MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

"What are you doing here?" With both of them visibly surprised to see the other person, Valyr took the initiative to continue their conversation. "You're already done with your trial?"

"Yeah?" Though somewhat confused at first, Hal quickly understood what was going on. Taking in a deep breath, he nodded. "I wouldn't have arrived here if not for that fact, after all."

"Then again, I do find it a relief that we can see each other again after finishing our respective trials," he continued, to which Valyr nodded in agreement. "From what the others sent through the party chat, it seems like it won't be long till the others appear here as well."

"Well, I've been here far earlier than you, so I've done a bit of exploring around the place after I received my rewards from the trial," said Valyr, prompting Hal to lend both of his ears to what the former had to say. "The knowledge repositories for each of the four classes are situated in the four cardinal directions, with the Sage Knowledge Repository being to the west if I remember correctly."

"Aside from that, there are a few more buildings within this place that you can access as long as you have a sufficient authority level," added the young man. "Other than that, the exit that would lead us back to the campsite is located near one of the many paths that would lead you down the mountain this place is situated on."

"Is that so?" Listening to Valyr's words, Hal's eyes widened in surprise after hearing that the place the two of them were on was situated on top of a mountain. However, it did not take long for other questions to surface in his mind, causing him to look at Valyr with a slightly cold expression. "Now that I think about it, where'd you find out that authority level stuff?"

In response, Valyr shrugged his shoulders before pointing at the Enlightenment Skill Pavilion. "From that building over there. Unlike the things blocking the entrances on the knowledge repositories, the thing that's blocking the entrance to that building there will check if you have the minimum authority level to enter."

"There's something blocking the knowledge repositories?" Hal raised his eyebrow in curiosity. "I thought completing the trials the Gates of Enlightenment threw at us would allow us to access those places."

"They do." Valyr nodded. "In another way, the trials give us the necessary authority level to enter the knowledge repositories without much issue."

"Speaking of which…" The young man looked at the man before him with a curious smile. "What kind of rewards did you get from completing your trial? Did you also gain access to another floor of your respective knowledge repository?"

"You also gained access to the 2nd floor?" Hal's eyes briefly widened in disbelief. "Does that have something to do with the fact that the two of us only had to complete a single trial to pass?"

Valyr faintly shrugged. "Possibly. Possibly not."

Seeing that the young man before him had been proactive in sharing information regarding the rewards he had gotten from his trial, Hal decided to share a bit more information on the rewards he had obtained to Valyr, hoping that the latter had gotten a similar reward as him.

"Well… aside from getting access to the 2nd floor, my Intent Seed also improved to the next stage because of the trial," said Hal, looking at Valyr with slight expectation. "Did you also get something like that?"

"Yeah." Valyr smiled as he nodded. "I comprehended an Intent Seed thanks to the trial. With how you've comprehended an Intent Seed before even reaching Rank 3, I'm guessing you're only one step away from comprehending a fully-fledged Intent?"

Hearing the young man's words, Hal chuckled. "I wish. The reward only allowed my Intent Seed to barely reach the Culmination Stage."

"Anyways, I should really receive that information from the knowledge repository." Feeling like the two of them had discussed their rewards from their respective trials for long enough, Hal decided to excuse himself. "After all, with the Imperial Production Guild not telling us exactly what information they want from the inheritance, any piece of information we obtain might be valuable to them."

"If not to them, then to us," he added soon after with a slight grin.

"Alright." Nodding in response, Valyr bade farewell to the man as they began to head off their separate ways. Though, just as he was about to continue with his original plans of heading to the southwest building, a thought suddenly surfaced in the young man's mind.

"Say… is that all of the rewards the trial gave you?" As Valyr asked this question to Hal, the latter, who had already crossed a fair distance to the Sage Knowledge Repository, stopped in his tracks.

"Well… I could ask the same question to you." Looking back at the young man, it did not take long for Hal to understand Valyr's thought process. After all, each of them took on the trials separate from the others. It wouldn't be surprising for them to obtain far more rewards than the ones they mentioned. "Do your rewards stop at the ones I've just mentioned?"

Hearing his words being sent back to him, Valyr wryly smiled as he knew it wouldn't be wise to escalate the matter any further. Though, with how the remainder of his rewards would undoubtedly shock the others if they were to know, the young man made the wise choice of keeping it to himself for now. "Sorry, it was just a random thought. Don't think too much about it."

However, whether or not it was truly a wise choice was something only future Valyr would know.

"Hmm…" In response to Valyr's words, Hal narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he stared at the young man. Fortunately, after some time, the man let out a soft sigh as he faintly shrugged his shoulders. "Let's talk about it with the others after we return to the campsite."

With those words, Hal continued on the path that would lead him to the Sage Knowledge Repository. On the other hand, Valyr briefly stared at the back of the man that doubted him before returning his attention to the building situated to the southwest of the courtyard.

'I wonder how they would react if they found out those rewards were just the tip of the iceberg for me?' As these thoughts lingered within his mind, Valyr arrived at the entrance of the southwest building a couple of minutes later.

…

"The Enlightenment Material Cache." Unlike the Enlightenment Skill Pavilion, the building that stood before him did not occupy a wide space. Then again, its design wasn't similar to the various knowledge repositories either, instead looking like an adequately sized house that had retained the design elements from the other buildings.

Seeing the familiar energy field that barred him from easily entering the other buildings he had been to before, Valyr brought up the information he had gained from the system regarding the Enlightenment Material Cache.

From the name itself, the Enlightenment Material Cache contained most of the materials the Gates of Enlightenment would use in their day-to-day operations. However, unlike material caches in other organizations where all sorts of materials could be found, from what Valyr had obtained, the Enlightenment Material Cache only contained material that was difficult to come by in the outside world.

Adding on the fact that many thousands of years had passed since then, the young man was more than certain that a single piece of material from this material cache would be thousands if not tens of thousands of platinum cards in the outside world. For a while, he even held slight hope that the material cache might possibly contain the materials he needed to upgrade his True Wyvern Armor to the next rarity, if not materials that he knew would become useful to him later on.

Unfortunately, all hopes of obtaining the materials within the cache for himself had been foiled after hearing the monotonous voice from the energy field once more, wryly smiling as he let out a low sigh. "Only those with an authority level of 4 and above are permitted to enter the Enlightenment Material Cache."

"Verifying… authority has been verified to be Level 3. You do not have the minimum authority level necessary to be permitted to enter the Enlightenment Material Cache." Though the words of the monotonous voice had already dashed his hopes and dreams of obtaining the items within the material cache, the young man still extended his arm for the blue light to check, only for the same result to pop up.

"Well, there goes that idea." Moving away from the Enlightenment Material Cache, Valyr then thought about the other important buildings located within the Gates of Enlightenment. However, it did not take long for him to discard such thoughts, whether the reason may be the fact that the buildings did not hold too much importance to him, or the fact that he might face the same problem as he did in the Enlightenment Material Cache.

"How would I go about increasing my authority level?" asked the young man to himself. Then again, with the information he had gained regarding the entire structure the Gates of Enlightenment was a part of, he was more than certain that becoming a part of the Gates of Awakening or the Gates of Transcendence would do the trick.

But then… how would he even go about becoming a part of those higher gates in the first place?

"Hmm…" While walking around the courtyard once more to pass the time, Valyr eventually stumbled across the exit he had found earlier. However, rather than feel some sort of relief like he did earlier, the young man stared at the exit in deep contemplation as multiple thoughts began to linger in his mind.

Eventually, after looking at the exit for a couple minutes, Valyr slightly smiled as he let out a soft chuckle, only to head through the exit not long after.

"I think I've found my answer."