Several days had passed since I crossed the First Gate.
In that time, my presence in the Manor of Shadows had been officially recognized.
I was assigned a chamber—carved from black stone, stark and bare, but pleasantly cool and silent.
I needed nothing more.
Each morning began with the toll of a bell—a deep, resonant sound that echoed through the entire complex.
It signaled the start of study.
And in the Manor of Shadows, study was everything.
That was when they introduced me to the Library Without End.
It wasn't a library in the conventional sense.
Every tome, every scroll, every runic codex held magic so ancient that the languages they were written in no longer had names.
The System responded instantly:
> [New Quest: Gain Access to the First Tome of the Bloodline]
Requirement: Pass the Memory and Intuition test (Minimum combined score: 30)
Reward: Passive Skill: Stream Reading | +1 to all mental stats
I sat at the lectern.
Before me lay a tome so old it looked like it could crumble from a touch.
But as my fingers met the cover, the book pulsed with light.
> [Mental Test Active]
Perfect Memory: ACTIVATED
The pages began to turn on their own, and runic paths started to take shape in my mind.
I saw images.
Heard voices from millennia ago.
Stories of ancient masters.
Spells spoken in dead tongues.
Meditative forms.
Secrets the modern world could scarcely dream of.
By the time I lifted my gaze, three hours had passed.
But my mind felt as though it had studied for weeks.
> [Quest Complete]
New Skill: Stream Reading (Passive)
+1 Intelligence | +1 Magic | +1 Intuition | +1 Willpower
And that's when I felt it—for the first time—resonance.
When knowledge doesn't just enter your mind… it binds to your soul.
Runes began to flicker around me, glowing softly with a violet hue.
The librarian—a faceless, hooded figure—leaned in and whispered:
"The books have accepted you. You have earned the right to more."
And so began my intense cycle of study.
With each passing day, my mastery grew:
I learned ancient forms of nonverbal magic.
I began crafting a Shadow Spell capable of making the caster vanish like a ghost into their surroundings.
I delved into the histories of all wizarding bloodlines—including those erased from memory.
Shadow was no longer merely my heritage.
It was becoming a tool.
A weapon.
But knowledge has its price.
And one evening, as I flipped through texts on magical pacts older than Merlin himself, I found something that didn't belong.
A page, torn from another time.
A message sealed with a curse.
"Child of the Bloodline… You are not the only one who returns. We watch you. We see the shadow that dances among the lights."
The System buzzed with warning:
> [Hidden Quest Unlocked: Shadow of Light]
Description: A mysterious force has sensed your presence.
Objective: Find the source of the message before it finds you.
Reward: Unknown.
I stood.
My heartbeat quickened.
The Manor of Shadows was my home now...
But I was no longer the only shadow that moved within it.
And perhaps—
I was not the oldest.