"What is this place?" Sera asked as she plopped on the bed. Her frame sunk into the mattress.

Aeryth couldn't imagine how lacking someone's sense of danger had to be to lay on a bed of a magic place where they would've died a minute ago.

She made her way to the desk. The room was empty, mostly. No portraits or photo frames. A page on the desk caught her eyes, yellowed, and put under a glass paperweight—an eye trapped in it.

To whomever it may concern,

Congratulations on breaking the illusion spell. It is a simple task, but the person I expect to stumble here is not some ancient magus or sage, but a fledgling—lost, desperate. A troubled seeker or just a curious soul.

Which one are you? Regardless, congratulations on clearing the first level of The Time Witch's Paradox Trial. No, I cannot control time, but that name sounded cool. I read it in a book of olds. Neither am I a witch, if you're curious. What am I, though? Let the mystery shroud you a little longer. You'll know once you've cleared all the stages of the trial.

That's all I have to say for now. But you made it here and probably risked your life, so a little gift is awaiting you.

About the mystery on the top floor: I am sure if you've stumbled upon this, then you must've already encountered that one. Perhaps, even asked my dear Tor about it, and he must've told you it's a treasure. Take the mirror from the bottom drawer.

Lead: The mystery of this library is confined within it as it is stage one of the trial, and if I make it any worse, I am sure no one will bother with it.

What is it on the third floor? You'll have to find out yourself. It's the real treasure. This place is just a gift, a precious part of me, not a treasure to be sold. But something I cherish it. Perhaps, in a long journey one day, you might desire a place to rest and come to cherish it, but not as much as me.

Again, If you had more expectations from this place, then, sorry to disappoint you, there's nothing more here. You're the owner of this room. I wish with all my heart that one day this place provides you with the rest that you so seek.

[Celine's House: The Bedroom's ownership has been transferred to Individual Aeryth.]

[Error: Due to lack of Perception and lacking insight to perform summoning magic, the transfer has been halted for the foreseeable future.]

[Phase Error Correction: As per the accords of Celine, in case of failure in transfer by the system. The room is to be turned into an Artefact: The Bedroom]

[Process Initiate. Upon vacating the perimeter, the artifact transformation spell will take place.]

Aeryth looked at Sera, who looked back at her. She seemed confused.

"You cannot see the system message?"

"No... what did it say?"

"I get to keep this room as an Artefact." Aeryth didn't see a reason to hide that from Sera.

"I see. That's nice?" Sera said unsurely. "Wait, Artefact Room. That's so handy." She sounded jealous.

"Handy?"

"Yeah, when we go on a week-long expedition, we have to make camp every day after a long day of travel. Well, I've been to only one, and it was a pain in the butt to deal with. Fight the forest full of monsters the whole day and make the camp as soon as the sun is too tired to light the world. That took like an hour of work, and then we had to watch out for monsters. But if there was an artifact like this, we wouldn't need to worry about anything like that."

"Monster won't see it?"

"These things are protected with wards, generally, which are very strong, and we can react on the first clash."

"I see..." Aeryth nodded. Yeah. It made sense. It was great, actually. Once she gets strong enough to leave the House of Hearth, she won't need to worry about rent and may even be able to live in the forest, away from the people. Make a few round trips to the city to get ingredients and cook monsters in the forest.

This is one step closer to the ideal life I desire.

"Hey!"

"S-sorry, I was just thinking." Aeryth recoiled back at the screech.

"You get lost way too many times," Sera shook her head. "Anyways. That's great. Are you going to sell it? I mean, you want the money but don't want to take it from us. I am not saying you should. No, I suggest you keep it, it's a very handy tool, but if you decide. Then, sell it to us. Of course, we'll not pay you any dime less than the market. It's a very handy thing, and if someone is going to get it, then why not us."

"I won't sell it. It would be... bad. This person mentioned it was a precious place for them, not a treasure to sell. Maybe they are dead, and selling it would be like insulting to the dead's memory."

"Right. Right. That's great. So, how do we turn it into an artifact?" Sera asked.

"Once we leave, it should do that on its own."

"I see." Sera nodded. "That happens, I suppose. Shall we go then? Ah, so is it completely unrelated to that thing on the third floor?"

Aeryth lowered and pulled the bottom drawer, revealing a white key and a glass mirror. "This key and mirror will help us get the treasure on the top floor."

"There's another treasure?" Sera's eyes wide with joy, "Woo hoo, this is great. Let's see what's there. Maybe a treasure to get your elemental bone." Sera took the key.

They walked out.

"What happens if I leave something in it?" Aeryth asked.

"Yeah, that's the biggest feature of a place like this. You can store this place to the brim, and it will still be a ring or chain, or coin, whatever it transforms into."

