Chapter 125

They quickly left the slums and then the low level areas entirely, entering into a mid levelers district and then beyond that toward wealthier districts frequented by high as well as mid levelers.

Rain knew instantly that this area was different. A green furred tiger the size of a cart horse lumbered past, a dainty elf wearing a flowing white summery dress perched on top, its reins held lightly in hand. That wasn’t something he had ever seen before. The Elf was casually riding an extremely dangerous monster like it was nothing.

“As you might have guessed the higher levelers operate on different rules,” whispered Lyra as the elven lady slipped over the side of the tiger and had it sit as she took a chair at an open air cafe. “When you are powerful and connected you are allowed to bring large and dangerous monster slaves into the city.”

“Doesn’t the Ranker have a problem with that? What if it escapes and goes on a rampage?”

“You usually need to apply to be allowed to have it, and with that they check to see if you are strong enough to physically control it and kill it on your own if needed. That elf lady doesn’t look like much but I would be willing to bet she could punch that tiger in the head and knock it unconscious in one blow, although she might just have a heart pin if she is willing to spend the money. It’s a bit more lady-like to simply trigger the metal pin inserted next to its heart than to be seen in public beating a tiger to death with your bare hands. Although you still need to have the physical endurance to trigger the pin if it attacks.”

“I see...”

There were a number of large monsters around, but of course no Panthara. Not even the high leveled dared to try to keep those cunning creatures as pets. Not to say that what they did have wasn’t dangerous. He was surprised to see he vaguely recognised some of the monster species. A giant snake quite like the one he had eaten in Lynthia’s dungeon and what looked like a cave bear cross-bred with a Kobold, black scales peeking from its fur. The Kobold-bear was carrying a large crate for its master and being directed to place it on top an ornate gilded carriage.

“Ah, this is exactly what we were looking for,” said Lyra.

His gaze moved from the bear to where her hand was pointing, the shop behind the carriage.

The outside had been made into an open air stall, if one aimed at wealthier customers, long colourful embroidered overhangs providing shade in the warm morning light.

More important were the tables set out in the shade, tables which contained dungeon diving products, glittering swords, polished armour, and, of course, practical healing potions.

Rain slunk by the shop and slipped into the alley beside it.

“How are we planning on getting the potions?” whispered Lyra. “I could just buy them.”

“Drop me down and I’ll snatch them, I’ve seen how these dumb levelers act, they barely notice us Gobbos, it will be easy!”

“No, too dangerous,” gravelled Rain. “And I’d prefer if you weren’t seen Lyra.”

“Hey there’s hardly going to be any scummy gangs around here, it will be fine!”

Rain considered this. “ ... It’s just not necessary, I can just do this.”

He lifted his paws together and black mist began to coalesce, taking shape. In moments a dozen large rats had appeared on his pads, their inky blackness and star scatter eyes looking up at him with awe as their noses and whiskers wobbled.

He crouched and lowered his paws and the rats poured from his digits, waterfalling down to the cobble below where they scattered and scurried by the alley wall.

The shop’s stall didn’t stand a chance. The rats waited for the overly perfumed shop owner to be distracted by a customer and then darted toward the nearest table, their small claws latching onto the colourful fabric overhanging the edge and swarming their way up.

The first few rats reached the top where they found a number of glass bottles. Working together they removed them from where they were slotted into a wooden display box. One by one the bottles were stolen, a good six of them.

Each bottle was then passed onto the next pair of rats dangling off the table cloth, who then passed it onto the next who then passed it down to the ground.

It took less than twenty seconds. The rats were there, and then they were running back as fast as they could. They clambered onto Rain’s fur and scrambled upwards to a disturbed Lyra. The rats then passed her the stolen bottles one by one.

“Erm, thank ... you?” said Lyra with an armful of bottles.

The leader rat waved and winked at her as it sunk into Rain’s fur.

“With this Red can be healed, right?”

“Yes, but I can’t switch to my wool space without problems with my invisibility, I think, so uhm, we’ll need to find somewhere private.”

“Not here?”

Lyra eyed the mouth of the alley. The street outside was busy and it would only take a glance in their direction to be seen.

“No, not here, there’s a better place than this, a place where we are unlikely to be seen at all where no one bothers to go.”

“And that is?”

Lyra held the potions tight. “The library.”

The library was a massive structure, a crumbling sprawl of connected buildings that seemed to have been added to over centuries and centuries of use. Because of that it was a mish-mash of differing architecture, huge pillars and pointed roofs and sandy walls or cream white walls and sloped roofs and rectangular windows dotted amongst arched. About the only one thing unifying the complex was the creeping ivy that wound its way over every other surface.

