Chapter 128: Chapter 124
Ethan started leading Alice back into the palace, leaving behind Ethan’s mother and some of the [Nobles] who wanted to continue socializing.
“My apologies for the second [Princess],” said Ethan, as the two stepped back into the palace. “I didn’t expect her to be so… enthusiastic.”
Alice didn’t know what to say, so she simply looked at Ethan, wondering if he would say anything more on the topic.
Ethan sighed. “She wasn’t a bad kid when she was younger, but she’s spent a lot of time trying to grow up in the shadow of her older sister, the first [Princess]. The first [Princess] is… well, she’s rather special. Some people speculate that she’s a higher level than the current [King], although I don’t know if that’s true or not. But she’s very likely to be the next [Queen
“The two [Princes] have pretty much moved on, and gave up on the throne completely. One of them is learning to be a [Swordsman], and learning under one of the trusted subordinates of my father. The other one is pretty interested in finances, so he’s learning under the [Minister of Finance].
“The second [Princess] is the only member of the royal family who hasn’t given up hope for the crown. But, the problem is that she’s not very promising compared to the first [Princess]. So she always seems a bit desperate to find ways to compete with her sister, but she doesn’t quite have the skill to follow through with them.
“Of course, the current [King] still gives the second [Princess] opportunities to learn and grow, by using things like the tea party we just attended. I personally suspect that he feels it’s important to maintain some competition between the two sisters. After all, if the first [Princess] knows that she could lose the crown, she’ll be more motivated to work hard. But at the same time, the second [Princess] is given notably worse opportunities, because she’s just so far behind and so much less talented. Since there were two Immortals at this tea party, I think she saw it as her big chance to finally get ahead.” Ethan sighed.
Alice started feeling a little bad for the second [Princess]. She hadn’t enjoyed being put on the spot, but being kept around just to motivate your older sister to work harder felt… a little sad, in a way.
“Well, you didn’t agree to help her with anything, so it’s not too big of a deal. And in the future, while I doubt most [Nobles] will be quite so brazen or quick about trying to get your support, I still think it’s a valuable lesson in looking at what [Nobles] want and thinking about how to deal with it. Whether you help them, or try to avoid them, or try to stop them from progressing, knowing how to think like a [Noble] is critical.”
Alice sighed, and nodded. The second [Princess] pressuring her hadn’t been pleasant, but it hadn’t been a big deal. Her {Etiquette} lessons hadn’t covered the situation of the royal family in much detail, instead opting to treat the entire family as a more cohesive political unit and focus on greater internal issues than the struggle for the crown. After all, the ‘struggle’ for the crown seemed to already be over…
Alice and Ethan fell into a comfortable silence as Ethan led her through the corridors of the palace.
The two of them quickly reached a few more well-guarded chunks of the palace. The [Guards] there simply nodded at them and let them proceed unhindered. Alice put aside thoughts of the second [Princess], and felt excitement build up as she walked down the corridors. She was going to see an artifact for the first time! Since she hadn’t seen one up close yet, she couldn’t help but imagine what the exact mechanics of an artifact were. Even if Alice wasn’t quite as devoted to her enchantments as to her research, she still liked enchanting.
Soon, the two came to a heavily guarded flight of stairs, before they started to proceed downwards. Several parts of the stairs were incredibly reinforced and narrow, and Alice could see various enchantments embedded in the walls that could launch objects at intruders, flash-fry them with electricity or heat, and even a few that could warp the flesh of any intruders using organic magic. Alice had never seen so many enchantments dedicated to killing people crammed together into such a small area.
After rows of deadly enchantments, high-level [Guards], and several [Warmages], the two finally reached the basement where the artifact itself was housed.
The closer Alice was to the artifact, the more she was aware of a cloud of concepts in the air around her. All of them seemed to be generated by the artifact in front of her.
Artifacts seemed to be quite a bit different than other enchantments. Traditional enchantments and consumable enchantments were both centered around giving instructions to items, and then using monster cores as batteries. System enchantments seemed to be built around using System mana to temporarily enhance the Stats of the user. However, Artifacts looked as if it had taken all of these ideas and developed them in a very different direction, along with a few things Alice had never previously associated with enchanting at all.
Alice felt her grin grow wider and wider as she realized that there was something very interesting to learn here.
