63. The Tower 14

Novum gripped his sword in both hands and took a deep breath. He focused all of his strength into the blow and when it hit the gem it exploded and there was a loud scream that ripped through the air. The lich's soul was destroyed and his last few seconds were pure agony. There was an alarm in the room and the crystals on the table started flashing and after six seconds they all went dark.

Berry and Crystal both reached out with their senses. Berry was the first to speak, "the magic in the table is still there like it said. It is dormant and safe."

Crystal followed her, "the soul of the lich is gone. I would say that the scream was its soul dying. There is no negative energy left in the table."

"Rurik, what time is it?"

"It is getting to be late evening. It took us longer to walk here than expected and the sun in the sky without any motion made it hard to determine any time passing. I am honestly not sure how long the sun is going to be up. Berry might be able to do something with the table to tell us. Not that we can adjust it since it is on lockdown but the last program might be able to tell us something."

Berry looked at Rurik and nodded her head. "That is not a bad idea. I read the part of the book that said a little bit of stuff about it. It referred me to another book for a lot of it. Let me see if I can find it and I might be able to see what is going on." Berry looked through the books and found the first one and it pointed her to the one that held the info on the gems. A quick look and she knew what to do but she was not sure how to go about doing it.

"There is really no rush on that Berry. Let's secure the door and see about resting and even sleeping. I am not sure what we are going to find on the higher levels. I am not sure about cooking anything in here. Given what this room was for there might be some kind of thing that if a fire starts water rains down on us. Or maybe a huge ice field forms. Given that he is all about the money I am sure that he would put huge effort into ensuring that it is safe. Wow, used huge a lot more than I should have."

Erica giggled, "I noticed it but figured that I was being judgmental." The rest of them gave a laugh since Novum pointed it out.

Crystal was quickest to quit laughing. "Be that as it may, I will agree with Novum that a fire is likely to cause some issues. So let me check you out and I will run through all of my spells before we go to sleep and we can use the wand that Topaz used to finish anyone that has anything still hurt."

Topaz spoke up, "that is not my wand. Berry gave it to me with the specific purpose of sneaking up on the vampire so I assumed that it was safe to do the same thing with the lich since you finished the vampire before I could get there."

"Go ahead and use it. That is what it is for."

Novum gave her a bow of his head. "Thank you Berry. I will be sure to compensate you for any charges that you have to use."

"We are part of a team Novum. Now let Crystal see to your injuries."

Crystal used every spell that she had and in the end there were still some injuries on Rurik and Novum. A few hits with the wand and everyone was back to their full strength. The group set up guard and slept until they were all rested. Novum had the last shift and he was not going to wake any of them up. He was surprised when they were all up a lot earlier than he expected.

Everyone packed up and headed towards the exit of the manor house. They all walked to the door that they were told would make them big again and with a deep breath Novum stepped up first and after a few minutes where his body felt like it was on fire he was back to his normal size. He blew out a breath of relief and made sure that he was out of the way and the rest of them came through.

Once everyone was full sized and the discomfort was over they followed behind Novum what they hoped was the last floor of the building. As they got to the top floor the heavy door swung open by itself which put them all on higher alert. Novum paused for less than a second when he stepped up and through the door. The room was a lot bigger than he expected even knowing the mage was capable of using spatial magic.

The room was separated into sections without any walls. It was like building wanted to be able to look around and then pick something that looked interesting at the time and then go take care of that. There was a huge wall that was made of slate and had formulas scribbled all over it. There was an alchemy lab that still had a small fire under one of the cauldrons. There was also a sewing dummy which caught Novum off guard until he realized that there were enchanting tools and tomes on the table. It appeared this mage not only enchanted his own robes but also made them.

The biggest section of the room was a reading corner. It was two sections of wall with huge shelves of books on both sides. A chair that looked like it was probably so comfortable that anyone that sat in it would not be able to sit in another chair comfortably. There was a floating ball of fire right behind the chair that looked like it would give off the perfect amount of light. As a bookworm in his previous life he appreciated this corner more than anything else he had found in this world so far. He also knew that he could not sit in that chair or he would have to find a way to bride the system to let him get his own.

The group all came into the room and spread out and looked at everything in their area as they moved a little deeper. Once they got to the middle of the room a door appeared on the other side of the huge room. They all froze for a split second. They all stared at the door until there were sure that nothing was going to come out of it.

Rurik walked through the area where things were being enchanted and saw a hammer that seemed to call to him. He saw a few symbols on the hammer and knew that it was dwarven made. He put the hammer that he was carrying into his bag and grabbed the one off the table. As soon as he picked up hammer it felt so comfortable that he would have sworn that he made it himself.

Erica and Berry both moved towards the wall where all of the formulas were written and they even looked over the tomes on the table. Erica found a spell that was right at the limit. She could not cast it now but with a little more work it could easily become her go to fire spell. She held up the book towards Novum and he gave her a nod of his head and she put it in her bag.

Berry did not even look at the tomes, she was drawn a few of the formulas on the wall that were right up her alley. She could not understand everything about them but she knew that this was a barrier that could stop almost anything for a short about of time. She did not understand everything about the formula but she knew that she had to get her hands on it. "Novum once we are done can I come back here and spend some time going over these notes?"

"I don't have an issue with that. But lets get through this first."

Topaz was walking behind everyone and looking at everything. She spotted a few books that she knew she could get a fortune for with the right buyer and she quickly pocketed a few of the ingredients that were from plants and animals that were no longer in this area. She was not sure about one of the claws but she knew a guy who would be up front with her. There was also a small wand on the table that she felt drawn to and she quickly picked it up before anyone saw it. Rurik had been to focused on the hammer to even see it.

Crystal walked through the potion making area and saw some recipes for potions that she wanted to learn. She heard of them and knew what they were for but she did not know anyone that had the formula, except an old man in the south that made all of them. They were expensive and hard to find. With this she could easily make more than enough to live on for the rest of her life in a year. It could do some amazing things for the church as well. "Novum, there are a couple of recipes here. Can I make a copy of them before we leave?"

"Again I have no issue with that." About the time the he finished his thought the door across from them swung open.

"Could you guys hurry up a little? I am not, nor do I have a desire to be a threat. I haven't had anyone to talk to in almost a hundred years."