∼ Day 51 ∼

Closing the prompt, I scanned my surroundings. From where I sat on the pond's bank, lush greenery could be seen all around. With the chirping of the birds' morning songs and the serene pond, it created a very calming scenery. My frayed nerves after the weeks of torture and bloodbath finally managed to fully relax, shedding the phantom tension that had been plaguing them to this very moment.

Interfacing my [Ring of Holding], I retrieved the box that had sprouted a great many questions ever since I found it in that hidden room. Sitting with the small, rectangular, and inconspicuous wooden box in my lap, I drew some blood and let it drip into the identation.

[The blood of a Promethean Candidate has been detected]

[The Sanctioned Lord meets all requirements to unseal the relic]

[Do you wish to soul bind the relic to you?]

[Yes/No]

While I had hoped that my questions would've been answered by the prompts once I reached the 4th-tier, but instead it had only raised even more. I didn't know exactly what soul binding an item to oneself would entail, so I was a bit in a stupor as to what to do here.

I was originally afraid of the unknown regarding this relic and Promethean Candidate stuff, however, after thinking over it for some time, I realized that the system wasn't one to pull cheap tricks on others. If the system was some kind of entity or not, I did not know. But from what I've learned so far, I can see that the system wanted to empower you and help guide you along the path you choose.

With that in mind, I accepted the prompt.

[Congratulations! The relic had been soul bound to you!]

[You have entered the struggle for supremacy; defeat, conquer, and emerge victorious!]

[Find other relics and complete the armor]

[Become a Promethean]

Huh...

I wasn't sure what the hell I had just signed myself on to, but then again, I was not one to back down from a challenge. All of these hints pointing towards how I was a 'Sanctioned Lord' and how I had the potential to become this 'Promethean', had occupied a large part of my thoughts and I couldn't shake them from my mind.

While I didn't know what all this entailed, I knew two things for certain. This was a test, and power laid waiting if I completed it: I only needed to grab out towards it or stay my hand and become normal again. Would I give up and return to normalcy? Would I once again waste away my new chance at life and as a mundane inhabitant?

No.

I was going to grab life by its neck and drain it dry for all it had to offer.

With newfound determination steeling my gaze and a feral grin cresting my face, I opened the box. Well, I didn't know what the expect, but what I saw when I looked inside definitely was not it. The inside of the box was laced in black velvety cloth, and just in the center of the box was a rectangular block with rounded edges hugged by the velvet cloth to its sides.

However, the shape of the block wasn't really what was odd, but rather the mesmerizing texture of molten silver that moved like liquid although the block was solid. Falling into a trance as I looked at the block, a memory surfaced. Back when I was just a large mosquito, I had met the terrifying existence that was the Glade Guardian.

Its eyes were exactly that of the molten silvery liquid that I was now laying my eyes on. A shudder when through my body, and I returned from the trance.

Just what is the Glade Guardian's relation to this relic and the Promethean Candidate stuff?

Racking my head for an idea, I got nothing but wild and inconsistent speculations that quickly got thrown in the gutter as I moved on to what was currently at hand. Reaching out for the relic within the wooden box, I picked it up. It felt oddly cold to my touch, but still warm and inviting as if it approved of my touch.

Suddenly, the rectangular relic in my hands radiated a bright white light, and with it came a stream of a presence that invaded my skin and rushed through my body before I even had a chance to react. I was about to drop the relic due to the shock of it all but the presence disappeared as quickly as came.

I was at first very oppressive as to what had just happened, however, I soon realized that the presence that had invaded my body had rather scanned me than done anything harmful. It was almost like it wanted to take my measures, and as if responding to my thought, the solid relic within my hand started liquefying.

Slowly, the rectangular object turned from solid to liquid, but instead of flowing off to every direction like water, it stayed in all collected into one wobbly blob of some molten substance. Before I could internally question what the hell was happening, the blob started taking shape before my very eyes.

It didn't take long before the blob in my hands had disappeared, now replaced with a piece of absolutely stunning jewelry. The intricate carvings that could be seen across the silver sheen of it were mesmerizing, and the craftmanship looked nothing less than that of a masterpiece.

