Whoosh!
"Woah." Appearing on the other side of the path that led him to the Blacksmith Knowledge Repository, Valyr was left at a slight loss for words once he took a look at his current surroundings. Though the system told him that the path forward would lead him straight to the place the Gates of Enlightenment had deemed him incredibly worthy of entering, the young man still took his time heading place, admiring the sights to both his left and right.
From what he could see with his perception pushed to its very limits, the Gates of Enlightenment's Blacksmith Knowledge Repository was only one of the many buildings that existed within the slightly large courtyard he had appeared in, the building being situated near the north of the entire area. In the three other cardinal directions, Valyr noticed three buildings that exuded a similar grandeur, prompting him to recall the important locations he had recalled earlier from the information he had read.
After walking around the courtyard for a bit more, he soon found out that the Gates of Enlightenment was actually situated on top of a tall mountain that had its top cut off as the courtyard took its place. Judging from what he could see by the edge of the courtyard, as well as the multiple paths that led one down the mountain, he felt that almost everyone part of the Gates of Enlightenment lived along those paths, with only those that commanded a high authority being able to live within the courtyard.
Deciding to put the thought of exploring the entirety of the Gates of Enlightenment for a later time, Valyr finally made his way to the Blacksmith Knowledge Repository, appearing to be an exquisite-looking pagoda that seemed that was made up of three floors, each consecutive floor being smaller than the one below it.
Standing in front of the building's entrance, the young man noticed that there seemed to be an energy field of some sort that blocked him for entering inside. Fortunately, after staring at the entrance for a bit, whether it was the voice that accompanied his trial earlier had informed others of his feats or through some other means he did not know of, the energy field gradually dissipated, finally allowing the young man to head inside.
Passing through the entrance to the Blacksmith Knowledge Repository, Valyr briefly thought about the feeling he got while looking at the energy field that barred him from entering. "The feeling is kind of similar to someone with an Intent."
"But if I were to compare the feeling to something I've experienced before, then it would be that time I came face to face with Riekan." Though he was curious as to what exactly powered the energy field and how it was made, the young man did not think too deeply about it. Instead, he focused his attention towards the inordinate amount of bookshelves that existed within the first floor of the knowledge repository.
"Don't tell me..." Seeing the titles that were written on the spines of the few textbooks near him, Valyr began to look through other bookshelves as a basic idea of what the first floor of the repository contained gradually formed within his mind. While doing so, he began to wonder why the titles on the books were in the written language that was commonly used nowadays, even though the Gates of Enlightenment seemed to have existed thousands of years ago.
Chalking it up to some esoteric system mechanic or the fact that it had become part of an inheritance, the young man eventually understood what kind of information he was dealing with in the first floor of the Blacksmith Knowledge Repository.
Ding!
[Would you like to obtain all of the information within this space regarding technological advancements in the Intermediate Middle Ages? This would drastically reduce the amount of Technology Points needed to unlock said advancements in the future.]
Seeing a prompt appear in front of his vision after gaining idea of what he would obtain, a soft smile appeared on his face as he pressed 'Yes' on the prompt.
Whoosh!
At the very moment he had confirmed his willingness to absorb all of the information within the first floor, characters started to appear on the surface of the books and documents on the bookshelves before making their way to where Valyr stood like a raging wave. In mere seconds, a great amount of information began to fill the young man's mind to the brim, faintly causing him to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount he had to work with.noVe/lB-In
However, from the standpoint of whether or not it brought him mental strain, the young man was confident that he could endure the entire process to the very end, especially after enduring the couple influxes of information he had received earlier during the Trial of Myriad Aberrations.
Ding!
[You have gained great amounts of information regarding technological advancements during the Intermediate Middle Ages from a mysterious source.]
[From this point onward, Advancements during the Intermediate Middle Ages within the Technology Tree's Innovation branch shall now cost a fraction of the Technology Points needed to unlock and upgrade them before.]
[Cost of advancements beyond the Intermediate Middle Ages have also been significantly reduced due to the obtained information.]
Though there was a bit of perspiration on his forehead as he obtained these notifications, a wide grin covered the majority of Valyr's face as he opened up his Technology Tree. Sure enough, after taking a look at the Innovation branch, just like the notifications had mentioned, the advancements related to the Intermediate Middle Ages had greatly reduced in price compared to before...
Even though he still needed an extraordinary amount of Technology Points to reach that point.
Closing up the screen he had brought up, the young man headed to the second floor of the knowledge repository, seeing that all of the textbooks on the shelves had seemingly lost all of their texts after he had accepted the prompt from earlier. Facing yet another energy field that barred him from continuing, the young man was eventually able to make his way to the second floor after waiting for a bit more time.
...
Though the second floor of the knowledge repository was considerably smaller than the first floor in terms of area, the amount of books and documents that were in the second floor was comparable or greater in number to the books and documents available on the first floor. Aside from that, all of the articles within the second floor contained technological advancements related to the Late Middle Ages, bringing him one step closer to an easier path of creating the modern gun.
After having gone through the absorption process another time, Valyr then made his way to the final floor of the Blacksmith Knowledge Repository, which contained books and documents that talked about advancements related to the Renaissance Age.
Though the advancements in the Intermediate and Late Middle Ages were important in their own right, it was the advancements during the Renaissance Age that truly allowed the technology of Earth to reach where it was today. If not for that, it wouldn't be called the age that brought back science and technology back to the main stage for nothing.
Absorbing all of the information related to the Renaissance Age after accepting all of the prompts, the young man looked around the third floor one last time to see if he had missed anything, or if the increased authority he had gotten from completing the First Forger's quest would allow him to access some sort of secret portion within the repository.
Seeing that there seemed to be no hidden secrets nor any missed items whatsoever, Valyr eventually made his way out of the Blacksmith Knowledge Repository, returning to the courtyard that housed the Gates of Enlightenment.