In the following ages and times that every land dealt with, Rank 7 Walkers became more stable and common, and eventually, new Rank 8s would arise.

  Those shouldn't be too old, and one of them was already in William's mind. That would be the Association Pillar, Rey. He met him with strange glimpses and learned a bit more about him through books or recollections that Mi-Yung had mentioned before.

  Greeted by the rows of cabinets, William saw nobody inside the room, so he looked around to see if any documents would pique his interest.

  In the middle of the room were tables and chairs, providing seating for both long and brief study sessions. Unlike the sofa on the cultural floor, William found them rather hard to sit on, but not so much that he would complain about it after thinking about his life. No way. They were comfy in their own right.

  He sat down and pulled papers from his pocket. "Let's see again, the Darks, what I've seen, met, and felt. Not every one of them is scary, clear, or easy to grasp. To me..."

  These weren't materials from this library, but rather his own mindful sketches and personal information. The first page had a rough Jawran that looked rough, but he never assumed he would make a good painter, even if his former home room said otherwise.

  "Jawran, Rank 6 Dark. Various wings and crazy jaws are like that of Carnijaw, filled with dangers, endrils, and other stuff. They are flying fuckers, related Darks from... what was that Family again? Space Family? I forgot... Their flight is limited, as Luke showed. They could go over the ocean, but their bodies are big and heavy, so using wide-range Skills with less precision is feasible.”

  “When pursuing that helicopter, it couldn't cope with speed and stamina, so it got fatigued, but... what was up with that Fog? Maybe I am missing a piece to this puzzle, or... nope. It is there. The research on types of Fog is not like that of Darks, but they are connected. Fogs have fewer weaknesses, as they aren't like the beasts or demons. Cutting those wings off still does a lot of good, and they would be like dogs without teeth."

  Looking at the other Dark below, he knew those very well. It was almost like a weird sketch of Hound.

  "Hellgar are like dogs. Parts of huge colonies, packs, and primarily Hordes. Some are only them, but what is a pack and horde anyway? Whatever. A big Alpha in charge is standard. Killing an Alpha could create an opening, cause problems, or push the whole Horde to get loose. It is easier said than done." William read his notes, then looked at the other pages, which contained vivid nightmares that he remembered from time to time.

  "Carnijaw are spider-related fuckers like Crawlers. Their evolution is related to hands, changed ribs, and the torso. That is up to perspectives. For us humans, it is weird. This is no longer about humanity, but more about demons. Carnijaws are among the strongest Rank 5 Dark because of their unhinged desires to eat with their massive jaw and arms like metallic steel pillars. Their Berserk state and sheer physical gains are another big point."

  Below it was yet another dog. "Pawrise is an odd dog, but more like a wolf with strange lizard properties that could jump really high. Fur is less common since hide is more like scales, though heads and tails are inconsistent."

  Then, there was a strange creature that William wasn't sure how to draw properly. There were numerous differences among them.

  "Terrab is like a snake evolved with turtles. Their variants and Ranks come with strange specialties. Scales are beyond steel. Beaks are like jaws that could crack a Walker in half. Rank 5."

  Another page featured a large humanoid creature with two large arms and a proper torso, complete with little legs. "Pounder is like a Carnijaw, with big, hefty arms and crazy martial prowess. Little heads provide good but hard targets to hit since melee is their primary study, while their defenses are massive, but their arms aren't as flexible. Fighting one is often about running around, coming as close as possible, or creating a gap to exploit. Rank 2, 3, or 4, with some crazier forms and names in the upper Ranks. Their skin is beyond steel, and their big hands are laughable in comparison to their little legs. Well, those are relative. Their legs are as large as those of humans. This is the end of my third page."

  William had checked many folders over the past few days and continued to unravel surprises about Darks and what he knew about them.

  It was his tenth time doing this sort of research and picking on what mattered. Many things around these rooms were a bit broad and very detailed, so he began to make notes. It worked surprisingly well, though his memories and history of seeing Outside came with even better ideas, thus fusing notes and pains, and these rooms were great.

  Thanks to his notes and learning style, the pursuit of knowledge came with time, as he repeated it over and over again. He planned to spend at least two hours a day on subjects related to Darks.

  Mi-Yung also pointed this out long ago, saying that knowing Darks was a never-ending process. He shouldn't rush it; instead, he should read each folder with focus, and he did exactly that.

  The entire evolution of the Families and Darks was somewhat convoluted and strange, as viewing them as animals was incorrect, yet not entirely off the mark, given their insane nature. There were cross-breeding problems, sheer, unadulterated eating disorders, and mutual destruction, which made Darks even stranger and complex.

  Thinking about Families alone was already normal and hard for William. Walkers have assumed a lot about them over the years, thinking on the go or via history stemming from the beginning of the Dawn. They created brackets and names for them and compiled a decent codex for future generations, who could learn about them, add to their lists, and develop efforts to study those monsters.

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  There were many instances where William frowned upon these folders, discovering shocking news or unexpected answers that both made sense and none at all. Hundreds of kinds of Darks were in the first few Ranks that were up to his direct measured learning, and those were far from everything!

  After all, he could go well beyond those Ranks... yet did he need to, or dare to do that?

  So far, touching any Rank 6 matters besides those he experienced or saw seemed excessive. He looked well into Rank 5s, while anything below was safe to learn because it described lower-tier Darks. Every new and upcoming Walker would put their hands and step into them in one way or another.

  William questioned why there was so much stuff and no stops to anything. He thought he figured Darks long ago and felt perfectly fine with this sentiment Outside.

