like mine except it was black with green streaks. The bags were really popular.

"How's the weight?" I couldn't tell since the only thing I had in there was a new dagger.

"Lighter, maybe 50% lighter." Cobb had shoved the five books he got from the library plus the two Skillbooks into his bag. The red oval stone followed suit.

That's good, that meant we could carry more on the go.

I checked my new equipment.

Enchanted Coregath Light Leather Armor (Epic)

Leather armor created from a master. A Coregath has one of the toughest hides on the south continent and it also happens to be resistant to magic. Treated Coregath hide is hard to come by, armor created from it even rarer, but enchanted? Impossible.

Defense: 79

Durability: 110/110

Effects:

+20% magical resistance.

+90% slash resistance

Glade Blade of Whist Grass (Exotic)

Whist Grass weaved together, preserved, hardened, sharpened and formed to a dagger. Straight from the Glade, Whist Grass is a sharp plant that secretes addictive magic when in contact with the mana of another. Those who cut themselves on the plant come back for more, cutting their bodies on the plant in a desperate haze until they die.

Damage: 82-102

Durability: 50/50

Effects:

+Whist Grass addiction upon cut

Customizable Dimensional Bag (Mythic) (Soul Bound)

Dimensional Bags link to another dimension and allow one to carry more items within a smaller space. Weight is distributed to the carrier and some dimensional bags reduce the load. This bag is customizable and changes size and shape according the master's preference.

Effects:

+Pocket dimension storage

+Weight reduced by 45%

NOTE:

Soul Bound items can be summoned to the user from anywhere.

Basically my equipment was super strong. I had 79 defense while JST's shield gave him 13. The grass dagger outdamaged JST's Riptide. The bag was the most overpowered reward we had. Basically we had a bag that was always within reach that could contain everything we owned. I know Twoen did a great job of balancing things but even this seemed over the top. I wonder if we actually earned this bag, we did do some intense dungeoning and then on top of that the dimensional bag was upgraded twice. Add to that the already 300% increase in quality of rewards. It seems more likely the bag is viable but i'm still skeptical. After checking the forums previously the item rarity went: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Exotic, Mythic, Legendary. Needless to say the haul was impressive.

I stuffed everything into my bag even the armor, checking the weight.

"Let's test the weight reduction as we set off." Cobb suggested. "Get a feel for how much we can carry around with us."

He exited the library and everyone else followed him out. Not even sparing a goodbye to the elementals. He walked whistling. "We didn't get anything on the Geckan Queen but all this shit should let us wipe her out easy." He turned around to address us. "Uh. Where's the library?"

"Woah what the fuck." JST put it simply.

Behind us the library was gone, a patch of clear dirt where it rested was the only indication it was ever there.

There was a whirring sound, something bright flashed around all of us.

Our bodies hit the dirt.