"These trains sure are convenient," Rick said, standing as they reached Warwick. "I can see why you and your family are so interested in them."

  They jumped off onto the platform as the train stopped. Len glanced around. “Got people watching the carriages.”

  “They’re full of valuable resources, can’t just leave them in carriages next to the tracks without anyone watching them,” Rick said.

  They headed northeast instead of south, as they had done before to reach the Crystal Dungeon. They quickly navigated through the town and began bounding across the open fields towards a forest where their target should be.

  Rick checked his map while Len climbed to the top of a tree and used his mana site to survey the surroundings.

  “I see a higher density of mana,” Len said.

  “What direction?”

  “That way?” Len pointed.

  “Alright, more north then,” Rick said.

  “Coming down.”

  “I’m clear.”

  Len dropped from the tree, breaking branches before he hit the ground.

  He dusted off the parts of tree stuck in his gear.

  “Smooth,” Rick said and started running in the direction of the higher density mana.

  Len shook his head and followed.

  They dodged through the trees, periodically climbing them to ensure they were heading in the right direction.

  “Well looks promising,” Rick slowed, drawing his hammer, Len pulled out his sword. The ground was cleared of trees in the middle of the forest.

  They jumped over a creek running through the area and arrived at an impact crater in the middle of the clearing. A set of stairs spiraled downwards.

  The duo exchanged a glance before advancing on the dungeon. Rick went first with Len behind.

  The stairs reached a flagstone floor, opening into a foyer with reception desks infront of three doors leading deeper.

  Len and Rick moved together, the doorways three times their height and wide enough for three people to walk through side by side.

  They pushed on the doors, they creaked and groaned, opening into a massive space. They stood on a balcony that ringed the room, stairs led down two stories to the bottom which was filled with free-standing bookshelves. Stairs rose up two floors to the highest reaches.

  It was about fifty meters wide and a hundred long. Len could see the end of the library on the third floor between shelves—about two hundred meters away from where he stood.

  So many books.

  Water dripped from the ceiling, falling into the lower parts of the library, filling half of the first floor.

  Len’s stomach clenched at the waste.

  Hidden passages among the shelves led to secondary rooms.

  Books, jostled from their shelves, littered the floor. Lanterns cast a smoky light throughout the space.

  Len was hit from behind, the force throwing him through the banister and into the bookshelves below.

  He crashed through one, cracking it and impacting another, causing it to groan and fall over, throwing up water. It thudded into the next shelf, which hit the next and the next before they stilled.

  Len reached out with his mana, drawing the heat from the lanterns towards himself.

  If a single page caught fire, the entire library would go up in flames.

  His attacker, a wooden gargoyle, jumped from the second story. Its wings unfurled as it directed its claws at Len.

  "Will. You. Fucking. Die?" Rick yelled with each blow that sent wood spraying over the balcony.

  Len held up his hand where he was drawing all of the thermal heat from the dungeon. The water around him started freezing, heat varpors rising to his hand pointed directly at the gargoyle.

  The creature snarled as Len released the gathered heat in a torch of plasma. It punched through the gargoyle's face, obliterating it, its momentum making the plasma torch cut through its body.

  Len tore the heat from the gargoyle as he rose, his feet staggered with the tilted shelves.

  “Why are there so many!?” Rick yelled a regular lumberjack by all the wood spraying everywhere. “You alive down there Len?”

  “Yes, you?”

  “Yeah!” Rick walked to the railing. “Watch out incoming fuckers!”

  Four gargoyles launched from their perches above for Len.

  He split the thermal energy he held in his hand into balls of fire, fueled by mana, and hurled them at the oncoming attackers.

  The fireballs slammed through two, dragging the flames with them as the gargoyles’ corpses hissed in the water.

  Len’s fireballs turned and crashed into the two remaining gargoyles.

  Screeching shudders like a chair being driven into a floor rose from the higher shelves.

  Dozens of gargoyles jumped from perches.

