Chapter 216

Jay's 'menu' was always available to him – all he had to do was think about it and focus on it appearing, and it did. There were options to manage notifications, manage his inventory, view his personal statistics, as well as a host of user interface settings.

Scrolling through the list he quickly found the Evolution menu and mentally selected it.

He was presented with a screen that at first appeared to be a wild, out of control, and poorly planned garden. There were five 'garden beds' that each held a group of plants. The beds weren't large and were close to but not equal in size.

He could inspect each garden bed and view its plants. The first one he selected had plants with thick wide trunks that tapered up to small tufts of leaves. The trunks were green and covered in tiny spots. The leaves were blue and sparkled in the light. The trunks were all pushed up against each other and twisted this way and that in an attempt to ensure each plant's leaves weren't covered up by another plant's leaves.

He could rotate the display to see the entire bed and all of its plants and for a moment Jay just played around with the interface and spun the garden bed around a bit. Eventually he got bored of that and decided to try something else. He thought about zooming in and suddenly he was presented with a close up of one of the plants' green trunks.

The trunk was covered with tiny holes too small to see without magnification. Jay thought about pulling the view back a bit and the display changed and the view widened a bit to show the entire bed once again. Jay noticed a plaque attached to the garden bed and zoomed in on it.

It read, simply, 'Strength,' and was written in flowing cursive letters. The 'Strength' bed of flowers was the same size as two other beds. So, three flower beds all the same size. That left two beds – one of which was smaller than the other three and one of which was larger.

Jay moved to one of the other beds and read the plaque attached to it.

'Dexterity' read the next bed. The Dexterity bed of flowers was made up of flowering green vines with tiny blue flower petals and berries of various colors. The garden bed was a mess and the vines made up a snarled tangle that was all fighting to get their flowers the most exposure.

Exposure to what though? There was no sunlight shown in the display. So what were the leaves 'collecting?'

Jay moved on to the next garden bed. Intelligence. This bed was the largest of all five garden beds and looked different from the others. The flowers were all over the place and the bed hadn't been planned out well at all. The flowers themselves however were mathematically perfect. Each crystalline flower was laid out so that each crystal like leaf on it would have the most access to...sunlight? What else would they be collecting? Jay wondered again about the plant's purpose.

The flowers in the Intelligence flower bed were unlike any Jay had seen before and shined like glass would. The flowers appeared to be a mix of plant and crystal and Jay could make out tiny crystal leaves growing along each delicate crystal stalk. They looked incredibly fragile.

Jay moved on to the next bed of flowers and his display showed him a bed with a plaque that read 'Wisdom.'

Jay was beginning to sense a theme there. The Wisdom plants looked similar to the Intelligence flowers. They were made up of both plant and crystal, but were far more organic looking. The leaves still appeared to have a mathematical progression to them but the entire bed had been arranged in a more natural manner. There was a flow to the arrangement that was missing from the Intelligence flower bed.

Finally Jay turned his attention to the last flower bed which was the smallest. 'Charisma' read the plaque on the front of the flower bed. The flowers though – the flowers in the Charisma bed were a riot of bright fluorescent colors and had slender dark green stems and giant wide petals all brightly colored.

Jay paused and pulled his view back until he could make out all of the beds at once from an overhead view. What a mess. The flower beds had no overall design to them. There was nothing neat about the layout, everything had been haphazardly planted with no regard to appearance.

Without even meaning to an observation bubbled to the surface of his thoughts.

That was one messy garden. It needed a lot of work.

Above the garden as a whole hung a flowery title on a wooden board. He focused on the title and the word became clear enough to read. It read, simply, “Jay”

That brought up some interesting and possibly concerning possibilities, Jay thought to himself.

The Charisma garden looked full. Really full. It needed more room or to be cut back a bit, one or the other.

Jay looked around for some way to interact with the displays but found nothing. No matter what he did all he could manage to do was view the plant beds and plants from various angles and magnifications.

Jay sighed as he gave up, and just in time too, as Norri arrived at the table and unceremoniously dropped her tray on to it with a loud clatter. No one looked over to see what the noise was though, everyone was too busy eating.

Jay closed out his menus and pursed his lips as he thought over what he had seen and tried to figure out what it was and how to use it.

