Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

Chapter 119: The Lie (1)

How are you feeling?" Wrik asked.

"I am good," Anton answered. "I still have not managed to break the seal. I don't know what type of seal they put, it's really troublesome."

"Don't think about that. Rest for now. You will have plenty of time breaking the seal." 

Anton nodded, and Wrik moved to the stone table. He remained sitting there for some time until he heard Anton's breathing growing even and gentle.

They had moved to the cave again. After talking with Anton and others, they had not wasted a moment. Now in the cave, there were about forty people or more--counting the people who came from the fortress, and the people Jacob saved. Fortunately, it was big enough to hold them. It could hold as far as a couple of hundreds easily, and with the flag installed, they had extra protection against the chilly aura.

After the number of people raised, Tanya and Byul choose to take a separate room with Michelle. It was the room just to the side of the one he was in. Wrik felt relieved. He was feeling quite awkward these few days staying in the same room. He did not complain, but with his behaviour, it was clear he did not like sharing rooms with others, especially with a girl. And he slept in the same stone bed with two girls. 

Now it was only Anton and him here. Jacob and Davin chose a room not so far away, and while the three newcomersthe tall warrior women that he thought out to be related to Lily, really was related. It turned out they were the sisters Lily mentioned before, and there were still a few more they have not met yet. 

Lily was extremely happy to find her sisters today, Dairyl and Lora, too. 

Putting all those thoughts to rest, Wrik opened his baggage. From there, he opened another small bagthe one Anton delivered to him just before entering the test. In this week of the test, he did not have the time to check the content inside it. Now was better than ever to check it. With that, he recovered a small metal box from the bag.

Before entering the Little war, Wrik asked Anton to buy a specific item from the omega store. Anton had paid for the swift boot he got from the Wheel of Fortune. Even though it was an incomplete artifact, it was worth more than twenty thousand omega pointsaccording to the bald shopkeeper. It was enough to pay for the item they needed.

Wrik was startled the moment he tried to open the bag physically. The air tide chain did not budge even a bit, even after Wrik put in some amount of that that was enough to tear a bag like that. But there was no sign or tear or anything.

"It's storage equipment," Wrik concluded. He had seen a similar bag with Tanya that could store more than the size of articles, and it did not weigh more than a normal bag. Wrik did not know how much this spatial storage bag cost. Was it possible for Anton to buy it after with the leftover credits?

Wrik looked back at Anton to find he was still sleeping, but Wrik raised an eyebrow. He sighed, saying, "You don't need to act anymore."

"Busted!" Anton laughed, opening his eyes. Seeing the look on Wrik's face, Anton excused, "I can't sleep this early, and I think I won't have a clear rest if I did not break the seal yet."

Wrik clicked his tongue at Anton. He showed the bag to Anton and asked, "How much does this thing cost?"

"I have no idea," Anton chuckled. "I just wanted to exchange the boot with the Cube. Heck, I didn't even know that was spatial storage equipment. I just saw Ryatthat Bald shopkeeper, put in the cube inside it."

"You are irresponsible as always."

"Well, you just asked me at the last moment before the test. I did not have time to check the contents," Anton said. "Besides, having a spatial storage bag is not a bad thing. And you know Ryat, that cheapskate; do you think he would give me even a penny if it did not cover by the boot?"

"That sounds quite reasonable," Wrik nodded, as he went to the bed again. As Anton said, he would not sleep anytime soon, so there was no harm observing the content with him. 

"I think you need to infuse mana to open that," Anton added, pointing at the storage equipment.

Wrik nodded. He could already guess that. Waiting no further, he infused mana into the bag, and with his consciousness, he willed to open it. The bag opened then like almost a normal bag, but inside it was not just the omega cubehe asked Anton to buy. There was another vial with viscous liquid inside it.

"What is this?" Wrik asked Anton, who gave him a look that he was as lost as him. Wrik examined the small vial. It held about 10ml of the viscous liquid, and he found nothing else apart from that, and his inspecting was of no use either. He was no fool to inspect it, opening the vial as it might get wasted in the natural temperature or getting into contact with other elements. 

Shaking his head, Wrik opened the box, putting in the passcode, the one that held the scarlet ruby Lucas sent to them. There was that weird key-Wrik got from the wheel of Fortune there as well. Though he only needed the ruby for now.

After browsing in the sanctuary, Wrik had found out he needed special equipment to decrypt the data holding inside the ruby, and the Crystal cube was just the equipment.

"I wonder what Lucas put into that," Anton said. 

"You will find it soon," saying that Wrik infused mana into the crystal cube as it lit up in faint blue light. But before he could try anything, the light raised to some degree as an image-hologram above it. 

"Are you too startled to see me?" said the man in the hologram. It was none other than the bald Omega salesman Ryat Higgs. 

Wrik gave Anton a side glance who was as bewildered.

"Ryat?" Anton could not help but say.

"No need for that," Ryat in the hologram said in that same weird pitch tone. "This is a recording massage, so I won't be able to hear your voice. If you want to something, then wait for the next meeting."

Wrik and Anton waited for the bald guy to continue. Why had he left a message for them and why was there an extra article than they asked for?

"By the time you get this message, you will already be in the test. I wish for your success," Ryat said. "Though it would be almost impossible for you guys to win. But I do wish you guys can show m something interesting, show the authorities something they would not expect." 

"What's he talking about?" Anton asked irritably. 

"Beats me," Wrik shook his head. "It does not look like he is badmouthing us."

Ryat or rather the hologrammed massage continued. "For that, I leave you a gift. The little vial you saw is for Mister Everknight. You don't need to be pressured about it though. You can pay me back the cost later if you like. The thing in the vial is something extremely rare, and it was an item you would rather need as soon as possible." 

"Just spill out what it is?" Anton hissed.

"It is a Light Elemental catalyst. It would help a person with Light elemental affinity to awaken their element," Ryat continued. "You can guess how rare it is, and as for the cost, leave it for our next encounter. Just focus on the test. I wonder if you could show me something interesting." 

The hologram dimmed out, and the image of the bald man vanished from it.

Wrik grasped the vial and looked at Anton. "Ton?"

Anton smiled embarrassedly, "I wonder if my swift boot was enough to pay for it."

Wrik rubbed his forehead, shaking his head. "Even if you had both the pair, I don't think it would be enough to pay for this vial."

"How do you know?" 

"I asked Sophia about it," Wrik continued, giving another look at the vial. "According to her, a catalyst of common elements like Fire or water would cost from a thousand points to a couple thousand, and as for the rare element like Light, Shadow, Darkness it would be a bargain if you can seal the deal within ten thousand omega points."

"Wow, I saved ten thousand omega points for my shadow element," Anton muttered. He glanced at Wrik again. "So you are not going to use it or what?"

Wrik shook his head, "As you know, I do not like to owe others something," he said. "And besides, there is a catch to use this catalyst, there are some terrible effects that I would rather not have. I will wait for a natural awakening."

"As you wish," Anton nodded as he already guessed that. "Open the thing Lucas left us already, I'm getting impatient."

"Impatience is your nature. Just wait a while, before I get to open it." Saying that, Wrik infused mana into the cube as an omega window appeared in his retina. Within the fewer options, Wrik chose the option 'Decrypt'. "Here we go."

__________

The next chapter will be quite important.

Vote with power stones or Goden tickets if you appreciate the story.