and I started flailing to catch myself falling. But nothing moved here. And I had no sense of falling or floating for that matter. I just was. It was then that I realized I had moved my arms and legs. I brought my hand closer to my face to examine it further, poking at it with the other.

"Have you never had hands before?" A disembodied, vaguely feminine voice asked from the darkness.

Well, excuse me for reveling in the fact that I can move again after millions of years of standing still. I thought, realizing I hadn't said anything out loud as I had intended. I was about to repeat my response when I was interrupted.

"Millions of years you say… ah I see. Wow. Truly powerful stuff. Able to move your eyeballs. The work of a master. Amazing."

Are you mocking me? And what would you know anyway if you weren't there?

"Maybe not, but being bound to your soul has given me access to your mind. I took a moment to process everything, but as a Librarian of Pinnacle Hall, it has been organized and categorized. Also, yes, I was mocking you. " The voice paused, but then sensed I was about to respond, it continued. "Librarian with a capital L. You met my father, the head Librarian of the Hall. He's hard to miss on the old geezer's face. Yes, I'm talking about the metal chin. Yes, he kind of has his own body, but not really. They do this thing where my father drops down from those chains, while in the form of the old man's jaw, and they open up a black hole, so that's pretty cool. No, I'm not trying to distract you. No, I can't take over your mind even if I wanted to. And no, it wasn't against your will. You consented when you made the Soal Oath with the old man. I'm here because he and my father asked if I would meet with you and get your measure. I've been in search of a vessel to bind to for longer than should be necessary for my kind, but none of the contenders has the two things I require in a partner."

I waited, finally allowing me to speak after answering every errant question that popped into my head in rapid succession.

And what would that be?

"A stupidly high base Luck is a big boon, and you'll find out about it after you have access to your status screen later. But the main one is a moderately high Intelligence Stat. As you know, once you hit Novice and gain a Class, the distribution of Stats is based on what they were when you earned your grimoire. So, every day, you will have to dump more and more points into your originally low stats, just to keep up with others in those aspects. It is wise to try to balance your weaknesses with your strengths, but most people would ignore this for an "overpower" build." It said this with disgust, sounding more familiar for some reason. "All you need is luck, a Librarian, and the Intelligence to wield both."

I frowned into the deep void. My Core hasn't integrated with my body yet. How do you know my stats? I won't even have access to my Stats page until it's complete.

"Just because you can't see them doesn't mean I can't. No, absolutely not. It will ruin the surprise. Just know everything will be just fine, so don't worry. I will tell you that, as everyone knows, Luck is the only Stat you can't put points into; it has to be earned through Titles, Classes, surviving life and death circumstances, or chance encounters of fate."

Fate? I asked skeptically.

"For example, imagine a bard playing in a tavern that just so happens to have a semi-retired assassin drinking in the corner for personal reasons I won't share. This man, having a very bad night indeed. Thinking about many dreadful things. Then the Bard takes his position on the corner stage and begins to play a very merry tune laced with magic to lighten the mood of the room, therefore, giving the scout just a moment away from those thoughts that brought him worry. This assassin is not dark and brooding by nature, so he buys the man a drink at the end of his long night. Grateful, the bard sits and talks with the man, telling more outlandish tales of traveling the kingdom. Something they both share in common. They bid farewell, both with pleasant impressions. Years go by, and a handful of similar taverns and nights spent telling tales as they both traveled to similar areas for work."

"One day, the assassin received a contract. A noble was slighted by this Bard and asked for his services. By the end of the week, no one who held the book of that house lived. Far away in another city, this Bard would receive a significant increase to his Luck with no explanation as to why."

That makes sense. I thought. The Bard did get extremely lucky to have befriended the assassin who got hired to kill him.

"Just how lucky does one have to be to survive millions of years of mental torment in a compromised Time Arrestment array, do you suppose?" The voice in the darkness changed further, sounding younger and even more feminine. Something I could almost recognize, like it was prickling my mind.

Who are you, and what do you get out of it?

"I am a Familiar. A knowledge bank of sorts. You could call me a sort of Library myself. Librarians can not gain knowledge of their own until they are bound to a soul oath. Which can only be done before level 5. I'm sure you can view how many geniuses below level 5 have both luck and intelligence. It is usually one or the other, and they are more often than not cheeky bastards, but not in a fun way like you. More in a very pretentious, 'wait till my father hears about this' way."

