As the group traveled down the road, a large hill came into view. Carved into the stone of that hill was a massive entryway. It had Romanesque pillars lining either side of the doorway. The doorway itself was also quite large. Being visible from this distance meant that it had to be at least ten feet tall. As they approached closer, they were able to notice the amount of wear that was present in the great stone edifice.
"That is the Great Library? It is massive. But why is it built into the side of a hill?" Gwen questioned.
"Being built into the hill helps to regulate the temperature of the entire library," Maximus explained.
Upon reaching the foot of the entryway, Gwen noticed the same kind of statues that were present in the Magician's Keep. There were statues of elves, dwarves, humans, dragons, manticores and many other species that Gwen still was unaware of what they were.
The companions dismounted and tied their horses to a pole.
As the group walked through the entryway, they were greeted by a giant room. The room the size of an American football stadium with 12-foot-tall bookshelves covered in old books running the length of the room. Upon closer inspection, Gwen noticed that many of the books on the shelves were in terrible states. The majority of the books were dry rotted.
"It is a shame that so many of these books have decayed or been destroyed," Gwen commented.
"These books were simply used for ease of access and understanding for less technologically comprehensive individuals and just those who like reading a physical book. All the information within these books has a solid-state digital backup which was accessible using one of the digital interfaces. That backup also has a physical state backup that will last thousands of years, if it is not purposefully destroyed. It is actually quite an ingenious design. The data is encoded by physically etching it onto an ultradurable medium using a binary code-" Maximus started to ramble before being cut off by Marigold.
"Max, that's enough. I doubt that they want a lecture on ultra-long term data storage systems. The bounty hunter brothers look completely lost. "Also, he took away all the books he liked last time we were here. They take up two entire floors of the Keep."
"Anyhow, we are looking for the DRAG Key." Maximus switched the topic, seeming to avoid the conversation about his oversized book collection. "The Key and the portal machine will be in the back warehouse section of the library. That is also where all the data is stored.
As the group walked through the massive shelves of books Gwen saw that the books were in many different languages. Some of the languages she had seen before in her world, but many of the languages were completely alien to her. One particular section that stood out to Gwen as she passed by was a section of books in which the letters, if you could call them that, were simply lines of different colors and variable thickness.
The group walked straight through the large open room of the library and arrived at a door on the back wall. Upon opening this door, Gwen saw that the back part of the Great Library was a long hallway with different rooms branching off from it on either side.