Dal’mohra reigned as the fabled city of learning for mauries. It held the rgest and most extensive library the world has ever seen and was the home of the brightest and most advanced magical schors of the age. Legend tells of many fabulous iions and discoveries arising due to the fluence of talent, knowledge, and mana that gregated withiy’s halls. It is hard to separate fact from legend so many years ter, but this is precisely what we have set out to do in this text.

  The city itself disappeared in a single night, taking with it much of the magical knowledge and uanding of its age, and leaving behind a void in the uanding of magic that is still only beginning to be re-discovered thousands of years ter. The magnitude of this disaster ot be overstated. Not a lot is uood of why it happened. Some historians specute that the researchers ducted some forbidden magic experiments that went awry. Some point to a powerful army of the undead anded by a lich. Others bme dungeons.

  What is known is that a giant underground explosion caused the mountain to colpse on top of the a Lirasian Grove, c many square miles of the mighty forest and permaly rewriting the local geography of the area. The remains of this Lirasian forest still exist miles to the south of what is now Myrin’s Keep in the kingdom of New Daria.

  However, the destru was not tai Dal’mohra. The disaster spilled out across the entire ti in a cataclysm known as the Breaking of the World, and in its wake, the Neancer Wars were unleashed.

  Due to the substantial alteration of the lodscape, nobody has been able to locate the ruins of the a underground city, leading many schors and historians of the current age to believe it erhaps entirely a myth.

  - Excerpt from The History of Dal’mohra: The Lost City of Learning

  Aliandra

  Several days passed in a blur of busy activity. Sigurd and his wife had been so happy with their prompt and decisive a, quelling their Kobold problem, that they told all the rest of the farmers, resulting in a veritable flood of simir job requests filling the quest board.

  Vivian Ross had been overjoyed.

  Ali no longer had any doubt in her mind about where the Kobolds had e from. It was abundantly clear that her as in the deep darkness of the library had had powerful ramifications, rippling up and spilling out into the outside world. The hundreds of missing Kobolds in the Ruins of Dal’mohra dungeon must have been dispced through the cavern system, turning up as raiding parties that desded from their new irs in the mountain caves to prey on the hardw farmers in the valleys below.

  Fortunately, there were not too many injuries, and Malika had been able to easily deal with those. And they were quiough to avoid extensive damage to the crops and farms.

  Ali quickly grew to enjoy these jobs. A lovely walk through the forests during the afternoon and early evening, followed by a spell of clearing out the Kobolds in the caves. They would camp ht to ehe problem roperly taken care of aurn to the Adventurers Guild early in the m to report on their success. This, and the overwhelming gratitude from the farmers and their families, was clearly the reason many people chose the life of an adventurer and joihe guild, and she could now uand why Vivian Ross was so adamant that a strong Adventurers Guild would be Myrin’s Keep.

  Ali smiled her thanks to Mieriel and dropped the gold from the test job into her already much-depleted money pouch. She stared at it forlornly before st it in her ring once again.

  Perhaps I o admit I have a problem. She had spent the bulk of her earnings on the books that Ryn had reended, and her goal of saving up for the Monster pendium had already been pushed back several times. But Ali didn’t regret it o. She was looking forward to her lunch date with Ryoday, and the opportunity to chat about the book she had just finished reading. Ryn was rapidly catg Ali up oerature of the current era, and her reendations had been excellent overall – only two of the stories had turned out to be duds, and Ali had read them cover to cover anyway.

  Ali wandered over to the guild store to browse while her friends finished up their business.

  “Hi Weldin,” she greeted the smartly dressed Gnome. He had a new eyepatch today, and it looked like it had some e jewelry sewn into it, making it sparkle.

  “Oh, hi Aliandra,” he said, getting up and walking over slowly, his e clig as he used it to support his damaged leg. Every time the e struck the ground, tiny flickers of red fme ran up its length. But instead of heat, and the hunger of fire mana, Ali saw the magic was created by light affinity mana.

  “Nice illusion entment,” Ali plimented him.

  “If I ’t actually be fast, I should at least look impressive, right?”

  Ali chuckled. At least he’s handling his perma injuries with a sense of humor.

  “I wao thank you,” he said, indig a new mannequin at the front of the store which dispyed a human-sized set of cotton cloth armor very much like the one she wore herself. “Lydia Avery stopped by.”

  “Oh?”

  “She said that you enced her to talk to me. You’re looking at the new exclusive outlet for Lydia’s Allure’s stylish line of bat gear and armor.” He puffed out his chest proudly. “Right here in my establishment.”

  “gratutions!”

  “It’s a provisional arra for a couple of months, just to see if it works. But I get a nice pertage for everything I sell – she’s quite generous. I already sold the Gnome-sized oo dear Ms. Puddlecrash this m. I even had a visitor from the Novaspark Academy of Magic stop by to browse. So, I think it’s going to be perfect.”

