When he reached the library, Manilyn remained silent but with a thoughtful expression.
He walked around the armchair and coffee table, which was crowded with books, and went to the last shelf, further down the room. Once he approached the shelf, the older man pushed a specific sequence of books instead of picking up a book. In the next second, the bookshelf split in half, and with a friction noise due to the stone floor and the dust, the two parts of the bookshelf stepped back and opened up.
Vuush~
Then the darkness was revealed, which the old man entered. Inside the darkroom, Manilyn touched a small sphere on the ceiling and woke up the insects inside. As they were awakened, these insects began to glow in an intense white that illuminated the entire room.
The old man looked at Luke, who was still in the library and asked:
"Aren't you coming?"
Silently, Luke went beyond the two parts of the shelf that were now sandwiched between two walls and entered the room that Manilyn was in.
This place was similar and, at the same time, different from the office on the First Floor.
The first notable factor was that this room was much larger and messier. There were jars with large parchments and books that were bulkier than any the half-wolf had ever seen. The bigger shelves with animals and monsters remain stored in jars were also perceptible.
"These symptoms... since when are you feeling them?" Manilyn asked as he rummaged through a small vase with some scrolls in it.
Luke gave himself a moment to think. The first time he felt something like that was when he was in the Dungeon, accompanied by Nathalia.
"I'm pretty sure it was when I found three D-Class Giant Spiders in the Dungeon and touched a strange notch in their chamber." He revealed to the old man.
The half-wolf remembered well how it was when he entered the door chamber with skulls. After saving the redheaded girl and the fat man, he checked for more cocoons in the tangle of thick webs but ended up touching a trap that left his mind wrapped in a dense fog.
"That's dangerous...are you sure you touched it?"
"Positive."
Manilyn immediately looked back down at his desk and, for a few seconds, stood tapping his fingers while thinking. After, he walked over to a large piece of paper that was on a wall and pulled it out.
"If it all started after this event in Dungeon, I will have to do a test. Can you come over here?" Manilyn asked and pulled up a stool for Luke to sit on. "It's a common procedure I used to do in my Adventurer days. If it's all right, it won't hurt."
The half-wolf shrugged and thought:
'It's like they say...if you go out in the rain, there's no way you can't get wet.'
He sat down on the blank in front of the old man, who immediately asked him to remove the shirt he was wearing. Naturally, Luke removed his black shirt, exposing the dozens of scars.
"Oh! You must really be a very experienced Adventurer." Manilyn spoke and turned to the table behind him.
"I'm just an E-Class, not much."
At that moment, the older man thought Luke was just being too modest and didn't believe him. So he didn't say anything and started doing what he was supposed to do.
Manilyn took a pot of paint, paper, and a paintbrush. He dipped the brush in the black paint and gently drew ancient runes on the paper. Finally, he took the paper and placed it on the half-wolf's back.
"Try not to move your back too much now."
After that, Manilyn lightly cut his own hand with a knife and leaned against the symbol he drew on the large paper.
Initially, Luke felt absolutely nothing and even thought that maybe the test had gone wrong; however, suddenly, Luke felt his vision flash into darkness for a second and saw his hands become very small.
"What the fuck is that!?" He asked, agonized.
"Hang in there, it'll pass in a minute!" Manilyn's distant voice exclaimed.
The half-wolf felt as if he was hearing him from inside a lake, and his voice became more and more distant. The violent humming returned, as did the heartache Luke had felt only once before. Although Luke was resisting bravely, all these confusing sensations became more and more arduous. Gradually, his consciousness grew weaker and weaker until finally couldn't resist.
When he opened his eyes, he was not in Manilyn's second office, but in the green field from before. Luke stood up and didn't see that dense mist like he did the other time.
"Why did I come back here?" He asked himself, as he looked around.
Unlike the other times, now the half-wolf could feel the air entering his lungs. He could also feel the light breeze of wind hitting his face. The immensity of the place was still something that stunned him, as well as its mysteries.
All the bad feelings were gone, except for a slight tingling in his right hand. Curious, Luke looked at his stronger hand and noticed something on his wrist. After pulling at his sleeve, he was startled. The veins in his arm were three times larger, marking his arm with a black liquid that he, inexplicably, could clearly see running inside them.
He only noticed that he was wearing his old thief's clothes as he removed his cloak in desperation.
"They're all over my arm!" He shouted, terrified.
"Calm down, my son." A soft voice whispered in the half-wolf's ear. "Control your breathing." The voice was that of a woman, but he could swear he had never heard such a voice.
Immediately, Luke obeyed her and began to breathe in and out to calm himself down.
"Who are you?" Luke asked, calmer, but still with his heart racing. However, the voice didn't answer anything for him this time. "I think I'm really going crazy..."
As Luke awoke from yet another crazy dream, he felt as if a weight had lifted off his chest. He quickly got up from where he was resting and tried to breathe as much air as he could.
"Huff... Huff...!"
"Oh! You finally woke up!" Manilyn exclaimed, with a smile on his face for the first time. "I thought for a few minutes that you might die!"
"What have you done to me?" Luke asked angrily and pulled the older man by the beard. He was sitting at one of the desks in the office, and he could be seen that there were papers and ink bottles scattered on the floor.
"I didn't do anything too much, I swear!" said Manilyn with his hands raised up. "I just did a basic test to check if you had a curse or not!"
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