Duty Session 426: Tome Raider

    The fourth floor of Aincrad has become a familiar sight to many adventurers by this point. Far from entirely safe, it is still considered something of a frontier. If rather less dangerous, at the moment, then the edges of territory occupied by the Palace Lander invaders. And there are still many quests left to be completed before any further attempts to push upward in the tower are made.

    It's one of these that has gathered a small crowd of adventurers today. When Miyako heard about the Library Tower, she just grinned and looked at Kotono. "Okay, we -have- to check that out. Especially after we had to leave so many of my books in Shibuya. You in?"

    Not too much later at all, the group stands in the foothills of the mountains, looking up at the moss-covered tower. The Spriggan shades her eyes as she looks up at it, smiling lightly. "How much do you wanna bet it's all Project Gutenberg and Lorem Ipsum, hmm?"

"You never can have too many books," Kotono replied with a similar smirk. She paused as she tried to think of a witty phrase, but frowned as she couldn't come up with one. Shrugging, she sheathed her blades and said, "All right, Miyako, let's get going!"

When they arrive in the foothills and get into position, Kotono looks up as well and sneers at the sight of the moss. "Ew, that's not good," She says before looking to Miyako and grinning. "We won't know until we get in there!"

There be CONTENT out there somewhere! Hearing that some group out there wants to run through a dungeon is usually enough to draw Nariko away from her training and out to ... whever. This time? Into the tower! Content she has forever missed. Sadness. Still, this one was pretty new so, the dire-tiger is happy to help out. "Hrrrrm. Looks like a tall one. I wonder if it is bigger on the inside though.."

Yeowang has arrived in the Tower, where she doesn't go very often, to help some Guildies on a quest, and also to see what sort of loot there might be in this place. You never know what you're going to get. It's a bit like snow in that regard. "We shall see what we see," she agrees. She's got no idea what to expect, apart from things trying to kill us. That seems to be the one constant in this strange world.

Miho didn't go to the tower much, however this dungeon run did get her attention. so here she was tail swishing a quiver of arrows on her back, a katana on her hip. She was also bouncy today, very bouncey. Her tail did a lot to give away her excitement after all.

"There could be tomes on armor and weapon forging that have been lost to the world at large in here!"

    June smiles, the frumpy middle aged woman in her best barbarian princess getup. "You couldn't keep me away from a library tower with a stick and a dragon." she says "I mean seriously I would bite Smaug's balls off for this." she says (in Khuzdul) "Ooh for those who don't know me I'm June. I'm a Sleeping Knight... hey you're cute you know that?" she blinks without specifying who's cute because she's started muttering to herself (in Quenya) "Junie no one cares really, who needs to know you're a Sleeping Knight, and you know Wake will scold you if you make other people super uncomforetable... no one here is an intern you can't just get them drunk." she blinks and then looks up alomst as if just recalling she can both be heard AND understood. The woman knuckles at her own temple "Stupid Junie stupid stupid you know people can understand now... it's been a year Junie when are you going to remeber Junie..." she says knuckling her temple again.

Haru has been around these here parts before, pardner. It is a reassuring fact for the Artificer to see familiar scenery on the Fourth Floor. "We had better book it before it gets to late," he starts in already with the library puns, "don't want our arrival to be overdue." There is a candid pep to his step. Places like this can be a place of adventure in every book. Even more so if they attack you with gnashing teeth. Book mimics!

The tall white haired human rolls his Wave Arte focus from one hand to the next and back again. An arm stretches upwards. Gotta get those noodle arms limber. Never know when a boulder will need to be pushed up a hill.

    After a frenzied rush of construction within the tower itself, Fukaziroh's current project is effectively complete. Well, Scale's project. Fuka just helped. A lot. She has a bit of a soft spot for helping those who are looking after noncombatants and Landers.

    Of course with that completed, she's looking for something more fun and personally-beneficial. An adventure which might result in lore and loot is just up her alley, or perhaps up her tower! Also she gets to fight surrounded by friends, and that makes it doubly fun!

    "I'm hoping for some sort of tome on enchanting." Fuka confesses. She grins as the puns begin to fly. "Time to turn a page on this excursion and bo... oh right." she pauses, glancing aside as Haru steals a pun from her. "I'm surprised you didn't comment on it being larger on the inside, H!" she says, nudging him with an elbow.

    Miyako chuckles lightly and nods to Kotono. "Well then," she says, "Let's go and get in there." She starts up the trail towards it, listening with one ear to the party's banter as the other pays attention to their surroundings. "Well," she answers Nariko, "I wouldn't be surprised either. I've seen stranger things in this world." Including... well, some of those are best kept secret. "I hope we can all find something useful up there," she adds in response to Miho and Fuka, then listens quietly as June rambles on, politely ignoring the woman scolding herself. "I really doubt there's anyone around to collect overdue fines," she assures Haru. "But you never know. Hope you have some coin handy."

