The screen held the image for several seconds before shifting back to a wider view of the arena floor and the crowd cheering Lysa's name. Around Evan the gathered crowd released a quiet ripple of conversation, people discussing the match with the casual interest of those already thinking about the next one.
"Good thing it's a sim arena," someone near Evan remarked. "That knife would have gutted him for real."
"Yeah," another voice replied. "Hurts like hell in there, but you wake up afterward."
Evan did not move right away. His attention remained fixed on the screen even as the broadcast began introducing the upcoming fight. What stayed with him was not the violence of the match but the precision behind it. Every movement he had seen carried intention. Balance, timing, positioning. Even exhausted, both fighters had known exactly what they were trying to do.
And both of them, judging from what he had overheard around him, were still unawakened.
The realization took place quietly.
He had a great deal to learn.
A pair of men standing a little ahead of Evan continued the conversation as the broadcast shifted to highlights from the match. One of them shook his head with a low whistle. "If they keep training like that, both of them will clear the tests before long," he said. "Authority's requirement isn't easy, but fighters at that level usually make it through."
His companion nodded in agreement, arms folded as he watched the replay of Lysa's escape from the chokehold. "They're close already," he replied. "Once they pass the government assessment and the Authority signs off, that's it. They'll be registered to be awakened and then they will start climbing the tiers."
Evan listened without turning his head, letting their words fill alongside what he had just watched. The fight replay continued above them, the screen slowing certain movements so the audience could see how the exchanges had unfolded. When the moment of Lysa's escape from the chokehold appeared again, someone behind him muttered a quiet appreciation for the timing of the blade. To most of the crowd, the match was simply a display of skill. To Evan it was something closer to instruction.
If fighters like that were still unawakened, then the gap between his current level and the standard here was wider than he had imagined. Surviving the trial had demanded everything he could think and do under pressure, yet the movements he had just seen carried a different kind of discipline. Technique built through years of repetition rather than instinct and desperation. Evan watched one last replay of the exchange before the screen shifted to a new announcement, then stepped away from the crowd and continued toward the library the clerk had described.
The plaza thinned again once he left the crowd behind. The noise of conversation faded into the background while the wide avenue resumed its steady rhythm of traffic and pedestrians moving between districts. Evan followed the direction the clerk had indicated earlier, keeping to the eastern side of the street while the buildings gradually shifted from office towers and polished storefronts toward quieter civic structures.
The library announced itself before he reached the entrance. The building stood slightly back from the road behind a broad stone forecourt lined with low trees and long benches where several people sat reading or speaking quietly. Its façade rose in layered tiers of pale stone and glass, tall windows stretching from one floor to the next so that the interior shelves could be seen even from outside. Through the glass he could make out rows of tables, reading lamps, and long aisles of books arranged with the same careful order he had seen throughout Dornhaven.
Evan crossed the forecourt at an unhurried pace, stepping past a pair of students seated on one of the benches with open books balanced on their knees. The glass doors opened automatically as he approached, sliding aside with a soft mechanical whisper that let the cooler air of the interior spill outward. Inside, the quiet of the building settled around him almost immediately, the distant sounds of the street fading behind thick walls and the soft rustle of pages turning somewhere deeper in the hall.
The main reading chamber stretched wide beneath a high ceiling supported by slender metal beams that allowed light to filter down through long skylights above. Rows of bookshelves ran in measured lines across the floor, broken occasionally by study tables where readers sat beneath small desk lamps. Most of the people inside looked ordinary enough, students, office workers, and a few older patrons who moved slowly between shelves while scanning the spines of books with patient attention.
Near the entrance a long reception counter marked the point where visitors could request assistance or locate materials. Behind it sat a woman working through a stack of returned books, scanning each cover before placing it neatly onto a rolling cart beside her chair. A small brass plaque fixed to the edge of the desk identified her simply: Marin Vale – Library Reception.
Evan approached quietly, waiting until she finished noting something in the ledger before speaking. Marin looked up a moment later, dark hair pulled back neatly while a pair of thin reading lenses rested low on the bridge of her nose. Her expression held the calm patience of someone accustomed to answering the same questions many times a day.
