Chapter 124 - Antiques

After a while, Wain reached the library. It was a small, three-story building. It looked more like a bookstore than a vast library on the outside.

"Strange, when I concentrated, I saw a spacious hall. Maybe this library has an underground floor?" Wain muttered.

Wain shook his head and closed his eyes again. He decided to see if he was wrong since he could sense the location of the Sorcerer's Soul at any moment.

Whoooosh.

Wain's consciousness shifted again, and he saw the same picture again, some massive bookcases, a spacious hall, and hundreds of books scattered on the floor. However, Wain felt that the energy fluctuations were not coming from the library in front of him.

Wain turned his head toward the energy and saw a massive building in the distance. It was badly damaged, but even so, it was clear that it had been built by some skilled architect.

Wain immediately opened the map and checked what kind of building it was.

"A museum..." Wain muttered.

"That's right, rare and unique books are almost impossible to find in a regular library. Such things are protected in museums with good security and proper storage conditions." Proclaimed Wain and jumped onto the roof of a nearby building.

The museum was behind the library, so Wain mistook the location for where the energy was coming from. At this point, he was closer to the place with the soul, so he could determine more accurate coordinates.

'The museums contain some pretty rare things and unusual exhibits. If a lot of Soul Essence has accumulated in this place and monsters have appeared here, they're going to be pretty strong.' Thought Wain as he approached the museum.

The conditions in which the monsters appeared influenced not only what attribute the monster would have and whether it would be at all, but also their strength, appearance, and even fighting style.

For example, if a monster appeared in the forest or garden, likely, he would not have a fire attribute and flame abilities. Of course, there were exceptions, but the monsters were not chaotic. Everything partly depended on many factors and rules.

'Judging by the map, this museum contains rare exhibits of weapons and equipment of the Middle Ages, as well as various literature, surviving letters of nobles and kings. In that case, there will surely be knights, common soldiers, and so on waiting for me there.'

Whoooosh.

The next moment Wain jumped off the building and approached the main entrance to the museum. As he got so close to the power source, he could clearly feel the vibrations coming from the lower floors of the museum.

Wain went inside and looked around. To his surprise, inside, the museum was virtually intact. The reason was that the museum was one of the worst places to hide when the apocalypse began.

There was no food or water in the museum. There were weapons, but they were old and mostly unsharpened. Any kitchen knife from the nearest store was a more deadly weapon than the sword on the stand.

But, there was another reason why the inside of the museum remained intact. Wain didn't know it, but the museum was inaccessible on the day the apocalypse began. So, there wasn't even anything scattered on the floor inside the museum, not even a trace of visitors.

Wain nodded and went forward. He had to find the stairs leading down and get closer to the spatial rupture.

The museum's main hall was spacious, with nothing inside except a massive statue in the center. The museum's floor was in the shape of chessfields, and on top was a dome from which hung a massive chandelier with hundreds of white crystals in it. 

Wain speculated that this statue might come to life, so he was on guard. He had no way of knowing what would happen in the next moment. However, he didn't destroy the statue either. There was no point in him creating unnecessary noise.

'I wonder if I'll be in the Purgatory zone again this time, or will it be Void? Perhaps I'll have to go to some more mysterious place?' Wain pondered as he walked past the statue.

To his surprise, the statue did not come to life. Given Wain's circumstances, he had expected otherwise.

The last time Wain had entered the Purgatory zone through a spatial rift, he had been pleasantly surprised by his journey. It was like a small world, with its own unique creatures, rules, and of course, a masterpiece last fight.

If Wain had not fought Forgotten at the end, he would not have felt so satisfied with this little journey, even with the fact that he had gained the Swordsman's Soul.

'By the way, when the white beam of energy caused the sky to turn white and crackle across it, the darkness behind it was exactly the same as in the Purgatory area. Honestly, I was expecting a creature like the one I fought against standing on the clouds to appear at the end.' Thought Wain as he walked into the next hall.

At that moment, he was thinking about the invasion of monsters, it was happening worldwide, and suddenly Wain realized something.

