When I got back to the library, there wasn’t much fanfare, which was nice. Mmm, that meal was scrumptious. They have been finding all sorts of wonderful mushroom recipes. The lack of a book at hand while eating posed my only problem. It seemed inevitable that I would soon have to carry a stack of books with me. “Gem Inscription Theory and Practice” by Matilda Ashenworth topped my list of upcoming reads, as I was eager to catch up on the latest developments in gem technology. My goal was to master the craft and align my skills with current trends.

It was now just time for me and my books. Nobody to stare or look at me. Just me and my books. Wait, why are there 28 bears here? Please, not something bad!

The bearista walked up to me and said, “I have discussed it with the others, and it seems that many of us want to see how the world has changed. The destruction this time is said to be worse than any before. Several of us want to witness it and also encounter the new race, other than the Valwrecks. We had to hold a raffle to determine who would be allowed to go.”

I thought they said they were introverted? If they had done a raffle, then there must have been a lot. “How many wanted to go?”

“About 400 of us. There were still many more that didn’t want to go.”

“Wait, How many of you are there? I have never seen that many at once and I spent a decent amount of time in the library.”

“You spent the longest out of any non bear. We still don’t know how you did it. The dimensional drag usually gets people out of here. There are 2022 in a sub soul dimension attached to the library. Similar to how the dungeon is an attachment, though the dungeon was around before the library and was anchored here.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of you. How does it work since I only see some of you at one time?” I asked, avoiding his other remark. That wasn’t something I wanted to disclose. Simply put, I wasn’t really attached. 

“Well, it is just our souls that are connected to the bears and we can swap them out with others when we want to trade. We could look into you visiting us if you have a soul form.” they said subtly prying for more infromation.

“Maybe some other time. But it’s great news that you want to come out. I have something I needed your help with. I have to give a speech to the leaders of the kingdom and corporations. There I will need to impress on everyone that I am the goddess from the library. So I wanted to let my power leak, open up the library and have you all march out. Would you be fine with that?”

The bearista stood up straight and looked straight ahead at the others. A moment later, he nodded. “Yes, that would be fine, as long as it is helping the next race integrate better. If you need more, then 28, let me know. We can always get more, even more than the 400 if needed.”

I guess I have a bearforce now! Then again, it wouldn’t be good to flex them. It may come off as more of a threat or control if I have them out in force. That left only the meetup to handle before we leave for the meeting tomorrow. And of course more reading time. 

{Firth, bring everyone on the council and their families to my chambers. Lizlin will let you all in. We are going to do a meet and greet with the bears.}

{Yes, yes, of course we will drop what we are doing and prepare immediately.

{Liz, prepare my quarters for some guests.}

{Yes I will organize your books that you leave in stacks all over the room immediately}

She knew me so well. “Well then, let’s head to a meet and greet with my council, then we can head outside so you can see how much the world has changed.”

“That was fast.” The bearista replied.

“Haha, Ya things have been going like that.” 

That was a lot of what I had been doing—just running around, doing things so fast, with no time for me to read. After collecting my stacks of books to be read, I gathered up the bears that were ready to leave, and we headed towards the exit portal.

Upon arrival, the bears and I were confronted with a squished crowd of people. A mixture of otherkin and humans gawked, their fascination directed towards me and the bears. {I didn’t think that there would be this many} I said apologetically to the bearista.

{It is fine. It is less crowded than when the goddess used to conduct story time. Back then, the kids would be sitting on the shelves and on top of the bookcases that were scattered throughout the area.}

{That would have been wonderful to witness. Wait, didn’t you all get mad at me for running atop the shelves?}

{That was because it was dangerous.}

I noticed the people staring at us as we stood there quietly having our telepathic discussion.

“These are the bears of myth. Feel free to tackle them at any time if you can catch them. They love to be climbed all over,” I said, turning back and grinning at them. Even though I said that, the children didn’t move. It seemed they were still a little wary.

The bears went around, waved to everyone, and patted the kids on the head. They seemed to be warming up a little. Trying to think about it from their view showed me I needed some more perspective. It made me want to understand the point of view of my people, and especially the otherkin.

Oh, I knew what I could do. I could be an undercover goddess as an otherkin and explore the kingdom, and maybe the refuge for a while. It would be a great way to read all of the books, I mean, meet the people. That would be a good way to scope out how my church treats people, as well as how the poor live and how the nobles treat them. That would have to wait for after the treaty is signed. 

I wanted to show the bears around the refuge and not just show them the outside, so I devised a tour. Thus, I reached up the bearista with open arms. He picked me up, and the crowd seemed astonished. It may have seemed sort of child like but they were extremely comfy. 

{Have the other bears open their arms and pick up the kids if they come forward.} I said to the beartista. The bears all opened up their arms to the children, but everyone was still a little confused. “We are going to show the bears around the refuge and the outside a little. It will be hard for the children to keep up. So they can hop on for a ride like I am.”

