Further inside the manor...

Strolling through the Brighton Manor was a bit like strolling back in time. Statues and paintings that must have been dozens, if not hundreds, of years old covered every inch of the corridors. Even the doors, imposing as they were, were masterful works of craftsmanship down to the very grain of the thick oak that formed them. He couldn’t have imagined the price of such a mansion, or what the purpose of such an extravagant, expensive mansion was. Moira had certainly not drawn his eye much - the entire first semester he had missed the redheaded girl with the shield worn as a necklace. Yet, somehow, nobody had noticed that the rich family with the European tastes were a bunch of holy warriors?

It didn't quite add up… but then again, perhaps they were intentionally drawing attention to themselves? Moira said that they were protecting others from the real nastiness of the Abyss; perhaps one way to do so was to draw ire from others, and the easiest way to do that was to be an obviously supernatural target.

Or, John thought nervously as two very large men opened the doors at the end of the hall to allow them access, perhaps it was just that they were so powerful they didn't feel threatened by whatever dangers lurked in the Abyss.

The doors that were opened for Moira and himself led into a massive room, stunning for its sheer size and even moreso for its contents. The room must have been thirty feet tall and fifty feet on each side, lined with a mixture of floor-to-ceiling windows and bookcases shelved fully with a single exception on the far side, which was only partially filled. There were ladders on each wall and even a partial second floor wrapping around the outside of the room to help reach the many books. Statues and carvings decorated the walls between bookshelves, including water fixtures in several locations. Every bit of it was free of dust and looked as if it could've been put into place just the day before.

On the actual floor of the room were more decorations, sets of armor and weapons strewn decoratively (although all of them looked ready for use) on racks throughout the room, and a single desk at the center of it all, where a man stood. A man more intimidating than any John had ever seen before, including his own father when he was a small child.

The man did not have Moira's red hair, but there was a subtle resemblance in his red locks, and John had no doubts this man had fathered the tough Paladin beside him. More importantly, he had the build of a man not much older than Moira, despite the obvious years in his face. He looked intimidating in status, mind, and body… if it wasn't for Gamer's Mind, John wasn't honestly certain if he would even be capable of calmly analyzing the man in the way that he was.

"Ah, Moira, there you are. I received your message… am I to assume that this is the mage of which you spoke?"

"Yes, Father," Moira said, bowing her head. It looked as though she was about to take a knee, her reverence was so ****. John turned back to her father and tried to evaluate what kind of situation he was in.

"Well, then, I assume Moira has told you a bit of what to expect?"

"N-no, I… I did not explain much to him Father," Moira interjected, before John had a chance to. "So many strange things have happened I thought it best to not divulge details about-"

"By Gaia," the man boomed, stepping forward with a hint of annoyance in his tone. John and Moira both shrank back as he raised his arms and continued. "No wonder the boy looks as though he is about to wet himself!"

"I, uh, I mean, Moira told me that you would want to speak with me, that we had to leave immediately, and that you were going to decide what to do with me."

"I see… perhaps you should explain more, daughter? Your call was rather brief - I assume you would not have issued such near-threats to the boy without good reason?"

"Yes, Father. As I told you, a barrier was formed over the school, and I was forcibly dragged into it. John Newman claims to have been dragged in as well, but none of my artifacts were able to detect any other humans within the barrier even moments after it was formed, and there were several other complicating factors that cannot be explained."

"You said that the Abyss creatures did not vanish as they usually do?" The Paladin said, casting his eyes over to John. "It is indeed unusual. The Abyss is the very essence of chaos; without someone bringing them form those creatures exist as a whole, rather than individuals. Destroying that form should've returned all that they were to that mass."

"We both destroyed some of the creatures, but some of their remains still persisted," Moira said as she pulled a small vial from her shirt. "This was a small amount of the dust that several of them left behind, along with fragments of bone and sinew. One even left a weapon behind."

"I see. Let me inspect this more closely."

John took the break in the conversation, and both of them being distracted with the dust, to finally use his Observe skill. What he saw shook him to his core.

