Desmond was walking through an immaculately maintained garden on his way to the Noble District of the Lodge. Even if it was called the Noble District, there was more to it than that, as even the Church had facilities set up there. Since this place was one of only two calamity class facilities that the Empire controlled, almost every important noble house within the Empire was represented here. Even if this Lodge facility itself was only located inside a disaster class zone, it was still considered a calamity class Lodge because of its proximity to a higher tired area.
Desmond took the scenic route, passing through a garden. The weather was still mild, and the trees were just starting to get their fall colors. At this time of the day, many people were up and about, which meant Desmond had to stop and greet several groups of hunters he knew along the way. Even with this delay, he made good time and soon arrived in front of a large wooden structure with many people coming and going.
This was the Grand Library, which was managed by the Academia faction within the Empire. They were a group of mages dedicated to learning and the advancement of magic. Unlike both the Lodge and the Church, which were continent-spanning forces, Academia was an Empire-only faction. However, they still held significant sway within the Empire and were no less influential than the other groups.
Desmond joined the stream of people and entered the building. Once inside, he found himself in a small lobby area. There were doors in front of him that led into the general library, but Desmond knew he would not find Garrick there. He made his way off to the side and started ascending a staircase. There was a restricted library up here that Desmond had convinced Garrick to give him access to. When he got to the top, he had to show his lodge plate to the guards before he was allowed access.
Desmond walked into a relatively small library with only about two dozen or so bookshelves set up. Well, it was small compared to the general library downstairs. There were also significantly fewer people, as Desmond could only see 3 other patrons. Desmond walked over to an alcove area between some of the bookshelves. Several tables and chairs were set out for reading, and he found Garrick in his usual spot with a gargantuan-sized book in front of him.
Garrick was an elderly man who looked to be in his early to mid-sixties with a long white beard. Desmond had no idea what Garrick’s actual age was. However, he was pretty sure Garrick was one of the few people in this Lodge at apocalypse class. A high Constitution stat led to a longevity effect, and by the time people hit apoc class, they could live for several hundred years. Garrick still looked decently fit despite his age, and he was wearing the standard plain gray robes of a Lodge staff officer.
“Hey Garrick, I was wondering if you could help me with something,” Desmond said in a friendly voice.
“Oh Dez, good to see you lad. I’m sorry about what happened to Ben. It is such a shame,” Garrick said with a sad face while never looking away from his large magic tome. “He had so much potential as a fire mage.”
“Thanks. It’s a dangerous life we have chosen to live,” Desmond replied with a fake downcast expression. Desmond felt like he was getting better at it, not that Garrick would notice as the man had yet to look up from his book.
“But let’s not dwell on the sad things we can’t change. I also saw you finally got Riki to go out on a hunt with you,” Garrick said as he flipped a page in the enormous book. “It’s about damn time if you ask me, she has been wallowing in her self-regret for too long. She is too talented for that.”
Desmond was stunned for a moment. Where had Garrick got the notation that he and Riki went hunting together? Garrick was a high-ranking Lodge official with great connections. But he could also be surprisingly dense and old-fashioned sometimes.
“Yeah, it had taken some convincing to get her to go out hunting again,” Desmond replied without breaking stride. “But what gave away that we went out hunting together? I thought we were pretty secretive about it.”
“You forget Dez,” Garrick said with a smile while still clearly reading his book. “I’m the one who manages the Lodge’s arrays. Seeing who is coming and going is an everyday thing for me.”
So, does this mean Riki followed him when he left to kill Ben? Even when he had explicitly asked her not to. A small part of him was a little pissed off that she didn’t trust him, but a much larger part was just happy that she cared so much. It would seem that it wasn’t just dumb luck that he didn’t get eaten out there when he fell unconscious. He would have to do something nice for her when things calmed down.
“They really got you doing all the leg work, at your age?” Desmond asked as he sat down in the chair beside Garrick. “Doesn’t the Lodge have like, apprentices for that?”
“For the more menial things yes,” Garrick replied. “But the arrays can only be accessed by high-level staff.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Desmond responded.
