"So?" asked Rargnes. Sengrar blinked and took some time to recover. "Wow... that was insane. I really believed it until the end!"
"What was it?"
"It made me see strange things! I passed the test, but I didn't remember the content, and we kept looting the area for any items we could find."
"Wait, they altered your memories?!" asked Rargnes with an unusual voice. Sengrar remembered seeing a mimicry of Rargnes' thoughts. It was about memories.
"I think so? It was like everything seemed normal, coherent. I didn't question it."
"Okay. And the manuscript? Did they mention it?"
"Nope. I think it's the same thing?"
The goblin nodded.
"Go ahead, take it," said Rargnes. "I don't need it."
"But you can use magic."
"What did you get first?"
Sengrar pointed at the specter.
"And what does it do?"
"It's a tool for using magic," said the goblin after a moment of silence. "You concentrate your energy and can release it."
Sengrar tried it, and a ball of energy crashed into the wall, leaving a blackened area smelling burnt.
"Hey, easy!"
"You see? Take it, it'll be useful."
"No, I'm not a mage, it's useless to me."
After some insistence, Sengrar finally took it and teleported back inside.
"Darn," he thought, yawning. "I should have asked to do this after a good night's sleep. I might fall asleep right here." He glanced at the goblin and leaned against the wall, one eye closed.
"The power! You needed the power!" His mind scrambled, perhaps due to his lack of interaction.
"It would have been useless to me."
"We never know, and for your other lives."
"They're not mine anyway. Calm down, it's okay."
His body injected stress into him. An unhappy face began to form. "We're going to die because of you! It's your fault!" his body seemed to say to him.
With a grimace, he tapped his foot rhythmically to vent his frustration.
"It's ours! Take it! Don't let him have it all as always! Take! They will never give you anything! They're all like that! They want everything, they don't even consider you. It's not bad. It's not selfish, it's good," the voice assured.
For a moment, he wondered if the previous versions had not taken up residence in his mind and were starting to manipulate him.
"He's a big guy, but it's an opportunity. What's done is done. Look instead: use this evidence, then you can use it. Yes, it was a good deed. Now you can flatter him a little, and if you join a group, they will see the danger in him. He will come by himself to take on the dangers, after all, he can gain opportunities."
The voice never stopped. It took arguments from both sides to make everything useful, everything under control, or to say that it couldn't do that. Not first. Not betray - unless it absolutely had to.
Rethinking his thoughts was living with two burdens, or a war. It had marked his necrotic air.
Sengrar reappeared with a manuscript.
"So?" asked Rargnes, noticing with surprise that his voice had become grumpy.
Sengrar unfolded the manuscript and read, his finger under the lines.
"Like a child!" mocked his voice. "Look at him. He barely respects himself." It dehumanized. Thus, it was easier not to feel emotion. It was normal to be empathetic for a human.
"The hope of the system only comes between three parties that involve heavy sacrifices, either people or good."
"Can't you make it clearer?"
"I read it literally, it's not my language, it's just the benefit, okay? You're annoying me a bit right now, what's going on?"
"Sorry, I'm just tired. Go on, go on."
"He attacked you. Look. If you were stronger, you wouldn't have to endure this. You wouldn't have to be troubled, you could have remained calm. The next opportunities, do everything to take them. You still lack. What you invest, you will have in the future!"
"So," he said nonchalantly, putting his finger back under the lines.
Rargnes blinked. For a moment, he thought he saw the statue's eyes turn red. Looking at the length of the manuscript, he said:
"Wait, wait, don't you want to leave first?"
"But no, it's faster this way."
"I think I saw the statue's eyes turn red!"
"So what? Who doesn't change?" asked Sengrar. "They betrayed you after all, over and over. Why? Because you're weak. If you were strong, you wouldn't be afraid of this!" The voice distorted as he spoke. Sengrar's muscles softened and turned into fat that flooded him, swelling every part of his body, including his belly.
"Your body is not yours!" said the statue in a spectral voice before entering inside. "Get into yours!"
And there he stood, amphora in hand, the fatty body stumbling through the village.