    Soon enough, the party closes in on the grounds of the tower, reaching what used to be a decorative garden. Now, however, it is overgrown with a dense barrier of rose-like bushes and vines, which look to be quite difficult to pass.

    And it's going to be more difficult than that, since the bushes are here for more than just looking pretty! In fact, they want to EAT you! Bush after bush erupts in thorny vines and maw-like blooms, hissing and snarling as they snap at the adventurers, eager to fertilize their soil with blood!

Miho looks over June for a moment. "Excited about the tower I take it? Hopefully we'll get something good for at least some of the party here. Speaking of your a scribe right? I might want to put to pen tome on the art of the smith at some point. Would you be interested once i get around to it?" She will turn to Haru and grins

"I'll need another shipment your stuff's sold out more or less. I'll pass you the money when the run's done."

She narroes her eyes as thgey get closer she takes a look at the plants and frowns.

"No I'm not going to do a little petshop! BURN!"

She takes a very deep breath and then exchales a gout of fire at the plants.

    "Yeah there's .. lots of things. More things inside this tower... and we're about to be in a tower in this tower. ..." ... "I wouldn't think about that too hard." ANYWAY. As the topiaries and roses come thrashing out against them, Nariko takes a stance before her bracers get to glowing bright red. FIRE. No touch. Though when she starts making sweeping strikes with them, hopefully they'll catch the flowers on fire.

Yeowang is not going to be held back by a bush or shrub, and when the wrap around her, she firms her resolve, doubles the vine around her fist, and yanks /hard/, jerking the plant out by the root. A couple other tendrils come up and try her, but she works out, and is way too tough to be slowed much by the vines. She yanks them from the ground as they wrap around her, proceeding forward and leaving a path of uprooted shrubbery. Any vines that keep writhing when she's yanked them out get stomped on besides, and that seems to solve that. It leaves her hands a bit scratched up, but she shrugs off the trivial HP damage as inconsequential.

Just what truly is inside the tower? That's anyone's guess. Hopefully there won't be too much moss to deal with as it squicks Kotono out. Just going to have to go forwards and see what lies in wait.

Sentient plants. That's what.

And they aren't friendly either!

"Looks like we need to do a little gardening here!" Kotono says as she takes her blades into her hands and tosses them up briefly like a drummer playing with their drumsticks. "Slice and dice!"

Kotono moves fast, slashing at the weeds that intend to impede her party's progress.

June smiles "I'm down with meeting a Librarian... I can take her out for drinks and learn her secrets... maybe get access to the stacks... or you know her skirt whatever." she says in Khuzdul "Well lots of plants... guess I should have brought my hedge trimmers." she shrugs the woman stomping a sharp stone 'blade' out of the ground, then breaking it off and hurling it into the vines, again and again she sends blades of stone to cut foliage.

To Miho's comment about his accessories being nearly sold out, Haru says, "Thats great news! I'm hoping the customers are getting good use of them. Delivering happiness." There is a big smile. "Ill start working on another batch soon." The good company always makes a good adventure greater. Haru asides to Fuka and notes, "If you ever wanted to study enchanting, I'm always available." Its true, his main class is Enchanter. "But you are already pretty enchanting to begin with." Fingerguns. Cha-chk. Though he should be careful around that relic of hers. Could really end up mesmerized by it. Meanwhile Haru's relic makes it hard to tell if he just winked at her or blinked. Only one eye not behind a monocle. His body shifted in exaggeration to the nudge, but he is nimble like a weeble wooble and bounces right back.

"I was planning on it, but alas my delivery was TARD-y," Haru asides to Fuka, reaching in through the rose bushes to go pluck a rose. Correction. Getting his hand shredded while going to grab a rose. He takes out out and eyebrow waggles, "and a Doctor should never keep a lady waiting." Of course there are more red lines on his hand then there are red petals on the rose. He is in a bit of a mood. The work he has been doing both on physical aptitude and also a fire summon has been going swimmingly well. One might say he is on fire.

    It would be easy to handle the plants with a little fire, or perhaps some earth magic. But of course if Fuka used earth magic she'd hear no end of it from Haru, so she begins to chant the runic language, invoking fire.

    Then she notices Haru groping a thorny bush, and she sighs. The sigh interrupts her chant, stifling the concentration of mana she'd been building up. Instead she readies her axe and starts going to work on the plants that are trying to eat him.

    "You are SUCH a sap!" she grins at Haru, demonstrating the plant guts on the edge of her blade. And the haft. And on her forearm guards. Yes, she's being enthusiastic. "But you need to focus! Really if you're going to rush in and grab monsters like that, you should probably train up your weapons and ... like, raise your strength stat or something. If you ever need a little one-on-one training, I'm up for it~" she teases, smirking.

    Indeed, sentient plants. Sentient /hungry/ plants. Fortunately, plant fiber burns, as Miho quickly demonstrates. Green, still-living plant fiber doesn't burn all that -well-, however. It does give a nice opening for the more physically-violent members of the party to put their blades to work, as Nariko adds to the flames and Kotono chops vines into salad.

