"Geez… what rabbit hole have I fallen in this time?"
…
About a week had passed, and it was the day before the trip to New York where we were going to be visiting one of their dungeons.
But, first I had to pass this test to get to the next floor of the library as I had been waiting two years for this moment and to be honest, I'd rather focus on this than prepare for the trip.
Well, it's not like the test is physically taxing if you do it correctly, though.
"Okay, Orion, please come up," The headmaster of the school said.
"Yes, sir," I immediately responded, watching the senior boy who just got a 95 on the physical test walk to the next room.
"Do I have to remind you of the conditions, or do you remember?" He asked.
"I remember,"
In order to get to the next level of the library, I must achieve a 75 at least. For the next one, I must achieve an 85. Then for the final one, I must achieve a 98.
"You may use any skills you desire," The headmaster informed me, so I coated my fist in [Tangible Bloodlust] and eyed the small machine with a white box in front of me.
Next… [Berserk Coating].
My eyes immediately became bloodshot as a red aura spread from my neck to my arm, reinforcing the tangible bloodlust.
This took a while to get down because, in the beginning, I was trying to fuse them together rather than overlap them.
Fusing them together resulted in an explosion and mess of these two skills, harming me a bit from the reaction.
So, I racked my brain and eventually came to the conclusion that overlapping them was the best process… but that's easier said than done.
[Tangible Bloodlust] is very easy to control now, but [Berserk Coating] is similar in a way that it powers me up, but its controllability is terrible.
Just like the skill says, it goes berserk, so controlling it took about a year and a half to get down, though I have still yet to master it.
Now… the final one.
I took in a sharp breath as if I was preparing to pull the trigger on my sniper and then activated [Cloak of Blood].
My final skill…
A literal mage like cloak or robe wrapped around me, enhancing only my speed, but from what I know, speed can also enhance power, so I pushed the skill to its max.
FWOOSH
My fist seemingly tore through the air before colliding with the white box, which didn't even show a hint of breaking.
After deactivating all my skills, I took a knee due to the stacked skills basically sapping more than half my mana in an instant.
Then I looked up at my score, which read,
"A 75! Very nice!" The headmaster applauded me before helping me up, and an assistant took me to the next room, where an entire infirmary was.
It wasn't rare for somebody to go overboard and absolutely destroy their own body with skills they can't control or a lack of vital stats.
A few kids were bloody messes as one of their arms or legs had basically imploded from all the power.
This is why… dungeons shouldn't be limited to just licenses.
"Congratulations on passing. Let me just do a check-up, and I'll put the information into the system," The old nurse said.
…
After about an hour, the process had finally finished, and since it was about seven in the morning on a Sunday, I decided to hit the sack again.
It was a peaceful four-hour nap, and after getting some breakfast with Findir, who I also helped study, I made my way to the library.
I had completed all the information on the first floor two times over, so now I was ready and excited for the information on the second floor.
"Oh, there is no information on the second floor. You just have the selection of two common skill books you would like," The old librarian said, and I felt all the excitement rush out of me like a flushing toilet.
"Then, I don't want anything," I said, turning away, but the old lady stopped me just as I was about to leave.
"Hey, there are things better than just information. Some of the skill books are amazing, so don't go underestimating them,"
I stared at her for a few seconds before letting out a deep sigh.
"Fine," I responded.
As I walked up the long stairs, I passed by the first floor and quickly made my way to the second floor.
A pair of guards, clad in metal armor, stood still like statues, and upon scanning me with a gun-shaped device, they let me into the room.
"*sigh*... Okay, let's see what they have,"
It was a small standard library, but the contents were completely different, so I carefully looked through pretty much every single book in the room… but nothing satisfied me.
"Well, I guess that's why they are all common," I muttered, and as soon as I pulled the last book, I noticed it didn't come out.
Crrrrrk
It was a lever.
The bookshelf in front of me shifted to the side, drawing all the attention from everybody in the room… which was just only one person, but it was a familiar face.
"Treyni, do you know what this is?" I asked the girl with sparkling emerald green eyes, tan skin, and long black hair.
She was my most common sparring partner within the friend group as we were pretty equal in terms of skill with our weapons.
Our matches were almost, if not always even, so going against her was good practice.
But, I did notice one thing… she doesn't talk much.
Treyni just shrugged before walking up next to me and staring into the small, cluttered room with a dusty desk and giant cobwebs hanging from the ceiling.
"Should we… enter?"
But, once again, she just shrugged… although her sparkling emerald eyes showed she wanted to explore it.
"I guess that's a yes," I muttered before entering the room.