CELESTIAL VOID DAGGER

As Lynne and the King returned to the room, the atmosphere immediately grew solemn. Pairs of eyes danced in the sockets as they waited for the King to speak, but he merely walked around, back to his chair, in silence. Lynne stopped behind him, expressionless outwardly, but burning with joy. He didn’t care much for the resolution of this meeting, but as someone was trying to use him to pawn off their own misconducts, he couldn’t wait to see some heads fly.

“Viscount.” the King spoke grimly, breaking the heavy silence.

“Yes, my King?” the old man quivered slightly as he saw King’s fierce gaze.

“I just got a hold of some interesting information,” the King spoke on calmly. “From the Headmaster of the Skyfire Academy no less. When I asked him whether he ever heard of this ‘Lynne Hyord’, he actually told him that not only did he know the boy, but that the boy was staying at the Academy for the past two weeks. Which is of public record.” as the words fell, all eyes suddenly turned to the old man whose lips trembled.

“My King, I swear, I have checked three times and--”

“Stop spouting nonsense!!” the Grand Elder interrupted him harshly, his face burning red. “Are you accusing the King of lying?”

“O-of course not!! I would never dare!!”

“Then are you accusing the Headmaster of lying?” the King asked.

“N-no… no… I would never...”

“Then what are you implying, Viscount?”

“I… I…”

“Scum!!” the Grand Elder yelled as he smashed his fist against the stone table; red quickly dripped down as the wound was opened, but he didn’t even seem to notice. “Selling your soul to the devil would have been more honorable than conspiring with our enemies against us!! I spit on you!” Lynne understood King’s and the Grand Elder’s intentions; actually, it was still unknown whether the man was traitor, or he simply mishandled the investigation. It would probably be impossible to prove either way without confession, but by pressing him with accusations, they had hoped he’d break. However, Lynne knew that this man wasn’t actually a traitor, but pawn at best. Someone who handles himself this poorly under pressure would have never managed to do the feats attributed to him. The King probably figured out the same, which is the reason the man was still breathing.

“Who are you working for?” the King asked, calming his furious heart.

“My King… I…” the man stuttered; clearly, he had little to no experience on calmly making decisions under pressure. If he had simply denied it ferverntly, there would only be doubt and nothing more. However, in times like this, even doubt is enough to get yourself beheaded…

“….” the King suddenly disappeared and appeared behind the Viscount, grabbing him by the collar and rising him up into the air. “I hope it was worth it!” he then threw him viciously against the wall, causing sounds of bones cracking to resonate through the room, turning the faces of others pale white. The man coughed out a few mouthfuls of blood before he blacked out. “Take him to the dungeons,” the King then spoke to the Grand Elder. “Torture names out of him. Then publicly behead him.”

“At once, my King!!” the Grand Elder immediately nodded and left the room, with the old man in tow.

“As for the rest of you,” he then spoke to the others. “If word of this gets out, all of you will be beheaded – without exception. Understood?” fear is a powerful conduct. Even while most of the men here were at least peak Master Mages, they still shivered under the King’s gaze and nodded unconditionally, quickly getting up and leaving the room, leaving behind Lynne and the King. The latter slowly sat back into his chair and sighed as he shook his head. “I need to thank you lad,” the King spoke rather softly to Lynne. “Even though we would have probably cleared the names of the three, it would have still taken time and effort, two things we can’t afford at times like these. Here,” the King suddenly threw an object at Lynne, who quickly caught it; it was a palm-sized, simple stone talisman with engraving of lion’s head at its center. “It’s a ‘Royal Sigil’. Take this to the ‘Royal Treasury’ and show it to the guards. Pills, weapons, spell scrolls, whatever it is you desire, you can take five items in total from the first level of treasury. Keep up the good work, and you won’t be mistreated.” I’m filthy rich!!! was the first thought that emerged in Lynne’s mind when the King explained talisman’s role. “You may leave now.”

“Yes, my Lord!” Lynne joyously nodded, grateful to the King from the bottom of his heart.

He quickly left the room, leaving behind the King alone, to contemplate in silence. As he left the room, he immediately headed over to the treasury, which was located at the far northern parts of the Palace’s first floor. He didn’t really care for any of the items in there, but their value in gold – after all, whatever was deemed a ‘treasure’ by the Kings themselves must hold some exceptional value. He nigh began skipping on his way there from joy. Suddenly, though, a thought pierced his mind and caused his joy to subside greatly. Wait, I can’t think in terms of monetary gain. I heard that some pills or potions can actually enhance the speed of training, or even restore Mana completely when depleted. If my aim are mountains of gold, I can’t settle for a hill; I told myself I’d do anything to become powerful Magus, and then gold would roll into my pockets with ease. I should use this opportunity to find something useful that will help me strengthen myself.

