《The Library of Terminus》 0001. Prologue Excerpts From What You Should Know About The Library of Terminus Page 1 I would have liked to call this book The Complete Guide of The Library of Terminus. But you would die before I could complete it and most normal people would never have enough time to read it all. That and I would have to revise it every time there is a change. So I settled for this title. Now if you are reading this, then you are already here in the Library itself. So I will spare you the stuff you already know, or should already know. Zuros help you, if you don¡¯t know. I would suggest putting this book away and go read my other book first, ¡°A Beginners Guide to Visiting The Library of Terminus.¡± It is a small comprehensive guide and only 782 pages long! So you are now the lucky owner of your very own Library of Terminus library card. What do you do now with all this new found power of yours? Well reading a book is the best and only answer to that question. But let me break it down for you and give you a rundown on what you should do and don¡¯t do while inside The Library of Terminus. The first thing you should know, if you already know the other stuff. Always have clean hands when in the library handling books. Special gloves are preferred, you can get them by asking any Librarian. But always make sure you wait for them to notice you before asking. Which brings me to point two. Always, ALWAYS! Wait until you are spoken to first in the library, when it comes to librarians. The only expectation of this is the librarian stationed at the information desk on each floor. While it¡¯s not needed for interacting with other visitors, it is a good habit to get into. Just so you never slip up. I would also recommend that you do the same thing with the librarians at the info desk. You will have to find where the info desks are yourself, there are too many to list or you could just read my book, ¡°A Guide to Information Desks Starting with Subfloor 300 to Current Floor 486 Revised Edition 364.¡± Or you could just follow the highlighted signs, but I assure you. My book is worth reading and it is only 812 pages long. If you become hungry while browsing the library, leave. This is a library, not a restaurant or some inn. If you become thirsty, there are water stations at each floor along with a lavatory. They are a recent edition to the library of the past 200 years. Do not try to eat inside of the library. It does not matter if you see the librarians eating while reading a book. You are not allowed, this is your only warning. I also have a 805 page book for water stations and lavatories. ¡°Looking For a Drink or Need to Relieve Yourself? A Guide to Water Stations and Lavatories on Subfloor 300 to Current Floor 486 Revised Edition 34.¡± Next would be something that shouldn¡¯t need to be stated, but some people don¡¯t follow it just because the books don¡¯t seem to take any damage at all. Trust me, I have seen a high class fire mage try to burn down a whole floor before. They didn¡¯t live long, but the books didn¡¯t even heat up from their efforts. But the point is, treat every book like the precious and sacred object that they are. Only browse 5 books max at a time. I know it seems weird, especially if you are doing research and you are used to having 10 or 20 books piled in front of you. But in The Library of Terminus, you have to be respectful of not only the books, but also the other visitors. Repeat violators can and will have their library card revoked. Now you can get exceptions if you book a private research room. This is a popular option for most research focused visitors. I wrote a micro guide only 287 pages long called ¡°Getting The Most Out of Your Private Research Room in The Library of Terminus Revised Edition 12.¡± for anyone who wants to book a room. Another thing which is already covered in my ¡°A Beginners Guide to Visiting The Library of Terminus.¡± But I can not stress this enough, this is a library. Keep your voice low and any talking to a minimum when in a group or not at all. While you could bring special items to talk with others in your group, it is frowned upon in the public areas. The only expectations are for people in private research rooms, they are magically sealed to stop all sounds from leaving the room. Also if someone in your group is a mind speaker, you are free to chat all you wish using their talent.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Page 212 Now the next thing you should note and pay attention to is on subfloor 200 and lower. On these floors there are random cold spots. You will run into them from time to time. Do not worry about it, it is perfectly normal and harmless. You may also hear strange sounds throughout the floors, or see things in the corner of your vision. All totally normal and harmless, I assure you. Now what is not normal is if you start to see floating books coming towards you, or the table you are using. Or if you are using a table and a cold spot shows up and doesn¡¯t leave within a few minutes. Also if you start to hear whispering, you should calmly leave the floor as fast as possible and report the issue to the first librarian you see not on subfloor 200 or lower. DO NOT HEAD LOWER IF YOU HEAR WHISPERING VOICES, ALWAYS HEAD TOWARDS THE GROUND FLOOR! The next thing to note on subfloors 200 and lower. If you are reading a book and notice the writing starts to move at all. Even if you think it is your imagination, please leave the subfloors immediately. We really don¡¯t like to clean up the mess your body will leave behind. Also I would like to note this for subfloor 300. I already went over a lot of things for that floor, but I can not stress enough about how important it is to never travel that floor alone. Always travel with 3 or more people in a group and watch out for each other. If you lose someone