Alice had recently spent several days ruminating on the nature of mana and magic seeds, as well as how they interacted with the human body, after her experiments on the nature of class seeds. She had been looking for ideas on where to take some of her future experiments.
The Artifact in front of her eyes wasn’t a set of instructions fed into some magical materials with a battery to power the whole thing, and nor was it a clump of system mana embedded in an object.
The Artifact’s ‘primary’ material seemed to be a set of artificial magic seeds. Alice had never seen a magic seed outside of someone’s body before. However, the way the artificial magic seed was constructed was somewhat reminiscent of a Class seed.
Alice suddenly realized that enchanting and her research might not be quite as separated from each other as she had first assumed. Right in front of her eyes was proof that enchantments could, at their core, create something akin to the Class seeds she had spent so many months researching.
This artifact had two major artificial magic seeds: one was related to water, and the other was related to dirt. This was probably how it managed and controlled the river system of southern Illvaria. Interestingly enough, the Artifact actually had several tendrils of magic that extended out of the room and into the distance. However, these tendrils were made partially of System mana, and the System-mana bits seemed to be responsible for relaying information both to and from the artifact. It seemed as if the Artifact used the artificial magic seeds to actually provide most of the core abilities of the Artifact, but used System mana as something like a code for the enchantment. It was a new and interesting method of using System mana in an enchantment, and seeing it gave Alice a few new directions to take her future experiments. There were a few other magic seeds as well, but they were much smaller, and seemed to be built to help the two primary magic seeds of the artifact do their job.
Just as Alice was eagerly scanning the Artifact in front of her eyes, something changed.
It was subtle, at first: something that Alice didn’t quite notice, since she was lost in her thoughts and her study of the artifact.
However, as the effects grew more and more obvious, Alice finally stopped, and then started gazing at her surroundings in shock.
For months now, Alice had grown increasingly used to the presence of System mana in her surroundings. She didn’t even register some of the minor fluctuations in System mana in her surroundings these days, since she had grown accustomed to the System doing things in the background every second of every day. However, Alice now sat fully at attention, watching her surroundings with growing horror.
The System mana was beginning to disappear from her surroundings. Slowly at first, but with increasing speed, bits and pieces of the System mana in the air around her began to flicker in and out of existence, like a lightbulb attached to a faulty wire.
A few minutes passed, as the System mana became increasingly erratic, before it snapped out of existence entirely.
* * *
Somewhere far to the North, an Immortal and a man made partially of metal deactivated a final set of traps, before they stepped into the final room in the facility they had been searching through. It had taken them months to work their way through the mazes of corridors of traps. Even more annoying, the Immortal had realized that he had accidentally let in some monsters at some point while he was breaking in. It wasn’t a big deal to him: after all, they weren’t a real threat to him, and he didn’t really rely on the enchantments inside this facility for anything anymore. He had basically learned how to survive on his own this point, so he wasn’t too worried about whether the facility collapsed tomorrow or not. However, the monsters that continuously tried to eat him as he and his servant travelled through the massive enchantment were truly beginning to annoy him.
Nonetheless, despite all of the hurdles and interruptions, he had made his way through the ridiculously extensive defenses of the facility. Now, he stood in an interesting room. One which, as far as he knew, nobody else in this world had ever laid eyes on.
Dimensional mana oozed in and out of the room, like a giant, beating purple heart. Hidden by layer upon layer of other types of mana, a giant tunnel of mana stretched out from the heart of the massive underground building. It almost seemed as if the tunnel of dimensional mana was a black hole, and inside of it was limitless mana. And all of it was concentrated in a very specific direction, almost like a tunnel.
The Immortal looked at the funnel of dimensional mana, his lips quirked into a strange grin as he studied the unique mana formation in front of his eyes.
The mana structure in front of him was truly fascinating. He could probably spend years studying it, and he would be able to learn all sorts of new things just by looking at it. For a moment, he was tempted to simply fall into a {Working Trance} for a few months or years and study the dimensional mana that lay in front of him.
Opportunities to study new and interesting things were rare these days.
Then, he sighed. If he could afford to spend years studying the funnel of dimensional mana, he would have loved to do so. However, he just didn’t have time. The funnel of dimensional mana needed to be cut off now. It was too dangerous to be left alone.
