A small sphere-shaped metal rests quietly in Aleph's palms. It was six points similar to the nuclear reactor used in his nuclear suits. There should've been light inside its transparent part, yet there weren't any.
"It's… this. I can't be wrong."
Complex emotions went through him. Although most of its exterior was showing signs of rust and deterioration, he could still recall the day it was created.
It was none other than the accidental dark energy reactor he made in his past life.
"Exterior is fully scrapped. The insides…"
Using Elemental Sight and Great Sage, Aleph easily completed a thorough analysis of it.
"It could be used as a framework. There are some materials I could also reuse…"
Throughout the last few months, Aleph obtained several dozen industries under his control. That was the result of using the councilors' hidden assets to grow them as businesses in various sectors.
In turn, it became easier to obtain materials outside his identity as the third institute's assistant director.
After some time, Aleph sighed.
"It's been so long. If this was left to be like this…"
Knowing the notion of your greatest finding buried by time was a complicated thing to feel—despite intending to keep it hidden in the first place.
"I should be more careful now. I'll have to take the initiative and keep a peaceful balance…"
In his previous life, his prestige that started from being a war soldier steadily spiraled out of control. That ended up in him becoming someone that must be dealt with no matter the cost.
It was completely different now where his danger was "relatively manageable" to the higher-ups. That balance allowed him to be free of human disturbances.
While going through nostalgia, Aleph crushed the blue crystal box in his palm.
[Cursed Energy (Converted): 2071 → 2110]
The surge of cursed energy filled Aleph's body. The pink-black energy swirled around his right arm before disappearing.
"I could either use the Diary to learn Reversed Curse Technique and the likes. For now…"
Aleph decided to claim the [Sanctuary Key]. Unlike what he expected, it existed in the form of a silver card the size of an ATM Card.
[Sanctuary Key: One-time use item. Grants the set of knowledge required by the user into the form of books. Limited to Level B Clearance and below (See More).]
[***Level B Clearance - Data classified on the level that could potentially change the continental landscape. It includes developed power systems, wide-scale planetary weapons, genetic research…]
Although the card weighed a few grams at best, Aleph felt its heaviness.
"This is the real thing…"
He recalled the things everyone in the Previous Era will accomplish. Now, he had to choose something that could potentially give them an advantage against the honkai.
"With the law of proportional increase, it's best to arm a select few who could fight herrschers alone. If that experiment yields some results…"
Turns out, the MANTIS surgery as well as Mei's postponement served as an experiment for Aleph. He wanted to see whether the changes he made were big enough to affect the progression of honkai. After all, honkai's strength is proportional to the civilization's. If the latter was strong, so would be the former.
That was Aleph's biggest concern since he realized which world he was in.
"...Alright."
He decided on his purpose for the [Sanctuary's Key]. With a light pinch, the silver card shone brilliantly. The next moment, Aleph found himself inside a white space. It was similar to the one he went after touching the herrscher core. Only, there are faint silhouettes of bookshelves and electronic terminals.
Out of them, a solid terminal was located a few meters in front of him. When he got closer, he fully saw its intricate design. The terminal seems to have merged with the white space. The screen was made of unknown materials.
In it, Aleph saw numerous symbols he couldn't recognize. It was as if he glimpsed upon dozens of alien civilizations in one go.
"This place… where is it..?"
His Elemental Sight ran at full power. The back of his eyes became extremely hot. A streak of blood came from inside his nose.
"Kukh..!"
A second later, Aleph could no longer hold it. He forcibly 'turned off' Elemental Sight. His head felt extremely heavy, something far incomparable to any battle he had ever been into.
"Great Sage… Prepare a detailed report."
{Parsing information…}
A while later, a response came back.
{Result: The current location does not exist in any dimension. After correlating to the data stored, it is a location formed by thoughts and concepts. It may be detached to the known Euclidean Dimensions.}
A simple and brief conclusion came out of the girl's voice.
"I… can't recall many things anymore. Have you recorded it?"
{Answer: It has been recorded.}
Upon hearing that answer, Aleph slowly recovered. The heaviness of his head was still there, but he could now function as per normal.
"Huff… This went beyond my expectations."
Just looking around the place alone gave Aleph some data regarding "conceptual spaces". It reminded him of the Stigma Space.
Aleph soon snapped out of it and touched the terminal. The moment he did so, a language was selected on its own.
The familiar words and letters gave out a sense of incongruence.
"Sanctum…"
From the terminal, there was some basic information.
This place was called the Third Sanctum. It was a place responsible for literally storing information. The silver card allowed him to withdraw a specific 'knowledge' of his choice.
Meaning to say, the more specific the knowledge he wanted, the more detailed it would be; otherwise, it would be more general.
"A place to store information… How crazy…"
The more Aleph scrolled down, the more studies he saw. Despite using the search bar that should've sorted them, they were still innumerable. He was seeing lifelong works of countless civilizations.
"Esper… this should be it."
In the end, his choice was narrowed down on the information of Espers. The introduction—a two sentence long summary—stated they were the genetic warriors that undergo genetic changes. It fits with the MANTIS project back in MOTH.
"I shouldn't choose a specific one. It's inevitable to have different environments…"
After an hour of searching, Aleph finally chose the study to be brought back with him. After he did so, he tried to 'look' at this space two more times before his brain gave up.
Soon, the time for his departure from this space came.
"One hour time limit. If I could come back again…"
The sensation of falling into water drowned Aleph's words. When he came back to his senses, he was back inside the abandoned hangar. Only, there were hundreds of printed pages atop his hands. Motes of silver light dissipated under his sight.
"Achievement Hunter… this is still the right way."
Once again, he was reminded of its potential.
*****
A/N: The Sanctum came from the novel "The Legendary Mechanic". You can think of it as a database of countless civilizations' lifelong work for a specific purpose. There are other functions to it, but the database storage is the main focus for now.
Also, apologies for the lack of updates yesterday. I got too caught up with real-life matters...