Keith Logan, a rank three mage, carefully observed a piece of bone.
Mages call any magic treasure with dark elements a cursed object.
This piece of bone was a cursed object.
It has the terrifying ability to turn people into zombies!
It works on people who meet three conditions.
1-are men.
2-are marked.
3-are at most 10 kilometers away.
When it gets activated, it turns all people who meet its conditions into zombies, controlled by the one who triggered it.
Keith guesses that this cursed object most likely has a pair that only works on women.
That's because she suspects this magic treasure is made naturally by chaotic dark elements in hell.
Naturally made magic treasures usually follow a balance, even if chaotic!
This thing was recently recovered from one of the mortal kingdoms around.
She carefully held the piece of bone with protective gloves and cast 'magic treasure appraisal' on it.
A lot of information entered her mind.
After a while, she cast the same spell again!
The reason is that this is a rank-four magic treasure.
As a result, she has to cast rank 3 'magic treasure appraisal' several times to get a complete look at its properties.
"interesting! This thing is much weaker than typical rank four magic treasures."
"Those mortals never managed to utilize its true functions! Instead, they got themselves killed!" Keith thought.
Anyone using a cursed object would have a terrible ending!
The condition for using this piece of bone's primary ability is blood from the user's children.
At least, this is what is written on its surface.
Most cursed objects are from hell.
Every intelligent being can read hell's writing.
Those mortals read it and probably did as was written, unaware of the actual cost.
The actual cost is the extinction of blood!
When this cursed object activates, it makes a lot of zombies, but the price is the death of the bloodline of the user.
This includes the user himself!
Anyone who uses it would die, along with their entire family.
Father, mother, children, grandchildren, and so on.
Even so, this cursed object's drawback is not that bad compared to others.
At least, it only kills!
As for its actual function, it is collecting death energy to open a channel to hell.
"This thing is very nasty! I should classify it as a sealed object," Keith thought.
In the Blue Light Academy, magic treasures are classified into four categories.
First, safe objects.
These are widely available to mages and are safe.
Second, risky objects.
Only with the approval of the council of magic treasures, comprised of 9 ranks and three mages, can restricted objects be used.
Risky objects have more benefits than harm but can cause great danger.
Third, restricted objects.
Only the majority vote of the deputy deans or the dean can authorize using cursed objects.
Restricted objects are extremely dangerous and most likely bring disaster to the world when they are used.
Lastly, sealed objects.
Only the dean or deputy deans, with a unanimous vote, can authorize their use.
Sealed objects are simply manifestations of disaster.
Most sealed objects are like this piece of bone, items from hell, made to cause chaos and open space channels to hell.
Keith wrapped the bone around with a special cloth and went to the Hall of Appraisals for final approval.
After a while, she reached a tall building that had no window.
She went in and, after a while, reached a specific door.
She knocked.
"Come in," the voice of a man came.
Keith went in and bowed.
"Deputy Dean Alistair, I'm here for approval of the cursed object from Robel's kingdom."
Alistair, who had long white hair and his skin was as white as paper, said," Right, I heard it from Owen. Bring it here."
Keith went forward and respectfully handed it to Alistair.
Alistair specialized in magic treasures.
His appraisal spells were better than average rank four mages.
He took the bone and cast 'boosted-magic treasure appraisal' on it.
'Boosted' is a special spell that strengthens other spells.
There are many kinds of spells like this.
'boosted,' 'broadened,' 'enhanced,' 'strengthened,' and many others.
It's just that only one can be used.
You can't boost it and broaden it at the same time.
"so wierd" Alistair said out laud.
"What's wrong?" Keith asked.
Alistair said, "Its true function is so well hidden!"
He continued, "On the surface, it looks like it opens a channel to hell, but in reality, it opens a space channel to an unknown place here in the mage world."
"Furthermore, this thing can't be completely sealed with rank four sealing spells. It is specially made for a certain purpose, and its target is us!"
Keith wiped the cold sweat on her surface and said, "What does that mean?"
