Feezing in place, Liza held the strange man's gaze, panic steadily setting in.

  Could he see her? He had to have seen her, because he immediately took a few steps back!

  Panic. She darted to the top of a corner in the roo, belatedly realizing her true body was right there on the table!! Hastily, she manipulated the walls with her Hall Manipulation skill, moving the blue book, her core, into the book shelf, before covering it with a thin wall, creating a small, hidden room in the back of the shelf. Hoping it'd make it less obvious a hiding place, she did the same with the other two shelved in the bookcase just in time before the man stepped into the room.

  When she saw the man enter, she desperately went through her memory of her skills to see if she had a skill that would give her a fighting chance, not daring to summon the screen in case it might be visible to others.

  To her utter befuddlement, the moment the man entered the room, he dropped his torch to the ground, and simply stared straight into the air like a misty-eyed idiot.

  '...'

  '......'

  '... Huh!?'

  Before she could begin to make sense of the situation, the man beelined towards the left-most table, sitting down and staring at the book in front of him as if he'd been entranced.

  With trepidation in her heart, Liza watched as the man picked up the book. Was he going to destroy it? The way he was looking at it made her think he might even try to steal it...

  'Not on mu watch!'

  She was about to activate Guidance to kindly "guide" this armored up sack of potatoes out of her Hall, when the young man opened the book.

  'I was too late...!'

  Then, and she could hardly believe her "eyes" when she saw this, the book suffused the boy with its knowledge!

  That was the only explanation she had for the phenomenon she was whitnessing. After the boy had read the foreword she'd crafted with such care and turned to the first page, the same energy that had flowed out of her and into the book now streamed from the book and into the man's mind. As the green-tinted mist entered the man'd head at a steady pace, the boy leaned in closer and closer until a green, ephaemeral light started to pulse weakly from his eyes.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  In that moment, something clicked within Liza's soul.

  This. This is what the blue box had meant.

  This was the Visitor!

  The glee of the realization was only stifled by the sudden change in the scene in front of her - the boy finished "reading" the book which caused the connection between himself and the book to snap, causing his head to snap backwards and the book to fall limply onto the table.

  'No!'

  Panic gripped her once mroe as she darted over to the book to check its condition, not caring whether she'd be made visible to the lad or not.

  As she did so, the boy reeled in confusion, stumbling up from the table before seeing the torch on the floor. When he made to pick it up, he had to halt in his step and massage his temples.

  It was appearant the experience had taken some energy on his part, and though he was looking fine physically, it seemed either his Stamina or some kind of mental energy had been depleted.

  After checking on the book, Liza just barely glimpsed the young man's back as he set off running with his torch and dagger in hand, probably scared whittless, the poor boy.

  It dawned on Liza then, that this place might actually seem quite strange to someone who didn't know what it was meant to be. While Liza was new to this world, her skills filled her mind with a few pieces of rudementary information to base her actions off of - namely, to run the Library to a satisfactory standard. So she knew what a library was supposed to look like.

  She looked around the room, feeling slightly crestfallen.

  No wonder the boy had run away.

  She only had one book, one room, and a couple chairs - not even a chandelier to give appropriate lighting for reading. It was more boring and empty than the dirt outside, dangit!

  'It's not my fault I only spawned a few hours ago!' She though, pitifully. It was an excuse. She knew it was.

  'Hahhh..'

  Her movement slowed somewhat as she bobbed over to the door to close it after her guest, when she paused.

  'No... No! I won't let it end like this!' She inernally yelled, her little form in the secret room quivering with silent ferocity.

  The young Librarian swung the door open wider and shot out from the library with a fire running through her core.

  She would not lose her first Visitor so pitifully!

  Her budding pride as a Librarian fueled her mind as it jetted through the tunnel in search of her target. The stamina drain was horrendous, and only worsening the farther she got from the library. But she didn't stop.

  Soon, she saw the figure of the fleeing man, and redoubled her efforts. When she reached him, she channeled all her will and yelled as loud as she could, hoping against odds that her words would be heard from the man.

  "I hope you enjoyed your stay! Come back sometime!"

  The man yelped and screamed in horror, tripping over his own feet and falling face first onto the dirt floor.

  'Oof...'

  "MOM!" He yelled as he flung himself to his feet and took of in a mighty sprint down the tunnel.

  '...'

  Liza was stunned.

  'He.... He! He heard me! He heard me!! Ohohohoho!' She twirled in place in bliss. She could be heard! That was a most welcome development, by every measure of the word!

  The joy didn't last very long though, as consequences of her sprint made themselves known... in the form of the worst vertigo she had ever felt in her entire night of life.

  'AuuuuuuuughhhhhhoooohnooowhydidIdothaaattuuuuuuughhhhhohmygahh...'

  Forcing herself back to the Hall, one imaginary step at a time, Liza loathed her lacking Stamina stat. She'd never felt it as acutely as now just how low it was.

  It was ridiculous!