On the other side of the wall, Lucille and Scytale were faced with a massive corridor filled with repeating doorways. The walls were white, the same shade as the double doors, and the floor was hard stone. White ceiling lights dotted the roof every metre or so. Scytale turned his head to Lucy.

“This feels like the Mansion.”

“I also can’t use my spiritual perception. The hallway isn’t endless like the Mansion’s though,” she replied, stepping forward. Nameplates were above each doorframe, and she glanced at them as she passed, looking for where she wanted to go. The nameplates had words such as ‘Books’ and ‘Magical Items’ on them, as well as numbers to show the years the items on the other side of the doors were deposited. Lucy kept going until she found one room with a nameplate saying: 670-700/100 A.S. Magical Tools.

“Explain to me how to read the Mystical Realm’s Calendar again?” Scytale asked, narrowing his eyes at the nameplate.

Lucy rolled her eyes. “The 670 to 700 indicate that this room contains items submitted from the year 670 to the year 700 of the Mystical Realm’s 101st millennium after assimilation. The 100 indicates the millenniums after assimilation already passed, while the A.S. just means ‘After System’.”

Scytale tilted his head. “So the item you’re looking for must be pretty old then? The Commission’s only been around for a millennium and a half, so this item has to have been deposited…” He hesitated as he tried to do the math.

Lucille sighed and opened the door. “It was deposited in the 684th year, so that’s 389 years ago. It is old, yes, although not for the reasons you are thinking. But it was an unexpected item to find in the vault’s records, that’s certain.”

With Scytale on her shoulders, she stepped into the large room. Filling the room were tall shelves filled with chests and boxes of different kinds. Lucy navigated the shelves to find the aisle containing the item. Eventually, she managed to find a shelf containing a small wooden box. She pulled it off the shelf and opened it to look inside.

Within the box was what looked like a round brass cylinder containing a tube made from crystal. One end of it was shaped like a cone. Five small dials ran down its length, and there were two gemstones set in the metal, a purple one on its base, and a red one on the cone-like end, but not obstructing the tip, which had a small hole.

Lucille pressed the purple gemstone, and both gemstones began glowing. As they watched, the tube made from crystal gained glowing dark-blue lines of runic script and then began to slowly turn. She pressed the red gemstone, and out of its tip extended a thin needle of silver. She pressed the red button again, and the needle retracted. After pressing the purple gemstone on its base, the glowing light died down, and Lucy nodded.

“It seems to be working correctly.”

“Lucy, no Item Sheet is popping up. I can’t tell what this is,” Scytale said.

She put it back in its box and continued walking through the aisles. “That’s because this is one piece of three.”

“Huh? Then why is it separated from the other pieces?”

She shrugged. “To conserve space, I assume.” She gestured to the shelves. “This entire artifact must automatically sort itself, otherwise all of these items would be piled together without rhyme or reason. Nobody else but us has entered here for more than a millennium, after all.”

She walked further until she came to a stop in front of a section of the room without any shelves. Instead, there was a massive spherical object of some sort, hidden under a large sheet. Stepping forward, she grabbed the sheet and pulled it with one large yank. The sheet slid off, revealing a giant clear orb, taller than her, inside a frame of bronze. The orb seemed to be made from several layers of glass, and engraved mana circuits filled with metal covered each spherical layer. In front of the main body of the object was a metal switchboard covered in dials and buttons. Lucille took the bronze cylinder from earlier and slid it into an empty round hole within the switchboard. She twisted it, and it locked in place, but nothing happened.

“It seems like this needs an external power source to work,” she murmured with a slight frown. “I won’t be able to check its Item Sheet until it's powered.”

“That is one big plasma ball,” her bond said, eyeing the giant structure with slight confusion. “This is supposed to be only one of the other pieces?”

Lucy blinked and then shook her head. “No, this contains the third piece inside.” She pulled a lever on the switchboard, and a hatch on the side of the giant orb opened. She walked around the side to reach through the hatch to bring out a smaller orb the size of her head made of glass and bronze, covered with several metal buttons. Four violet gemstones, about as wide as her fist, were evenly spaced from each other on four sides of the orb.

“This is the third piece,” she explained as she walked back around to the switchboard. “It’s a container. The main structure of the machine could be considered the… processor, while the brass cylinder is an extraction device.”

“Okay… I guess having a giant magical plasma ball in the Founder’s vault is pretty surprising…” Scytale replied.

