NOVEL NEXT Chapter 154 - Spatial Pocket
[Human Lv 130// Spinejack Marauder Lv 139 // Urban Demolitionist Lv 119] has been slain – Partial XP has been given.*
*Your Race has reached Lv 96 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*
That brings the number to four now, Archie thought, pressing his forehead to the cool stone of the cave wall. The ache behind his eyes was dull but persistent, a mix of exhaustion and quiet tension that hadn't left since the collapse.
It had been a couple of days since he, Tim, and Aoife had finished the Savoris Silicon Mine Infestation Guild Quest. And only now did he get the fourth kill notification out of the six he'd been expecting.
More proof, not that he needed it, that fighting the Hounds that had traveled into the mine would have been a very, very bad idea.
If they had survived having a whole damn mountain drop on their heads, then the three of them would have died without a shadow of a doubt if they were to have fought.
Still, the fact that the fourth one had lasted this long – and that two of the other Hounds hadn't died either – it's like they're cockroaches, he thought with a tired huff of amusement.
If they hadn't dropped by now, then they were probably booking it back to their base. The flesh golem had died during the collapse, which only made their ability to track him even weaker.
Archie closed his eyes for a moment, recalling the notifications he dismissed.
*[Corrupted Silicon Elemental Lv 118] has been slain – Partial XP has been given.*
*Your Class has reached Lv 96 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*
***
*Your Class has reached Lv 99 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*
*Your Race has reached Lv 92 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*
***
*Your Race has reached Lv 93 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*
*Your Profession has reached Lv 87 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*
***
*Your Profession has reached Lv 89 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*
[Human Lv 120// Neurocrusher Lv 119 // Redline Enforcer Lv 108] has been slain – Partial XP has been given.*
[Human Lv 122// Biovat Brute Lv 115 // Urban Demolitionist Lv 122] has been slain – Partial XP has been given.*
[Human Lv 123// Goreware Sentinel Lv 114 // Debt Collecter Lv 119] has been slain – Partial XP has been given.*
[Flesh Golem Lv 15] has been slain – Partial XP has been given.*
Scent of the Hunted has weakened.
*Your Race has reached Lv 94 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*
*Your Race has reached Lv 95 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*
Using his 43 Free Points, he allocated 21 into Wisdom and 22 into Willpower – After all, you could never have too much mana or mental magic resistance, he thought while smirking to himself, he pulled up the quest notifications triggered by reaching level 99 in his Class.
Quest: Flawless Evolution
Do you accept this quest?
To which he, of course, accepted and received the follow-up Quest Tracker:
Flawless Evolution
Objective: Reach max level in Race, Class, and Profession before evolving 1/3
Class Requirement: Kill a formidable opponent
Profession Requirement:
Reward: Flawless D-Grade Evolution title.
I wonder how good the buffs are with the Flawless D-Grade Evolution title, Archie mused to himself.
The quiet of the cave pressed in, comforting and heavy all at once.
He turned away from the wall and toward the central area of his home, a half-claimed cavern whose walls were covered in half-formed runic bases, spatial compression equations, and looping diagrams he'd scribbled down in charcoal.
The reason he stuck to charcoal for his runic base mockups, equations, and diagrams was simple: he was 99% sure that if he used his Runic Scriber, either the hill above him would collapse, or on the wildly improbable end, he'd accidentally teleport himself into the sun.
Which, to be fair, the latter only had a 0.000000001% chance of happening… while the former was sitting pretty at a solid 99.999999999%. And considering his track record of already demolishing an entire mountain using runes alone, he wasn't willing to risk his cave collapsing on top of him.
Archie inhaled slowly and let the mana build in his palm. A cold heat shimmer spread outward, forming a thin, flat disc of condensed space – no bigger than a quarter. He flicked it forward, watching as it silently sliced through the air and etched itself into the stone wall like a razor-edged ripple.
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The effect only lasted a few seconds.
But it was clean. Stable.
That makes five successful transitions in a row, he noted. Still only half a meter deep. But it's holding its shape a lot better than the previous attempts, so without a doubt, this is a success.
Wiping sweat from his brow, he took a deep breath and let the remaining spatial mana that remained out slowly, mana fading from his hands. His control over Spatial Magic had improved over the past few days, each repetition tightening his grasp on it.
Touching his damp hair, he panicked for a moment before glancing back at his Headdress of the Savage Ursine that was wrapped around the Spirit Nucleus in the opposite corner of the cave, far away from where he practiced his spatial spells and manipulation.
He'd honestly thought the headdress had been completely ruined after using it to hold the elevator box in place after he activated the runic motors that rotated the elevator belt.
But by the time he reached his base, aka the cave, it had already been repaired as he had unintentionally funneled mana into it as he wrapped it around his forearm in a falconer's knot while driving his Mana Bike to Neo-Eden.
As he glanced at his Satchel, his Guild Membership Card vibrated for a moment before a message window popped out in front of it.
