As Damien pondered why the old spirit had posed that question, the spirit made his way toward a massive, vault-like door. Once in front of it, he performed an unusual incantation that caught Damien's attention.

  The door began to creak open on its own, and as it did, the temple shook due to the sheer weight and age of the structure. “Alright, boy, inside you'll find the rewards for being the chosen one, as well as something else. If you wish, there is a door within this room that will reveal the history of this world, the story of this temple, and the people who built it, including the reason why the system vanished from this planet.”

  Just as Damien was about to respond, the old man interrupted him. “Let me be clear: entering that door and uncovering these truths will set you on an extremely perilous path. Danger will lurk around every corner, and if our enemies discover that you know the planet’s history, they will pursue you to the ends of the universe. You will find no rest, no peace; you will be constantly fighting for your life without end. However, not everything is bleak. If you choose this path and succeed in navigating it, you may eventually answer my earlier question. Only by treading such a path could you hope to become such an existence.

  Suddenly, the old spirit’s expression changed as if he remembered something important. He turned back around and said one last thing, “Oh, I almost forgot. You can only take three items from inside this vault if you choose not to enter the door. If you do enter the door, you may select five items.”

  With that, the old spirit said no more and gestured for Damien to enter the room. Afterward, he vanished, leaving Damien alone. Taking some time to process the spirit’s words, Damien felt a surge of excitement, even though he didn’t fully understand why. Based on what the spirit had said, this was a serious matter that should not be taken lightly, yet something about it made him want to choose that path even more.

  It was almost like a calling, Damien could feel that his body and soul wanted to walk a path full of danger, they would not accept a path other than this one.

  Taking a deep breath to calm his beating heart Damien made his way into the treasure room, once inside he saw all kinds of trinkets many he had no idea what use they would have such as the gourd off to the left corner.

  Glancing around at the many shelves of objects one finally caught his eye, it was a katana much like his own but this one had a design of lighting shooting through the blade making Damien instantly walk over to it as he used lighting.

  Picking it up he used the system scan feature to figure out the details of the sword.

  “Raiden is a katana infused with the power of lightning, significantly enhancing the user's attacks. It can also utilize electricity to heat the blade to extreme temperatures, enabling it to slice through any object as if it were butter. The katana is crafted from a rare material, making it virtually indestructible against anything below B-rank existences.”

  Damien smiled brightly as he swiftly stowed the sword, his attention shifting to the other treasures in the room. His gaze lit up at the thought of discovering something else useful. While examining the various objects and picking some up to inspect them, a thought occurred to him.

  "System, can you scan all the treasures in this room and tell me which ones would be helpful to me?"

  "Responding to the user, the system can scan the entire room. However, it cannot determine what is helpful unless the user utilizes the question he previously received."

  "Hmmm... Alright, can you scan the room for anything related to the space affinity?"

  Without further response, the system began scanning the room for items related to the space affinity. After a few seconds, it identified three items for Damien.

  The first was a rolled-up scroll, likely containing a technique or spell, as Damien assumed. The second was a purple gemstone, and the third was a ring. Deciding to save the scroll for last, he approached the ring first and picked it up.

  Once again using the scan feature, he read the description of the item.

  "Void Ring - increases the user’s affinity for space by ten percent and the user’s affinity for void by one."

  Seeing the name and realizing that void was not merely another term for space, Damien was shocked. He quickly considered asking the system what void meant. Unfortunately, it reminded him once more that unless he wished to use his free question, it would not provide an answer.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Sighing, he slipped the ring onto his finger and immediately felt the space around him become much clearer. After marveling at the change for a moment, he decided to investigate further later and moved on to the gemstone.

  He picked it up and scanned it with the system, prompting the description to appear once more.

  “Space imbued gemstone - A gemstone that was in space for a very long time before landing on this planet it has a variety of uses such as crafting items related to the space attribute or simply using it to gain a deeper understanding of space itself.”