in your group, and you do not find them within a few minutes of searching around your current location. Please leave ASAP and talk to a librarian on a floor above subfloor 200. Also only one person in your group should be reading at a time. The others need to watch the surroundings. You have been warned. On subfloor 201 make sure you do not use the desk in area 3B section 5, you will know which one I mean when you see it. For subfloor 202, watch out for the plants in 1H section 2. They are highly poisonous to most people, but only when in direct contact. If you accidentally touch one, the librarian at the info desk should be able to help you. Most of the time anyways¡­ Page 452 On subfloor 10 make sure you greet the info desk librarian as soon as you enter the floor. They are very temperamental and if you go to look at a book before you greet them. You can expect no help for at least a week on that floor. They might relent if you bring them gifts and apologize. Page 721 On floor 120 make sure to avoid any of the desks by the windows or just being around the windows in general. They like to randomly open and the wind will blow anything you have on the desk off of it. I have also seen the wind fling a fully grown adult dragonkin around like they were but a feather. Page 1145 On floor 485, you will find it a bit hard to move around properly while the next floor is being built. I recommend using the floor as quickly as possible to stay out of the way of work teams going to the top current floor. On current floor 486, please be cautious as the floor is still under construction and currently does not have a finish date for it. But 1A to 4Z are completed and you can access them at your own risk. Also note that the water station and lavatory along with the help desk for that level are not installed yet. Page 1356 I would like to thank you for reading this book and also let you know you can find all of my work on floor 145, 2B through 3S section 3. I will most likely update this when my written work expands from that section or the next time I am back in the library. Signed, Librarian Roland S. Whitman Special Thanks I would like to thank all of the current info desk librarians for giving me most of the info you read about from sub floor 201 to current floor 486. You were all a great help in completing my 5,149 book. Page 1416 As of the year 1232 ZL I should be currently exploring the frozen wastes of the Ashlands. Look forward to my next book when I get back. Tentatively called ¡°Surviving in The Frozen Wastes of Ashland With Only a Pocket Knife and Some String.¡± Again thank you for reading and you will read more from me soon. 0002. The first day. Erik was enjoying his day, it had taken him almost a year to get here. But as he looked up and saw the monolith of a building in front of him, he couldn¡¯t help but smile. Monolith is the only real word he would use to describe the building. It was slate gray in color with holes for the windows. But if it didn¡¯t have any of those whole it would just look like a giant almost cube of a mountain. The sides of the building are one mile long at each side, and the 486 floors above ground were 12 feet tall making just over a mile tall above ground. It is the single largest structure in the world. While normally something so big wouldn¡¯t be independent in this world, many fallen kingdoms and empires have learned a harsh lesson from messing with The Library of Terminus and its librarians. A lesson that likes to get relearned by people every few hundred years, because they think the history books stored inside are just legends to scare people off. But Erik himself knows that''s not true at all. He has seen the power a single librarian can wield. They could be considered a god amongst normal men. Erik himself would be lying if he said he wasn¡¯t jealous of that power. But being a decently powerful mage himself, he has actually come here in hopes of learning more ways to increase his personal power and study a few things he hasn¡¯t been able to figure out on his own. Exhaling a breath he walks towards the front door, for The Library of Terminus. It¡¯s the only floor that doesn¡¯t hold the pattern of being 12 feet tall. The first floor is over sixty feet tall, the door that greets visitors is massive. Made from some kind of dark hardwood with thick black metal bands and rivets going across its surface. Many would think it¡¯s an inconvenience for a normal person to even open the door, but the door silently opens for anyone who wishes to enter the structure, like it does now for Erik as he walks towards it. Walking through the open gap in the door he is greeted with the sight of rows of books on dark wooden bookshelves, going as far as he can see. Slightly in front of him is a desk in the shape of a horseshoe. It goes from each side of the door and in the middle is a small, roughly 20 foot area which is the guest check in for library visitors. On the right side of it, is the inner entrance to the library itself and on the left side is the exit to the library. Currently there is only one person Erik can see, a librarian behind the counter reading a book. Erik makes his way over to the counter and silently waits in front of the man. After a few minutes the man doesn¡¯t look up, but asks in a bored tone of voice. ¡°First time or returning visitor? ¡°First time sir.¡± The man pulls out a sheet of paper with questions on it and sets it on the counter without looking up from what he is doing. He sets a weird looking quill down on the paper afterwards and says, ¡°Fill this out.