Chapter 799 Four Pillars: Exploring the Gates of Awakening
Swoosh!
Walking through the rift he had opened, Valyr expected himself to appear in a courtyard similar to the one the Gates of Enlightenment had, with all of the important buildings found in similar locations.
Surprisingly, the young man's hunch was correct, inwardly grinning after finding out that he had indeed appeared in what looked to be the center of a courtyard.
However, unlike the courtyard the Gates of Enlightenment had, the Gates of Awakening's courtyard occupied at ten times as much area, prompting the important buildings within the courtyard to take up such massive space.
"Woah…" With his delight swiftly replaced with awe as he looked around his surroundings, Valyr began to walk through the area for a bit, wanting to get a better idea of what the Gates of Awakening was like.
In many more ways than one, the Gates of Awakening was actually quite similar to the Gates of Enlightenment.
The most important buildings were located in the cardinal directions of the courtyard, while the buildings that held lesser importance could be found in the intercardinal directions.
In between those buildings were the various houses and miscellaneous buildings that filled in the blanks, giving Valyr the feeling that the Gates of Awakening housed a large yet tight-knit community.
"Large, tight-knit, and rich," muttered the young man sometime later as the thought came to mind.
If the buildings within the Gates of Enlightenment exuded a slight air of majesty and opulence due to its minimalistic design, then the Gates of Awakening did the exact opposite.
From the buildings that housed knowledge on the four pillars of production, to even the small houses that covered what seemed the periphery of the courtyard, all of them gave off an air of extreme opulence.
Exquisite carvings, precious materials, such things were put to great use by the various buildings, causing Valyr to scratch his head for a bit as he took it all in.
"Definitely better in many aspects compared to the Gates of Enlightenment," said the young man after feeling like he had done enough precursory exploration, returning to the center of the courtyard soon after.
Once there, he sat on the ground for a bit as he gathered his thoughts.
At the same time, he reminded himself the amount of time he had left to explore the Gates of Awakening before Hal and Vera woke up from their slumber.
"It's only obvious that I should head to the True Blacksmith Archive, then," muttered Valyr to himself as he planned out in what order he would claim his remaining rewards.
Standing up, the young man looked around for a bit before eventually noticing that the entire courtyard was showing him the path he needed to take to arrive at the True Blacksmith Archive.
Finding the phenomenon somewhat amusing, Valyr soon made his way to the large pagoda in the north, slightly hastening his pace in the process.
"The True Blacksmith Archive." Once at the pagoda, the young man took a brief look at the large sign hanging above the entrance.
Though, once he did, he felt an agglomeration of intents wash over him, prompting his expression to turn solemn as he looked at the sign with greater focus.
It was there that he noticed that each word carved on the sign seemed to contain a deeper meaning related to the art of blacksmithing, seemingly telling him the path that he needed to take to reach greater heights.
However, as he continued to sense the intents lingering within the sign, Valyr soon noticed a mismatch of sorts between his understanding of blacksmithing and the blacksmithing the sign was trying to show him.
Realizing that, though a frown appeared on his face, the young man strengthened his beliefs in the path of forging he had carved, reminding himself that the path he had carved was the path that led him to where he was today.
Then, as if it was recognizing the path Valyr had forged, the intents lingering around the sign gradually disappeared, allowing the young man to eventually return his focus to the actual pagoda.
"Huh." Letting out a long exhale to compose himself, Valyr soon made his way to the entrance as his mind went over the experience he had just gone through. "I'm guessing that was a test of sorts to see if I'm actually eligible to enter the place?"
Chuckling at the thought, the young man eventually found himself standing near an energy barrier, barring him from entering the building proper.
Having experienced the barrier bar his entry multiple times at this point, Valyr already knew what to do, extending his right arm as the energy barrier sent out a bit of its energy to wrap around it.
"Only those with an authority level of 2 and above are permitted to enter the True Blacksmith Archive," said a monotonous voice not long after, prompting Valyr to wonder for a bit as to why even the knowledge repositories themselves had a security check in place.
In the end, the young man pushed the thought aside as he felt that the barrier was finished scanning him.
"Verifying… authority has been verified to be Level 6." Hearing these words being uttered out by the monotonous voice, Valyr's eyes widened in surprise as he did not expect his initial level of authority to be so high.
Fortunately, the monotonous voice had explained why his authority was so high, possibly considering that he had just entered the Gates of Awakening for the first time.
"User has cleared all of the trials of the Gates of Awakening, improving their initial authority to Level 3. User has also gained three additional authority levels through the trial's challenges, increasing their initial authority to Level 6."
"You are permitted to enter the True Blacksmith Archive." Nodding in understanding at the voice's words, Valyr watched as the energy barrier collapsed on itself, prompting him to take a deep breath as he made his way deeper into the True Blacksmith Archive.
Similar to the Blacksmith Knowledge Repository back in the Gates of Enlightenment, the young man quickly found himself surrounded by rows upon rows of shelves filled to the brim with various documents and books.
But as he had already gone through the process in the past, he soon touched the nearest shelf, causing a prompt to appear in front of his vision not long after.
Ding!
[Would you like to obtain all the information within this space?]
Naturally, after seeing the prompt before him…
Valyr said yes.
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