“It is my job. A warning, though, not all janitorial staff still obey the roles of their jobs. I recommend caution the deeper you journey into the stacks. Good luck.” The hooded figure brought its hand up to its head for a salute. Libby returned it.
“We should attempt two more days of travel before resting in a reading room. I understand the last fight wasn’t pleasant, but we did eliminate a major predator from this section, which may actually give us a rare moment of safe travel.” Libby instructed the group.
“Yeah, I agree, though I wish we had the dogs. I understand they have their own quest, but their noses are hard to replace.” Andy pulled a small snack from his pocket. The new way he had channel mana had drained him, and he needed something to keep going, especially if the plan was to camp in the stacks tonight.
It turned out as the day’s travel continued that Mr. Wiggles made up surprisingly for the lack of dogs. He scouted ahead and returned with notes for his mother. Between her and Libby, they were able to guide the group around various obstacles. This meant that the rest of their day was relatively peaceful as long as they ignored the random howls or screams in the far distance.
“Here is where we camp,” Libby said, coming to a stop in a section of books with titles related to different types of wood and their uses.
“Why here? If I have to camp outside a reading room, I at least prefer an area with three walls. This is just an open corridor.” Serilina said.
“Ah, yes, my apologies. Library staff are not allowed to share the locations of staff rooms with visitors, not even the stewards. It is expected they will find these locations on their own if they are needed. I wonder if I’m breaking a protocol oath by showing you these now or have I become part of the steward’s companions? Something to ponder another time. I forgot how much I missed pondering.” Libby was interrupted by a cough
“Yes, sorry, rambling. One moment.” The puppet started removing and replacing books until a clicking sound was heard. The floor in front of them slid open, revealing a staircase that descended into darkness.
“Oh good, more creepy places. I’m so glad my brother and I decided to get tangled up with you, blokes. Great decision we made there.” Twonger muttered as he looked down into the darkness.
“Yeah, yeah, come on, I’ll go first.” Andy shook his head at Twonger and started the descent.
As soon as he reached the bottom step, lights sprung to life all around him. The room was similar to a reading room but more designed for long-term stay. There was an actual full kitchen in it, as well as several bunk beds. This place looked comfy, and that was the first time he thought that since visiting the library.
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Once everyone was down, the staircase resealed itself from above. “Convenient. I should get a hidden lab built into the void house. I’d have fewer interruptions that way.” Andrew said.
“Nah, you’d get more. People would constantly search until they found it. You’re oddly popular.” Andy smiled at his older self.
“Hrmph, yes, I do often miss my old life of quiet science.” Andrew pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Alright, I think it’s long past time for a Twonger education, so let’s eat some food from the packs and start picking his brain,” Andy said, taking a seat near Andrew.
“You decide to go scavenging about one backward star system, and suddenly ya end up a teacher to a bunch of gifted idiots.” Twonger sighed and sat down. “What do you want to know?”
“Let’s start there. We know you were looking for power sources when suddenly you detected Cal’s world seed, but what exactly are world seeds?” Andy asked.
“Just so you all understand, I ain’t no expert in any of this, but here’s what I know. Planets usually form around a mana core; it helps draw in matter, and then the usual physics plays out. Well, we were hoping to find some dead cores or maybe even a proto core if we got real lucky, we sure as hell weren’t expecting to find an end-stage core.”
“Wait, what are the differences in world cores? You need to remember we basically know nothing. All of our real knowledge comes from Ralth, who learned it all in different universes.” Andy interrupted Twonger.
“Alright, so there are a few stages to a world core or seed. Basically, those words are interchangeable for most people. Technically, I don’t think we are supposed to call anything outside of the proto core and end-stage core a seed, but it doesn’t really matter. So you’ve got a proto core, which is before a planet develops around it. It may have a small bit of matter already, but it is easy enough to harvest and nearly impossible to find, though. Then you’ve got a world core. People tend to break these into levels based on their power, but I’ve never really cared to figure out the differences. I don’t generally mess with them. This is the stage where a planet is a planet, still full of potential, and mana is slowly building channels through the world and forming natural pools. In turn, these pools channel back experiences into the core. This leads into an end-stage core, where it has fully manifested with a personality. At this point, these beings shepherd over the last of the flock of their world and then depart into the unknown of space. There are a lot of theories of what they do then. Cal himself is now my leading theory, but as far as I know, no one really knows. The final possible stage is a dead core. At any point, a mana core can lose all its mana and fizzle out. This leaves behind a mana husk. They are pretty useful if you want to make equipment that channels mana. These are what we generally go after.” Twonger finished his explanation.
“Interesting, so Cal ended up with a fully functional world core inside himself. Any idea what he will be able to do with that?” Andy followed up, curious if Twonger had any deeper knowledge there.
“Assuming he doesn’t explode, probably a lot.”