Sera spent the next few hours reading the “Basics of the Bridge.” to Bo. As the name suggested, it detailed the basic structure, occurrences and well known facts about the bridge.

The Bridge was measured to be 50 km wide and had an unknown distance long. The sections had been measured individually and there seemed to be a pattern to it. The first section was 100 km long, the third was 300 km and the fourth was 400 km long. The second section was a little harder to measure but experts estimated it to be 200 km. Extrapolating this data you could predict that the length of each section grew 100km.

That was a lotta huge numbers for Bo to try and wrap his head around but Sera didn't stop there and continued.

At the two side edges of the Bridge as well as the one lengthwise edge in the Beast Glades, the land dropped straight down into a sea of clouds. The clouds below stretched as far as the eye could see and further, without any visible gaps to allow anyone to see what lay below the clouds.

Centuries ago crossers took on the daring challenge of scaling down the side of the Bridge in attempts to discover how deep the Bridge actually went and to possibly find out what exists under the sea of clouds.

They discovered 5km down that the Bridge ended, and instead giant pillars kilometers wide continued down further. After another 5km the pillars disappeared into the clouds, leaving the net total depth of the sides to be roughly 10km.

Due to the discovery of the pillars holding up the land above, the crossers ended up naming the realm, The Bridge, and since then it hasn't changed.

Some of those brave Crossers had tried to descend further into the clouds, but none had ever returned leaving the mystery of the world below still to figure out.

That was the basic history of why and where The Bridge got its name from.

More importantly was the structure of the Bridge. It had been known for a while to have separate sections but as for how many there are, currently only six have been reached.

The first section Bo knew decently well thanks to Iris and that would of course be the Beast Glades. It was the simplest and least dangerous section by far with the only problem being the beasts. Besides that, it was pretty tame.

They had even managed to build the city of Gladesdale here, something that hasn't happened in any other section yet. Even the trial of the Beast Glades didn't have any puzzles or challenges to complete, you just had to reach it.

The other sections were not as forgiving.

Starting in the second section, The Lost Forest, the anomalies would be something you'd have to constantly deal with. It was nicknamed the rookie squasher because overconfident Crossers who thought the Beast Glades was easy would be easily killed in its foggy depths.

It was a dark forest completely covered in fog that never seemed to go away while its gravity worked differently to anywhere else. Parts of the forest were sideways or upside down but you wouldn't know because the gravity changed depending on where you were walking. You could be walking sideways or upside down without realizing it.

While this made navigating troublesome, the main anomaly that ruined the most lives were its gravity and spatial pockets.

Throughout its forest, these invisible anomalous pockets existed. A gravity pocket wasn't too bad to accidentally stumble upon but it could still send you flying up into the air with a single wrong step.

The spatial pockets were the real killers. Once you stepped into one you wouldn't even realize you had been teleported somewhere else as the environment was hard to discern from itself.

We won't even get started with the hundreds of creatures living throughout its branches and inside its gravitationally different landscapes who efficiently use the environment to kill their prey.

And this was only the second section, imagine the third section and beyond.

As for those other sections, Sera did not go into great detail but instead gave Bo a brief summary about them.

Starting with the third section called The Sea of Misery. It was unlike the first two sections because its environment was mostly made of water instead of land. There were islands sprinkled about but it was estimated to be 99% salty ocean water.

The Sea of Misery wasn't one sea but five seas separated into layers that float over each other, separated by layers of air in between. The main sea was at level with the rest of the Bridges surface but the other four seas were below the surface.

The further down you went, sunlight was increasingly rarer to find. The bottom sea was said to be completely void of sunlight and was only lit by the bioluminescent plants or creatures living in its waters.

Horrifyingly, holes could open up in the sea at any time sending you straight down to the sea below. Besides the holes, the main anomaly in the Sea of Misery was a silent killer, it was a strangely simple anomaly— your emotions were amplified by 10 fold.

Something that might scare you a little would send you running, pissing in fear. Only the toughest of hearts could successfully sail through the Sea of Misery.

Then came the fourth section known as The Blocks. Less information was known about this section, and that only exponentially lessened with the following sections.

The Blocks was a section consisting of different biomes all made of very proper geometrical shapes. The mountains might be cubical, the flowers took on spherical shapes, and even the creatures there were strangely geometrical.

