"Are these the only forty-odd books I haven't seen? It seems the quality of the volumes Yulia moved from elsewhere isn't particularly high. I'll have to focus my efforts on this library," Alan decided, his mind working quickly.
After categorizing the books on the long table, Alan shifted his focus to the nearby shelves. He patiently pulled out each volume, flipping through the pages with practiced speed. Before long, he made a significant discovery.
"Ancient Alchemy Compendium?" Alan reached for a massive, palm-thick book perched on the very top shelf. A volume of this size was impossible for him to overlook.
As he scanned the contents, he found a treasure trove of ancient alchemical techniques, including many unoptimized rune formulas and a small collection of symbols that had long been lost to time. It was practically a history of alchemy in a single binding.
"Yulia, this one only counts as one," Alan said, offering her a thin smile. He placed the heavy book on the table next to the rare finds he had already set aside.
"I know. Can you just hurry up? Are you really planning to stay here all day?" Yulia asked, her expression strained. Although the book was immensely valuable, its sheer bulk had made it impossible to hide, and she could only watch in silent frustration as he prepared to copy it.
Alan proceeded like a bargain-hunting shopper, meticulously examining every "piece of ginger" in the stall. He touched and inspected every spine, keeping what he liked and discarding the rest. If this were a real marketplace, the owner would likely have kicked him out on the spot for his scrutinizing behavior.
Soon, he found another interesting item tucked into a bottom corner.
Endless Darkness?
Intrigued by the peculiar title, Alan reached for it. His sensitive perception immediately detected faint magical fluctuations radiating from the binding.
"Finite!" Alan drew his wand and cast a general dispelling spell on the book. To his surprise, the volume reacted violently.
With a sharp bang, the book flew open the moment the spell touched it. Sensing something was wrong, Alan immediately tried to throw it away, but he was a fraction of a second too late.
In an instant, Alan was plunged into a void. He couldn't see his own hand in front of his face; every scrap of light and sound vanished as if it had never existed.
"Lumos!" He reacted instantly, but the spell had no effect. Everything remained pitch black.
"The tactile sensation of my wand is normal, and the magical feedback is responsive, but the Lumos spell failed despite the consumption of magic. The spell was cast, yet I can neither see nor hear. My five senses have been compromised." After realizing the spell was ineffective, Alan began a rapid self-diagnosis and quickly pinpointed the source of the interference.
He closed his eyes tightly, mobilizing his magic and gathering it in his mind before sweeping it toward his optic nerves. His Occlumency had long since become an instinctive reflex, making it simple to merge his magic with his thoughts.
Under the scrutiny of his internal magic, he found the problem: a specific region of his brain had been occupied by a foreign magical signature. This magic had formed a rune he had never seen before, and its resonance was jamming his sensory input. He directed his own magic to flush the area, systematically breaking the rune down until it dissipated into harmless energy.
When he opened his eyes again, his vision and hearing snapped back to normal. He looked back to find that Yulia had crept closer, watching him with an unreadable expression.
"Disappointed, aren't you? This book didn't cause nearly as much trouble as you hoped, but I am very interested in the principles and runes behind it." Alan ignored her suspicious behavior, merely sneering as he picked the volume back up.
*Damn it, wasn't the curse hidden in that book supposed to cause immediate, permanent blindness? How did he recover in just a few seconds? Luckily, I didn't act rashly just now, or I would have been the one in trouble,* Yulia thought, a cold sweat breaking out on her skin.
She didn't know much about "Endless Darkness" herself. She only remembered Torquil mentioning that he had stumbled upon it as a boy and fallen victim to it, nearly losing his sight permanently. It had taken the old patriarch a small fortune in medical fees to find a cure. She had intentionally placed it in a prominent position to trick Alan. Watching him shrug it off made her doubt the book's potency entirely.
Alan, now fully recovered, understood the trap. The book had been layered with an anti-dispelling charm and a reactive trigger that activated upon any magical fluctuation. He was much more cautious this time, fully engaging his Occlumency before opening it again. As expected, the magical surge reappeared, but he remained unaffected, finally able to read the contents.
The book detailed a specific branch of Dark Arts—the magic of "Endless Darkness" itself. It outlined the rune structure and the exact methodology of the spell. In Alan's eyes, the magic was terrifyingly efficient. It possessed an incredible speed of intrusion and its fluctuations were so subtle they were almost undetectable, capable of instantly robbing an enemy of their primary senses.
"That was close. Leaving such a dangerous book sitting blatantly on a shelf... Yulia is certainly playing for keeps. However, now that I understand the runic mechanism, defending against it is simple. The most valuable parts are the stealth of the magic and the intrusion technique." The text provided him with a wealth of new inspiration.
After the incident, Alan became even more vigilant, keeping his Occlumency active at all times. Through his continued search, he discovered more of Yulia's small deceits: she had replaced the covers of several high-value books with mundane titles to avoid his attention.
Fortunately, he had prepared for this, reviewing almost every spine in the room. For example, he found a sophisticated text on alchemy disguised as a basic "Theory of Magic." Upon closer inspection, it contained the complex synthesis formula for Agriba alloy.