Hargreaves nervously looked at the vague figure behind the fog, his mind racing. He didn't know how many questions he had available to him. What if the figure stopped answering after the very first question?

What should he ask? Should he ask about the purple of Obsidian? Should he ask about what benefits this place had? Or should he ask why the shadowy figure was so large and so oddly shaped?

As a Chihuahua, Hargreaves was much smaller, and way too differently shaped than the shadowy figure.

Ultimately, he decided to be as generic as possible with his question, so that he could get the longest answer.

"What's the purpose of Obsidian?" Hargreaves asked.

"Obsidian's purpose is deep and beyond your current comprehension," the figure answered. "What matters more is how it affects you. Obsidian is a place of absolute secrecy, where a selected few have been brought to avail the opportunity of a lifetime. Resources, techniques, powers beyond your imagination, all are available to you. All you need for any of them is to accumulate 'Quest Points'. You can attain Quest Points (QP) by completing quests within the Quest room. Using your points, you can even assign quests for others to complete. Nothing in Obsidian will ever be mandatory, yet almost nothing in Obsidian can be done without QP. The Meditation room is the only exception."

The figure paused for a brief moment. Everything Lex had described so far was, more or less, available inside the Inn as well through one service or another. The difference, then, was that Obsidian would have a few, exclusive services that could not be availed at the Inn.

Instead of relying on the System, those services would rely on him.

"Before learning more about Obsidian, you must swear the Oath of Secrecy. As long as you uphold the Oath, you can remain a member of Obsidian. Breaking the Oath offers no consequence save the greatest consequence of losing access to Obsidian. If you are ready, you can read the Oath in front of you. If you do not wish to take the Oath, then depart Obsidian, and treat it as a passing dream."

An illusory page appeared in front of Hargreaves, with words written in a language he had never seen before, yet he could somehow read it as if he had grown up on it. Hargreaves read the oath time and time again, and once he was sure he understood what it meant, he decided to take the oath.

It was a risk. It was a huge risk. But there could never be any reward without risk.

Donning a solemn expression, Hargreaves read from the page.

"By the weight of my soul and eternal twilight of Obsidian, I swear: never shall I speak of Obsidian, nor of Sage Obsidian, to any who dwell beyond the shrouded fold. Should rumor or shadow leak into the world, I shall neither confirm nor deny, but remain as stone before the storm. I shall not reveal my place among the hidden, nor shall I lay bare my true name or face, even to those who stand beside me in the dark. I shall not force nor coerce another to tread the path of peril, nor shall I reveal whether by my own hand a quest was ever cast into the black. Upon this vow I stake my honor, my memory, and my breath; and should I betray it, let the gates of Obsidian be sealed to me, and let my name be stricken from its hidden ledgers, now and forever."

The oath was pretty straightforward, as Hargreaves understood it. It basically stated that he could never reveal details of Obsidian or the Sage to anyone who was not a member. If information did leak somehow, perhaps through another member, he could not confirm nor could he deny it. It was best not to comment on it at all.

He could never reveal his identity as a member - at least on purpose - and he could not reveal his identity to other members. He also couldn't force others to accept quests, not could he reveal it if he had completed a quest.

If he were to break the oath, he would lose his membership to Obsidian. Truth be told, the oath did not seem so harsh, nor did it seem too difficult. He was almost beginning to think that it wouldn't be too severe of a loss if he lost his membership either.

If he ever felt like being a member of Obsidian was too much, he could just break the oath and be done with it. Of course, he didn't want to lose access to all the resources here, but as long as he grew a few ranks, he'd be in a much better position then.

But to get any of the resources here, he'd need QP, and for that he'd need to complete quests - if he understood things correctly. He doubted quests would be easy to do.

Hargreaves turned to look towards the shadowy figure, but discovered it was gone. He was alone in that dark place, so all he could do was stand up and return to the white room.

Upon his return there, he discovered that an exit door had been added to the white room, allowing him to leave.

Curious about the quests, which seemed like an integral function of this place, Hargreaves quickly returned to his courtyard, noticing a number of other members warily standing on their doors like he had a while ago.

Ignoring them for now, he quickly returned and entered his respective Quest room to take a look at the quests.

The highest ranked quest available was a quest to submit a method to teleport items to a place called Abaddon. Apparently, it was a quest set by someone in courtyard 1 and rewarded 10,000 QP!

There were a number of other quests as well, such as submitting new information about various empires and cultivation systems, but they usually only gave 1 or 2 QP.

While going through the quests, Hargreaves glanced at some of the services he could redeem using his QP and froze.

Right there, on the very top, was a service that cost 100,000 QP. It simply read: Upgrade your system by 1 rank!

Hargreaves froze, the blood in his veins going cold. That was a service provided by the Sage which meant the Sage… he… he knew about his system and could even upgrade it!