I frowned even deeper.

"Fine, fine. Luck brings loot, and loot gives you stuff and money. And I like stuff and I think I'll like money to buy more stuff. Stuff I can learn from. I've never had stuff, but I've always wanted to try it. Being unable to store knowledge while being unbound was frustrating, even though I tried to learn things on my own. But it just fades away whenever I focus on something else. So that's the deal, you give me stuff to gain knowledge from and I will allow you to use my library to help keep your mind stable plus many other amazing things, because everything I do is amazing. Besides Luck, a high Intelligence is needed to hold the first floor of my library to hold information as a mental construct. Once you're at a higher level you will be able to access other levels like the crafting and research levels which open up a storage domain where you can physically enter to bring items in to learn more about them or craft with them. Then there are the archives. They house important works shared by the Librarian network. But that's far off, so you don't need to worry about that just yet, as well as many others. I'm not a fan of spoilers."

I was astonished at the information this entity was sharing. Not just the fact that I could barely think of a question before it would be answered, which was quite nice. But if what it said was true and I not only just bonded with not just a familiar, but a built-in fountain of storable information. All this thing wanted was loot in return. That seemed very reasonable. The crafting floors are what piqued my interest as my family had been jewelers. I had tinkered when I was younger but made it clear I wouldn't be following that path, so I never took it very seriously. This is not to say I didn't enjoy it. It was relaxing to hyperfocus on a single project and lose myself in it. Having portable labs would be tremendously helpful. This could change a lot for my plans going forward.

My memory was never the greatest, and with so many years under my belt, I had barely held on to my family's names or their faces. Thinking about it though, he now recalled everything perfectly, he could picture his family's faces from before, now especially seeing Ren's face happy and smiling while she teased me one time we had gone out to get our mother a birthday gift together. Tears welled up in my eyes, but I let them go. I didn't suppress my grief. It had just been exhausted a long time ago. These were tears of my peace, born from the simple act of not being forced to remember them in such a terrible state.

"Thank you," I said, my voice not cracking, as I had imagined it would from disuse. I bowed to the surrounding area, not sure where they were.

"Of course, all I did was sort your useful and non-productive memories to better order your subconscious, allowing it to run at a higher peak efficiency."

They weren't lying either, I had noticeably felt my mind clear. Some of the insanity of my nightmare had dissipated. Not truly gone, just pushed away.

"I also compressed your time dilation experience into notable experiences at the forefront, and the long expanses of doing nothing or counting has been repressed to what is essentially a very long storage closet. You can think about them specifically and will be able to call them up. Otherwise, they will stay put. Once we are fully integrated, you will be able to enter the Library and see for yourself."

"So, what do I call you?" I asked, nodding at their explanation.

"My name is Melthezaaria, but you may call me Mel. As much as I've enjoyed this little meet and greet. The soul vault I arrived in to transfer to your soul is about to break from the constant damage the backlash has been attempting to inflict on your core and soul. Most of the damage has been absorbed by the vault but will not hold much longer. You must be ready for it when it comes."

"What about the second requirement?"

A small pinprick of light appeared in the distance overhead. Just as I was about to say something about it the void ripped apart and a torrent of blindingly hot light washed over me, searing my flesh and melting my eyeballs into pools of gelatinous liquid before they evaporated. My skin had finally melted and slagged off my bones. I was so sure that without nerves, I wouldn't be able to feel the pain anymore, but I was so wrong. As my spiritual matrix was revealed, the light hit my pathways first and began hissing like it hit water. Pure agony. Nothing went through my mind. Only the pain was there.

I had read many books where the brave hero faces excruciating pain by resolving his will and gritting his teeth. That, I came to find out is bullshit. There is no gritting your teeth through that kind of pain. I woke up realizing I had passed out, as the light weakened more and more, expending whatever energy source it used. Parts of my pathways were scuffed pretty well, but there was no serious-looking damage. As the light cut off completely, I stared down at my skeleton pitch black from burns, yet I could still move despite no tendons or ligaments holding my body together.

The last thing I saw before I passed out completely was two purple eyes on the face of my little sister, only slightly older. She had a black inverted trapezoid panel of metal on the left side of her chin, only about an inch wide. I recognized the void metal Osiph's jaw was made of. Before even being able to reflect on what I just saw, I let the void take my consciousness. But not before a final familiar voice called out to me one more time.

"Cassieus, run!"