    Things seem to be going well so far, with Yeowang ripping bushes up by the roots, and June's stone blades severing plants nearly as deep. The only one to take any significant injury is Haru, whose noodly arms end up in rose-petaled vise-grips more than once on the way through the barrier. Miyako sends a wave of earth rising up through the undergrowth to pull the bushes away from him, clearing a path. "Fuka's right, you know," she tells him. "But you two can flirt on your own time." She waggles her eyebrows, showing she's clearly teasing. It's not as if she isn't the one who's openly flirted with outright enemies before, after all. "C'mon, we're at the entrance at last."

    Indeed, the party has reached the Gate to the Tower. The doors yield swiftly to adventurer muscle, granting entry to a short hallway, ending in another door. Beside the door, a statue waits, an air of expectation about it. The stone tanuki carries a traditional dual-bulbous sake jug in one hand, and an empty basket in the other, which sways slightly when Miyako walks up and taps it. "Huh. I think it wants to be fed," she muses, rubbing her chin as she considers it. "I did mention keeping some coin on hand for overdue fines, didn't I, Ko-chan?"

The plant monsters do not stand a chance with an axe at the ready. "SAP," Haru begins as he goes full academic mode. The young man is tall, with white hair, and a monocle. Instead of armor he has a blue jacket on and slacks. He sells the smart look well. "S.A.P: Seriously Awesome Person. Thank you, Fuka, your confidence rubs off on me." His hands are still one of his most important tools, so he doesn't take long to pull out a potion from his inventory and apply healing liquid onto his hands as if they were hand sanitizer until the red lines go away.

To Miyako, "I have at /least/ one more in me," he eyebrow waggles back to her. Its code. Waggle Waggle. Stop. Long waggle. Waggle waggle. He starts looking through the libraries for clues on how to move onward. Even though he is being silly, he is actively helping out. "Hey Fuka," he starts. Anything starting like that requires a deep breath because its dad joke level of shenanigans incoming. "The library look suits you. I know I'd check you out and take you home." Finger guns mk 2.0. Now with more ch-chk. Probably the sort of thing that would distract the Sylph.

"Don't remind me," Kotono comments to Miyako about the late book fines. "Those librarians will give you a stern lecture if you're not punctual about returning your books on time. You're better off using the coin to keep them from lecturing you!"

Then Kotono turns her attention to the scriptures at hand. She tries to peruse them in hopes of making out something. Unfortunately, she doesn't quite make anything out at all, and she ends up shrugging her shoulders. "I tried..."

    "Of course we can flirt on our own time!" Fuka agrees cheerfully. That doesn't mean they can't flirt on duty too, right? Oh, it does? Well, Fuka doesn't much care for those sorts of rules anyways. "I could flirt with you too if you're feeling left out?" she adds, grinning playfully at Miyako.

    She blinks at Haru's words though, perhaps surprised. "Hopefully you wouldn't just abandon me on a shelf somewhere, like some display showing off your collection!" she says in mock affront. "Besides the last time you checked me out, you got bitten by a fish!"

    Shaking her head, Fuka turns to the tanuki puzzle. "Someone mentioned drinking, right?" Fuka notes, gesturing at the gourd jug. Then she shrugs, and tries to take it. Seems like a good idea at the time!

    June looks at the Tanuki, looks at the basket. Looks up again. "It's a library... I mean really...you're charging access..." she sighs "Must be a private library... you know how hard it is to get in and see books in a museum? I mean the ammount of ass you have to kiss, the managment staff you have to seduce?" she grumbles to herself in Japanese. "This is so much more straight forward." she says and pulls out several engraved plates, each with a neatly written word on it. She drops them into the basket one at a time until she gets some kind of approval... not like unique scripture magic will be turned down by a library enchantment.

Yeowang, having torn through the briars and brambles and grabby plants, finds herself at the entrance, and it turns out to be a pay portal. So typical. But after an examination, she decides it just wants ingame currency. It just wants what her little brother always referred to as bongo bucks. The ingame currency. Well, she has a fair amount of that, she keeps it handy for exactly these sorts of things. She will dole it out carefully until the basket mechanism appears satisfied with the coins she's dropped in it. Exact change only, it seems.

Miho says "I hope so. I like seeing my own things used for what I intended them for and I suspect you are much the same way right?"

She doesn't seem bitter at all about Haru's choosing not to teach her. She still seem pretty friendly about it too. She'll be focuysing on the next problem they have to deal with in this dungeon. This goes badly for Miho she does like books, she likes books a lot.However she's not skilled at finding what she wants without a computer. It just ends badly with a frustated lizard lady.

    No.. challenge here, it seems. The Tanuki statue that is getting all the attention is given a bit of a glare. "Eh? This is all? Meh.." Nariko grumbles before dropping some coins into the basket it is holding out. "There, is that enough?"

