The sun shone directly in my face, its brightness dragging me out of sleep. Something kept poking me and…

  Wait…

  I jolted upright, my still-blurry gaze sweeping the area. Myrra was frozen in a strange pose beside me—startled by my sudden movement.

  Damn. We were lucky nothing had happened. It had been so long since I’d slept that the moment all the tension left my body, I instantly passed out.

  "I let you sleep," she told me, "you tired."

  "Yeah, yeah. It's fine," I said, standing up, and motioning with my hand, "Let's go."

  *********

  “At least no monsters approached after you absorbed that core, right?” I asked Myrra as we descended the spiral staircase.

  She nodded. “No monsters.”

  Good. At least we were safe from that particular problem.

  Myrra looked out at the vast underground area with interest, but not much surprise. She seemed... mildly curious at best. I stored that piece of information in the back of my mind for later reference.

  Reaching the ground, I urged her to follow me into the armory.

  "Come. Let's find you some clothes."

  She eagerly nodded, hands clapping noiselessly.

  Hah. So there is clapping in this world.

  “Oh, right,” I said, stopping dead in my tracks and turning to her, a serious expression on my face. “Do you think we’re safe here? Like, do you... think there’s an invisible monster here?”

  She tilted her head at me. Maybe the word “invisible” had been lost in translation somewhere.

  Okay, then. Guess we'll find out.

  We stepped inside the armory and promptly began searching for something she could wear. Luckily, we found some clothes in one of the boxes—whoever was responsible for the supplies here had prepared for everything.

  They were loose-fitting tunics made of rough, undyed linen. The fabric was slightly wrinkled, its texture uneven, as if handwoven. A thin leather cord laced up the V-shaped neckline, threaded through small reinforced holes. There were simple brown pants too, with drawstrings and the same coarse texture.

  Frankly, it looked straight out of the Renaissance to me.

  As I examined the clothes, I couldn’t help but notice her staring at me.

  “What?” I asked, confused.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  She blushed and then shooed me away with her hand. As if motioning me to look away. I

  "Oh." I turned around and busied myself with the boxes while she changed. Hopefully, she would know what to do with those rings and other magical trinkets I had found earlier.

  "Hey Myrra, check this out," I called out, finally finding the box with the flower-shaped brooches.

  She approached, now decently dressed."Wat?"

  I picked one flower brooch and showed it to her, waiting for her reaction

  "Oh, enchanted?" she asked.

  I nodded. Sure, sure, enchanted.

  She hummed and pinned the brooch to her new tunic. It didn’t really match her outfit, but who cared?

  "Awareness," she said, probably referencing the effect of the magical item. "Meh," she shrugged and looked around the storage again, probably testing the effects. Again, she didn't seem that impressed.

  Well, I thought it was cool...

  “There are rings too. Ten of them,” I said, pointing to another box in the corner while pinning a brooch onto my own shirt.

  The world instantly became more vivid—colors, textures, and smells sharpening around me.

  God, we smell like death.

  Myrra walked over, grabbed the box, and inspected it briefly before bringing it back to me. I opened it and handed her one of the rings.

  She ran her fingers over the bronze inscriptions for a few seconds, slipped it onto her pinky, then took it off just as quickly. She repeated the process twice before looking at me.

  “Calmness Ring,” she stated with finality before placing it back in the box.

  “Huh? Isn’t it good?” I asked instinctively, surprised she was discarding it.

  She didn’t seem to mind my question, merely shrugging. “Good for sleep. Bad for battle,” she said. “Too calm, no good.” She shook her head.

  Makes sense.

  Instead of wearing it, I slipped one into my pocket. It might come in handy—I’d been having trouble sleeping.

  She noticed I hadn’t discarded mine and hesitated for a moment before reconsidering. After a brief pause, she picked hers up again and stashed it somewhere in her new clothes.

  “Know what these are?” I asked, pointing to the compass and the monocle.

  Judging by what she’d recognized so far, I was beginning to get a clearer picture of what was normal to ask and what wasn’t.

  Crouching down, she grabbed the compass, shook it like a child testing a toy, then put it back in the box. Next, she picked up the monocle and held it to her eye.

  “Oh,” she exclaimed, surprise in her tone.

  To my shock, the eye behind the monocle started glowing gold—just like it had when she was trying to enter the dome. She closed her other eye and scanned the room, her gaze sweeping over everything with newfound intensity.

  “What?” I asked, curious.

  She turned to me, hand on the monocle, a frown creasing her face. Her eye shimmered like liquid gold, the item itself glowing faintly.

  “What is it?”

  She studied me for a few more seconds before finally stopping and taking it off.

  "It... uhm... it... describes things..."

  Oh, like a video game? That would be perfect for me.

  “But… uhm…” She had an awkward expression on her face.

  “Yes?” I paused, my hands mid-air, eyes locked on the monocle. I really wanted to try it. This could be invaluable.

  “It… is an item for… Juriyets.”

  I looked at her. She wore a sympathetic expression, like she was apologizing in advance.

  “So…?”

  “Uhm… only for… Aspect-people,” she said, gesturing vaguely with her hands. “Uhmm… need Essence…”

  “Oh…”

  Was that why I hadn’t been able to use it the first time?

  I took the monocle from her hands and placed it over my eye, willing it to turn on or something. Maybe I was special?

  Nothing happened.

  “So I really can’t use it, huh?” I half-asked, trying to mask my disappointment. This would’ve been great.

  “Nei… sorry,” she said, her tone subdued.

  Weird. Why was she making such a big deal out of this?

  “Well… alright,” I said, handing it back to her. “You use it then.”

  She took it from me but only grimaced harder, for some reason.

  "... What now?" I asked her.

  "I can't."

  "Can't what?"

  "Can't use it."

  "... Why not?" I inquired, holding back a sigh.

  She looked at me with puppy eyes, on the verge of tears.

  "Can't read well..."

  "..."

  Fucking hell...

  6 Below gave me a lot of perspective and experience on what I could do better, and I've been applying everything I’ve learned to these two new books.

  6 Below at some point, since there are plenty of mistakes and room for improvement, but we’ll see how things go.