After trying for a couple of seconds, I realized I couldn't stand up from the chair. Apparently, this was an on-rails experience, whatever this ended up being. I then took a look around just to get a read of the place. My initial impression was that it was a workshop of some kind, and my second was that it was cozier than expected. It was clear that this place was designed for building and storing artifacts. There were hundreds of gizmos and whatsits just lying around. Unlike the display room beneath the manor I had escaped, where every artifact was carefully maintained, the artifacts here held signs of being well-used.

Scuff marks were common, and any artifacts that had been painted were already flaking. Paint was rare, though; most artifacts just had plain material finishes. Wood and metal were common, but I also saw plenty of materials I didn't recognize.

Blueprints were scattered across every surface, both hand-drawn and printed. If the room had been organized in any way, it was an arcane system I could never hope to learn. One of those systems where only the person who put it together could ever hope to figure it out, but that person would know exactly where to find anything they needed in the room.

The only thing in the room that looked brand new was the massive artifact on a raised platform at the center of the chamber, which took up most of the room. The artifact was built into a pedestal connected to two arms that curved into the air above it. I didn't have time to even guess at what it did, though.

Someone opening a door interrupted my investigation of the room. A short, grey-skinned man wearing a loose black uniform with white highlights walked in with a notepad. He ignored me completely, went to the centre of the room, and opened a panel at the bottom of the pedestal, which revealed a rats' nest of wires. Man, I thought people living in a futuristic, magical society would have better cable management. I thought wrong, apparently. IT techs are the same everywhere, I suppose.

The man made a few changes to the artifact's configuration, frequently referencing his notepad and often checking it multiple times before moving a single wire. Eventually, he finished whatever he was doing and stood up, then raised a finger to tap the side of his head right behind his right ear.

"Final calibrations are complete, and the Loom is ready for operation." He said, then nodded in response to whatever he heard. The man had probably spoken through an implant, either that or it was the shittiest version of telepathy I'd ever heard of. Why he didn't do what I did and connect the device directly to his brain for both input and output, I didn't know. Unlike when restricted to mundane physics, that function was probably actually achievable with Mana, even without using an artifact as your brain, like I was.

At some point, while I was lost in thought about his communication device, the man vanished. He hadn't walked through the door, as I would have heard it open; instead, he just disappeared. The light that had been streaming through a slit window in the corner of the room was gone as well. Was that a time skip?

Moments after I noticed that the time had changed, a gentle aura filled the room. My Core began to hum as it began to resonate with the environment, and I felt like, for the first time in my entire life, I had returned to where I belonged. A mechanical whirring noise filled my ears, then suddenly, my mind exploded with information. It felt like everything about every object in the room was suddenly being shoved into my head, broken down into blueprints.

Every material component had its Mana conductivity, thermal tolerances, memetic activity, metaphysical durability, tensile strength, density, hardness, and hundreds of other categories broken down and neatly categorized before being sent to my mind for processing.

But even with all that categorization, the sheer volume of data turned everything into mental noise. Any time I tried to focus on a single piece of information, tens of thousands of others crashed through my thoughts and immediately dragged me in another direction.

Wherever I looked, I saw numbers and diagrams tied to whatever I was seeing, and any imperfection or inefficiency in those diagrams triggered a wave of visceral disgust.

I blinked a couple of times and tried to pull my mind back together from the psychedelic experience that I just went through. Once I figured out how to separate the information streaming into me from my actual train of thought and regained functionality of my mind, I realized I wasn't alone in the room.

Next to what the earlier man had referred to as 'the Loom' stood what I could only describe as a being who had been forged into something far greater than I could have ever conceived—someone who had long since ceased to exist as a mere mortal and pressed on into a realm of something I couldn't even begin to imagine. Their body was no longer flesh. Instead, it was made out of sleek, dark metal that seemed to glow with the amount of Mana that had been packed inside. Somewhere deep inside, I felt a primal longing well up with no clear source or direction.

They held out a hand. A wire unspooled from beneath their wrist plating and slithered forward, latching onto the base of the artifact. The Loom stirred to life. A tiny black orb rose from the center of the pedestal, hovering between the twin arms as they began to rotate, slow at first, but rapidly picking up speed, until they were just a blur of movement.

