The library proper, as Damien would call it, wasn't that much different from the atrium they'd just stepped out of. It was in the shape of a cone, rising in a twisting circle into the sky, stretching far beyond what Damien's eyes could even perceive.

  Lining the interior, like a spring encased inside a container, was a long, twisting staircase snaking its way from the foot of the cone to the distant top, which was hidden in a fog of bright, foggy white light. What was it with this planet and their love for mists?

  Like the interior of a wealthy merchant store, the walls of the library—starting from the second floor—were lined with thousands upon thousands of books, each differentiated only by the color of their hardcovers. Damien didn't fool himself into thinking that all he saw was all there was. There were certainly a thousand more books lining the walls deeper in those corridors.

  Scrap that, there must be millions of books here!

  Calmly, they approached a huge, tall, bronze colored table lining one side of the huge ground floor, behind which stood numerous species, even more than Damien had seen on his way into the planet, or even in his entire life.

  He caught sight of a human-looking person, a male, except instead of the single ears all humans had on each side of their heads, this one had two, each pair ending in pointy ends that dropped downward.

  The man smiled, seemingly reacting to something amusing that was said by the person sitting opposite him. And although their back were to Damien, he still recognized the similar features they shared with the librarian opposite them.

  Damien opened his mouth to ask the librarian in front of him about what type of species both men were, but he paused. He didn't know why, but he felt reluctant to ask her, so he called on someone else, someone he should have spoken with a while ago.

  "Hello, Gray," Damien said inside his mind and then braced, waiting for what he was sure would be a flood of chatter in his mind. But instead, Gray's voice was quiet, subdued.

  [Hey.]

  Damien frowned. "What's with the gloomy attitude?"

  There was a short silence, and with obvious hesitation, Gray replied. [You aren't angry at me?]

  "Angry at you? Why?"

  This time, when Gray replied, he wasn't hesitant anymore. Instead, he sounded surprised and... Was that hope Damien detected?

  [I was not there to help you when the Spirit King attacked, Damien. With a little bit of warning from me, you could have avoided the injury that left you bedridden for days.]

  "Oh," Damien blinked in surprise.

  Now that he thought about it, he should have been pissed. Gray's silence had almost resulted in him becoming a mind-hijacked puppet of some twisted creature. Had he not been able to fend off the creature, he would have been lost by now.

  A deeper part of Damien, though. A part he didn't know existed... Relished that moment, that thrill. That tension that pervaded him when he stepped on the shaky string of life. For some unknown reason, Damien didn't regret that moment. Instead, he felt the opposite, and wouldn't have minded to be put in the same situation again.

  He could feel his mental strength now, how much it'd grown. It wasn't something much, compared to what he'd felt from Keilan, but it was still noticeable.

  That attack, although deadly as it had been, had tempered his mind, made him stronger. No, he wasn't pissed, he was thrilled.

  "I'm not angry at you, Gray. On the contrary, I'm quite pleased. Having a mind contest with a Spirit King was nothing short of advantageous in its rewards. I'd probably do it again," Damien said truthfully.

  Feeling the attention of the little gray man, which was made weird in that he was silent, Damien asked.

  "What?"

  [Nothing,] Gray said slowly. [I just didn't expect that at all. You've changed.]

  "Bahh, it was expected," Damien waved it away. "The path to the top is not filled with roses. I know that, and so does everyone. Refusing to subject myself to pain to benefit will see me dead faster than a newly ascended Foundation realm wielder."

  [That's true.]

  And then they settled into silence, Damien following right behind the cat lady as she finally reached the librarian's table.

  He frowned as he got there, finally remembering why he'd called out to Gray, but by then, it was too late.

  A man stood up just as they approached, taking a token and some books from the hands of a Beast kin librarian.

  "Here you go, Mr Galaris," the librarian said, handing over the books and the token. "Have a nice read."

  "Thank you," The man replied with a nod as he collected the items, turning around a moment later and disappearing into the silent crowd.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  The cat lady nodded to the librarian as they came to a stop before him, with Damien moving to take the recently vacated long stool, also nodding in greeting as he sat.

  "Master Destrul," the cat lady greeted. "I have a newcomer who wishes to access our archives, but first, he'll need a token."

  The man, master Destrul, was a humanoid turtle wearing an exquisite ash-colored suit, with the collar of a white shirt peaking out from the top. A tiny silver metal quill was pinned to the collar, mirroring the silvery insignia on the breast of his suit: a metal quill crisscrossing a red thunderbolt. It wasn't hard for Damien to understand what it meant.

  The man was a librarian of the Verille house. Looking at the insignia made Damien wonder if the librarians from other Lese Worlds also bore the insignia of their Sovereigns.

  Most likely.

  The turtle man looked at the cat lady. "Calestra, always so formal," he smiled and said in a quiet voice that reached the ears of Damien and disappeared, leaving the rest of the floor impervious to it. "How are you, by the way? I didn't expect you to be back from your assignment so soon. How was it?"

  The cat lady, Calestra, smiled, revealing deadly sharp fangs in what Damien would have interpreted as an intimidating gesture had they not been in a library and she a librarian. Still, he couldn't help but shiver slightly.

  "An unforeseen event occurred, and the assignment had to be canceled."