'Most likely humans have killed most of the monsters that have fallen into cities, but...what's going on in the forests or seas now?!'

He hadn't thought about it before, but it could be a huge problem. If hundreds and thousands of monsters fell into the seas and oceans, it would be an absolute disaster for the whole world.

The problem was that all these monsters went to feed dangerous sea creatures. Monsters, like humans, could grow stronger at the expense of others. However, unlike humans, monsters could benefit from killing their kin, not just humans.

"Hell, Overion is quite close to the sea. Moreover, it became several times more dangerous to navigate the water because of this situation. For us, the monster invasion was a disaster, but for the other monsters, it was a real feast." Wain muttered.

...

After a while, Wain reached the stairs leading downstairs, but he was in no hurry to approach them. It was at the end of a room filled with various stands of armor.

Wain knew that the armor, unlike the statue, would definitely come to life this time. He didn't believe it wouldn't.

"Okay, go ahead." Proclaimed Wain, and a plasma sword appeared in his hand. He stepped into the hall and prepared for battle.

After a few seconds, however, his face contorted, for nothing had happened, and he felt like a fool.

'Maybe I really am paranoid? It's impossible to know everything ahead of time, though. It's better to always be prepared for an attack and be wrong a few times than to be unaware of the danger and die.' Thought Wain and walked on, but after a few steps, he stopped.

"But it looks like I was prepared for an attack for a reason this time." Mumbled Wain looking at the armor around him.

Suddenly the armor glowed. Wain prepared to attack. He waited for the moment when these monsters came to life. He didn't know what they were capable of, so he didn't attack immediately. 

The first thing he had to do was get some superficial information about his enemies.

However, it wasn't the knight's armor that came to life but the weapons in their hands. Suddenly, several swords, axes, spears, and hammers flew toward Wain.

He didn't expect his opponents to fly weapons rather than reanimate armor.

"This is something new." Mumbled Wain and got into a fighting stance.

For Wain, such opponents were uncomfortable, as he was used to taking advantage of his enemies' weaknesses. It was easiest for him to fight against humanoid and beast-like enemies. 

In that case, he knew which bone had to be broken, where a cut had to be made, and so on.

But, all this knowledge was useless when his enemy was a flying sword or a hammer.

Whooosh.

Wain swung his plasma sword and shattered the flying axe in his direction. Doing so was easier than he had anticipated, but he was attacked from all sides in the same instant.

Lightning boots instantly appeared on Wain's feet, and he bounced to the side. To his surprise, the weapons began to act differently.

Slightly visible strands of energy appeared between them. Each sword, axe, or spear was now linked to one another, and destroying one of them would be as difficult as destroying all of them at once.

A dozen weapons came down on Wain like a barrage. He was adept at blocking their blows, but now he couldn't even shatter the hilt of a sword or the shaft of a spear. It was impossible to do that with his current weapons.

'Damn, these monsters are definitely not from First Chronicle, yet when they combine in strength, they are as good as such monsters.' Thought to himself, Wain blocked more than three attacks in one second.

Wain was in a bad situation. He didn't know how many monsters were in this museum. 

If his opponents increased, he would have to use one of the forms. Wain wanted to avoid such a big waste of energy when he hadn't even gotten to the spatial rift yet.

Crackle.

Suddenly a shard flew from his sword. Wain managed to block every attack. His hands looked like blurs because of his high speed. But the plasma sword could not take that much damage in such a short period.

'Hmm, swords and axes are not the most common enemies. If the apocalypse hadn't happened, it would have been some kind of madness. Now, however, anything is possible. I don't feel comfortable fighting them, but... I'm an even more inappropriate enemy for them than they are for me!' Thought Wain and suddenly threw the plasma sword aside.

Wain turned into a lightning flash and ran through the weapons network during the spurt. He bounced off the ground with such force that several cracks in the floor. At that moment, he grabbed the sword covered in energy with one hand.

He would use this sword to deal with the rest of the monsters with it.