  “First fucking clears,” The fireballs tore apart into motes of flames, concentrating into blue flames. They rushed to meet the gargoyles that swatted at them, black liquid shooting from their hands, dousing the flames.

  They weren’t able to get them all as the gargoyles and motes of flame intersected with one another. Len slashed out with his sword, cutting one gargoyle apart, he danced to the side, another sweeping through where he had been his backslash taking out another gargoyle as he jumped to another shelf, a glob of that black liquid hitting the shelves as his fire motes rushed back, hitting the gargoyles in the back like a deadly rain. He moved through the library, sword reaping lives, dropping the creatures to the water below.

  A burst of air threw a gargoyle back a mote of light burning into the creature, leaving a hole as all of its energy was used up.

  He looked around the space as a door at the end of the library started to grind open, the hinges complaining as the water rushed into the untouched space.

  A gargoyle, three times as tall as Len, formed of aged wood pushed against the doors.

  A hammer hummed past Len, striking the creature in the face.

  Wood was chipped away as cracking noises came from the beast’s body.

  “Well shit.” Rick said.

  The creature slowly turned its head to face them. Its face was dented from the impact, it let out a roar as it cracked the doors from its hinges and waded into the room, its wings unfurling.

  The lanterns are out at least.

  Though it meant he didn’t have any heat to draw from.

  Runes appeared over the gargoyles body, burning in different colored lights as it drew up the book from its hip with one hand.

  Len fired mana bolts at the creature, striking it and pushing it back into the room it had come from. It raked the door it had forced open, the door crumbled from the top, forming smaller gargoyles that leapt at Len.

  He filled the space ahead of himself with mana bolts, just slowing the tide of gargoyles.

  The water within the room started to shift as the arcane tattooed gargoyle continued chanting.

  Len ran forward, leaping across the bookshelves as he started to lose traction, gravity shifting as the whole library seemed to be turning on its side.

  He dodged books free from their shelves, those on their shelves remained.

  Shelves he’d knocked over start to right themselves and then tip the other way as he climbed the shelves.

  Mana bolts lanced through the air, crashing into gargoyles, adding to Len’s own castings.

  The room stopped, the doorway they’d come through now the ‘floor’. Water crashed into bookshelves, submerging new ones.

  Len formed a barrier around himself and activated the mana blade in his sword aiming at the gargoyle’s side.

  It dodged away as Len reached out with tendrils of his will like extra limbs, grabbing onto the library around him and changing his trajectory, his sword cutting through the gargoyle’s hand holding the book covered in arcane runes.

  The book stopped glowing as Len grabbed it and the attached hand.

  Kicking off from the gargoyle to get distance.

  The gargoyle let out a roar as the dungeon started to shift back to normal. It’s body convulsed, dozens of magical projectiles formed of lightning and fire shot out from its body, converging on Len.

  Can’t let that hit the library.

  Len skidded to a stop, canceling his mana blade enchantment before stabbing it into the floor and threw out his mana barrier to create a concave shape aimed at the gargoyle.

  The book in his hand glowed with arcane symbols as his spell grew stronger, holding in place his visions becoming strained as the magical projectiles flared and dazzled against his barrier.

  He drew away the heat from the spells as fast as possible, fueling fireball spells at his back.

  Rick jumped from his place on the balcony, mana tendrils grabbing onto the world around him and hurtling him forward, into the minor gargoyles that had rushed Len and were banking to come back he wreathed his body in mana, his blows cracking the beasts.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Len reached out tendrils of mana, grabbing onto the floor, bookshelves and balcony, his sword’s blunt edge cutting a line into the floor.

  “Face me you fuckers!” The creature’s eyes went red as they turned towards Rick, his voice empowered with a taunting spell.

  The arcane gargoyle staggered, spent from its barrage of spells.

  Len compressed the fireballs he’d created and hurled them forward, they shot towards the gargoyle, spiraling in. The tattoos across its body glowed as the fireballs began melting away, like sparks from a fire.