Alistair said, "Long ago, there was no Blue Light Academy or Orange Light Academy. There was only one seven lights academy."
"Seven Light Academy was massive! It controlled the entire continent! There were many rank nine mages, and the dean was just a hair away from rank 10!"
"But then, every rank 8 and 9 mage, along with most rank seven mages, invaded heaven, and to this day, they haven't returned!"
"With them, they took keys to their respective academies' treasuries! For this reason, nowadays, magic treasures ranked six and up are almost extinct. There are hundreds of rank nine magic treasures in the mage world; it's just that all of them are locked away, with nobody being able to access them."
"The Seven Light Academy had many branches. Our Academy is one of those, and so is Orange Light Academy."
"Tens of thousands of years ago, we stole one of the treasures of Orange Light Academy. It was a very powerful rank seven treasure."
"They tried to take it back but failed. That treasure is still in our Academy's sealed object storage!"
"My guess is that this bone is supposed to be classified as a sealed object by us, placed there, and then... it will open a space channel straight to Orange Light Academy!"
"After that, mages from Orange Light Academy would steal that treasure before we can react. This plan is genius!"
Keith said, "What do we do now?"
Alistair laughed and said, "You go back. I take care of the rest."
Keith went out and closed the door.
Alistair took out the bone magic treasure and thought, "I'm sure Keith will leak the news to everyone; after all, she's famous for being unable to keep secrets."
"First step completed!"
Alistair took the bone without any gloves and smiled!
...
"Who are you?"
Owen looked around and cast a rank 0 'sense surrounding' spell.
When an apprentice mage casts this spell, it directly delivers visual, energy, air, smell, and taste information to the caster's mind.
Some apprentice mages use this spell as a research spell, as it's better than the human senses.
It's less spatialized than spells such as 'visual zoom,' 'molecular observation,' or 'energy detection,' but has comprehensive coverage.
It can reach 5 meters when cast by apprentice mages.
However, Owen is an official mage now, so it strengthened to the point that its range expanded to 100 meters.
A lot of information manifested in Owen's mind.
He was amazed at how much information he got, but now it was not time to think about these.
He didn't sense anything wrong.
"I'm the poor pill container that helped you selflessly for months! Where do you think all those limit-breaking pills were coming from?" Rachel said.
Owen slowly took out the pill container and looked at it fiercely!
"Yes, it's me! I'm a very high-grade magical treasure that can think and talk!" Rachel said.
Owen was shocked! He had never heard of any treasure that could talk!
He thought," It should be a very high-level treasure! But why is it talking now? It has been with me for a long time!"
Owen asked," Why only now are you talking? You have been with me for months!"
Rachel said truthfully," Because I advanced to a rank one magic treasure when you advanced to the official mage! I can improve along with my host, that is you! Our interests are entirely aligned. I make pills for you and advance when you advance in rank! Now that I'm rank one magic treasure, I can produce rank one pill!"
Magic treasure that improves?
How can such a thing exist? Magical treasures are crafted by mages with certain materials.
When a magic treasure is formed, it's extremely hard to modify its functions even slightly, let alone advance its rank!
It is simply not possible!
And now this talking treasure says not only can it produce precious pills out of nowhere, but it can also improve along with its host.
"It's too good to be true! It might be a cursed object from hell."
He had heard of many treasures in history crafted by demons, which are extremely powerful and have wonderful abilities but have severe consequences!
Before, he thought this pill container gathered pure energy from the world and, somehow, turned them into pills.
Earlier, he had convinced himself that pills could be created from pure energy.
The need for precious pills clouded his judgment.
But now that he thinks clearheaded, this pill container is far from normal.
He can no longer consider using it.
He has rank eight talent, and his future is bright; why use something that might kill you?
He thought for a moment and decided to show it to his Ancestor!
His Ancestor is a rank four mage who knows much about magic treasures.
If he confirms the authenticity of this pill container, then it can be guaranteed to be good.
He immediately left everything else and ran toward the Blue Light Academy.
