Chapter 158

  William went through a lot of inner monologues and more books than Ellie did. He didn’t have time to look around much on his own, so more hours followed as he felt more and more overwhelmed.

  Kaufman barely involved himself. Sometimes, he made his move and gave them some of his insights, but he kept his silent watch and kept his judgment tight.

  Reading was a worthwhile experience, and as he further saw it, William focused on what mattered to him and he wasn't seeking the impossible scenarios. Even when Ellie decided the majority of the topics and books, Kaufman thought she would be bolder because the way she used his card was clever. But once more, maybe that would come later since this room wasn’t the most brazen of the bunch.

  Kaufman wondered what would happen if he wasn’t here. Perhaps he should’ve done things differently from the get-go if that made any further sense. Ellie was an interesting variable that Kaufman found amusing and good the more he watched.

  Meanwhile, William completely forgot about Kaufman. Going from book to book, he grasped core topics without burying his head too deep in them for too long. It was a style of learning that Ellie shoved into his head over the past days and that provided a foundation with further improvements and glimpses into complexity.

  Even when some topics were long and complicated, because of missing context or Ellie’s missing mark, he was doing things gradually in smaller bits.

  With more passes, the words would clear until one would master various topics. The downsides to this style of learning were time and need for good visualization, strategy, and focus, while the teacher and core information had to be reliable.

  William wasn’t that good in most of this stuff, as his base knowledge wasn’t too bright. Without Ellie's help, that is.

  But he was a hardworking young man, and it was slowly showing some results—especially when interest and honest willingness came along with it. He genuinely felt lost in these books, but foreboding stuff about some Darks wasn’t among them. There were interesting historical events, while most of them pointed to the Federation's vast powers.

  William tried to focus his interest on it and learned what he could with one acceptable pass.

  Understanding held interpretations of the bigger picture. William believed commitment was a job or a task to reach. The rewards were lessons and knowledge, and he didn’t want to do something he didn’t want to do. None of this was fiction, since most of the gruesome things within those books were very real, even though he wished it wasn’t.

  Kaufman coughed, standing right beside him and almost shocking William from his reverie.

  “We have been here for nine hours already. Rest is important, and don’t mess with your head too much. We are done here.”

  William was unaware where these hours came from. He also knew he wasn’t alone in this room. In the end, it was unlikely Kaufman was completely trustworthy about some problems.

  “I want to keep studying,” William argued back, eyes filled with determination, which didn’t disappear just because of this old man.

  “Stubborn kid. Take care of that god-damned card, but remember, don’t follow or reach out into far restricted locks outside of your scope, no matter what is right or not. This isn’t a test. It is a warning. You saw the numbers and Outside, right? Don’t eat more than you can chew, but do it if you dare. Are we clear? It is a position of a golden goose and spoon I am giving you.” Kaufman, to William’s surprise, tossed him a card that he thought Ellie had.

  Ellie heard him and immediately checked her hand. She jolted to them, shocked but not impressed. “Hey, when did...”

  A simple glare from Kaufman shut her up. “I am a patient old man. I will let you play here until you can’t or don’t have to. Also, I don’t like to repeat myself. When I do, things go south, so don’t try to pluck your own luck, both of you.”

  *Where did he get it back? I remember holding onto that card like a carrot!* Ellie pondered.

  “Thanks for your consideration,” William said awkwardly, still remembering how the start of this day went and how that pain lingered at the back of his mind and hand. “I have weeks to use it, and I don’t plan to waste this, as I promised. As for some locks, I won’t promise what I don’t know.”

  “Clever words. I hope actions won’t be baseless.”

  “What about Ellie?” William gripped the card and hoped it wouldn’t disappear overnight.

  “I mean goodwill, boy. Follow my advice if you want some more explicit ideas. As for Ellie, she isn’t my responsibility, it seems. She is yours. The beginning is important, and yours is smaller than those kin of similar shoes. Trust me. There are a lot of expectant youths and some might be better than you by dozens of times. Or lower, for that matter. I mean, faces have features and people are people and Sky knows what you did in the surface.”

  “What?”

  “What have you done out there is a flavor, kid. Your start is low and strange, so... perhaps I am speaking too much. Understand yourself, this place, me, and this right here better wait for the given opportunity, or... ponder of what is given or forced.” Kaufman said and pointed at his right arm.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “I will try. Wait, does that mean you won’t come back again? Is this… everything you wanted from this second visit? Just pain? Hurt me and test me?” William asked, half glad and half surprised Kaufman hadn’t asked or demanded anything in this room.