She shook her head as she kneeled down on the ground next to the switchboard, placing the smaller orb down next to her. Scytale jumped off of her. “No, the shape and size of the device wasn’t why I found it unexpected. There are several stranger objects in the vault’s records.” She peeled off her gloves and started running her fingers along a metal panel in the side of the switchboard, looking for indents. “You see, this device is actually outlawed.”

The silvery snake glanced between her and the massive sphere with wide eyes. “This defective snow globe is outlawed?”

Her fingers brushed over a small symbol in the metal, and so she began inserting mana into the plate. “I suppose it’s not illegal to own, or even use, technically. However, the creation of these devices was banned about sixty thousand years ago. And those who brought one of these devices to the royal family for its destruction were given a hefty reward, so they quickly declined in number. We’re probably looking at one of the last few in existence.” The metal plate came off, and she reached her hand inside.

“Sixty- Lucy, what are you doing to an expensive antique?!” Scytale exclaimed, flapping his wings in horror. “Stop disembowelling it and get it fixed back up so we can sell it!”

She sent him a flat look as she pulled back her hand. “Scytale, as someone without an ounce of true technical knowledge, could you please not refer to my work as ‘disembowelling’?” She put a hand to her face to remove her mask and inserted mana into her right eye to see through the switchboard and into its internal mechanisms. “This was donated to the vault by a noble family of crafters who ended up losing their title because their crafting legacy wasn’t carried on. However, when I looked into it, this was submitted as being in ‘perfect condition’.”

She reached an arm in again. “The item list of the System artifact showed that the item didn’t have the ‘incomplete’ label on its Status, which meant it was in perfect condition. But I need to check what type of powering system to use for this device. Crafting and magic were less standardized back then than now.” She finally managed to grab what she was looking for and pulled it out. She unplugged the connecting tubes and held up a rectangular metal plate covered in small uniformly cut crystals and gemstones, a runic symbol engraved on each one.

“Hey, that looks like a powerful keyboard!” Scytale suddenly said, sticking his snout near the plate. “I bet it was used by… keyboard warriors!” He snickered to himself. “Get it? powerful keyboard? Keyboard warrior? Am I funny? Come on Lucy, laugh!”

She looked at him with mild exasperation and then proceeded to ignore him, inserting a bit of mana into each gemstone to check how the runes lit up. As she did, each gemstone projected its engraved rune in the air above it.

“Tch. You’re no fun,” the white-gold winged snake muttered. He slithered around the side of the giant glass sphere in the frame and raised himself up to stick his nose through the hatch. “What are you even doing right now, anyway?”

“Comparing the 4th grade runes on this rune plate to the ones in my memory,” she stated, putting down the plate. “I was checking if they used mainstream ones or not, as some crafting blueprints in crafter inheritances require niche runes, especially for a crafter family with history reaching back over sixty thousand years ago.” She gestured to the plate. “It seems this device uses runes that are only two thousand years out of date. I should be able to make an adapter mana-circle for the power system without much effort.”

“Did you have to do all this inside the dimensional artifact though?” he asked from inside of the giant orb he had just climbed inside. “You could have just taken it out of the artifact by clicking on the item list.”

“Yes, but I didn’t think Vincent would’ve approved of discovering that a giant orb that takes up an entire room’s worth of space was now cohabitating with us on the fortieth floor,” she replied with a smirk. She plugged back in the connecting tubes to the base of the plate, returned the rune plate back inside the switchboard, and then picked up the metal side panel. Pushing it against the switchboard, it locked back in. Lucy pulled on her gloves, put her mask back on, picked up the smaller sphere next to her, and then stood up. With a sigh, she walked around to the side of the giant orb to gaze dully at Scytale.

“Are you going to get out?” she asked him.

“Nope,” he replied smugly, flickering his tongue.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She rolled her eyes at the predicted answer and then glanced at the open hatch. There was a moment of delayed realisation from her bond, before… she shut the hatch. It sealed itself firmly closed.

“Uh… Lucy… I’m willing to get out now…”

“You know…” she said, holding her chin in mock contemplation, and ignoring the snake’s words. “It might be better for you to stay here for the next month and a bit as you finish your advancement…”

“I happen to disagree with that statement…”

“…you’ll be very protected in the System artifact, as only Ashale’viaf and I can enter…”

“No, I don’t really need the protection…”

“…my peace and quiet would continue…”

“…ugh. I can’t deny that one…”

“…and I can always send Ashale’viaf here to check up on you.”