No matter how much Rachel tried to stop him, Owen never answered for fear that his soul might get corrupted.
…
The seven kingdoms were roughly equal in size.
Reaching from one end to the other would take a long time for ordinary people because carriages are the primary way to travel.
The roads in the Robels kingdom are good, but still, carriages have limited speed.
But for Owen, an official mage, it took only 2 hours to travel hundreds of miles to the Blue Light Academy.
He used the rank 0 'eagle's wings' to fly.
With root mana as fuel for the spell, the wings expanded from 2 meters to 20 meters, and their speed was fast; coupled with his muscular body, he flew nonstop in the air, so he reached Blue Light Academy quickly.
When he reached the Academy, he showed his badge, given to him by his Ancestor, and the guards immediately went away with a bow.
Soon, Owen reached the Hall of Appraisals, where his Ancestor was most of the time.
His name was Alistair Robels!
He was more than 50,000 years old, making him one of the most senior mages in the Blue Light Academy.
It is rumored that among rank four mages, he was closest to being promoted to rank 5.
After a while, he reached a specific door and knocked.
"Come in."
Owen opened the door and saw a man with long white hair and a young face.
The man was his Ancestor, Alistair.
Owen smiled and went forward.
He wasn't worried.
Owen trusted Alistair.
Of course, it wasn't absolute trust, but still, his Ancestor was the one who taught him everything about magic, so it would be ungrateful to doubt him without suspicion.
His skin was white with blue eyes and white, long hair.
It's said that long ago, everyone who lived here looked like this.
People today who mostly have brown eyes, black hair, and white skin migrated here later.
As for the black kingdom in the Kobi kingdom, they migrated here less than 1000 years ago.
After the Ancestor of the Kobi kingdom reached rank four less than 1000 years ago, he brought black people from his homeland, which was far away, and built the Kobi kingdom.
The Blue Light Academy tradition is that all rank four mages build a kingdom for themselves.
The Kobi kingdom, whose almost all its population is black, has a good relationship with the Robels kingdom.
Owen's mother was a princess from the Kobi kingdom.
The excellent relationship between the two kingdoms was entirely because of the good relationship between the Ancestors of the two countries.
One thousand years ago, when the Ancestor of the Kobi kingdom brought black people from far away, it initially led to racial tension.
But with the Blue Light Academy as overlord, they soon got used to each other.
Now, it's normal for black and white people to marry.
After all, even if skin color is different, they are all human.
However, interaction between humans and non-humans is not accepted.
The Blue Light Academy allows some half-humans to join but discourages interspecies marriage.
Discriminating against non-humans is wholly accepted and even expected.
Humans dominate this continent, so non-humans are driven to corners.
Some mage academies like Red Light and Orange Light accept non-humans, but those academies are evil-oriented.
They are not a good place for independent non-human settlements.
If an academy like Blue Light discovers a non-human settlement in their territory, they will remove them.
It's only a matter of how brutal they will be in the process.
Usually, the Academy would send one rank 4 to remove the settlement; as for how it depends on the person.
Alistair was the type that would kill everyone.
He was a hardliner when it came to non-humans.
Only in some faraway and deserted lands can non-humans create permanent settlements.
There are some other continents where Non-humans dominate.
Humans are not masters of all races or anything.
It's just that humans are the overlord here in the Dyer continent.
Alistair looked at Owen emotionlessly, smiled slightly, and said," Congratulations!"
Owen bowed his head humbly and said," Thank you, Ancestor! It's thanks to you that I succeeded!"
"Today, I'm here to show you a bizarre thing." he took out the pill container.
Alistair, who had already isolated this place so that not even rank five mages could hear anything, looked at the pill container seriously.
Alistair cast 'boosted-magic treasure appraisal' spell, but, to his astonishment, not a drop of information transferred to his mind!
He cast several other spells, but none of them worked.
It was as though the spells couldn't detect the magic treasure at all!
Alistair was a mage who used the way of fate.
When mages reach rank four, they can choose a general way.