  But here? He reasoned Walkers had a much different outlook than out there, as their purpose, life, and future shifted, and knowledge was half the battle.

  If he described it with percentages, almost seventy percent of all Darks were between Rank 1 and 4. That left thirty percent left, which described rather terrifying matters because Rank 5s were quite brutal, even among Walkers, so one would expect those beyond as utter monsters. It was about right.

  To see upper Ranks as a rarity was not unheard of in the current era. Walkers were the same, though not really, as humans were social, and Walker society was investing a lot of resources in the growth of experiences and generations. Darks simply didn't do it because they were wicked beasts and demons.

  There was a much greater excess of numbers at lower Ranks, where every Dark had to go through utter warring efforts to get further, which was a completely separate philosophy from Walkers.

  William wondered how far this idea connected to the upper echelon of everything. Rarity was no longer the point. There were king-beasts or true alphas in all feasible ideas of that word, so in a sense, it was very primal, powerful, and almost simple. Strong ones ruled over weaker ones, while eating and growing were other major precedents.

  It was worrisome because there were many more Darks than humans, flooding this world with a presence that had been here for more than a century. It wasn't going away, for it was etched into countless societies.

  These moments were great reminders and facts that William needed at the moment. His mind was so preoccupied, wanting shocks and reminders, that it almost didn't matter to him whether he looked at good stuff or bad facts.

  The Darks he knew were pretty interesting, even in those folders, or on his pages. He ought to get to their cores because that's what Mi-Yung said was a necessity.

  Low, abundant Darks came in tides of many forms. Apart from the Jawran, whom he researched just because he could, he hadn't gone overboard. It was not ideal, as he shouldn't have done it, but he tried it just once because who was there to stop him? No one.

  He had seen a lot, so why would someone do it for so-called rules that didn't apply to everyone? Anyone in his position should be curious and know the true depth of the abyss that this world could show.

  There were no Primevals up to his ideas and no Sappients either. He was satisfied with the Demon and Beast Family, with occasional crosses to others. With wild Dark Aspects, including those even coming from other Families altogether, it was almost impossible to make correct brackets for them.

  William believed Corruption was the leading cause, and Darks were simply impossible to put into a stable paper because of their ingrained horror.

  However, someone decided to do it anyway, and he had to learn from it. It might be easier if he would just think of a way to kill them, and that would be it, but nope. He drew several conclusions and gained one more valuable lesson.

  Folders detailed reports of most Dark Aspects under each case, adding features, damages, attack patterns, behavior of their corresponding nature, and connections to Families, Corruption, or other Dark. There were also mentions of the System around these parts, but William had no stable idea what it could mean.

  Could that System help out much better than whatever this is? The answer was unclear, as it wasn't his thing yet.

  What was clear was what was real. William knew Darks acted crazy and with patterns, thanks to their instincts. Hellgars could be tame in comparison to others, but they were still dangerous in most circumstances. If there was one, more might come. If there were many, then there would be higher Rank Darks close. That sort of thing should be clear and recognized.

  That Hound briefly came to his memory, but he doubted that issue was the same. It was about the natural hierarchy that many believed in. Some darks were lions, proud and territorial, or crazy, like hyenas or other beasts, which he learned about from the zoology book.

  Many natural animals were long extinct or turned into Darks across their entire species. Humans were part of it as well, and they were one of the most frightening ones to fight. There was something gnarly about Sapients or being turned against their own species. There were no animals with Emblems, at least. After all, that wouldn't make sense and do justice to anything.

  Bigger was not always better. Small or bizarre Darks could be quite ferocious or hiding secret weapons, almost like the true, close animal cases, as their evolutions built them over millions of years. Having those instincts fused with Corruption ended up irregular, desirable, and hard to swallow when Madness came right on top of it.

  Supported by limbs, bones, wings, or tendrils to walk, such crazy properties came from no animals at all, but was it ever right? Knowledge got lost, and the animal kingdom changed and drowned in the Madness and Corruption.

  Droons were one of the weirdest Darks because of that, as they were like globs of dense Fogs that hid their main body. It might be little and barely fit to call living, or it might be twisty or look like a rock. But they would resemble swirling waves of dark matter, appearing as a masked Dark Fog, rocks, or metal.

  There were no real undead Darks or skeletons, but many had features such as bones protruding from their bodies, oozing blood, and broken body or organ parts. Losing their lives until they would die, becoming one with the eternal darkness could be their justice.

  Due to their sheer scale, humanity couldn't wait for anything. Natural death and cleansing wouldn't come, for there were way too many absurdities within them. Darks began to seek each other halfway into their Madness, or it was always there from the beginning.

  It was a popular belief that Darks' unhinged nature came from one distinct assumption, which soon became known as Madness. That term was common, and even William had learned about it years ago. From Fogs to people, everyone kind of had it.

  Humans fight one another, so it wasn't unthinkable for Darks to do the same, and even obliterate each other's species. Some societies even believed that each Family of Darks hated each other, but William called it the biggest bullshit he had ever heard.

  If they had such a reason, there would be no justice left in this world.

  They simply fought for power, the sake of supremacy, and hunger. That was it. Darks could absorb each other, eat, consume, and take what they wanted or had to take—gnawing, eating, crashing to their next stage.

  Many of their Aspects and features have thus turned into horrors and grotesque illustrations. Even a human could turn into a total shitshow, splintering human nature into demons and shadows, and creating reality that William saw in those paper, and a bit in himself.

  Regardless of that, he wasn't a monster.