In the courtyard of the adventurer association, an officer was looking over a crowd of adventurers who would soon be joining the military.
These were the new recruits from Losla, and Michael stood by the officers side.
The second officer was sitting behind a desk outside as he recorded their nas, level, class and that they were from Losla village before making a report for the other officer.
“Hmm… according to our records there is usually more… You have been saying the script right?” the officer enquired of Michael
“Of course” Michael smiled, pulling out a note as he used an overly enthusiastic voice, so enthusiastic that it sounded almost sarcastic, as he began to read it before the officer:
“Working in the military is an opportunity to serve your country, your king, and achieve greatness. You will be given the proper training to achieve your potential and beco a brother among many!”
He put the note away with a shit-eating grin, knowing that he read it with the most dull and boring voice he could muster when he initially read it.
The officer sighed “Hmmh, very well.” He could sll Michaels bullshit from a mile away.
“There were going to be two more as well, but they are on a short mission. We’ll be sending them at our own expense directly to a military hub.” Michael added..
“I see, good. Everything’s in order so we’ll be leaving in a few hours.”
“Okay. If there’s anything else, speak to Margaret at reception.” Michael pointed to the building.
“Thanks. We’ll see you in a year then.” said the officer bluntly, looking at the other one as he made a hand sign, signalling him to start getting the soldiers to pack up.
The soldiers began to herd the adventurers, getting them to pack up first before they put their own tents away, dismantling the various cooking objects over the fire pits and filling in the holes.
Other adventurers did the sa while one of them flattened the earth again before leaving – he had made himself a whole dirt house to sleep in, to the envy of so of the other adventurers – though a few befriended him as they thought they could get an advantage by being his friend.
– – –
Viladore walked into his office, ready to start another day of research.
“Oh?” he raised a brow, seeing a black package with a red ribbon around it sitting on his desk.
“Oh!” realising what it was, he was excited – a little too excited for an old mage.
“Finally, finally!” He ripped the red ribbon off as it fell to the ground, opening the package.
“Oh my” it wasn’t visible but as soon as he opened the noon-leather, a dense wave of mana resonated from the package.
“Better than I expected.” he smiled widely with a toothy grin.
The noon-leather contained a small wooden box with five black crystals inside, each of them levitating quietly inside the enchanted box. The crystals were spindle-shaped and seed to absorb all light, they were purely black without any gleam or glint.
“Amazing” he smiled as he picked one up and went around to sit at his desk.
With a finger, he pressed on his black cube, tapping it a few tis.
“Ti to wake up.”
“Initiating…” the cube responded, while Viladore gazed into the black crystal.
It was hard to tell he was even holding it in his hand as it seed to look like a hole was in his hand which opened into an abyss; looking like a hole in space and ti itself.
“…Initialised. Hello master.”
“Start the mana sense practice. The materials ca in so we’re going to start experinting again.” he said, putting a black crystal next to the cube.
“Try to feel the presence of this crystal.”
“Yes master. Beginning routine.”
Viladore put the other four crystals into his inventory. “I’ll keep adding them until it works… then if not, I’ll even try building them into the cube itself, but that will be a last resort.”
By now, Viladore had almost spent his life savings on making this black cube. He had not only sunk money into his black cube project, but his ti, effort and energy. The cube was at first his retirent plan, but soon he realised that it would give him enough power to rival kingdoms.
The cube was ant to absorb ambient mana and convert it into its own body structure and fuel source. Viladore believed that its body could grow endlessly larger, learn magic and even use it’s own body to fuel spells. The only problem was that it couldn’t sense mana, which was a necessary step to absorbing it. For the ti being, Viladore had to channel his own mana into it to keep it alive.
Originally, Viladore studied materials in the capital city. He was part of a research branch of mages which operated under the safety bearers. Much of the research was classified, as it would be too dangerous in the wrong hands. This was the sa group that was responsible for creating materials with anti-magic properties.
After stumbling upon a discovery by himself in a laboratory, he imdiately destroyed it. He began to continue researching this discovery in secret, eventually creating the first version of the black cube.
Viladore needed a better lab to work from – rather than his ho’s kitchen, so he quit his job and left the capital, saying that he wants to do sothing more inspiring like teaching.
Since he was rely a researcher, they let him go.
He found the most remote adventurer guilds he could on a map and began to scrutinise their leaders; this was when he found out about Sullivan.
Sullivan was a powerful magician, though he was discharged from the military for classified reasons. Using so of his ties to the research departnt, Viladore found out that Sullivan was friends with a B3-class variant – soone with a dangerous class.
Variant just ant soone that couldn’t be controlled if they got too powerful, while B3-class was a grading system.
A normal class wouldn’t be on the grading system as they wouldn’t be considered dangerous, though soone with a powerful class would have a rank of either S, A, B, C, D, E or F.
For instance, a C-class variant would start as a C1. As they got stronger they would beco a C2; all the way up to a C7, which was the strongest this person could be.
Rosa, the leech queen, would have been considered an E1-class variant.
S-class variants were easily powerful people with the most dangerous classes, for example, anyone who had access to soul, law, dinsion, love or micro type magic.
Normally, an E or F class person would be secretly monitored and eventually either recruited into the safety bearers with a slave contract, or killed – either way, they would disappear.
One of the biggest secrets in the kingdom was that the slave contracts were made by a soul mage who was controlled by the safety bearers.
Sullivans B3-class friend was killed by the safety bearers. Since they both served in the military, Sullivan escaped harsher punishnt for knowingly hiding his friends’ variant class. He was discharged from the military as punishnt, stripped of his command title and his ornantal armour was taken away. Though to keep his skills from going to waste, and as paynt for his service, he was sent to the wilderness to run the adventurer guild.
Since Sullivan had a questionable relationship with the safety bearers and probably wouldn’t report anything unusual, this guild was the perfect place for Viladore to start his experints on the cube. Losla was a quiet, safe place to start growing and more deeply researching his discovery, which of course led to the cube becoming semi-sentient.
Now, all he had to do was wait for the results.
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