Way of fire, way of earth, way of law, way of life, way of ice, way of luck, way of fate, way of hell, way of heaven, and way of nothingness, respectively corresponded to red light, orange light, yellow light, green light, blue light, cyan light, purple light, black light, white light, and invisible light.
The complete medication technique of the ancient Seven Light Academy included black light, white light, and invisible light.
By incorporating all of the ways, a mage can reach rank 9.
As for rank 10, they must combine them into one, which they never succeeded in doing.
Nowadays, mages can't master more than one light.
The technique of mastering more than one is lost.
Every branch of the Seven Color Academy that has become independent has medication methods for all colors.
This is why Alistair can meditate the way of fate, which is the specialty of the Purple Light Academy.
Only way of hell, way of heaven, and way of nothingness are tightly kept secrets.
The way of fate is best at predicting things that might happen in the future.
When mana aligned with the way of fate is used to cast 'magic treasure appraisal,' it will get much more information compared to others.
Alistair's mana is aligned with the way of fate.
The spell he casts will slightly connect with the fundamental law of time and will receive some information about how an item was used in the past and how it might be used in the future.
The spell will fail if the item's significance is so high that the information volume is beyond its reach.
The way of fate will never give the wrong information.
But right now, Alistair's spells didn't fail.
It was like they passed through the pill container without being able to sense its existence!
He thought, "How can it be? Is it not bound by the fundamental law of time?"
Everything is bound by the fundamental law of time.
The primary way of dispelling an illusion is to see if it's bound by time.
"Is this pill container an illusion?" Alistair thought.
He said to Owen with doubt, "Explain everything."
Owen shared all the details, and Alistair's expression became very solemn.
"Making precious pills out of nowhere? Promoting its rank? This thing is breaking common sense!"
"I don't think even rank nine magic treasures can produce pills out of pure energy."
"As for advancing in rank, it's just impossible." Alistair thought.
Magic treasures are fixed in their rank; this is an unbreakable rule.
Although advancing a magic treasure is theoretically possible, it has never happened.
What is a magic treasure?
It is a combination of different alignments of mana shaped in a certain way.
Even the slightest change might destabilize and destroy it.
It's possible to break a magic treasure and use its pieces to make another higher-rank magic treasure.
But advancing an already-formed magic treasure is impossible.
Unless...
"Unless this thing can directly connect with the fundamental law of time and find the correct avenue," he thought.
The fundamental law of time is all-knowing.
Anything connected to the fundamental law of time can do anything theoretically possible.
"but begin directly connected with the fundamental law of time? It's too scary! Maybe I'm overthinking it!" Alistair thought.
After a while, he told Owen, "Stay in the Academy for a few days and leave this pill container with me. I'm going to investigate if anything is wrong with it!"
Before leaving, Owen said," Ancestor, the container is talking a lot and is begging me to tell you that it is friendly and helpful."
Alistair thought momentarily and said," I'll call you later; now, go and get familiar with the official mage stage; you were promoted not long ago."
After Owen's departure, only Alistair and Rachel remained in the room.
Rachel was already feeling regret for speaking up and was considering using her strongest possible option.
The last of the 'essential skills' was called the 'hellish box.'
It would send her to hell!
But she really didn't want to use it.
Who knows how hell it is, but sure, it doesn't sound good!
Alistair used every tool he had but failed.
He didn't want to talk to this treasure because he was afraid of it.
Even if he was a rank-four mage, something this weird can be very dangerous.
He frowned deeply and decided to watch as the container made a pill.
Rachel didn't want him to investigate why she didn't produce a pill, so When the time came, she obediently made a limit-breaking pill.
Alistair was astonished, and his eyes were shining brightly!
"It's a real limit-breaking pill!"
"Now, it is only rank one magic treasure, but when it advances to rank two, it can produce rank two pills! It's a treasure that is truly priceless! I must help it advance as soon as possible! If it reaches rank four … then I can mass produce rank four limit-breaking pills and get promoted to rank 5!"
Alistair's eyes were glowing as he looked at the pill container.
