Karan sneaked into the village without being seen by anyone. The crowd in the village had increased by then, which made it easier for him to get lost in the sea of people.
Another thing that he noticed as he entered the village was the wounds, the small cuts and bruises that he got while in the forest, were healed immediately as he entered the dome of the village. He didnt know how it was possible, but figured it might be something do with the dome that had surrounded the village.
It was worth looking into the future…
Navigating through the alleyways, which he had memorised till then, he made his way towards the library. And lo and behold, he came across a brown rustic old building, which was at least seven floors tall.
He had never seen that building the last time he was there.
What surprised him was the fact that the whole place was made of wood, making him question whether it was safe to go in. Just like Weapons Emporium, there was a sign just outside the building saying Arcane Library.
Lets get to see what I have gotten myself into, He thought as he entered the building.
The place was way bigger than it appeared. The first floor of the place was dedicated to books. There were rows and rows of bookshelves.
All the books were scattered around the place randomly, not in any particular order. He went through the titles of some of the books that were present there, and only some of them made sense to him.
There was a book called Compodium of Healing Herbs, whose title itself made sense of what this book was about. And then there was a one called Jwala Mukhi Phodhe. He didnt understand a word of what it meant. Some books were written in a dialect never heard or seen on Earth. There were several language books as well, which he thinks were meant to help them understand all those other books.
From what Karan skimmed through, there were at least five thousand books in the place, which was quite a lot. The strange thing was that the books were not free.
The prices of the books were mentioned with a window, as soon as you get close to one. No book was freely available to breeze through.
And some of them were as expensive. There was one that cost 190 Sovereign Runes. He didnt know how much that was in Time terms, but it is bound to be a lot considering hardly any book was worth that much.
The worst part was that this book's name was in a dialect that he could not understand.
The strangest thing in the library was not the books, but the subsequent floors. There were multiple individual rooms on the floors, which, according to signs, were available on an hourly rate. Not to mention, there were rooms on the higher floors that looked more expensive and more refined than others.
From what he got, they seem to be dedicated reading rooms.
***
With everything in the building explored, Karan stood at the entrance, trying to think whether it would be stupid if he gambled a little bit.
"You know…" he looked back. There was a kid, barely older than eleven, standing behind him. He didnt know that there are people here who are this young. "You can put them in your inventory."
Karan followed the gaze of the kid; he was staring at the hatchet and the saber that he had tucked inside his quiver. "Inventory?" he asked, remembering that there was indeed something with that name in his status window.
The kid sighed, "Think about putting your things away in inventory, and they would be gone. You can access them back, just by thinking about them,"
Karan took out the hatchet and tried it. Sure enough, the hatchet vanished when he wished it, and came back in milliseconds in his hands. It was a revolutionary thing.
"Thanks," Karan said as he put away every single one of his weapons. The kid nodded and then disappeared behind the shelves of the books.
Before meeting the kid, he was thinking about gambling. There was a book that he saw, it cost him 22 Sovereign Runes to read, and based on the spine of the book, it was in English. The absurd amount of time that the book cost was more than enough to deter anyone from even approaching it. But for Karan, saw potential that hardly anyone else could.
What do I have to lose? He decided and made his way to the other half of the library. Tucked in the small corner, in the remotest shelves, was a small book. Its name was Chronicles of Aether. The book was relatively small, not wider then average book out there. What stood out in the book was the word Aether.
Karan remembers it perfectly. When he entered the village for the first time, there was a window that mentioned Aether Interface. He doesn't really know what it meant, but looking back at the window and the book before, Karan had a feeling that this book might hold the answer to what he was looking for.
***
When Karan woke up, he found himself in the bed of his apartment. As he pushed himself, he started hearing voices from the adjacent room. He stood up quickly, cursing the Dreamscape, and then grabbed the lamp from his bedside. He pushed the door ajar to see what was happening. It is then that he saw three kids sitting on his couch, talking to each other.
He sighed, put back the lamp, and went to his living room. "What the hell are you guys doing here?" he said.
The only asian kid amongst the three instantly replied, "Looking out for your cowardly ass." The boy was named Chen, he was the oldest of the three, and was thirteen years old. Like the others, he lives in the slum down the road.
Then the caucasian kid chimed in, "We heard what happened yesterday, Chen said that we need to protect you." Jimmy was ten, and he was the smallest of the trio.
Ahmed, the Middle Eastern kid, spoke then, "And we brought you something as well."
"Brought me something?" The trio looked at each other, and Chen got up and came to him. From his hip, he produced a gun. It was a Fortrunner.45, a small caliber revolver.
"Where did you get the gun from?" Karan asked. A kid his age should not have access to such things.
Chen smiled mischievously, "We live in District 3. Guns here are more common than water here. Take Doc. You need it."
"You know I am a monk, right? I dont use guns, or will have implants on my body," Karan said.
By then, Ahmed also came to him, took the gun from Chen's hand, and shoved it into his. "Take care, doc," And with that, the trio left, leaving him standing with a gun in his hands…