It took Damien a short while to realize that the concept of an exit for this new civilization he was in was probably different from what he was used to. Because after more than twelve turns, he still didn't see an exit, nor was there any sign that one was cropping up any moment soon.

  What continuously left him perplexed was the absence of any living soul as he moved through what he now realized was a maze with no end, filled with an endless amount of closed doors, all of which were surprisingly locked. It didn't help that, due to the extremely powerful material that the walls were made out of — more durable than even he — a peak tier Spirit lord — could deal with — he couldn't break through them. Even the doors! This left him irritated, with a little bit of anger added to it. After a while, he Ignored them altogether as he made his way further, following the illusory arrows that seemed to point to an unreachable exit.

  Eventually, after probably up to an hour of walking and no sign of a soul nor an exit in sight, Damien made the decision to turn around and return back to the healer's room.

  He grumbled, cursing his unfortunate luck for being stuck in a place such as this with an endless amount of hallways and zero exits. Not even a single window!

  A clicking sound brought him back from his thoughts and Damien turned just as a woman stepped out of a room. She was dressed in a simple white flowing dress with a bright green embroidered flower on the chest.

  They both locked eyes as soon as she stepped out, and feeling an instant surge of relief, Damien sighed audibly. Swiftly, he approached the woman, taking care not to startle her, which was probably working because the woman didn't so much as take a step back at his sudden approach, watching him with a neutral expression as he made his way to her.

  "Good day, ma'am," Damien greeted with a respectful nod even though she looked almost the same age as him. Damien knew how tricky the physical appearance of an essence wielder was. One might look close to being a hundred but still in the Monarch realm, while another might just look like a studious teenager yet with the power to crush planets—looking at you, Merak.

  The woman, generating no aura that he could use to extrapolate her status, nodded back at him.

  "Good evening," she replied.

  "Say," Damien began, "where are we?" He asked, and then when the lady looked at him funny, he explained. "Hehe, I didn't exactly arrive here with my mentals in working condition."

  With a slow nod, she answered. "We're currently in the medical wing of the Verrille estate."

  Damien nodded. "Um, thank you," he said again, suddenly feeling very anxious. "I think I might be a little bit lost. I can't seem to find the exit."

  The woman looked at the neon green arrow on the wall, soon turning those black piercing eyes back to Damien.

  Reading the question in them, he nodded. "Yes, I've followed the arrow, for up to an hour, infact. That's how I ended up in this situation," he answered, to which the woman's expression morphed into a frown.

  "Are you new?"

  Damien chuckled nervously. "Hehe, is it that obvious? Of course it is. Yes, I am."

  "That explains it," she nodded. "Do you have your entrance token?"

  Damien dug deep into his pocket, coming out a second later with a bronze-colored tiny disk in his hands. He handed it to the lady who gave it a cursory glance, flicked a look at Damien before turning back to the token.

  A moment later, seemingly finding what she was looking for, she handed it back to Damien. "Place this on the wall right on the tip of the arrow and call out where you want to go."

  The nervous smile on Damien's face froze, replaced with a suspicious frown. "Wait, just like that?"

  "Yes."

  "But— I mean... I thought," his growing irritation morphed into full-blown anger. "Who places an exit right on a sign that implies the exit is elsewhere?! That's purposefully misleading!"

  The woman simply stared at him, nonchalant against his open cry out. Seeing this, Damien turned his irritation down on himself for losing control again.

  "I'm sorry about that," he apologized. "I don't understand what came over me."

  Still, she remained silent, watching him with those eerily piercing black eyes. Slowly getting unnerved, Damien decided it was time to leave this place and the weird quiet lady. But first, he had to confirm something.

  "Last question. How do I direct whatever spatial mechanism in this enchantment to where I want to go?"

  The woman stared at him for a moment, and then opened her mouth to reply.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Wait," Damien interrupted. "Let me guess. All I have to do is shout where I want to go and I'm gone. Is that it?"

  The woman stared at him for a second, and then slowly nodded.

  "Right," Damien nodded. Why wouldn't it be like that? Honestly, he could have left this place long ago had it not been that he was heading somewhere else other than his room. He already knew the way to open the portal to his room, but going elsewhere in this seemingly vast estate still eluded him. Thankfully, he'd found someone to enlighten him... Even if she was a little bit weird.

  With a nod and a murmured word of thanks, Damien placed the token on the tip of the illusory arrow, feeling his fingers tingle a little bit as it made contact with the illusory construct.

  Behind him, he could feel the eyes of the other occupant of this long hallway like a knife edge placed in between his shoulder blades.

  He cleared his throat, shook his body a little to wash off the nervousness and irritation, and then said in a loud and clear voice.

  "Library!"

  Damien waited in silence for a sign of a spatial opening. He blinked when after a second, there was no sign of a portal. Turning back, he leveled a—

  He barely had the time to react before a suction force, like the mouth of a whirlpool, dragged him through whatever opening had been created while his attention had been elsewhere.

