Chapter 71
Cailleach City, in the basement of a luxurious villa.
As the five overlapping contracts dissipated into thin air, the five people faintly felt their souls grow a little heavier.
"The contract is signed, so where's the treasure?" Adele looked around curiously: "I get it, it must be hidden in these tables and chairs. We have to peel off the outer wood to get to it, right?"
It was understandable why Adele would think this way. The basement was filled with nothing but tables and chairs, with no obvious place to hide anything.
"The treasure isn't here." Felix said.
"Not here? Then why did we come?"
Adele was utterly confused, but the others seemed to have expected this. Iris pinched Adele's cheeks in exasperation: "Pay more attention in class! We're mages, not ordinary people. If we want to hide something, how could we do it like normal people and leave it in the real world?"
"If not in the real world, then where... oh, the virtual world!" Adele had a sudden realization, "No wonder we need spirits to open the treasure!"
Compared to the unpredictable real world filled with upheavals and disasters, the virtual world was the ideal storage facility - eternal, free of disasters, and uninhabited.
The virtual world had always been more than just a training ground for mages. It was the cornerstone of the mage system. To this day, no one dared claim they fully understood the virtual world. Almost every year, mages invented new technologies utilizing it.
Mages were like children picking up seashells on the beach, with the vast unknown ocean still before them.
Storing things in the virtual world was nothing new, but had yet to be commercialized even now, remaining an exclusive miracle of high-level mages.
The principle was simple - find a way to fix the virtual world coordinates of the Gate of Truth inside a spirit, ensuring access to the same coordinates every time. That spot would become the mage's personal storage.
Easier said than done, since the Gate appeared randomly inside spirits. How could its coordinates be fixed?
This involved another rarely known field: Spirit Relationships.
Spirits had intellect and thus emotions, but mages couldn't perceive them, at least not below the Saint rank.
But when multiple spirits gathered, their moods would inevitably change. By observing the patterns of change, and fixing one spirit's mood at a certain state, its Gate of Truth would also stay still, becoming an eternal virtual coordinate!
Felix summoned his Vibration Sword spirit. "When it shows a change in expression, have your Murderous Sword approach it immediately. Ready?"
Sonya nodded and summoned her 'Murderous Sword' spirit.
Felix took a deep breath and summoned his 'Love's Call' spirit, a pure and cute single-winged angel girl.
The Vibration Sword spirit had a cold and aloof swordsman appearance. As Love's Call fluttered around it, its expression was unchanged. Even when Love's Call grabbed its hand and shook it, it remained impassive. Suddenly, Love's Call leaned in and pecked the Vibration Sword spirit on the cheek, finally melting its icy visage to reveal a faint blush.
Now!
Sonya promptly had her Murderous Sword approach. With its dual-sword wielding crimson-clad maiden looks, the Murderous Sword exuded a red aura. As it neared, Love's Call hid behind Vibration Sword, which met the Murderous Sword fearlessly, radiating black vibrations!
Spirit Relationships - Battle of Pure Love, success!
Felix's eyes flashed as his consciousness delved into Vibration Sword, grasping the Gate of Truth!
Expand!
A gray dot emerged from the spirit's body and swiftly expanded, soon becoming a hazy, transparent bubble.
The gray bubble grew larger in the air, with illusions of thunder and lightning within. Everyone stayed far back, not daring to go near.
The Gate of Truth could be expanded, but it was pointless for physical mages - only the soul could enter the virtual world.
No matter how huge the Gate grew, it couldn't allow the mage to bring anything inside.
Matter simply couldn't enter the virtual world.
But the reverse was different.
Things from the virtual world could come out through the Gate into reality. Some knowledge beings would even seize the chance to manifest a real body and wreak havoc.
This was also how spirits were born - mages used knowledge to resonate with the virtual world, allowing its truths to flow into the mage's knowledge. When knowledge and truth combined, spirits were born.
That was why Sonya and the others retreated to the stairwell, ready to flee if anything seemed off.
The virtual coordinates used by mages for storage were mostly ominous places. Storing things on a peaceful little island might lead to discovery by other mages. More crucially, knowledge beings needed sustenance too!
By expanding the Gate instead of entering, Felix indicated he knew the coordinates led to extreme danger. There was a popular joke in school - a mage instantly blacked out upon opening his Gate, likely because he had connected to a battle.
Getting countered by one's own Gate of Truth was considered one of the stupidest ways for a mage to die.
The gray bubble kept expanding as the thunder inside intensified. Everyone grew anxious to flee the basement. Felix's face paled from the massive arcane expenditure, grunting as unfledged Silver Wings sprouted from his back!
Sonya gazed at the half-formed Silver Wings with narrowed eyes.
The gray bubble continued swelling when suddenly lightning struck a nearby chair, instantly turning it into charcoal!
"Ah!"
"What do we do now?"
"Maybe we should come back another day when the weather is nicer?"
Everyone looked askance at Adele - the virtual world had no such thing as weather...
Just as Felix was about to give out, a box dropped out of the bubble. He immediately cut off his power, the gray bubble disappearing with a pop, its scattered energy creating a light breeze.
"Is this the treasure?"
Adele dashed to the box, peering curiously at the virtual world object. "It looks... huh, it disappeared... huh, it reappeared? Am I seeing things?"
The box seemed to be made of obsidian, nothing extraordinary, but it vanished when Adele blinked, then reappeared when she focused on it.
"Unforgettable Wood." Iris' voice was soft, as if afraid to startle the box. "When you look away even slightly, you won't see it anymore, even forgetting its existence... This rare material can only be found in the virtual world."
"Its most important use is that it can be hidden in the soul, allowing mages to carry it out of the virtual world, and also bring it inside."
"Sealing unforgettable wood into a container blocks all energy leakage. It can even hold real objects and bring them into the virtual world..."
Everyone nodded and marveled at the miraculous properties, without thinking deeper.
Only Iris secretly glanced at Felix, filled with doubt and suspicion.
Due to family circumstances, she knew such absurdly rare and expensive items.
She clearly remembered unforgettable wood originated from the 'Far Expanse' in the third layer of the virtual world. It was completely inaccessible below the Saint rank with three wings.
Frankly, the box itself was likely far more valuable than its contents - objects that could traverse reality and virtuality were so absurdly rare they inevitably triggered lethal mage conflicts!
She didn't have high expectations for Felix's 'mother's legacy', assuming it was just some tools to aid a Silver-level mage.
But the unforgettable wood box's appearance made Iris reconsider - why would his mother use a Saint-grade box for Silver-grade items?
Either the box meant little to her compared to Silver-rank treasures, or...
Just as Iris would not buy cheap clothes regardless of price because it wasn't about extravagance, but because the small price difference was almost negligible to her, why suffer?
Felix's mother must have had other ways to preserve items, yet she deliberately chose to use the unforgettable wood box. This shows that a mere unforgettable wood box was simply not worth making ripples in her heart.
So what level of sorcerer was Felix's mother really?
A three-winged Saint? A four-winged Legend? Or could she be...?
Iris swallowed nervously, feeling like Sonya had lured her into a pit - this was the internal strife of the Vlozrada family! As a merchant's daughter, this was way over her head!
But it was too late for regrets. She had signed the secrecy contract!
"It's open."
Felix opened the unforgettable wood box and golden radiance gushed out.
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