  "Oh?" Destrul said and then leaned closer, so much so that Damien made clear the shell that hung onto his back, smooth and brownishly dull. "What happened? I didn't expect the young lord to give up on his endeavor so fast."

  Calestra said nothing. Instead, she glanced at Damien who was sitting there, pretending like nothing was being said while his eyes roamed around.

  "I do not think this is the right place to have such a discussion, Master Destrul."

  The man followed her eyes, tracing from Damien to the other people on the nearby seats. With a serious expression, he nodded and then finally turned to Damien.

  "You say you want to access our archives? What books are you looking for?"

  "I need beginner information on the Lese World Cities, The Celestials, and the upcoming Tower Climb event."

  "Ahhh, a participant, I see" he nodded with a knowing smile.

  Damien chuckled hesitantly but nodded.

  "Don't be nervous; you're far from the first participant to grace this hall this week, or even this day."

  "I'm not?" Damien frowned.

  "Of course not!" The turtle man laughed, still managing to keep his voice from going past their gathering. At this point, Damien was starting to suspect magical play at work, but since he sensed nothing, he soon discarded the notion.

  Might be the work of intent, a thought cropped up in his mind, and Damien had to fight down the shiver that threatened to rise up his spine at the implication.

  Keilan, who was more adept at wielding his intent than Damien, wasn't so skilled that a working of his would go unnoticed. To achieve something like that, one would have to have had a long time of practice, decades to centuries kind. That didn't even excuse the probable fact that the man was simply far more powerful than Damien, even though he couldn't sense his aura.

  To be on the safe side, Damien shifted his mentality, taking both suspicions as true until proven otherwise. He turned his head subtly toward Calestra.

  Even you.

  "The Event will not begin for another few months, but that doesn't mean participants aren't already arriving," the man smiled with a pointed look at Damien. "You're standing evidence of that."

  "I guess so..." Damien said slowly. He shouldn't have been surprised that he and Keilan hadn't been the only participant on the planet. There were tons of geniuses around, many of which, admittedly, were more powerful than him. It shouldn't have surprised him that they'd already started arriving at Lese.

  "Why here, though?" He asked suddenly. "I have very little knowledge about the Tower Climb event, but even I know that Lese does not host it. So why're participants from various corners of the Galaxy arriving here?"

  "True, Lese does not host the event, but where we're situated is the closest to the Tower's entrance. To say it simply, Lese is just a pitstop for those attending the Event."

  "Ahh," Damien said with realization. "So every participant will soon make their way towards Ver here to wait for the tower to open?"

  "No—well, sort of," master Destrul blinked. "They will make their way to Ver, true. But Ver is not the closest planet, or even system, to the gate. There's a whole other location made solely for that... amongst other uses."

  "But—" Damien began but stopped when a short, polite cough interrupted him. He looked over to see the cat lady, Calestra, rolling her eyes with veiled amusement.

  "While I do appreciate this lively exchange, I suspect you both have other, perhaps more pressing, matters to attend to."

  Damien pouted, not at all happy at that. Destrul coughed, one of slight embarrassment with a hint of chagrin.

  "Ah... Right. You're correct as always, Calestra." The turtle man chuckled nervously and then brought down both his hands on his suits, wiping off nonexistent dust and straightening the undisturbed material.

  He clapped his three-fingered hands together, producing no sound at all, and said. "Right, three primers coming right up. But first, token."

  He looked at Damien.

  "Do you, perhaps, have an already existing token? I'm sure you were given a token right before landing planet side."

  Damien nodded, and then ruffled into his pocket, coming out with his token a moment later. He handed it to Destrul. "Will this work. It's for my residence."

  The other man looked down at the object, taking it from Damien and bringing it to his face for a closer look. The man tried to hide it, but Damien didn't miss the subtle widening of his pupil-less black eyes. His smile became a little strained as he pressed the token against a rune enchanted slab, which brightened up a little, its runic lines taken on a brief ethereal glow.

  He handed the token back to Damien, face still stretched in a strained, nervous smile. "Here you go, Mr Elason. I'll have your requested books up shortly."

  But Damien didn't hear him. He frowned, ruffling through his memories for when he'd given his name. Finding none, he looked back at the man. "I don't think I gave you my name. How did you know?"

  "He got it from the token," Calestra answered calmly, looking from Destrul to Damien with an inscrutable expression on her face.

  "The token?"

  "Yes. On entry into the planet, every one is given a token of identification, which holds basic information such as your name, residence, and some other information. Every institution you approach while on the planet will be able to access a measure of that information from your token, with greater clearance depending on how big the institution you approach."

  "Ahh, so a store will probably only have access to my name, while a big institution such as this—" he gestured around, "—will have access to more than that?"

  "Correct," the woman nodded, and soon after, turned back to Destrul, who was just retreating from a previously empty shelf, holding three light books in his hands.

  "Here you go, Mr. Elason," he handed the books over to Damien, tension written plain all over his face and posture.

  Damien wanted to ask what the matter was all about, but he suspected he already knew what it was.

  "You can find a reading table on the floors above this," Calestra said. "Just follow the stairs located around the corner." She paused. "And please, no flying."

  Damien nodded, muttered a thanks to both librarians, and then with three books in his hands, he walked towards the stairs.