A pulse of Mana rippled through the room as the artifact shifted phases. The arms fired narrow beams of specialized Mana into the orb. Wherever the beams touched, metal grew outward in shifting layers of colour. Patterns formed as the layers built up, not etched into the surface but woven directly into the metal itself.

I realized then that I was looking at the creation of my Core, and I tried my best to study the original wiring configurations before someone else got their hands on my body. Unfortunately, I couldn't really see what was going on—too much interference, moving too fast, and I could only see one side anyway. The manufacturing process finished, and the Loom wound down, Eryx held his hand out, and my Core fell into it. He seemed to study it for a moment before making a satisfied nod. Then his head turned, and his aura vanished the moment his pure white eyes met mine

"So I'm dead then," he said in a language I didn't know but somehow understood. His voice sounded soft and melodic, like the strings of a piano. Unlike the last time an entity far more powerful than I spoke to me, this time it didn't feel like I had a knife to my throat.

"Yeah," I replied. I didn't really know what else to say.

"They ruined you." A cold fury was present in his tone. But I could tell it would never be directed at me, so I didn't feel uncomfortable. It was odd, normally I felt discomfort when people around me became angry, because there was always this sense that I could suddenly become the target of that anger, no matter how small the possibility. Probably some bullshit caused by the way I was raised. Right now, that sense was gone; it was like I knew beyond a doubt that the man before me would not want to hurt me and could not even if he wanted to. I wasn't sure if it was a mental effect of his aura or something else, but he felt like a close friend.

"Yeah," I repeated.

Eryx just sighed, "A dead man has no right to complain, but it does make me sad to see the state you're in. And she did warn me…"

"So what is this then?" I asked, "Are you going to give me some kind of divine mission? You had me give up something to get in here, so there has to have been some kind of goal."

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He chuckled in response to my question, then snapped his fingers with the hand that wasn't holding my Core. The world around me shifted in a swirl of colours, and when it returned to normal, we were seated in a study in front of a fireplace with embers crackling away. The aesthetic was very clockwork fantasy-esque, various mechanical devices softly ticked away, and the metal construct that was Eryx sat next to me in a chair made out of a black wood that matched his frame. Along the walls were shelves filled with various machines alongside books.

"No, there's no mission. I don't even know the reason why I created you. I don't even know why I died, I just know that if this function was activated, then I did. I likely figured I couldn't get that information out without it being divined. The only reason the memory construct you're speaking to has my personality is because I wanted to see what kind of person was chosen." Eryx said while leaning back in his chair. "It's interesting that you're wasting your currently limited Biomass on clothing. That's not what I expected with the requirements Kaelzar should have set for you to have even seen Runaspriggan as an option."

"Cloaks are cool, what can I say? I'm brought into a world with magic and shit, obviously I'm going to wear a cloak. It would go against the very fibre of my being to skip out on being able to get a chance to wear one. I wanted the self-repair functionality as well. It keeps getting damaged, so I think I made the right choice." I replied, pulling my cloak closed over myself.

Eryx glanced at me for a moment, then seemed to conclude something in his mind. "Never mind, you're exactly the kind of person who would have been chosen."

"Hey, wait, why does that sound like you're judging me?" I asked.

"We should probably get on to the real function of the Puzzle Ring." He said, completely ignoring my question.

I was about to complain further when three system windows appeared in front of me, and I was distracted by the possibility of numbers going brrrr. It took me a second, but I realized that system windows popping up here didn't make any sense. "Why do these look identical to system windows?"

"Who do you think designed the system you're using?" Eryx asked, to which I could only blink in response. Huh, The Weaver of Souls, the system is designed to run on our souls, so it actually makes a lot of sense. Wait, isn't this a perfect opportunity…

"No, I cannot answer any questions about it. The final version hadn't been finalized when this construct was created," he said before I got the chance to ask.

"Oh… No wonder it keeps fucking up."

