"Magical energy..."
Riezel looked at the pendant known as Divine Meloe in front of him, lost in thought.
Honestly, he didn't care much about the side effect Hendrick had mentioned.
It was understandable.
With Self Redemption, physical and mental interferences were ineffective against him. Even if it was a negative condition unrelated to physical and mental interferences, he still possessed the highest-ranked development ability, Abnormal Resistance, so the side effect didn't concern him at all.
Because of this, he paid no mind to the so-called side effect and only cared about the flaw that required an astonishing amount of magical energy.
Hendrick obviously thought the same as Riezel.
Knowing Riezel had been completely unaffected by the Mist of Nothingness earlier, he figured Riezel probably wasn't afraid of the side effect of Divine Meloe.
However, when it came to magical energy, he didn't think Riezel would be able to handle it.
"Filling Divine Meloe with magical energy is a process that cannot be interrupted."
Seeing Riezel lost in thought, Hendrick reminded him.
"Once you start filling it with magical energy, there can't be any interruptions. Otherwise, all the magical energy that was absorbed will vanish in an instant, leaving nothing behind."
"Using another's help doesn't work either since it can only hold one type of magical energy. It can't coexist with magical energy from more than one person, so you can't even ask for help."
"We, the royal family, even tried to use a special magic item to temporarily store someone's magical energy and then fill it once there was enough, but it still failed."
In short, any tricks were useless.
Filling Divine Meloe with magical energy had to be done by its holder alone, without any interruptions in the process. Otherwise, they would need to start over.
Hendrick also told Riezel that Divine Meloe's abilities would only work for the person who filled it with magical energy.
In other words, if someone really managed to fill it up, even if they handed it over to someone else, it would be useless, since, if it wasn't the person who filled it with magical energy, the abilities of Divine Meloe couldn't be used.
Needless to say, the royal family must have tried many shortcut methods, yet they still had to leave Divine Meloe dormant here, proving that there was no shortcut to using it.
Until this day, no one capable of fully filling Divine Meloe with magical energy had emerged."In the past, there were several who held Divine Meloe and successfully resisted its side effect."
Hendrick continued his explanation.
"They were outstanding magicians who cast counter-magic against abnormal status effects for themselves and wealthy swordsmen who used magic items that could resist negative powers."
"Regardless, even if they resisted the side effect, its harsh usage condition defeated everyone, including those Strategic-Class Magicians who naturally possessed enormous magical energy."
One should remember that to become a Strategic-Class Magician, one had to not only have one of their magic compatibilities reach the seventh grade but also possess enough magical energy to cast Strategic-Class Magic.
Just imagine how much magical energy it took to use magic capable of destroying a large city or even a small country. If Strategic-Class Magicians like them couldn't even meet the necessary conditions, Riezel was definitely out of luck.
In the first place, Riezel was just a Tactical-Class Magician, and his magical energy was likely even less than that of a Strategic-Class Magician.
If Strategic-Class Magicians couldn't do it, how could he?
Such was Hendrick's train of thought.
Indeed, he wasn't wrong.
Riezel's magical energy was indeed massive, but compared to Yuri, who was a Strategic-Class Magician, he still fell short.
If Yuri, a Strategic-Class Magician, couldn't provide enough magical energy for Divine Meloe, then Riezel certainly couldn't either.
Yes, this thought itself wasn't wrong, if one ignored the fact that Riezel was an adventurer who had received a Falna (Blessing) from a goddess in the world of Danmachi.
In the next moment, Riezel reached out and took Divine Meloe from the shelf without hesitation.
In that instant, the transparent jewel atop Divine Meloe, radiating a rainbow of colors, suddenly lit up.
*Bzzz—!*
Accompanied by a loud buzzing sound, Riezel felt that the magical energy within him was rapidly depleting at a visible speed.
All of this magical energy was being absorbed by the jewel on Divine Meloe, causing a gradual emergence of a deep green color on the transparent jewel.
Hendrick watched this scene silently, quietly observing Riezel's actions.
During the process, Riezel did nothing, just casually holding it and allowing Divine Meloe to absorb his magical energy, as the absorption occurred automatically.
Originally, the magical energy within Riezel was not very controllable by him.
Due to the damage to his Gate, he couldn't mobilize the magical energy within his body, nor could he use it to cast magic. He could only stimulate this magical energy while practicing swordsmanship, allowing it to activate on its own, nourishing his body and helping him grow stronger.
Only after integrating the breathing techniques from both worlds and evolving Sun Breathing could he partially utilize this magical energy, incorporating it into his bloodstream to enhance the power of his breathing style and body.
