The attendants soon began withdrawing after the knight had been ‘neutralized’.
So, it was now the time for him to enact his plan. Ludwig knew full well that fighting the knight head-on was utterly stupid. He wasn’t strong enough, nor would any of his spells even harm the knight. but the immortal attendants were more than capable of doing that themselves. So he was going to use a borrowed knife.
In the stories and novels he had read, the hero would fight a difficult and struggle-fueled fight to defeat his powerful enemy. The plot would revolve around them obtaining a powerful item or an ability at the last second that will empower them and give them the edges they need to win their battle.
This wasn’t the case, for Ludwig this was real life, and there was nothing like a sudden power-up that was going to save him. All he had is the head over his shoulders to use.
Some might call it cowardice some might call it genius, but Ludwig knew that it was his only way to both survive and have a better chance at leaving this place.
The knight was a hurdle in his way and he needed to get rid of him even if he didn’t personally kill it.
Ludwig approached the knight, moving past the attendants who still ignored him and were too busy cleaning up the place. From what Ludwig saw, they were caring about the books and the shelves, and some even used wax to repair the damage. Others took the books that were too damaged away while leaving those that had only fallen to be picked up by other librarians back in their spots.
Ludwig tried his best not to disrupt them and walked all the way to the knight. He noticed that the knight wasn’t fully frozen, he could see the red of his eyes moving through the visor of his helmet.
Ludwig smiled as he pulled his sword. The Broken Shard of Durandal had yet to fail him in breaking through an object.
He aimed it at the eye of the knight and simply used all the power behind his undead strength to stab it right through the knight’s eye.
[Critical!]
[-1,200 hp!]
[You caused Half Blind Effect onto your target!]
The response was immediate, the Knight shivered and shuddered, the wax breaking off of his body from rage, and instantly the wax began cracking.
Ludwig ripped the sword and stabbed it right into the second eye. This time the pain was even more visible on the knight as it shattered a great majority of the wax and roared out in rage.
“SHUUUUU!” this one was louder and sounded through the whole library.
Ludwig immediately ripped the sword out and was about to stab the knight in the chest this time, but he felt that he shouldn’t be greedy and moved himself away.
His intuition was incredibly right, as the moment he had removed himself from in front of the knight, the wax on his arm had shattered, and the sword it had on him was free as it struck the spot Ludwig was standing on with so much might, that several of the books around them were flung out of their position, while the shockwave of the impact hit Ludwig squarely sending him sprawling on the ground.
Ludwig fell right next to one of the blind me, who had a finger on its mouth, and said, “Shuu,” this one far less loudly than the ones the knight was receiving, but it was still a bit louder than the first ‘warning’ Ludwig received.
Ludwig immediately understood that each person who enters this library will have a certain amount of warnings from the librarians before he is waxed. So Ludwig nodded at the librarian who simply ignored him again and moved toward the knight.
The Librarians grouped up again like a small army coming out of different sections of the archives and began throwing wax once again at the knight.
The knight was blinded fully and was unable to locate the source of the attacks, which made the job of the librarians far easier in containing him. However this time, the Knight was far more aggressive as it swung its sword everywhere breaking books and shelves with each swing. But soon he was forced to his knees, frozen in place due to the wax.
Once again, Ludwig waited for the librarians to remove themselves from the area and slowly headed toward the knight.
He inspected his health this time and it was far lower than he expected. He thought he’d have to do this again, but it seems the librarians were adamant on making the knight completely frozen in place so they added more wax layers and dropped his health to about twenty percent.
Ludwig waited until all the librarians had left the area and then simply stabbed the knight from the top of his helm. The sword went through the iron helmet like a hot knife through a helmet made of wax.
[Critical!]
[You have defeated your opponent! No soul shall be granted for this victory your opponent has yet to truly die]
A loud howl echoed from the knight’s mouth as it was turning into a black tar-like substance.
“The Hunger… it calls!” it said before the tar-like substance began melting the wax and mixing with it. Soon the ground was nothing but a pool of wax.
Surprisingly the librarians didn’t react this time, perhaps they realized that the one that was making all the noise is now dead.
No item dropped, and no souls dropped, but that wasn’t all bad. At least now Ludwig could navigate the library without having to worry about the knight.
He began walking through the library and only then did he realize that he never opened any of the books nor see what they were about. The knight that was perusing him was jealous for Ludwig’s attention.
Ludwig grabbed the nearest book and opened it, only to find no content inside it. It was nothing but empty books and pages.
Frustration and disappointment were clear on Ludwig’s face.
“I should have known,” he sighed as he placed the book down.
Not far from him was one of the librarians who picked up a book from the shelves and began riffling through the pages.
Ludwig approached him and used a page from Van Dijk’s books.
Ludwig realized he still had more ‘chances’ before being kicked out, or waxed out from the library so he tried his luck.
“Excuse me,” Ludwig said in a low voice.
The librarian turned to Ludwig, scanned him from head to toe, and just stared at him. As if waiting.
“I need a book that I can read…”
The librarian held two fingers and made the gesture of gouging one eye to Ludwig. Then shook his head.
He couldn’t speak, but Ludwig immediately understood what he meant.
These books… you can’t read them if you have eyes…
‘But I don’t have eyes… also how does that even work?’ Ludwig was confused. But then he remembered something. He pulled an item from his inventory. It was the Mask of the Blind Witness.
Just as he placed it on his face. Something horrifying met his eyes… enough that although he had no stomach, Ludwig wanted to hurl.