“You’re going to bring in a torturer too?!”

There was silence for a beat, before Lucille narrowed her eyes at the snake. “Scytale.”

“…what is it?” he asked hesitantly, unsure as to why she was using a different tone of voice.

“You are not allowed to leave my sight during the Forerunner’s Event,” she told him firmly. “Do not run off.”

He avoided eye contact. “What a ridiculous idea… why would I ever do-”

“Scytale.”

“Clearly you don’t understand me as well as you think you do! How could I ever have such intentions as to-”

“Scytale.”

He slumped, before flapping his wings angrily. “All right! All right! Fine, I won’t go wander off anywhere. Sheesh, do you have to take the fun out of everything…” he muttered grumpily. “What’s even going to happen if I don’t do as you say? Going to kill me?”

“No, but if I sense even a hint of the intention to do as I told you not to right now, you will be confined to this ‘defective snow globe’ for the rest of the month,” she stated blandly. “So, you better put any plans to mess with the forerunners firmly out of your mind.”

He let out a groan. “But it would be so funny! Imagine all the references I could make, all coming from a talking magical snake! They’d be completely stunned!”

She sighed, having known exactly what Scytale wanted to do as soon as he asked to go to the Event. She hadn’t even needed to see his thoughts to guess. “Scytale, that would be a terrible idea. Because of the fact that sharing memories requires an advanced level bond between us, which takes an average of twenty years to form.” She placed a hand on her hip. “How are you going to explain your knowledge to them? If the Hero hears about it, his first thought won’t be ‘they have a strong bond with a forerunner’. His first thought will be ‘There’s another regressor, and it’s someone who’s been to Earth’.”

“…urgh. I hadn’t considered that,” he murmured.

“Which is why I’m telling you this now.” She said. She gestured to the door. “So, can I let you out without the Hero wanting to make killing the Aurelian Commission Head and her serpent bond his first goal?”

He drooped his head. “Yes…”

Stepping forward, she undid the hatch. He slid out, where she returned the sphere in her arms to the giant orb. She shut the hatch and went back to the switchboard, where she removed the extractor device from its slot.

“Don’t need the rest of it?” Scytale asked.

She held up the bronze cylinder, which she then placed back in its box, then in her dimensional bag. “I just need this for now. I’ll come back for the rest of it if this ends up being used at all, but that would require me to have more space in my dimensional bag. Speaking of which…” She held out her arm for Scytale to climb up. “Time to empty it.”

They left the room, heading down the hallway again. It took a few minutes before they came to the end of it. At the very end, a room with a nameplate that read: 070-100/101 A.S. Unassigned was found. Lucille walked in and set Scytale on the ground.

“All right then,” she began. She first took out the box containing the extraction device and set it down on the ground next to her. Then she unbelted her dimensional bag, widened its opening, and turned it upside down. There was a delay, until with loud sounds of clanging and dinging, her random collection of magical items received in the Inheritance Trial, items stolen from Abbott Everett’s Emporium, items bought using her crowns, and any other random objects she picked up over the last few months since entering the Tower tumbled out. Even the rose, silver, and bronze crowns she had exchanged all fell out with the sound of raining metal, leaving the final pile to sit at almost waist height in the room.

“That’s a lot of junk,” Scytale stated.

“It was getting crowded,” Lucy agreed. “It took far too long to search through all my items with my will than needed, and while I haven’t picked up any large objects, so I could store a lot, I’ve been restraining the amount of spiritual energy I use at any one time, and so I was reaching the limit of what I could mentally retain.”

She pulled out her pocket watch and opened up her Total Faction Authority. “Now, I can’t use my spiritual telekinesis, but…” she pointed at the pile. “Sort all items in room 070-100/101 A.S. Unassigned.”

[Sorting all items currently within Aurelian Commission’s dimensional System artifact, room 070-100/101 A.S. Unassigned]

The pile in front of them lit up with a white glow before the assorted objects slowly reshuffled and separated from each other. They waited a few minutes before several smaller piles formed for the three types of coins, while the items were arrayed in neat rows. Lucy walked over to the coins and pointed at them.

“Place selected items in room 070-100/101 A.S. Unassigned into User Lucille Goldcroft’s soulbound dimensional bag.”

[Placing selected items currently within Aurelian Commission’s dimensional System artifact, room 070-100/101 A.S. Unassigned into User Lucille Goldcroft’s Soulbound dimensional bag item]

She stretched her arms above her head and then walked over to the rows of Abbott Everett’s items.

