It was not an ordinary sleep, but a literal switching off of his mind.

The last thing Miles remembered was closing his eyes and falling asleep.

After that there was nothing. Just an absence.

The next thing he knew, the switch flipped back, and Miles was awake.

It was one of the strangest sleeps he had ever had, and perhaps, the notification that flickered into his vision explained it.

Ding!

[The Vawulan(?) has fulfilled the requirements, unlocking Basic (Vawulan) Skill: {Torporem Medendi- Common}]

'Latin again. Translated into the closest approximation as...Torpor of Healing?'

Or rather, a healing rest.

It was quite interesting that not resting had delayed the gain of a basic skill but compared to his usual reaction to obtaining a new skill, Miles couldn't help but feel a sliver of dread this time.

Like he had stepped closer to the brink of a precipice he could not come back from.

He had no evidence or reason as to why he felt so, but it felt correct.

The notifications continued.

Ding!

[The Newborn(?) has slumbered for 17 hours and 15 minutes, achieving complete rejuvenation and recovery.

-4.54 BP ≈ -5 BP consumed.]

[Remaining Blood Points: 10/10 (+ Blood Bank: 5/100)]

Miles nearly jumped to his feet, slowing to crouch only when he remembered he was precariously propped on a tree branch, quite a distance from solid ground.

'I slept for an entire day?!' And a quick double check with Cadmus confirmed it.

Miles wanted to slap himself for letting down his guard so callously. Not to mention the insane blood point cost for this 'torpor'.

Had he not had any additional blood, he would have woken to see half his blood lost, leaving him undoubtedly blood thirsty.

Miles also had to admit, as costly as the skill was, he felt so much better now.

To him the time had passed in a single instant, but the difference was night and day.

It seemed that Vampires could circumvent death, but the same could not be said for exhaustion. This would be a good lesson for the future, especially the costs of Torporem Medendi.

At least it was nice to wake without feeling hunger, perhaps that was in part covered by the insane blood point cost, so there was that.

Quite some time had passed, and many things could've changed, but Miles' senses could not find a single sign of rats or fae, nothing aside from the all-encompassing greenery.

Overseeing the forest below him, he couldn't help but reminded of the Everglades that surrounded Capital City.

Miles placed a hand upon the tree that had granted him his safe rest, feeling the bark and the trunk.

With a flash of Detect, he confirmed his suspicions. [Hallow's Oak - Common].

A solid tree and judging from its texture, one that was at least a hundred years old.

He knocked upon the trunk, even peeled out a bit of the bark, finding the wood underneath to be in near perfect condition. Curious, Miles considered the surrounding forestry in depth, using Detect and noting the many plant species, all of which were quite common in the forests beyond Capital city.

Few places beside the Everglades of Capital City had such high-quality timber, grown naturally.

However, if this were the same forest, Miles would have been struck with a few illusions, and subjected to a few mind control probes attempting to bind him into eternal servitude.

Yet, there were no fae here, confirmed by the apparent fact that he had been able to sleep without a single disturbance. Miles had not and could not sense anything amiss.

‘Well, I will not complain about a fae-free Everglade.'

Now that he felt rested and recovered, Miles considered his next move.

First things first, he had no intention of returning to the maze. Not blindly, and not until he had a better understanding of what exactly he was supposed to do here.

If the cavern maze was one region of the Doorway, this forest was another.

So far it had been a welcome change of pace, but--Miles refused to let down his guard again. There had to be a catch here.

'Maybe something to do with the strange fae girl?'

Miles pursed his lips. Considering how exhausted he had been back then, she could very well have been a figment of a delirious mind. And even if she were real and actually... dead, there could still be more fae.

So, he didn't dare scratch out that possibility just yet. All Miles could say for sure was that he was once again in a situation that gave very little information to work with.

However, unlike the Hordred maze, here in the forest there were more options.

For a second time, he retreated, balancing himself over the oak tree branch as he took a few steps back, and... launched upwards.

Miles rushed through the branches, climbing his way to the very top. It was only after he made it past another hundred meters, nearing the edge of the canopy, that he felt it.

A searing heat, pulsing through his skin.

The familiar, dangerous flare of a yellowed light, barely restrained by the single layer of thin leaves above him.

Sunlight.

The part of him that screamed in fear knew that for sure. Another part of him refused it, uncaring.

For some reason, it felt far less dangerous than when Miles had experimented at the Faesycian’s clinic…

It felt different.

Miles glanced around, examining the trees around him and the forest floor down below. There was truly nothing here. It was just him and a near silent forest.

Confident that he was safe, Miles forcefully leashed in his instinctive fear of the light with a focused breath. Before he could have any second thoughts, he poked out a single finger.

Ding!

[Cursed {Third: Sol’s Hatred} Celestian Sol demands payment from all Vawul that enter his domain.

As a Newborn(?) the remnants of your humanity lessens the cost.

