The Sorcerer's Handbook

Chapter 266: The Library Tricked Me!

At Annan's home in the Gospel Kingdom.

"Ahhhhhh!"

Early in the morning, Dia rolled across her bed, raining punches down on the rabbit plushie Lys had just bought for her. She only meant to vent, but a trace of her Fist and Claw technique slipped into her blows. The soft toy stood no chance. With a dull burst, its head flew apart.

"Why... why am I so stupid!

"Lys, wait! Just let me vent a little longer, or I'm going to suffocate from holding it in!

"I'm such an idiot... sob, sob..."

Regret churned inside her. The more she thought about it, the worse it felt. The Legendary Library had tricked her outright, causing her to miss a rare opportunity in the Virtual World. The thought alone made her wish someone would punish her for it.

After parting ways with the Watcher, she reached the third floor. This level surpassed the second in both grandeur and strangeness. The moment she stepped inside, the bookshelves had vanished. Each book rested alone on its own platform, as though enshrined. The space stretched endlessly, so vast that Dia felt she had entered a divine tomb where the very principles of reality were born and dissolved in ceaseless cycles.

An ancient tome before her exhaled flames so fierce they seemed capable of burning through space itself, turning the surrounding area into scorched ruin. Not far away, a scroll radiated an icy chill that even froze time, sealing its domain in absolute stillness.

She also saw a wasteland of the undead, a graveyard of sword spirits, a storm-swept sea, and a sacred domain devoted to universal alchemy. Some platforms held translucent bubbles that glimpsed fragments of the future, while others carried threads of fate, as if they could seize a person's destiny.

But this was the Legendary Library of the Continent of Time. Any sorcerer capable of reaching it could only be a Two-Winged sorcerer. The records left behind could at most reflect the adventures of Two-Winged sorcerers. How could their power possibly surpass legendary levels?

And that's what led her to conclude. All of it is fake! It's all meant to lure me into reading!

Still, even if the books themselves were illusions, the storms of laws surrounding them were real. Dia moved carefully, weaving through one domain after another. Each step demanded focus as she pressed forward toward the stairs leading to the fourth floor.

At one point, a book caught her eye.

It was a simple fairy tale picture book. On its cover, a brave knight shielded a beautiful princess. Around its platform, the ground had turned into fresh grass. Flowers bloomed, and butterflies drifted lazily through warm sunlight.

Amid the chaos, that quiet patch of peace felt almost unreal. For a moment, Dia wanted nothing more than to walk over, lie down in the grass, and lose herself in its pages. But greed took the better of her.

If everything here is already so extraordinary, the fourth floor has to be even better!

Clinging to that thought, she forced herself to look away. She ignored every temptation and continued forward. After nearly a kilometer of cautious progress, she finally reached the staircase.

Unlike the lower levels, the entrance to the fourth floor shone with radiant light. It promised something greater.

Her heart raced. With mounting anticipation, the witch climbed the stairs to the fourth floor... only to find herself on the rooftop.

Dia stood frozen. Above her stretched the vast and unreachable sky formed from the Ascending Golden Rain. Her mind stalled, unable to process what she was seeing. Where is the fourth floor? How did I end up here?

She clung to a final thread of hope and scanned her surroundings, only to find nothing. There were no books. No scrolls. No crystal balls. No storage devices. The rooftop was empty.

Dia immediately caught on to what had happened. She turned and rushed back toward the stairs. But after running down more than a dozen steps, nothing changed. The distance refused to close.

She stopped, looked down, and found herself still standing on the rooftop. She had not descended at all.

The rules from the Legendary Library Guide buzzed in her mind like annoying flies.

② You may not retrace your steps; life allows no return.

③ The library has four floors, and the higher you go, the greater the treasures. As the saying goes, "Always strive to reach greater heights."

④ Books may deceive. Trust with caution.

In that moment, White Queen, Black Butler, and even Dia herself finally realized that the key was in the fourth rule.

At first, Dia thought it meant the books would disguise themselves with overwhelming phenomena to lure readers in. But that assumption had been wrong from the very beginning. The deception had never been limited to the books. It was the Legendary Library Guide itself that had been lying all along.