    Miyako shrugs and nods to Kotono. "It's worse when they just give you that disappointed look. Like they're so -hurt- that you've been so -mean- to the other whole zero people who want to read the book in question." She shakes her head and leans in to examine the carvings on the statue, trying to puzzle them out.

    "Well," the Spriggan muses, "At least we're not likely to encounter more of those fish here, so you'll have to figure out something else to distract you from Fuka-chan's ... assets." She chuckles and bends back to the statue again, stepping aside to let Haru have some room. And then goes flat to avoid getting her head bashed by the sake jug as Fuka tries to yank it loose, managing little more than to give the statue's arm a good swing and send it spinning in a circle! "Watch where you're splatting, gaki!"

    Finally she gives up, stepping back with the others who've done so, while Nariko, Yeowang, and June fill the basket with donations. "It looks like it," Miyako agrees as the door swings open.

    Inside, a faded and tattered parchment hanging on the wall near the doorway is quickly determined by the scripturally-inclined to be a directory of the library, with a staircase near the back affording access to upper levels and the books deemed not suitable for open, public access.

    It's just too bad that -someone- has turned the ground floor into a maze. "Well, -someone- was right about the whole dimensionally-transcendental bit," the Spriggan says, as the group surveys what's visible of the maze. "That looks like at least a mile of shelving from here. ... D'you suppose we found an L-space passage? Maybe to Mahora Academy and Library Island?" The reference to an obscure manga series might go over the heads of others, or not. "Heck, with as many things as the game devs ripped off, it might well be."

Yeowang is not particularly trained in labyrinths, but she's fairly quick, and the faster she can cover the paths and find the bad ones to rule them out, the more quickly she can find the good paths. She works out efficient routes and organized searching methods, and has worked her way to the end of the maze in jig time. "Ah, this is the way," she calls, and hopefully the others can find their way through also.

    "I wouldn't be surprised if the legend of the Fish-Handed One is somewhere in this library." Fuka notes, casting a sidelong glance at Haru. "But I think you mean axettes, Yako." Fuka claims, smirking. "I don't *have* assets. Unless I'm walking ahead of him anyways!" she says playfully. Which, considering her hips are well concealed with layers of cloth and armor, pretty much has to be a lie. Or at least a fact impossible to verify. If she's got assets, they're well-hidden.

    Looking around, she decides there has to be a better way than just trudging through the book stacks. "We should split up!" she cries out, then dashes off, using sylph speed and messenger mobility to cover a lot of ground, seeking out the best way to head towards the stairs at the back of the ground floor accessway.

    The door opens, the group moves along, and the chamber within causes Nariko to stare. "It -is- bigger on the inside! HA!" As a result, Nariko darts ahead, not even realizing the giant maze is all around her. She seems to just be navigating on instinct... and it's working! "C'mon, there has to be some useful stuff in here too!" Looooot! Where aaaaare you? She may end up finding the next door as she darts about the maze.

    June looks around "Ooh... hey.... L-space." she shifts, the small frumpy woman becoming a small iron clad minotar woman. "OOK!" she calls loudly "OOK! Any of you a bard who knows music with rocks in?" she asks but then she's leaping up to pull up to the edge of a shelf and peek along the tops looking for path ways. She keeps it up with the occasional "OOK!" being announced and pointing to ways she spots trying to help navigate around the blockages and shelves to find a way to where the directory says the Stacks are.

Kotono says nothing for the time being, feeling a bit embarrassed about how she fared just then. She taps her head a couple of times as if attempting to get herself focused again. She attempts to search for something useful here, hoping that this time she can be a bit more helpful.

Unfortunately, she comes up empty handed... again.

The white haired Artificer asides to Miho on the greatness of crafting with a finger snap and motion of his hand towards her. "Exactly so. Most of my work is custom tailored to a person or a situation. But even small things can be very helpful. They may remind them of something precious or bring out someone's eyes by using the red of a fire crystal as earrings." Although he didn't get to work with Miho on teaching the great wonders of enchantment, the experience did make him reconsider a bit on arms and armor in enchanting. Especially with scales. Such as fish scales. "That fish had it coming," Haru shakes his fish, recalling the great noodle fishing incident of the Storm season. His attention is drawn to June's comment about seducing library staff, though. Brilliant! That could be the true secret of the library. The forbidden section! Eyebrow waggles to Miyako and the lack of fishy distractions, "Whale, I'll dolphinately focus on something so long as it doesnt get us krilled." He makes no comments on the assets, but he has yet to complain about walking behind Fuka.

Moving on! This is a maze. "This is a-mazing," Haru says as he throws his hands up. Mazes are great. You get lost. You dont get lost and feel smart about not getting lost. You laugh. You cry. You get a crystal night light. You start a rave maze. The Artificer does something with actual artifice as small crystaline motes begin to hover around him like earthen will'o'wisps. They form faint silvery lines between them and in the center are thin, glass like, panes that make it look like stained glass arund him. It helps dispel the illusions of the maze and help him swiftly navigate through traps of falling books. He gives the 'ay!' pointing to Nariko as they do the thing, "It /is/ bigger on the inside."