  Len ran forward in the wake of the fireballs, gathering momentum and charge.

  Two of the fireballs hit, throwing the gargoyle back. It slashed out its wing at Len. He dodged around, stepping on a bookshelf to come side on to the creature.

  Len focused the charged in his blade, crackling with lightning as he empowered it with mana, turning it into arm-thick bands as he sliced into the beast.

  The lightning ran through the gargoyle, singeing the floor under its feet and causing parts of it to blow away.

  Len’s feet found the actual floor as the water was starting to rush back and fill the space, sloshing against everything.

  The arcane gargoyle dropped to its knees before it collapsed on the ground, the water hissing as it came into contact with the creature the floor around it.

  The minor gargoyles collapsed where they had been flying.

  ===

  You have earned EXP

  ===

  “Well, moody bits of wood aren’t they,” Rick said from atop a bookshelf, his body wreathed in mana constructs.

  “Yeah,” Len stood up and looked around, glancing into the room the arcane gargoyle had emerged from.

  Arcanus. The sign above the door read.

  Len stepped through spotting Rick’s hammer embedded into the wood floor that was now filling with water.

  Rick walked in behind him, moving to the hammer and checking the surroundings.

  “Looks like spell books.” Rick pulled up his hammer from the floor, shaking wood from it.

  “Going to need a few carts to get this all somewhere safe.” Len said as he prowled through the book stacks. Sword at the ready, the glowing book in his hands still.

  There were artifacts stored in cases along the walls.

  “Spells get stronger the further we go,” Len said.

  “I knew that it was valuable but this is a treasure trove,” Rick said.

  “Be a while till someone would be strong enough to defeat that gargoyle. By then the water could have damaged a lot of the books in here,” Len said the water was around their calves again, sloshing a bit as it settled back down.

  They reached the end of the room.

  In the center of the rear wall of the room was a mannequin with a ring and a staff next to it.

  “Traps?” Rick asked.

  Len studied it, then touched the wall and released mana into it. “Not getting directed into anything, we should be good.”

  Rick slid his hammer away and reached for the robe upon the mannequin and took it down to inspect it.

  Len leaned his sword against the wall within arms reach.

  Len picked up the ring, turning it over in his hand.

  He could feel the mana being drawn towards it, then focused at the center. Using a magnification spell, he was able to study the enchantment closer.

  There wasn't really an effect here, other than increasing range. "Oh, it's a ring to increase mana regeneration." He slipped it onto his finger, feeling his mana passively increase, replenishing him.

  Rick was casting spells on the robe.

  “Passive defense against different spells, that’s nice. Not really a fashion statement, but better than what we’ve got already,” Rick said. He folded up the robe, taking his pack off and stuffing it inside.

  Len grabbed the staff, turning it over in his hands.

  It was made of wood and enchanted with two gems embedded into it.

  There was no mana regeneration, no storage of mana, though the effect wasn’t completed.

  Len frowned and turned it around, letting his own mana flow through the staff, trying to figure out its secrets. "Good enchanter, too," he mused. "Can’t figure out what the damn thing does."

  He used a magnification spell again, feeling a tug from the staff. He instinctually allowed the spell into the staff. One of two gems glowed with light.

  "Curious," Len said. He pointed the staff at the floor a safe distance away, and flowed mana into the gem, activating the enchantment.

  His magnification spell activated once more.

  He cut power to the enchantment, and the spell disappeared. He powered it up again, and he could see further in greater detail. "It stores spells.”

  “Not really that useful," Rick said.

  "Well, it's not useful for us, but if we were able to store spells in here, then give it to someone else who didn't know how to cast that spell, they could use that spell themselves."

  "Oh," Rick said, "yeah, okay, maybe that is pretty useful. Allow us to cheat and give people much stronger spells just by holding this thing.,” Rick gestured to it, closing up his pack.

  “Also, it runs off of the mana stored within the staff, so you're not pulling from your own reserves." Len formed a spell that would remove water from a certain area, drying it out, and implanted it into the staff.