Eryx completely froze in place. Every little motion that his body had been making previously, including the tapping of his foot against the ground, had halted. I wondered for a moment if he had crashed, then he spoke. "What do you mean by that?"

"I was offered and took an Eclipse Tier Skill at level twenty," I replied. I think I heard something pop inside him.

"Pick one of the three choices in front of you; your ring will gain that as a new primary feature. Notify me when you're done. I'm sorry, I need a minute." He stood and left the room.

I shrugged and looked over the choices, ignoring the scream I heard coming from outside the room.

[Ring Upgrade Choice] Name: [Short Range Communication Function] Effect: [While wearing this ring, you are capable of interfacing with any artifacts touching your Authority field. The maximum number of interfaced artifacts scales with Arcane Stat.]

I could already do this, as long as we were talking about artifacts I designed. I didn't know when I'd need to interface with an artifact that I both didn't make myself and can't touch for some reason. Seemed like too niche a use case. This might have been a great choice if I hadn't already solved the issue for myself.

[Ring Upgrade Choice] Name: [Ethereal Sight Function] Effect: [While wearing this ring, the user is capable of looking through and within 2.3451 metres of solid matter. Arcane Stat increases maximum distance.]

Oddly specific number, I assumed he made it in another unit that doesn't convert cleanly. This might be okay; it would be nice to be able to look through doors. Also, I guessed being able to check out wiring inside walls would be useful. I don't know, this doesn't really call out to me.

[Ring Upgrade Choice] Name: [Replicator Function] Effect: [Artifacts you have created can be saved in a database and replicated very quickly using your Personal Growing Skill analogue. The size of the database and speed increase scale with Arcane Stat.]

Oh, I absolutely needed this. Being able to regrow known designs very quickly meant I could save my body and rapidly regenerate instead of the sort of slow regeneration I had to go through right now. Why is it calling [Regrowth] a Personal Growing Skill analogue?

I took a moment to check my [Regrowth] Skill and saw it was actually labelled as a Growth Skill, which probably meant it would upgrade at some point. Personal Growing Skill analogue likely meant [Regrowth], its upgrades, and any other Skill I find that allows me to grow plant material. That's neat. I hope that when it upgrades, it allows me to make things that aren't directly connected to my Biomass.

That limitation was why I never used the Skill to make things anymore. Since I only had like five percent Biomass to spare, I'd have had to cut my arm off to make anything worthwhile. I selected [Replicator Function], and the ring that was on my finger began to glow and fizzle away. In its place, my finger was marked with a grey line that wrapped around it like the ring did. I could still interface with the ring; it just seemed to be a part of me now, not that interfacing with it did anything anymore. I cut the finger off and regrew it, and the mark grew back with the finger. Hmm. Alright, this doesn't replace the Profession, though.

"Hey Eryx, you done having a cry?" I asked the empty air. He popped back into existence on the chair next to mine.

"I wasn't… Never mind, you've chosen the new functionality of the ring, then?" he said in an exasperated tone. Despite his reaction, I saw a small smile on his face. I didn't know what to make of it, so I decided to ignore it.

"So this doesn't feel like a 'throw away a unique Profession' level of reward. I'm assuming there's something else," I asked. If Autumn was right, then there should have been something more.

"Oh, that? You'll be given a new one when you leave, which brings me to the final point. You may ask of me one thing, it can be anything considered knowledge. I suggest making it as broad an ask as you can." Eryx said, which resolved my main issue. Well, actually, I did have another problem…

"I was really enjoying the puzzles on the ring. Can you make them limitless so that I never have to reach the end?" I asked.

"I don't know if you'll accomplish whatever purpose I had when I created your body," the god's memory fragment said with a broad smile, "but you've certainly made me think the right person found their way into it."

That strange feeling came back, like for some reason the being holding the power to kill me with a thought couldn't hurt me even if he were alive. I wasn't sure what caused that feeling, but I was fairly certain it was the only reason he treated me like a person and not an ant beneath his notice. Whatever the case, it was interesting meeting the memories of a divine being.

The world around me shifted again, and I found myself lying draped over Autumn's shoulder again. Several notifications were waiting for me.

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