Sure, there are risks, but what is safe in the mage world?
The lifespan of a rank four mage is 62500 years.
This year, Alistair is 55000 years old!
He doesn't have much time!
This pill container might be his only chance of reaching rank 5.
Others might think he is at the peak of rank 4, and it wouldn't be long before he breaks through.
But he knows it's very unlikely that he will reach rank five before his lifespan ends.
Materials for rank four pills are so rare and precious that it is good luck if he can make 1 in a thousand years.
But this treasure can produce one daily.
Daily!
He called Owen back and told him to ask questions and say what the pill container says.
Alistair asked his first question," First, how can you learn to produce pills? What are the conditions."
And like this, he asked questions for a day!
Rachel was exhausted as she tried to mask her secrets, so she had to make up a lot of lies.
Lying to a rank four mage is difficult; she had to be as vague as possible, and even then, she was exhausted by thinking about how to lie!
A plan formed in Alistair's mind:" I can help Owen reach rank four, and then kill him, take the container, and become its host! Then, with it, I'll get promoted to rank five, and then it's smooth sailing with the help of this treasure!"
He gave the container back to Owen, with many precious Rank 1 pills, and assured him that the container was safe!
"Put the pills inside so it can copy them, and then use the pills as appropriate. I will give you many books about how to use the pills. Also, never tell about this container to anyone, and kill anyone who has seen it! I can't protect you at all if it's revealed!" Alistair warned very seriously.
He was telling the truth here! Even the rank-five dean would fight him over it! Worse, if other academies discover it, it might cause mage wars!
A treasure that can endlessly produce precious pills has unimaginable traction for mages who rely on precious pills.
What mages rely on pills? All of the mages!
Don't underestimate the rarity of pills. Concocting a rank four pill requires extremely precious materials, and then it will fail 9 out of 10 times.
It's not for nothing that mages are stuck in rank 4 for tens of thousands of years! It's not that they are dumb; it's just that materials for pills are nonexistent.
It wasn't like this before.
Nearly a million years ago, time was fixable, so mages would use time magic to make old plants and use them for pills.
Now, time is locked!
The reason is unknown, but everyone suspects it has to do with the invasion of heaven nearly a million years ago.
With time being locked, mages must wait for ten thousand years if they want a ten-thousand-year-old plant!
Acquiring tens of thousands of years old plants is imperative to create a rank-four pill.
It's even worse for rank 5, and pills of that rank require plants that are hundreds of thousands of years old!
This made rank five a ceiling. Academies only have rank five deans.
Some academies have rank six deans, and those are top-ranked academies!
These rank six mages advanced not long after the time was locked.
All of the rank six mages are now old and dying.
In a mere hundred thousand years, none would be left.
As for rank seven deans, Alistair has heard of only one in the entire continent!
She was from before the invasion.
At that time, everyone invaded heaven, but she remained here and is still alive today.
Ranks 8 and 9 are extinct!
As for 10, even in ancient times, a million years ago, it has never appeared!
Alistair smiled and waved his hand at Owen mysteriously.
Owen didn't see this and stared blankly.
Alistair said: "You can leave now."
Owen said, "Yes, ancestor," then respectfully bowed and left.
Alistair smiled after seeing him leave and decided to send a few of his trusted mages to monitor the situation.
This way, it was the best.
He could have kept the container, tried to find some peak rank one mage, and quickly promoted the container.
But he wasn't the only rank four mage here!
Others would get suspicious!
If the secret leaks out, it would get much more difficult.
"Now, I only have to wait a while. Soon, I take the pill container. then my future is guaranteed!" Alistair was excited!
It will take a lot to make an ancient mage like him excited!
That pill container was one of the rare things that could do that! After all, if it can produce high-grade pills endlessly, he can advance his mage path that has been stalled for tens of thousands of years!
For mages like him, nothing is more exciting than advancing in your mage path!
He looked in Owens's direction with a hint of killing intent and then suppressed it, dispelled the isolation spell, and began experimenting on other things as if nothing had happened!