Lian’s children should get some fame out of this which will be good for them. The children all got on, making remarks about how soft the bears were. The parents were slightly jealous, it was obvious in their longing stares.

{We appreciate this, I am getting many messages about this being like the old times.}

{I knew you helped out with kids, but I thought you were all introverts?}

{Most of us still had kids of our own or our relatives did. Even if any traces of our children or bloodline have long since been erased, we still have a parental feeling towards them.}

A pang of guilt washed over me as I realized that I hadn’t truly opened the place up to a new wave of people. I wasn’t entirely sure if I wanted to, though. There was far too much inside that the world simply wasn’t ready for. Perhaps if I could section things off, we could accommodate a larger number of people. I hadn’t been aware of any such restriction measures before, but I could at least ask about it.

{Would it be possible to create a section exclusively for new books in the world? I am concerned about releasing old knowledge to the world at this time. They already have too much going on to handle some of the darker spells that could leak out if we granted them full access.}

{That is very much possible. It’s kind of like how we already have an age-restricted section in the library. Kids are unable to see certain books, and even adults are unable to see certain books until they reach their later years.}

{Hmm really, I never faced any such restrictions.}

{That’s due to you donating far more dangerous and unique books from your dungeon delving.} 

{Oh, well, can you get started on resectioning things so that only approved books and books from this world are available to people from this time? Or do I need to do it?}

{By you asking, we can do it now. You will just have to figure out which books are approved.} 

Sounds like a job for a mental clone! 

With everyone ready to go, we took off on the tour of the refuge. Of course, I had a book levitating in front of me. The first place we went to was the mushroom farm and its eatery. They liked how I had taken the simple mushroom spell and expanded its uses to fit the needs and abilities of the people here. We decided to expand the list of foods that could regenerate mana as one of the more needed projects, especially if things went bad in the kingdom.

Even if we just added a lot more spices and a viable source of cheese, it would go a long way. Though changing up the texture options would be good as well. Even with my favorite foods, I had to change things up every couple of decades.

There was much fanfare as we passed through; my people couldn’t hold back their gawking with all the excitement going on. I was glad to see that they had been trying for me the whole time. Since I was in the bear’s fluffy arms, I was unaffected by the stares.

They found the general housing arrangements interesting. It was apparently very similar to some dwarven communities, with a lot less ale and forging facilities. The zone of truth rooms were a point of interest as well since they removed the need for lying and torture in investigations. I did find out that many past investigative procedures included torture to extract information from likely suspects. Then they would just make the target of investigation forget it afterward. That didn’t seem too good to me, but it was an issue of the distant past; nothing can really be done about it now, just don’t repeat it.

After that, I showed them the converted mine cart system, which they enjoyed riding on for a quick ride around. The children loved how fast we made it speed around with our magic, but the parents looked rather queasy.

The last stop was going outside the refuge, which was still as barren as usual.

{As you can see the land has been stripped of mana.}

{This truly is a massive calamity. Even during most previous end times the land was still healthy with mana. At worst, it had been twisted and corrupted but that healed with time.} The bearista replied.

{It has to do with the aptly named calamity beasts that drain the mana out of the land and all living creatures to sustain their own existence and expand their numbers. There used to be many more of them, but since the land has been stripped so much, their numbers have dwindled.}

{Is it known who created them?}

{No, most thought it was either warring kingdoms or the gods, but either way, they feel like it was at least the gods’ fault for letting it happen. That is another reason I am worshipped, since my papers, or as they call them, divine messages, saved them. Maybe you all could ask around the other bears and see if anyone saw someone doing research on topics like this.}

{We will do that, but magic on this scale to strip mana is on the lower end of divine magic. It could have been cobbled together with a string of grand magic spells, maybe, but something like that wouldn’t have gone unnoticed.}

{I have faced similar creatures before on the lower levels of the dungeon but none that were able to reproduce. Also, they weren’t capable of getting as big as these are. The lower levels of the dungeon hold many things not of this land.}

Hunters arrived back with fresh, calamity beasts. Yum more burgers!

{We would like one of those to examine.}

{I am not going down that deep in the dungeon again anytime soon}

{No, one of the new ones. Things from the dungeon should stay there other than books.}

But burgers! “We would like one of those calamity beasts to examine. The bears wish to take one back to the library.” I said to the hunters.

“We would be honored.” The leader of the hunting pack said. Two of their people brought forth a calamity beast. The bearista shoved it into a dimensional bag.

“With that sorted out, it’s getting late. Let’s head back in for the night and prepare for tomorrow. Tell them to be ready by noon; we will arrive when we feel ready.”

With that issue resolved, we returned to the refuge and went our separate ways to make our final preparations.