  The second gem glowed dimly, and he activated it, pointing it at the floor. The water where the staff was pointed evaporated, leaving a dry patch of floor.

  He reached towards the first spell gem and pulled on it. The gem dimmed, and he felt the space was empty again.

  "Okay, I can change out the spells and use them as needed."

  Something thudded deeper in the library. Rick drew his hammer.

  "I think there might be something else in here," Rick said.

  Len hesitated, but put the staff back in the display case.

  He slipped the ring onto his finger and picked his sword up from where he'd laid it against the wall. The spell book that he'd taken from the arcane gargoyle had chains on it.

  Using those, he looped it through his sword belt, tying it into place. He made sure that the metal lock on the front of the book was closed so it wouldn't fly open.

  "You're keeping the book?" Rick asked.

  "Haven't studied it yet, but when I cast mana barrier and the other spells, they got stronger and the book glowed, so I'm guessing that it increases the effectiveness of spells. And I can always use that," Len said.

  Rick grunted in agreement, throwing his pack on over his shoulders. "Well, let's go clear the rest of this place."

  They exited the chamber of the arcane golem.

  "Leaving all these books in water hurts my soul," Len said.

  "The faster we kill all this shit, the faster we can dry the place out," Rick said. "Also, getting everything out of here is going to be a huge pain, you know that, right?"

  "Yeah. Storage devices are still really frickin' useful," Len said.

  Len and Rick traced the noise to its source on the second floor.

  It lay at the back of the bookshelves, beyond another set of large double doors made of grey, metallic-looking wood.

  A plaque above it read 'Smithing'.

  Len and Rick pressed their hands to the door, exchanged a nod, and threw it open, stepping into a secondary room.

  Instead of wooden bookshelves, this room was lined with shelves made of the same grey, silvered wood as the door.

  The center of the room was clear, save for an anvil and a metal gargoyle.

  The creature was hammering a metal book that lay on the anvil with its hammer-shaped hands. As it raised its eyes filled with blue flame, its body cracked, revealing molten fissures underneath.

  Instead of wings, it had another set of arms ending in hammers.

  The creature smashed through its own anvil, tipping it over and ripping up a section of the floor.

  The book it had been hammering skittered across the room as it lunged towards Len and Rick, who threw themselves to the side.

  Len kicked off the bookshelf wall towards the creature’s back as it slammed into their previous position, cratering the ground and releasing a shockwave that threw him backwards again.

  Len reached out with his mana, grabbing hold of the world to halt his inertia and propel himself back towards the creature.

  Rick reached it first, his hammer aimed at the creature's side as it rose up from its smash slowly.

  One of the creature's secondary arms swung out, meeting Rick's hammer.

  Cracks radiated up the creature's limb from the point of impact, the limb coming apart.

  Rick swung again, this time aiming for the creature's knee.

  Len landed on the creature's back, driving his mana blade-edged sword through the beast's neck and into its body.

  Rick's hit connected with the creature's knee, making it stumble to the side. Len leapt free of the beast, leaving his sword stuck in its neck.

  He flipped in midair, near the ceiling, and planted his feet and hand into the wall.

  His mana stretched out like roots, anchoring him there to better see the fight.

  The creature swung wildly at Rick making him back away, the creature’s hands moving awkwardly.

  Rick moved around the creature looking for an opening.

  It cracked the ground, and shot toward’s Rick, he smashed his hammer into Rick’s chest, sending him flying backwards shattering a wall-shelf.

  Len grabbed onto the anvil that was behind the creature with his mana and drew it towards himself and through the creature.

  The conical end of the anvil crashed into the beast. Driving through its back and out of its chest.

  It looked at it, confused as it dropped to its knees, hands grabbing onto the anvil and dragging it out.

  It dropped the anvil and leaned backwards. Its eyes stopped burning as metal spread over its body.

  Len pushed off of the wall, landing next to Rick.

  The man dropped an empty potion vial. “Its not dead,” He held up his hammer.

