Chapter 33: Relic Out of Control |
The surroundings were utterly silent. Seeing no one around, Shad walked toward the sofa but didn’t sit down, ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
However, his gaze was once again drawn to the brass-colored metal gear box on the coffee table. By common sense, Shad naturally wouldn’t willingly interact with any unknown objects. Yet, up close, he not only noticed the various large and small gear knobs on the brass cube’s surface but also saw twisted, music note-like characters etched on the upward-facing side.
Although he had never seen them before, he could still read the text:
“I am watching you in the darkness.”
Immediately, the murmuring voice in his mind reminded him:
【You have come into contact with "Whispers."】
“What? This is a relic?” Shad exclaimed in surprise. At the same time, he noticed that the bright light from the gas lamps and the crystal chandelier in the room was dimming inexplicably.
An indescribable sense of dread made him lower his head to stare at the brass gear box. At some point, the box had silently opened; the lid on its front had shifted away from the main body.
As the light in the room grew even dimmer, thick black mist began pouring out of the box, spreading like waves to engulf the surroundings.
【A relic containment breach.】
Before Shad could react, the black mist surged out, plunging the room into complete darkness.
It was as if a layer of black ink had been smeared over his eyes, rendering everything pitch-black. In this utter darkness, the mounting terror made his body involuntarily tremble.
Deprived of all sense of direction, Shad felt as if he were falling into the most terrifying abyss, with both his body and mind assaulted by overwhelming dread. For a moment, he even believed that some massive, indescribable being was staring at him from within the darkness.
The extreme fear made him want to scream, but as an outsider, he quickly steadied himself. He knew what the most rational action would be in such a situation.
In this dark space, reason and emotion battled fiercely. This fear wasn’t under his emotional control; it was a primal instinct. As the fear surged within him, a whispering sound emerged from the darkness.
It wasn’t the pleasant female voice in his head but a loathsome, hateful murmur, as if spoken by countless overlapping voices filled with resentment. The sound resembled white worms crawling and rubbing against his eardrums, making the skin on the back of his exposed hand crawl with goosebumps.
“Huh? Why can I see the back of my hand?”
He looked down and saw a faint silver glow enveloping his hand, preventing his body from being completely swallowed by the darkness.
“Yes, I’m no ordinary person anymore. I’m a Ring Warlock.”
He forced himself to calm down despite the fear, staring at his hands and focusing on the slowly rotating brass Ring of Fate in his soul. He summoned it forth.
DONG!
The toll of a bell echoed through the darkness. Behind Shad, a white mist tinged with silver appeared, pushing back against the encroaching blackness.
WHOO!
The sound of a distant steam whistle resonated through the dimensions, shaking the depths of the oppressive dark.
BANG!
A giant hammer struck from within the steam and shadows, sending sparks flying. The rapidly spinning brass Ring of Fate manifested at his back, casting flickering sparks into the surrounding darkness.
“Silver Moon!”
Even though he hadn’t mastered any Silver Moon techniques yet, simply following his instincts, Shad raised his right hand high and called out.
The fully revealed Ring of Fate was the strongest stance of a Ring Warlock. The spark-emitting brass ring resonated with its master as the core rune 【Silver Moon】 gleamed brightly.
At that moment, Shad thought he heard the laughter of a woman near his ear. Following that, an intense silver light burst forth from his raised right index finger, shining like a miniature sun.
The moonlight radiated outward, gradually dissipating the darkness around him as if time were reversing. The oppressive blackness faded, revealing the room once again.
Shad also noticed a golden glow outlining the figure of a seated woman in front of him. Her light drove back the terrifying darkness that had erupted from the relic’s breach.
“So this is the person who came to meet me...”
Shad thought to himself, watching as the light expelled the darkness, restoring the surroundings to the appearance of a reception room.
The darkness retreated begrudgingly, unable to approach the light of the Silver Moon.
The whispers, filled with curses, resounded as the darkness dispersed. Though the overlapping voices were nearly indistinguishable, Shad could discern one clear phrase amidst the chaos. It wasn’t directed at him but seemed like an accidental murmur from the abyss.
