Right then, it wouldn’t have mattered if Hal had all the answers to life, the universe, and everything. In that moment, all Quinn wanted to do was see the combat wing. She bolted out of the training area and through the Library running to where she was quite certain the combat wing would be built.

However, when she got there, the narrow hallway that led to the beginner combat section she’d always known had changed. It was no longer narrow, musty, and badly lit. It had now widened to be about 15, maybe 20 feet wide. Shelved still lined the entirety of the passageway that somehow seemed much longer now.

However, in between a couple of the shelves were what Quinn had come to realize were potential dimensional doorways that would extend and open out if there were too many people entering the Library at once. Or if someone had a specific destination in mind when they called up the entrance. She reasoned, as she walked down this much broader hall, that some travelers might prefer to come to the exact branch they needed instead of arriving close to the foyer. The Library tracked those patrons who came in through different doors than those near the check-in desk and it would be aware of any books they had with them.

She wandered down, noticing how everything looked highly polished and very well taken care of. While she knew that Tim, Tom, and their googala of other shelving golems took care of everything on a regular basis, she also got the feeling that the Library, in the process of building the new combat branch, had probably revamped everything in the process.

Another dozen or so feet and the shelves suddenly opened out into what looked like a massive indoor courtyard. In fact, it looked like one of those huge training courtyards you’d find in a castle. The ground was sandy and probably provided some sort of rebound when someone fell. It was more like an enclosed training yard surrounded by a plethora of bookshelves and weapon racks on the far side of everything.

Thankfully, most of these books weren’t strewn about like they’d been in the alchemical and medical branch. There were some on the floor and they were scattered. Not all the bookshelves were as neat as the main part of the Library, but Tim and Tom hadn’t had a chance to work their magic yet, so that was probably why. She promptly ignored the obvious holes in the shelves from the missing books she’d no doubt have to retrieve.

In the training area, the ground had many different training implements, from training dummies to what looked like magical robotic training partners. She was quite curious about those. They appeared to be something she would have expected Earth to have in a training area for combat in, like, fifty years. Then there were the weapon racks. Each section of weapons between bookcases was a different category. Sharp weapons, blunt weapons, heavy weapons, long weapons, short weapons, firing weapons. So many different ones.

Quinn saw now why there had been a requirement for there to be so many varied weapons in order to open the branch. That’s when she took in the rest of the area, going so far as to follow the walls to the ceiling which appeared to be about 50 feet up in the air. Or close to it. She’d never been the best at guesstimating how tall something was.

She gazed up, seeing the same ceiling that she often saw when she woke up in the morning. It had images that moved too, but in between those slots were sections of glass that looked out into a starry universe just like the restricted section. That’s when she realized the ceiling was so high because they needed to be able to test out combat combinations for all sorts of fighting styles. In the wider universe that included personal flight.

Just as she went to step foot onto the sandy training area, a bunch of dog-ears that were not Bell ran up to her, wuffing and wagging their little rear ends. They yipped around her for several seconds, excited, jumping up at her, nipping at her jeans. She twirled around, trying to grab one of them, but they were elusive and managed to evade her grasp before yipping as one and darting back off into the bookshelves.

There was a swoosh next to her and knew Lynx was standing there. She didn’t even need to turn around to double-check.

“So, what exactly do dog ears do?” she asked him.

Lynx blinked at her. “You’re waiting until now to ask this when we’ve had dog ears for the last several days.”

“Just tell me,” she said. “It’s not like I could google it here.”

He eyed her quizzically for a second before answering. “They catch any insects or other pests that enter the Library. Things that could be harmful to books especially. Things like carpenter ants and beetles and worms...”

“There are carpenter worms?” Quinn asked incredulously.

“There’s carpenter everything,” he said. “And they love paper and they love wood. Many of which are present in the Library.”

“And what else do the dog-ears do?”

“They were created originally from the dog ears that were repaired by the Librarians throughout the ages. They were tiny back then though...” He frowned as he thought about it. “They sort of just evolved and took on their own form of mild sentience.”

Quinn nodded thoughtfully.

“They are, however, a lot bigger now than they used to be,” Lynx said as if he was trying to figure out how they’d grown so much.

“How are they bigger now?” Quinn asked,

“Well, the Library books are large and dog-earing them is a fineable offense...” Lynx began, “they used to be a lot smaller. But it seems they’ve absorbed energy and had it compounded, perhaps, by the potency of the dimensional power in the sealed space they were in...”

“Now they’re like a one or two feet long.”

“Like I said, they grew bigger during the downtime. Might be something I look into once we don’t have a universe to save.”

“Good point.” Quinn said, “They’re sort of like the size of a medium rabbit.”

“Rabbit?” he asked. “Still unsure exactly what that animal is, but probably.”

Quinn raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “Anyway, that’s what a dog ear is and does. That’s why we have them.”

“Then weren’t you worried when we didn’t have any initially?”

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“Oh no, no, no. Those initial areas were damaged, but didn’t have sections that we’d require dog-ears for yet, especially since the bookworms ran rampant. Now we have more branches open, I’m really glad that they’re back. We’re going to need them. The more people visit, the more books go out and in, the more potential there is for insect infestation.”

Quinn watched as the dog-ears continued to skitter about the massive combat arena toward the books. She glanced at Lynx, about to ask him another question, when she noticed that Malakai and Hal were standing behind them. “Took you long enough?”