  Len grabbed it and ran forward.

  The creature turned its head, the coating of metal that had spread across it cracking. Len had to jump to reach its head even on its knees.

  His resonating strike blew through the creature’s head, bowling it over. He grabbed onto the end of his sword with mana and dragged it out of the creature’s neck.

  Molten metal fell from the deformed remainder of the blade as he threw the hammer to his left hand and caught the sword.

  Arms lashed out at him, he struck them away with his hammer, and cut through them with the flickering mana blade enchantment along his blade.

  The creature raised what remained of its head as Len cut through its neck, seeing the molten innards of the creature. Its body slumped as it bled molten metal upon the floor, quickly cooling.

  ===

  You have earned EXP

  ===

  Len used cleanse on his blade and drew out the heat, leaving him with two thirds of the sword he’d had before.

  “Well that guy had a punch on him,” Rick wheezed, standing up out of the bookshelf as books rained around him, a couple hitting him on the head. “Fucking room is trying to kill me. Why are there books made of metal?!” Rick glared at the room as Len moved over to him and handed him his hammer.

  “Thank you,” Rick looked at his sword. “Well hopefully there’s a weapon..” He glanced at the back wall where there was gear stored. “On another level?” There was little hiding his excitement as his eyes were locked onto the hammer in the display case.

  Len let out a non-committal grunt as they walked over to the display case. There was a hammer, a shield, bracers and…”Rick is that Orsite?” Len asked.

  “Hmm?” Rick looked away from the hammer at the piece of metal. “Well I’ll be damned, yeah that is Orsite. Who would think we’d see a Rare grade hammer and a Epic grade piece of metal. That’s a decent size to, an ingot or two’s worth you think?”

  “About that,” Len agreed, he flowed mana into the wall to check for traps. “All good.”

  “Wooh!” Rick snatched up the hammer twirling it around in his hands, “Oh that weight, that’s much better! Got some enchantments here.” He trailed off, studying them.

  “Mind if I take the shield?”

  “No worries, sword isn’t looking too good,” Rick said.

  “Barely holding the enchantment together,” Len said as he put the sword to the side, it wouldn’t go back into the scabbard in the state it was.

  He picked up the heater shield and turned it around. Steel, but hardy. There was an enchantment on it. Drawing in and another to release?

  He studied the runes, using his translation spell. “Lot about heat and fire, drawing it in and releasing it maybe?” he shrugged and tested out wearing it.

  “You know what these enchantments do?” Rick asked, holding his new prized hammer.

  Len put the shield to the side and took the hammer.

  “Got enchantments that should increase the quality of a crafted item, the other. Heat component, kinetic enhancement. You know what I think that it replicates that smashing attack that the gargoyle used hitting the ground and when it smashed you into the wall.” Len offered the weapon back.

  “Oh, damn okay I can use that with my resonating strike—yeah that’s going to be nasty,” Rick twirled the hammer and grinned. He pulled out his old hammer and slid the new one into the holster.

  “Wanna use my other hammer?” Rick asked.

  Len looked at the remains of his sword. “Yeah that might not be a bad idea.”

  Rick handed it over and then started taking off his pack. “Make sure we get that chunk of Orsite.” He pulled out a package of food and started eating as he grabbed the metal with his free hand and put it into his bag.

  “How you feeling?” Len asked.

  “Like I got smashed into a wall, but otherwise not too bad. Hungry as fuck though.” Rick shrugged.

  Len put the hammer next to his shield and pulled off the last piece of gear, the bracers. “Not sure what these enchantments do, though there’s a conversion here. Applies an effect to the wearer.”

  He took off his left bracer and put on the new one, he became more alert and the hunger that had started to grow quelled in his stomach.

  “Increase in stamina,” Len took it off. “Don’t feel any less alert so it must passively increase your stamina regeneration.” He offered it to Rick.

  “Thank you,” Rick said. He stopped closing his bag and took the bracer, taking of his before replacing them with the dungeon’s.