It had been a day since Michael had arrived at the temple.
Freya told him to look around a bit but not stray too far, apparently there was another domain pretty close by.
She needed to get some stuff prepared to train Michael, he was not sure what, but it couldn’t be that bad.
From the hints she gave him, he assumed that the person she mentioned whose inheritance Michael is a part of is quite literally himself.
Freya had complimented him and said he looked just like he used to, which greatly confused Michael, but he was not so stupid as to not see the patterns.
The skills, the big eye in the sky, it looked just like his.
After Freya did something to him when he had just arrived, the system’s voice seemed to disappear, however, his status was still there, albeit nothing had changed since the last time.
Michael glanced around and headed in a random direction, the temple now was quite massive and he didn’t really have anything else to do anyway.
There were no people around, only different kinds of statues, most of which had no faces.
Except for a single one, which looked exactly like Freya, her features were perfectly detailed.
‘I wonder..why is she even here?’
“Are you curious?” A voice startled Michael out of his thoughts.
It was Freya, she had some sort of an orb in her hand.
“This is an affinity orb, place your hand on it and channel some mana, you should be able to do that right?” She asked and handed him the orb.
“Can you stop reading my thoughts?” Michael said in a slightly irritated tone and proceeded to channel his mana into the orb, even if he was not proficient in mana projection, he could do this much at the very least.
He was not expecting much, after all his current form of mana had no affinity, it was just pure mana.
However, a golden glow had assaulted his eyes, it spread out around the temple and eventually made the affinity orb crack before it finally succumbed and turned to dust.
It startled Michael, not only the light but the speed at which his mana had traveled at, it was many times faster than before. The efficiency seemed heightened as well.
“I knew it” A small chuckle came from Freya.
Michael rolled his eyes “Mind filling me in?”
“The parasite I removed was limiting your abilities, you are welcome by the way” She stated in a proud manner as she pulled out another orb.
“This one will help you channel your mana better, use it as much as you can”
Michael took it and tried using using, however, the moment he did, he felt most of his mana draining in an instant.
He immediately began feeling dizzy, much like when he first passed out from mana exhaustion, though he was sure he did not use all of his mana, so why?
“Your mana was refined and sent back into you, oh sorry, didn’t mean to read your thoughts again” She said apologetically.
Michael ignored it and questioned “What does refining mana mean?”
“Your mana passes into the orb and makes it more concentrated, meaning, your mana becomes denser, hence stronger. If you do it diligently, you will see a big improvement in the strength of your skills. Also..stop relying on that parasite’s trick.” She explained and finished off in a slightly annoyed manner.
Michael shrugged and pocketed the mana refining orb, he would use it later as it felt like he would pass out any second now.
He still did not understand why Freya called the system a parasite, however, the increase in mana circulation sure was abnormal and Michael couldn’t deny that it might have been due to her removing it.
As he was about to ask her if she had anything else to say, Freya once again pulled out an orb, though it looked a bit different than the others.
She smiled and handed it to him “This one is the Orb of Trials, it would act as the trials you were not able to take because of that parasite.”
‘Damn she really hates the system doesn’t she’ He chuckled inwardly and picked it up, looking all over it and noticing a single button present.
“You will have to channel some mana into it and press that button, however do that once your mana has recovered, if you try that as you are currently, you might die” Freya warned and turned around.
“Follow me.”
Michael went along with her and they came back to the throne room and walked right behind it.
There was some sort of a door right behind the throne, Freya opened it and there was a staircase leading downwards.
He didn’t question it, it did not seem like Freya wanted to do anything to harm him..hopefully.
They went down it and arrived in front of some sort of a fountain which had a single statue in the very middle, it was faceless just like the rest, however, it had a beautiful pair of wings.
For some reason, Michael felt familiarity with it, though he couldn’t pinpoint the reason why.
Freya sat by the fountain and gestured for him to get closer. “Whenever you are about to use the Orb of Trials, do it here, trust me.”
“I see, thank you” Michael replied dryly, he didn’t know how to express gratitude when it was this one sided.
She put on a gentle smile and turned to the faceless statue “The reason I invited you to the temple was to extend my thanks to your predecessor, you two are nearly identical even after all this time…”
“Am I not him? But like from the future or something?” Michael pushed for answers, trying to incite a reaction of some sort, he wanted to confirm his theory.
However, no such confirmation came, her expression remained the same, her smile not lessening at all.
He couldn’t take the silence as a guarantee, however, those words did trigger something in what he assumed to be her oath, making her unable to speak about it.
Freya suddenly stood up and put on a serious face “We have company, stay here and don’t come out, even better, whenever you recover your mana go straight into a trial, I will tell you when it’s safe to come back up”
With those words she vanished out of sight, leaving a small crack in space which quickly closed itself.
Michael had a confused look on his face, however, he believed it finally made some sense to him.
Freya was defending this temple from someone or something, he just did not know what.
He didn’t worry about it too much, not like he could anyway, he was just a simple awakened, meanwhile, she was a full fledged goddess.
Even if Michael did not fully understand the weight of that title, he knew it held significant authority as well as strength.
He fiddled around with the orb in his hands, he noticed his mana had not run out that much, it just felt like he did, if he had to guess, his mana was nearly full.
‘It’s probably about time I use the orb isn’t it?’ He thought as he held it with the single button present.
And while channeling his mana, pressed it.