  “I’m so gd,” Ali smiled, happy to see that Lydia was going to be able to sell her ems at the guild store. It might not sell a lot of items, but it seemed like the kind of iment that might pay off handsomely iure. Ali didn’t know Weldin quite as well, but she liked his posh outfits, positive attitude, and impeccable manners, and she was happy to see him excited about the partnership deal she and Malika had suggested.

  “I’m ready,” Malika said, joining her.

  “Ok,” Ali said. Malika had agreed to apao the Guildmaster’s bat training css, and then to practice with her afterward, until she had to leave for her lunch date with Ryn. It was going to be a busy m, but Ali was excited to learn something new.

  ***

  Ali stood ohreshold of the library and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Who knew growing pnts with a magical Grimoire could be such a sweaty business? She had made a firm resolution to work on leveling her Grimoire so that she could expand her repertoire of imprints and not be forced to waste any, and now as she stood at the entrao the library, she admired the noticeably rger floating Grimoire and the two notifications she had earned on the way down.

  Grimoire of Summoning has reached level 19 (+2).

  A job well done!

  Turning, she looked back the way she had e. Stretg out into the ruins and out of sight was a broad swathe of moss carpeting the a stone pavement, and dark green ivy growing on the walls of ruined buildings. It was a little crooked, but her long path of new pended all the way bad up the ventition shaft eg the spot she was standing to the rest of her domain in the cavern above in an unbroken lihat was beginning to emit the brilliant gold and green glow characteristic of her mana.

  It had been hard work. Down here ione-crafted ruins, she had been uo use her tree imprint to leapfrog huge distances with her mana, forced io painstakingly grow ected moss and ivy. She had pleted her domain growth by pnting thousands of mushrooms, destrug the ones she didn’t need but grew by the annoying random variaion of her Grimoire, leaving mainly the are on Glos, shedding their golden light against the dark stone ruined walls.

  Surprisingly, her new Brown Stonecap mushrooms grew extremely well down here, their earth affinity making them ideal frowing right oone walls and pavement. Initially, she had removed them, but after she discovered how much they liked the enviro, she left the hundreds created by her Grimoire to grow ihe dark ers of the run-down houses.

  Basil had told her he would post a request with the guild when he and Eliyen ran out of the mushrooms they had collected, and Ali was keeping a for that. As soon as the job osted, Ali would be ready with another load of Stonecaps for them, harvested frht down here among the ruins.

  Ali pulled out a snad sat for a moment, taking a mueeded break. The ruins seemed safe enough now that all the monsters had been expelled, but Ali was hardly alone down here. Her minions were standing around keeping watch, and in the distance, she occasionally saw the brilliant white light of ’s magic as he roamed around expl every nook and y of the city. No doubt he’d e running over in a mih some tri or discovery. Nothing escaped his notice.

  Her attentiouro her notifications and the brightly glowing Grimoire that hovered in the air beside her.

  What should I learn? She had three open imprint chapters and at least fifty times that many ideas for what to fill them with. She slipped her awareness into the proje of her ste ring in the back of her mind and browsed through the tents she was carrying with her.

  I should definitely learn these, she thought, spending the traana required to retrieve a pile of Kobold bone bracelets that she had been colleg. She had several for fire magiagid a sele of healing ones. It took only a few mio reduce the entire pile into a cloud of golden motes of mana and the soft sound of a chime gratuted her on her minor act of annihition.

  Imprint: Bone Bracelet (Hands) pleted.

  She itted it trimoire, happy to have freed the spa her ring, and with the imprint recorded she would no longer have to worry about losing them in battle.

  After her short break, Ali got back to her feet. Her goal had not been to reach the library – that was merely the beginning, the baseline from which she could begin. She gazed into the darkness of the library, recalling the monsters, the fighting, and the creepy creatures of bone. No, she was here to cim the library for her own aore order and knowledge!

  She stepped into the dark library; the echoes of her footsteps gobbled up by the vast bess. She felt daunted, like a tiny firefly with her Grimoire, trying t light to the enormity of the abyss.

  It’s not going to fix itself. Summoning her determination, Ali began destrug the vast sheets of encrusted bone c the entry and repg it with a soft carpet of moss.

  Imprint: Bone pleted.

  I’m going to be dismissing that notification every five minutes in here, she thought, finally deg to it the imprint trimoire, just to quiet the annoying notification as she cleared her way to the first bookcases.

  Carefully, she held her excitement as her magic began to clear the shelves, stripping away the bone, and exposing the a books still appearing well-preserved after thousands of years. Heart beating ihroat, she reached a slightly trembling hand to pull a book from the timeworn shelf. She gasped in dismay as her fingers passed right through the book as it instantly crumbled to dust and poured out of the shelf making a small pile at her feet.

  With infinite care aleness, she tried again, but once again the book was toohis time evaporating from the soft touch of her exhation before she even reached it with her fingers.

  Is it all gone? She stared at the vastness of the library and the obvious evidence of age and decay, the result of ages of at the hands of the dungeon, aears welling up in her eyes at the magnitude and sheer scope of the loss of knowledge. Was this all a plete waste?

  As she mourhe library and all the knowledge that had once bee, a stray thought crossed her mind.