Aeryth nodded as walked out. So this is as much storage as it a bedroom.

She could keep things in it, without worrying about ever of robbing.*

The door shut with a sharp snap as they walked out. They were back in the library. The shelf was back in its place. A shining silver pendant was in her hand. Aeryth raised it to her eye level. Studying it intently.

Sera took it in her hand and looked at it from all angles. "This must be at least a rare grade item, and blue colored too."

"Blue colored?" Aeryth knew there were normal mundane grade things then uncommon, which are magical artifacts, and then came rare or ardent class of things. She had never seen one before.

"Yeah, there's a grading system within rare grade items and above. Red is highest, and blue is second just below red. Then, grey, white, and colorless."

"Oh," Aeryth nodded. Sera handed back the round object. This was the first time she saw an object so precious. She felt the smooth engraving on it. It had an engraving of a book. "It said, since I was incapable of performing a summoning magic, this would be turned into an artifact."

"That makes sense. I've never seen system transfers myself. They are exceptionally rare occurrences. There must be some criteria since I don't even have an option to do something like that with my weapons."

"Then, this person can be a sage?" Just like the sage who planted the sage tree... Aeryth pressed her lips thin.

"Sages are far rare commodities than something like this. I doubt it," Sera shrugged.

"How do I activate it?" Aeryth asked.

Sera took the pendant, "You just pour mana into it. This is useless until you awaken. It won't accept my mana."

"Hopefully, it won't be too long before I can."

"I am sure you will," Sera patted her back with force, tumbling Aeryth forward. "Somehow, I am exhausted. Still, we should check out where this key goes."

"You can rest if you want to," Aeryth said, "While I look on the third floor."

"I don't. You sneaky. I said, I don't want anything, what more do you want," She folded her arm under her breast. "I'll have you know, I don't care about money."

Aeryth could already tell that much. And that fact only made her feel worse.

They continued.

Maybe, today, I will be able to buy the lightning stone.

She felt the pendant in her hand. "If I try to sell it, which I won't. What price should I expect?"

"Don't know, around five hundred thousand, maybe more."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Aeryth almost balked at the absurdity of the money.

"But if you go alone, then, you'll probably be scammed and even killed since this thing is far too precious. And anyone with that kind of money can easily get away from killing someone like you. But if you go through the House of Hearth route and auction it, you'll probably have enough money to live a normal life for a few decades. Use the money to make a few apartments, put it on rent, and live the rest of your life worry-free. Passive income, a mythical grade income. That's what I plan to do, once I get a treasure of my own," Sera grinned.

"You want to live a normal life?" Aeryth knitted her brow.

"Kind of. Most of the time, I don't get the fun job, just disgusting and tiring ones. Like, kill that merchant's assistant because he did this, or go beat down the mob who are trying to break the factory outpost. It does not feel great. When I get to go outside and hunt monsters, it is more fun and easy, but those are so far and few between all the bullshit we must go through every day."

"I am not sure why it deems me as the owner when we both did the work, but if the next treasure is as great as this is, then we can share it," Aeryth said. She was sure Sera really didn't want any part of the treasure.

"Aw, thanks! You're so nice."

Aeryth nodded. She looked at the realigned shelf.

"Wait," Aeryth said. She tried to push the shelf again, but it didn't budge. After one more time to make sure she didn't make a mistake, she sighed. "It's gone. We'll never be able to go back there."

"Seems so."

They went to the top. In the darkness, with moonlight filtering in. Aeryth looked at the piece of transparent mirror in her hand. Looking through it, everything was stretched outwards from the center.

"I think we need to look at the tile through this mirror," Aeryth said.

"Woah, that's genius, I couldn't have guessed," Sera drawled. Of course, she was joking. "Thank you for informing this dumb, fogetful Mage."

"I didn't mean to demean you, please, stop this," Aeryth said.

"Oh, I am never letting you live over it," Sera laughed. Soon, her smile vanished, as she realized something. "Wait, tile, are you telling me to go out and make the fireball again."

Aeryth shot her a grin.

Sera sighed. "If that bastard man Truman comes to get me, I am throwing you at his face first."

"I doubt he'll be on duty this late," Aeryth said.

"Oh, I am so lucky that if I decided to make trouble in the Ashets, he's sorry will show up there too."

"Then, we wait till morning?" Aeryth asked.

"Nah, I am not afraid. If that bastard tries anything funny, I am burning his bald head."

Aeryth nodded. "I don't mind. He's not a good guy."

"Hey, you're supposed to say I should not mess with the guard."

"Why would I say that?"

"That's what rational people do," Sera sighed, shaking her head exaggeratedly.