  Sighting and frowning, Kaufman already gave up on most pointers. “Maybe I will show up if that’s necessary. Maybe I won’t because... well, it is not my point even if it were. We wait, I suppose. Everyone does it in some capacity, both out there or here.”

  William had some time left, and he would be without Ellie at some point, so he wanted to be responsible, even when the beginning of this path wasn’t that lonely after all.

  Kaufman left the room and said nothing else to William or Ellie, which meant they were free to look at anything they wanted to catch.

  Both of them took a deep breath, albeit for two different reasons. Both were common in incredible gladness and how the air and space cleared up.

  Kaufman could not give them any more attention, or he didn’t want to care. He had weird needs and wishes, while his desires were largely unknown territories full of shadows or fog.

  Ellie knew much more about that than William and considered Heidi and her position.

  His weird standards and other Walkers might disagree with what he does and will do. That stuff wasn’t fine or a good idea, as it could cause trouble for many people.

  Especially since he wasn’t keen on backing away from personal troubles or his pride. But troubling other Walkers wasn’t baseless. Kaufman didn’t have to be gentle and never planned to be a villain.

  However, sometimes, stuff happens.

  Noticing William’s gladness, Ellie hugged some books and approached him. “That wasn’t all that bad, though I thought we were goners!”

  William looked at her and didn’t know what to say. She helped him a lot today and her smile was even brighter than before, even if it hid nerves and who knew what else.

  His newfound knowledge deepened, and he found something else, both unexpected and unexplored. Unfortunately, he wasn’t aware of it at the moment. Some acts and emotions reminded him of his past, but that one was…different, like night and day.

  He was safe, away from the Outside. In the middle of a thriving place and paradise, he was safe and... abducted.

  William nodded to her and considered this place and wondered in his mind. Walkers, Corrupted Lands, Darks, and much more news that Walker needed were in almost every book. Some of them were so wide open or so common that one wondered if it was even necessary to write them down. For William, it was splendid.

  Everything was so much more interesting than those sick lower floors. William ended up breathless. He felt like he was uncovering secrets of this world that had been hidden underneath the shrouds of mysteries or mist called Outside. Or his own damn choices, because maybe all of this was right before his nose.

  Not like it was something foolish. Maybe he would’ve gotten acceptable wishes but a worse life out of it, but that point was less personal when he was younger. Also, he was fine. William didn’t hate what he had become. He was small while the world did the rest. He shouldn’t feel bad because no one was the maker of their own misfortune.

  Tossing many portions of his past aside a long time ago, he kept what mattered closer so he wouldn’t forget.

  Then, William had to think of the near future and what to change. Knowledge and practice differed a lot for people's needs, like tests and combat and growing in this world.

  Being face to face with a Hellgar was something else than reading about this Dark. Right. Not everything in this room was as precious as one’s life, but many familiar terms, photos, sketches, and strategies were familiar to him.

  Outside had them as well, and more personal and deadly, or filled with corresponding knowledge. How to survive was widespread since the people out there had lived in it for as far as they remembered. In fact, information about Darks started there, when Outside wasn't quite a big term. At some point, it was just outside. A world. A breaking, ever-so-crumbling, and all-encompassing dreadful land.

  Right beside farming, food, and knowing the surroundings or people, a survivor had to survive.

  But one thing was Outside, and the other was a masterful complication of this library. William recalled Hordes and bizarre and dangerous Darks that wanted him or others. The majority of those were sights he would rather not see again, yet he never stopped more than necessary.

  Through blood.

  Through tears.

  Through a shaking hand and missing the hand of his mother.

  He still remembered while also deliberating on new people before him.

  Monsters, beats, demons... Horror! Once, in the camp before Roshwell, he watched a Horde led by Alpha Centar, Rank 6 Dark, who was an actual member of the Primeval Family. It was a huge hunched colossus hundreds of feet tall and thin like a tree, resembling a human, yet no human at the same time.

  It was unnaturally fast for its size and looked far smoother than any building. Its big hands ended in wide spiky fingers that were capable of hideous acts of change. It wasn’t looking like any animal, or beast, or demon. It wasn't even that grotesque because it looked like a rocky monster of dreams and well out of this world.

  And it walked, howled, moved. Endlessly pursuing some goal, it wandered all over space for many years.

  Ordinary stone walls crumbled, and a defensive camp in the mountains couldn’t do shit agasint it. Thousands of feet tall mountains had many potential defenses, making perfect hiding spots for thousands of people. It had a lack of ground and farms, but it was better than nothing since elevated and hard-to-reach places were common in this new era.

  Yet against this thing of nightmares, it still crumbled, watched over by a kid whose head was also crumbling.