Chapter 130

“I must also say that it isn't just a matter of a few years or decades old histories. The Dawn created some new history and era, sure, but this isn't all about it, Will! It is about centuries, millennia, and millions of years. That's how far history goes.” Ellie started to explain her methods. She didn't have to think too much about this, since this place had always been open to her. What changed with her elevated privileges was something else.

For now, she was patient with her new purposes and didn't run away from anything. These next three floors were as open for her as before. Nothing about them needed some very big recollections.

Her new documents were about the upper floors and some sections in history that required some specific ideas for Walkers. It shocked her, frankly. She didn't think that Burton and Heidi had special methods for Walkers like William. It seemed her year-long obsession with history hadn't touched everything.

Ellie"stole and borrowed" many things from the storage offices to learn about some ancient or secret sides of history and uncommon knowledge. As far as it didn't regard Darks too much, she was left with barely any talks. For a young employee, it was rather beyond her means.

“Much further than the millennia? That is thousands of years, right? Wait... millions. Isn't the universe billions of years old?” William blurted out a random fact that he read about years ago. He wasn't even sure how he remembered it so well, or how to imagine such a long stretch of time. Even a decade seemed like an eternity to him, so what was a millennium?

“Billions? We are talking about a different breed of history. Here, this planet's history is enough for us. You will understand what I mean. It is a very interesting subject. This Earth, I mean. Years add a lot of things together and people made notes about all sorts of things. Either by boredom, interest, or necessity, there once lived some interesting people. Eventually, their knowledge grew to massive areas, sites, and archives scattered around the world. Hence, forgetting history is like disregarding the greatness of the human race! It is poor. Scandalous!” Ellie talked like a professional attendant she always felt like.

She learned for years about it and did a lot of private research in hopes of work and discovery. It was worth the effort, yet without going out of there, it was a bit shameful, but nothing about these upcoming floors would hinder her voice.

It will be a long lecture. There was no doubt about it, and it was good that she was basically quiet since the last night, so her vocal cords were ready.

Learning about Darks and Walkers helped with the rest of her apprehensions, or it completely shifted her heart and mind in a different direction. It was still like a seed, but now, it was already growing into a strong luscious flower.

It will get stronger. Her curiosity wasn't bleak and she needed time to get this new knowledge to her head. It was kind of hard. She lacked time, and if she had to give William what they demanded, days wouldn't end up simple, or short.

Upon learning and reading through a variety of shocking reveals, Ellie felt strange apprehension and excitement. This will be a huge experience for her, if not something that will change everything about her.

She hoped that with this chance under her belt, she would get special treatment from Heidi later down the line, or become part of something greater. For example, taking care of young Walkers like William would guarantee a great factor for the library. It would influence many things about the Federation that had been lacking for years.

Ellie believed that knowledge and youths were lacking because this age was wrong. She would love to spend some days with them and broaden their horizon, or it could be even for weeks, or...years? Wouldn't that be a school? A Walker school? That was a strange hope for someone like her because she didn't think this sort of thing existed right now. Walker had a different kind of school, and that was the military and various drills or mentorship of older Walkers.

For now, there was almost no way for regular people to teach Walkers.

Walkers taught Walkers. That was the norm. But what about young ones who weren't so lucky to get recruited or taught by Walkers? That argument was something that Ellie thought of for years and she wasn't alone. Unfortunately, the present landscape of the Federation wasn't suitable for such options, or it wasn't willing to change, even if it wasn't a wrong idea.

Ellie insisted on trying, and she saw the perfect example in William, as well as gratifying confirmation that this idea wasn't wrong in the slightest.

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Even here in the Federation, there were a ton of young Walkers who weren't part of anything, while Outside was even worse. Wouldn't it be better to grasp every single one of them?

Alas, this wasn't all about knowledge. Tackling the problem that was the Awakening and the following time was kind of hard. Ellie did not need to think that far. Teaching followed many things and could help anyone young. It could end. It could lead somewhere.

It was nothing but an optimistic view, which Ellie never knew would get accepted by Assembly Island which was the overwhelming place that handled most Walkers in these lands. Also, she was fearful of Burton and his personality and what would he think. He spent many decades on these matters. As for Heidi, she wouldn't care for such ideas as long as they would be fun and validating for her library or personality.