Skill: S̴e̴l̷f̶-̸C̵o̷n̸t̶r̷o̷l̵(̶?̶)̸ Haemomancy Lvl.1 lessens(?) the cost.

Title: (Un)Balanced??? further lessens the cost. ]

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The notifications messages were the same as they had been before, but suddenly the screen began to flicker, and finally fritzed out into thin air.

Miles swallowed, expecting another catastrophic glitch, but with a brief flash a different screen appeared.

Ding!

[Title: V̶e̸s̷s̴e̴l̵ ̶o̵f̶ ̶T̶h̶e ̴L̷u̷p̴i̴n̴e̴ ̷S̶o̶u̷l̵ (̴S̵e̴a̶l̵e̸d̵) negates all payment.

Cursed {Third: Sol’s Hatred?} Celestian Sol shows his respect to one that is h̴i̵̅s̵̛ ̴̋s̷i̶s̶̽t̴̀e̶̾r̶’̶̌s̴ kin(?).

0 Blood Points lost.

Total Blood Points remaining: 10/10 (+5/100) ]

Ding!

[Notice: Cursed {Third: Sol’s Hatred(?)} will be deactivated in the user’s current form.]

‘What in the holy hells?’

Miles had to blink a few times, clear his eyes and read that again.

'So, my current state of Schrodinger’s Vawul/Wurkan means that the sun is harmless?'

He stared for a minute longer, but in the end, he couldn’t help but grin.

‘See that old Zhan? The problem of sunlight is already nothing much!’

Miles was under no illusion that this was a temporary situation, one he was even actively trying to fix. But if he could achieve this by accident, he was sure he could do so willfully.

Feeling all the more confident in further experiments now, he moved aside the branches and leaves, just enough to properly make out the sky above.

Sunlight fell directly onto his face, but as promised, there was no burn, or system notifications about actual blood payments.

Miles had just barely begun to enjoy the warmth on his face... when he realized that what he saw was no ordinary sky.

The sky was a dark metallic expanse, an artificially constructed domed ceiling, with the sun at its center.

This was no proper 'sun', for it was a giant shard of crystal embedded into the metal itself, somehow burning with the light of a true solar celestial body.

'Is that what the Aether transference lines in the walls are used for?'

Miles squinted, observing the bright crystal overhead. If he was correct, that was a gigantic chunk of Solaz.

A blessed crystal generally used to siphon the light of the sun and redirect it, most commonly for specific forging techniques. He had never seen it be used as an artificial sun.

At least this experience confirmed that the ordinary Vawul would react to Solaz sunlight exactly as they would common sunlight.

Not him though, and since he remained unharmed, he dared to climb higher.

Enough that he could peer out from the very peak of the canopy and properly survey the area.

A comfortable breeze blew through the artificial skies, weaving through Miles' hair. His eyes widened.

Only now could he see what this area of the Doorway truly was.

A massive expanse of forestry stretching over hundreds and hundreds of acres of land, only limited and curtailed by four walls of cold iron and the dome above them.

Though the walls had seemed infinite from down below, that was not the actual case.

Sure, they were gigantic in size, but they had a finite limit, and with the metallic ceiling above, they combined to form a container of sorts.

That was what this was.

An artificially constructed forest in a box, with enough space to fit a full-grown, legendary giant.

While it was not unusual for Doorways to be appropriated for various corporate purposes, Miles had not expected the supposed fief of a Lykaon guardian spirit to have been modified by human interests to this extent.

'Huh. Perhaps that was the 'corruption'? The human influence in what should have been an Aether formed Doorway? The walls the constrains the forest, and the Hordred Maze built for experimentation?'

Miles did not particularly like what that implied. ‘Purifying’ these massive cold iron walls or the maze and its monstrous inhabitants, suggested a whole lot of destruction.

Not only would that be a challenge, but also questionable.

It did not answer what 'source fulcrums' were supposed to be either.

Miles sighed, 'It's probably better to explore a bit more before I start to consider bringing the place down.'

Deciding to take his own advice, he observed the domain before him, more carefully this time.

The endless forestry was not unbroken. It was occasionally disturbed by structures of haphazard rock, occasionally mountainous, but more often some manner of organized construction.

Whatever these structures had once been, and whatever civilizations they had hosted, they were little more than ruins now, fallen to the viny grasp of the forest.

That was when Miles spotted something of note.

A thin column of smoke trailed upwards, from amidst one of the thicker groves at a considerable distance away.

He could not make out the exact source, but it was a good enough lead for now.

***

Man, and wind blew through the trees in unison, the world around them blurring into a vision of messy green.

Miles was nameless moving through the forest, pouncing through branches, from one tree to another.

He had long since returned to using Blood Vision, painting the forest in familiar eerie red. But as expected there was nothing of blood here, not a single glowing silhouette in sight.

Well, he hoped there would be some over by the column of smoke, but that was a considerable distance away and beyond the range of his skill for now.

That was only one of the many reasons it was his intended destination.

A hasty decision perhaps, but having learned a lesson, he would be patient this time.

