NOVEL NEXT 96 Chapter 96
[The Wheel is spinning...]
Xavier ignored both the feeling and the drops of the rain crashing against his skin from the surrounding, focusing solely on the wheel which lay ahead of him.
The wheel spun and spun, and with every option that the arrow passed Xavier could feel his anxiousness growing.
After what felt like half a minute, Xavier could no longer bear it.
"What's going on... Why's it still spinning?" He asked whilst looking around.
It was almost time for the end of his break. The group wouldn't be able to finish repairs without him.
[Rewind Level 3: Revert.]
[Allows the User to restore the state of an object or an organism to a previous state.]
[State can be reverted up to 30 minutes back.]
It hadn't yet been thirty minutes since the mansion was destroyed, but it was approaching it. They'd already finished off on the side of the mansion which had suffered the most damage and was closest to the time limit.
The main hall, and the west-end and north-end hall. All that was left was the east and south end respectively.
The break was exactly five minutes each and here was Xavier, spending an entire minute of it spinning a wheel.
"Come on!" He urged on, and just as he'd hoped. The wheel began to slow down.
*Tic* *Tic* *Tic*
With every option it passed, the sound of a tic resounded. And once it passed it's final option.
*Ding!*
A bell ringing notification came.
[The wheel has landed on an ancient relic!]
Xavier's eyes drifted over to the option in landed on in anticipation. Was it going be a sword? An axe? Maybe even a spear?
Xavier didn't know, but boy was he excited.
Or at least he was until, he saw its shape.
'A cube...?' He questioned, his expression slowly fading from excitement over to confusion.
[Would you like to claim the ancient relic?]
A cube was by far the least interesting shape of the entire list of options.
"Could I maybe spin again?" Xavier asked.
[Negative.]
Xavier sighed.
'Oh well, it's better than nothing.'
"Claim."
*FWOOSH!*
At the mention of the word, a bright radiant light flashed across the area almost blinding Xavier as he forced his eyes shut.
Squinting at the light, he could see a blue light similar to that of the one he used when he activated the [Teleportation crystal.]
Shortly after the light came, a cube the size of a football instantly appeared before bursting towards him.
"Huh-"
*VOOM!*
The Cube struck Xavier straight in the centre of his guts, interrupting him whilst launching him across the roof.
He was dragged across the roof tiles, breaking them apart before coming to a stop with his back at the very edge of the mansion.
Xavier who managed to stay on his feet, panting heavily while looking down at the cube. He watched as it slowly fell off of his stomach, down onto the broken roof tile ahead of him.
"*Huff* What... *Huff* ...the hell..."
'That was definitely personal... Was it because I asked to respin it?"
[Ancient Relic Claimed!]
[Ancient Relic Type: Amplifier & ???]
[Name: Reality Breaker Cube.]
Xavier stared at the relic type and raised a brow before side-eyeing the cube. 'Reality breaker? That thing?' Xavier wondered.
"It's a cool ass name, that's for sure." He muttered as he leaned down to grab it.
Upon lifting it up, his eyes narrowed.
"It's quite heavy."
Xavier swung it around a few times, trying to get a feel for it's weight. Once he was used to it, he began inspecting it.
Currently, it wasn't doing anything special really. It was a simple silver cube with outlines running across it.
"It's an amplifier type so maybe that's it's ability? How do I activate it?" Xavier asked.
[...]
The system did not respond.
"So it doesn't know..." He muttered.
Xavier rotated the cube around, looking for some sort of switch but ended up finding nothing.
While flipping it around however, he ended up discovering that the outlines were parts which could move. Xavier played around with the moveable parts and realised that it resembled some sort of puzzle.
Xavier could move the outlined parts around in some sort of pattern, the queen was that he didn't know what pattern it was they were supposed to be.
Xavier recalled a toy cube he had as a child, it had different colours on each side and he was supposed to move the parts around to try and connect all of the respective colours on a single side together.
This used somewhat of the same concept, only there were no colours or any indication of what was supposed to be where.
