A Not so Foreign World

"Sensei !" Running my way as I exited the dungeon behind them, Mikel and Judis threw their weapons away and jumped at me.

"I'm back, sorry for worrying you."

After discovering the bunker and the automaton, I decided to go back inside the labyrinth. We had been informed that up to the twentieth level the guild maintained a marking at each of the stairs to indicate which floor was which. So I figured I would at least try to see if I was still within the aforementioned range. 

"Mary and Jose are at the guild to report on the incident, with Arthur, and to speak to the innkeeper in case you didn't come back tonight." Explained Mikel.

"Good, I'm glad to see you have taken the right course of action despite my absence. Let's hurry back then."

In the end I'd only been thrown somewhere on the fourth level. Close to the hole I'd used to climb into the wooden shed, there had been a small cavity in the wall linked to a another tunnel which in turn led to the an open space of the fourth layer. From that point on, simply going the opposite way I'd emerged from, I quickly found the stairway to the third level. 

"How much time has passed since you lost me ?"

"Not too long actually, we came out of the labyrinth only an hour ago." This time it was Judis who answered. "Arthur has had the time to rush back in to inform the group that came after us and to come back out to report at the guild."

If everything was taken care of then there was nothing more to worry about. Which meant I could now return my train of thoughts on the matter of the hidden bunker below the forest shed.

                                                                          ___________

"Arthur Goyle has volunteered to look after them for a while, you can step away at ease." The guild receptionist confirmed.

"Thank you sir, I'll be off to the library then. Please relay the information in case somebody is looking for me."

Bowing both as show of both understanding and to bid me farewell, the clerk returned to his duties. As for me, it was time to hit the guild library. My unfortunate experience having prevented me from having a real experience with the crew, I elected to drop out while I made sure someone reliable would look after the kids. Another initiation with the cleaning crew was scheduled for next month, so if I was still around I figured I'd give it another try then.

At six in the afternoon the library was quite busy. Most adventurers ended their day around this time so this was the perfect moment for information gathering or research. Back at the castle in Ispron, writings about this world's history and its distant past had been too complicated for me to read. While I'd learnt how to read their language since then, at the time it had been a bit too much for me. Not to mention how I quickly grew more interested in magic-related archives and guides than in anything else.

Let's see, "History of the Grand Labyrinth Fos"; "Humanity's capital,  the city-state Matrio"; "The History of Versace, a country of dreams and adventure !"; "The World of Ecliptica, illustrated edition"... Leaving the book about this country behind, I took the other three with me and sat at a carrel desk at the back of the room.

Starting off chronologically with the illustrated version of the history of this world, I began reading.
According to the records of our predecessors and those who used to call themselves "scientists", this world is a young one. It would be about three thousand years old, and the first traces of intelligent life would have appeared about a thousand years after its apparition. Skipping the rest of the introduction about the first races to have appeared and the trail they'd left, I tried to find what they had recorded about humanity. They'd already mentionned the scientists so, I wanted a more in-depth definition of who they were according to the people who wrote this book at least.

"There it is." A dozen pages later, I found the chapter about humanity. While not as naturally gifted as their predecessors, probably because nature did not make them one of the first races, humans were born with pretty average abilities in everything instead. That being said, it also meant they had no detrimental shortcomings either, which might be considered a gift in itself. Once again I skipped a few paragraphs until I found a keyword that caught my interest. Because they were more organised than the other races, they were quicker to develop their settlements and grow in numbers. Which ultimately led them to their ruin. Forsaking the usage of magic because of its complexity, humans had developed "science".
Science was a process of thinking and working that based itself off tangible truths, natural phenomenons, organisms, and observation, to state facts about the world and the living in general. However, that science, initially created and made for the people who lacked the ability or time to research magic, turned into a means to accelerate the societies' development and improve the people's quality of life. 

Passing over the details of which inventions they had developed to that effect, I picked up from a few paragraphs later. Growing greedy, the scientists ultimately attempted to manufacture a deity that would represent and rule over science, which spelled their downfall. A hundred years before the project was expected to be completed, what would later be referred to as "the cleaning protocol", struck. In a matter of days, gigantic white and golden beasts fell from the sky over the most prominent laboratories of human cities and massacred and devored the scentists.

Farther into the book other instances of this "cleaning protocol" happening were described. Sometimes there were columns of light suddenly singling out certain people who would then disappear, sometimes they were sucked into the ground, but the one thing all these instances of this protocol coming into effect had in common, was how it was strictly targetting specific individuals or groups.
As such, in the begining, humanity had simply tried to bounce back and maintain their ways, until they understood that it must have been either a god or the planet itself that refused their relentless pursuit of evolution, which often wounded the nature around them.

Now I'm lost. I thought, while it was true japanese people and, or, earthlings had already been in this world, it made more sense now to consider the humanity of old from their own records had been the one to leave traces such as the bunker I'd found, or the usage of electricty to light the larger cities at night. And even then, it might actually have been a magic user who came up with the latter.

When I took another look at the section where they listed a few inventions humans had made back then, I found the mention of automatons and robots for domestic usage and public facilities. That being said, nothing specific was written there, much less details about their composition or how they worked. So then, my next order of business would be to try and find somebody interested in those old technologies, feels weird to say that, to see if I could gain anything out of my discovery.