“So then, to what do I owe this visit?” Garrick asked as he turned another page in the oversized book. “I know you’re not here just to hear about my work.”
“Actually, I wanted to pick your brain about a few things,” Desmond said as he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the table. “What do you know about the soul?”
“Right into psychology Dez? I didn’t know you had an interest in this topic,” Garrick stated as he finally looked up from his book to stare pointedly at Desmond’s feet.
“I would call it a passing interest,” Desmond remarked as he looked up at the ceiling and completely ignored Garrick’s nonverbal cue. “But if you would humor me, I would like to know a little more about it.”
“Fine then,” Garrick said as he cleared his throat and gave up on trying to get Desmond to remove his feet. “The soul is an interesting and deep topic, and there are many theories out there about it. But for now, I will just tell you the standard and widely accepted information among scholars. The soul is considered to be immortal, they can’t be created or destroyed in any way. When a soul’s body dies, it travels to some place where they are cleansed and made pure again before it can be reborn. Tell me Dez, have you heard of the multiverse theory?”
“Isn’t that where there are many versions of our world that are all slightly different and exist in parallel to each other? Something about how different choices lead to different iterations of our world.” Desmond said while he thought back to how the theory worked in his last life.
“Not exactly,” Garrick said as he looked at Desmond stunned for a moment. Clearly, Garrick wasn’t expecting him to know anything about this subject matter. “But it’s not too far off, depending on how you think about it. The multiverse theory states that there are many different worlds or planes of existence out there and that they are all separated from one another by the void. I bring this up because it’s believed that souls pass through this void after death, and it’s the void that somehow cleanses them. This means that your soul is not reborn in the same world that you die in, and this lets souls pass from world to world as they are needed. Now, I can guarantee you that the multiverse theory is real, but the knowledge on souls is all purely theoretical. What literature we have on the topic is noticeably lacking any kind of hard evidence.”
“Wait, you can prove other worlds exist?” Desmond asked while being a little excited by the prospect. “Have you been to one before? What was it like?”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Hold on, I haven’t been to any other worlds myself,” Garrick said while bringing his attention back to his book. “But to understand this, you have to know a little about history. A bit over 20 thousand years ago, our world was devastated. There was a mass die-off of all living things that we in the scientific community call the Balsiran Extinction Event. This separated the current era from the Era of the Gods.”
“Wait like, real gods?” Desmond asked. “What does that even look like?” Desmond had lived in this world for the past 27 years and had never come across anything that was particularly godly. Sure, there was the Church and their goddess, but they had never done anything that couldn’t be explained away with just magic.
“Gods are tier 10 plus,” Garrick stated. “And no, there are none in our world today. Just let me finish then you can ask your damn questions. Now, where was I? Little survived this extinction event, but the Era of the Gods was significantly more advanced than our own, so we do have a few reliable pieces of information to go on. In this God Era, our world was much more connected to others, and people could move freely to and from our world. Our planet seemed to be some sort of neutral ground between two larger forces. You could think of it like a free city-state stuck between two Empires. The two galaxy-spanning Empires were apparently on hostile terms with one another. From what the records say, our planet held a peace conference of sorts. Which doesn’t make sense to me as our world seemed to be profiting greatly from the hostile relationship. But, I guess we will never know the true intentions of people who lived over 20 thousand years ago. Either way, it doesn’t change what happened, the two factions ended up in a full-blown war, and our planet was the first battleground.”
“So our whole world was ravaged by war?” Desmond asked. “Sure, that’s devastating, but how does that end in an extinction event?”
“A war between gods is not like anything we have seen in our lives,” Garrick said in a serious tone while looking up from his book. “I have no record of how this event actually happened, as my primary source cuts off here. But we know from fossil records that around 95 percent of all living things died at around this time. For more information, we have to look to the Church, but it’s best to take their records with a grain of salt. They say that Antulia, the goddess of the moon, descended to our broken world. She gathered the survivors and then built a massive monument that would cut our world off from the rest of the multiverse so that it would be able to heal. This apparently also had the effect of lowering the magic concentration across the whole planet. To this day, that monument still stands in the Holy City.”