After the prior fiasco in the maze, any action would be double, and triple thought over. As for the moment, Miles was free to relish the open air and the breezy winds.

His heart beat faintly, flooding his cold veins with the slightest sliver of warmth.

That impromptu slumber really felt godsent, for it had completely refreshed him, the horrors of the maze set aside like a distant fading dream. While he didn't feel specifically better in terms of the (un)balanced issue, he even felt more grounded about that.

Miles had no doubt it had something to do with the nature of this forest.

As one would expect from a doorway, nothing could be ordinary. There were no animals here, but there was something. Something that persisted at the edges of his perception, just barely beyond what he could see.

He knew the Fairy clans, he knew the elusive pixies, and this was none of them. It was not Fae, it could not be, (at least the kinds he knew of) for he would have smelled or felt their presence by now.

Strangely enough, Miles knew whatever they were, they could not touch him. At most they were unwelcome spectators, and perhaps intended no harm at all.

Confident in that instinctual feeling, he sped up, dashing past a stone ruin.

It was some sort of statue, barely a human figure visible due to the age and decay. That was the seventh he had seen so far, and yes, such structures seemed quite common here. As he had seen from higher up the forest canopy, there were many such constructions. Even actual ruins of some manner of construction.

Miles had stopped to explore the first few but given up soon after he realized they were made of [Stone - Inferior] and held nothing of interest.

So, he maintained a relaxed pace through these trees and ruins, moving ever closer towards the area the smoke trail had appeared from.

An hour or so later, Miles had managed to make more progress than he had expected, thought he remained quite a distance away still.

That was when his eyes caught something that grabbed the whole of his attention

It was just a tree.

A Cypress, from the look of it, but what a tree it was.

One that was majestic as it was ancient, yet not completely out of place amidst the grove of similar trees that surrounded it and forming a near perfect circle.

Grown wild and untended, their branches extended haphazardly, and overgrown roots stretched messily into the soil, somehow retaining a sense grandness.

If that had been all, Miles would not have stopped.

No, what caught his eye was the stone structure at the base.

Despite being covered in soft moss and tangled vines, it was less of a ruin compared to the structures he had encountered so far. Like a wreath wrapped about the head of the emperor, it was a dais curving around the base of the Cypress tree, forming a seat of stone.

It was not a throne, for there was not enough space to command anyone. Considering the grove of Cypress trees that surrounded it, it was not for social gatherings and open communication either. It was… personal.

Unknowingly, Miles walked towards it, moving the vines aside to see the engravings more clearly.

They had faded over time, but what he could make of it was a group of four legged beasts, chasing a… crescent shape in the sky.

Miles traced his fingers over it.

The beasts felt dangerous, so what they chased after was… prey?

'A hunt, then?'

But no. If it were a hunt, it was a desperate one.

It was more of a pleading, a fruitless chase to take back something lost, rather than a hunt of predator after prey.

Miles allowed his gaze to waver, considering the seat and the grove of trees around it.

He inhaled deep, feeling the fresh air of the forests entering his lungs.

There was a certain act he had been avoiding, ever since he had awakened within this doorway.

Had he attempted it earlier, if nothing else, it would have shed further light on the nature of his greatest problem. The (un)balance. But somehow, he had known that attempting it would lead to… pain.

Miles did not know how much longer he would have avoided it, if it wasn't for this exact moment, where he felt the need to settle things.

Before it can get any worse.

Some part of him knew he was being impulsive, but the moment he expanded his senses, and confirmed he was alone and safe for the immediate vicinity, he stopped fighting the instinct.

Before he knew it, Miles sat down in the familiar lotus position, amidst the vines and the soft moss. And the moment he did...

Ding!

[You have discovered a (Tier I) Fulcrum: Seat of a W̸u̶r̷k̴a̶n ̵N̵a̵y̷a̸k̴a̷(?)

Harnessing the Intersection of two Doorway Loci, it grants the seated a temporary blessing.

+100 to Influence for as long as you remain seated.]

'Fulcrum!'

Finally, Miles had discovered something about the elusive trial objective. This did not seem to be a 'source' fulcrum, but it was still a clue of some form.

He was also quite shocked.

To think that a Fulcrum could grant him a temporary attribute boost by simply sitting upon a stone seat. And since it was something as ephemeral as Influence, he might never have known without the system.

Still, Miles pondered on the notification for a while, even standing up and sitting repeatedly in order to experiment with the temporary blessing, observing the stat boost disappear and reappear.

The mentions of Doorway Loci and Intersection explained little, though it was obviously related to understanding whatever a Source Fulcrum is supposed to be.

In the end, Miles settled himself into the stone seat of the Fulcrum, placing right hand upon the left, palms upward.

He had decided to put his search for Fulcrum knowledge aside. After all, he had sat here for a whole other reason, and it would not do good to look a gift horse in the mouth.

With a deep breath, bolstered by an additional 100 influence, Miles achieved perfection.