Chapter 47 Rewards...

"The man draped by the cosmos"... that's what I called him. That was because both the times I saw him, he was shrouded in a flowing cloak of darkness that seemed like it was made from the fabric of space and reality. It was deep and dark, with the twinkle of distant stars and the twirl of galaxies. This time I saw him much clearer, and made me reaffirm the fitting name. But I still couldn't see his face. It was like...it was covered by a fine black flame like haze. The only other thing that stood out about him was his swept back fine white hair that fluttered behind his hazy mask. 'Is that the real threat...the real Calamity is centered around that person?' I deeply pondered this question with Meta, but I received no response. Just then, the red system interface flickered before me. ... [Rewards are ready, please approach the Throne.] ... "Ah, I almost forgot about that." That shitty vision occupied my mind. Despite the fact that it seems I know a bit more now everything else is just more covered in multiple questions marks, even more than before. I have a lot to think about...I made a mental note and sighed. I dismissed the screen, and just when I was about to turn around for the Throne, something caught my attention from the wall, and I froze. "What's this?" A little different from the strange characters on the murals and walls, this one was like a crude drawing. It was small, and the way it was carved made it easily blend in together with the other unfamiliar characters, making it almost hard to notice until now. As for what it was or represented....I actually wasn't sure. There wasn't a piece of information in my head about that from the vision. The carving was off a long table, with what I presumed to be fourteen people sitting around it? And as I recognized this, I froze. Where have I seen this before... strangely this carving seemed familiar to me. "A long table... fourteen indistinct figures..." At that moment I recalled a scene from the vision. "When I was falling from sky..."Nôv(el)B\\jnn Yes, I remember. It was for a fleeting moment, a very small one, but I remember seeing similar shadows like this at that one point. Was this another hint? I raised my head and glanced at the image once more, and thought back to my conjectures about the Vision. For the most part it was mostly symbolic. Each scene I saw represented a moment in the past or future. They weren't literal for one reason or the other. Then what could fourteen shadows around a long table in the sky mean? As my thoughts raced, I noticed there was a smaller engraving around the image. I focused on it, and just like the other times, I instinctively understood what it meant. "Sky...no, not that. Sky rulers? No, not exactly either..." Despite all that, I was finding it hard to translate it literally. It seems to be a combination of two Ideas, like clouds or sky, and authority or something. Wait. Sky, clouds...Heaven... Authority, rulers...kings? "14 Heavenly Kings?" I was uncertain. It seemed to make sense, but there was still all sorts of other literal meaning to it. The name of representation was just too vague. 14 Heavenly Kings was the closest to what I could understand. I'll ask Meta later. That skill seems to be more than what I imagined...I stared at the carving a little longer and withdrew my gaze. I turned my head to look at the throne. While I wasn't paying attention, three glowing light orbs had appeared just before it. Receiving an Artifact unexpectedly like this was a huge gain. Enough so I couldn't stop staring with wide eyes. I forcefully pried my gaze off the dull bronze golden ring and continued to read the description of the enchantment. ... [>Enchantments<] [{Hoarder}: The Ring possesses the ability to store the Mana/Aura of the user in large quantities, and can be used at anytime. Note, the Ring of Solomon possesses a certain degree of individuality and may manifest as limitless hunger. Once Aether or Energy of any form is detected, it will proceed to 'devour' and 'hoard' till it's fill.] ... What a weird description... As soon as I thought that, I felt a sharp pain from deep inside me as it felt like a large portion of my already limited energy was instantly depleted at once. "Uggh!" With a muffled groan I forcefully fell to one of my knee whil gasping for breath. At the same time, the bronze Ring was emitting a twisted and diabolical dark radiance as I felt whatever meager amount of Aura I had in me converge towards it and vanished. "Hoarder...got it." With a painful groan, I cursed the damned ring. Wasn't this supposed to be an enchantment?! The Ring devoured my Aura like a mad and ravenous beast that hadn't eaten in years and my consciousness slowly grew faint. "Fuck..." I managed to mutter out a curse as the bronze ring increasingly felt colder against my skin. And in a moment, it stopped. The rate at which my Aura was devoured significantly reduce, maybe it was because there wasn't much to devour anyway. Or the Ring had just had it's 'fill', but I felt that was highly unlikely. After all, I could still feel it absorb slight amount and traces of my Aura continuously. Although it wasn't to the the same extent as earlier, but it still left me feeling light headed and vain. It was like I had lost a lot of blood without bleeding. I supressed a curse and painfully raised my head to read the next details. ... [{Crown's Veil}: The wearer is shrouded in a fog of mystery. As long as this ring is worn, the wearer can choose to reveal or hide any aspect of their existence from the world. Note: The ring suppresses and releases a portion of the wearer's existences to a degree depending on the wearer's discretion.] 'A disguise effect... wasn't this what I've been looking for?!' The Crown's Veil enchantment, from its description allowed me to hide a portion of my true identity and power by masking it in a 'fog'. Just as I thought that, I heard Meta's words resonate inside my head. [Affirmative. The expression 'Fog' in this context is figurative. This implies your existence will be a haze and appear 'iffy' to most outside. This truly goes in line with your desire to procure an Item or Skill to hide your true power during your future advancements. Now with this, you can appear as unassuming and mundane, with the only difference being, external parties would find it difficult to properly gauge you.] A fog was a haze, and whatever hidden within was unclear. Meta's words implied meanings similar to what I thought. The expression 'Fog' was a suitable figure of speech that implied hiding my true presence behind a hazy veil. And at the same time, if I so desired, I could lift that veil or thicken it to whoever I want. With this, I could continue to grow stronger without garnering unwanted attention. With this, I could more or less live peacefully! * * * * [A/N]: you can now visit the Auxiliary chapter to explain the power scaling of items, ranks, and artifacts.