Desmond found this topic exceedingly interesting. This might even mean that his world from his past life was out there somewhere. He didn’t exactly have a desire to return to his old world, but it was comforting to know it likely still existed.
“So what you’re saying is, if that monument is destroyed, we could travel to other worlds again like in the past?” Desmond joked.
“Only you would see it like that,” Garrick said with a smile. “But be careful, the Church would kill you for even thinking about it. It’s their great Holy Monument after all.”
“Oh, I don’t intend to do anything like that,” Desmond replied unconvincingly.
“Don’t make me regret telling you this Dez,” Garrick said as he returned his focus to his book.
“Don’t worry, I remember the whole speech,” Desmond said as he put on his best Garrick impression. “Knowledge is power, and how you use this power I give, is up to you. Just don’t be a dick!”
“That is not what I sound like, or what I said,” Garrick replied with an amused look on his face.
“Yeah, but I feel it was a pretty good summary,” Desmond said. “It’s much easier to remember it like this.”
“You know, I might just use that line one of these times,” Garrick said with a smile. “You got any other question Dez?”
“Feel free, consider it yours,” Desmond replied. “But I would love to see the confused face of the apprentice you use this on. Anyways, that was everything, for now. Wait! One more question, I almost forgot. What do you call the natural-born effects people have?” That was about the best way Desmond could think to phrase it.
“You mean like you’re own super strength?” Garrick asked back.
“Yeah! Just like that, what are they called?”
“Hmmmm,” Garrick took a moment to think. “Generally, they are referred to as legacies. But there is far more to them than just being passed from parent to child. It is also possible to, for example, earn or acquire legacies throughout your life, and then pass that on to your offspring as well. It is also documented that you can inherit a legacy from grandparents or great-grandparents, though the odds of that are rare. It is even known that you can acquire a legacy from a powerful beast core. Basically, you could have gotten your super strength in many different ways, Dez. Trying to find out how you obtained it is likely a pointless endeavor. I would recommend just enjoying it, and having lots of kids, just to ensure you pass it on.” Garrick breaks out laughing after this.
That wasn’t why Desmond was asking about it, but he saw no reason to correct Garrick’s line of thinking. He was slightly tempted to tell Garrick about the Soul Realm he could visit. Garrick would no doubt be a great source of information on the topic. But even though he trusted Garrick, he was still a little worried the man might try to use him like a human lab rat if he knew. So he had decided to hold off on telling him, for now at least.
“Children and being a hunter don’t exactly go well together,” Desmond replied.
“Then maybe it’s time you took a break?” Garrick said casually. “With your Constitution, you could probably live at least as long as me. Spending a few decades raising kids is nothing in the grand scheme of things. It’s a weird paradox I tell ya. Hunters risk their lives to gain power and longevity, only to keep risking their lives and die young. If you want the advice of an old man, take your time in life, there is no point in rushing it.”
It wasn’t bad advice, but Desmond didn’t feel it suited him. He also felt that Duke Valmesh wouldn’t just let him live a casual life even if he wanted to. But he would entertain the thought at least.
“Thanks for the advice, old man! I’ll think on it. Now, I’m going to get out of here before you jump into another sermon,” Desmond said as he swung his feet off the table.
“Wait up there youngster, we still haven’t talked about the First Empire or even touched on the royal family’s legacies at that,” Garrick said in a half-joking voice. “They have done some good work on how legacies are passed on. I could spend a whole day just talking about their research.”
“I bet you can, but would you look at that time,” Desmond joked as he pointed up at the clock. “I suddenly have to be anywhere else. I’ll talk to you later, Garrick.”
“Take care, Dez,” Garrick said with a chuckle while still reading his tome.
“You to Gerrick, thanks for the help. I would hate to have to actually look for a book in here,” Desmond joked as he made his way to the library door. Did he even waste any of Garrick’s time? The man had hardly even looked up from that book of his. Desmond knew Garrick was able to multitask to the point where he could hold a full conversation while reading. He wondered how much Intellect one needed to pull that off. It was probably far beyond what he would ever get. Stopping his train of thought, Desmond walked out of the Grand Library into a beautiful fall evening.