Sage stood alone in the vault for a moment after the system's light faded. The golden glow of stacked coins flickered in his eyes as two rewards hovered before him, waiting patiently.
The High-Grade Soul Expansion Potion shimmered gently in its crystal vial, its liquid neither fully silver nor blue, as if light itself had been captured and contained within glass.
Next to it rested the Mage Staff, quiet yet undeniably present. Its runes pulsed faintly in response to Sage's proximity not aggressively, but with a restrained resonance, like a heartbeat syncing with another.
For several seconds, no... minutes, Sage simply stared. It wasn't that he was stunned by wealth or intoxicated by power , it was something deeper.
He let out a slow breath and chuckled softly to himself while shaking his head slightly.
"It's been a while," he murmured, his voice echoing softly off the runed stone walls. "Since you gave me something that actually mattered."