Lord William Brighton
Level ??? ?????
<???>
Relationship: ???

Hiding information? John didn't even know that was a thing, much less that Moira's father would be the one to do it. Assuming that this, like everything else, was modeled after a video game, this guy was such a high level John couldn't even see it! And he could read all of Moira's information, even when she was level 17 and he was a meager 4. So that meant her father was probably at least level 24, maybe higher… probably higher.

"This is Dust of Undeath. Pure, refined - actually quite impressively so. It's almost always mixed in with the materials used to create it, and it's relatively rare. Created by Necromancers and the like, usually for use in dark rituals… though it has more mundane, less horrible uses in some circumstances. You said that this came from a skeleton?"

"Yes, Father. When either of us slew one it left some of itself behind. I didn't notice it on the first group, but I was focused on the battle at hand. When all of them were slain I noticed piles of the dust, as well as the other objects I mentioned."

"Very strange. But it would almost make sense, I suppose. Do you know what this is?"

William had turned his attention back to John, something that he was honestly hoping to avoid, but at least the question didn't seem intended to interrogate him as much as to simply quiz him.

"It's, uh, Dust of Undeath?"

"Yes, I just said that," Mr. Brighton said, not smiling as he examined the vial.

"It's something infused with the essence of the undead, but I’m not quite sure what that means except that you can use it to make weapons or armor with the power of undeath."

"More specifically, unholy power. It's a good countermeasure to many forms of life magic, and can render wounds almost impossible to heal, but it is countered by light magic. It is typically formed by taking Arcane Dust and mixing in human remains; blood, bone, tissue and such. The dust absorbs the essence over the course of several weeks. You can understand why we take the presence of this dust as a bit of an issue… even when it does not appear from thin air."

"Y-yes," John said, grimacing. So that was what he had meant when he said it was usually mixed in with materials used to create it…

"Now, more to the point. Moira, you say that you think he may be responsible for these occurrences?"

"I don't know, father, but there were no others around, and no Barrier can exist without someone creating it - and I know that it was not there before we were pulled into it."

"I see. Mr. Newman, the very nature of the Abyss is chaos. It is the antithesis to Gaia - it is without law or order to itself. While forming creatures and things from the twisting nethers of the Abyss is not terribly difficult, maintaining them after the mage has left is unheard of. Giving that chaotic source a permanent form is impossible. The Abyssal energies one pulls from there twist and writhe within themselves; if a mage doesn't dismiss them himself they will lose form within a length of time usually better measured in seconds than minutes. So if something has tamed the Abyss, we must know, because that would be a great upset to the magical realm. Not to mention the danger of an unknown mage summoning creatures to target our Order. So, Moira has brought you here to test, to see if such a thing is possible. We have three tests - the first of which is a test of honesty."

Mr. Brighton reached into his desk and pulled out a small cross, matching several of the insignias he'd seen on his way in. He tossed it almost casually to John, who barely managed to nick it out of the air before it would've tumbled to the floor. It amazed him that he treated it so carelessly - the entire cross appeared to be solid gold.

"This is a simple item, enchanted to glow when the user knowingly tells a lie. Do you find my daughter attractive?"

"W-what?"

"N-no!"

John and Moira both shouted at the same time, both with very different reactions - both turned as red as Moira's hair, though, and so too did the cross. It was ruby red for a few seconds, before it rapidly faded back to the golden material it had started as.

"Of course, of course, she's quite the beauty. I'd suspect something if you weren't lying," Mr. Brighton said. "Now that we know it works on you… did you create that Barrier my daughter was pulled into?"

"No, I didn't," John said, glancing down to the cross for a moment. It stayed pure, golden, and glorious.

"Did you create the Abyss creatures inside, or do anything to cause object permanence in the Abyss?"

"No, I still don't think I'm even sure what the Abyss is. I only got my powers recently - today, actually. I got pulled into that Barrier along with Moira, if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have had any idea what was going on. I might have even died - I killed a couple of them, but I used all my mana and she was distracting the second one."

