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CH 77 - Inspection
🕑 Added 2024-05-31 00:39:07 +0000 UTCChapter Seventy-Seven
Inspection
Fall of Autumn, Week 4, Day 4
[Welcome to Twilight}
[Skill: Inspect]
[Training options:
Expansion
Locked
Locked]
[Please select a training type to begin]
I looked at the green notice, running my hand along my thigh.
Expansion. What could that mean? I hummed in thought. It could mean anything. Perhaps expanding the distance, maybe? I thought it was line of sight, though. Maybe not. Maybe I have a fundamental misunderstanding about the Skill.
I sighed, willing the screen to select the training option I needed. The only one available to me.
Expansion.
The darkness that Twilight had slowly lightened until I was once again in an everlasting dawn. With oranges and pinks and purples, it was as if I was back out by the pillars. Well, if it wasn’t for the screen that appeared before my eyes.
[Skill: Inspect]
[Level: 9]
[Training Style: Expansion]
[Task: Activate [Inspect] on every object presented.]
[Failure conditions:
Failure to activate [Inspect] within 60 seconds of a new object appearing ends the trial.]
[Notice: This trial is a perpetual trial. There is no mana cost associated with the Skill [Inspect]. However, upon first entrance, the trial is limited to 90 minutes.]
I sent my agreement, and the water around me rippled, sending out gentle waves that converged on a single point a half dozen steps in front of me. The water bubbled at that point and then began to rise and reform. No longer was it low to the ground; gradually, a reverse waterfall formed. It looked much like a table, and the water that rushed to the center froze as it burst outward, leaving columns of glittering ice.
I blinked, taking it in. And in that moment, the ice table was no longer empty. I took a step toward the ice and immediately activated [Inspect] on the shining metal atop the table. Sure, it looked like a spoon —just a spoon. But I was in Twilight. Surely it was more than that. I was training, after all.
[Spoon, Tier 0, Common]
[A utensil made up of a metal alloy. Used to eat.]
[Crafted by Twilight]
I frowned, disappointed in the level of the spoon.
And then there was a bowl, too. Made up of the same shining silver metal that cast off a twinkling light.
[Inspect]
[Bowl, Tier 0, Common]
[A dish made up of a metal alloy. Used to hold food.]
[Crafted by Twilight]
My frown deepened.
“Is this all Twilight has?” I said grumpily, looking down at Noir.
Noir simply hummed a light response, “Maybe it’s testing you –or your patience. I would hate to be tested like this, though.”
Then a fork appeared, a plate, a wine glass, a water glass, and lastly came a knife. I dutifully inspected them all, hoping to see some progress. It was as the knife appeared that something changed. I was waiting for the new object to appear after the knife when I decided, for fun, to [Inspect] the knife again.
I couldn’t tell you why I did it. I was simply bored. And over thirty seconds had passed since I’d inspected the knife.
[Place Setting of Twilight, Tier 0, Uncommon]
[A full set of utensils and dishes created with a metal alloy. Used to serve the Children of the Dawn in Twilight.]
[Created by Twilight]
Surprised, I glanced back at the place setting. I’d never identified a group of things before. In fact, I had no idea the Skill could even work like that. My mouth curled up in a smile.
“Noir, I think this trial is better than I thought.”
I blinked away the green screen, pushing it mentally out of my perception. Immediately, another screen appeared, surprising me.
[Congratulations! You have passed the First Ray! The trial will increase in difficulty accordingly!]
“What is a Ray? Like a Ray of sun? Like Dawn?” I furrowed my brow, and then, “But I didn’t even [Inspect] the setting on purpose!”
As I voiced my confusion, I heard the sound of running water. My eyes shot to the frozen table, where there was a stream of murky liquid running through the air and falling into the metal bowl. I took a sharp breath as the bowl filled up. Peering down into the muddled liquid, I couldn’t help but to think that it looked like some kind of broth. And, firing off another [Inspect], I was proven right.
[Grag Bone Broth, Tier 1, Common]
[A broth made from the bones of Grags. Edible to humanoid races. Can only be served in Hirath alloy dishes or the broth froths excessively.]
[Crafted by Twilight]
I blinked, then re-inspected the bowl holding the broth.
[Bowl, Tier 1, Common]
[A dish made of Hirath alloy. Used to hold food.]
[Crafted by Twilight]
“Crap–” I hissed, realization shooting through me.
I only had sixty seconds. To identify everything new. All the bowls were new.
I shot out a series of [Inspects] as quickly as possible. A half dozen screens appeared simultaneously, and I felt a dull ache in my head at taking in all the information.
Every description had changed. No longer was it a vague ‘metal alloy’, now they all were made up of Hirath alloy. I wondered, briefly, why my Divinity had not broken through the description during the trial. But then, I wondered if, once I’d entered Twilight properly through the pillar, I surrendered my ability to wield my Divinity. Perhaps I was in a Divine Realm of some fallen God, trapped by Agarina Dawn and forced to churn out Skill trials for the Children of the Dawn.
I decided promptly that if that was the case, then it was none of my business.
As I read the final [Identify] description, the table flickered.
[Place Setting of Twilight, Tier 1, Unommon]
[A full set of utensils and dishes created with Hirath alloy. Specifically made to serve meals utilizing ingredients harvested from a Grag. Used to serve the Children of the Dawn in Twilight.]
