It would of course be terrifically shameful to claim you were writing to this metaliterary trope and then steal a glance in an encyclopedia. That's the sort of literary misconduct where, if proven to 90% credibility, it'll get you denied residence in the sort of cities that prefer to be only inhabited by people not previously proven to have been dishonest to over 90% credibility. And excluded from a lot more friendship circles.
But of course, nobody really thinks of doing that, when they consider the question of how to make their metaliterary-trope-abiding literary protagonist more impressive.
If they want their protagonist to do realistically better, they'll just have to learn that knowledge themselves!
...and again, this metaliterary trope has existed for as long as dath ilan's short memory remembers; and in dath ilan, when people want something, they are willing to pay something for it; and if a lot of people want something, industries will spring up specialized in meeting that want.