“Alright.” She pointed to them. “Complete and utter mass-produced garbage. All of these items can be deposited in a magical item store room and never seen again. Transfer selected items in room 070-100/101 A.S. Unassigned to 070-100/101 A.S. Magical Items.”

[Transferring selected items currently within Aurelian Commission’s dimensional System artifact, room 070-100/101 A.S. Unassigned to 070-100/101 A.S. Magical Items]

The items lit up, and then with a pop, they disappeared. She walked over to the other items and looked down at them. “Now, these I bought before going to your enclave,” she said to Scytale, “And until we get some high-quality items made for when we level up, they will probably do. It’s not like we’ll end up failing the stages even if we forgot something.”

She picked up a rope, a sleeping roll, and a few other items such as a mana lamp that would be useful in adventuring scenarios. The rest she also sent to the magical item room.

“Transfer selected items in room 070-100/101 A.S. Unassigned to 070-100/101 A.S. Magical Items.”

[Transferring selected items currently within Aurelian Commission’s dimensional System artifact, room 070-100/101 A.S. Unassigned to 070-100/101 A.S. Magical Items]

Then she walked over to the other items. One was her brass jug, which she picked up and put next to the extractor device’s box. Then she went and sat down next to the pile. “Time to look at all the Inheritance Trial’s items.”

She picked up the closest object to her, which just so happened to be the golden goblet with an emerald embedded on its front that Scytale had pointed out to her back then. She removed her mask, placed it on the ground next to her, and then used her right eye to bring up the goblet’s Item Sheet.

[Utensil – Type: Goblet, Cursed Item ]

Name: Velista Femidela’s Emerald Bane

Rarity: Rare

MP: 50/1000

Desc:

This goblet was crafted as a gift to a noble clan outside of the Aurelian Commission. When tasked to assassinate the receiver of the goblet, the poison master of the County of Ravimoux at the time cast a curse on this goblet, imbuing a special toxin that killed the goblet’s receiver. Ravimoux’s Count granted the poison master’s family the inherited role of the Ravimoux Count’s direct subordinate from then on.

Abilities:

Emerald Lips – A poisonous gift.

* This goblet inflicts the Emerald Sleep poison on anyone who drinks from this cup.

[ ]

Lucy gained a slightly strange expression after she read the description.

“Isn’t Femidela the last name of that Viscountess you met at your debut?” Scytale asked her, coming closer to the items.

“Yes, it is. It seems this is an ancestral item of some kind.” She tapped on her chin as she considered what to do with it. “She might appreciate receiving it, as it may hold some sort of historical or possibly sentimental value-”

“Oh, hey, Lucy. That creepy board game is here,” the winged snake interrupted, using his snout to gesture to the black senet-like game.

Curious, she pulled it forward and read its Item Sheet. Then she fell silent.

“So… going to show me what it says?” Scytale questioned, confused about why she hadn’t shared her visual sensation of the screen with him.

“I’m… not entirely sure you’ll want to see it,” she replied hesitantly. “This isn’t something most people would like to know exists.”

“…surely it can’t be that bad though, right?” he said with scepticism. “Just show me. You have to be exaggerating.”

She shared it with him. He fell silent for a while too.

“Uh… so…” he eventually spoke up, “This creepy board… allows you to mind control your enemies by making them take certain actions, getting them to fall into traps… as slowly you end up creating a trap for yourself without your knowledge, even though it seems like you’re going to win… until both you and your enemies end up succumbing to the power of the board game and fall to ruin, along with all your friends and family.”

He looked at the board. “I mean… it’s just as creepy as I expected from a game made out of blackest black wood and literal bone, but I don’t really see the issue-”

“Someone within the Commission had this created within the last century,” she interrupted flatly.

The golden-eyed snake stared at her as the seconds ticked by. “Er…… who, exactly?”

“Well, he’s probably already dead, so no need to be too worried,” she said, making the snake let out a sigh of relief. “It’s says here his name was Gredaire Ravimoux.”

“Ravimoux again? Is there any cursed item here that does not have a relation to them?” Scytale asked, sounding slightly exasperated. “But how do you know he’s dead?”

“Because when we visited the Black Lily, Count Ravimoux’s interactions with Vincent seemed to suggest he killed all his family members to ascend to his current status,” she stated, pushing away the game board and crossing her arms as she gazed at it.