Shad understood the cryptic language:
“Old Gods! You damned thieves! The thirteen...”
As the darkness fully dissipated, the silver glow from Shad’s finger faded. Still, he felt that he could summon this ability again—a technique he decided to name 【Silver Moon's Radiance】, his first self-created mystical skill.
Though it didn’t seem particularly practical.
The lingering whispers echoed in his ears, and Shad was both startled and unsure about their truth. Words from relic breaches were notoriously unreliable.
Looking down at the brass cube on the coffee table, he saw it had returned to its closed state, as if the earlier eruption of black mist had been a mere illusion.
Raising his head, he looked again toward where the golden figure had appeared. It was the wall with the bookshelf. At the bottom right of the large bookshelf, a wooden door had been left ajar, its handle gleaming gold. The door blended so seamlessly with the bookshelf that Shad hadn’t noticed it earlier when stepping onto the plush red carpet.
Instinctively, he understood that the woman waiting to meet him was behind that door.
The room’s temperature was noticeably cooler than the hallway, which itself was already cooler than the summer night outside. The room’s chill felt more like late autumn.
“The temperature seems off. I remember it was normal before. Could the relic breach still be affecting the environment?”
【High-level Ring Warlocks can affect their surroundings. She’s probably quite upset.】
“High-level? Over nine rings? Wait, how do you know? And why is she angry? Shouldn’t I be the one upset?”
As Shad hesitated, a woman’s voice finally emerged from behind the door:
“You... hmm... probably understand what just happened, don’t you?”
Her tone carried a mix of helplessness and frustration. For the first time, Shad realized he could clearly discern someone’s emotions through their tone alone.
“Relic breach.”
He answered honestly, and the truth of the situation was revealed.
“Young man, I... I don’t even know whether to blame myself or blame you. That was a Poet-grade relic, 【Box of Darkness】. A breach occurs only when its incantation is recited and the user possesses both light- and celestial-related core runes. I just wanted to meet you, and yet you... Do you not know that ancient incantations should never be casually interpreted?”
Her speech wasn’t fast, with the elegant accent of the Northern Kingdom’s Common Tongue. Judging from her voice, she was likely in her late twenties, though she might have been a bit younger. Her tone was unmistakably refined, yet filled with irritation.
In response to her words, Shad could only admit his ignorance. Although he was naturally cautious, as someone new to this world, he hadn’t anticipated that mentally reciting a text could trigger a relic breach. Nonetheless, it was his lack of prudence that caused the accident.
He decided to treat this as a valuable lesson:
“Madam, I deeply apologize. I’m not trying to shirk responsibility, but... may I ask why you wanted to see me?”
Unsure how to explain, he opted to express regret while probing for her intentions.
The woman behind the door probably couldn’t imagine her guest could read the ancient text so effortlessly or that he possessed a core rune. Thus, part of the blame naturally fell on Shad.
Though he considered offering compensation, he quickly realized that as a low-level Ring Warlock, he had nothing to match the means of a high-level warlock. All he could do was inquire about her purpose.
Judging by the fact that they both used warlock abilities during the encounter, and that the woman wasn’t surprised, she must have known his identity as a Ring Warlock before inviting him to the second floor.
This puzzled Shad. He had only become a Ring Warlock a day ago—how could anyone have already identified him?
At least the woman behind the door wasn’t Madame Lasso. Even without hearing her speak, Shad was certain that enigmatic figure—whose gender was ambiguous—couldn’t possibly speak with such graceful composure.
“Never mind. I’ll accept your apology. I shouldn’t have left the relic out during a meeting. We both share responsibility here. This incident only reinforces the lesson that relics should never be left lying around. Who knows what kind of people might come across them? And I never expected you could read that incantation—those characters are extraordinarily ancient.”
The woman sighed, and Shad let out a small breath of relief. Not because the matter had been resolved, but because he realized that the high-level warlock behind the door was a reasonable person—interacting with someone like that was far safer.
“Now, back to the main topic. Young man, how should I address you?”
The woman’s tone shifted to a calmer demeanor. Though Shad couldn’t see through the door, he felt as if she could see him. He pictured her sitting behind a desk, speaking to him through the wooden barrier.