The corridor-like maze before the Gear Ruins had truly put quite a few players through the wringer.
Overall, though, the exploration of the Gear Ruins had not been very long—nothing compared to Radiance and Long Night.
Of course, that also had to do with the players' growing strength.
"Seriously, this Gear Kindling has zero aura. He acted all high and mighty at first, then the moment he realized he couldn't win, he immediately dropped to his knees and begged for mercy. If he didn't drop Kindling Shards, I'd suspect he was a fake. (picking nose)"
"That's normal. After all, he isn't some relic left behind after a Kindling died naturally. That death-source substance called the Forgotten Corridor probably stripped away most of his power as a Kindling."
"This guy was never tough to begin with. He got lucky and came back to life after dying once—of course he doesn't want to die again."
"By the way—why is there a hole in the Forgotten Corridor? Since it's a death-source substance, does that mean something had already gone wrong with it before the Extinguishing Moment? Could it have some important connection to Brother Yu's Great Death Fire questline?"
Someone raised this crucial detail.
Or rather, this was the most important piece of information in the Gear Flame Mark instance.
Everything else, including the Gear Ruins, could take a back seat.
The death-source substance: Forgotten Corridor.
This was not the first time the players had heard of it.
The Wisdom Kindling projection had made it very clear. It was one of the five Primal Fuels, an important cornerstone of the Burning World.
And Gear Kindling's words allowed many important conclusions to be drawn.
First, Kindlings that burned upon the altar would likely enter the Forgotten Corridor as well, where their power and sense