Miho ponders the talk of fish for a moment "Should I ask? About the fish?" She looks at Miyako but is going to leave that whole thing rest as there's a new problem to deal with she's got to keep looking though the maze and things are just going worse and worse for Miho. She's got hersel lost pretty well here and one might hear her sounds of frustation echoing in the maze till she finally finds the party again. She's had some time to think about Haur's eariler words.

"Yeah, you sound a bit like my uncle with that and I like it." Well she's calmed down at least.

    Miyako makes her own way through the library, each of the group doing their best to contribute to finding the proper -- or at least, /a/ proper path. Yeowang and Fuka scout ahead, eliminating dead ends and helping the group avoid threats. "If you find it, grab a copy," the Spriggan calls to Fuka, chuckling.

    "I know quite a bit of music with rocks in," June is assured. "I could play something if you like? Maybe... hmm, Panzer Battalion? Or do you prefer Ghost Division?" Songs about tanks seem rather appropriate for an ironclad minotauress. Like Nariko, Miyako seems to be on the lookout for 'loot', pulling books off of shelves and stacks to see if they're anything interesting. "Well, if you find any books of puns, hand them off to me," she asks Haru. 'So I can burn them', she doesn't add ... out loud. "The fish was ... well, it was a thing." She'll let the victims describe their embarassment.

    Alongside Kotono, Miyako walks along behind the rest, keeping an eye out for trouble, sliding occasional books into her inventory, contributing little to the search for the exit but enjoying the "a-mazing" hike.

    And just as the party reaches the staircase, a swarm of bees descends it, buzzing out something that worms its way into the ear and fills the mind to the point that it's hard to focus on actually /fighting/ the oversized insects. Remembering a technique she just learned that bears a startling resemblance to the current problem, the Spriggan cries out in anger:

            "UUUUUTTTTAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!"

"Doooo I?" Haru asides to Miho on the uncle comment. He gives a fierce eyebrow waggling. "Clearly because I am a sophisticated human amongst a library," the Artificer says, taking a random book and pretending to read it as the maze makes its exit. It is a book of puns: 101 Punny Jokes by Groanaholic Publishing House. He begins to hand the book over to Miyako when... Bees!

"I can't be-lieve this!" Haru says as he bats a bee with a book on better puns. The tome is held up against the swarm. "It is not be-coming of you to drone on like this," he continues on, book bashing bees between bellows. A stinger goes through one as he gasps. "No! Fine literature lost forever!" the white haired man says. His cautionary tale about fighting the fish will have to wait. If you are going to fight something, aim for the head or the heart. Haru just happened to do both with his fists to a fish.

Yeowang doesn't really have a martial art to use on bees, unfortunately, and swatting them doesn't make them go away. So, she's stuck using the ingame magic system, which confuses her badly and she doesn't use well. So, you go like this to summon a gust of air, and she goes like that, and a gust of air pushes away a cloud of bees. Rinse, repeat, that seems to be enough, keeping them away while the others do more positive things with them. Or else smack them, which she can do just fine.

Thinking quickly, Kotono summons her spellrunes, attempting to use an air spell.

Fortunately, she's got the right idea and her effort pays off.

The girl conjures up a windstorm, which, when combined with Yeowang's magic, helps clear out those bees. "Works better than pesticide!"

    When the group identifies the proper way to the stairs, Fuka returns to the group. "I didn't find a book. But I can grab the legendary fish-handed one!" she claims, making a grab for Haru's noodly appendage. Well, one of them. One of them that is socially acceptable. And yes, she grins triumphantly.

    But the handholding is cut short, sadly, by bees, forcing Fuka to let go of the noodly one. "Buzz off!" Fuka insists. Then, as Miyako bellows, Fukaziroh gets a wonderful (and by wonderful I mean terrible) idea.

    Pitching her voice to the same droning tone of the spelling bees, she counters with her own trained and fierce voice. "UUUUTAAAAAAAA~" "UUUUUUUUTAAAAA~" "UTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~" Each time matching the bees' changing pitch, challenging their musical drone with her far more annoying yet poignant voice! She may not be available to swat bees or work her significant air powers, but her voice is able to help keep this battle more along the mundane lines, without allowing the bees to invade the minds of the group. Besides, you know, with stingers.

    Bees. BEES! "NO. Nononono! NO BEES!" Seems Nariko has a rather significant issue with the insects as they flood the stairway up the tower. She doesn't even notice the droning, or the words, or anything like that. Instead, the dire-tiger sends her arms back and then throws her arms forward in a massive clap, causing a blast of air to rush against, and through, the swarm. "NO. BEES!"

    June may have a few more books now than she did before starting the maze through L-space, she pulls out several Ofuda, her brush coming out to write out several things in a lovely caligraphy then she slaps them on the walls where they burst into a blue-green flame for a moment and then become loci for air effects that make flying difficult causing bees to crash into each other and the walls.

