Dallion took a deep breath. Entering the library in his awakened realm became more difficult each time. When his grandfather had told him about it, he’d been curious; the second time-he’d been cautious. Now, after the scribe echo had tried to kill him with feathers, he was outright terrified.

Clutching his emblem with his left hand, Dallion forced himself to cross the threshold. The instant he did, he felt the weight of two mountains on his shoulders.

“So, you decided to come back.” The scribe said, arms crossed, leaning against the edge of the desk. “Didn’t have enough last time?” He raised a finger in the air.

Dallion knew perfectly well what would follow. Dozens of voices filled his mind with yells to get out.

No! He gritted his teeth. I have to get stronger. I have to be able to face a chainling, I have to…

“Still here?” The scribe sounded somewhat confused.

“Y-yes!” Dallion managed to mutter. “I-I-I think there’s something y-you should know.”

“Is that so?” The echo took a step closer. “Tell me, before I kick you out and—”

Dallion didn’t let the scribe finish. Drenched in sweat, he raised his dartbow and took one shot right at the echo’s chest. There was a single “poof” after which the scribe had vanished, along with the crushing atmosphere of the room.

That was it? Dallion blinked.

Now that it was over, it was so anticlimactic that it felt disappointing. Moments ago, Dallion had imagined an entirely different scenario involving quills darting at him from all sides, and him rushing about in an effort to evade them. The initial shot had only been aimed to provoke the echo, not destroy it. Not that Dallion was complaining. Getting rid of the echo’s burden made him feel like on the first day of spring break. That was not all. As fear left Dallion’s mind, it was replaced by dozens of questions and a thirst for answers.

The map! Dallion rushed to the desk. He remembered there was one hiding among the pages written by the echo. As he brushed them off, something caught Dallion’s eye.

You’re never to leave the village. Going to the cities is bad. You’ll never survive there. Stay in the village where it’s safe.

“That’s what’s been keeping me in the village?” Dallion crumbled the sheet of paper. Morbid curiosity tempted him to read through all of the scribe’s notes just to see how much damage the echo had done. Common sense made him focus on more important things… or at least leave the fun reading for later.

Here we go! Dallion uncovered a large map. This likely represented all of the “local” Dallion’s knowledge about the world—not much. Judging by the many blank spots, but at least it was a start.

Apparently, the world was of a late medieval type, following an evolved feudal model. The Tamin Empire—of which Dallion’s village was part of—was said to span half the world, although Dallion had serious doubts for that to be true. The hamlet of Dherma, along with another handful of villages, was located in the southwest reaches of the Empire next to a whole lot of nothing. The province of Wetie—more a fiefdom by Earth standards—had been established by the Imperial Knight Sir Kaan several generations ago during the Empire’s last wave of expansion. After his death, most of the local nobles had moved to larger, more prosperous regions, leaving their hereditary domain in neglect. Lacking an owner, the land eventually entered the domain of Countess Priscord, who had no interest in it whatsoever and let the villages fend for themselves. Ever since, the local villages had been self-governed.

That explained a few things. For one, Dallion now knew why the village chief was so obsessed with echoing everyone and keeping them from leaving the village. If the people learned what was out there, a lot of the younger generation would have left to seek their luck and fortune elsewhere, or worked to build up the village so it would attract more merchants. Either option threatened the Luor monopoly of power.

Dallion looked at the library of books. There were quite a few of them—knowledge of the world, knowledge how to live, even some interesting myths and folktales he’d heard as a child. All that knowledge was now his, along with the questions it brought.

Time to go back, Dallion closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was back in the real world. Only a second had passed. The soldiers were still examining the dead bodies, grouping them in piles. In nothing else, the Dame had the intention of giving them a proper burial before continuing with the hunt for the chainling.

“Dal!” Veil shouted from the remains of a wagon a short distance away. “Look what I found!”

When did I become “Dal”? “Be right there.”

As he walked, one thing caught his attention. The soldiers didn’t seem to be interested in the weapons or valuables scattered about, but they were very eager to collect the merchant emblems. Kalis, along with another soldier, were keeping count making sure that the number of emblems matched the corpses.

“Look what I got.” Veil pulled out a sword from the ground, from the wreckage. It was massive, at least four feet long, with a two-hand hilt. The ease with which the blond held it with one hand, made the weapon look like a movie prop, but Dallion knew he couldn’t lift it on his own. “Awakened steel,” Veil tapped on the side of the blade. “I think I’ll keep this.”

“Sure, if they let you have it.” Dallion shrugged. He was a tiny bit envious, but after experiencing the awesome power of ranged combat, he wasn’t losing any sleep over a sword, especially one he couldn’t lift at his present level.

“Battlefield law—finders keepers.” Veil swung the sword about, doing a perfect butterfly swing. “Besides, it’s not like they’ll give me any of their weapons.”

“Guess not.” Dallion nodded. “Anything else good in there?”

“Nothing much. Check if you want.”

“I’ll do that. You better go have a word with Kalis about your sword. If you tell him about it on your own, you’ll have a better chance of keeping it.”

“Right.” Veil’s smile vanished. “That’s actually smart.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dallion laughed. At the same time, he also felt pity. If Veil had an echo, a lot of things would probably seem smart.

“Dal, you okay?”

Dallion looked over his shoulder. “Yeah. Why?”

“I don’t know. You seem different somehow… You were all shivering a moment ago and now you’re… more like you were after your awakening.”

“Well, I guess I am.” Dallion smiled. “I just decided to stop being afraid.”