Chapter 61: Library of the white witch (2)

I could smell a familiar stale scent of  mold permeated in the air.

“Is this really my imaginary world?”

This library was a manifestation of a skill inside my mind. And as I looked around at the incredibly vivid library with curiosity, I received a message from the system 

[The letters of all witches of the world gathered together to become a book, and the books gathered together to become a knowledge.]

[Welcome to the Library of the White Witches. A library made from the wisdom of witches all over the world.]

[Your current entry permit is ‘F’ and more qualifications are required to unlock the next level permit.]

[Please find the knowledge you want here.]

Even though the library had become more vivid and clear, there were still restrictions around me. I had an F-rank entry permit.

If I forced my way into the E-rank library, I would be affected by the witch both physically and mentally.

However, one of the reasons why I entered this library in the first place was for the E-rank library.

-Me too~

I summoned  the flower pot as soon as I heard its voice. A beautiful silver flower in a pot appeared on top of my left hand. Few moments later, a little girl showed up from the largest flower bud. She yawned and stretched her body before looking at me. 

-I love library~

“Let’s go.”

I walked to the place I saw the other day but couldn’t approach. It was the door connecting the E-rank library.

I gulped down and placed my hand on the handle. Then, I remembered the warning message that came the other day. It was about being physically and mentally influenced by the witches. But I didn’t have any shred of hesitation left because I had taken all that into consideration.

Screech!!

Rows after rows of bookshelves, which looked like any normal bookshelves came to my sight. I slowly and warily walked toward the room. 

Then… dozens, hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands voices suddenly rang across the room.

-Please save me, I’ve already admitted it was my fault! Why did you kill me?

-How could you shamelessly say you want to go back?

-You must die so you could be a help like us!

-You’re going to be books, just like us!

[Skill ‘Concentration (S)’ has been activated.]

With the help of concentration skill, all of those voices instantly disappeared.

“What was that?”

They were terrible voices filled with grudge. I’ve lived my life looking at all sorts of things in the battlefield, but I’ve never come across anything like this before. 

Somehow I felt chills run down my spine. It was as if I was watching a horror movie alone, or more, like I was left alone in a haunted house.

-It’s okay~

If it wasn’t for the pot’s voice, I would have probably already run away from this room. There wouldn’t be a shred of the persona of a 16 years veteran hunter seen in me at that moment. 

“You are right, let’s go. It’ll be okay.”

It was a dim path between the rows of bookshelves. There were numerous books lined up without any title written on its cover. It took me almost an hour to walk to the last bookshelf while looking through the books slowly.

Does the time flow at the same pace as the reality? As this world was sustained by using the ‘concentration’ skill, it was likely that the time of reality would be almost stopped.

-Hey, Magician.

“……..!”

As I walked around, I suddenly realized… All the bookshelves in this room were surrounding me.

‘When did this happen?’

In an instance, I took out the ether blade and turned it on. The flower pot who had always been assisting me from the inventory was now sitting on top of my left hand. In this state, she was able to exert more powerful magic spells.

I would love to test her strength, but suddenly, every single book in the bookshelves flew into the sky and began to merge. The combined book turned into the size of a building and started falling in front of me.

[E-Rank library and above was only accessible for true witches.]

[Or those who deserve to be a witch.]

[Are you a witch? If you aren’t a witch, do you think you have the qualification to be one?]

“I’m neither. I’ll just go in.”

[Then take the test.]

[The content is simple.]

[I’m a witch system that manages access to the E-rank Warehouse]

[Beat me, and you shall pass.]

The cover of the building-size book in front of me began to change. A pattern started to appear before me just before the title was engraved

[World Earth.]

“Earth?”

Those questions only lasted for a very brief moment.

The huge room opened up. A white-haired woman in a white dress walked out from it. Even though I had never seen her before, I felt the same energy I had felt from the witches on her. Behind her, the pages of the huge book finally stopped.

[The shepherd boy.]

As soon as the pages stopped, I could feel the space around me starting to distort. I could feel a similar sensation from when I jumped across dimension. 