There are times this woreld is gamey in the strangest of ways. This is one of those times sdhe looks at the spelling bees or a moment.

"Why in the name of the gods!"

She's quick to ready her Katana. She will take a moment and then focus.

"ANCHOR HOWL!"

The Wind picks up about hewr as she takes the attention of the Bees, hopefully for a little bit.

"What does Uta have to do with this?!"

            "UUUUUTTTTAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!"

    Miyako's shout echoes in the open space, and you can almost hear a prim old librarian telling her to keep quiet!

    Haru's book-bashing helps to clear a path through the swarm for him, while Yeowang turns to magic, joining with Kotono to blow the swarm away with a blast of air. Miyako shakes her head, sighing softly at Fuka's continued flirting, and her attempts at operatics. Ah well. There will be better times, and it clears her own head enough ... for her to go after Nariko, hoping to calm her down.

        "I went to his room, in the middle of the night
        I tiptoed in, and I turned on the light
        But to my surprise there was no-one in sight!
        My uncle Walter goes Waltzing at Night!"

    She ducks out of the way of a flying ofuda, and just shrugs helplessly as an Anchor Howl pulls a handful of the insects off. She pauses in her song to explain to Miho, "Long story, tell you later."

        "Wa-wa, wa wa-wa wa waaaaltzing with bears!
        Raggy bears, baggy bears, shaggy bears too!
        There's nothing on Earth Uncle Walter won't do
        So he can go waltzing, wa-wa-wa-waltzing,
        So he can go waltzing, waltzing with bears!"

    Eventually the path is properly clear for the party to ascend the stairs, crossing the second floor and collecting books as they go. As they near the exit, though, the books themselves seem to rebel against the borrowers! Books go whizzing through the air, one after another, then more and more of them! "Grab those books!" the Spriggan shouts, reaching out to yank one from the air. "Don't let them get away!"

Yeowang climbs the stairs once the bees are dealt with, looking around warily as there seem to be dangers on every side in this strange place. Her vigilance pays off as she's alert and ready as the books come at us. Sadly, she's got nothing that works on books. A karate chop just changes the flight path, and it swings around for another go. Fire sounds like a good trick, but that's the game's magic system again, and her sporadic luck with that has been spent, her ability to conjure fire limited to candle-lighting intensity, and nowhere near enough to affect a flying book.

    Ok.. .. Ok. No more bees. This is good. This is literally the best thing. now. "Moving on.." Nariko muses, only to find that the library itself is attacking her, and everyone. A few attempts are made to swipe at a book with her bracers glowing orange again but she can't seem to land a hit. "Hold still!"

    June catches a book, her amulet splitting into several rings and starting to spin. She nods her head at something and shelves the book according to some esotiric organization method that causes it to go dormant. Then she's helping with others. Dewy Decimel eat your heart out, this is June's Juryrigged Juju method.

More spellrunes come out, this time an attempt at dark magic...

Unfortunately, all Kotono gets is a small fizzle of blackness. She shakes her head in disbelief before going with her blades. "Gonna have to try harder next time."

    Fuka's a bit surprised Miyako calling out Uta's name wasn't actually a sonic defense, but she's more than willing to keep up the act. She finds it hilarious to use her friend's name as a battlecry, and the thought keeps her warm throughout the next floor of the library.

    This turns out to be a good thing, as the books themselves begin attacking. "Hey H, you sure you want to check out anything from here?" she asks in a quick shout. "It might ATTACK YOU!" she claims. Suggestively. Then, without waiting for a reply, she begins a fire chant, sketching out lines on the ground to serve as barriers.

    Flame erupts, and the walls of flame provide some protection from flying books. Not perfect protection because, of course, the books FLY. But fluttering pages going over a hot flaming wall isn't exactly safe for papery substance either, so it's probably better than it might be against, say, those bees.

    "Normally I like books and would never burn one!" Fuka calls out to no one in particular as she scurries under cover of her flame wall. "Books are nice! These books seem naughty though. Then again I like naughty books too, so hopefully they will just stop and not get themselves burned!" she says.

The great fisherman man of Noodle Arms McHaru gets raised briefly by Fuka in offering. The appropriate one that isn't holding his Wave Arte orb. Yes. "Bees," he remarks after it is all over, "always getting in the way of a perfectly good moment."

"What doesn't Uta have to do with this?" the man observes. A great philosophical questions for the era. Yes

The next floor does not have bees. It does have flying books. "So this like book club," Haru notes as he flicks up a flame, "and this book is too hot for book club." It burns up. As another flies by, "that one has scathing reviews." Ashes. A deep inhale and exhale as the bibliobattle rages on. The Artificer is rather careful not to send the whole place up. Controlled burns!

"Only one thing," Haru winks to Fuka, which could also be a full on blink. He burns another book up to hot ashes. "Maybe they will stop when they get all this wild book binding out of their system." But none will be the same as the pun book. RIP pun book.

