I watched as the racks of wine parted and a slab of the floor disappeared, moving to the side, all to reveal a staircase descending downwards, into the darkness.
"Angel: I can see in the dark."
And then, immediately, as if everything was bathed in light, I could clearly see everything around me, so I descended.
...
It took me a little more than 10 minutes to get down to the hallway, as the stairs descended deeply into the earth.
The hallway was actually pretty well furbished, as the floor was lined with fur from different animals, the walls were all painted with beautiful designs, and portraits of my ancestors lined the sides.
Walking through all of this, I couldn't help but think that it would have been creepy if I had been using a lantern like most people, as, let's just say that you wouldn't want some of these faces to jump scare you.
Proceeding forward for a few more minutes, I finally reached the end of the hallway, where there were two doors.
Presuming that my assumption was correct, I knew that one of the doorways would lead to the awakening room, whilst the other one would lead to the artifact.
Now, if I was the only one here at the castle, I would have entered the awakening room first due to the nature of it.
You see, the way the awakening room worked was by condensing the mana in one's body, forcing their awakening to their status window.
This was like, how, in those cultivation novels, many protagonists would spend their time condensing their qi instead of making their qi pool bigger.
The awakening room basically did the same thing, but with mana instead, and the person didn't need to work for it.
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Of course, to balance all of this out, the author of the original novel had made it so that people would die if they entered an awakening room more than one time in their life, some bullshit about mana poisoning I think.
Anyways, the reason I wasn't going to go into the awakening room was because the mana fluctuations released from a person using the room would definitely alert both Char and Gwen to the presence of this underground hall.
So, I opened each door and stood back, not daring to enter either one until I was sure of which one was which.
You see, an awakening room activated as soon as it felt the presence of a sentient being in it, so, I couldn't just step into either room without being wary.
After studying both rooms for a while with my keen eyes, I decided that the one on the left had a better chance of not being the awakening room, as it had another door at the end of it.
So, with a heavy heart and an empty stomach, I bestow unto you the words of my... cough cough, I mean, I entered the room.
And, feeling that there were no mana fluctuations, I sighed in relief before proceeding to the door at the other end.
But then, I froze, as I just noticed that the walls had become perfectly similar, meaning, all the doors had vanished.
Then, a darkness descended that even my eyes couldn't see through.
Noticing this, I reluctantly closed my eyes and canceled my skill.
After waiting a few moments, I heard it, a voice in the back of my mind.
"What is it that you desire most, my child?"
"..."
"It's okay, you can think about it, as your answer will decide the fate of your existence in this world."
Hearing this, I really did start to think hard about my answer.
'What did I desire most in this world?'
I mean, I knew that the original Lysander had been such a greedy and covetous brat that he had wished to steal Eve's whole life.
The artifact had translated this into a unique skill, "Gluttony", where he could steal any skill that he saw for 20 minutes and use it at 75% power.
The thing that had made this skill so overpowered was due to the fact that it had no cooldown, meaning, if he kept seeing the skill being used, he could use it himself for an eternity.
The 20 minutes was only effective if the other side never used skills for 20 minutes, meaning, they could beat him after they showed him their skill, of course, that is if they could stay on even ground with him by using purely fighting technique.
But, overall, this wasn't what I wanted.
If I had to say what the thing I most desired was, then it'd be that... yes!
I took in a deep breath, before voicing my wish out loud, resonating my voice with my entire body.
"What I most desire... is to be powerful enough to protect my family."
"..."
"That truly is what you want from the deepest pits of your heart, my child. You surely have the most noble desire that I have seen in all my years as an artifact for the Endendyk family."
"But, of course, how you use me will be what determines your fate, I am merely a tool for you to rewrite your destiny how you see fit."
And with those last words, the voice disappeared from my mind, and I was left back in the room.
Opening my eyes once again, I saw that the door in front of me had unlocked, and was opened slightly.
Getting back up on my feet, I rushed through the door and into a large room.
And, in the middle, was an orb of pure, shining light.
Not even hesitating, I picked up the ball, and stuffed it down my throat.
Pure, raw energy undulated through me, as I absorbed the artifact.
Finally, after the vibrations ceased, I pulled up my status window.
[Name: Lysander (No last name, disowned)
Class: Demon
Titles: None
Strength: 3
Stamina: 4
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 8.2
Skills: "My Word is the Law", "There Will Be No Tomorrow For You"]
Finally, I was satisfied.