The piece of jewelry looked to be some kind of ear cuff or earpiece that would run along the under part of an ear, like an earring, and by the earlobe part, a small diamond-shaped container filled with some crimson liquid dangled by a short silver chain. I was stunned at the sight, and I couldn't help myself but marvel at the piece for a solid moment or two.

Was this my relic?

[Heirloom of Sanguinity - Soul bound]

Caressing the beautiful piece of jewelry on my hands, I wondered what this 'Heirloom of Sanguinity' was or what it even did. Not finding any clues from just staring at it, I found no other way than to simply put it on. To my surprise, the ear cuff fitted perfectly to the shape of my ear and even felt more comfortable compared to when I didn't have it on.

However, a small amount of fear did enter my mind when I suddenly realized that I was unable to remove it again. It was utterly stuck to my ear, and I believed that the only way of truly getting it off would be taking the whole ear off and consequently the ear cuff with it. But the fear didn't last long as simply willing it to separate from my ear with my mind made the heirloom suddenly drop off as it unlatched itself from the flesh of my ear, only barely caught by me before it hit the ground.

"Huh... interesting..." - Me

Putting it on once again, I spent a great deal of time just trying out various things just to activate, but it was only once I circulated my mana I realized its purpose or at least some of it. That control I had over mana, and the way I created glyphs with my mental power, had all massively improved.

I already knew that this wasn't due to my new evolution seeing as I've already used magic with Blood Shaping to test my new capabilities. But I could feel through the heirloom that it was helping me control my magic. While it apparently wasn't making my magic inherently more powerful, I had much greater ease at conjuring and controlling it.

Although this on its own was amazing and all, I could also sense that this was only a small part of what the relic could do and become, feeling as if it had enormous potential to become a much more powerful tool than it already was.

"Was this it meant by finding other relics and completing the 'armor'?" - Me

I was unsure, to say the least, but no one was going to answer me as I just stood here talking to myself. Instead, I turned to the next thing on the agenda.

My locked skills.

I wanted to see what this synergize skill could do for me, so I mentally activated it. But instead of a prompt, I was greeted with an influx of information on how exactly to operate the skill. I apparently just had to think of which skills I wanted to fuse, and then I would get a compatibility rate between the fusion and the cost of what it would take to combine them.

Intrigued, I tried with the most obvious ones, Lesser Mana-Infused Skin and Lesser Mana-Infused Organs.

[Synergize]

[Compatability rate - 96%]

[Cost - 5 skill points]

[Want to fuse?]

[Yes/No]

It seemed that my guesses that the two related skills would have a high compatibility rate, although I expected that 96% was a high compatibility rate. Wanting to experiment, I tried to combine the two with a third; Swift Flight.

[Synergize]

[Compatability rate - 22%]

[Cost - 16 skill points]

[Want to fuse?]

[Yes/No]

The result was as I had guessed it, less than stellar. Swift Flight was something that improved my flying capabilities while the two other skills only improved my defensive capabilities, so it wasn't all that surprising that the compatibility rate would fall that low. However, I wasn't sure if a low compatibility rate meant that the skill would become worse, or just cost more. But reading the description for the skill over again, I realized that it should mostly just impact how good the skill would turn out.

Done with testing that, I went back to the fusion of the two skills. Intrigued by what might happen if I introduced another skill that should align with the same purposes of Lesser Mana-Infused Skin and Lesser Mana-Infused Organs, I added Iron Gut to the equation.

[Synergize]

[Compatability rate - 94%]

[Cost - 6 skill points]

[Want to fuse?]

[Yes/No]

The compatibility rate only fell by two percent and rose by one skill point in cost when adding Iron Gut. Although I couldn't know precisely how all this was calculated, I guessed that due to the low tier of Iron Gut and its high compatibility with the two other defensive skills, the cost was only very slightly increased.

I very much at this moment wanted to fuse the skill and see the result, I restrained myself. First of all, I didn't have enough skill points to go through with the fusion anyways, and besides, I should probably advance Lesser Mana-Infused Skin and Lesser Mana-Infused Organs and get the skill points rewards before I did it.

With my next course of action confirmed, I rose to my feet.

"It's time to grind some skills." - Me