The place was as deserted as Lyra implied, the streets around the library near empty, and nobody headed toward its vast steps.

Rain approached the grandiose entrance, wary.

He didn’t have much to worry about though, the library was of little interest to the city’s citizens.

He passed between towering pillars of the entrance for once feeling that the architecture was more fitting to his size, and entered the building, his caution not lowering in the slightest.

The entrance hall was quiet and empty of all but a few people, which wasn’t all that surprising, even Lynthia’s small library that Rain had snuck into as a child to try and study his way out of his level zero predicament was like this. He had a vague theory as to why that was. Libraries just weren’t that popular with a fighting populace ... which was basically everyone, and were considered the purview of dusty old mages ... who were also often wealthy, which was why the library still managed to make a lot of profit.

He drew in a breath through his nose to scent the place and had to slap a paw over his face to keep from sneezing as a wash of dust slammed into his nostrils. He had the instinctive feeling that a sneeze at his size would instantly destroy Lyra’s invisibility.

He passed by a desk where a purple scaled Drake sat, a pair of wire rimmed spectacles balanced on the bridge of her muzzle. It wasn’t the first time Rain had seen a Drake but he was always surprised by how similar they looked to Kobolds. In a lot of ways they were to Kobolds what Orcs or maybe Humans were to Goblins, the larger stouter leveler cousins of the monsters.

Looking at her now he wondered for a moment if Bean was simply an extremely stunted and skinny Drake, but then Drakes did not have neck frills, nor did they have fangs long enough to peek from their lips. It didn’t seem likely. Bean was an enigma.

The purple scaled drake paused in her reading and looked up.

Rain blinked. “Those glasses, she can’t see us, right?” he whispered.

Lyra gripped his ear.

“No, they aren’t violet lensed, they’re just normal glasses, keep going.”

Rain took a step forward and let out a breath of relief as the Drake’s gaze remained, unmoved, a puzzled expression on her face quickly replaced as a long bearded mage approached her. Rain swiftly stepped by them and entered into the library proper, passing into one of the many shelf lined passages leading out of the hall.

Stairs and shelves. The complex wasn’t an open place and as he went deeper he found the place almost claustrophobic, barely enough space for him between towering shelves that reached the ceiling and spread in every direction, rows and grids sometimes, but more often than not the shelves went in out in any angle, a crazily branching maze lit gloomily by glowing glass orbs.

When there weren’t branching rows of shelves there were halls like the entrance hall, two-storey spaces open in the middle with reading desks.

“Not here, deeper, where no one goes,” murmured Lyra.

He continued on through the maze of passages until it opened up on one side and he froze seeing the view over the railing.

The floors dropped away beneath them into the gloom, floors and floors lined with books, a vast rectangular chamber dozens of storeys deep, countless bridges reaching across from gallery to gallery, the space stretching into the distance, unending shelves, unending books. Here he could distantly see people, if only because of how much space it encompassed.

The truth was the library wasn’t entirely underused, it was just so mind-bogglingly vast that even thousands of people could disappear in this place.

He passed on from the huge chamber and back into the warren of passages where the passage split, then split again and again. The area they were in now appeared more run down than others they had passed through, and very very old. He had to put real work into not sneezing from the disturbed dust.

He walked for minutes and didn’t see a single other person. It was perfect. He stopped at the next reading space, a smaller more cloistered spot with a privacy door and maybe a dozen reading desks.

Lyra dropped the invisibility and climbed awkwardly down from his shoulder to the floor.

“This is perfect. No one will find us here, at least I hope not, but I mean who would even come here? This place is a dump!” She looked around at it proudly, hands on hips.

Her wool suddenly washed to black and Red, who had apparently been leaning against the other side in wool space fell through with a yelp and crashed to the ground. A skull with green flaming eyes was latched onto his head.

He flailed around clutching at his leg in distress “OWOWOWOWOWW!”

Lyra rolled her eyes and grabbed the edge of the bundle of cotton on his leg then jammed the neck of a healing potion bottle down it. A few glugs of fluid poured out and she then snatched it back and quickly screwed the cap back on.

“Oh gods the pain! The ... pain?”

Red paused and examined his leg, experimentally moving it back and forth.

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh,” said Vash from atop his head. “So this would be one of the libraries you mentioned brute.” he sniffed and jumped off Red’s head, his chicken bone spider legs cushioning his landing.