► Aoife (Iron Trekker)(Team member):
Sent on Cycle 73 · 3402-08-05 · 06:01:45
Tim and I are heading out north of Neo-Eden to complete a quest on Spontaneous Barn Combustion in the village of Thun'tra. As such, we will not be in Neo-Eden for at least a week, so if anything arises, contact us using the Guild Membership Card's messaging app.
After you submitted the documentation from the Savoris Silicon Mine – including the Molerat Beastcores, the purple crystalline shards, the corrupted silicon – and Tim turned in the footage from his camcorder a few minutes after, everything was approved.
Your share of the reward, a Gold Helix Coin, is currently being held at the guild. You should be able to claim it by showing your membership card to one of the receptionists. As for the bonus reward, we don't know what it is yet, but it should be available in about a week.
Good luck in creating your teleporter.
So, they believed the bullshit I tossed into the report, Archie smirked. He had to explain how and why the entire mine that spanned 85 sublevels collapsed in on itself, and not make it a point to them.
In the report, he embellished and misdirected a few minor details: The size of the explosion of the Corrupted Silicon Golem detonating itself, claiming the explosion rocked the entire sublevel and left it dangerously unstable.
How they couldn't simply grab the Safe and leave, since it had been embedded in the golem's chest, right next to its core. To make matters worse, six D-Grades entered the mine shortly afterward – and the moment they were discovered, a series of explosions tore through the tunnels. They barely made it out by the skin of their teeth.
Needless to say, the guild was skeptical, but after he verbally confirmed that what he wrote was the truth to one of the receptionists with a high rarity lie detection skill, they accepted his report to be turned in and given to the Regional Revisional Department, reasons unknown to him.
Bullshittery at its best, Archie smiled as he sent Aoife a double thumbs up emoji with a smiling face and swiped close his Guild Membership Card panel.
Licking his chapped lips, he glanced toward a chunk of iron ore sitting a few meters in front of him.
He steadied his breathing, focused, and extended his hand. Threads of spatial mana, fine as silk, flowed from his fingers and wriggled in the air for a moment before they began to intertwine with one another and solidify. Inside it, he began to shape the beginnings of a tear not more than half a meter in size.
A spatial rift.
The beginnings of the spell pulsed, flickered for a moment-
-and then imploded with a harsh snap, the backlash jarring his arm and burning his palm.
"Gh-!" Archie hissed soundlessly and gritted his teeth, shaking out the pain. Fuck.
He didn't stop.
He redrew the spell, this time slower, more precisely. The loops were tighter, the structure more deliberate. He focused on the folds – on anchoring the rift to a specific location held within two of the central spell frames that would hold the items, while four theoretical runic stabilizers maintained its structure.
The concept was simple in theory: a persistent spatial pocket sustained by siphoning a small percentage of his mana pool, keeping the rift accessible at all times.
He wouldn't personally use it because of the constant, nudging thought of potentially running out of mana like how he did during the fight with the Infernal Minotaur and the "human" Hound he choked to death.
No, he would've much preferred to create an item bound to his soul—one that didn't require mana to activate its Spatial Storage, like the Livingwood Propagator Bralmir had given him.
The theoretical model he created was solid. His math was solid. He didn't spend five years in university for nothing god damn it.
It should work.
The mana clicked into place. The spell pulsed once more, its nebulaic purple coloring deepened-
-and collapsed inward like a vacuum detonation, kicking dust into his face and dragging the ore chunk two inches before violently slingshotting it into the far wall with a clang.
Archie slumped forward, panting. Fuck, me man. I'm getting closer, I can feel it.
Almost.
He reached into his Spatial Storage for a Potion of Mana, popped open the cork between his fingers, and downed the liquid mana as it rushed into his mana reserves like lightning through copper.
That's the fifth one since I've gotten back, he noted as he put away the cork and the empty potion bottle into his Spatial Storage. Which means I have 20 Low E-Grade mana pots left, he thought, doing a quick inventory on the number of Potions of Mana he had left.
He licked his chapped lips once more out of habit and began again. His hands moved mechanically as he began to retrace the spell once more, forming a rift the color of a swirling nebula.
It began as small as a needle, slowly expanding until it stretched a full meter in length, and held steady for a tense thirty seconds. Then Archie lowered his hands and guided a chunk of iron ore into the rift – his heart beating like a set of war drums.
It slipped into the rift without resistance, just as seamlessly as when he stored items using the Spatial Storage in his Spatial Rings or the Livingwood Propagator.
No sound. No rippling. Nothing abnormal.
He exhaled shakily for a moment before calming himself down.
Spatial mana still flowing, he reached into the hovering rift with his hand. It tingled his bare forearm slightly as his arm wandered around inside it. After a few moments of wriggling around his arm, he felt the ore chunk inside and pulled it back out.
He stared at the iron ore chunk for a few seconds before closing the spell.
He had done it.
Fuck yes, baby! Archie shouted internally as he leapt up, punching the air in triumph. A full week of experimenting, calculating, and refining had finally paid off. Now, all he had to do was transform that Spatial Runic base he created into a physical one.
But that could wait – for now, he was going to eat the brownie cake he'd bought as a reward for finally pulling off Spatial Pocket.