Chapter 23 – The Sky Library and Two Choices
As soon as my feet stepped onto the smooth stone floor beyond the ancient door, my eyes were met with an unexpected sight.
Not the dark room full of skulls I had imagined. Nor were there traps or bloody temples like in typical dungeons.
Instead...
"Is this... a library?"
Before me stretched a vast room beyond imagination, far larger than it appeared from the outside. Towering shelves reached up to a ceiling I couldn't see, filled with old books, scrolls, even stone tablets carved with ancient writings.
To the right, there was a small garden with hundreds of medicinal plants growing in abundance. Some glowed softly, others emitted strange scents or had forms I had never seen in this world. To the left, specialized shelves displayed items and weapons swords, staffs, arrows, robes, bottles filled with colorful liquids, and other things that looked like rare artifacts.
A sacred silence enveloped the place, like a heavenly library forgotten by the world.
Simurgh walked slowly beside me, his feathers reflecting the soft light from the crystals hanging from the ceiling.
"This is the Hall of Inheritance," he said. "A place only those who are chosen may enter—those who have proven themselves through the trial of battle."
I was still staring at the shelves, amazed. Hall of Inheritance? This wasn't just a vault of items. It was a museum of a lost civilization. A place that stored knowledge, power, and perhaps secrets of the world before the chaos.
"You may choose two," Simurgh continued. "One from the book section... and one from the item section. Use them well. Your choices will determine your next path."