The good news the Bees are no longer a thing yet the Uta mystery will have wait till later. She will get her answer from Miyako, eventually. Well she hopes that she will. As they go she grabs books shoveing them into her inventory. Then comes the hostile books she gets an idea ratrher than attack the books? She'll draw her katana and project a burst of flame int heir path to hopefully make them pause long enoguht o be captured.

    "Grab those books! Don't let them get away!"

    How many books has Miyako tucked away in her inventory by this time? No way to tell. She'll count them when the party gets out. Too busy dodging flying books right now. And snatching at them to add them to her haul.

    Yeowang tries her hand at burning the books, and manages only to singe a few, ending up with a rather pleasant read and a rather tired arrival at the far staircase. She is joined in failing to burn books by Nariko, whilst June simply swipes the books from the air, sliding them back into the shelves in an order that makes sense only to her. (If anyone at all.)

    Shadow-magic draws a couple of interesting books Kotono's way, keeping her attention while others push onward, Fukaziroh managing to put up a flame wall that keeps the party from being injured by flying books smashing into heads. Miyako glares at her, but says nothing, deciding the party's survival is more important than the damage to the books as much as she dislikes it. Haru joins her in the 'glaring at book-burners' club, and earns a "Do you really feel that much of a need to be pun-ished?" from the Spriggan. At least Miho only scares them off, rather than destroying them.

    Finally, the group makes it to the staircase, and climbs to the third floor. Here, they find a number of tables spread across the open space, with books laid out in the process of repair... except that they seem to have been interrupted at some point, the workers never returning. The worst of it is the ink, splattered all over the tables and floors, like pools of freshly-spilled blood.

    Ink that's been here for years shouldn't still be that shiny, should it? That fluid? That... wait, what? Moving? Nononono. That's not right at all.

    In a wince-worthy moment, the ink-slime slurps up the writing right off the page of a book it oozes over... and then... then it notices YOU. Yes, you. The book-burners, book-stealers, book-READERS. The slime roars, showing its pen-nib teeth, and oozes its slimy, glistening inky body at you!

    June looks at the ooze of ink and scrapes one iron hoof on the ground before green fog puffs from her nostrils and then she opens her mouth and breaths out a cloud of the noxious gas... only the stupid thing seems to be mostly immune to the petrified condition leaving June on the back foot and resorting to melee.

    Peering at the gelatinous blobmonster, Fuka clutches at Haru's arm. "I thiiiiiink we just found out what Uta has to do with this." she notes, a quaver of what might almost be fear in her voice. Or possibly excitement. It might be hard to tell.

    "Cover me. I'm going to try to catch it for Uta!" the little Sylph requests, and this time it's clearly glee in her voice. She fires off a quick spell, one of her favourites since she began working on the quest for ice cream, one she can rattle off with almost no preparation or gathering of the required mana. The mana is, after all, almost entirely at her fingertips already.

    She blasts into the inkblob monster with a blast of super-chilled water mana, hoping to freeze it solid so it can be picked up. Not that that's going to work... but the magic can definitely add water to the gelatinous mass, thinning out the ink and therefore the words animating the monster.

Kotono is running out of patience with this whole thing, what with her magic fizzling out here and there. She just wants things to end.

Unfortunately that's not meant to be.

There's a huge glob of ink or something similar, and it does not look friendly! It has to be taken care of, and fast!

Kotono brings up her spell runes again and attempts to use some water to dilute it. Fortunately, she gets what she desires this time.

A blast of water flies at the ink being, hopefully working on diluting it!

    No more flying books. YAY! As the group makes their way onto the final floor, the sight that finds Nariko's gaze is kinda horrifying. A sort of giant ink-eating ink-blob of a monster that has -actual- teeth. "Well that's absolutley horrifying. But you know, I feel like I once heard that you can reduce ink to its base components with something really easy for us to get a hold of." Smirk. One arm is held up. That is indeed, a giant orb of FLAME forming above said hand. "Fiiiiiiire." It gets kinda... REALLY big before it gets sent flying for the monster. "It's ALCHEMY OR SOMETHING!" Not really, but that's what she's going with! Fwoosh and such.

"You got it," Haru says to give Fuka cover during the advance. This looks like a job for a summon. Haru notices the slime situation and begins chanting a Wave Arte to bring out Terra, his Earth sprite. "Terra. Vocare. Terebro. Numerus. Terebrare. Hostis." From the ashes of a dozen burned books and the stones of the library, the large creature of rocks is summoned. And Terra does, indeed, rock, as her arms are two large drills the whrrr in a sonic rhythm that is good for containment and distraction support. Still, slime ink going just everywhere in the process.

BGM from Terra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIr4C5Ztlcg

"Ink Slime," Haru observes, giving more conspiracy to the great Uta mystery. "Its all coming together," he nods. Myth. Busted. Uta, in the research lab, with the ink slime.