"I was trying to sneak into an illusion spell without a way to guard against it, what part of it makes you think I am the rational one here,"

Sera scrunched her brow, thinking deeply at her words. "Aha, I get it. It's the tone of your voice. That barely emotional and tone-deaf voice makes you sound rational," She frowned. Pointed her finger at Aeryth as if she had solved a great mistake, "You were fooling me this entire time. Lady Sia was right, appearances are deceiving. I shouldn't trust them."

Aeryth laughed. "If you want to retire, you should really join a comedy performance crew. You'll be a world-famous celebrity in a matter of months."

"That's rude. I am full full-fledged mage, and have more than enough experience myself."

Aeryth shook her head, "Let's focus on the task."

Sera saluted, "Yes, General," And went about her place.

Aeryth dragged the stool across the floor, stopped at the cornermost lane, alinging it with the tile book, and climbed up.

She stared through the mirror, staring at the black slit. There was no difference whatsoever.

"Are you ready?" Sera asked.

"Go ahead," Aeryth replied.

A moment later, the light descended onto the spot. The wall lit up. The golden part on the white tile swirled.

Aeryth raised her glass and stared at it. The center of the tile part was blown out of proportion, but it didn't help her in any way. She flipped the glass to no effect.

What else can I do?

"What do you see?" Sera asked.

"Nothing. It's still the same. I don't know. Maybe this is not the right way to use it."

"Bah! Why the fuck can this place not be simple!" Sera's flame stayed the same. "Maybe it's for one specific tile, try looking at the other one."

"Perhaps," Aeryth climbed down the stool and pulled it along to the next section. "I am ready," she said, as she climbed up the stairs.

The angle of the light changed, and the tile lit up again.

Aeryth watched it through the mirror.

"Still nothing?"

Aeryth groaned. "I think... Sera, can you light up both the last and second last at the same time?"

"I think so..." Sera said, her voice filled with doubt. "Why?"

"I don't know. I think I can see the outline of the last one through the..." Aeryth paused, her eyes widening in surprise. "Sera, I think, we need to light up all five tiles at the same time, and look at each of them at once."

"That's impossible," Sera shouted. "Do you know how hard it is to control a ball in the air that's barely visible? Now you want me to do five blinds."

Aeryth paused. "That's too much I guess," She climbed down sighing. She looked up the filters. There were five of them on two walls, very much intentional.

"Sera can you do that from the roof?"

"I can make and control five, maybe," Sera didn't sound sure. "But I have no frigging clue where they should be positioned to make light up the tiles."

"Get on the roof. I'll let you know," Aeryth said.

Sera let a curse and climbed up the roofs.

For the next fifteen minutes, they spent aligning the filtering lights to each of the tiles one at a time.

"I am spent," Sera said, her legs hanging off the roof.

Aeryth was by the window side. "But we are almost done. Though, it does make it seem an impossible task without a fire or light mage."

"Or just five people with torches," Sera said. "I think it's impossible for one person to do unless they have very specific power and very high control over their magic."

"And why would someone with such power waste his time in this mundane library," Aeryth said. "Only someone like me can stumble upon it."

"Stop overthinking. That's how treasures are hidden. Only a very specific person can find or ever use them. We should consider ourselves lucky."

"You're right."

"What's next? I think I can light all five of them at once."

Aeryth looked at the library through the glass. "It is impossible to look at all five from inside, I need to be farther away, out from this window."

"How will you do that? I mean, I am sure the people on the other side of that room are very awake and shaken to their core. I can smell their fear." Sera chuckled. "We can ask them to let you in."

Aeryth shook her head and smiled upon realizing, Sera couldn't see her. Her mother always used to tell her against it.

"I can hang from this ledge," there was a small extended ledge over the window, about a foot and a half long. At this point, she won't put it past the witch or mage to have made it for this specific purpose.

"That's seems dangerous." Sera laughed, "It's too late to say that."

Aeryth affirmed, held the transparent glass in her mouth, grabbed the ledge from the side, and hung, looking down three floors below and the cemented path.

I'll burst like a watermelon if I fall from this height.

With speed of a crawl, she made it in front of the window. "I am ready."

She felt the heat as Sera created five fireballs.

Now, it was time to truly test her strength. She hesitated. But slowly clenched her left hand on the ledge and let go of the right. Her body dangled, swaying slightly. Her heart throbbed as she looked down again.

She grabbed the glass and looked through the window.

Now she could see all five of the outlines, but only three were lit up. The second row wasn't lit. "Sera. Second shelf and third are not alinged."

The fireball moved. Aeryth kept looking through the glass. The four lit up. Then five. All of them were visible through the glass, but that was it.

"What do you see?" Sera asked. Her voice was tired.