Despite his long explanation, the cross never turned red, or even hinted at it. He was rather relieved, honestly - if his Gamer powers had created the Barrier, did that count as him creating it, even if he didn't do it consciously? Apparently not, at least according to this object's opinion of him.

"Interesting. So, to be clear - you had no knowledge of the attack before it happened, and believe you were in as much danger as Moira?"

"Yes," John said, nodding. Still golden.

"I see. Well, perhaps we can trust that you are telling the truth. Now for the second test."

Mr. Brighton took the cross from John, before he again began to fish around in his drawers, until he pulled out a small, black crystal cut into a beautiful eight-sided die shape, it glistened in the light. He, again, tossed it to John, who caught this one a bit more easily now that he was expecting it. As he held it in his hands there was no delay this time - the black crystal immediately reacted, beginning to glow with a faint light inside. It wasn't much, but John could see a swirling mass of energy quite clearly, and it was oddly beautiful. It was like there was a tiny galaxy at the center of the crystal. Now that he wasn't being caught off-guard by awkward questions, John took a moment to Observe the crystal.

Crystal of Radiant Potential ~ This crystal is enchanted to glow based on the user's current maximum power output, displaying their current maximum potential in ideal conditions. A world-class mage can light it up like a small sun.

Well, that rather dampened John's mood about his tiny galaxy swirling inside. But Mr. Brighton looked almost pleased, and Moira seemed confused, if not a bit shocked.

"Well, not too bad for someone who has claimed to have only received their powers today, to be fair, but still nothing notable. There are thousands of mages more powerful than that, and none of them have created anything like this - not for lack of trying, mind you."

"Rub it in a little more," John thought, sighing and shaking his head.

"Well, that being said, perhaps we can proceed to the third test."

Once again, Mr. Brighton began to delve into his drawers, this time producing a small glass globe, filled with tiny white flakes that were drifting around. Rather than tossing it, Mr. Brighton walked over and held it in front of John gently.

"This is the third test… the most important one. A magical lie detector can be fooled, and your power can be concealed even from that artifact, but this… this is another matter entirely. This is a highly forbidden enchantment known as the Master's Insurance. Only I - the current Master of this enchanted orb - can touch it. All others who possess more than half of my power who touch it will die. It's from the days when more powerful mages would enslave others to do their bidding, to prevent their servant mages from growing powerful enough to challenge them. It's some of the most powerful magic we own… if you truly received your powers today, you will possess but a fraction of my magical prowess. If you are capable of creating something like what you two saw today, on the other hand, you may surpass even my own abilities. But you will not surpass this object."

The utter certainty with which he spoke filled John with a dread all its own, much less while he was holding such a dangerous artifact. Was this what magical life was like? How many more organizations were there like this? Organizations that would demand his honesty and test him for things he had not done… test him with lethal artifacts?

But John knew that, clearly, he was nowhere near Mr. Brighton's level. So there should have been no danger… but that didn't ease John's stress in the slightest.

"Go on, then. If you aren't hiding anything, I give you my word that you have nothing to fear."

John grimaced as he reached out towards the globe.

"Yeah, I know, just… I barely met you, and this whole testing thing, and lethal magical artifacts… I just… okay…"

John slowly placed his hand on the orb. It was cold to the touch - that was good, right? Mr. Brighton never released his grip, in fact he held it quite tightly as John enveloped it with his palm. John did his best to keep a straight face until his hand was wrapped all the way around the orb, and still… nothing happened.

Mr. Brighton paused for a long moment, looking into John's eyes. He must have liked what he saw, because a soft smile came across his lips.

"John, do you know what this is?"

"A… a sign that I'm not being cursed to die, or turn into a frog, or some other weird magical curse?"

"No, John," Mr. Brighton said, holding up the orb. With one shake he launched the myriad of small white flecks inside the orb around, jostling them and then letting them slowly fall back to the bottom.

"This… is a snow globe."

John stared dumbly at the small glass orb as windows began to pop up all around him.