“Lover and Hater of Tower of Hate and Love” (65.3) (Oka)

Lillia cleaned up in a hallway between rooms thanks to our handy adaptive gear. We braced ourselves for the next one, expecting a tougher fight.

"I'm guessing there won't be a lot of puzzles in this dungeon with us wanting to get stronger," I said.

"It is more combat focused, yes," Caya said on the speaker on our wristbands.

The short hallway had the prior challenge room behind us, and the door in front ahead, with a label taped to the front that said 'LIBRARY.'

"C'mon, a library challenge?" I asked. "Give us a tough one, like Lillia and I are gonna solve this or beat up a giant book in like, five seco—"

"Hold on," Iris said. "Doesn't this seem too obvious?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You gotta think like a void challenge," Iris said. "They want you to think the way forward is ahead, but what if..."

There was a small table only big enough for the lamp on it. She scooted it a bit back, revealing a crack in the wall. "This situation here l seems more like where we should be going."

Before any of us could begin to comment on her theory, Iris charged shoulder first into it. The crack widened greatly from one strike, and a chunk of the wall shattered like an egg cracking. The newly open space pulled us in, the powerful suction giving us even less of a chance to strategize than Iris had.

I felt like I was flying for a second before a rough landing.

"Would you look at that?" Iris asked.

"Look at what, we can't see anything!" Maia said.

"OK, outside from the fact we can't see, I was totally right, this was a secret passageway!" Iris said.

They sounded both close and far away. 

Lillia and Amara illuminated the dark space with their fire and laser powers, respectively. We went from total darkness to almost too many colors at once. The space surrounding us warped and melded into itself, or the colors of it did, at least. I looked down at my hands and my body seemed to be entirely cast in shadows, as did the others.

"Whoa, that's kinda freaky," Iris said. "We all look like cartoon shadows..."

"Is everyone alright?" I asked. I was sore, but nothing too serious at least. "Outside of the shadow thing, I mean?"

"I landed right on my phone," Michi said, rubbing their hip and leg.

"The shadows appear to just be aesthetic, or at least I don't immediately feel anything is off physically," Lillia said. "We can't discount that staying here in this state is entirely safe, though."

Shadowy shapes joined us in the psychedelic space we found ourselves in. Just inanimate ones though, industrial shelves with caged doors on them, preventing us from seeing what was inside.

"It's like an archive or something," I said.

"Maybe this is the library's basement?" Lillia suggested.

"I bet that other door didn't even go to a library," Iris said. "I bet this is the real library."

"You think the real library is the one where it looks like the inside of a lava lamp in hell?" Maia asked.

"I mean, it's the void, so it's not that improbable or anything," Iris said.

"Let's just stop talking and try to find clues, or better yet a way out," Lillia said.

"Hey, everyone?" Michi called from ahead.

Michi pointed ahead.

"...there's someone...standing?" Michi said.

I couldn't tell it actually was a someone at first. It looked like a bookshelf that had an overall triangular shape to it was in the middle of the gold circle. Then it flipped around, and arms and legs popped out of it.

The void monster (?) turned to face us, looking like someone made a muscular action figure carved out of a library bookshelf. The guy even had books on his arms and back.

"I am the entity known as Shelv," he said.

"Pfft, really?" Maia said.

"No, I get it!" Iris said. "Because he's like a library shelf!"

"Yeah, I think that's it," Lillia said, taking her glasses off to rub her eyes.

"Do you ever wonder how they pick these guys out?" I asked.

"I assume Caya and whoever else just like plugs in the kind of void monsters we fight by the theme of the dungeon," Michi said.

"Quit yapping and get on guard," Amara said. "I don't think this one is a friend."

"I am only an ally to my master, as a servant of Reed, I forever stand by his honor," Shelv said. "I am conducting a survey for him as we speak."

"Uh...OK?" Maia said.

Lillia sent a scanning wave out from her wristband. Shelv wasn't a retention sprite, but he was a void monster.

"Caya, any tips before we start?" I asked.

No answer. I guessed this was one she wanted us to figure out on our own.

"Allow me to go over the rules," Shelv said. "You may challenge me as a group or individually. Though I will defeat you, I will not grievously harm you, this circle prevents it. It will also heal your physical selves after each loss. So if you'd like to try again, your only limitation is your willpower. Swing your swords freely, the blades will have no effect on me."

"We haven't even lost once yet, don't start about 'each' loss," I said.

"I have a question!" Iris said, raising her hand.

"Speak," Shelv said.

"Can we turn the lights on? It's friggin' dark in here, how are we supposed to see where to hit you?"

"One cannot read a book in the dark, it's true," Shelv said. He snapped his fingers and the place lit up.

"Kay, is that everything?" Iris said.

"I have gone over the rules, yes," Shelv said.

"Can you say that last thing about blades again?" Iris asked.

"Don't bully the void monster," I said.

"We're gonna fight it in two seconds, what does it matter?" Maia said.

"Your blades will have no effect on me," Shelv said.

"We'll see about that!" Iris said she got her bloodsaber ready and rushed in. I was stunned she was the first to go given how little she tried in anything physical in class.

Iris swung her sword, and Shelv blocked the attack with crossed forearms. Like he said, the blade had no effect even though it was swung against him. He shouted as a row of books blasted out of his back, spinning around until they hit Iris one by one, gradually knocking Iris down to the ground. A loud buzzer sounded. A moment later, a pillar of cyan light beamed down on Iris, sparkling as it healed her. She got up in a huff.

"OK, I tried one move because I thought that one liner sounded really cool, and then he beat me really easily, and I wanna cry, so I'm gonna sit out the rest of this whole thing." Iris walked to the side of the gold circle and sat, with Maia joining.

"I'd fight but uh...eh," Maia said.

I stepped forward next, wanting to see how strong this guy really was.

"I'm afraid I'm a few books short of my…er…book," I coughed. Shelv wasn't impressed by my stammering, but it was all part of my strategy. "Reading! Book reading goal! For the year. So I'm gonna…just…"

As I rambled on, pulling off a pretty great performance in my opinion of someone trying and failing to sound cool, I was using my powers to make a grid of vines on the ground. I was really into the whole vine grid thing, and while I couldn't make it explosive without Lillia, I could trip this guy up.

At least, that was the idea. Before I could even finish my failed one liner, Shelv ripped the vines up from the ground, turning my conjured plants into a wave of energy that he fired directly at me.