He reached into his storage Perk. He pulled out a pair of golden scissors.
The scissors shimmered with rainbow mana, and had dozens of artificial magic seeds intertwined into it. Even among Immortals who specialized in enchanting, this pair of scissors would have been considered a work of art. It was a legendary artifact that kingdoms might fight over. The Immortal felt a twinge of pride as he looked at his greatest creation, and then turned back to the funnel of dimensional mana. If it continued to exist, he would inevitably die. After all, he also lived on this world, and as strong as he was, there was no way he could possibly survive the aftermath of two dimensions colliding. If the two dimensions finished colliding, the planet he was currently standing on and that mysterious other planet would likely teleport directly into each other, killing all residents of both planets on the spot. While a few people might get lucky and survive the occurrence, he didn’t want to chance it.
Therefore, he had chosen a different route to survival. The most dangerous parts of his plan had been carried out, and he only had one final step to take.
The man nodded, eyed the funnel of dimensional mana, and then took one final look at the pair of golden scissors.
Then, he threaded his fingers through the golden scissors, making absolutely sure that his fingers were properly hooked through the loops in the metal. If his fingers weren’t properly placed, using the scissors might kill him.
Then, he gently extended the scissors towards the funnel of dimensional mana. He snapped the scissors shut.
The connection between two worlds suddenly collapsed. The two dimensions would still be ‘near’ each other for a while, meaning that dimensional floods and the like would still occasionally appear. However, the two dimensions were no longer drifting towards each other: instead, they were now drifting away from each other. In a strange way, the Immortal had saved the inhabitants of both dimensions from their impending death, even if it was for entirely selfish reasons.
And somewhere else, in a place that most people would have gone mad if they witnessed someone died.
A small price to pay for his own survival, at least in the eyes of the Immortal.
The Immortal smiled to himself.
“Done.” He said.
He glanced at the giant components of the massive enchantment that he had ruined, and then sighed. Now that there was no longer an impending threat of death looming over his head, he felt much more relaxed.
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Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to hang around and study this area for a while? He could probably fend off the waves of monsters easily enough, especially with the help of his assistant.
It was what the assistant had been designed to do, after all.
He looked at the monsters who were starting to breed in the facility, and wondered if he should try clearing them out.
And then, he shrugged.
“Not my problem,” he said. His entire purpose was already fulfilled.
Instead, he started happily investigating the incredibly complex enchantment in the room, completely uninterested in the consequences of his actions.
In the corner of the room, a destabilized funnel of dimensional mana grew smaller and smaller, as it withered away and collapsed.
* * *
In a base belonging to the Society of Starry Eyes, an Immortal heard several enchantments start rattling. Immediately, he put away the papers he was looking at and focused on the rattling instrument.
“Another dimensional flood?” He said to himself, frowning. However, the enchantment didn’t seem to be spitting out a location. Perhaps it wasn’t working correctly yet?
He had spent a great deal of time hiring a group of [Enchanters] through the Society’s connections in the Sigmusi Empire, but studies of dimensional mana were simply too rare these days. Thus, the instruments built to detect dimensional floods were prototypes, and very much prone to issues sometimes. However, he could have sworn that this model was fairly issue-free. At least so far, they hadn’t seemed to make the same errors previous models had made. He frowned trying to figure out what was happening.
After looking over the enchanted item, his confusion deepened. As far as he could tell, the instrument had faithfully recorded a massive change in the dimensional mana of this world. However, it couldn’t detect any specific location, and it also didn’t detect any dimensional floods.
He checked a few duplicates of the enchantment, to see if it was an issue with the instrument. But all of the other items gave the same reading.
Something very strange was happening. He left his study, and glanced at the two Mages tinkering with a few items in the next room.
“Esma,” he said, addressing the closest Mage. “Send a message to the other four heads of the Society, would you? Something very unusual is being picked up by the analysis devices. All of them are reacting as if a giant dimensional tunnel is about to rip open the world at any moment. However, there aren’t any locations. Something weird is happening. Tell them it’s urgent, and to come to my research room immediately.” As he said it, his heart tightened.
