The National University of Aegsburg, situated in the southern part of the city in the Laid District, formed the core of Laid with the adjacent Caelon Military Academy and the Royal College of Arts. This was probably the precursor to the modern concept of a university town. As there were no student dormitories provided, the majority of apartments around the school were rented out to students, with rents climbing the closer they were to the campus.
Elyon's family was not wealthy, so they rented a place on the distant South Cross Street, bordering the commercial and port district of Gonia to the east.
Back in his apartment, Elyon pulled out his wallet and checked that his paper student ID was still inside. The brownish-red card, about half the size of a palm, contained detailed information down to his department and class, as well as a black-and-white photograph of himself.
After swapping his cotton slippers for broad-toed leather shoes, Elyon grabbed his black bowler hat and hooked the golden pocket watch onto his shirt's left pocket before stepping out.
As the capital city, Aegsburg boasted a public horse-drawn carriage system catering to the transportation needs of the masses. Similar to Earth's bus routes, there were designated starting and ending stops with signposts set at regular intervals in between.
After waiting for about fifteen minutes on South Cross Street, the orange-painted carriage destined for the university slowly approached.
Drawn by two horses, the elongated carriage featured a double-decker design. The lower deck, enclosed by glass windows, was reserved for the elderly or women with children, while gentlemen generally ascended the rear spiral staircase to the open-air seating on the roof. Fares started at one penny, depending on the distance traveled.
"Good morning, sir. Where might you be heading today?" The ticket collector, a young man in his early twenties with brown hair and faint freckles, sported a red uniform. A leather satchel hung open across his chest, filled with coins and white tickets.
"Good morning. I'll be getting off at Aegsburg University," Elyon handed over a copper penny, and the collector tore off a ticket, passing it to him.
Crossing the carriage, Elyon climbed to the top deck. It wasn't crowded this early on a rest day, so he found a middle-row seat on the edge and began admiring the streetscape.
Due to technological constraints, most buildings along the street were brick and tile, complemented by wooden windows.
As the sun rose, various vendors, having arrived from the city outskirts or the commerce-rich Gonia District, started selling their wares from horse-drawn carts or hand-pushed trolleys.
On the street corners, wandering minstrels played instruments akin to guitars, with clusters of children in short shirts dancing alongside. The occasional passing noblewoman would drop a few copper pennies, eliciting thankful cheers.
After about half an hour, the carriage reached Aegsburg University. As the largest comprehensive school in the Caelon region, the university's architecture was impressively grand, drawing admiration from Elyon, who was accustomed to the wonders wrought from steel and concrete in the 21st century.
Passing through the white marble archway, he spotted a brick and stone building crowned with a petite spire and numerous windows, positioned along the central axis of the university complex.
This building housed the library. Ascending a dozen or so steps, Elyon entered the main door of the library and, upon presenting his student ID to the doorman, was granted access to the book collection.
The library was divided into two levels, with historical and technological sections. Elyon headed to the history area, returning to the reading section with a thick tome titled "Universal History of the Continent."
The first part of the book was an account of creation myths. It seemed that before the advent of modern science, unexplained phenomena were conveniently attributed to the divine. Elyon smirked internally as he began to read the book before him.
According to the book, the universe was born in a chaotic void devoid of time and space. After an indefinite period, the universe's first light shone, and under its glow, eight righteous gods and numerous evil deities emerged.
A war spanning billions of years erupted between the righteous and the evil, their clashing powers ordered the chaos, with light rising to form the heavens and their stars.
The heavy darkness sank to create the land, between heaven and earth lay water, fire, air, earth—four elements that constituted everything. The righteous gods endowed the first humans with virtues like wisdom, courage, and perseverance, while some were swayed by the evil gods toward greed, brutality, and malevolence.
Humans, guided by the gods, triumphed over giants, elves, dwarves, and various races to become the masters of the planet.
It appeared that in the absence of early written records, myths were taken as history, and as civilizations developed and fear of life's natural cycles took hold, some clever individuals concocted religions to explain these mysteries.
Whether gods truly existed on this world and could send him back to modern Earth was another matter. Elyon sighed inwardly.
