You have entered the Prologue Gallery!

  Prologue Gallery

  A chamber that holds histories. It stretches into a starlit abyss, surrounding a floor of memories.

  The scent of aged paper, salt, and something metallic, blood or rust, clung to the air of the Prologue Gallery. Jania wasn’t sure if it came from her or the room as she closed the doors. She managed to get to her destination without any dangerous encounters, which was fortunate.

  Jania, still high-strung from her near-death experience, surveyed the room with her fshlight in deep scrutiny. In contrast to her expectations, the gallery was mid-sized, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t grand.

  Wow, Jania thought. The beauty made her forget the dull throb coming from her wounded arm.

  The ceiling and walls didn’t look like actual ceilings or walls. Jania felt she was in a full-scale pnetarium since the walls had a gradient from aqua to dark blue with twinkling stars. There were huge paintings mounted on these walls: a king, a magician, a musician, a wealthy man, a knight, a herald, and one more painting separated from them as it hung above at another entrance on the other side of the room. A cave painting? She wasn’t sure. It was a painting of a creature whose body was stretched unnaturally, and a single curved hump jutted from its back.

  Aside from these, there were other paintings that were a bit bigger than her torso. Some of them were crooked or upside down, and they were easy to reach.

  These are the paintings I need to straighten and realign? Jania thought, counting the paintings. Fifteen. Eight of them only needed adjusting. That wasn’t too bad.

  There was light coming from the stars and from the floor-wall, as well as the ceiling-wall junction. So, Jania turned off her light but didn’t put her phone away as she snapped pictures of the big paintings. For the smaller ones, she needed to get closer.

  Jania couldn’t see much of the actual floor, or was this really the floor? It had picture frames fused to the floor, and there were tons of them, arranged in a way that resembled a colge; Jania imagined if she had a bird’s eye perspective. Walking across was difficult, not only because of the uneven surface but also because she felt it sinful to walk on paintings of breathtaking scenery and buildings that looked regal and elegant. Although the paintings had gsses protecting them, she still felt it disrespectful to walk on them, so she opted to walk on the frames, which acted as stylized pnks. The center of this room was circles inside circles, bordering images with frames. Most of the pictures were white. The only section that had a painting was in the outermost circle, right before Jania’s feet. She positioned herself to get a better look at it.

  The first painting showed a void, dark and endless. The second depicted light bursting forth, illuminating the darkness in golden hues. The third revealed nd and sea taking shape beneath a sky.

  Jania narrowed her eyes. Creation. This was the story of how the world began.

  In Verd, they had a simir story. Was it theirs or another’s? Jania assumed it would be another world based on the scenery depicted in the paintings, especially the pictures with glowing script on buildings. Those were pces she had never seen online or read about in books. Unless there was a secret magical society in Verd, these structures and spots had to belong to another realm entirely.

  When Jania stepped to the center, she took another look around the room to see if there was something that had spawned or entered out of nowhere.

  …

  The gallery remained the same.

  Jania cautiously walked toward a crooked painting. She tilted her head as she inspected the image. The painting depicted a man wrapped in a bnket, reading a book inside a dipidated house bathed in pale blue light. The walls around him were crumbling, and outside the broken window, white stretched endlessly.

  Frowning, Jania reached out and carefully straightened the frame, pressing it into pce.

  Click.

  The distinct sound made her freeze. She pulled her hand back immediately, her breath hitching as she scanned the room. Had she triggered something? Her fingers tightened around her phone, ready to bolt if necessary.

  This time…

  This time, nothing seemed to be out of pce. Exhaling slowly, she shook her head. Maybe it was the painting settling into pce. Still, she remained on edge as she gnced at the other paintings. If fixing one caused a sound, would the rest do the same?

  Jania decided to try and find out. She would straighten the rest and take pictures along the way. They could hold vital clues for the future.

  Jania carefully adjusted the st painting, pressing the frame firmly into pce.

  Click.

  She tensed, but this time, the sound was followed by her system notification.

  You have completed the task, Restore the Manor’s Elegance. You have gained 10 EXP.

