“Libraries are generally not used for sleeping,” Nil grumbled. “If you need to, do that in your own room.”

“Sorry,” Dallion yawned.

The night had been intense, and once again Dallion had exerted himself more than he should have. Thankfully, there had been no mysterious finger bleeding, although three customers had requested items to be improved, and Dallion had obliged. Hannah had initially been against it, but given the amount of money offered, she had become more flexible… up to a point. The fourth person who dared hint about an improvement quickly got a deathly glance thrown his way before he could verbalize his request.

“At least keep the books clean.” The echo pulled a tome from the table. “There are better things that you could use for pillows. Like, for example, pillows.”

“I said, I’m sorry.” Dallion grumbled. The echo’s talking felt like the buzzing of a bee in his skull. “It’s not like you’re much help in getting me to figure out things.”

“Hmph.” Nil raised his chin. “Learning gorgon techniques at your level is, to put it mildly, impossible. If you had read the sources I had given you, you’d know that their race was blessed by the moon of perception. Your perception level would have to be a ten, at least, for you to be able to discern between markers.”

As much as Dallion hated to admit it, that was the truth. After hours of trying in the awakened realm, he had finally found it more efficient just to mimic what he had seen the gorgon do. Ultimately, as long as he twisted his body at the right time and to the right extent, he’d be able to avoid most attacks. Of course, he didn’t need to use guard skills at all for that.

On the bright side, at least he was slowly getting the hang of his music skills. After last night he had managed to use them successfully against two guardians, increasing the skill level to four. The last guardian—a pocket knife—had proven too fast, so Dallion had been forced to rely on standard melee attacks. He had also earned the achievement Enduring, increasing his body by two. That definitely had helped reduce his fatigue, though not enough, it seemed.

“Seriously, will it kill you to help me from time to time?” Dallion glared at the echo, then stretched. “Or let me at least browse through the books. What good is a library if I’m only allowed to read five books?”

“What good is a book if you don’t read the five you’ve already got?” The echo countered. “Learning is a two-way street. You must be willing to learn as well, and so far, you aren’t. You still haven’t finished the first scroll I’ve given you, not to mention you’ve only skimmed through the harpsisword manuals.”

There was no denying that. The scroll was the reason Dallion had dozed off several times in the first place. It was also true that Dallion had just skimmed through the tomes, stopping a quarter in the first chapter. As interesting as weapon history was, he wanted to find illustrated instructions on poses and attacks. Alas, when he found one, it turned out that making sense of it was as easy to understand as a set of IKEA instructions. Up till now Dallion had only mastered the basic three stances and some of the follow-up attacks.

The weapon had potential; even as a sword it was better than his short sword. Its main drawback was that it remained a two-handed weapon. There was no way Dallion could use it together with his dartbow. Maybe buying a set of daggers to start with wasn’t a bad choice, after all.

“You might want to get dressed early today,” Nil said. “The guild selection will take place in a bit.”

“Guild selection?” Dallion’s drowsiness evaporated. “What guild selection?”

The echo sighed.

“Weren’t you told that you’d be called to have your mentor determined? Estezol should have explained that to you.”

“He told me that the selection will be in a week, at least!” Crap!

Being made part of a group was a good thing, but it was happening too fast. Dallion was hoping to have maxed out his music skill by then and gotten the rest of his armor from Eury. And that didn’t even take into account all the reading he’d left “for later.” If Adzorg, the real Adzorg, found out how much Dallion had been slacking, things might get bad.

“Are you sure?” Dallion asked against hope.

“Given that you’re a full awakened you should remember at least something about echoes,” Nil said in a snobbish tone. “I know the thoughts of my original, and his current thoughts are how to prepare the guild for your selection. Personally, I would advise, not that you have listened to me at all, that you get in top shape, then go to the guild before you’re called for. Remember, you can only make one first good impression.”

Without wasting a moment, Dallion left the library ring and jumped out of bed. His body stumbled slightly, readjusting to the new reality.

Good thing I got some proper clothes at least, Dallion thought as he put them on. Returning to the guild in his old clothes would definitely have raised questions. Splashing some water on his face, the boy then rushed out of the room.

“I’m going to the guild.” He dashed past Hannah, who was, as usual, at the bar counter. “No idea when I’ll be back.”

If the innkeeper said anything in response, Dallion didn’t hear it because he was already outside and ten feet from the building. His body level increase allowed him to run a lot faster than before. Hopefully, it would also make him sweat less. Being a sweaty mess on the first day wasn’t a good impression, either.

Getting to the guild turned out to be slightly more complicated than Dallion expected. He had always thought of going there once before the selection, but never gotten to it. As a result, he didn’t know the best route. Thankfully, his ring echo had helped with that. On several intersections, Dallion had entered it and requested directions from Nil. To his surprise, the echo had appreciated the initiative and even complimented his fast thinking; there was hope, after all.

Finally! Dallion stopped in front of the Icepicker Guild to catch his breath. The place seemed somewhat different from a few days ago. The facade was in much better condition, with several banners, and a brand-new sign. Several people were standing outside, discussing possible mentors.

So, the ring was right after all. That was quite useful, not to mention scary. Using echoes as spies was probably a huge thing—they were untraceable, knew everything their owner knew, and didn’t seem to have any distance limitations.

“Are you for the trials?” a short boy with dark skin and a rather impressive set of leather armor asked. Looking at him, he was as presentable as Dallion wasn’t. Combed to perfection, with meticulously proper clothes—improved to silk—and several weapons, he was everything a proper awakened candidate should be. Looking at him made Dallion think of Gloria. She too had been meticulous about her clothes.