He looked between her and the game board. “Uh… but couldn’t this Gredaire guy be a distant relative? Who’s to say he had succession rights anyway?”

“He wasn’t.”

“Wasn’t what?”

“Wasn’t a distant relative,” she explained. “He was the Count of Ravimoux before Regulus Ravimoux. His father.”

Scytale tilted his head, trying to remember how the visit to the casino had gone. “I know my memory’s pretty bad right now compared to before, with the seals and all, so I get that I can easily misremember things, but… I seem to have missed the part when he told us his father’s name…”

She shook her head. “He hasn’t told you, but he’s definitely told me.” She gave him a funny look. “You still don’t remember?”

“Remember what?” he asked confusedly. “All I know is that for some reason you seem to have known the Count’s dad is named Gredaire, yet didn’t know Regulus Ravimoux killed his family to become Count until the Black Lily visit.”

She flicked his forehead. “Just the fact you know that much should’ve made it click for you.” Lucy sighed. “Count Ravimoux told me his father’s name in the last timeline.” She glared at him as his eyes widened. “I’ve already told you that I knew him. It was the entire reason why I wasn’t fazed when that intruder came to my room in the second week of being Commission Head. I knew how he worked, and knew it wouldn’t be an issue long term.”

“Wait… is this to do with that sketchy period of your life taking on random jobs to find out random people’s secrets?” he asked.

She narrowed her eyes at her bond. “’Sketchy period of my life’?” She rolled her eyes when he just flickered his tongue. “It wasn’t random people’s secrets. I was looking to find clues to several important pieces of information I needed.” She let out a sigh. “Yes, I met Count Regulus Ravimoux several times then. Ravimoux does have the best information Guilds, after all. We had a professional relationship where I completed tasks issued by him related to what I wanted to know, and he gave me access to all the information Ravimoux obtained through the completion of the task.”

“I think I’m beginning to remember those memories you showed me,” Scytale replied. He looked at the board game. “So… what’re you going to do with that?”

She thought for a moment. “I believe the Count must know what to do with an object like this. This can’t be the first cursed item his father wanted crafted.”

The silvery snake next to her tilted his head. “Hang on…why was this in the Inheritance Trial to begin with?”

“To hide the fact this was made, I assume,” she said, reaching for the next object on the ground. “Sometimes, noble clans of the Commission might give one of their members an object to place in the trial when they use their inheritance key. You could say it’s a way of demonstrating their ‘loyalty’ to the Faction. Gredaire Ravimoux must’ve organised for this to be hidden in the Inheritance Trial.”

“Huh. All right then, what’s the next creepy item you got there?” Scytale asked.

They spent the rest of the hour going through the items and objects from the Inheritance Trial. There weren’t any useful items, either due to the item being less powerful than ones they could buy present-day due to out-of-date magic or crafting techniques used, or had gemstones that required over thousands of mana to refill, which they had no time for, and wasn’t worth it for the rarity of the objects. Eventually, all the items were sorted, and Lucille used her Total Faction Authority to place them in storerooms. She and her bond left the unassigned store room and headed for the exit.

But just before they left the dimensional artifact, Scytale turned to Lucy.

“But what was that giant orb thing anyway? You made it sound quite important.”

“Ah.” She sighed, her hand a few centimetres away from pulling open the doors to leave. “It’s… a particularly foul device, due to what it was made to do.” She pushed open the doors.

“You see, the device allows one to steal the Origin Skill and bloodline abilities of a slain magical beast.”

…

“So, you’ll be back before the day is over?” a silver-haired man asked.

Lucille nodded with a smile, dressed as she was in a grey long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and boots. Apophis and Ouroboros were in their two sheaths on her belt. She didn’t have her suit, sash, or cane, and Scytale was riding on her shoulders.

Vincent narrowed his eyes at her. “And you’ll tell me what it is you plan to search the Athenaeum’s Archive for?” he asked suspiciously.

“If I can,” she replied. She tugged on her gloves to straighten them, ready to leave.

Vincent sighed. “Well, have a safe trip to this special Event of yours. I wish you’d tell me more about what it’s for.”

She smirked. “Maybe. I’ll see you soon,” she said with a wave.

Her aide nodded. “See you later.”

And with that, Lucille and Scytale left to go to the Forerunner’s Event in the Capital City of the Eternal Empire’s Aeternus plane, along with a thousand other forerunners, anxious to know why they had been teleported into these strange new worlds by the mysterious System.