As he finally concluded his thoughts, a glint of determination passed through his eyes as he moved towards the treasury. First floor of palace was more like a mini-village rather than just a floor of a building. Due to its sheer size, it had its own market, shops and even craftsmen quadrant. Treasury was boarded off behind several guard sentries and outposts, and was guarded by some of the most powerful warriors of the Palace, as access to the first floor – unlike those upper ones – was somewhat unrestricted, and traffic was rather common as it was one of the most secure places to conduct trades and business deals. As he went through countless check points where he had to repeatedly show his talisman, he had finally reached the end, which was a spacious stone courtyard with a small, wooden cabin at the corner, and large, steel doors, five meters tall, standing in the center of the frontal wall. The doors had hundreds of different locks, and several magical seals cast onto them. Lynne guessed it was probably impossible to break it. When he showed the three guards his stone talisman, they pointed at the small hole next to the steel doors, sized exactly the same as the talisman.

“You can stay in there for as long as you want,” one of the guards further explained. “Although we don’t need to check what you take out of there, we will have to confirm that you only took five pieces. When you wish to leave, simply knock three times. Understood?”

“Understood.” Lynne nodded.

“Good, go in now.”

The moment Lynne placed the talisman into the hole, it was swallowed by a great suction force from behind it, disappearing. Startled, he took a step back when he heard a soft ‘creak’ as the steel doors suddenly opened – just widely enough for him to squeeze through. The moment he entered, the doors quickly closed behind him.

Lynne was immediately surprised, as his image of ‘Royal Treasury’ and what was here completely differed. He expected glittering gold and gems to be strewn about the floors, with massive chests filled up to brim, creating endless hills of expensive stuff. However, what he got were eight wooden shelves, each one ten stories high, going up to roughly fifteen meters. Rest of the room was completely plain, with walls being completely white, occasionally shimmering some strange, runic character. Except for the shelves, there was also a small platform with a plain altar atop of it, and a small parchment of paper. Lynne quickly examined it and learned some basic information about the treasury. Everything in it was categorized into eight categories, and within each categories, items were divided up to ten levels, and placed on according shelves, from bottom to top. Each piece had a small sheet of paper next to it, describing its name and usage. Pretty neat, huh… As Lynne lazily inspected the room, he noticed that each floor of each shelf had at least five-six items, even those top ones. However, it wasn’t necessarily true that only those items at the very top had immense value. A lot of things in the Magus world were rather ambiguous, and the idea of ‘power’ can easily be played around with. For example, if there was an ice sword at the top shelf that increased potency of the ice spells by a huge amount, but he was someone who primarily cast fire spells, the sword would be completely useless for him, regardless of how powerful it may be.

He casually went to the first shelf at the left, which was place where ‘Precious Gemstones’ were located. While some were purely cosmetic and had no practical effects, most had an actual usage outside of shining. Lynne casually swept his gaze past the shelf and picked up a sheet of paper that was placed next to a round, scarlet gem.

“’Red Dragon Ruby’,” he read slowly. “Slightly increases potency of fire-based spells. Can be self-destruct as a mini-bomb.” Wow, this is some good stuff! Lynne immediately began drooling, as he calculated that this small gem was probably worth at least two thousand gold coins! Putting the sheet of paper back, he picked up the one next to it, describing an oval-shaped purple gem. “’Demonic Mana Stone’, slightly increases dark-based spells. Slightly increases Mana recovery. Can be crushed to instantly recover large amount of Mana.” Holy crap, this one would go for at least five thousand!!! If I robbed this place silly, I could buy my own freaking kingdom! Naturally, if Lynne could actually rob this place, he wouldn’t need to be here in the first place. Deciding to first pick up a weapon before he just picked five random gems, he walked over to the shelf next to the first one where weapons were located.

One could find everything here – from wooden staffs to glimmering scythes. Weapons of all shapes and sizes were neatly stacked next to one another, causing Lynne’s heartbeat to increase. Two thousand, fifty thousand, two hundred thousand… as he mentally calculated the amount of gold stored in this damned place, he walked over to a small, curved saber. Its blade was slightly rusted, and hilt had a carving of a coiling Dragoon. Picking up the sheet of the paper next to it, he began reading.

“’Coiling Saber’, quick and agile weapon. Can innately stretch and contort, enabling a wielder to coil the blade around another object.” … this is insane!! He immediately picked up a sheet of paper next to a long, great sword which shimmered brightly.

“’Frost Devil Sword’, has potent, frost aura, making it possible to instantly freeze one’s surroundings. Enhances potency of ice-based spells. Sword has self-intent which can invade the person when wounded, causing their mental state to falter.” I NEED THEM ALL!!! As Lynne screamed internally, he spotted a small dagger in the corner of his eyes. The dagger appeared rather unremarkable, slightly purple in color, with barely curved blade. The entire handle was composed of coiled, white gauze. Picking up the sheet of paper next to it, Lynne’s eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets.

“’Celestial Void Dagger’, when combined with ‘Mind’ and ‘Space’ Magical Arts, can instantly teleport anywhere within twenty meters of the caster. Cannot be sensed by any ordinary spells. The dagger will instantly aim at the closest vital organ of its target. Its blade can be replaced for a sharper one.” This is just fourth freaking shelf, and I already found my weapon!! What the hell is at these floors above?! Lynne immediately picked up the dagger; even if he did find more powerful weapons, this dagger suited him quite well. Whatever five items he’d take out of this place, he realized the dagger had to be one of them.