  What if I learn to make them? It was a crazy thought, but where the ravages of time had destroyed the collected works of the library, perhaps her magic could bring some of it back? If she could learn to make something as plex as a living monster, perhaps she could learn these books, and reproduce them?

  Barely daring to breathe, lest she iently destroy what remained, Ali began destrug the books on the shelf, o a time. Ten, fifteen, twenty. She quickly passed the normal threshold without aion from her skill. Determined, she pressed on, thirty, fifty, until she had pleted the entire shelf.

  It's not w. She felt she had destructed over a hundred books, including pieces, dust, aroyed remnants before she sat back, trying to uand what was wrong. She had eve her Sage of Learning drawing from her mana, only for her destru to repce it, but somehow something was still missing.

  She destructed aire sed shelf before the idea crossed her mind.

  What if it needs an intact book to plete the imprint?

  The thought popped into her mind, fully formed before she even had the ce of stopping it because of the horrifying implications. But there it was, and she was helpless to unthink it. She gazed at her precious books stored safely in her ring, struggling with the fact that she would o destroy one of them to prove her idea. If it would even work.

  I ’t. Books were sacred to her, and the idea of defag one, or worse, destroying it, was ao her entire being. But all arouhe weight of thousands of books pressed down on her mind, her sce. If she didn’t try, she would never know if she would have been able to save it all. Even just rec a small fra of the library would be well worth it.

  She pulled out a book from her ste, pg it on the ground before her, and stared at it for a long time. It was one of the few reendations Ryn had made that she hadn’t liked. It wasn’t that the book was bad, but the style was one she didn’t prefer.

  I have tingerly she reached out her hand, pg it on the cover of the book, feeling the raised ridges of the embossed title beh her fiips. I’m sorry… Grittieeth, she eled her mana into destru before ab. She tried again two times before finally she screwed her ce and just forced her way through, gasping in anguish at the sight of the beautiful book exploding into mana under her hand.

  The seds stretched out, tig by silently in the darkness as she waited anxiously until it became painfully obvious her notification was going to remain silent.

  It didn’t work…

  She winced as she recalled that her variants typically took several tries to learn. She dragged her mind bato the ring and looked once agaiing the only other book she hadn’t enjoyed, and pg it on the ground where the first one had just been annihited by her hand.

  She took a deep breath and summoned her magic, closing her eyes at the st moment so she didn’t have to see the destru of the book. But she felt it evaporate under her hand, and the sensation of pulling, of information flowing intnaling the book was gone, a sed oroyed by her magic.

  Again, the seds ticked by until Ali finally admitted that nothing was going to happen.

  It must hree.

  In that moment, Ali hated that rational part of her mind that pushed her onward. She k was right, but destroying books, even ones she hadn’t enjoyed, was tearing at her soul. She was itted to this path, as heart-wreng as it was, but now she was out of options. She would have to destroy a book she had loved. The very idea of returning to The Reading er and asking Ryn for help filled her with the harsh burning of shame.

  She dithered bad forth for many anguished minutes before she finally selected a small book and id it on the execution block – the Dwarven-made fgstone upon which she had destroyed its two previous panions. It was a toug story about a girl who had lost everything in the war and ected with her past by expl her painting. Ali had loved it.

  Despite hating herself for doing it, she summoned her magic for a third time. She cried out in the darkness as the book exploded into motes of mana, sending her shadow dang around the library for a moment until they all dissipated.

  Again, the seds passed, and Ali almost gave in to the despair when suddenly a chime rang out in her mind.

  Imprint: Book pleted.

  Grimoire of Summoning has reached level 20.

  Ali stared at the notifications h before her, her heart quivering.

  It worked? It worked!

  She couldn’t let herself believe it for several minutes, but the notification stubbornly refused to vanish. And nobody came by to shake her awake from the dream.

  Sudden urgency crashed in on her and she quickly itted it trimoire before anything could take it from her.

  Scarcely daring to believe the result, Ali poured her mana into the imprint, and after a few minutes, a book suddenly appeared, dropping to the stone floor with a soft thump. In awe aement, Ali reached out to get it, but her hand stopped a few inches from the cover.

  Something is wrong. The letters depig the title were ly embossed into the browher of the cover. But they were just a random set of letters, f no words in any of the nguages she knew. With a dark premonition falling over her, she she book up and ope, paging through in increasing desperation as her frantids revealed page after page of gibberish.

  In a state of panic, she made another book and another. But they too were filled with unintelligible random letters.

  The book dropped from suddenly nerveless fingers as realization crashed in. Her Grimoire was ily random. And while randomness of hair color, scale arra, eye color, and such things were perfectly suitable for creating monsters, the variations in the tents of a book were the point of the book. Messing with the order and arra of the text destroyed the meaning. And her skill obviously didn’t uand meaning, and so had produced perfectly good copies of the books she had destructed, plete with uniformly distributed arra of the differences and variation it had entered.

  It was too much. Ali broke down and cried in the middle of the library until Malika came to find her.

  timewalk