"Before you leave, Mia, I still have one last item and it doesn't come from one of the offices. I find it hidden under the floor of a room used by employees; the box is not common it is made with a high-grade insulating material."
Mia who was about to head towards the door stopped after hearing my comment, even though she's curious to find out if the rune card belonged to Felix, she's still more curious to know what's inside that box.
"Insulating material? Does it isolate elemental energy or mana?"
I place the wrapped box on the table and remove the black cloth I used to hide it, a box made of black crystal and revealed. Not only is Mia surprised at how the box looks, Volkan seems to recognize the material this box is made of.
"This is venuan crystal, this is no ordinary insulating material, Ulric. This box is made of very rare level five material, this crystal can only be striated from four caves across the continent and has to be forged by a mage of the lightning and fire element, only the combination of these two elements can this crystal be forged in that clear form."
"Better let Volkan open this box, Ulric, what's inside it could be dangerous Velkan's defensive magic can protect him from the contents of this box."
"Okay."
I backed away from the box as Volkan channeled his magic to create two small hands of earth and an earth shield that covered the entire table where the crystal box is. Calmly the lid of the box was lifted releasing a bluish light, it lit up the entire room.
"I do not know what this is."
It seems that Volkan doesn't know what this gem is. I can't say that I know either, sorting out the huge amount of mana and in the center of the ridge I saw a vortex of light gray energy, it was like an almost transparent snowfall. Is that the spatial element?
Why would there be space element crests hidden in the ground? This thing is very rare and expensive, but it's not such a valuable treasure, unless the purity grade of this crystal is very high like a level six crest.
I look at Mia to see if she knows what the level or name of this crystal is, but looking at her shocked, trembling face. Is Mia really shaking?
"Mia?"
"You really recovered something big, I thought Raven took the most precious item from the mansion, but now I'm not so sure."
"What is this crystal?"
"This is a void crystal, a tier five material, but this is not the valuable part—the souls that are trapped inside it are the most valuable item in this box."
"Souls?"
"Yes, Souls. They are held within the crystal, the property of the space element was used to create a cage to trap the souls and refine them. The souls are still in the distillation process then, but a few decades later they would have turned into pure soul power."
"Looks like one of the cultists was robbing the cult, these souls should have been offered to Whiro to become his servants in the future after rearming them, but they must have been stolen by a really skilled orange core mage, without a very strong talent. rare and specific this would be the weakest level to be able to do something like this."
"Does it have to be a mage?"
"Yes, but only in cases where a special talent is involved. A warrior with the space element might have enough affinity to create a crystal like this, but I find that very unlikely in this case, but to be sure it takes a space element user to analyze the crystal to see if it's someone's mark on it."
"A mage used a rune matrix to modify the crystal would not leave a mark behind, probably one of the cult mages was responsible for this crystal."
"Avia a fire elemental mage patrolling the mansion, but I doubt it's him because before we left, he seems to have realized that the underground base has been invaded. If this crystal had been his, he would have run to get the crystal and flee the mansion abandoning the cult."
"I see the logic of this analysis, it leaves the possibility of one of the other four orange core mages in the base, but figuring it out now is pointless as they must all be dead by now. The current problem is what to do with this crystal."
"Is it illegal to have a crystal like that?"
"Not exactly, this thing should be considered taboo, but the way to use such a crystal to seal souls or a soul's power in different ways. The most normal is to use it to drain the soul energy in battle caps, the kingdom has several of them ready to use during war, but as this one was created to absorb souls directly it would be very bad for those who use it like that."
"Temples of good gods are against using a crystal like this in this way, but the current dilemma is using the souls that are already trapped inside. As the souls have already been refined for several years and it is impossible to release them to return to the normal cycle between death and life, releasing them would be the same as throwing these souls in the trash."
"So as long as no one rubs this crystal in the face of a priest of a good god or goddess there will be no problem using this crystal."
"So can I have her?"
"Perhaps your right to the crystal is up to the realm to decide not me or Raven. This material is very rare because the large amount of soul power in this crest when you finish refining it will be very useful even for someone with a blue core would be very tempted to have this crystal, a soul strengthened by so much soul power can help a warrior or blue core mage have a higher chance of successfully breaking through to the next level."
"So, this crystal full of souls is very valuable for someone as weak as me to be able to keep."
"Sorry, but it's really impossible for you to keep it, but that doesn't mean you won't gain anything with this crystal. The kingdom will give a good reward for you and one for the rest of the team members, but if we send a message to your master, she may end up getting the crystal for her or someone in your faction or gain a new ally."
"There is still a long time to finish the refinement of these souls so don't prey to publicize the existence of this crystal. So, your master may have a few days to make the preparations to be able to profit more from this crystal."
"I understand."
"And better to put this crystal away before some nosy person feels the energy of the space element that must be spreading through the room, unfortunately the barriers of this room cannot resist the elemental energy that is coming out of the crystal."
"Is the space element so hard to store?"
"Yes, it is one of the most complicated elements to handle. There hasn't been a single decent user of this element in the realm since its founding, those who awaken this element end up killing themselves with their magic before they become strong."
"Is the space element really that dangerous?"
"Yes, apart from the ridiculous power consumption that makes an element like the lightning bolt I have look normal. And not many ways to apply it when you have a core below an orange core, normally both fighters and mages tend to have good defense both elemental and physical, but they end up not lasting long."
"Shouldn't it be dodge ability?"
"No, solidifying the space around you is much easier and safer than trying to bend it, but offensive moves are the most dangerous there is for this element. Ripping space is a very dangerous thing to do because unstable space tends to be deadly even to strong users of this element, apart from the gods who can protect themselves from space storms it is very rare to find a user capable of using offensive space element magic. "
"If it weren't for the great mage Magus who helped the first king to found our realm, there wouldn't be so many rune matrices of displacement in the realm.
Without the space channels he created in the territory, we wouldn't be able to place so many rune matrices across the realm right now."
"Is that one of the reasons the realm's territory hasn't expanded much since the realm's founding?"
"Yes, but not for the simple reason that we couldn't create matrices beyond the realm's current boundaries, but because we were more focused on defending the large territory we have.
Our kingdom is too big for such a young kingdom, after the founders died or disappeared the kingdom had a lot of trouble keeping its territory, but we managed to defend ourselves and prosper."
"Now we finally have the power to extend the boundaries of our realm, which is why this war has to work Ulric."
How much pressure.
"But if it's so difficult to make a network of rune matrices to move across the realm, isn't it going to be hard to make them in a newly conquered territory? This will not make it difficult to defend the new frontier."
"Yes, but it is better to have a border difficult to defend than to be stagnant for a longer time, the resources within the realm are already well conquered and divided by factions without a new territory the growth of the realm will slow down. Even clearing the weak warriors and mages with territorial disputes over the years, it is necessary to expand the kingdom to keep it growing.
"Even if it means the death of many people."
"OK."
"I'll solve the new problems you've given me, Ulric, but at least these are good problems to have a lot different from processing piles of business records."