Hearing the voice they heard from picking up their first Key Fragments echo throughout the area, the four remained silent as they focused on what the voice had to say.
'Through these trial grounds, the Gates of Enlightenment shall separate the geniuses from the elite, the diamonds from the gravel, the light from the dark.'
'Only by weathering the challenge given by the Gates of Enlightenment in these trial grounds shall the candidate be truly eligible to receive knowledge.'
'Knowledge thousands, if not millions yearn to seek.'
Letting the words of the voice linger in their minds as they thought about it from other perspectives, visible expressions of concern could be seen on everyone's faces as they looked at each other, wondering what they were to do regarding Loreina.
Though Loreina was more than deserving of her position as a prodigy and as a chosen candidate for the Four Pillars' Inheritance, that did not mean that the others there forgot about the sickness she had been born with. From what the voice had told them, it seemed like the young woman would have to go through a lot of arduous trials, which would undoubtedly aggravate her sickness even further.
"Are the Gates of Enlightenment connected to the outside world? Has Loreina been removed from the inheritance altogether?" Breaking the silence that surrounded them, Hal looked at the others as he asked them a question. "After all, the Imperial Production Guild has mentioned nothing about this to any of us. Perhaps it's something that only appeared after the entire inheritance had been made available due to our classes."
In response to the question, Valyr slowly shook his head with a sigh. "I have no idea."
"However, there is a way for us to find that out," he continued, opening up the party chat as he sent a hopeful message.
"Loreina, please message us if you're safe."
Seeing the message pop up on their respective party chat screens, it did not take long for the other three to understand what needed to be done, sending out a couple of messages that were of a similar vein to the message Valyr sent.
Though Faulerei had mentioned to the five of them that they were not able to message those from the outside world through the system's chat function, such a limitation did not exist among the five of them since they experienced the same level of time dilation. By sending a message in the party chat, they would be able to confirm whether or not Loreina was still within the inheritance even after she was teleported someplace else.
Fortunately, she was.
"I'm fine," wrote Loreina in her response, causing everyone to let out wide sighs of relief. "However, I don't know which place I ended up in. All I can say is that the space in front of me is truly barren compared to the city ruins we're near at."
"Oh, wait. A voice is talking." Just as the others were about to tell her that she had appeared at the Gates of Enlightenment's training grounds, Loreina told them to stop sending her messages for the meantime, attempting to gain more information regarding the current situation she was in.
Thankfully, the four only had to wait for a few minutes before the young woman had begun to send a series of messages in the party chat. "So, if I'm interpreting the words of the voice correctly, I'm currently within the place where the continuation of the first quest is held. Though the voice called it the Gates of Enlightenment's trial grounds, it also mentioned that it had another name, which was the Plains of Rebirth."
"After that, it just told me to survive through the trials that would be thrown my way and I'd be able to take one step closer to whatever the Gates of Enlightenment is keeping." At those words, the four looked at each other and faintly nodded, keeping in mind the fact Loreina told them that there was still one more quest after the current one she was taking.
Of course, to gain a better understanding of what Loreina had to go through, Valyr and the others asked her if she could share information regarding her quest to them. In response, the young woman sent over the information of her current quest through the party chat, only to add soon after that she was now going to begin tackling the trials.
"So… I guess we're going to resume fighting against the aberrations?" Taking a look at the information Loreina had sent over, a moment of silence ensued among the four of them before it was broken yet again by Valyr.
Hal wryly smiled in response. "I feel like we don't have much of a choice in the matter, especially if we consider the fact that Loreina's condition might worsen a lot because of these trials."
"She'll definitely be able to complete all of those trials without a problem," said Vera soon after, though her expression remained solemn. "However, the earlier we enter the training grounds, the better Loreina's condition would be."
"It seems we're not getting any sleep tonight." Devouring the remaining pieces of food on his plate, Faulus stood up and did a few basic stretches before taking out a few vials from his spatial bracelet. "Since that's the case, come get your stamina potions. Also, have some potions I've concocted that would allow you to stay awake for longer."
"Let us split these remaining Key Fragments evenly among us." Grabbing some of the vials Faulus had taken out of his spatial bracelet, Valyr swiftly began to evenly distribute the eight remaining fragments among them, making sure that the attunement of the fragments they got were what they needed to enter the training grounds. "Once we get all of the fragments that we need, let's return here to redistribute them. After all, the fragments we get from the aberrations have random attunements."
With the four of them telling one another to be careful, they all began to head in separate directions, though Faulus still opted to remain with Valyr. However, before the remaining two could move far away from the pair, the young man suddenly asked them a question that prompted them to head back. "Hey!"
"Do you guys have any magic weapons you could perhaps spare?"