The land would shift, grow or shrink on a whim, creating an ever changing new environment to explore. Some accounts had even said the beasts there could manipulate this anomaly and change the environment to better suit their needs.

Floating throughout the Blocks were large bubbles, and not the playful kind. If you ended up entering a bubble, an unknown random effect would apply to yourself. Most of the time it was a temporary effect, but sometimes the effects could be permanent— good or bad.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Second to last was the fifth section, The Gap.

Only the general environment and basic anomalies were known about this section. The Gap was a little special because like the name suggests, was a large gap in the bridge.

It’s a special hole that descends all the way past the bridge's bottom, resting inside a unique pillar that's large enough to fit the entire section into it. The Gap bottom lies all the way down on the same level as the sea of clouds.

It even had its own sea of clouds that rested at the bottom of the Bridge, halfway down the Gap. This cloud was a little different because it blocked the sun completely, leaving the ground floor below very dark for most of the day.

Any more information couldn’t be found in any run of the mill book found laying around.

Lastly was the sixth section called the Mindless Wasteland.

Even less was known about this section, the only thing the Basics of the Bridge had was that the Mindless Wasteland was a large desert. Any more detailed information was not in this book, and maybe not in any other book.

‘That was a lot.’ Bo thought after Sera almost took an hour talking about the sections of the Bridge. This was the information he wanted to know, and would do his best to remember and be thankful he had a chance to learn it.

Then after a quick break, Sera continued, now talking about the trials.

Each section was thought to have a trial, the trails for the first four sections were public knowledge, the fifth or six sections were currently unknown.

The trial for the Beast Glades was an outlier because there was no challenge, you just had to get there. Not to say making it through the Beast Glades wasn't difficult but compared to the rest of the trails, it was a walk in the park. Whereas in the other sections, it was hard not only to get to the trial, but then you also had to make it through some sort of difficult challenge.

To successfully complete a trial, you must reach the trial fountain at its end and fully soak yourself in its waters to receive your reward. There were three rewards you could get which Bo did know about but Sera went into a little more detail.

There were embers, artifacts and creature companions.

Embers were powers that you could grow stronger from using and training with it. Most embers had restrictions on their use, but those could also lessen from training with it. As for what the power an ember could be, anything really. From flying in the sky to shooting beams out your eyes, there were just infinite possibilities that an ember could be.

Creature companions were creatures you could summon and unsummon on a whim, the only issue was that they were just like an actual pet. They needed to eat, shit and sleep, and unsummoning them would only slow down that process. They could also be injured and would have to recuperate and recover just like any other living thing would need to.

The largest downside of creature companions was that if they died, they would die for good and you wouldn't be able to summon them ever again. This made Crosser treat them as close, or even closer than their own family or friends.

Then came Artifacts, an inbetween compared to the other two rewards. You could summon and unsummon them like companions whilst they held abilities similar to embers.

The difference between their abilities was that most artifacts' abilities were simple and due to this they had little to no restrictions. This wasn't always the case, some articles are powerful like embers and did have restrictions, but the majority of artifacts only had simple abilities.

This means that most artifacts are incredibly useful for accomplishing what it's intended for, but are pretty useless otherwise.

One very useful feature about most artifacts was that they were able to be used by other people, meaning you could lend them out to others. This itself had created a business that thrived in Gladesdale where artifact owners would rent out their artifacts to others for a cheap price. If the person went over the time limit, the owner could simply unsummon their artifact.

Sera made sure to bring up wild artifacts, which were different from artifacts. The latter were

rewards given to those who had completed a trial, whilst the former were items found on the bridge that didn't belong to anyone.

Wild artifacts functioned similarly to artifacts but they couldn't be summoned forth and they were able to break if enough force damaged them. They were durable and would never break from overuse, but if a powerful attack hit one it could break it rendering the wild artifact useless. They were a little rare to find, expensive to buy since you can't rent them out, but every one you had would be a bonus to add to your arsenal.

Each reward was useful in its own ways and no one should feel bad about receiving any of the rewards. Some might appear useless to their owners, but each one had its uses in the long run.

Bo had an Ember himself and was excited to start training it, the only problem bugging him was the restriction.

[ Restrictions: Use the souls of beings you've slain to power the ember. ]

He needed to go out and kill something for him to even start using his ember which was a little disappointing but he knew eventually he’d get to use it.

