[Rygor’s Lost Treasure Map!]
[Details: Rygor was strong, so Rygor conquered all. But it still wasn’t enough. Rygor wanted to bind his fate with the Divine. Rygor found a way, a lost inheritance. Rygor set sail, he scoured the desert until he found it, but Rygor was not qualified. Rygor didn’t give up. Rygor mapped the path before his body gave to the pressure of the secret of the Divine... now the map lives, but Rygor didn’t.]
"...." Seth re-read the entire description again, his initial excitement waning...
His eyes lingered on the word Divine for a second, recalling the feeling of the scorching energy coursing through his essence nodes.
That energy... could that be what the ancient evolver Rygor sought?
Squinting, he stared at the golden map in silence. If he was to guess how this item got into the hands of the Treants... "The beast tide," he muttered silently.
That had to be it, because from what he saw so far, the Savage Oasis seemed to be a low-tier region of sorts. Nothing within the settlement or its surroundings should be valuable enough to attract the attention of the Treants.
Except the beast tide — an event sequence that was too high-level for any of the local Savage Oasis residents to clear.
And besides, during the event, seeing as the Treants were the ones to initiate an attack even though they weren’t antagonized, it was obvious that it was an attempt at eliminating their competition, which turned out successful.
As they forced Seth and his team to flee the Origin Realm.
"But in the end, we still were the ones to benefit from the treasure," Seth said to himself, smirking.
The Treant team could have just taken their gains and left to explore the treasure map. Instead, they insisted on antagonizing them.
They couldn’t blame anyone for their downfall. Now not only did they lose a ton of items and essence crystals, they also wouldn’t be able to return to the Origin for a while until their origin gates recovered. They also lost their leader.
Seth rolled up the golden parchment and sent it into his inventory. He decided that he’d inform the others about it tomorrow, and more decisions on their next steps would be decided then.
But one thing was clear: even if they agreed to explore the treasure map with him, the expedition couldn’t begin anytime soon.
Seth could feel the elevation of the realm, the essence in the air constantly growing thicker, the fabrics of space being reinforced. Earth’s upgrade would soon be done.
He had a feeling that was the opportune moment the myriad native races of Earth were just waiting for.
So in essence, at any moment now, a war would break out. And with Seth and crew being important assets to this war, they couldn’t be absent at such a crucial period.
Letting out a heavy breath, he laid down and swiped at the air, pulling his flash sale system into view.
But it was empty, save for the balance and the string of notifications showing his earnings in flash points.
"Oh?" His eyes flashed as he noticed a big jump in earnings, numbers from four to five digits in flash points flickered in view.
"I see... it must have been earnings gained during my class quest. I did face quite the odds," he muttered in realization.
As the system once stated, he was only rewarded by surviving sure-death situations.
Thinking to this point, he wondered why the system refused to interact with him since. Was that against the rules?
Regardless, there was nothing he could do... "Sigh... let’s find answers that can be found." With that, he summoned the Origin Crystal...
Rays of emerald bled into his room...
"Tell me about the nine forbidden arts..." he ordered.
The crystal orb flashed, processing a response, then it alerted...
[Information regarding the required context is currently limited, and the only available context within the privilege wall only holds information on three of the forbidden arts... Shall I proceed?]
Seth’s eyes lit up. Sincerely, he was half expecting the Oracle to give a completely negative response.
After all, this was an item crafted god knows how many eons ago. The information about the nine forbidden arts might be recent, or maybe not present in the archive at all.
But what this told him was that out there in the cosmos there was a semblance of a society, and it was not as fragmented and chaotic as he would imagine it to be.
Because if one thought about it, the nine forbidden arts had to be a set of rules of sorts — one that had to be enforced by a structural power, akin to the governments of Earth.
To confirm this point, he asked, "Does the Origin punish the act of practicing the nine forbidden arts?"
[Negative, host...]
His eyes glowed brighter. Indeed, he was right. "Go ahead, tell me about the available three," he said, finally giving permission.
[The Nine Forbidden Arts are nine distinct practices that have been banned across the Cosmos, and proceeding to dabble in one is punishable by instant death and, in some cases, the total annihilation of one’s race.]
[The three forbidden arts listed within the archive include... Extraction, Will Siphoning, Spirit Binding.]
Seth felt disappointed seeing Extraction listed here. He had been wishing for something else so that at least the total number of forbidden arts he would be aware of would be four.
Thinking for a bit, Seth found it puzzling and interrupted the Oracle before it could continue.
"Since you are an educational device of sorts, why is the information about the nine forbidden arts locked? Wouldn’t that be defeating the whole purpose of... you know, educating?"
The Oracle flashed, recalculating a reply. It responded promptly.
[Indeed, host, I am an educational device, used by the ancient Grocks to educate their younger generations. And the reason the forbidden arts are above jurisdiction is simply because ignorance has been proven to be the best method of preventing anyone from dabbling.]
[Younglings are considered to be the responsibility of an entire race. So if your offspring is caught practicing these arts within the premises, it might lead to the total eradication of one’s line. So as a method of prevention, a degree of ignorance is retained.]
"I see..." he instantly understood the thought process behind this.
"Continue..."
[As you wish, host...]