Valerius picked up the palm-sized veiled mirror from the rack and pushed the curtain to one side to reflect his image.
Crack!
Then, abruptly, as if he was the most horrendous man to ever exist, the mirror shattered.
The very next moment, Valerius let out a mournful cry that would cause anyone who heard it to feel pity for him, as the hundreds of shards it had broken into stabbed his body like a hail of arrows, causing him to bleed from numerous spots. His blood dyed his skin red.
-1 HP!
"Fucking hell, there was no mention of this in the parchment paper. Did 'Infinity' purposely hide it so I wouldn't shy away from going through with it?" Valerius thought as the agony caused by the rune of swiftness attaching itself to him overwhelmed his senses.
Argh!
The pain he was feeling became unbearable as the shards sank into his flesh, and Valerius collapsed to the ground after wailing like a baby.
'It has lessened.'
When they had completely entered his body, the bleeding wounds closed, and the pain lessened somewhat.
'But it is not manageable.'
Still, Valerius felt as if he was being stabbed a dozen times every second.
'If I have to live with this pain, I'll go crazy,' he thought.
Fortunately, the sharp pain all over his body subsided after a few minutes, and he sensed that the rune of swiftness had become a part of him, and he could draw on its power to increase his agility at any time.
'This part of me can turn on me any time. I have to be extremely careful about how much I use it. I can never allow its usage to exceed my soul power capacity,' he reminded himself.
His soul power capacity was currently maxed at 30. He didn't know how long he could use its agility-boosting power in exchange for that amount. He had to conduct tests and verify it himself.
'Let's get to bonding with the next magic artifact.'
Valerius wiped the sweat off his forehead and picked up the last remaining item on the rack.
The pain he had suffered when he was attaching the rune to himself had indeed shaken him and left him terrified, but it didn't shatter his bravery or lessen his desires. Thus, although he didn't know how painful it was going to be, he was going to bond with the Shielding Glove today.
To bond with the glove, he swiped the blood covering his forearm with his thumb and smeared it onto the Shielding Glove.
His blood vanished into the black fabric as if it had sucked it in.
Then, an expected change occurred. It transformed into a glove, and this glove seemed to be made for him as it fitted his hand perfectly when he wore it.
"Change into a shield,' Valerius thought.
To his astonishment, the hand of his that was wearing the glove transformed into a shield.
'What the?!'
At first, he freaked out at this sudden change and screamed in his mind, but after calming down, he realized it didn't feel too strange.
'It's not as odd as it looks. The shield feels like an extension of my body. I can control it as easily as breathing.'
The shield-like hand looked quite impressive. It was a huge and thick shield, yet surprisingly light considering its size. He found he could easily swing it, which was a reassuring discovery.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
He punched it a dozen times. His strength was almost twice that of an average Serphian, but it failed to leave even a single scratch on it, showcasing the shield was tenacious enough to withstand the blow of low-level beasts and monsters.
'The shield doesn't slow me down by much,' Valerius thought. 'And it can also be used as a weapon to bash any enemies to death. It's really the best function of this artifact. No wonder why it's named Shielding Glove.'
The very next second, he bit his lip in dismay.
'Damn, did it make me think like that?'
He had only used the Shielding Glove for a minute, and it was already influencing his thoughts. He definitely wasn't the type of pervert to think about bashing someone to death upon getting his hands on a lightweight shield.
The aggressive thoughts that popped up in his mind were undoubtedly the side effect of the Shielding Glove.
'Pondering over it and being afraid and hesitant won't get me anywhere. I should move on.'
Shaking off the unsettling thoughts, Valerius focused on transforming the shielding glove to its second form. In response to his thoughts, it morphed into a hook.
Valerius stepped out of the shack and, with a sense of curiosity, aimed for the distant pagoda. The hook sprang forth but fell short of reaching its target.
This proved that its range was limited.
The hook was tethered to thin but long chains of darkness, which were attached to his arm.
'Can it be retracted?' Valerius wondered and decided to test it out.
With just a thought, he really made the chains retract, retrieving the hook back to his hand with ease.
'How limited is its range? I need to verify it?'
Thus, he decided to try it out on a closer target. This time, the hook successfully reached the target, wrapping around the altar securely.
Valerius's eyes didn't show any surprise at this, but there was a hint of warmth present in them.
'The range of the hook is neither impressive nor dull. It is a little above average and can get the 'job' done if I aim and time it right. It is good enough for my current needs.'
Thinking of doing the opposite this time, as the chain retracted, Valerius was suddenly lifted off his feet and rapidly drawn towards the altar.
'Is my childhood dream of slinging webs like a certain Spidey getting fulfilled today?' he thought as a smile propped up on his face.
In his excitement, Valerius lost his balance while in mid-air and tilted forward a bit too much. Instead of landing on his two feet, he crashed face-first onto the ground.
-0.5 HP!
This left him thoroughly embarrassed.
However, he wasn't one to sulk over his losses.
He quickly regained his composure and rolled forward, using the momentum to bring himself back to a standing position right before the altar, adding a finishing graceful touch to what had been an awkward fall.
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and mused, 'It would need some practice before I get the hang of it. But considering it felt like an extension of his body, it shouldn't be too hard. As for the Shielding Glove, I'm only going to find out how much it costs to use its power today.'
For this purpose, he activated it for just a single second. Depending on the amount of soul power it would absorb from him at exactly 24:00, he could estimate the cost of using it for an extended period using basic maths.
'Wait, how do I bring these items out of the mysterious space?' he was suddenly struck with a crucial question.
He didn't need to think too much before he found the answer.
He hadn't appeared in the mysterious space naked; he had his clothes on although they've now turned into a sieve. It suggested that any items that were on him could be brought into the mysterious space and vice versa.
He tested this theory, and as expected, he was proven right. He appeared outside the mysterious space with both the items.
This realization brought a surge of joy to him because it meant the fulfillment of another one of his wild fantasies.
'I can use the mysterious space like the spatial rings I've read about in cultivation novels!'
But then he remembered that he didn't have much to spare. Even the empty racks of the treasury couldn't be filled with his belongings; the mysterious space was just a vast area for him for now, dimming his mood.
'I should make a mental note of my discoveries.'
He had discovered two more crucial things.
When he returned to the real world a moment ago, he found that his clothes, which had turned into a sieve in the mysterious space, were also like shredded beef in real life, hanging loosely from his body, helping him realize that the damage sustained by his items in the mysterious space would be reflected in the real world. This was the first discovery.
The second discovery was that the signs of injuries he had received in the mysterious space were not present on his body in the real world, and his HP bar was also full. This made it quite clear that the damage-reflecting effect did not extend to living beings. This meant that if he were to get killed in the mysterious space, he might not actually die in the real world.
As it concerned his life, he decided to further verify this discovery.
He inflicted a minor injury on himself in the mysterious space before exiting.
To his relief, the wound did not appear on his body in the real world. However, he did notice a slight temporary decrease in his stamina and felt a bit more tired than he previously was.
'I guess I can't die in the mysterious space no matter how recklessly I behave, but getting injured or killed there will affect my satiety level and stamina,' he thought with a grin, before diving back in.
After appearing in the mysterious space again, He looked towards the pagoda in the distance and thought, "I had delayed it enough. It's about time I challenged it.'