Ellie pointed at the door, hoping for William to get it. “There is a single entrance. One will need a special pass that costs some credits. It has tiers ranging from ten to fifty credits for a single visit. It has no time limitations, so this museum acts like a business. You can even spend a whole day inside.”

“T-ten? Fifty?! Isn't it expensive? Who would even afford this?” William asked in shock and didn't understand such prices.

“Right, I agree. It is a bureaucratic idea. It is stupid, some might even say. I wished it was that simple. I would say the basic single entry would suffice for everyone once in their lives. Just once! Even a single visit would shake them up and broaden their minds. That should be good, right?”

“That...” William fell speechless and figured her reasoning made sense. If it was fine to visit this once, then what were ten credits, or this... range? “Wait, what is this ridiculous range? What is a fifty credit pass?”

“A good question. Those aims for restricted connected places, rooms, and private, or sensible matters of this library. You don't even know how much went into this, and how many workers this floor has and had. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of people have time to waste on this floor. Working and giving the Federation what it deserves is adequate, some would say. Shops and many places are luxuries that people don't want to touch for good reasons. Either they don't need it, it's too bothersome, or expensive. I would make this place free if I could, but time is time. There is no solution to that besides some peace.”

William nodded in agreement, while Ellie entered her lecturing mode.

William put his card into the handle of the door as per her instructions, opening the big doors into the wall. Not inwards or out. It slid right inside the wall.

“Wow, this is a nice door.”

“It is a work of art. You don't want to bump into anything. The exhibitions are art and expensive in time and effort. All doors are like this inside.”

In front of William, a massive open hangar spread. The ceiling was at least fifteen feet tall and there were small walls in some places and rooms that depicted some rooms, restricted spaces, galleries, or separation for exhibitions.

Right in front of him was a basic welcoming entrance. There was something wild, grotesque, and huge. Made of thick gray bones, many strings, and tall like a ceiling, it was an utter monster. Not Dark, he assumed. He would get it, he knew. This one died a long time ago.

“A monster?” William blurted out.

“Yeah, that is usually a phrase I hear a lot. This right there is a prehistoric beast from millions of years into the past. Is it not impressive? Taller than any land animal before the Dawn, such things were common on Earth, walking when the Earth was different in the very sheer existential and biological point. Oxygen was different. The land was thriving without any buildings, and these monsters were the kings!”

“W-what? This thing is from that far past? It isn't some carefully deboned Dark??” William hesitantly argued. He wasn't some expert in Darks. No. He was the exact opposite since Canada had rather moderate Darks around.

Further into the south, or across the world, their variety was in thousands of kinds, if not more. As a whole, Canada saw a part of the whole picture that made up Dark's eccentric evolving and corrupting Madness. And William saw much more than that since he wasn't in Canada all his life.

“A Dark, you say? Oh, that is a bit extreme. This one isn't that as far as I am concerned. It is a skeleton that was retrieved many ages ago. There were many destroyed museums in America with tons of goods, and this one went through a careful restoration through the historical development of this library. Even some Walker organizations were interested in helping restore certain things from human history. Mainly, it was sir Kaufman who did the heavy lifting and made this possible. He likes this sort of thing, you see.”

“Huh? Kaufman? Is it even worth it? Is it not important to care more about lives and human survival?” William could not comprehend the need to care so much about this history.

For all that he should care about, those people who restored a skeleton of a dead monstrous animal must have a loose screw in their brains. This meaningless creature was nothing but a husk that no longer mattered. Coming closer to it, he read a small paragraph on a panel below it, uncovering its name decided by people that he couldn't even spell or say properly.

“I don't find this Tyranosomething is all that impressive.” William shamelessly said, but could not help but be personally shocked by the sheer size of this skeleton towering over him. He had seen a lot of Darks and Walkers in his life. Some were bigger than this, so did it count as something good or bad?

Assuming it was some form of Dark wasn't surprising. Many of them were strange because of Dark Aspects and Corruption, or cannibalism amongst them created rather strange mutations. Add to that Arcana that some Darks possessed in variety of forms, and their lifeforms could be less than coherent or adhering to common sense.

William knew the appearance of a lot of monsters from his memory, but it was like a droplet in comparison to the upper floors that he was bound to visit and see very soon. Perhaps. He had no clue how deep and impressive the upcoming three floors were.