MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Ding!

————

[Memory Fragment of a Forsaken Being] (Item)

Rarity: ???

Throughout one's life, one would create a myriad of memories. Some of them would disappear after a bit of time, while some would linger around till one lets out their final breath.

Then again, amidst the everlasting memories, there are those who transcend the existence of life itself, taking on a form that would allow it to exist long after the death of its creator.

Many names have been given to these kinds of memories throughout history, yet all of them serve either one of two purposes.

To serve as a solemn reminder for the future generation… or to serve as a reminder that the being once existed.

What lies in your hands is a mere fragment of what was once a whole memory. Nevertheless, a small infusion of your mana is enough to peer through its secrets.

However, more of its pieces remain scattered throughout, only waiting to become whole once more.

Hopefully, you shall be the one to let them turn one again.

————

After reading through the description of the fragment he had picked up, Valyr had become silent for a while.

After all, from what it was implying, the fragment seemed to contain a special memory that belonged to the quadrant leader he killed.

However, due to it only being a part of what was once whole, he would only be able to view a small part of it once he had infused it with his mana.

'Should I take a look at it now?' asked the young man to himself as he closed the screen before him.

'Or should I take a look at it at a more convenient time?'

Swoosh!

"Urk…" Coincidentally, just as he was about to make a decision on the matter, Valyr felt a strong wave of weakness wash over his body, causing his aura to regress to a state that was far weaker than it initially was.

Of course, due to how sudden it had appeared, Hal and the others took notice as they looked at the young man with concern.

Faulus was the first one to ask. "What's wrong, Valyr?"

"Side effects of a skill," said Valyr in response, wryly smiling. 

As he swiftly stored the memory fragment into his spatial bracelet before the others could see it, he replied. "It's the price I had to pay in order to kill the quadrant leader once and for all."

At these words, the four went silent as they went through the final phase of the fight with quadrant leader in their minds.

Within seconds, they recalled that Valyr's power had undergone a tremendous boost after activating a certain skill, allowing him to stand toe to toe with the quadrant leader in terms of stats.

"Is it permanent?" Being reminded on how far Valyr had to push himself just to beat the quadrant leader once and for all, Hal looked at the young man with concern as he asked the question.

Amidst the concern on everyone's faces, Valyr shook his head in response. "Not at all."

Hearing those words, the four inwardly let out a sigh of relief.

"Then again, I'll be stuck in this state for a bit longer, so I'm afraid we won't be able to return to the south quadrant anytime soon," added the young man as he apologetically smiled.

"Take your time," said Hal in response, to which the other three nodded in agreement. "We're not in a rush anymore, especially with how all of us could now enter the Gates of Awakening at any time."

With that, the five decided to stay at the area for a bit longer, passing the time by talking about mundane topics, as well as their plans after returning to the south quadrant.

In fact, while talking with the others, Valyr finally made up his mind on what he would do with the memory fragment, deciding to take a look at it after they had returned to the south quadrant.

'Aside from that, I should reforge the other armor pieces with the [Breath of Beginnings],' thought the young man to himself. 

'And just before I forget about it, use [Enlightenment] as well.'

With those thoughts in mind, the young man continued talking with the others for a bit more, eventually telling the four that he was finally out of the weakened state after ten minutes had passed.

Though no primitive humanoids had interrupted them all this time while they were resting, the five of them still made their way back to the south quadrant, arriving at the spot they usually set up camp on around sunset.

…

"I'm guessing everyone here is going to attempt the trials of the Gates of Awakening first thing in the morning?"

As all of them were gathered around the campfire while eating their dinner, Valyr asked the question with a faint smile.

"I mean… isn't that the logical choice?" replied Faulus, to which Vera and Loreina nodded in agreement.

"After all, we'll be entering the Gates of Awakening at our best possible condition," he said. "It's definitely a far cry from our attempts at the Gates of Enlightenment where all of us were running on fumes."

"Speaking of the Gates of Enlightenment, better concoct a lot of those vials of rousing just in case," said Valyr, causing everyone to let out a bit of laughter as they continued to banter while eating their dinner.

Eventually, all of them went their separate ways after that, with some of them taking the time to hone their skills, while others decided to head to bed early and entered their tents.

Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!

As for Valyr, he spent the night setting up the temporary workshop and reforging one of his armor pieces using his artifact's [Breath of Beginnings].

Expecting the reforge to have some effect on the innate skill his chestplate had gained, Valyr was jubilant to see that, aside from the piece giving more defense than before, it had indeed changed the effects of [Descent of the True Wyvern] somewhat.

For one, the cost to activate the skill had reduced from 99% of his HP and MP to 90%. The stat reduction had followed the same pattern as well, though the duration still remained at 10 minutes.

Nevertheless, seeing that the cooldown for the skill had gone from 1 day to 18 hours, Valyr knew that reforging the entire True Wyvern armor set using [Breath of Beginnings] would definitely be worth his while.

"[Enlightenment]."

Ding!

Storing all of the items that made up his temporary workshop back into the spatial bracelet, Valyr then went into his tent before bringing out the memory fragment he had picked up from the quadrant leader.

"Here goes nothing…"

Staring at the fragment for a bit, the young man took in a deep breath before infusing it with a bit of mana.

Whoosh!

In response, the fragment began to release tendrils of multicolored energy, all of which swiftly made their way towards Valyr's forehead.

Surprisingly, the tendrils of energy were quickly absorbed by his body as they made their way to his mind.

And it was at that moment…

That his consciousness blacked out.