Chapter 43: Gaining A Title.
Kael let out a sigh of relief.
Then his expression slowly changed.
Something wasn’t adding up.
His mind replayed what he had just witnessed.
The Cataloguer had removed the sections burdened by the Page Wraiths’ cursed pages. That part made sense. Those pages were clearly hindering its movement.
But why remove the other damaged sections as well?
Those damaged shelves hadn’t been affecting its mobility. They weren’t slowing it down. They weren’t interfering with its attacks.
Yet it had replaced them anyway.
Kael frowned.
The more he thought about it, the stranger it became.
Then a memory surfaced.
The Sand Golems.
Every time a Sand Golem lost even a small chunk of its body, the creature would immediately begin repairing itself. It didn’t matter whether the damage was significant or not. Even minor cracks were treated as something that needed to be restored.
Almost as though every single part of its body mattered.
As though losing even a tiny piece made the construct incomplete.
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
A construct...
The ridiculous thought suddenly struck him.
Could the Cataloguer be the same?
When he thought about it that way, it actually made sense.
The creature wasn’t flesh and blood.
It was literally a giant collection of bookshelves stitched together into a single entity.
No living organism should be built like that.
Still, Kael didn’t jump to conclusions.
A theory was only a theory.
He needed proof.
And if the Cataloguer truly was some kind of construct, then somewhere inside that massive body there had to be a core.
A core he could destroy.
Before he could think further, the battle resumed.
Freed from the slowing effects of the cursed pages, the Cataloguer turned its attention back toward the Page Wraiths.
It raised an enormous arm.
Immediately countless loose pages rose into the air around it.
The pages spun faster and faster until they formed a raging cyclone.
A storm of razor-sharp paper.
With a violent gesture, the Cataloguer launched the attack.
The paper cyclone surged across the library.
The Page Wraiths reacted instantly as they scattered.
One wasn’t fast enough though.
The storm swallowed it whole.
Thousands of slicing pages tore through its paper body in mere seconds, shredding it into countless fragments.
Yet it hardly mattered.
The destroyed Wraith dissolved into its ethereal state.
Soon enough it would reform.
The remaining two Wraiths didn’t spare their fallen companion a glance.
They simply charged.
Their paper bodies slammed into the Cataloguer.
They clawed, scratched, punched and rammed it.
Anything they could do to damage their gigantic opponent.
Kael’s eyes lit up.
This was his chance.
Without hesitation he burst from his hiding spot.
A massive war hammer appeared in his hands.
His foot slammed against the floor.
BOOM!
The stone cracked beneath him as he launched himself forward.
The Cataloguer noticed him immediately.
One of its massive arms moved to intercept.
But before it could react fully, the Page Wraiths struck again.
Sheets of cursed paper wrapped around its limbs, restricting its movements for a crucial moment.
That moment was all Kael needed.
His hammer descended.
CRASH!
The impact shattered the entire lower section of the creature’s leg.
Bookshelves exploded apart.
Wooden fragments flew in every direction.
The Cataloguer released a furious roar.
Before it could recover, one of the Page Wraiths rammed directly into its unstable body.
The towering construct lost balance.
Then collapsed.
The entire library shook as the giant crashed onto the floor.
The Page Wraiths immediately swarmed it.
They didn’t even glance at Kael.
For them, the Cataloguer remained the primary target.
The construct attempted to rebuild itself.
Attempted to replace damaged sections.
Attempted to rise.
The Wraiths never gave it the opportunity.
They continuously battered its body, keeping it pinned down.
Kael wasn’t foolish enough to waste such an opening.
He rushed forward.
Again and again his hammer crashed into the construct like a wrecking ball.
Bookshelves shattered.
Wood splintered.
Entire sections of the Cataloguer’s body collapsed under the relentless assault.
Finally—
A faint glow emerged from within the wreckage.
Kael grinned.
"There you are."
A core.
Just as he’d suspected.
Without wasting a second, he raised his hammer overhead and brought it down with every ounce of strength he could muster.
BOOM!
The core shattered and the glow vanished.
Then the massive body followed, collapsing instantly into a lifeless shelves and broken wood.
A flood of notifications appeared before Kael.
He ignored every single one.
Because the moment the Cataloguer died, the Page Wraiths turned toward him.
And unlike before...
They had no other target.
"Oh, come on."
The Wraiths shrieked.
Kael didn’t wait around.
He immediately spun around and bolted toward the exit door.
The Page Wraiths gave chase.
Their eerie moans echoed throughout the library as they surged after him.
Kael crossed the remaining distance in seconds.
The door flew open.
He rushed through.
Then immediately slammed it shut behind him.
The shrieks abruptly vanished.
Silence returned.
Kael leaned against the wall and released a long breath.
"That was nerve-wracking."
His heart was still racing.
If the Page Wraiths hadn’t been occupied with the Cataloguer, things could have gone very differently.
Fighting either enemy individually was already troublesome.
Fighting both at once?
Even Kael wasn’t confident he could have escaped without suffering serious injuries.
And that was the last thing he wanted.
He still had no idea what awaited him deeper inside the instance.
Straightening himself, Kael glanced down the hallway stretching ahead.
Given the strength of the Cataloguer, he was fairly certain it had been some kind of mini-boss.
Which meant the next area was probably the final zone.
The instance main chamber.
Just thinking about it made his head hurt.
Every enemy he’d encountered so far had possessed some absurd ability that completely ignored common sense.
Each one had somehow managed to be more annoying than the last.
Kael honestly didn’t want to imagine what the final boss looked like.
Then he remembered the notifications.
Curious, he finally opened them.
The first was exactly what he expected.
---
[You have killed a Level 50 Cataloguer.]
[Experience Gained.]
---
Nothing special.
His gaze shifted toward the second notification.
The moment he read it, he froze.
---
[Monster Essence Integrated +1]
[+1 Title Acquired]
---
Kael blinked.
Then blinked again.
A title?
He had gained a title?
Immediately he understood what had happened.
Void Absorption.
One of his class perks.
Every time he killed an enemy, he could feel a strange energy being absorbed into his body.
It had never increased his stats directly, but he always sensed subtle changes taking place beneath the surface.
More importantly, Void Absorption possessed another effect.
A chance to absorb a fragment of an enemy’s essence and obtain one of its traits.
The first Tower Trial had granted him something through that effect.
After that?
Nothing.
Not a single successful absorption.
To the point where Kael had almost forgotten it existed.
Yet now, after killing the Cataloguer, it had activated once more.
And instead of a skill or stat points it had given him a title.
Kael’s curiosity immediately surged.
Without hesitation, he opened the title information.