In other words, if filling Divine Meloe with magical energy required his own efforts, then he truly lacked the ability to use or mobilize the magical energy within his body to complete the process.
Now that Divine Meloe was automatically drawing magical energy from his body without requiring any effort on his part, it was a surprisingly good thing.
Understanding this, Riezel made no effort to resist, allowing his magical energy to flow like water into Divine Meloe, causing the deep green color on its transparent jewel to become more and more pronounced.
When the deep green color on the transparent jewel reached about half its capacity, the speed at which Divine Meloe absorbed magical energy suddenly decreased.
Riezel immediately sensed that the magical energy within his body had nearly been drained.
'Sure enough, he also can't do it...'
Hendrick saw the scene clearly and thought that it was exactly as expected.
In the past, there had been a Strategic-Class Magician who was drained of magical energy by Divine Meloe, resulting in only about eighty percent of its magical energy capacity being filled, ultimately leading to failure.
However, what made it even more surprising was that this occurred even with the Strategic-Class Magician using a potion that could rapidly restore magical energy, allowing his magical energy to recover rapidly during the absorption process.
Without using a potion to assist in his magical energy recovery, the Strategic-Class Magician would have at most filled Divine Meloe to sixty percent.
Of course, the potion the Strategic-Class Magician used was the highest-rank magical energy recovery potion, as the recovery effect of regular potions simply couldn't keep up with Divine Meloe's absorption speed.
Given such a situation, Riezel managing to fill Divine Meloe halfway to fifty percent already made his magical energy one of the best among Tactical-Class Magicians.
Unfortunately, Riezel still couldn't fill Divine Meloe completely.
Hendrick was about to speak, wanting to tell Riezel to seek another treasure, but just as he prepared to do so, an even larger surge of magical energy erupted suddenly from Riezel's body.
'What?!'
Hendrick was taken aback, his face laced with a shocked expression.
'Hadn't his magical energy nearly run out?'
'How did it suddenly recover? And... it seems even larger now?'
In his astonishment, Hendrick didn't realize that the magical energy Riezel used at this moment was his true magical energy, transformed from his 'mind', which was the fuel necessary for casting magic in the world of Danmachi.
Now, Riezel was converting his mind into magical energy and providing it to Divine Meloe, causing its absorption speed, which had slowed, to immediately shoot back up to a terrifying degree.
Ultimately, the originally half-filled deep green color on the transparent jewel expanded again.
60%.
70%.
80%.
Before long, the transparent jewel was filled with a vibrant green, reaching 90%.
Up to this point, Riezel's mind was still handling things effortlessly.
It was as expected.
With Endless, Riezel had the highest-ranked development ability, Spirit Healing, which allowed his mind to recover automatically. Additionally, since it was of the highest rank, S-rank, the amount of mind he could recover per second was quite enormous.
As a result, since becoming an adventurer and receiving Falna, Riezel had never experienced 'mind down' or 'mind zero'.
In other words, no matter how much magic Riezel used, he could always cast it continuously without running out of magical energy.
Even though the magical energy absorption speed and quantity of Divine Meloe were indeed terrifying, unfortunately for it, it ran into Riezel, a total cheat.
*Zing—!*
Eventually, the originally transparent jewel atop the pendant known as Divine Meloe completely transformed into a jade-like emerald green.
After nearly four hundred years, someone finally managed to fill it and restore its former glory.
As Riezel looked at the pendant, the mysterious sensation he felt grew stronger.
He was sure he had experienced this feeling before. It was more or less the same feeling he had when he received that animal skin from Lizbeth.
"I choose it."
Riezel grasped Divine Meloe and turned to Hendrick.
"I choose this one."
Hearing this, Hendrick opened his mouth but couldn't say anything, falling into silence.
He realized that Divine Meloe had been taken away.
Originally, it was not a problem, but when it was filled and could now be used, it became a problem, especially when its holder was Riezel.
What did this mean?
It meant that if the royal family really planned to take action against Riezel, they would probably be unable to do anything to him now.
With the protection from the two abilities of Divine Meloe, even if Riezel were besieged by multiple Sword Saints and faced national-level forces laying a web of traps, he had enough ability to ensure his survival.
Moreover, even if they resorted to taboo methods, they would probably still be unable to do anything to Riezel.
"Is that okay, Your Majesty?"
Gazing at the silent Hendrick, Riezel seemed to see through his thoughts as he asked calmly and indifferently.
Hendrick stared at Riezel for a moment before suddenly smiling.
"No problem."