He knew Sera had an Ember since she blurted it out earlier in the Glades, but wasn't too sure which reward Iris had and was a little curious.

Lastly she touched briefly upon the ranking of Crossers and more so about Lodestones, one of which rested in the middle of Gladesdale.

Ranking of Crossers was simple; for every trial you completed, equals one star. Sera’s mother, Madeline who was a 5 star Crosser meant she had completed 5 trials, the highest current rank.

Lodestones on the other hand were the way back to Arcon, by touching your badge to its body, you would be transported back. The problem was that upon returning to the bridge, you wouldn't appear at the Lodestone you used to leave; instead, you would end up back at a random location in the beginning of the Beast Glade.

This was the main problem when trying to transport resources from Arcon to the Bridge, it was simply too difficult. Not only were you limited in what you could bring through the Lodestones being limited to only what you could carry, but if you intended to go as a group you'd be thoroughly disappointed. You couldn't choose where you ended up, everyone who entered would end up somewhere different leaving everyone stranded from each other.

Basic resources were not worth it to transport between realms in the long run so only very expensive and useful resources, mainly wild artifacts, would ever be transported.

One main use of resources was building technology, but for the people living on the Bridge, their way of life was different than those who lived on Arcon. It wasn't a priority to have technology, meaning there wasn't much worth in trying to bring advanced technology over.

Some used materials from the Bridge to build technology, but most people capable of such things usually couldn't make it to Gladesdale alive.

Lots of useful technology on Arcon could be replaced by something from the bridge; glow sap replaced electrical lights, companion creatures replaced most transportation, and even farms had been replaced by a powerful wild artifact.

It wasn't that there was no technology here, some people had brought some over from Arcon while some even built their own unique creations using materials found from the Bridge.

Whatever the case, Lodestones were a way back home but it came at the cost of having to restart your journey across the Bridge.

Sera shut the basics of the basics of the Bridge and sighed. “That was a lot but it only covered the very surface of all that the Bridge is.” Sera stood up stretching her stiff muscles. “I would suggest that however long you're here, take advantage of the library and read up. Even if you're a little slow.”

Bo nodded then asked. “So what's next?”

“Well I think since you're both staying here, I should get you set up with a place to sleep.” Sera looked around. “First we gotta find Iris then I'll show you where you'll be staying.”

They scoured the library and eventually found Iris curled up in a dark corner of a shelf passageway with a pillow resting on her back.

“Hey Iris, I'll show you guys to your rooms before we do anything else… Iris?” getting no response, Sera walked over to Iris and stood over her.

“Yo Iris… Iris!” Sera shouted at the end and finally managed to get Iris’s attention.

“I'm sorry I was so enthralled in this book.” She stood up flustered, grabbing the pillow off the ground. “What are we doing?”

“I'll take you over to your rooms where you'll stay.” Sera explained. “After that we can do whatever.”

“C-can I take this book with me?” Iris shyly asked.

“Sure, take it with you, just remember to eventually bring it back.” and with that Sera led them back to the room they had previously eaten in. She brought them through a hallway to two separate rooms across from each other.

Both rooms were large bedrooms with relatively plain decorations, only a few accessory desks and chairs sat around the room.

“You can each take a room, mine will be the one at the end of the hall. Does that sound good?” Sera explained.

Bo and Iris nodded.

“Oh shit I just realized! You guys don't really have anything with you, I know Iris has her bag but that's it.” Sera looked down a little embarrassed. “Also I never really asked you if you guys have somewhere else to be, like a family who's worried about you? I kinda just… in a way, kidnapped you.”

Bo shook his head immediately. “I got nowhere to be and nothing to my name. What about you Iris?” he asked, wondering.

“I do live by myself in a little house, so there are a few things that I wouldn't mind having but other than that, not really.”

“Oh.” Sera looked at them slightly surprised. “So you guys are okay with being here? You don't feel pressured or uncomfortable at all?”

They shook their heads and a genuine smile blossomed on Sera’s face. “Whew, thank god.” She muttered.

After a little moment of silence Sera suggested. “How about I give you a little tour of the rest of the rooms, then we can relax for the rest of the day?”

“Sounds good to me!”

“Alright.”

They left the room to explore the rest of what the Might resident had to offer.