[Created by Twilight]
Closing the final notice, I saw that the bowl and broth had been repositioned to being off the Hirath plate. Now, there was a mass of maroon on the plate. After a breath, it slowly rose and fell. As if it was breathing. I swallowed thickly and sent another [Inspect] off to the table.
[Grag Heart Steak, Tier 1, Common]
[A steak made up of cuts from a Grag’s heart. Known for its ability to continue beating after death. Edible only if prepped with Hirath alloy utensils and served on Hirath alloy dishes.]
[Crafted by Twilight]
I… didn’t like that. The implication was that Twilight had killed something. Was it true? Was Twilight a beast that consumed? Or was it more? Was it living? How did it have a still beating Grag's heart?
What even is a Grag? I thought to myself. I’d never heard the term before, and reaching into Eunora’s memories showed that neither had she —not that Eunora had ever paid that close of attention to monster manuals, so she wasn’t exactly reliable.
The table shifted once more, and next to the Grag heart steak were several gray sticks. They looked brittle to the touch and had a coating of breading that did little to change their color.
I sighed and prepared myself for another bit of grotesque lore.
[Fried Grag Finger Bones, Tier 1, Common]
[Lightly breaded in a type of flour and fried in oil, the finger bones of a Grag. Known for their ability to jump after death. Edible only if prepped with Hirath alloy utensils and served on Hirath alloy dishes.]
[Crafted by Twilight]
I was not disappointed, and as I swiped away the screen, I watched one of the fingerbones jump off the plate.
Heaving a sigh, I waited for the next item to appear. Fifteen seconds and I thought it was just slow. Thirty seconds and I stared at the table searching for the smallest difference. Forty-five seconds and I was growing restless. I hadn’t seen anything new –just the fried finger bones.
Fried in… a type of flour? I thought quickly.
It had to be the breading. It was ambiguous, just like the alloys from before. It had to be the answer.
I focused solely on the fried finger bones.
[Fried Grag Finger Bones, Tier 1, Common]
[Lightly breaded in a type of flour and fried in oil, the finger bones of a Grag. Known for their ability to jump after death. Edible only if prepped with Hirath alloy utensils and served on Hirath alloy dishes.]
[Crafted by Twilight]
I swore nothing had changed.
Okay, focus. Focus! How had you identified the place setting? I looked at the big picture. But this is the opposite. So… I need to focus on the minutiae.
I took a slow breath, all the while focusing on the smallest particle of breading on the finger bones. I ignored my perception of everything else. All that existed was the breading.
[Inspect]
[Prine Flour Batter, Tier 0, Common]
[A flour made up of milled prine. Known for its ability to decrease bone density if eaten raw. Edible if milled with Hirath alloy tools and fried in oil.]
[Crafted by Twilight]
I sighed in relief. I’d gotten it.
Next came a third item on the plate.
It was wet, its shine enough to cause the violet shades of the leafy greens to deepen into a true purple. It must have been some kind of oily dressing. This time, knowing the trick, I quickly inspected both the vegetable and the oil.
It was a common cabbage and sunseed oil.
But, again, a new item didn’t arrive quickly enough. So, I dug into the descriptions for any indication until I finally decided it had to be the black specks within the oil.
[Inspect]
[Ground Julep Petals, Tier 0, Common]
[Fragrant petals, dried and ground for flavor. Edible only if the dyes are removed from the petals.]
[Crafted by Twilight]
I smiled, “Got it!!”
The trial went similarly like that twice more—with a goblet of rice wine containing edible Lea gold flakes and a glass of water containing cucumber seeds. Then, right as I felt my mind fatiguing, another notification appeared.
[Congratulations! You have passed the Second Ray! The trial will increase in difficulty accordingly!]
I took a moment to decide if I wanted that —it’d been nearly half an hour, and I was beginning to be overwhelmed by the knowledge Twilight was providing me. It wasn’t just simple things. It was teaching me how to not only use [Identify] but how to utilize the Skill to make it an investigative force.
I… don’t want to continue. The very thought felt foul, though, as if it was coming from a part of me that was scared to push past her limits.
A part of me that was small.
A part of me that I had been ignoring since arriving at Fellan.
The part of me that didn’t want to be a God of Nora. The part of me that just wanted to rest and be left to rot.
Only, that wasn’t enough anymore.
That part of me was small and, ultimately, powerless against my new desire to improve.
I didn’t want to be left alone to fester. I didn’t want my weakness to consume me.
For the first time in weeks, I let a memory of elsewhere flood me. A memory of a mother teaching her daughter how to thrive.
It’s okay to fall, to cry, to curl into a ball, —-, the mother would say, but at the end of it all, you have to stand back up. And when you do, you stand tall.
I breathed out a long breath and went back to focusing on the challenges of Twilight, ignoring the ache that was growing solidly in the back of my head. The ache was nothing in the scheme of things. Barely an obstacle at all when compared to the anguish I’d felt upon arriving here. Barely a blip in my life after the tragedy in Perry.
I would continue until failure.
That’s the only way for the God of Nora.
Comments
Julkur
Her Inspect is the same level as Theo's and he is a year older. What a progress!
Chopper
She failed! She never inspected the table!
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter! How does a grag look? Defined need a picture of it and Hirath Alloy now!
Allora Lee
Cursed
SnappyDragon
Fried Grag finger bones art commission when? Lol
