"Yes." He replied.
"What... what do you mean, yes?" I asked with a quivering voice. "That's possible?"
Orebrul must have given up at that point because he sank back into the ring and just stated, "Explore for yourself, and you'll understand."
I clenched my teeth, "Yeah, thanks for that," I said sarcastically before looking at each symbol before me.
Then I noticed it. Each symbol started close to me and ended far away, and at the bottom of each symbol where all the lines and paths began were orange stars where white ones should have been. I reached out to one of those stars in the Destruction path and suddenly everything swirled, and the path of destruction was laid out in front of me like a table with coins dotted along it and the orange star that was right in front of me was titled:
Skill: {Fireball}
I frowned as I studied the orange star. I thought about one of the other orange stars, and everything shifted again until I was facing the Alchemy path. Now, when I looked at this orange star, it was titled:
Passive: {Skill Analysis}
"What the..." I muttered under my breath as my mind swirled, only to be refocused thanks to the insight that I'd been given. The answers flashed before my eyes and my mind understood instantly. "Oh, so it's like that?"
That's right. Orebrul finally spoke up in my head through our connection.
Each path grants you the first skill that they offer. From there, you have to travel down each path, one at a time, until you complete it. Each star gives you an ability, be it passive like {Skill Analysis} or an active one like {Fireball}. Either way, you'll grow in power as you learn each skill through this method.
"Ah, I see now." I said, finally understanding the way my artefact, {Ring of the Forgotten Sovereign}, worked.
But...
Orebrul, clearly sensing my thoughts continued.
That's right, there's a catch. For each skill you want to obtain, you have to 'sacrifice' another artefact of equal value to gain enough 'Artificial points' as I've deemed them.
Grimacing, I thought about the implications of what this meant. I had to destroy other artefacts in order to make myself stronger. Not only that, but I could only choose one path at a time to go down. If I didn't choose wisely on my first one, I'd most likely die before learning anything of value.
An idea bloomed in my head. "Orebrul! What path did your former master choose?" I asked, brimming with pent-up excitement.
He chose Restoration, but I would definitely NOT recommend that for you. He had another artefact in his possession, which he used to fight with. It was only after he had completed the Restoration path that he sacrificed that artefact.
I slumped at this answer, my hopes crushed instantly. I slid down the wall of the cave, my head resting on my hand, which further rested on my curled up knees. Great, I thought to myself. "So what path should I choose then?"
Honestly... if I hadn't watched you for years, tirelessly enter this dungeon every day, then I'd say I don't know... however... you should choose the path of destruction. Your physical abilities surpass even my former master's.
I felt a spark of hope at Orebrul's words. And I stood back up, looking at each path. I closed my eyes and thought about the path of destruction, and when I opened them again, it was laid out before me like it had done before. I reached out and let my hand hover over the symbol of destruction, a small flame with a circle at the base of the flame that looked like a ball of icicles with crackles of lightning inside it. As soon as my hand stopped moving above the symbol, it vibrated and hummed with power before lighting up blue, and each star shone brighter than before. The other paths' colours died away and turned grey except for each of the orange stars already active within them.
I felt a rush of knowledge to my brain, my head turned hot, and I prepared for another wave of agonising pain. But it never arrived. Instead, symbols and insight into destructive elements began flowing gently like a stream through my mind. The composition of fire, the exact conditions to make lightning, and the most efficient way to make ice through spells all flowed into my brain as the routes, as I'd called these white lines, all spread like a Web before me.
One route of white lines had a flame as a symbol, which I assumed was fire. The second had a spear that looked like an icicle, which was obviously ice. The third and final route had a lightning bolt as its symbol, indicating lightning attribute spells and skills.
I began to get a headache, and I waved my hand, which caused the whole system to disappear, and the room zoomed back into normal to my immediate relief.
I sat down and recollected my thoughts about this new power.
Firstly, there were pathways. Eight of them in total: Alchemy, Destruction, Enchantment, Restoration, Conjuration, Alteration, Stealth, and finally, an unknown one.
Each of these pathways had routes that I could take throughout them and each route gave me the chance to unlock skills and abilities by lighting up the white stars so they turned orange, I could switch routes whenever I felt like progressing them more. However, I couldn't switch pathways until every star had been lit up and completed.
Finally, the most pressing issue: I could only unlock the skills by sacrificing other artefacts to increase my own power... unless there was another way no one knew about, which, at this point, seemed unlikely.
I nodded to myself, satisfied that I'd covered everything and successfully collected my wandering and very confused thoughts.
You still have a lot to uncover, but yeah, that's the gist of everything. Orebrul's thought sounded in my head as if he'd spoken it.
"You're right. There's that purple path way that I didn't get any insight for. I don't need to worry for now, I guess." I replied, excitement and disappointment mixed into my tone.
I stood up finally and made my way out of the cave with the pedastal and out the waterfall. The water crashing loudly helped drown my endless thoughts, and the cold water sent a nice wave of relaxation through every fibre and nerve in my body with a pleasurable shock. I relished the feeling of this and took my time washing up. Unfortunately, it was only after I'd washed up that a truly terrifying thought crossed over from my endless stream.
"Hey Orebrul. You can't see me getting changed, right?" I asked shakily.
Yeah, I can. Oh, I see. Well, look at you then. At least that's something else to be proud of besides your jawline, as you claimed. He laughed as he mocked me.
"H-How do you know about that?!" I stammered. I was baffled.
Because I can read your thoughts and see your memories. Don't be scared, just know, I'm one of the few who know you're true... beauty?
My face turned red, flushed with embarrassment, "Shut up!" I shouted, my voice breaking. Orebrul laughed. It echoed through my head, only further increasing my frustration.
However, due to this teasing I had, without realising it, walked the full diameter of the domed geode and was back at the first waterfall near to where I'd fallen into this secret garden in the first place.
I grumbled, still annoyed with Orebrul, who was still laughing in my head. "What now then?" I said to myself but also more to Orebrul so he would quit his laughing.
I don't know. Why not test out your new skills and find a way out?
I sighed. "Alright, I suppose that's a fair idea... for once," I mumbled in an actually grateful tone.
I looked at the ring that was neatly fit on my middle finger of my right hand and touched it with the index finger on my left hand. I closed my eyes and focused on the path of destruction.
My eyes shot open, and I could feel a tingling through my entire nervous system. An influx of power surged through me, and I felt the heat of the skill increasing in the palm of my hand. I activated {Fireball}, and a red flame burst into my hand. I grinned at this and reeled back my arm. I used all the power I could muster and flung the flame as hard as I could at the geode. I let out a sigh of relief as I prepared for the explosion.
But it never came.
Instead, the flame hit the wall and sputtered out of existence, weakly and with a tremendous lack of magical power.
"What?!" I cried out. "What the hell?"
Orebrul laughed, I could practically hear to mock in his laugh and see the snake rolling around crying of laughter.
You didn't put enough power into it. Use the power of the ring. You're just trying to use your own strength. I'm not gonna do that classic 'give into the power' speech, but at least use it to get outta here.
As much as I'd disagreed with Orebrul in some matters so far, his assessment was right. This time, I focused on the ring and felt the power it exuded. It glowed a soft blue, and I activated {Fireball} once again. The second time around, the red flame was bigger, and I could feel the concentration of magical energy that was several times greater than my first, feeble attempt.
I launched this fireball at the wall, and my face turned up into a satisfied smirk as the result was very different than before.
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