The planet was divided into the Old and New Worlds. The Old World consisted of two connected continents, with a mountain range separating the East and West. A vast desert spanned the south of the mountains, and trade across the continents was left to the caravans.
Most governments had achieved a feudal centralization, with a few smaller nations adopting republican systems. With the advancement of navigation technologies, explorers from the West discovered new continents about thirty years prior.
The New World was split into north and south. The northern continent was dominated by native tribes with reddish-brown complexions, and Western superpowers had started colonial ventures there over the past twenty years. The southern continent, inhabited by dark-skinned peoples, had already established early slave kingdoms, with the West's merchant republics establishing various trade routes.
The rest of the book focused on the dynasties and monarchs of the Western Continent, from the earliest human empire, the Frankish Empire, to its dissolution and the subsequent rise and fall of other nations—a lack of nutritional content, so to speak.
The next book Elyon picked up was on archaeology; given the scientific nature of the discipline, he hoped it would shed light on more factual events.
Indeed, the archaeological text was different, and Elyon quickly flipped to the section on the division of epochs.
The Epoch Division: Schools of thought differed on the division of ancient history, but it was widely agreed to follow a sequence of Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Epochs.
The Golden Epoch: Spanning from approximately 11,000 to 1,000 years ago, a time when civilization was just forming and, according to some theories, when multiple human-like civilizations might have existed. Ancient relics and fossils provided meager evidence to support this notion.
Church teachings suggested this era was free from godly intervention, beginning with the advent of writing and calendars and ending with the start of the wars among the gods.
Note 1: Radical scholars argued that the Golden Age was when belief in the gods was established, as archaeological findings showed fewer godly statues compared to today.
Note 2: The esoteric society "Silver Dawn" claimed there was only one omnipotent god during the Golden Age, with the current pantheon arising from its fall. This view was dubious, but many tribal ruins from the era did indeed worship the same deity.
Elyon deduced that his fellow Earthling was probably the fabled "omnipotent master," now long gone, with his deistic philosophies relegated to the fringe beliefs of mysterious societies.
He rubbed his eyes and read on.
The Silver Epoch: Lasting from about 10,000 to 5,000 years ago, this was the least archaeologically documented era, mythologized as the time when the eight gods vanquished the four evils. It began with the onset of divine warfare and ended with the establishment of the Frankish Empire.
Note 1: Worship of the four evil gods predates that of the eight righteous ones.
Note 2: Worship and documentation of the evil gods abruptly ceased around 7,000 years ago.
Note 3: Between 7,000 and 5,000 years ago, human-like remains spiked in number, but traces of their settlements vanished, suggesting a large-scale war between humans and human-like species during the Silver Epoch.
The Silver Epoch seemed the most enigmatic. To return home, Elyon knew he needed to unravel its secrets, like peeling back layers of a Russian nesting doll—each layer revealing more puzzles.
The Bronze Epoch: Spanning from 5,000 to over 1,800 years ago, it began with the establishment of the Frankish Empire, saw the rise and fall of many dynasties, and concluded with the collapse of the Charlemagne Dynasty.
Note 1: An era where ecclesiastical power trumped royal authority.
Note 2: According to the church, gods withdrew from the mortal realm during this period.
The Iron Epoch: Began with the Frankish Empire's split following the Charlemagne Dynasty's extinction, leading to prolonged wars.
After years of conflict, a compromise was reached, delineating the borders of West's nations. Technology advanced, and modern states began to form.
Note 1: As science prevailed, more and more doubted the existence of elves, werewolves, and other such human-like races.
Note 2: Since the advent of the Iron Epoch, the twelve gods ceased revealing miracles, and atheism gained popularity in scientific circles.
With only this useful information, Elyon closed the book. If the means to transcendence were so easily found in a library, Aegsburg University might as well be renamed Aegsburg School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Elyon chuckled at the thought, but another chilling realization broke him out in a cold sweat: how had the body's previous owner come across that ancient ritual for summoning from other worlds, complete with traditional characters?
To save his own skin, he had to become transcendent. Rallying his spirits, Elyon considered that the highest-ranking person he could currently reach was his mentor, Arthur Russell.
A senior associate professor of Grammar at the University of Aegsburg, perhaps the well-traveled and knowledgeable Russell would have insights into acquiring transcendent powers.