In a little bit more detail, it was mysteriously cool.

The entire structure had smooth edges along its walls, with no sharp points at all. About 13 or 14 average-size buildings at varying heights were joined together to form what seemed like a very high series of large platforms. On the top of the highest one, which was in the center of all of them, a white orb was hovering between several defense systems like the one at the Crystal shelter. The orb was similar to a satellite - one that measured anomalies between portals within Entria and gathered data from different advances within applicable sources. So, it recorded stuff. This is where many things like that "jet" blueprint come from - copying the processes that existed in other worlds. It is claimed that about 70% of them also use this technique, and the rest are excluded from the knowledge of Entria in general, to see where they lead.

Purple arrows and triangles decorated the exteriors of the buldings because Purple symbolized the main color in the research center. This Entria color was based on the manipulation of objects that were created after being created or edited by people; this was also supposedly the genetic color of the Zan region's ruler, which explains the constant attacks and urges to expand their land area. The uniforms and robes for all the students and scholars inside the center were purple as well, although it doesn't matter what Entria color somebody has as long as they are devoted to the place.

This place was parked in front of an incline leading to a higher elevation where all the houses were. This one center was crucial in the past when this part of the Star region failed to be conquered by the massive attack by the Zan region. While trying to find the front door of it, I walked around it and saw the houses up the hills that were rebuilt since I and countless others were devastated in the past. The liveliness of the present was uplifting, but the aura of the past still remained and would linger in me even if I told myself it already happened.

A process of elimination led me to the front door of the research center, which kindly slid open when I stepped onto the blue sqaure it was facing. I now was in the main lobby; a good start. Conveniently in this room was a directory which pointed to the hall I needed to whisk myself to. I took a few seconds to briefly examine it... the map was easy to read, but the rooms were abundant and connected to each other in complicated ways. Smaller rooms involved individual, detailed topics that were constantly being researched or upated. The larger room to the left was my destination, which had a large collection of books and data.

Less people were walking through the hall than I expected. It wasn't that crowded at all, and made it very easy once I managed to get to the shelves of books. I put two of them down on a table in that same room to start with. Some of the books had such general titles, like "World Secrets", "Ancient Discoveries", and my favorite, "The World", I didn't know what exactly they were trying to describe until I quickly skimmed through all of them, most of which were irrelevent and I quickly put back on the shevles. Hopefully the other two books I picked out had what I wanted to know about that wheel I found and the wedges on it.

Small bits of helpful information were in a few chapters of the books, but mainly there was nothing I needed to give me anything based on the wheel. Eventually I gave up and sat around trying to figure out how I could learn what I had to without alerting anybody. One student of the center walking by noticed me tossing a book into the air with one hand, catching it as it fell, and advised me to not do that. I peacefully responded to her by saying "The thing is pretty old already. It's not like it's antique or anything."

"Each of those books has its own purpose and shouldn't be damaged in any way."

"Tossing it upwards isn't really the same as damaging it."

"The moment you miss and it slams on the desk, it will be. Then somebody will really wonder what you're up to."

I was leaning with my elbow and head on the back of the chair. "None of these books have given me any data on the topic I need."

She had yellow hair just long enough to touch her shoulders and relaxing yet serious eyes with a combination of green and light brown in their color. Like all the other students, she was wearing a slightly smaller, less decorated robe that indicated she was only a rookie here. Informatively she told me, "If none of these books help you then you're most likely searching in the wrong place. As soon as a piece of news is discovered, it comes over to this center and gets updated regularly in newer versions of these books. If the older books don't have what you need, you should instead go to the collection over to the right, where the newest events are."

Slowly I shook my head no. "I guarantee that none of those are going to say anything on what I'm looking for either. My topic is... limited."

"I could probably aid you much faster if you actually told me what you are searching for."

I was silent for a few seconds, not knowing if I should let this bit of knowledge I have be revealed to anybody here. Just like she said, there would be an entire report on the wheel before I could get back to the shelter in the Crystal area. Even if they would not proceed to investigate it much, it would only take one Zan spy figuring out this data for an endless rush to conquer the area out of curiousity, inciting more regions to battle over it, trapping me within the battle between up to four of them. I needed the power to stop this... some excellent force to prevent all this.

"Well, are you going to say something? You seem very suspicious. What are you doing here?"

"Like I said, I'm privately trying to figure out a topic that I'm confused on."

"And for some reason you can't mention the topic in here, when I have the knowledge of nearly all the sections in this entire room, and what references are in each one?"

I could have spent all night looking for what I needed to by myself. But I could tell she was getting slightly more agitated, and ultimately decided that if she would try to tell anybody I could stealthily find a way to kill her before that happened anyways.

"Alright, I'm trying to find extra information on a large stone wheel underground in the Crystal area. This wheel has colored sections on it for each existing Entria color, and when I touched it, the gray part of it lit up."

Her mood instantly switched to slightly curious yet still serious. "The Crystal area... isn't it defended heavily by all kinds of traps and obstacles?"

"...Yes it is."

"You wouldn't happen to just get past them all, would you?"

"Well, not exactly."

"So wait a second... what about that single person defending it? What has happened to him?"

"Well, first another attack came that he easily fought off. Then an explosion led to a secret room underground that contained that wheel. He stared at it forever trying to figure out what it was and what it represented. From there he decided he needed to temporarily exit the Crystal area in order to make his mind clearer. After that, he traveled east until he sat down and tried flipping through random books. Now, you're staring directly at him."

Now I couldn't tell what expression she had on her face. "So you...... wait, so what's protecting the sword there?"

"Nobody right now. The traps are set up again, though."

"Doesn't that still make the sword there extremely vulnerable to theft? Wouldn't it just be sitting there in some compartment?"

"I moved the sword. But what can't be moved is that wheel. Do you know much about it?"

She stood still for a few seconds with her right hand to her head, attempting to think about how much she recalled. Once she finished collecting her thoughts, she said "No, there's nothing much I've heard in current news about a wheel like that. It may have been mentioned in some old books about this place's history, but I don't think it's the right one."

"So there's nothing you can do, right?"

"Actually, there is something I can do. Take me to that wheel so I can more closely examine it."

"What?" Take a passenger with me? Would this really be worth it? While I was reluctant about it, slowly the realization sunk into my head that there woud have to be at least one point where somebody would directly know about the device. I had a feeling of what the wheel meant, and why only the gray part lit up when I touched it. I kept that hypothesis to myself.

"Is there a problem with that? How'd you get here?"

"One of those gliding panels."

"That's big enough for two people to be on it at the same time. You probably don't wish to stay here looking for something you probably are not going to find."

"Sure it works, but are you really just allowed to leave like that?"

"The students can. Most of the more professional people are forced to stay here and interpret new data."

She seemed too calm throughout all this. The announcement of the wheel didn't even make her blink. But I accepted, tossed the books back, took my bag, and went outside. I knew it would get dark before I made it back all the way. The darkness is naturally more risky than the light... crafty, nearly invisible creatures that don't come out when it's light could randomly strike me if I crossed its path. Soon enough, she came outside too. After a few extra minutes of attempting to balance the panel correctly, I learned her name - Ailee - and prepared to go back west, to see what would unfold.