Jack had managed to work out the inner workings of these alien structures, or at least a working hypothesis. As long as he remained on the platform he was currently on, or any platform for that manner, no force of attraction emanating from the other platforms would have any effect on him.. But the moment he tried to escape a platform, or choose his direction, one of the forces of attraction would lock on to him. If the process was random or controlled by the entities, Jack was not sure.

Both the golden and the reddish-black tendrils had withdrawn, after all where could Jack even run to now? As long as he stayed on the platform, he would be safe- since the entity had not yet displayed a willingness to harm him. But did he wish to gamble his life upon the wrath of an unknown entity, who almost reduced Luna to embers because of his refusal?

Before leaving the platform though, Jack had one last thing to do. Usually, he was not the sentimental type- but when he took a glance at the hundreds of tendrils of energy originating from the central platform, he wasn’t too confident of his chances. Picking up a small piece of rock, Jack walked over to a medium sized boulder- the only boulder on this platform, proceeding to scratch out a series of words in the only language he knew.

‘Jack Smith, Human Being of Planet Earth, was here. And against all odds, he survived.’

He grinned at his handiwork, thinking of how absurdism was truly the most convenient way to face eldritch horrors.

“Who says history is written by the winners?” Jack broke out into a laugh, before breaking out into a sprint. If death was what awaited him, he would approach it head on with a smile instead of cowering in fear, broken by the terror.

It was a leap of faith, Jack still believed there was a greater purpose that drew him towards the center, believed that there was some reason why the entity needed him.. But if it was to be his end, then let no one say that he was a coward in death.

Jack’s feet exploded outward in Qi towards the center, and only a few seconds outside the bounds of the platform he felt the force of attraction. As expected, he was headed right towards the eye of the storm- the central platform, and there were no detours or scope for resistance this time around.

A minute of flying later, Jack crashed into the central platform with a bang, sent rolling in the dirt before he managed to stabilize himself.

“Argh,” Jack groaned in protest because the entity had definitely used more force than necessary this time around, but his survival instincts were in overdrive so he kicked up using both his feet- managing to get back up on them almost instantly. Except for his slightly sore back, Jack was otherwise unharmed.

The next instant, two ancient, primordial auras washed over him- one eliciting a deep, profound reverence from Jack, which made him want to bow out of a respect that seemed to be encoded deep within his bloodline. The other aura though, made Jack immediately throw up in disgust- it was as if thousands of invisible insects were crawling on his skin, but somehow even worse- the aura projected cruelty, but it was something deeper- a profound violation of the natural order, an entity that his genes seemed to reject.

The feeling thankfully subsided, as Jack, through his senses realized that the myriad number of energy tendrils surrounding him were retracted back into the two entity’s physical form. Jack crumpled to the ground, sweat running down his back as he tried desperately to breath. He was now convinced that the system had nothing to do with this entity, the horror that the orc titan had projected was not even one hundredth the black tendril’s true form had brought him.

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A queasy Jack got up, finally face to face with his tormentors. He stared ahead with trembling hands, with his own determination to stare death in the face if today was the day he was destined to die.

He realized that his initial assessment from afar was slightly off- the entity’s were not diamond shaped objects, but far thinner, having the thickness of a human fingernail by his estimates. For almost translucent objects, they glowed with such radiance that Jack had to avert his eyes after one glance that left his eyes with some lingering pain. With the hundreds of tendrils no longer obscuring his vision, Jack realized that the central island, apart from its crimson colored grass, was completely barren of any structures or life forms- Except the circular depression that he was standing upon.

He watched as the two entities, that had remained stationary and next to each other this entire time, moved away from the center of the circular depression and towards opposing directions, each stopping at the circumference of the depression, as if they wished to measure its diameter.

Jack’s attention was drawn to their previous residing spot, where three stone slabs slowly emerged from the ground. He was taken by surprise, but indeed found it curious. Before approaching though, Jack wondered why the entity’s were standing on opposite sides of the circular depression? Had they had a disagreement? Seemed unlikely. Then were they there to prevent him from leaving? That seemed far more plausible.

There was no response from the entities, but Jack guessed the course of action he should follow was obvious. So he walked towards the center, able to make out what was kept on them as he drew closer.

On the first stone slab, was a thick, mottled looking tome that had an ancient aura practically exuding from it. A bizarre thought crossed Jack’s mind, but he refuted it the next second. To him, it felt as if this Tome might be older than human civilization itself. It’s outside was covered by a worn white animal hide, any luster it might have held eroded through the years. The pages too, were too thick to belong to the near industrialized world- Jack figured they were also fashioned out of different animal, or perhaps monster skin.

Three letters were scrawled over the tome, but Jack was surprised when even without his gift of languages from the system, he could still read them.

“Legacy Technique: Deny,” Jack muttered out loud, a bit perplexed. That didn’t sound like a powerful technique to him, but the words ‘Legacy’ made him rethink that supposition. Could anything with such a grand title be completely useless?

Jack didn’t reach for it yet, moving to the second slab. He wished to see his options before making any choices.

The Second Slab had five weapons laying upon its surface. On an initial examination, Jack found nothing impressive about the five weapons except how rusted they seemed. The lack of maintenance and disrepair was almost impressive. Jack spotted a medium sized sword, a spear of standard length, a short bow, a mace and finally, a long knife that could pass as a dagger as well. From what Jack could tell, the weapons were originally painted in a silverish hue, but the passage of time had accumulated a black layer of dirt, grime or some other type of degradation had accumulated on its surface, barely letting the silver poke through. The roman numeral for 1 was carved on the stone tablet, making Jack glad that he didn’t start reaching for weapons before a thorough examination.

Jack’s heart sank upon seeing the choice of weapons, knowing that this entity wanted him to fight. What was with these invaders and fighting? But he was glad the entity was considerate enough to offer him a weapon- though from the looks of it, he could only choose one. It was a pity, because he figured that there might be something special about the weapons as well if the entity was the one offering.

Finally, on the last stone slab lay a tattered yellow scroll that seemed on the verge of complete degradation. This time, there was truly nothing Jack could use to try and determine the scroll’s worth, but he feared it might be reduced to dust the moment he touched it. Though he figured the entity would have taken such a consideration into mind before offering it to him.