Whiiiiiiiing!

With the cold breeze that blew over me, I found myself on a vast grassland. Some distance away from me, there was a young boy hitting a huge sheep monster several times bigger than himself. Behind him, there were dozens of wolves following him.

“Wait a minute, was the shepherd boy supposed to be like that?”

Without any warning, the boy shouted.

-Wolf! Go bite him!

“What? Sh-!”

Kkoong kkoong!

Following his commands, dozens of wolves started running towards me. The flower pot assisted me with some wind magic as I wrapped my mana around the ether blade.

‘I don’t know what this is all about, but if I beat her, I’m sure everything will be okay!’

But,

Suddenly the world shook, and my body sank to the ground.

No. To be exact, the earth shot up towards me.

“What the hell is this!?”

I swung my ether blade towards the wolves. These wolf monsters level was around E-rank. So I thought killing them would be easy. But suddenly, the snow fell from the sky and within seconds the snow was already piled up to my knee.

[Dog of Flanders.]

The Book title changed. All the wolves were frozen to death and the sheep went on a rampage.

Kuoooooo!!!!

A group of rampaging sheep monsters with ‘王’ characters carved on their belly rushed at me.

-Patrashuuu!!!

“Keuk!’

Koong!

I clenched my teeth as I rolled away to evade the Monster sheep’s fist. Its level was about D-rank. It was a level higher than the wolf, but there was nothing particularly special about it.

I jumped and cut off one of the sheep’s necks. After that, I landed behind it and rolled away. Using the momentum from the roll, I leaped towards another monster and stabbed it on the chest.

Two sheeps rushed toward me from both sides with their fists clenched. They swung their fist in order to crush me. Thankfully, the pot had already created a foothold for me with her magic. I kicked the foothold and flew high into the sky.

I ran my eyes over the ground quickly. I saw a flock of hundreds of sheep galloping over the snowy fields. I couldn’t handle their numbers no matter what method I decided to use.

‘If so, I’d rather…..’

The very moment I was about to take some explosives out of my inventory and throw them to the ground, the snow hail stopped and I found myself in a forest.

“What is happening?”

Then, an old woman appeared. No… it wasn’t a person, it was something that looked like an old woman.

-You should try some apples.

The old woman offered me an apple, but I thought it would be poisoned, so I moved bacl and killed her with the ether blade.

-Bad bastard! Eat it!

She threw the apple towards me.

‘…….!’

I hurriedly rolled to the side. There was an explosion at the spot where the apple landed. It had the same effect as the ether grenades that I used. 

I was far away from the bomb. I quickly got up and cut down the old woman.

Clang!

The surrounding area changed into a medieval-style fortress. The fortress was filled with a huge ‘nutcracker’ that easily reached 5 meters tall.

-Oh it’s a walnut! Cut that man’s butt off!!

“Oh, N, Noooo.”

Kung! Kung! Kung!

The Nutcracker started running at a frightening speed towards me. I didn’t want to be a sitting duck, so I also rushed towards the Nutcracker. I jumped over one of his arms, and leaped forward from his shoulders to reach the point where the witch stood as she twisted the world.

On the ground, a Nutcracker was swinging his arm to attack me, but it was of no use.

‘System! Do something to keep the world from changing again!’

‘What did you say?’

It didn’t take long before I started to understand the system’s words.

The exact moment when I thought I’ve caught the witch, the world turned upside  down.

And then…

Wooong! Wooong!

A subway train passed by my side.

There were dozens of tall buildings lying sideways in front of it and dozens of cars passing through it. I dodged them by moving sideways, but a huge bus fell from the sky. No, it wasn’t simply falling, there was a whole highway stretching up to the sky like a wall.

Something was strange here. 

This space was like reality, but there was something that was twisting the sense of space.

‘What should I do then? You said you can’t meddle with this space.’

‘What?’

At that moment.

The E-rank overseer witch tried to change the world once again. It hadn’t changed yet, but somehow I was able to feel it.