Yeowang makes it up the staircase, looking a bit frazzled, her hair coming undone from the bun she's tied it in with the exertion, but we seem to be at the apex of the situation. This will be where the scholarly types do their gamelore thing, and she can take .... no, it looks like she won't be taking five, here, there's some kind of ink monster to fight. Well, she only knows one way to fight monsters, she leaps towards it with a sideways sort of lean, and her legs whirling around, the back leg coming a full 180 before it impacts with a heaby smack, taking a good chunk of the monster's health bar, and staining her boots, and her pants from the knee down. Luckily thet were black before, so it doesn't show -too- badly. But it will be hell to clean, and she just knows menu cleaning will not cut it.

Miho looks over to Miyako. "Best I could do. I didn't want anyone getting a trip to a church." She will fall back in line as they go forward and they see a slime. Something breaks in her mind. Given what another slime monster did to her. "I... a ... IT NEEDS TO DIE NOW DIE DIE DIE!" She will start using water elemental sword arts in a bit of a frenzy here.

    Miyako will have to content herself with killing the text-devouring ink-slime, rather than her book-burning compatriots. She's not exactly unhappy with that.

    The blobby ink-thing comes at the party with a roar, seemingly completely unaffected by June's paralyzing gas. While Fuka's ultra-cold water isn't enough to freeze the slime, it does help to thin it out, slowing its movements. Kotono adds to that, and the thing slumps over the floor, spreading out in a flowing pool, almost playing dead... until the FIRE hits it. Evaporating enough of the water for it to gather itself together with a pained screech!

    He of the Noodly Appendages is up next, animated stone splashing ink everywhere, coating the table-legs, the walls, and even Yeowang's boots! The combination of this disruption and Yeowang's stomps keep spreading it out, splashing and spattering everywhere, aided and abetted by a frantic Miho.

    Miyako nods and says, "I forgive you," to the smith. She says nothing about forgetting, however. She just inscribes her own black-glowing spell-runes on the air in front of her, an attempt at binding the creature that is pretty much gilding the lily -- what's left of the slime is flopping back to the floor, spreading out into a translucent black coating that does nothing but make the floor look dirty. A scattering of pen-nibs lies where it had last roared, glittering brass.

    Miyako walks up to the pile, cautiously, and squats down to pick one up, turning it over in her hand. "Good work, I guess. Uta will be sad, though."

They finally made it through. Kotono looks a little worn out, but she seems mostly annoyed by her performance. "I could've done a lot better there," She mutters to herself as she puts her blades back in their sheaths.

Looking around, Kotono nods to Miyako after a few moments. "That is unfortunately so. But sometimes these things happen." She rolls her neck around tiredly. "For now, I think we should head back and unwind, what do you think?"

    Victory! Fanfare! LOOOOOOOT! Sure, it's just what is left of a pen but, hey, it counts as loot so Nariko is happy to accept, inspect, and then ponder how best to use said loot. THAT WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL LATER. or something. "Nicely done, everyone. Gee Gee and all that."

Yeowang sighs as she leaves inky footprints where she goes now, and will until she can scrape most of the ink and gunk from her boots. Still, it seems, we've gained some sort of reward. She looks it over, thinks about it, tucks it into inventory. Maybe she will find a use later.

    June takes the quill "Never know when a bit of cursed ink will come in handy for research."

    Well that didn't work quite as planned. "I... guess it was too big to freeze and capture." she says, a little despondent. She'd been looking forward to capturing an ink slime for Uta. But then, she's not a monster hunter. Capturing and transporting monsters isn't something she can do. "Probably for the best. Ah well, Uta will forgive me!"

Haru takes a moment with the slime. "Hush little slime, today is not the day we free you from your blotted bindings." One day, however. One day. "I tried alchemical disabling and this time sonic. Its a tricky monster to capture." This from a Summoner, who is acceptably decent when it comes to handling them.

It's a good thing her friends are here or Miho would be having a very day right now. She has avoided a horrible slime related fate. she looks to her friend and she says "Well that's ended well enough shall we go abck to town and get something to eat and drink?"

She'll also pause to open a trade window with Haru to give him his money.

"We all should," Haru agrees, "it was a very interesting climb through a library and lots of memories were made." Lots of puns were made, really. "Celebrated over drink, cheer, and," with that he opens his trade to get his cut. "Wow they really sold well. When I am out and about it takes a while to get this. It'll help pick up some gold or semiprecious raw gemstones now." The timing for that is good, too.

    Miyako nods, relaxing as the library is finally safe - for the moment. And she has a whole bunch of books to read! She flashes Kotono a grin. "I hear there's a hot springs bath-house somewhere on this floor. Want to check it out?"

    She looks out over the group and smiles once more. "Thank you all for coming, and great work, everyone. Couldn't have made it through without your help."

    Her eyes do focus in on /certain people/, however. (You know who you are!) "Book-burning is something I have a rather knee-jerk reaction to, however. Too many English Lit classes forcing me to re-read Fahrenheit 451, I think. So... keep an eye on your backsides. You never know when they might suddenly sprout tramp-stamps." She grins and waggles her eyebrows at them.

    She's teasing, right?

    Right?