For decades, the Society of Starry Eyes had been founded for the explicit purpose of preventing the end of the world. In order to make sure that the world didn’t end, he had done horrible, horrible things. He had kidnapped innocent people and experimented on them. He had accepted criminals and psychopaths into the Society of Starry Eyes, all for the purpose of boosting the manpower of the organization. Every single step of the way, he had taken more and more extreme actions in order to make sure that the ultimate end of this world never happened.
For the first time, he had a worrying thought.
What if it wasn’t enough? He had no idea what to make of the dimensional reading he had just found, which might mean that, despite all of his efforts, he was about to fail.
What if, even after throwing away his morals, it still wasn’t enough to save the world?
He gritted his teeth. Now that word had been sent to the others who helped him run the organization, they would figure out a solution. Something had just happened, and he had no idea what it was or how to deal with it. But the five of them together would find a way.
He sighed, and returned to his office.
He picked up the sheaf of papers he had been looking at, and shook his head.
Inside, there was a list of anomalies that had been recorded in the last year.
The increasing amount of dimensional anomalies this year was listed. The increasing failure rate of mana baptisms was also listed, as well as the strange case of more and more children gaining access to their status screen early and then exhibiting all sorts of bizarre behavior. He hadn’t paid as much attention to the last issue, since the dimensional floods seemed far more pressing of a concern, but he had still made an effort to gather information about the subject.
Finally, there was a list of other [Scholars] and Mages who seemed to have been investigating topics relevant to the studies of the Society of Starry Eyes.
There were perhaps eighty people listed here. After all, the strange status screens and lower survival rates for mana baptisms was something that affected the future of every country. While some countries hadn’t quite realized the implications yet, plenty of countries in the world had already started to put together teams of researchers to investigate what was happening. People weren’t placing a huge emphasis on the topic yet, but they would probably place more and more focus on the situation once it became clear how dire it truly was.
Unfortunately, most of the researchers on the list were out of reach for the Society. Plenty of other nations made a habit of raiding Society bases and stealing the information within, but the Society had a hard time retaliating, since their greatest defense was being hard to find. Even though the Society sometimes took more visible actions, they only did so when something truly critical for their research appeared.
While the Society could certainly use most of the research notes the eighty or so researchers had made, none of them were vital enough to risk losing powerful subordinates in exchange. Things weren’t that desperate yet.
Probably.
The Immortal thought of the dimensional floods they had been seeing all year, as well as the strange readings all of his dimensional instruments had just picked up. Then, he gritted his teeth.
Perhaps he hadn’t been taking extreme enough actions recently. That was why he had been blindsided by the strange occurrence a few minutes ago. He needed to stop worrying so much about preserving his organization, and focus more on doing what needed to be done. Regardless of the cost, he was going to make sure that the world didn’t end.
He scanned the files again, looking through the names and information about the countries that the Society was most active in.
He started organizing the files by how easy it would be to steal research notes from each one, as well as how feasible it was to kidnap the researcher in question and force them to work for the Society.
Plenty of the researchers were hard or impossible to target. They were too strong to fight without a large squad of powerful fighters, or their location was hard to verify, or the Society simply didn’t have an active enough presence in the area where they lived to make kidnapping or stealing feasible. However, there were some potential targets that were more promising. Some researchers, for example, weren’t particularly strong on their own, but were instead protected by strong people. This was a much better potential target: after all, if the strong protector could be lured away or distracted, stealing the researcher and their notes would be surprisingly easy afterwards.
Normally, the Immortal wouldn’t have resorted to such measures. Kidnapping someone and forcing them to work for the Society was often difficult, and so unless they had a particularly exploitable weakness or weak morals, he wouldn’t bother trying to kidnap them. The payoff simply wasn’t worth the risk.
However, the strange dimensional reading made him truly afraid that all of his hard work and decisions for the past decades would be in vain.
If he didn’t take some risks, perhaps the world would end. Not in a decade, not in a century, not in some far-off future.
Perhaps this dimension would collide with the other dimension tomorrow, killing the residents of this world and ending any hope they had of saving the world.
Something had to be done. Even if it was risky and might backfire, he needed to move as soon as possible.
He found several potentially promising targets to steal from or kidnap, and then awaited the other powerful members of the Society of Starry Eyes.
Among the several targets whose files he had set aside, one of them was the picture of a sixteen-year old girl by the name of Alice Verianna.
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