  The entire gallery was silent and free from foreign entities. That’s all? Jania expected another creature, an entity, since that was what the system called them earlier, a puzzle, a hidden mechanism activating, and anything else except for nothing. All she got was a small experience boost. She gnced at the number again, 10 points. Well, it was reasonable. All she had to do was adjust the paintings.

  Jania found herself facing the other door. The one beneath the eerie cave painting. She hesitated.

  “…Seriously, that’s all?” she muttered under her breath. If it was, then she was okay with this trivial task, even if it only gave 10 experience points.

  Jania grasped the door handles, pulling them open. The hinges creaked, but beyond the threshold, there was nothing waiting to ambush her. She readied her phone’s light and swept her fshlight forward, illuminating the next hall. Empty.

  Cautiously, she stepped through.

  When she finally emerged from the gallery, she gave one st gnce behind her before closing it. She did feel the same eerie cold ghosting around her skin, but not the freezing chill that made her heart race faster and her senses go haywire. It truly seemed that there was no surprise, so Jania stepped forward, leaving the Prologue Gallery behind. The corridor ahead stretched and split into two paths further on: one leading left and the other right.

  Jania exhaled. I just want to go home, she thought. She didn’t want to take on deathly detours. Nevertheless, she observed the right path shrouded in total darkness. No windows, no light. Quite simir to some corridors she skipped yesterday. And the choice would still be the same. Nope. Walking in total darkness made her skin crawl.

  So, she looked at her other favorable option. The left path, at least, had some sembnce of illumination in the form of the usual boarded-up windows with slivers of light leaking through the gaps. Turning left, Jania continued down the dimly lit hall. The narrow beams of light flickered as she moved. After a couple of moments passed, she encountered another forked path, but this time, she noticed the dead end if she walked straight. As she quietly stepped through the other hall, on the left wall, a sign barely clung to its rusted brackets. It read: LUMINARIUM. This was attached beside a wide, arched opening that led to a twisting staircase.

  Good. There was no need to second-guess if she was in the right pce or not.

  She ascended, her shoes scuffing against the worn stone. The higher she climbed, the more her wound throbbed. Upon reaching the top, she hesitated, unsure whether to continue. There was no door, only an open threshold leading into the Luminarium that was full of darkness.

  You have entered the Luminarium!

  Luminarium

  A chamber where stars slumber, waiting to be called. Only those who beckon with light shall witness the spirits of the firmament or the unseen watchers.

  Oh, why? Oh, why does fate always py with me? Jania winced with one eye. She wasn’t impressed with the description of the Luminarium, especially the words waiting to be called and unseen watchers. Sure, the longer she stayed here in the Arrival Hall, the more she felt she was being watched. But, wasn’t that normal for a pce like this? The entire pce felt like it had eyes in every corner, lurking beyond sight, pressing against her senses without form or figure. It made it a bit difficult to discern whether her brain was misfiring a signal or an entity was nearby.

  Jania stared at her surroundings with her fshlight cutting through the void. The ceiling was too hard to see. She was worried darkness wasn’t darkness. This thought made her shiver.

  On the floor, she could see scattered wax candles of varying shapes. That was all she observed as her light was swallowed by the void. She looked over her shoulder. The open threshold behind her still held some light, its faint glow bleeding into the room but stopping abruptly at an invisible boundary as if the darkness refused to let it in.

  At least, door knobs or handles won’t disappear on me, Jania thought. Alright. Fifteen candles. I just need to find a fire source.

  One small step in and followed by another, Jania warily explored the new area. Firstly, she tried finding the wall. Navigating the new pce and finding the item would be easier if she had one solid point of reference. Deep blue, almost purple, walls came into view. It had embossed golden celestial patterns and swirling cosmic motifs, forming consteltions. She followed the walls to lead her deeper into the room.

  As she went further, aside from the smell of wax, she frowned when she smelled something powdery and delicately sweet, akin to vanil, but not overwhelming. It also smelled clean. This heavily reminded Jania of baby powder.

  Why?

