Inheritance Statue

Upon seeing no place to turn in his commission, Joe decided to explore the place a bit to look for someone.

After doing a once-over of the whole room, Joe found just about nothing. Only a few stone tables and chairs to sit on.

Finding nothing, Joe decided to head back to the lobby to ask for help.

It was at this moment that Joe suddenly heard the turning of stone. Swerving his head around, Joe saw a man walking out of the walls.

The man seemed surprised to see Joe.

"What are you doing here? The commission room is closed during times of emergency."

Joe scratched his head while speaking. "Well, I've never taken on a commission before, so I didn't know."

The man smiled at that. "Well, lodging is free during times of emergency as well, so feel free to stay as long as you want. Of course, if you were planning to spend your reward on other things, you can tell me the commission and I will tabulate your reward."

"No, no, that's fine. I was planning to spend it on lodging anyways."

Still smiling, the man waved at Joe, seemingly as a signal for him to leave.

Leaving the room, Joe decided to head back.

'Crap. What's my floor number again?'

Trying to remember his floor number, Joe walked all the way to the elevator.

'Ah! Floor thirty-two!'

Inputting the number inside, Joe was raised up to his floor quickly.

Walking into his room, it was nearly untouched. Things only seemed slightly dustier than before.

Moving over to Amelia's old bed, Joe poured out his stuff there since she was gone. The swords, the sculptures, and the Scriptures.

Taking out Volume Three, Joe sat down on his bed for a read.

...

It was already morning. About sixteen hours passed before Joe finished reading this book. It was much thinner than the first two books, but it certainly held more precious information.

Upon hearing his stomach grumbling, Joe quickly went to look for something eat.

After returning to his room after a full meal, Joe recalled the contents of Volume Three.

This volume essentially told him the same things as Volume Two, only it wanted him to advance as an Internal and External Wizard. It also told him about past cases of advancement and ways to multitask.

It also gave more in-depth information about Virgin Age, and why it was also called Wisdom.

Virgin Age was basically a counter of one's experiences. Usually, a person would stop gaining new experiences once they worked a 9-5 job and began to live repetitively, thus lowering the amount of Wisdom they gained.

Upon gaining enough Wisdom, one could begin to see the elements, the building blocks of the universe. This was because they had been sensing time for so long.

Some people developed Wizard abilities on their own, but most who reached the threshold never realized their powers, or died.

Unfortunately, the explanation stopped there.

Measuring his own Wisdom, Joe saw he had approximately 52 Wisdom. It was probably gained from his collection of new experiences.

'I've just got to increase it by half. That can't possibly be that hard right?'

However, upon scanning his memories, Joe had no idea how to increase his Wisdom in a timely manner. He didn't know where to absorb memories, nor find Wisdom increasing fruits.

'With this invasion going on, and the way is ended last time, I probably won't be spared from the destruction of humanity.'

Looking over to Amelia's bed, Joe decided to take a closer look at the statues. He couldn't quite get his full focus on them while he was walking earlier.

Searching ever corner and angle of the statue, Joe didn't manage to find anything strange about the sculpture's shape or any imperfections in the creation.

Upon realizing he wouldn't find anything just searching with his eyes and hands, Joe intuitively decided to envelop the statue with his mental energy.

Once he enveloped the statue with his mental energy, he saw a scene not unlike the one he saw when attempting to measure his own Wisdom.

Inside the statue was a bright white mass. It didn't seem to have a solid form, as it seemed to be a blob of light.

'Is this… concentrated Wisdom?'

Attempting to probe deeper using his mental power, Joe inserted his mental power into the blob of light.

In an instant, hundreds of scenes passed through his eyes.

In all of them, a familiar figure was facing away from his point of view. In every scene, the figure was facing toward a unique looking animal.

'Is that… Josh? What is this thing?'

Joe attempted to retract his mental energy, however, it was stopped and pulled back in by a strange suction force.

'What?!'

Now, Joe was fully immersed in the scenes in the statue. He could no longer feel the world outside the statue.

'Where am I?'

Only a single scene was in Joe's point of view now. It was Josh, facing some kind of bear-shaped entity in a swamp.

Looking closer at the bear-like entity, it seemed to be slightly gooey.

Suddenly, Joe's point of view shifted.

'What?! What's happening?!'

Soon, Joe's viewpoint stopped moving and became fixed. He could no longer turn his viewpoint to his will.

Panicked, Joe felt his viewpoint changing once more. The gooey bear began to move at the same time his viewpoint did.

Suddenly, a feeling of solidity returned to Joe. Still coming to grasps with the situation, Joe's viewpoint shifted to the air, above the gooey bear. He saw hands that were not his own come up in front of him as fire spewed out of them.

The gooey bear suddenly squished down to the ground as though an anvil were pushed down on it.

Due to this move, the gooey bear avoided the hot flames that would have scorched it.

Meanwhile, Joe was beginning to realize what was going on.

'I'm experiencing what if felt like for Josh to fight this thing?'

Deciding to fully immerse himself in the experience, Joe began to take note of everything he could see in the battle.

Tens of blows were traded as several minutes passed, though few landed. By this point, the bear had sustained a few injuries.

The gooey bear seemed to be charred in some spots, whilst some parts of it's body solidified, slowing it's movement.

Suddenly, the gooey bear seemed to get smaller. Joe could feel Josh's body tensing upon seeing the bear shrink.

'This next move is certainly of crucial importance!'

Suddenly, the gooey bear's insides seemed to spew out of it's chest cavity as a jet of sticky fluid came bursting at Josh at high speeds.

Prepared for this move, Josh quickly evaded, but the stream of fluid began to follow Josh's path.

'Interesting!'

The attack seemed to continue for longer than Josh had thought, as Joe felt a teeth gritting sensation from the memory.

Suddenly, Josh put his hands in front of him. Flames began to spew out of his hands, directly colliding with the sticky fluid.

At first, the flames seemed to be sufficiently holding off the bear's goo, but after a few seconds, Josh seemed to be on the losing end of the battle.

From the corner of Joe's eye, he could see that the bear was continuing to shrink. It had already gone from the size of a bear, to the size of a baby.

After several more seconds, the collision between the two elements began to slow, as the goo from the bear seemed to be losing pressure, and was being pushed back.

Soon, the bear was almost reduced to nothing, as Josh seemed to be exhausted as well. Whilst Josh was seemingly exhausted, the baby-sized gooey bear tried to make a run for it.

However, Josh suddenly broke out of his exhaustion and quickly chased after the gooey bear.

When Josh began to chase after the gooey bear, Joe's perspective seemed to break away from Josh's.

'I guess that signals the end of this battle? Will there be another one?'

Joe suddenly felt a faint tension being added to his muscles.

'Strange. What was that?'

Joe however, didn't have any time to wonder, as the view in front of him began to distort.

Suddenly, he felt he could control his body now.

'Oh, it seems I'm back in my room.'

However, looking around, Joe did not see his room. Only a deep green swamp was in front of him, as well as a large gooey bear.

'What?'

Joe momentarily didn't react. Suddenly the gooey bear moved, as sound began to fill his ears. Bugs chirping and the splashing of water all reached his ears.

The bear quickly crawled its way over to Joe while he was stunned, and made a large slash at him!

Joe quickly leaped out of the way.

'What? How did I leap out of the way? Did I gain something from watching Josh fight this thing?'

Upon having his thoughts return to him, Joe's brain quickly flew into action. He suddenly remembered the faint tension he felt in his muscles after the battle was over, and realized that was probably what helped him.

'Nevermind that, I have to fight this thing now!'