As soon as I heard what the giant human-shaped blob said, I quickly turned around, ready to run away.
“[Oh, you can still move even after receiving my telepathy? It makes me want to eat you more!]”
I could hear a squirming sound behind me; however, I didn’t try to turn back. I feel like my SAN points are going down whenever that blob enters my sight.
I ran past the hooded ones who were unable to move and rushed down the stairs. Too bad there weren’t rails that I could slide down on, so I just painstakingly and carefully took a dozen steps down at a time.
When I was about to jump for the fourth time, something caught my leg and held me in place. With my momentum, my face slammed against the edge of the stairs, making my nose bleed.
“[I’ve got you now.]”
When I looked back, I realized that the thing that caught me was the blob’s hands. It was extending for about a hundred meters, looking like a pink, mushy tentacle, and was extremely revolting.
‘Is this thing really a human?!’
I thought as I flailed around, trying to get out of its grip.
“[Stop your futile resistance and feel honored for becoming my meal.]”
The blob declared as it pulled and dragged me along the marble floor. Despite how fleshy its arm was, it held onto my leg firmly. As I was almost back at the top of the stairs, a voice echoed from above.
“Master!”
Ember appeared from a dark, elongated portal, sweat running down her forehead. As soon as she met my eyes, she quickly threw something toward the tentacle-like arm holding me. Soon after, as if it had been sliced by a hot knife, the tentacle got sliced, freeing me from its grasp.
Not wasting a moment, I quickly caught Ember as she fell, placed her upright beside me, and ran forward.
“No time to explain; we should run first!”
I said as I led the way. Ember was behind me, following as we skipped a dozen steps with every leap.
In just a few minutes, we had already reached the bottom of the stairs. From the corner of my eye, right as we turned around a bend, I could see a squirming mass rolling down the stairs. My hair stood on end as I saw this extremely disgusting sight.
With Ember in tow, we traversed the complex maze of houses. As we passed through here earlier, I had been marking the road with shotgun shells, making sure that I wouldn’t get lost. In my vision, the shells that leaked energy were extremely conspicuous.
It didn’t take long before we reached the magic circle from before. However, I could hear the rhythmic steps of our pursuers coming closer. We didn’t have much time.
I quickly crouched down and inspected the runes and lines of the magic circle. Honestly, I do not have any relevant knowledge regarding that. But I could read some parts written in common letters. There were “attract” and “repel” written on opposite sides. I suspect that these are the modes of the magic circle, with the “attract” one pulling me up to here.
“But I don’t know how to change modes or how to activate it!”
When I saw it earlier, while I was falling, there was no energy flowing around it at all. It must be using some other power source, which I couldn’t even start to guess.
“Master, they’re here!”
Ember shouted as the first few of the hooded figures appeared. Their hood was now opened up, revealing their disfigured appearance. Some had purple tumors on their faces, while the others had large heads. Some had bulging eyes, and some even had a horse-like face. Their appearance was chaos personified.
I gritted my teeth as I looked around for a place to hide. Then, in the opposite direction of the incoming mob, I saw a small spark appear. It wasn’t a spark of fire but rather of Space energy.
“Ember, let’s go!”
I pulled on her arms as we ran towards what I saw. In just a few dozen steps, we found it. It was a room covered by a door made of stone on the face of the cave’s wall. It looked heavy enough to be immovable, but I could see space energy from all over the place flowing in through the door.
“There should be a space behind this. Ember, can you get us in?”
Without wasting a moment, Ember tried. I could see that the amount of energy inside her was getting low. She must’ve used most of her energy to find me in this cursed place.
With some difficulty, Ember managed to insert a thin wedge between the doors. Then, using [Polymorph], she made it wider, pushing the doors open.
“Quick, master! It wouldn’t hold for long!” ｂｏ𝚟𝚕.
Ember shouted as she trembled. I quickly dashed forward and entered the room, with her following right after. As soon as we entered, Ember let go of the wedge, and it got smashed between the two doors.
I heaved a sigh of relief. With how heavy the door was, it should be impossible for those outside to chase us up here.
I looked around the place, curious about what was inside.
“… Books?”
Every side of the room was filled with books. The size of the room wasn’t too big—only about a dozen meters on each side and 3 meters high—but each wall was filled with books up to the ceiling.
“There should be thousands of books here.”
I picked one from a random shelf and blew away the layer of dust covering it. When I read the title, I was shocked.
“These are all books from Fatima’s era!”
The book I picked up was about the methods of manufacturing a railgun. Opening to a random page, there’s even a detailed blueprint included. I picked another one and found that it was made around the same time that Fatima originated, roughly tens of thousands of years ago.
I checked the spines of the books and noticed that there were even some that were from a more distant past. These are all books that shouldn’t exist anymore.
“Ember, empty your storage ring and place as many books as you can inside!”
I commanded as I started taking out some articles from the storage ring. These books are priceless sources of information; we can’t let go of them. However, Ember quickly stopped me.
“There’s no need, Master. While I was chasing after you, I was repeatedly using the space element. Thanks to that, I could now use subspace storage.”
“Y-You’ve already mastered subspace storage?!”
I gasped in shock.