  Wax made sense. But baby powder? The thought of an infant being here or having been here, whether in the form of a human or an entity, made her more uneasy. She scanned the surroundings again. Breathe the ground. Jania let out a shaky breath quietly when she found nothing for now, and then pressed forward while straining her eyes, waiting for the faintest sound, which she had no hopes for because the entities she had found so far were mostly silent.

  At the other side of the room, she saw a rge empty stoup attached to a wall where there was a golden concave design surrounding it.

  Jania took a step back and blinked at the intricate design of the stoup. Although this was a horrible pce where she could die at any moment, there was plenty of outstanding craftsmanship existing, like this. There were holes on each section of the stoup and narrow gaps on the floor, most likely to receive water. All of the gaps were heading to the center. There was one thing that stood out most: a taper lighter.

  This must be it. Jania took the golden rod and saw a system window pop up.

  Item

  Anointed Lighter

  Rarity

  Uncommon

  Status

  —

  Effect

  A full lighter can sustain its glow up to four hours. It has a small radius of approximately 30 to 40 centimeters.

  Description

  A special taper lighter that burns with light fueled by holy water. With this vessel, it burns neither flesh nor anything with a soul, and it does not banish entities. Its glow may serve as an essential catalyst, a vital material.

  Uncommon, Jania mused, her gaze drifting from the bel to the bnk status field. What does that mean exactly? Her thoughts shifted as she gnced at the stoup, now empty and irrelevant, then back to the lighter in her hand. So, it can be refueled? She wondered if the stoup had been the holy water source, but now it was gone, leaving only this mysterious object. She shook it, and she could hear the liquid sloshing inside. The top didn’t have an ignitable tip; instead, there was a delicate, filigree-covered nozzle shaped as a closed flower. There was also a button at the side with a mark, which had a somewhat simir design theme to the ones in the Keeper’s Keep. The difference was that, in the inner circle, it was a quadrant. One column was for symbols, and the other was a foreign script. Curious, she pushed the button.

  Huh? Jania couldn’t push it. She raised her eyebrows in confusion. As her finger rested on the button, she felt it shift slightly, not pressing inward, but gliding under her touch. Oh, it’s like a disc.

  So, she moved her finger in a slow circur motion. The button rotated smoothly, and intricate patterns along the rod shimmered with a soft, white-gold light. The glow traveled upward in delicate, flowing lines, awakening the device from slumber. At the top, the nozzle began to unfurl, its delicate metal petals peeling open, mimicking a blooming flower. From within, a luminous white sphere emerged, suspended above the opening. It pulsed gently. The glow remained close, forming a contained, fluid aura that barely extended beyond her reach, enough to light her hands. Not exactly efficient for exploring.

  Jania twisted the mark back to its original position. The light winked out. The faint slosh inside told her it wasn’t full, maybe half, or even less. If the sound was anything to go by, she’d have to be careful how much she used.

  Next step. Light the candles…but which one exactly? There were too many candles; their wicks stood waiting, but if she did light fifteen candles closest to her, that would be too random. She should check out the other areas to see if anything stands out. To be sure. And to avoid wasting the item’s fuel.

  She looked down, specifically at the gaps in the floor. They all led to the center. Her instincts whispered that this pce was ritualistic, that lighting the wrong thing might do nothing, or worse, awaken something watching from the unseen dark.

  It’s okay. Jania breathed deeply. Breathe the ground. She tightened the hold on her phone and the lighter. The lighter wasn’t exactly a weapon, but it was metal, sturdy enough to swing if she had to. And while it wasn’t that long, it still had more reach than her cutter.

  Jania’s steps matched the quiet rhythm of her breath. The creeping feeling and emptiness that she was alone, in the cold dark, itched in the back of her brain. Trying to invade with fear.

  She exhaled steadily and kept moving.

  Step.

  Step.

  She found the gaps converging into one and encircling something ahead. A ritual circle? That was what Jania thought it to be since she could not see the whole thing yet. Only the borders with the foreign script. She stepped further and abruptly stopped.

  A cold, electric dread coiled in her chest.