After the monotonous voice had gone through all of the rewards that seemed to have been tailored for Valyr, it then moved onto the quest rewards, some of them the young man was more than eager to use.
Naturally, with him being a blacksmith, the voice told Valyr that he now had access to the True Blacksmith Archive, the Gates of Awakening's version of the Blacksmith Knowledge Repository.
Of course, having cleared the entire nine trials the Gates of Awakening threw at him, he could peruse through all of the knowledge the Gates of Awakening had available.
Including a secret floor that was only accessible to a special few.
'Huh. I guess my earlier notion of some buildings having secret areas was actually true,' thought Valyr to himself as he heard these words from the voice.
Being reminded how the thought came about whilst he was inside the Blacksmith Knowledge Repository, the young man found it slightly amusing that the more powerful organization among the two would have something like that in one of its main buildings.
'Then again, it kind of makes sense. Plus, there was that room in the Enlightenment Material Cache,' muttered Valyr to himself, wryly smiling as he took a quick peek at the now larger Shard of Defiance lingering in his mind.
After that, the monotonous voice moved onto the next reward, mentioning the name of a building that piqued the young man's interest.
'The Hall of Legends and Myths, eh?'
Listening attentively to the voice's words, Valyr soon found out that the Hall of Legends and Myths was a treasure trove of sorts that held the equipment of members from the organization that had surpassed those levels of strength in the past.
Wanting to stick with the ideology of continuing the prosperity of humanity, these members decided to leave their equipment for the future generation, hoping that a descendant of humanity that somewhat fit their path would eventually come along.
As he heard that part of the explanation, Valyr briefly thought that the Hall of Legends and Myths acted more like a hub for one to inherit another person's path instead of a treasure trove… which the voice eventually confirmed through its words later on.
According to its voice's clarification, the Hall of Legends and Myths was part treasure trove and part inheritance, though it leaned more heavily on the inheritance portion thanks to the goal of the Triad Gates.
Nevertheless, the way it worked was simple.
Once a person entered the Hall of Legends and Myths, one or a few weapons would resonate with that person's path, allowing them to choose whether to inherit their path or not.
After they had made their decision, they would then be shown memories of the person who once wielded the weapon they've chosen.
Whether it's to inspire one towards new avenues on their path or to realign one's path to the one they saw in the memory, the voice mentioned that it all had to do with the person's potential rather than the memory's intent on which ends up happening.
'I wonder if the First Forger has a weapon in there?' Valyr asked himself, inwardly letting out a sigh of relief after hearing that the voice was finally done with its explanation.
'With how he's one of the first few people to stand up for themselves and usher the Age of Uprising, the chances of that are probably low.' The young man scratched the back his head for a bit.
'It'll be more likely for me to find it in the Gates of Transcendence.'
With the voice done talking about the two building-related rewards, it finally moved onto the reward that was Valyr's reason for clearing the entire nine trials in the first place.
'For your last reward, since you have accessed part of the First Forger's memories whilst in the Gates of Enlightenment, the Gates of Awakening have made the decision to allow you to continue viewing their memories.'
'However, unlike the offer given during the second bottleneck, the Gates of Awakening have given you permission to view a full set of the First Forger's memories, allowing you to glean upon and learn from more of the actions of the First Forger in the past.'
Ding!
In response to the voice's words, a notification sound resounded in the young man's mind, prompting an expectant smile to creep up onto his face as he brought up his notification screen.
[You have gained the opportunity to access the First Forger's memories. Would you like to access them?]
While the voice was talking about how he was now an official member of the Gates of Awakening and how he could access the First Forger's memories at any time, Valyr ignored all of that.
Instead, he focused all of his attention towards the notification, only for his consciousness to be sent into another space after confirming the prompt without hesitation.
…
'Ngh…' With his surroundings briefly turning dark thanks to his hasty action, it took a while for the young man to acclimate to his newfound situation, noticing that he had appeared in what looked to be a giant hall.
Seeing that his current perspective of the situation was from afar once more, the young man soon focused his attention downwards, noticing that quite a lot of people were seated around a large round table made out of roughly cut stone.
Looking through the people down below as he recalled his earlier memories involving the First Forger, Valyr eventually found the man seated at what seemed to be the focal point of the round table, staring at everyone with a neutral expression as he listened onto their conversations.
"Huh. For some reason, he looks more familiar than before." While listening in to the animated conversations the others were having below, Valyr briefly glanced at the man of the hour, only to feel like he had seen him somewhere before.
Finding it somewhat weird that he began to see the man that way, the young man scratched the back of his head, wondering if it had something to do with the memories he had seen before.
In the end, he decided to put the thought on hold for now, seeing that the man was about to speak.
"Alright." Flaring the entirety of his aura throughout the round table, the man prompted everyone to look at him as all of them became silent. "Let us move onto the main topic of our meeting for today."
"Uh… pardon me, leader." Scratching his cheeks, a sheepish young man sitting on the opposite side of the round table looked at him with a confused expression. "I was just included in the meeting today. What main topic are you talking about, specifically?"
In response to the question, all the other people looked at the young man with hints of disdain, scorn, arrogance, and other similar expressions.
As for the man of the hour, he remained silent, looking at the young man directly in the eyes.
"It's a topic that involves the survival of our race itself," replied the man in a stern tone.
"We shall be talking about the upcoming system update."
