James understood the assignment when it asked the question; who are you?
In his heart and after careful contemplation, it was the best response he could give. But this begged the question.
Suppose it was someone else who came here and tried answering the question, would that person have the same response James gave?
He didn't think so and different people thought differently.
The paragon couldn't have made that the answer either and as James thought about these things, he was inclined to believe that there must have been a way for whatever the setup was to tell the true intention of the beings who answered the question.
That or the lingering consciousness of whoever the No-Name paragon was. Some inheritance grounds in the past had the remnant spirits of whoever the grounds belonged to, so it was not a farfetched theory.
'That is the only sensible explanation.' He thought as he and Thalia descended the stairs and after reaching a couple steps down, the slab closed and plunged them into darkness.
"James, I don't like this at all. The air in this place is very uncomfortable and I feel like there is something wrong with this place." Thalia stated, clinging to James for safety.
'Women…' He thought with a head shake.
Then his left arm slipped around Thalia's waist, holding it in a tight embrace and bringing her face closer till his lips reached her ears.
He took in a deep breath, taking in her heavenly scent and flashing a mischievous grin, already enjoying the situation.
'Maybe I needed this distraction as well, too many thoughts in my head.'
"Woman, I told you to not worry. Unless of course, you want a certain kind of assurance. We may be in a dangerous environment, but I don't mind ravaging you till you become completely relaxed.
"We good?"
His words sent a tingly sensation down her spine as she gulped in anticipation, quickly forgetting her situation with her mind doing the rest.
Suddenly, her inner regions began to feel hot and moist.
'Heavens, just having him close is enough to reduce me to such a state.'
"Y-yes." She actually said but didn't step back.
James brought out his head after getting her riled up for no reason. Of course, he gave Thalia something to think about and get her mind off the gloom.
Slowly, their eyes adjusted to the darkness once again and they noticed a faint light coming from the bottom of the steps.
"Let's go."
The two finally reached the base and walked into the room that appeared before them. The light they saw earlier was coming from a few glow stones that had lost most of their glow.
"Wow…"
Thalia muttered in a daze as she and James took in everything.
The room was not very large, roughly the size of a regular bedroom found in a noble person's home, but what brought about the awe was what the room contained.
Three shelves that were covered in dust and web cobs were placed by each wall away from the entrance with many resources placed on them.
On the shelf to the left was a collection of vials containing who knows what but James could see small plaques with inscriptions on them, so there was no problem to encounter.
The shelf directly facing them had scrolls lined up on them, obviously spells for whoever was lucky enough to get in here. And on the shelf to the right were artefacts of various kinds.
They could see some rings, chest armour, swords, daggers and more.
And finally in the center of the room was a small podium that held a mask floating midair under a glowing light. The mask was a dark grey with openings for the eyes and lips with none for the nose.
Under Thalia's gaze, James ignored everything and walked towards the floating mask, being drawn to it.
Once close, he read what was inscribed into the podium.
[Before you are my most prized possessions…Use them wisely.]
[Know thy true self, accept it and you will see through the veil all beings hide behind.]
The mask itself had a name written just underneath the advice.
It read: Aegis of Aspects
James raised his head and looked over everything that was included in the room.
'So this is everything, huh? People are certainly going to go insane if the most important treasures end up in only one person's hands.
'Of course, that is only if they find out.' He smiled mischievously.
"What does it say?" Thalia's words brought him out of his thoughts.
"Just a word of advice."
He responded and then moved his hand to claim the mask. And the moment his hand touched the mask, the place shook briefly.
"Ah!"
Thalia yelped in surprise looking over her head and fearing the whole place would come crashing down.
But when she turned to James, he saw him staring at the mask in his hands with a profound gaze and a slight smile.
"James…?"
She called out softly as she approached. While she found nothing special about the mask, she understood it was the most important treasure here; it wouldn't have been on the podium otherwise.
Soon, the rumbling came to a stop when James put the mask in his storage rune. From the name of the mask, it was clear what the purpose of the mask was.
But he would take a closer look later as he wasn't sure what would happen if he put it on right now.
"Help me collect everything in here," James said, moving towards the artefact shelf. Thalia nodded and moved to the shelf containing the scrolls.
Picking a ring at random, James looked inside and saw the hordes of resources in there. It was everything that was not placed on the shelf and there were more of such rings.
'Who would have thought? I lost one inheritance but gained another. Still, they'll have to pay.'
His mood changed from excited to raging in a split second before regaining his composure.
"James, can I take some of these spells? Some of them are useful for a mage like me." Thalia asked looking at James who just shrugged.
"You're mine, Thalia. Taking what you want won't make a difference to me."
Thalia felt her heart skip a beat, her face blushing slightly before turning away with a beaming smile.
After the two gathered everything and Thalia passed what she collected and kept the ones she wanted, they looked around one last time to see if there was anything they missed.
But then.
"AGH!!!! THESE THINGS ARE ALIVE!"
They heard a loud scream coming from above with loud explosions disturbing the silence.
"Looks like some people stumbled in here and failed the question," Thalia muttered with a slightly fearful look.
"Yeah. Now the question is, how do we leave this place without going back there to face those mannequins?"
It wasn't that he couldn't face those things, he just wanted to avoid them if he could. And this time, he had no intention of playing hero.
The first time was because he was feeling nothing and didn't wish to be controlled by how he felt or didn't feel.
'You want something, you fight for it.' He thought in silence and then turned around to see if there was another path to take out of there.
Deciding to do what James did, she turned around ignoring the screaming and yells for help and began looking behind the empty shelves but finding nothing.
'Maybe there the only way out is through the path we came from.' James wondered with a hand on his chin, staring at the empty podium.
With narrowed eyes, he approached the podium again and gave it a proper search. A few seconds later, he found something.
'Bingo.' He grinned victoriously.
Around the base of the podium was a slight square protrusion that barely stood out if one wasn't actively searching for it.
"Thalia, get behind me."
She obliged without hesitation and came to stand behind him. With no guarantee of what would happen if he pressed that protrusion, he could only take measures to ensure nothing out of the ordinary happened.
They might have claimed the inheritance, but the place was still crawling with monsters and other dangers.
Normally, claiming the inheritance of a lost paragon was never that easy. The question he answered might have made everything appear harmless, but if he had failed, he would have been fighting for his life and then some.
James abruptly pushed the protrusion and stepped back when the podium and the walls of the room shook momentarily before coming to a stop.
Under their watchful gazes, the floor lit up in a glow as a magic circle with runes appeared.
'Teleportation.'
He instantly understood what it was. But the thing about these teleportation circles in inheritance grounds was that it was never clear where exactly one would end up.
Grabbing Thalia's hand, the two watched with furrowed brows as the circle's light increased, blinding them before abruptly vanishing, leaving nothing but an empty space and the shouts from the fight above.
James and Thalia were whooshed away and only when they opened their eyes would they know where they were taken.