'Nether, the energy our overlord Hades blessed us with, is the core of our existence…'

Bruce's eyes sharpened.

'So as expected this world didn't have mana. Instead they are using a different energy which they call Nether.'

The realization settled in instantly. This alone made the trip worthwhile.

He didn't hesitate. Pages began flipping beneath his fingers, one after another, his eyes moving with terrifying speed. His photographic memory captured everything, diagrams, terminology, historical references, structural explanations. Each sentence was absorbed, indexed, understood.

His reading and comprehension rate, already abnormal, bordered on the inhuman now.

At this pace, Bruce knew it was only a matter of time before he read every single book in this library.

And once he did…

He would understand this world far better than someone who walked it blindly.

With that knowledge, he could plan his seven days here properly. Efficiently. Without wasting a single moment.

Bruce leaned back slightly, the soft, rhythmic sound of turning pages echoing through the empty library.

Coming here had not been a mistake.

Not even close.

As he read, discoveries piled one after another.

The first, and perhaps the most fundamental, was the name of this world.

The Nether Realm.

Simple. Direct. Ominous.

The natives of this realm worshipped Hades as their god.

Bruce paused briefly at that.

'Hades…' he thought, lips pressing together faintly. 'The god of death, in mythology.'

He let out a quiet sigh and continued reading.

The parallels didn't stop there.

Much like Velmora, the natives of the Nether Realm possessed a System. Classes. Skills. Stats. Advancement. But where Velmora's foundation was mana, this world revolved around something else entirely.

Nether.

A unique energy. Dense. Heavy. Hostile to life as he understood it.

And it shaped everything.

Classes aligned with necromancy, death, shadow, darkness, and the undead weren't feared here.

They were revered.

Those who awakened such paths were regarded as blessed by Hades himself, chosen existences destined for comfortable lives, high status, and societal favor. The darker the affinity, the greater the reverence.

Bruce's expression remained neutral as he read on.

Then he reached the section on healers.

His brows furrowed.

Healers were rare in this world.

Extremely rare.

And not only that, healers were despised.

Bruce frowned slightly at that, fingers pausing against the page. 'That's… insane.'

The explanation came quickly.

Healing, in the Nether Realm, was crippled from the moment of awakening. An E-class healer in Velmora could outperform even the best healer this world had ever produced.

The reason was simple.

Nether did not support healing.

Any individual who attempted to use Nether to restore life was immediately burdened with overwhelming debuffs, at least fifty percent reduction to all stats, permanently. No known method existed to remove them. No ritual. No artifact. No System loophole.

They were absolute.

Healers here didn't just struggle.

They were broken.

Bruce continued reading, his frown deepening.

In stark contrast to necromancers and death-aligned classes being idolised as blessed by Hades, healers were treated as the opposite, those cursed by him.

The author of the book even speculated that the debuffs themselves were divine punishment. A mark of Hades' displeasure etched directly into the System.

Bruce exhaled slowly.

'What a strange world…'

For the first time since entering the library, he leaned back fully, staring at nothing for a brief moment.

He couldn't help but wonder what the crowd would have done earlier, what that mother would have felt, if he had openly used healing abilities in front of them.

The thought alone made him shake his head faintly.

With a quiet sigh, he returned to reading.

Time slipped by unnoticed.

Eventually, Bruce closed the book, already possessing a solid foundational understanding of the Nether Realm. He didn't stop there. Several more volumes followed, history, social structure, class distributions, Nether theory.

Only when he was satisfied did he shift his focus.

'Plants. Medicine. Practical survival.'

Given that healers were shunned and ineffective, it wasn't surprising that herbal medicine had advanced significantly in this world. The use of plants to accelerate natural healing was sophisticated, systematic, and deeply ingrained in their culture.

Yet there was a glaring flaw.

Poisons.

For reasons even the authors couldn't fully explain, the people of the Nether Realm had no true understanding of poisons. They could identify poisons. Delay their effects. Sometimes even purge symptoms.

But curing them?

'So antidote creation is a foreign thing to them. They don't know how to derive antidotes from poisons themselves.'

Bruce's eyes narrowed slightly as he read.

He immersed himself fully, absorbing page after page detailing plant structures, sap colors, leaf patterns, growth environments, toxic properties, and medicinal reactions. His photographic memory etched every illustration and description permanently into place.

By the time he finished, the physical features and characteristics of every recorded plant in the Nether Realm were already catalogued in his mind.

Locked in.

Ready to be used.

Bruce slowly closed the final book on plants and poisons, the dull thump of aged pages echoing softly through the deserted library.

Seven days.

Now… he finally had the tools to make them count.

His gaze drifted toward the library's entrance, and he let out a quiet sigh. Reaching for his wrist, he activated his smart bracelet.

Yes, it had come with him.

But as expected, it was useless.

There was no connection to Velmora. No network. No data access. Maps, messages, system-linked functions, everything tied to his original world was offline. The interface felt eerily similar to when he was inside a dungeon.

The only thing still working was the time display.

Bruce glanced at it.

[9:46]

'So it's been about ten hours since I was thrown into this world for the trial…'

He hadn't eaten. Hadn't even thought about it, really. And yet, he didn't feel hungry. No weakness. No distraction. Just a dull, steady clarity.

He sighed again.

'How long will it take that girl to heal…?'

The question lingered longer than he expected.

Then his eyes sharpened slightly.

He stood, returning the book to its place before moving deeper into the shelves, searching for a different kind of knowledge. Anatomy. Internal structure. He quickly located several volumes depicting the inner workings of the Nether Realm's inhabitants.

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