Ding!
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Quest complete!
Check your system for rewards.
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Nora decided that it was in her best interest to head east. She flew for a few hours at her top speed, pushing the limits. Had she known the flight speed of a crow, she would have assumed that she was flying at about 45mph, but with all of her new stats, her flight speed had increased greatly.
Eventually, she found a really nice enchanted forest. The air was teeming with mana, and all of the trees had a faint blue-purple glow.
The entire forest felt magical. Nora decided that this would probably be a good place to stop, rest, and check out what she had gotten. She had been so busy trying to get away that she didn't even check her rewards. Nora flew around for a little bit, looking for an uninhabited clearing
Soon enough, she found a tree with a hole in it that seemed to be an abandoned nest of some sort. Taking a closer look at it, Nora figured that this nest had been empty for really quite a while, and it should be a safe spot to hide and look at her rewards.
Ding!
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Rewards: new skill: Shiny distraction, DEX + 50, LUK+ 100, VIT+50, EXP+100
Shiny distraction: Condense some of your mana to create a small shiny object to distract any creature. The more mana put in, the shinier and more distracting it gets.
Cost: dependent
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Nora widened her eyes in surprise. So far, her system had been pretty stingy with her stats, yet this pocket watch had warranted such a huge increase in three of them.
Nora had to take out the pocket watch from her inventory and look at it. She wanted to find the reason why the system gave her such outrageous rewards.
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Everturn dial
Type: cultivation artifact
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To her surprise, the system also gave her another notification.
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Would Host like to bind to the Everturn Dial?
Some changes to the system may be made
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Nora saw something interesting. There was now an option below the question, a simple yes and no. Nora didn't hesitate before clicking the yes button with her beak.
Ding!
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The trial will begin.
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Nora didn't even have time to react before she felt an overwhelming sleepiness. Her eyes slowly closed, and her body fell limp in the nest.
Waking up in another white void, Nora instantly felt a bit of worry; she felt like she was taken back to the start of this journey, when she met with the unknown god. Nora braced herself for another meeting, yet she was only met with a system notification.
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You have started: The Everturn trials
Description: This pocketwatch was owned by 3 others before you: a legendary witch, a genius artificer, and a grand collector. You must pass each of their trials before you can become the 4th great owner of this pocketwatch.
The trials will take place within a timeless plane, you will feel no hunger or tiredness during this time; however, you may feel strain on your mind. Should the strain be too much, you will fail the trials. Are you ready to begin?
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Once again, Nora was faced with an option, and after a little bit of hesitation, she clicked yes once again.
Instantly, the scenery shifted, and the white void became a library. It had a slight fog around everywhere and smelled faintly of paper. Nora was stationed in between rows of bookshelves stacked with books, looking up, she couldn't see an end. In front of her, a single, dusty, leather-bound book.
Her system lit up with a notification:
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Trial 1: The witch
Description: Lyselra- the hollow-eyed witch- was said to have found the secret to magic in this world. It was said that she wrote her findings and techniques in a grimoire made entirely out of her mana. The grimoire disappeared along with her during a grand lunar eclipse; however, the grimoire appears to be here, among an infinite library.
Task: Decipher the 1st chapter of the witches' grimoire
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Nora looked at the book in front of her, before she could even move her wing, the book flipped open on its own. It was in a language Nora couldn't understand. The symbols looked entirely foreign; within the margins, there were small doodles, but Nora couldn't recognize what they were depicting.
'Hmmm, ok, this is a bit complicated… I've never really done something like this before.' Nora racked her brain. She looked around at the infinite library, coming up with a theory.
'Wait a minute….'
Nora flew over to a random bookshelf and pulled a book off the shelf. This book also flipped open before Nora could even touch it. Looking at the script, she confirmed her suspicions.
'Ah, I see, so at least some of these books are written in the same language, which makes things easier. I can cross-reference these books with the grimoire to figure things out.'
Nora sat down next to the book, looking back at the trial description, she began to formulate a plan.
'Ok, so I have an infinite amount of time to decipher this text, it'll probably be relatively hard, so I need a plan.' Nora tilted her head, deep in thought, 'If I can find books that have pictures that I recognize, then I may be able to start my translation from there.'
With this plan in place, she could slowly translate the grimoire.
Flying around the nearby area, Nora collected a group of books, all of them written in the same language as the grimoire, and all of them containing photos placed sporadically on the pages. Sitting down in front of the grimoire, Nora sighed and began the very long process of translating.
.
.
.
Nora spent what felt like months trying to decipher the grimoire, taking breaks occasionally to quell mind fatigue.
Each small success kept her drive strong, and she had developed a rhythm. First, she would find a picture, then check the words around it. Next, she would look for the same image in a different book or referenced somewhere else, then she would compare the words together, and if they matched then she would add that word to the tentative vocabulary.
Once she had gotten the tentative vocabulary together, she began to try to translate sentences. If they didn't match up, Nora would take that word back to the first step and try to translate again.
Her process was incredibly slow, and as she had no way to record her findings, this trial was incredibly difficult. The lack of time moving also messed with her mind tremendously, but Nora noticed that as time went on, her patience strengthened, and so did her memory.
Unfortunately, spending so much time alone in the library, Nora felt her mind edging towards the brink of madness, she felt a sense of loneliness and sometimes, when she was feeling particularly alone, she could hear faint whispers coming from deeper in the library, she couldn't hear what they were saying but the tone they had unsettled her.
Finally, after countless hours and many, many errors, she had correctly translated the first chapter of the grimoire.
'Haha! Finally!! Ugh, that took so many tries, oh my god.' Nora celebrated, hearing a triumphant ding coming from the system. She hopped around for a little, not even bothering to contain her excitement.
Before even checking the rewards, Nora already knew at least one of them. Once she had translated the first chapter of the grimoire, she felt herself gain an understanding of the language, where before she struggled to get through the chapter, she could now read fluently.
Her mind had filled with a new language, and the language was integrating itself with her being. Nora felt like she could suddenly switch her entire thought process into this new language.
The first chapter of the grimoire contained only introductions. It read in bold print:
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'This grimoire belongs to Lyselra- the hollow-eyed witch'
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Below it, the text changed from print to neat handwriting:
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'I used to be a renowned healer, a hero amongst my people, books on me may describe me as a fallen angel, a warning of what happens when you mess with forbidden knowledge. They may be right, I may be corrupted or evil, but before you judge, allow me to tell my side. I followed everything to the letter. I was the best and purest healer in my land. I was adored and wanted by all. This was until a terrible plague hit the land. It started with my home village.
They called it the weeping plague. People would become so overcome with emotions that their mana would go berserk, they would become hazards, berserk mana is dangerous, and painful. The plagued would be heard, crying out in pain before death. Each case was unique and completely incurable.
In desperation, I began looking for a solution. I really only looked into the 'darker' things in order to save my village, believe me I only had good intentions. During my investigation, I found this pocket watch. The watch took me to this library, this beautiful, infinite library.
Every book here is written in the language of the universe. This library is the greatest treasure one could find, a trove of infinite knowledge, however, it is also dangerous. Being in here will mess with your head, slowly integrating your essence into the library itself, turning your story into just another book in here.
Only the strongest can survive here, luckily, if you can read this then you are relatively safe. Since you have managed to pass my trial, then you are allowed the contents of my grimoire, inside are all of my findings from this library. I have also included my techniques to survive here, and my method that I was most known for; how to wield mana in its purest form.
I wish you luck young Nora, the journey ahead will be difficult.'
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