“Morning Jay!” Norri said with a mischievous grin.

“Good morning Norri. Thank you for hitting me in the head with a rock first thing in the morning,” Jay answered with a deadpan expression.

Norri giggled. “Sorry! Well, a little...” she replied with a wide grin.

They were interrupted as Aiden and M'redith arrived.

M'redith held her hair back from her face with one hand as she leaned down and gave Jay a quick kiss hello before she sat down in the seat next to him and began to eat. Four egg omelets, fried shredded hash browns, bacon, buttered white toast, and green seedless grapes covered everyone's trays and Jay suddenly remembered that he had yet to touch his tray.

“You look like you've seen a ghost or something. Why so glum looking?” M'redith asked as she tossed a grape in to her mouth and popped it with her teeth.

Jay shook his head, “I'm not glum. I'm confused. I worked out this morning,” he started but was interrupted by Aiden.

“Workouts can be very confusing for beginners,” he said with a teasing smile.

Jay grinned, “Ha. Ha. Funny. Seriously though – I did my normal workout, my weapons workout, but I also did the statistics workout I showed you guys a little bit ago.”

“Oh yeah! That was gross!” Norri said and made a disgusted face. She was referring to the oily and tacky substance that they had all sweat out of their pores while they had performed the statistics workout.

“Yeah, well, I cleaned you right up afterwards so why the complaints? ANYHOW – I managed to do it well? Or well enough? The system graded me and unlocked a new menu item.” Jay finally explained.

“Oooo! I want a new menu item!” Norri said with a grin and Jay laughed.

“You'd probably do better than I have so far. All I can do is view garden beds.” Jay said with a sigh. “I can't get it to do anything.” Jay said in frustration.

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Norri blinked. “Maybe it doesn't do anything. Maybe it's just there to give you information. Wait. Garden beds? What kind of menu item is that?”

Jay looked around before he answered. “The menu item is labeled Evolution.”

Norri raised an eyebrow and M'redith took over the conversation.

“You've already looked through it though, you're sure it doesn't do anything?” M'redith asked.

Jay shrugged. “I'm pretty sure. I would have noticed if there were controls available outside of just viewing.”

“Is there anything else that might help you figure out what they are?” M'redith asked.

Jay put out one hand and waggled it a bit to show uncertainty. “Each bed is named after a personal statistic. So Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.”

“So it shows your stats to you as a garden? How is that helpful?” Aiden asked in confusion.

Jay grinned, “I don't know. But I'd like to find out. I'm guessing it is somehow connected to doing the statistics workout – that was what unlocked it in the first place.”

M'redith ran her fingers through her hair and tapped the table with one fingernail. “Have you looked in your Mighty Book to see if the chapter on statistics has changed?”

Jay hadn't even thought of that, but he should have. Jay slapped his forehead with one hand and groaned. “I hate it when I miss the easy solutions.”

Norri giggled but said nothing as her mouth was full of bacon.

Jay still hadn't even touched his breakfast but moved to set his book on the table. M'redith stopped him.

“Nope. No. You need to eat first. You know you do! You have a big night tonight! Eat your breakfast and you can read up on ancient mysteries after you've finished your food.” M'redith said in a motherly tone.

Jay laughed, but she was right. He'd do poorly if he tried to go through the day without eating. He didn't get nearly as bad as Aiden did on low blood sugar but it was bad enough. Jay sighed and gave M'redith a long suffering look before he ate a fork full of fried shredded hash browns.

“Oh man, these are good,” Jay remarked after he had swallowed his bite. They were salty and crunchy and delicious. He momentarily forgot all about statistics and gardens and focused instead on his breakfast. The flavors were amazing, the bacon crispy, and the grapes tart. Delicious.

They all ate their breakfasts in silence for a time as they were all starving and enjoying their meals. M'redith and Norri finished theirs first.

“So today is more optional classes – if you have any scheduled that is. Then tonight we have Jay's grand opening. Big day,” Norri observed.

M'redith shook her head and after a moment answered. “I'm not sure anyone is going to class today.”

“Why not?” Aiden asked, suddenly interested.

“No books? No library? What are they going to teach from? Notes? Their memories?” M'redith asked.