“Err, no.” Dallion mustered a smile. “Just for the selection.”

“Yeah, the selection trials.” The boy nodded. “I’m here for that as well. Nice sword, by the way. Haven’t seen one of those off walls.”

“I didn’t know there would be trials.” That was something that the echo had neglected to mention. A quick subsequent talk within the library had revealed that the omission had been deliberate—Dallion was supposed to learn the details like any other newbie guild member.

“You’re definitely calm. You must have skills. What’s your level?”

“Six…” Why do I feel I’m being scouted? Dallion wondered.

“Nice. I just broke through to seven yesterday. Great timing. I’m Falkner, by the way.” He offered his hand.

“Dallion.” Dallion shook it. For some reason Falkner’s skin felt unnaturally warm. “Anyway, we better get inside.”

The room was emptier than Dallion expected. Estezol was there, along with a few other members of guild HR, as Dallion thought of them. Upon seeing him, the bearded man waved.

“Dal! Cool of you to come. I was just about to send someone to pick you up.”

“Yeah, I had a feeling that I should come today. Wasn’t the selection supposed to happen in a week?”

“Usually yes, but the influx of candidates has been surprising as of late. More and more people seem to be joining us. Mostly because of March.”

“With her record it’s hardly surprising,” Falkner said. “Her military record speaks for itself, not to mention her awakened level.”

“Master Falkner,” Estezol said in an overly formal tone. “A pleasure to see you, although I didn’t expect you to arrive until next month.”

Master Falkner? Dallion thought. That tended not to be good. From what he knew about this world, master was a title given to a master trainer, or artisan, or, alternatively, to a noble that was not yet of age.

“When hearing that March would be present at the selection, I decided to come earlier.”

“Wise decision. I see you’ve already met Dallion. As a matter of fact, his entry test to the guild was conducted by March herself.”

“Really?” Falkner sounded impressed. “I had no idea.”

“Anyway.” Dallion decided now was a perfect moment to change the subject. “Where do we go for the selection?”

“Oh, just go through there.” The man pointed at the door to the staircase. “Second floor. There are quite a number of candidates, so we might be a bit short on space.”

As Dallion soon found out, that was quite the understatement. The hall that he and Falkner went to was large enough to hold thirty people comfortably. At present there were above fifty. Estezol hadn’t been exaggerating when he had said that there had been a lot of candidates of late. A makeshift platform with five wooden chairs on the far end of the room indicated the place the guild members would sit. Five chairs—five judges, or so Dallion assumed.

“They really could invest in a bigger guildhall,” Falkner said, pushing his way through next to Dallion. “After today I might talk to my father about it.”

“I’m afraid to ask, but who is your father?”

The question made Falkner genuinely smile. It was almost as if he had been waiting to hear those words for years.

“Just a noble from Arlera. Don’t worry about it.”

In Dallion’s experience, when someone said not to worry about something in such circumstances, it usually meant that the person was someone important.

“What do you think the test will be like?” Dallion asked.

“No one knows.” Falkner shrugged. “They keep it secret so that no one can prepare in advance. Might be sparring, might be fighting guardians…”

Sparring or fighting guardians. Labyrinth mending would have been nice, given the amount of training Dallion had received in the last few days. Then again, standard combat wasn't a bad option either.

More and more candidates arrived, filling the room to the brim. Shortly after, the actual guild members appeared. As Dallion expected, there were five of them. First was March, of course, passing through the group like a steamroller. It was outright impressive how people squeezed together despite the lack of space to form a path for her to reach the platform. Second was Adzorg, followed by three other people Dallion had never seen. According to the whispers, these were the five captains of the guild.

“Close the door, please,” Adzorg said, once each of the captains had taken their seats. Interestingly, he had taken the central position and not March. “As you might have guessed, today we’ll be holding the selection trials. Let me first address some concerns. Despite the rumors going about, we will not kick out anyone if you do poorly. This is merely for your future mentors to get an idea of your abilities and decide who they want to invite as a mentee. That said, the better your performance, the better the chances you are selected by a more experienced member.”

Another round of whispers filled the room. Who were the potential mentors? How was the selection going to take place? Letting speculations continue for a while, Adzorg cleared his throat. Silence quickly was restored.

“This month the selection process will be a group activity. Preliminary parties have already been selected. You can find details by awakening the eagle statues in the corridor. The echoes will tell you the location of your actual trial.”

Neat, Dallion thought. Awakened powers were better than the internet. Also, thanks to Adzorg he had a cheat—he didn’t need to awaken the statue to learn where to go, he had a ring for that.

“As per standard rules, your party will be led by echoes of two guild members who will evaluate your performance. Once the test is over, the guild staff will have a short discussion, after which the selection will be announced.”

That didn’t sound too bad. Maybe Dallion had been worried for nothing. He was just about to express his relief to Falkner, when he saw that the boy frozen petrified with fear.

“Falkner?” Dallion whispered. “What’s—”

“Needless to say, that anyone who doesn’t reach the end of the trial will be removed from the selection process and rescheduled for next month. To the veterans who’ve been through this before, I can only hope I see less of you this time. The rooms are getting too small to hold you all.”

A few people laughed. Most didn’t.

“Are there any questions?”

“Will March participate in the selection?” someone asked. Judging by the silence, it was a question that more than one person had.

“Yes.” The woman said from her chair. “A few of the groups will be assessed by my echo.”

“Which is not to mean that any captain will take on any applicants,” Adzorg quickly added. “We are only here to observe in an advisory capacity. Any other questions?”

No one said a word.

“Good. I wish you a fruitful and productive experience. Good luck and show your best.”