SWNOVELXO Chapter 3: The Rumours
Ryo stood up from his bed, quietly moving to the side of his room in the inn. The floorboards made a loud creaking noise, causing Ryo to wince as he placed his ear to the wall. He took shallow breaths in order to hear the adventurers talking in the room next to his, as they were speaking in an almost hushed tone, unaware of anyone listening to them.
"…Abandoned library…near…Demon Country…Ghouls…" This was all that Ryo could pick up on for the moment. He didn't have the guts to ask the adventurers to their face, so Ryo decided to do a bit of reconnaissance. He left the inn with his bag on his back and his books stored inside, allowing the innkeeper to set up his room for the next group of people. Ryo made his way to the local adventurer's guild, its appearance being that of a bungalow with a sign on the top, heading up to the counter labelled "Licenses". After waiting in a queue for around two minutes, he reached the front of the line, and placed his adventuring license onto the table.
"I'd like to remove my association with the Utopian adventuring party 'Rising Sun'." Ryo told the woman at the counter, a cheery blue-eyed Hyandean with rocks covering a small bit of her left cheek and light green hair done up in a bun.
"I see. Did something go wrong?" She asked, grabbing a small form and a pencil from beneath the counter.
"They fired me since I wasn't Utopian." Ryo sighed, getting a sympathetic look from the worker.
"All too common a story, I'm afraid. You made it further than most others though, as you're still considered an A-rank adventurer." The woman told him, sliding the document over to him. It was labelled as a "Party Member Separation Incident Form".
Ryo quickly filled it out, putting down only the crucial information. His name, his age, the party he's no longer associated with, and his current rank. Ryo Kyoji, 23 years old, Rising Sun, and A-rank. His entire being, concentrated down to a simple line of words. He slid the form back over, picking up his license, and began to walk away.
"Wait, sir!" The woman called out to him. "Are you not going to join a new party? There are plenty here that'd love to have you!"
"Thanks for the offer. However, I want to spend just a little more time on the road before I join another party." Ryo replied as he left the building, shutting the door behind him. He let out a sigh of relief, finally being free of the Rising Sun party. He turned around to look at the building, noting just how well it blended into the surroundings. All of the guilds were required to be as discreet as possible with their buildings, as, in case of an invasion, they would rather burn documents down than allow information to fall into enemy hands, no matter whose they were.
Ryo heard a familiar phrase as he began to walk away. "Library…Ghouls…abandoned…" He turned his head, looking to his right to see two people talking in hushed tones about it. He made his way over, showing them his adventuring license that he hadn't yet put away.
"Ryo Kyoji, A-rank Wizard. You mentioned an abandoned library?" Ryo explained, putting his license back into his pocket. One of the two men, a new adventurer with slick, black hair and a sword that seemed too big for his body, looked at the other, a more experienced adventurer with two daggers by his waist for approval. The seasoned adventurer nodded, and the younger adventurer started explaining, still in a hushed tone.
"There's been reports of a massive abandoned library near the demon country." He started. "Around fifty kilometres away from the border, based on what I've heard. Travellers who've passed by have heard what seems to be hordes upon hordes of Ghouls inside its walls, but nobody has gone to check it out for fear of dying to an incomprehensible amount of monsters." The adventurer continued, before the experienced one picked up where he left off.
"They sent a B-ranked party, Crimson Flame, to go check it out. When they got back, their skin had turned deathly white, and one won't stop talking about books. Not in a good way either. He keeps repeating the same three phrases, apparently. Nobody besides the people taking care of them right now have any idea what they are though, all we know is that they're about books."
Ryo, listening carefully, tried to imagine what he could do about it. Maybe he could use Nature magic to crush all the Ghouls without destroying any of the books inside? "Did the guild post a quest about it?" Ryo inquired.
"Not yet. If it's not cleared by next month they'll send an A-rank party out to it. They released a statement saying that they'll only send one sooner if the monsters start attacking villages. They're spread thin enough as it is, they said." The younger adventurer replied, almost downtrodden. "I can only hope that we stay safe around here. It could be a plot by demons in order to advance their territory."
"You know, I think I'll go check it out." Ryo said, almost to himself.
"I mean, if you want to, but don't attack anything. You don't want to cause a stampede of Ghouls or anything stupid like that." Ryo was told by the seasoned adventurer.
"Don't worry, I'm just going to scout it out. I might be able to figure out what caused that B-rank party to act like that."
With that, Ryo had a new quest for himself. He gave both of the adventurers a handshake, thanking them for the information. Ryo made his way to the edge of the town of Ingo, flashing his adventuring license to the two guards stationed outside. As Ryo started to walk away, he took out his "Observations" notebook, with the matching pencil. 'I never understood what the point of just two guards was.' He jotted down. 'Sure, maybe it'll help stop a smuggler or two every year, but what can they do if a bunch of monsters come at them? It's not like they have any classes, do they?'
