Chapter: 182

“Oh?” he raised a brow, seeing a black package with a red ribbon around it sitting on his desk.

“Oh!” realising what it was, he was excited – a little too excited for an old mage.

“Finally, finally!” He ripped the red ribbon off as it fell to the ground, opening the package.

“Oh my” it wasn’t visible but as soon as he opened the noon-leather, a dense wave of mana resonated from the package.

“Better than I expected.” he smiled widely with a toothy grin.

The noon-leather contained a small wooden box with five black crystals inside, each of them levitating quietly inside the enchanted box. The crystals were spindle-shaped and seemed to absorb all light, they were purely black without any gleam or glint.

“Amazing” he smiled as he picked one up and went around to sit at his desk.

With a finger, he pressed on his black cube, tapping it a few times.

“Time to wake up.”

“Initiating…” the cube responded, while Viladore gazed into the black crystal.

It was hard to tell he was even holding it in his hand as it seemed to look like a hole was in his hand which opened into an abyss; looking like a hole in space and time itself.

“…Initialised. Hello master.”

“Start the mana sense practice. The materials came in so we’re going to start experimenting again.” he said, putting a black crystal next to the cube.

“Try to feel the presence of this crystal.”

“Yes master. Beginning routine.”

Viladore put the other four crystals into his inventory. “I’ll keep adding them until it works… then if not, I’ll even try building them into the cube itself, but that will be a last resort.”

By now, Viladore had almost spent his life savings on making this black cube. He had not only sunk money into his black cube project, but his time, effort and energy. The cube was at first his retirement plan, but soon he realised that it would give him enough power to rival kingdoms.

The cube was meant to absorb ambient mana and convert it into its own body structure and fuel source. Viladore believed that its body could grow endlessly larger, learn magic and even use it’s own body to fuel spells. The only problem was that it couldn’t sense mana, which was a necessary step to absorbing it. For the time being, Viladore had to channel his own mana into it to keep it alive.

Originally, Viladore studied materials in the capital city. He was part of a research branch of mages which operated under the safety bearers. Much of the research was classified, as it would be too dangerous in the wrong hands. This was the same group that was responsible for creating materials with anti-magic properties.

After stumbling upon a discovery by himself in a laboratory, he immediately destroyed it. He began to continue researching this discovery in secret, eventually creating the first version of the black cube.

Viladore needed a better lab to work from – rather than his home’s kitchen, so he quit his job and left the capital, saying that he wants to do something more inspiring like teaching.

Since he was merely a researcher, they let him go.

He found the most remote adventurer guilds he could on a map and began to scrutinise their leaders; this was when he found out about Sullivan.

Sullivan was a powerful magician, though he was discharged from the military for classified reasons. Using some of his ties to the research department, Viladore found out that Sullivan was friends with a B3-class variant – someone with a dangerous class.

Variant just meant someone that couldn’t be controlled if they got too powerful, while B3-class was a grading system.