Evan offered a small nod of greeting. "Good afternoon," he said. "I'm looking for basic material about the planet and the system. Things like tier advancement, awakening requirements, and how dungeons work."
Marin Vale regarded him for a moment with mild curiosity, then turned slightly to the catalog terminal built into the desk beside her. Her fingers moved across the interface with practiced familiarity while a small display illuminated in front of her. "Those topics are covered in the introductory collections," she replied. "You'll want the foundation sections on the second floor. Tier structure, early training guides, and civic summaries of dungeon operations are all organized there."
She reached beneath the counter and pulled out a small rectangular card, its surface printed with a simple floor diagram of the building. With the tip of a pencil she marked a few shelves along one wing of the second level. "These aisles will have what you are looking for," Marin said, sliding the card across the desk toward him. "The materials there are meant for general readers. Nothing restricted, but enough to give you a clear understanding of the basics."
Before giving him the card completely, she glanced back up at him. "Name, please? We keep a simple visitor ledger for new readers."
"Evan Cole," he replied.
Marin noted it quickly in the open ledger beside her, her eyes moving briefly across the entry before she nodded in quiet confirmation. The stylus tapped the page once more as she finished the line. "You're cleared for the public collections," she said, turning the card fully toward him.
Evan accepted the card and studied the layout briefly. The library was larger than it had appeared from outside, its upper floors divided into long rows of numbered sections that branched outward from the central staircase. "That's perfect," he said. "Thank you." Marin gave a small nod in return and went back to her ledger while Evan turned toward the wide staircase rising along the far wall, the quiet rustle of pages and distant footsteps guiding him deeper into the building.
The staircase carried him to the second floor where the atmosphere grew even quieter. Shelves stretched in long, orderly rows beneath soft overhead lighting, each section marked by small metal placards that listed subject headings in clear lettering. Evan moved slowly along the aisles, reading the labels as he passed them. Tier Structure. Civic Governance. Dungeon Fundamentals. Planetary Geography. The categories were straightforward, exactly the sort of foundational material he had hoped to find.
He began pulling volumes from the shelves one at a time, scanning the opening pages before deciding which to keep. A thick introductory text on Tier Advancement went under his arm first. A thicker book explaining Basic Dungeon Structures and Hazard Awareness followed, then a book titled Foundations of Awakening and Skill Development that appeared to summarize the requirements civilians had mentioned outside the arena. Within a few minutes he carried a small stack that felt heavy enough to promise several hours of answers.
A quiet movement nearby drew his attention before he turned toward the reading area. Along one side of the floor a narrow counter had been set against the wall, attended only by a small self-serve dispenser and a line of simple cups stacked neatly beside it. Several readers passed by the station as they worked through their books, filling cups and returning to their tables without interrupting the quiet rhythm of the room.
Evan paused beside one of them, watching the dark liquid pour into the cup with a faint curl of steam rising above it. The person noticed his curiosity and offered a small explanation without prompting. "It's brinroot brew," the man said quietly. "Keeps you awake while you read." Evan took a cup for himself and tested the first sip cautiously. The taste was bitter and warm, with an earthy depth that reminded him immediately of coffee back on Earth, though the flavor carried a sharper edge that lingered on his tongue.
He carried the cup carefully in one hand while balancing the stack of books against his chest with the other. The reading hall offered dozens of tables, but Evan moved past the larger ones where students and office workers had already settled into quiet study. Instead he followed the outer wall until he found a smaller corner where two armchairs and a low wooden table had been arranged beside one of the tall windows.
The spot felt comfortably removed from the rest of the room. Sunlight filtered through the glass at an angle that softened the lamplight above the table, and the steady murmur of pages turning across the hall faded into something distant and unobtrusive. Evan set the books down one by one, placed the cup of brinroot brew beside them, and lowered himself into the chair. Here, at last, he had time, questions, and a quiet place to begin looking for answers.
Evan wrapped his fingers around the warm cup for a moment, letting the bitterness of the brinroot brew settle on his tongue while his eyes moved across the titles stacked on the table. Each one promised a different piece of the world he now lived in. After a brief pause he reached for the volume on Tier Advancement, opened it to the first page, and leaned forward into the quiet of the library. Survival had carried him this far. Understanding would carry him further.