  This was by far the worst of the items but it was also pretty intriguing, if Damien ever wanted a weapon crafted that had the space affinity using this could do well or he could just study it like the description said.

  Pocketing it for now he walked over the the final item the scroll, picking it up and wiping away the dust that had accumulated on it after being left her for so long he opened it up. Inside there were depictions of a person moving his body in a certain way and at the bottom of the scroll, three big words Damien could not read were seen. Prompting the system to scan it Damien waited.

  “The system can not scan this item as the user does not understand the language on the scroll, for the system to scan something that has writing on it the user must have an understanding of the language the writing is in.”

  ‘Huh,’ if he was being honest he had not expected that but then again it kind of made sense when you think about it, if the system just told him everything then what was the point in learning stuff like how to read the scroll?

  Although he could not read the words themselves he could tell that the letters were similar to the ones on the temple walls, deciding to ask the old spirit after he exited he put the scroll away before glancing once more around the room.

  By now he had picked four items which meant he could only pick one more after thinking for a while about what he needed Damien remembered something, his race. He knew it was related to vampires but he had no idea as to what they really represented in this universe.

  “System, can you scan for any items related to vampires?”

  “Scanning”

  “The system could not find any object related to vampires inside the room, do note that the system is not all-knowing.”

  Hearing the system’s words he understood what it was trying to convey, it was not aware of everything that existed and therefore could not tell him with certainty that there were no items related to them.

  Racking his brain about what to ask the system to scan for he decided to ask it to scan for items related to “shades” and “high-humans” Not long after the system pointed out a few items related to both greatly surprising Damien.

  He had expected that it was likely it would find stuff related to high-humans but for it to find something related to shade was something else entirely. Then again how come it did not find it before when he asked for vampire-related items? Suddenly he had a thought and made his way over to the item related to high humans first.

  It was an old-looking book with writing on its cover, writing that Damien once again did not understand. Picking it up he took a look at the contents inside, there were a few drawings of humans in the book but they did not give any insight as to what the book was about. Putting the book down for now he made his way over to the final item related to shades.

  This time it was not a book or scroll meaning the system could scan it, it was quite weird how the system would not scan stuff with writing on it but would scan objects like the gemstone that Damien would have no idea what it was had the system not told him. Nevertheless, he looked down at the item which was some sort of cross pendant, picking it up he prompted the system to scan it for its description.

  “Pendant of the shades - This pendant is a symbol of the shades and acts as a way to show other shades you are one of their kind, it has the effect of giving the user +5 stats in every category.”

  After he finished reading he had a look of disappointment on his face, he had been hoping to learn something about the shade race and why they were not related to vampires according to the system’s search from earlier. Even though the system had not told him it was pretty easy to understand based on the fact it did not find the pendant when searching for vampire-related items but did when searching for shade items.

  Sighing he decided to take the pendant over the high human book, the reason for this is that he was certain he would come across more things related to high humans in the future. With that, he had chosen all the items he could and after making sure he had everything he wanted Damien steeled himself while looking at the door the spirit spoke of.

  He had glanced at it a few times since coming in here but had mostly been focused on the items in the room, taking a closer look he could see a design carved into the door which was made of wood. The design was that of the temple they were currently in, on the top of the temple stood a man with his head held high holding some type of item up towards the sky while below on the ground people were kneeling, as for whether they were doing so towards the man or the item he was holding Damien did not know.

  After looking over the door for a bit longer he focused and opened the door, looking inside Damien could see nothing but a black void making chills go up his space and his heart sink to his stomach.

  Psyching himself up, Damien gritted his teeth. “Fuck it,” he thought before stepping inside. The door slammed shut behind him, locking him in. Before he had a chance to worry about what had just happened, he began to feel dizzy. “Shit, shit, shit,” he muttered. He tried his best to fight off the tiredness he was feeling but unfortunately, it was too great and he eventually succumbed to the embrace of sleep his eyes closing. Outside the room, the old spirit was watching all of this with a serious look.

  “Good luck, boy. If you pass this final trial, I will not have to resort to…”