Chapter 119 - The Restricted Section

'What to do…'

Leon paused for a while to contemplate. Although he already had a hunch that the information about the curses were in the restricted section, he still felt disappointed. 

There was no time for him to delay, he had to try going past the restriction before someone noticed him. 

He immediately walked towards the east wing. According to Mort and Julian, the restricted section was located at the end of the east wing. 

There was a secret passage leading to the restricted section and one has to have an authorization to access this area. The trigger for the mechanism would be pushing three books on the bookshelf 2HF. 

First book to the left on the third row.

Tenth book on the first row.

The centermost book in the fifth row.

But according to Mort, once someone opened the mechanism, the temple's High Priest would be notified immediately. With this, he could not enter the restricted section conventionally even if he knew the way to go to that section.

Without a trace of panic, he snapped his fingers and created an isolation barrier around his body. He blinked a few times and a three layer magic array appeared on his eyes.

'Bypass!'

Leon had once again used an S Level Ocular spell, bypass. The same spell he used to decipher Eli's S level disguise. 

Standing calmly in front of the bookshelf, the array on his eyes immediately saw through the protection spells. It revealed its flaws, as well as the passageway that was concealed in front of him. 

'The security of the restricted section is indeed well thought of.' Leon praised the person who did the mechanisms leading to the restricted section. 

It was placed at the end of the east wing, a place not too conspicuous to the library goers, yet seemingly too accessible for the thieves since the end of the east wing had another entry and exit way.

However, what kind of thief would think that the secret vault would be located near the exit? Most likely, they would try to search into the most secluded corners of the library. 

Before they realize that the secret passageway was located in the east entrance, they would have been long detected by the temple authorities.

The passageway was also full of spell traps and detection arrays.

Each of them, if activated, would send a distress signal to the temple authorities and would immediately entrap the intruder. 

The scariest part of Leon's discovery was the restricted section was actually directly underground the High Priest's quarters. The long winded passageway would unwittingly lead the intruder directly to the boss of the house!

Leon couldn't help but nod in approval to whoever designed this plan. But…

He was an S class mage and an open paths possessor at that. 

Ordinary thieves may easily fall into these mechanisms but not him, who saw through these things as clear as noonday. 

"Biggie.." He uttered silently. 

Soon a tiny little golem made of hard lumps of mud appeared on Leon's shoulders. He was sitting adorably like a stuffed toy. 

Its overall size was so tiny, he could make a bed out of Leon's palm. Its limbs are short and plump, his belly and head round. 

There were two deep holes on his face, seemingly its eyes and its hair was actually the little drop of moss resting on top of his head.

"Biggie, I need your ability to get past these walls." Leon scooped Golem from his shoulders and placed it on the palm of his hands. 

Upon hearing Leon's voice, the two hollow holes emitted a yellow light and looked towards Leon. It tilted its head sideways and blinked innocently a few more times before nodding its head, telling Leon that he understood. 

It carefully stood up like a toddler trying to do this first attempt to stand and raised his plump mud hands up. A tiny line appeared in his face and formed a mouth shape.

"Weeee!" Biggie exclaimed adorably while Leon could see that he was slowly melting into his palms. 

But instead of the liquified mud flowing out of his palms, it was slowly entering into Leon's body. 

"Fuse.." Leon uttered the moment Biggie completely disappeared in his palms.

He reached his hand on the wall just beside the bookshelf calmly. Soon his hand went past the wall without any fluctuation happening. It went past as smooth as someone dipping his body in a tub full of water.

After his hand, he advanced forward making his whole body pass through the wall completely.

What he was doing right now was an ability that could only be attained by summoners on the S level - Fusion. 

It grants the master the ability to 'fuse' and use the abilities of their contracted beings.

Biggie, is a fairy with strong affinity in earth magic. With his abilities, he can integrate himself on any type of stone, metal or earth material and swim like one could swim in water. 

It was the ability Leon exactly needed for the situation. Why would he need to physically activate the mechanisms if he himself could be part of its structure?

As for the detection and spell arrays it wouldn't matter.  The greatest weakness of the spell traps and detection arrays was that it didn't consider the possibility of an S level mage intruding the structure. 

Leon moved steadily within the walls not bothering to pause just in case he touched a trap. The Bypass spell was still active in his eyes so he could perfectly see where the traps and detection spells were. 

After a few minutes of swimming through the walls he found himself in a dimly lit library. It was a small secluded room, which only contained four wooden bookshelves. 

The bookshelves contained a wide collection of writings. From books to memoirs, and even research files. 

"This is it." Leon's eyes flashed with interest as he confirmed that this was indeed the place where he needed to go. 

He quickly examined the topics covered in the bookshelves. Most of them were records of the oracle, the origin of the scriptures and many books related to the temple's foundations. 

He found out that it was only around three books that covered the curses and they were not even a proper book. 

They were journals of the late priests who encountered curses throughout their years of serving in the temple. 

After ensuring that there were no surprises that could activate when Leon touched the book, he reached out and opened one. 

"On the 12th day of my eighth year of service, there was an old couple desperately running in the temple hall bringing their son for help. The poor child was no longer breathing; he was only about seven years old. 

The parents already knew that their son could no longer be saved, yet they insist that someone hurt their son by the use of foreign words. It was a wandering nomad, skinny figure and looking sinister.

As soon as she pointed her bony fingers towards the little child, he fell to the ground convulsing intensely. Dark purple veins appeared in his body and blood immediately came out of his tiny mouth.

I have recorded here the words uttered by the mysterious nomad as remembered by the couple..."

"The 25th day of my twentieth year of service was a rainy season. Even so, the palace had requested my help in investigating the mysterious annihilation of a remote village. 

Upon going to the place, I felt the sinister atmosphere as soon as I stepped into its gates. Me and my clergymen continued to investigate around the area and observed that the corpses all had the same appearance when they died - dark purple veins and blood on their mouths and other orifices.

I continued to investigate further. Somehow, the more I move forward to the center of the village, the more unsettling I feel in my heart. 

True enough, when I reached the open grounds I stumbled into a large array. This was the first time I had stumbled with the array's structure, and I can say there was no way that the array was conventional. 

After confirming the array was dead, I stepped into it and found out that at the centre of the array were footprints, seemingly that of a human. He or she stood at the array for quite some time as the mud still left heavy prints at the center of the array. 

But what was more baffling was that the being disappeared exactly at the center of the array.

With no other clue, I could only copy the appearance of the array and the inscriptions written in it for the future successors to find..."

"I, the 38th priest of the Solany village, record these memoirs to you. For years, the temple had tried their best to figure out the source and the mysteries behind it. 

It was my blessing to have been used by the Creator to know some of these things.

To my fellow priest be warned. 

The wielders of the curse were evil people, worshiping a being called Birsha. He granted power that surpasses the abilities granted by mana, which was the Creator's gift for all of the dwellers of Prasinos. 

It is a power beyond compare, however, to use his power, one must commit - to find a vessel for him to continue to live in this world.

My fellow servants of the Great Creator, be warned. I say this in my last breath as I am already afflicted with their sinister curse.. Beware of the being called Birsha and his followers."