Max grinned at the information in his profile. His mana affinity had jumped by three points from four to seven. The silver monster core must have helped him achieve such a significant boost as it had proven difficult to even to get minimal gains in his mana affinity stat before then.

Seven in mana affinity, huh?

Max was pleased with himself. He didn’t even need the number to tell him that his mana affinity had increased, he could feel it in his body. He could sense the life force and energy running through him.

The other thing that pleased him was his strength stat had gone up by one point. It must have been a reflection of all the battles and trials he’d been going through.

And just like the greater sense of mana flowing through him, he could feel the tightness of his biceps and other muscles.

If he looked at himself in the mirror, it was hard to believe only a month and a half ago, he had been such a scrawny twig of a teenager.

He got up off the floor with a new enthusiasm for life and tried to think what he should do next for his training.

The most obvious place to go was up to floor-2 and work on improving his stats by hunting down monsters in the endless forest.

And he would. Eventually.

But more than working harder, he had to work smarter.

So he was going to do what any nerdy kid who had grown up without a lot of friends was best at: hit up the library and read some books.

“Nice to see you again,” whispered the cute librarian he had spoken with last time he visited. “Can I help you with anything?”

“I had a question for you,” said Max. “I’m looking for books on floor-2 of the tower, the endless forest. Do you got any?”

The girl made an odd expression and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

Max worried he had maybe done something wrong, like in the way he had upset Casey the day before.

“Did I say something wrong?” asked Max.

The girl shook her head quickly. “No, it’s not that,” she said. “I’ve gotten a lot of weird requests from library patrons before, but no one has ever asked for what you just did.”

“Really?” Max asked, shocked.

He guessed that many climbers were probably more eager to train on higher floors that floor-2 was easily forgotten, but it seemed like a pretty big miscalculation on their part.

The librarian girl got up from her desk and walked out from behind her counter.

“If you’d follow me, please,” she said in her soft voice.

Max followed the girl as they walked deeper and deeper into the library.

Max stared in awe at all the books they passed.

“Were these all written by writers from the tower-zone?” he asked.