“Some of us had reps to finish,” Malakai said, his breath coming in gasps.

Quinn tried her best not to laugh and failed abysmally.

“Shut up, it’s your turn next time,” he said.

That sobered Quinn up slightly, but it didn’t dampen her joy at opening another branch. “Anyway, how about we step in and have a look?”

As soon as she set foot onto the combat arena, a system update flashed in her face.

Combat branch golems initiated.

Combat branch golems - Build time: 7 hours 53 minutes.

Combat golem resources fulfilled.

Combat golem status initiated at Branch reconstitution onset.

Combat golem construction complete

Do you wish to retrieve combat golems?

Yes, or no?

Keep in stasis?

“Lynx?” Quinn asked, unsure what combat golems were. If they were teachers, wouldn’t it have said that?

His eyes were flickering already. “That’s perfectly normal. You can’t have a combat section without qualified instructors.

“So they’re teachers? Trainers?” She asked, just making sure she understood.

“Of course. Given the nature of the more advanced magical combat affinities, they need instructors. They’re instructors.”

Quinn thought it made perfect sense and sounded entirely logical. “I guess it’s a good way to prevent people from blowing themselves up while learning more advanced techniques.”

“Exactly.”

Quinn blinked. It still bugged her though, so she asked. “But none of the others have a dedicated golem type.” She activated the golem delivery, still slightly skeptical that she hadn’t had to do this before.

“Of course they don’t. We already had Cook. They were good without the culinary branch, and once they had it they ordered their own assistants to be created.”

Quinn nodded slowly. “We have an actual nurse who is a golem assisting with the medicinal branch. And for the combat branch, of course, we’ll have combat teachers. Makes sense. I just hadn’t thought about it since I didn’t get the messages for other branches.”

Golem arrival - five minutes

Quinn glanced. “Is that a warning they’ll arrive?”

“No. Just preparing you. We should probably move to the other side where the seats are.”

Quinn glanced over and noticed several tables and chairs scattered around near the books that she hadn’t registered before. It took them a minute to walk across the slightly warm to the soles of her shoes sand and take a seat. She was sort of excited about each wing having its own golem type. “So does that mean the bardic branch will have musician golems?”

“Of course. It’ll have musical specialist golems.”

Quinn mused that over. “And the horticulture one?”

“Actually, that comes under Farrow’s jurisdiction. She’ll simply organize to have assistants made who are specifically versatile in what she needs. She also has Marilin and Arilin to help her. So she already has some assistants, which is a good thing.” Lynx sounded happy.

Quinn nodded, still slowly digesting all of that. “And crafting? We’ll have crafting teachers?”

“Of course we’ll have crafting teachers,” Lynx said. “That’s just how it works. Every single branch, including the academy as well.”

“That is so cool.” She had to stop herself from squealing with delight, but then she had a more sobering thought. “Are we sure the golems are okay right now?”

Lynx’s eyes flickered. They did that thing they usually did when he connected to the system on a deeper level. He frowned. “Yes. Yes. The temporary fixes I put in place are...,” he frowned, “are still holding up and don’t look like they can be adjusted. But, hmm,”

“Has somebody tried to adjust them?” she asked hesitantly.

“There appear to have been several attempts to look into my new security measures. I think we’re going to have to have a talk sooner than later,” he mused.

Quinn didn’t like that idea. But she knew it was necessary as well. They’d already locked down most everything. There were just a few more things to do. “Okay, so we have specific golems for specific areas. Makes perfect sense.”

She grinned as she saw Dottie heading over to them, leading five golems in her wake. “They’re here!” Quinn asked.

Lynx nodded.

Malakai sighed dramatically and draped himself over a chair. “That training was intense. Uncle Hal,” he said.

Hal grinned. “It’s good to see the Library getting set up,” he said. “Less to worry about. You need to be fitter to protect it. Tomorrow’s session will be worse.”

Malakai groaned again.

The combat golems lined up in front of Quinn.

“Librarian,” they greeted.

She looked at them. Two of them were extremely slender and sort of hard to fix her eyes on, as if they had optical manipulation as part of their base stats. She inspected them.

Stealth golem

Teaches martial arts, hand to hand combat.

Quinn raised an eyebrow and inspected the next ones.

Two of them were extremely stocky and well-built.

Sword master, all-armed weaponry instructor.

Then she inspected the last one.

Spell-fighter

Incorporation of spells and magic with fighting implements.

“Is there anything you need from me?” She asked.

“Not at the moment,” the first golem said. “We have been made aware that we may choose names. May we inform you of them once we have decided?”

She smiled. “Of course!” Secretly, she sort of loved not having to think of new names. She was pretty woeful at it.

Quinn watched them as they began to traverse the Library, picking up the books, righting them, clearing out the section, putting damaged books on Carty who followed them around chattering merrily. It was strange having these new entities around her and not really batting an eyelid. It was obvious they loved the books as much as she did. Just watching them as they settled into their space and set it up gave Quinn a sense of purpose, a sense of resolve.

It was long past midnight and Quinn hadn’t slept. She hadn’t got the power nap, but there was a serenity that washed over her. It left behind a definite feeling of prescience.

She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the last several days she’d managed to spend contemplative silence, training, and Library advancing productivity were about to be over. There was too much to do, and if she didn’t go out and do it, she had the bad feeling that what needed to be taken care of would come to her.