  Damien staggered as he suddenly found himself in a room very unlike the one he'd just come from.

  It took a moment for the vertigo to wash away and then his eyes took in the very space he was in.

  Standing in the middle of a vast atrium large enough to fit one of Cirin's palace barracks with gracious space to spare, Damien's jaw couldn't help but drop down in shock.

  The walls were made of some kind of transparent black glass, inside of which ran a stream of water that poured from a source up in the distance where a great misty light shone down. The lower half of the walls were lined with flowers in beautiful, vibrant colors, each a stark contrast to the dark, brooding color of the wall against which they rested.

  Unlike the medical wing he'd just appeared from, this place wasn't void of people at all. In fact, it was basically brimming with them, a far greater number than what he'd seen since landing on the surface of this planet. Here and there, people in dark grey robes walked around, each bearing the Verrille's insignia, except this time it was joined by another: a black quill.

  Damien watched as those figures moved around, quiet in whatever task they moved to accomplish. They didn't even talk to each other as they moved, each wearing a peaceful and calm expression.

  The librarians weren't the only ones in the atrium. Here and there, Damien saw the figures of other people — non Librarians — appearing and disappearing from the atrium like liquid to a straw.

  On his entrance to the planet, he'd been fortunate to catch a glimpse of the many species that called this planet home, but it wasn't until now that he really had the chance to take in everything.

  To the side, a crimson humanoid walked by, holding a book in one hand while the other one kept turning the pages.

  One would have thought they were probably just scrolling through the pages had it not been for the four eyes, which traced down the pages with swift and razor-sharp attention... Like in that short moment, they'd managed to somehow grasp all that had been written on the page.

  The being barely paid attention to anything else as they walked past Damien, disappearing into nothingness a moment later.

  A polite cough drew him from his stupor and Damien turned his eyes to see a beastkin in one of those gray robes standing in front of him. The beastkin was from the cat race, with black stripes running down her yellowish soft fur. Their hands were folded just below their stomach as they regarded Damien with patient curiosity.

  Finally getting his attention, they spoke, and Damien suddenly realized that the person standing in front of him was a female.

  Her voice, soft yet firm, arrested his attention instantly. "Are you lost, sir?"

  "Sort of," Damien quickly answered. "I am in the right place, but I don't know which way to go about what I came for."

  "Ahh, I understand now. You're new, I take it?"

  He nodded.

  "Understandable," she said with a slow nod. "No problem. How may I be of assistance?"

  "As you've well deducted, I'm new here, both in this place and this world entirely, and due to some uncontrollable circumstances, I came here lacking more knowledge than I should," he said honestly. If he was supposed to find whatever book he wanted, he had to be willing to strangle his embarrassment and just ask.

  The woman nodded, expression unchanged, like she wasn't new to his situation at all. "Do not be ashamed," she said, seemingly seeing through to his inner emotions. "The pursuit of knowledge forgives the lack of it. I will help you."

  Damien nodded slowly, a little bit taken by the sageliness. Nevertheless, it was better than being stared upon like he was some kind of uncommon prey.

  "I'm looking for knowledge on the Celestials, the Lese World Cities, and the surrounding star nations." He paused. "Oh, and also the Upcoming tower climb event."

  At the moment, those three were the most urgent whose knowledge he needed to add to his arsenal.

  He might have been lucky to avoid getting into trouble, but that didn't mean it wasn't going to happen. Damien knew how rotten his luck was, especially when it came to people of authority. He needed to know who was who before he got into trouble.

  The cults were a major power in all civilization, so much so that Damien felt really embarrassed to say he had very little knowledge about them. Well, he was about to remedy that.

  Thankfully, unlike the first two, lack of knowledge on the third was not going to lead to a life or death situation... Probably. Still, since he was going to be participating, Damien needed to have more than a basic understanding of what he was getting into. A few months was hopefully enough for that.

  Knowledge of the Lese cities and their neighbors was so intertwined with the upcoming tower climb event that it would be frankly stupid for him to stay ignorant about them.

  Not only was he certain to encounter scions and geniuses from all those star nations, but the event, Merak had said, was another way for the ruling powers of this section of the Galaxy to scout talents and their characters. And unlike today, his lack of knowledge wouldn't excuse him should he mistakenly step on the toes of someone who should have been better left avoided.

  "Come with me," the librarian said, turning around and moving toward the other end of the atrium, "I'll take you to the registrar. You need a library token to smoothen your access rights."

  "Access rights?" Damien raised an eyebrow. "Isn't knowledge supposed to be unrestricted?"

  "You will learn, dear child," the woman said, and this time Damien detected a faint tone of amusement in her voice, "that sometimes, you just aren't ready for some kind of information."

  Walking a step behind the cat lady, Damien followed her into the Library proper.