The rule that the library had four floors, with each higher level holding books of better quality than the one below, was a lie. There was no fourth floor at all.

If a sorcerer fixated on reaching the highest, fourth floor, they would miss all the rare encounters on the first three levels. And because "life allows no return," there was no chance to undo the mistake. One could only grit their teeth and swallow the bitter consequences.

If Dia had discovered the Legendary Library alone, it wouldn't have mattered. No one would witness her embarrassment. But the problem was, she had come with the Watcher.

When they met at the entrance, and the Watcher casually asked, "What did you gain upstairs?" regret nearly overflowed in her chest. The embarrassment ran so deep she felt as if her toes could dig out a three-bedroom apartment.

It was easy to imagine what followed. After Dia explained the library's deceptive scheme, the atmosphere grew heavier still. The Watcher, careful not to upset her further, didn't bring it up again. Later on, however, during their exploration in the Virtual World, the Watcher suddenly laughed for no apparent reason. That single sound shattered Dia's composure.

Damn that Legendary Library! Damn that Watcher! Why is everyone picking on me?

No, she had to vent. She needed to take it out on Ashe in the game, or she would never calm down.

Dia brushed her teeth with fierce determination, washed her face with equal force, relieved herself, and changed clothes, all with the same intensity. Then she stormed out to find Ashe. "Ashe, I'm in a bad mood today—"

Ashe pushed her aside. "Then stay away from me. I'm in a good mood today. Don't ruin it."

"I want to challenge you to a Sorcerer Kart duel!"

"Wait. You mean you're in a bad mood and want to relieve stress by playing Sorcerer Kart?"

"That's right!"

"Alright then. I'll grant you your wish."

***

When Iger and Annan stepped out of the hovering car, they saw Pankey busy repairing a controller.

Aside from his mastery of the Frost Class, the sixty-year-old butler boy was also skilled in alchemy. With a piece of slime-like universal material, he could fix the most common tools with ease.

He greeted, "Good morning, Miss, Mr. Perskin."

"How did it break?" Annan asked, curious.

The butler boy didn't answer. Instead, he glanced at Lys, who was eating macaroni at the time. Little Lys raised her hand sheepishly. "I accidentally dropped the controller while playing."

Annan gave a soft "oh" and then noticed the cracked glass screen lying nearby. "And this?"

"I accidentally threw the controller into the screen while playing," Lys admitted, spreading her hands and sighing.

She felt helpless, too. This mess was Dia’s doing, yet as her younger sister, she had no choice but to clean it up, no matter how unwilling she was.

Iger nodded thoughtfully. He walked over, picked up a table knife, and placed it in Lys's hand, then turned her to face Ashe, who was enjoying a custard-filled pastry. He said, "Lys, it's not that I don't believe you. Everyone just wants to see how you managed to be so careless. Show us again. This time, use Ashe as the target."

Just then, Ashe ordered, "Lys, tilt your head back."

Before Iger could react, her head had slammed straight into his chin. Ashe then reached out, took the knife from her hand, and snorted. "Never let children play with knives, Iger. This is what happens when you don't keep an eye on them!"

"But why am I also getting punished?" Lys rubbed her head, pouting. "Aunt Perskin's chin is so hard..."

Ashe gently blew on her head. "There, there. A little bump and it won't hurt anymore. Lys, this is the price paid to protect you. Depending on the situation, you might even become the price yourself..."

While Lys absorbed a lesson in dark life philosophy from her father, Iger dragged his suitcase across the living room and returned to his room. The suitcase was identical in size to the one Harvey had brought back yesterday. Ashe's gaze followed it, then shifted to Harvey.

The necromancer sniffed and shook his head. "That's not a gift for me. It doesn't have that pleasant scent."

"Maybe it isn't dead yet?"

"Impossible. The stench of the living is even stronger. There's no way I wouldn't notice it."

"I'm starting to get curious," Ashe said, his eyes narrowing. "In your sense of smell, what kind of hellish painting does this world look like?