So, I put strength on my body. That’s all I could do right now.

Then, to my surprise, the witch staggered. The space stayed the same. I wasn’t transported to another fairytale world.

‘I don’t know for sure but I’m sure I’ve done something.’

In the first place, why did I take out the ether blades and grenades in this world? 

Why did I try to fight with magic and physical ability in a world full of high-grade magic?

It was a stupid move from me.

I reached out to the air and shook it. The building in front of me tilted in the direction that I wanted it to. Then, I jumped towards it and rode it towards the witch. 

Without moving her hands, the witch split the building in two and dropped me to the ground. There was a huge subway tunnel at the bottom, So, my landing aren’t as smooth as I hoped it to.

Still, the witch was more powerful than me. 

She could control everything that existed in this space freely, but I could only handle the space where my hands were directed.

A huge building fell overhead. But I didn’t have to run and avoid it. I could avoid it just by adjusting the direction of the subway.

‘Oh, this is surprisingly comfortable!’

I thought like that for a brief moment.

-This is….

-The exit door was on the left.

-If you want to go to Jamsil, Sadang, or Sindorim…

-Please take line 2, at this station…

“Huh?”

Suddenly the subway halted in the air. With buildings still falling towards me. I jumped sideways to avoid it. Looking at the situation, the building and the subway would certainly collide.

In the end…

Kii-ee-ing!

Bam! Bam!

As I climbed the stairs into the air and avoided waves of falling rubbles, I could see the witch building a foothold beneath her to widen the gap between us.

I was also creating more and more footholds and rushed towards the witch.

She controlled all the space around her to get away from me. She could win this fight if I ever felt too tired and missed my foothold.

But did she know?

The fact that the range of space that I could manipulate was very small.

-This station is Express Bus Terminal, Express Bus Terminal Station.

[Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]]l

To the extent that I could turn the direction of something that already moving.

Thuuung!

The subway hit the witch on her side and flung her towards the sky.

[You have acquired the qualification to access the E-rank library.]

The message appeared as if congratulating my success.

“Huh?”

I turned my body as I felt some gaze from my back.

***

“……!”

Earth. Moscow, Russia.

When the white-haired, transparent-eyed woman awoke from her sleep, a dark-skinned woman who stood right next to her bed, approached her side.

“Miss, did you see any bad prophecy?”

“…No, it’s okay.”

She was the prophet, Yekaterina. The only prophet on earth. Her ‘prophetic’ ability manifested not through ether but rather naturally.

The SS-rank superhuman who escorts the Prophet, Alpha looked at Yekaterina with a serious look on her face.

Yekaterina would always wake up in tears. In her dreams she could see the future that no one knew. She was a prophet who always warned the world when she foresaw a terrible future.

‘It’s dangerous.’

‘Don’t do it.’

‘You shouldn’t do it.’

Yekaterina’s prophecy was 100 percent sure. She had never been wrong even once, so Alpha was tasked to protect Yekaterina herself by the Hunter association.

“What kind of future did you see this time? Should I call the Prophecy Council right away?”

The Prophecy Council was a group of people who figured out what Yekaterina’s dream was about and where it would occur. 

But Yekaterina shook her head.

“It’s okay. I think the disaster has already been solved.”

“Pardon?”

She didn’t completely understand, but she knew it was real. There was someone who had already been active in the scourge of prophecy. 

‘A very terrible future.’ It was the most fitting word to describe the disaster in her dreams where all the spaces in the world were twisted and turned upside down.

There were only 2 people standing in such a terrifying disaster. A woman in white dress and a man using an equipment, who she believed to be a Hunter, were fighting each other amidst the disaster.

In the end, the hunter was able to beat the witch who she believed to be the source of the disaster.

‘In the last moment, that man clearly looked at me.’

Meeting someone inside a prophetic dream?  That was absolutely impossible.

However, He obviously made eye contact with her.

‘Maybe….’

She raised her trembling hand and rubbed his face.

‘He might know something about this hellish prophetic skill.’