“But can't they just...hrm,” Norri said but stopped as she considered the problem for longer than two seconds. “I wonder what they'll do?”

M'redith nodded, “Me too. Certainly throws everything off schedule for anyone that needs a book. Will they cancel classes? Push through and try to hold classes anyway? Or some third option I haven't even considered?”

Jay shrugged as he finished eating his final piece of bacon. “They're optional classes – we'll be fine. Besides. After we graduate we'll be able to pay for our own Guild courses. Full members can attend class as long as they're willing to pay for it.”

M'redith laughed. “Some of us would rather have our sponsors pay for our classes rather than pay out of our own pockets. We're not all rich,” she said as she lightly teased Jay.

Aiden and Norri nodded and Jay smiled.

Jay nodded, “I guess I deserved that. Didn't think it through. Don't worry – if we need classes I'm sure we'll have enough to pay for them. We're all already a bit wealthy – our finances should improve quite a bit once we are out of training and able to pursue our own dungeon runs.”

Jay leaned back in his seat and put one hand on his belly which was now quite full. He wanted to open his Mighty Book and start reading but Norri had finished her meal and had collected everyone's trays and left to drop them off. There was no time to read, it was time to go.

“What, no backpack?” Norri asked when she returned as she noticed Jay get up and grab only his staff.

Jay shook his head, “No need for it at breakfast. I can always grab it if I need it for class,” he answered as he picked off a bit of dirt that had somehow gotten attached to the staff.

The group followed each other out of the dining hall, M'redith moved out first.

“Come on guys, let's go check the schedule posted outside of the Training Hall,” M'redith said as they all stepped out into bright sunlight. Thankfully the season had gradually begun to change and it was not as hot as it had been at the same time when Jay had first arrived in K'tharkle. The air now was still warm but lacked the heat of summer air.

They walked behind a group of Librarians who also were traveling along the path they were using. The Librarians moved faster than most people did thanks to their longer stride. The Librarians quickly outpaced Jay and his party and faded in to the distance before they took a right turn on to another path.

As the group arrived in front of the Training Hall they were presented with chaos. There were students everywhere, teachers running this way and that, and where the schedules should be posted were only blank wood where the pages would be hung.

“What in Eden is going on here?” M'redith asked at the same time Norri said, “Goddess!”

The area in front of the Training Hall was dotted with a number of black and teal clad Librarians, each of whom were standing at attention; living reminders that on Eden Librarians were not to be trifled with.

The message was clear to everyone present. The Librarians were there as a show of force. Paired with the complete loss of the Library and its services the message was easy to decipher: Libraries were a privilege, not a right, and could be taken away at a moment's notice.

A nearby student had overheard M'redith's and Norri's remarks and answered them as if they had been asking a real question and not merely reacting to the scene in front of them.

“The Librarians shut down the library! They kept all the schedules and training materials there! The teachers are all trying to figure out how to run a class without books, schedules, or training materials. I think we might get the day off!” a girl with dark hair and bright green eyes said. She wore two knives at her waist in sheaths, one on either side of her body.

M'redith nodded in thanks before the girl moved on and ran after one of her friends.

“Looks like things are even worse than we feared if they're thinking about shutting down classes for the day,” M'redith muttered just loud enough for the group to hear her.

Jay had been hoping to take an intermediate traps class that day. It didn't look like that would be happening. Then he'd be running the graduation exercise this weekend and then... graduation? If he didn't attend an intermediate traps class before graduation then he'd have to pay for it himself.

Jay suddenly realized that even though he could pay for his own classes, not many other people could. What he was witnessing was a mini riot starting as students were suddenly being told that they couldn't take the classes that their patrons had already paid for. The optional classes might be optional for students, but they were pre-paid for by their sponsor.

Now, with the closure of the library those optional classes might not be offered. Students would have to pay for the optional classes on their own when they were next offered.

Students were not thrilled with this plan, and some were becoming a bit rowdy and were beginning to yell at the teachers in front of the schedule board. These were not just random people but armed students who had been given over a month's training in combat.

A tense situation if there ever were one.

The Librarians gathered around didn't smile, or frown, or react. They especially didn't try to help. They stood, motionless, as a reminder – and watched.