A troubled look appeared on Xavier's face as he racked his brain.
"So the key to using it is to solve this problem... Is every relic like this?"
[Powerful relics contain functions and requirements which make it harder for the individual to use.]
[In cases where the User is able to meet the requirements the relic must find the User to be compatible to prove truly useful.]
"Ah... That sounds like a pain..." He muttered.
Xavier was on the verge of tears as he continued trying to figure out the pattern when all of the sudden-
*SWOOSH!*
The confused figures of Sophie, Sangrea and the Butler, appeared. The three were looking around hastily and were on guard.
"What happened!?" Sangrea asked.
"Are we under attack?!" Sophie added.
Xavier stood there, staring at Sophie without saying anything. An idea had suddenly popped up in his mind.
"Sophie!" Xavier called out happily. "Solve this for me." He commanded, shamelessly while pointing at the cube he was holding up.
"Eh?" Sangrea and Sophie both let out in confusion.
Sangrea and the Butler watched as Sophie inspected the scene. The rooftiles were scattered around in a trail leading towards Xavier.
His shirt was even more torn than before and his stomach was slightly caved in and his back had cuts and bruises which were healing.
"That light we saw wasn't a mistake, something definitely happened... You were dragged across the roof... Was it because of that cube?" Sophie asked.
Xavier smiled at her deduction.
"That's right. It's some sort of puzzle and I want you to try and solve it.
"Wha- Where did it even come from?"
"Thin air."
Sophie narrowed her eyes.
"Let me get this straight, you were attacked by this random cube thing which turned out to be a puzzle and now you want me to solve it without doubting whether or not it's a bomb or harmful to us."
"Ah- Don't worry. It won't do anything like that." He chuckled.
Xavier refrained from telling them that it was ancient relic. He didn't want to explain how he got it so he just made up an excuse that it came out of nowhere.
Sophie glanced over at Sangrea and the Butler, wondering if they were hearing how absurd he was sounding, and the two gave her a thumbs up.
'...'
Sophie sighed.
She walked over to Xavier, grabbed the cube from his hand before sitting down beside him.
Without saying any words she quickly began playing around with it.
Xavier watched her with a smile before having his attention taken by Sangrea who suddenly pinched him on the side of his stomach.
She'd appeared beside him without him even noticing. Even though he'd evolved, her unsealed state was still physically superior.
"Ouch- Sangrea?" Xavier called out, looking over at her.
To his surprise, Sangrea had her cheeks puffed out along with her bottom lip protruding outwards. She was pouting.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"Nothing... Head Butler was telling me to come get you. Our break time is over."
Xavier glanced over at the head butler and could see him pointing at the broken roof tile trail Xavier had left.
"If possible could we start off with this?" He asked whilst smiling.
"Sure, I'll be right there."
Xavier proceeded to look over towards Sangrea, before patting her on the head. "So, you going to tell me why you're sulking before I go?"
"..."
Sangrea who had been avoiding eye contact, looked over to him steeling her resolve to say it. The moment she opened her mouth to-
"Oh, you were sulking because I asked Sophie for help and not you right?" Xavier asked.
Sangrea froze, Sophie who had heard them thanks to her Vampire Hearing also froze for a second before acting as if she heard nothing.
Meanwhile Xavier, who again showed no mercy in regards to the feelings of those close to him harboured a confused look.
Sangrea's expression turned bright red from embarassment once she snapped out of it. Looking over at Xavier, she realised there was no point in denying it.
"You didn't have to say that out loud... Xavi, you idiot..."
"Why not? There's nothing wrong with it. Knowing you, you'd probably be able to solve it, but we need your abilities for fixing up the house. Sophie isn't really needed so I thought no one would care if she lazed around."
"Oi-" Sophie interrupted.
Sangrea listened carefully to Xavier's words as he continued.
"Either way, you have your specialties. She has hers. I'm counting on the both of you to help me out. When things get tough, alright?" Xavier asked.
Sangrea slowly nodded her, her sulk slowly fading.