¡± Erik looks down at the paper, picking up the quill, he begins to fill out the very basic questionnaire. Name: Erik Hometown: Plunder Bay Purpose for visit: To gain knowledge. Languages known: Common, High Elf, Dwarvish, Thieves Cant, Anbian, Viepselili. Current profession: Wandering Scholar Next of kin: None If no next of kin, what would you like done with your body or what is left if you have an accident visiting Terminus: Burn it and scatter the ashes over a tree''s roots. Erik finishes and silently places the paper and quill in front of the librarian when finished. It¡¯s another few minutes before the man picks up the paper and quills. He pops the quill away and looks at the paper for a few moments before he says, ¡°Wandering scholar is just a fancy way to say jobless.¡±Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Hard to have a steady job, when I spent the past year traveling here.¡± The librarian nods his head before speaking in Viepselili. ¡°You know Thieves Cant isn¡¯t considered a language, right?¡± Erik smirks and says to the man while replying in Anbian, ¡°It¡¯s the only thing they really speak in Plunder Bay and it was the first thing I was taught to speak.¡± The man finally looks up at Erik as he says in High Elf, ¡°A cull wouldn¡¯t agree with that.¡± Speaking in Dwarvish this time, Erik says. ¡°A cull would also lose their pretty pollys walking into the wrong rounder.¡± The man smiles and says in common, ¡°Welcome to The Library of Terminus young man. Just a moment and I will give you a library card. It is your pass to enter and exit the library. The first one is free, if you lose it, it¡¯s ten large gold coins to replace.¡± ¡°Thank you sir.¡± The man turns around and feeds the paper into a metal box. Erik can feel the hum of magic from the box and after a minute, something pops out on the bottom. It¡¯s a small metal card two inches by four inches. The librarian turns around and hands it to Erik as he says. ¡°Here is your card.¡± Looking down at the card, it¡¯s a dull silver in color engraved with Erik¡¯s name in the middle. Nothing else is on the card, not even The Library of Terminus¡¯s name. Erik slides the card into the front pocket of his pants and looks back up at the librarian. The man smiles again and says. ¡°You are free to enter now, through that entrance to your right. If you are looking for spells to increase your potential as a mage, I would suggest going to subfloor 132 4D section 6. The complete works of the Sunfire Mage.¡± Erik is stunned for a moment and doesn¡¯t respond. When he goes to say something he stops, the librarian is already back in his book. He shakes his head and turns to walk into the library itself. Passing through the entrance into the first floor, he looks around for a moment and takes in the sight. Rows of bookshelves are before him, each shelf has numbers and letters. Walking into the first row of books, each book has a small tag with a code on the bottom and it looks like they go in an order. How that works he has no idea, since in front of him on this first shelf is over a thousand books. He spends the first little while just walking through the shelves of books and looking at the titles on each one. Even when he walks a good way into the middle of the stacks, it¡¯s still bright and the air is fresh. Like a nice summer day with a slight overcast to it. Erik finally looks for the way to get to the lower floors and to his surprise there are signs hanging down from the ceiling telling him where things are. Each section, group, stairs, water stations, lavatories, where the help desk is and private research rooms. It¡¯s actually really helpful. Making his way to the stairs in 4D area floor one, he begins to head down the stairs. It takes a while to walk down 132 floors, but he lucked out and 4D was right in front of him on subfloor 132. It looks like all floors hold the same pattern for group numbers. It doesn¡¯t take too long to find section 6 and find a whole collection of books by the Sunfire Mage. Taking the first thick tome he heads to the nearest chair. Which is at the end of the book shelf he grabbed the book from. Sinking into the comfortable chair he opens the book and begins to read it. It¡¯s hard to tell how much time passes for Erik as he reads the tome in his hands. The light never changes, and even though he is close to the outer wall, there are no windows underground. When his stomach finally makes a sound, he actually sits up in his chair and looks at the almost completed book in front of him. Erik decides to finish this first book then leave the library for the day to eat and think on the information he has found. While most people would need to take notes and study it for a long time, Erik has perfect eidetic memory. It¡¯s part of the reason he knows so many languages and also the reason he is such a skilled mage at a young age. Once finished with the book, Erik stands up and stretches. He returns the book to its proper spot on the shelf and begins to make his way back upstairs. It takes a while, but once on the first floor, he can see it is already dark outside from the windows. Heading to the front desk he makes his way to the exit of the horseshoe shaped desk. The librarian that helped him this morning is still there, he doesn¡¯t seem to have moved and is still reading his book. Erik doesn¡¯t say anything as he passes and walks to the front door, which swings open silently at his approach. Walking outside, he is greeted by the cool breeze of the night air as the door closes behind him. Looking down the slight hill the library rests on, he looks at the city that has been built up and has been thriving on travelers coming to visit the library. Whoever was the first person to build a place to stay for library visitors was a genius, considering that their descendants turned the place into a thriving city that could rival most kingdoms capitals. A smile creeps onto Erik''s face and he thinks about the book he just finished and how he can¡¯t wait to begin practicing what he has learned. Just this first day of visiting The Library of Terminus more than made up for his one year of travel.