Ryo, now all too familiar with walking, made his way closer to the demon country's border, hearing the tales of the library becoming more and more prevalent as he got closer. Some people told him that their family members had almost died just by being near it, others told him that they could hear the groans and grumbles of Ghouls even tens of kilometers away. This put Ryo on edge, as no sound quieter than an SSS-rank Wizard creating a massive explosion should travel that far.
Ryo kept travelling, sleeping by roadsides, using Nature magic to fabricate trees in which he could sleep in. He had to do it a lot with the Rising Sun, as Kevin, especially in the later months of membership, became unwilling to spend money on inns. The leaves acted as his pillow, and the branches were formed into a flat plain for him to sleep on. The reason he used a tree is that it was inconspicuous. Nobody had any reason to be suspicious of a tree, even if it was on the side of a road with none nearby.
About a week after leaving the village of Ingo, Ryo reached another village named Aropa. It was apparently the closest village to the abandoned library, and each person there was complaining about the noise of the Ghouls, even while talking to Ryo. However, no matter how closely he listened, Ryo didn't hear a single noise. No signature growls, or grumbles, or even bone cracking that the residents seemed to wince at. Ryo asked one of them to point him in the right direction to get to the library, and all he got was a quick finger jab to the south-east before they stuck their fingers into their ears to block out the noise.
"This is getting stranger and stranger." Ryo told himself, pulling out his "Observations" notebook once more. 'Is there a type of magic that can cause people to collectively hallucinate sounds?' He inquired. 'I've never heard of it. Could it be a piece of Demon magic?' He asked himself before putting his notebook back into his bag. Night soon fell, casting darkness upon Ryo's surroundings. "One more day. All it'll take is one more day of walking to get there
One more night sleeping in a tree.
Ryo awoke just at the crack of dawn, stretching his arms as he jumped down from his tree, watching it disintegrate. He used to feel bad about watching his creations fall apart like that, but he had just gotten used to it. Ryo kept moving onwards, heading towards the abandoned library, still hearing nothing. At around midday, Ryo saw the side of the library, made of stone and coated with some form of ivy. It was even larger than he had imagined. It stretched for well over a kilometer in length, with about 500 meters in width. The ceiling was well over fifty metres in the air, a height no human could ever reach without the help of magic to push them upwards. "This thing could fit SO many Ghouls!" Ryo said with a near-unbridled excitement. Not for the Ghouls inside, but the books.
If you couldn't tell by now, Ryo absolutely adored books. They held all the knowledge of previous generations, allowing information to go from grandfather to grandson with just a bit of preparation. They were a tale of someone's life, and Ryo valued that. Ryo, now beaming with excitement, practically sprinted towards the front, marked clearly with the large sets of almost marble-like stairs. Pillars of stone held up the building's huge height, seeming to be more like a museum than just any ordinary library. Yet, even still, he couldn't hear any Ghouls. The windows on the sides were massive, about 25 meters tall, with a definitely countable amount of windows, but since the library extended for over a kilometer, Ryo wouldn't be able to tell until later.
He got to the stairs, noticing that they were a decent bit larger than the stairs any Human would deem practical. He had to lift his knee about one and a half times higher than he normally would, which he could notice. After all, he had an acute awareness of all the rocks on his body. Each step was quite wide, however, as if it was made for feet thirty times bigger than his own. He had to take about fifteen steps between each stair just to reach the next one, which he found interesting. Was it designed for people to stand on or to climb up? He couldn't tell at this point. There were ten stairs, which meant climbing up and down would be a decent trek.
He made it to the top, taking a look at the large, almost grandiose wooden doors, metal encasing the corners and curves to serve as protection. He knocked on the door, and it felt perfectly solid. He couldn't hear any reverberations. He pushed against the doors, yet they didn't budge at all. It was like trying to run straight into a stone wall.
"Spell of Nature… Root Push!" Ryo called out, placing his hands out in front of his face, a green magical symbol looking like a tree appearing in front of his hands. Roots like those of a tree rushed out in front of him, spreading across the door, almost like a mass infection, overtaking the existing wood. Ryo walked forward, struggling to move his legs as the weight of the doors felt almost impossibly immovable.
Slowly, the sounds of ancient oak creaking filled the air as Ryo took one step, then another, pushing the doors back slowly, both at the same time. He felt his spell slowly lose effectiveness, but he pushed on, imbuing more mana into his spell to keep it going. The doors, as stubborn as could be, finally reached the half-way point to open, where they quickly made their way to fully open. Ryo stopped casting his spell, watching the roots fall off the doors and disintegrate into less than ash before blowing away. He watched the doors for a second to see if they'd suddenly close, but they did no such thing.
Finally, it was open, but what lay inside? Should it have stayed closed?