"I see basically nothing," Aeryth muttered, frustrated.

She moved to the side, "Wait, maybe, if I look from a different angle, they might align."

She held the glass in her mouth, moved to the other side, and looked again.

Though it didn't align, as she moved and looked through the window glass and the mage's glass she, the tile expanded only in width. Though, that was not the bigger takeaway.

"Aery, I am going die at this rate," Sera grunted. According to her, making a fireball and maintaining it was very easy, even two was not that big of a deal. But five was a hundred times more taxing than the normal spell. Very different from just shooting four fireballs in the same direction. It took precision and conscious effort to maintain each of them.

"I think, I know now what I need to do."

"And what is that?"

"Look through the window glass and this glass, and align all five tiles. It's wide, maybe a treasure chest, I think. A tall treasure chest, and this might be a key."

"Sure, what should I do then?"

"Just hold on for a few more minutes."

"Oh, my dear Aeryth, you could've asked me to jump down from here, and I would've been more relieved."

"We can stop if you're tired."

"Nah, we are this close, might as well shove through to the other side."

Aeryth shoved out her left shoe with the other, and let it fall. They didn't have enough time for her to think of other ways to close the window. She reached over, used her toe to press against the window glass, and began moving to the right. It slid. Her thigh felt a sharp jolt of pain. Jaw clenched, face covered in sweat.

"Almost there." Aeryth breathlessly whispered.

"Don't you fall."

Aeryth let go. Her left side, underarm, arm, and wrist, all ached and set ablaze. She looked through the glass. It was not aligned, but each of those had expanded. She moved slightly to the left and looked again. Slight misaligned.

"I am spent."

"Just one more second," Aeryth shouted back, voice shaky, as she tilted her head. Four tiles aligned. She put the glass back in her mouth. Moved slight again, and let of the left hand. It was shaking. She took a moment, before holding the glass. It almost felt. Through it, she looked inside.

The library shook slightly. The glass window quivered, clattering against its frame.

The glow of the tiles vanished. She moved her glass, and still, through the window, she saw the darkness. In that abyss, the white marble door stood, golden geometric flowing through it in vivid patterns.

"It's another door. A white one." Aeryth reached over and slid the window again. Opened it. And still, it stood just like that. "Sera, you can stop now."

"Gosh, I am dead." the heat of the flames vanished. Aeryth went around and put her leg on the window ledge, slid in, and her arms were shaking, entire body even from the extreme effort that her body was not used to.

Huggin the window side, she slid inside. Barely managing to stand on her feet.

Sera jumped on the extended ledge, and peeked down, her own face was pale and white, wet with sweat. But her face had the joy of a thousand suns, "Finally, the adventure ends."

"Come on in," Aeryth said.

"I don't think I have enough energy to make it down there without falling off," Sera said, "I need to re. You can go on without me if you're so curious. Boy, my efficiency went down the gutter after the second fireball."

Aeryth shook her head. "We've come this far, it's only natural, that you open the door with me."

She waited in silence. After a few minutes, Sera finally began moving again. "You're more of a taskmaster than Moh-G. Help me."

Aeryth nodded. She grabbed Sera's leg and guided her inside. Sera held to the window to stand straight. "Thank you for all the effort. Without you, I would never have managed to get this place."

"That's what friends are for," Sera grinned.

Aeryth couldn't bring herself to say they were not friends. It would be a cruel thing to do.

They made their way to the door.

"Do the honors, reckless sneaky thief." Aeryth raised a brow as Sera handed her the key.

"What's the point of the key, if we cannot enter the door without glass?" Sera shook her head.

"The mirror must've a spell that can be replicated, or recreated by Tor or someone, so it must be a safeguard. Celine must've wanted her bedroom to be found first."

"That's makes sense."

Aeryth nodded and plunged the key. It went in smoothly. She felt a mechanical click. Something heavy unlatch.

"It's open." Aeryth's heart drummed. If there was no treasure here, then she would be left with only one hope. The pit. Fighting humans like a beast for the sake of money. Their entertainment. She hated the idea, but if she had to, she wouldn't hesitate.

She pushed the door in. It was heavy, like a boulder. It sunk and then slid to the side on its own. Sera also helped vocally.

A gray path led down. "Another illusion?" It almost seemed infinite.

"No. It's real."

Aeryth took the first step in.

They walked in silence. Darkness stretched into the infinity. After a long walk in silence, they arrived at another door.

A black door. There was a keyhole in the middle of it.

Cold water poured on her head. Her teeth creaked as the frustration and anger took hold of her mind. "Why?!" She punched the obsidian door. She didn't have enough strenght to hurt herself.

Of course, it can't be that easy.