Lock Picking

Max waited until the patrolling drone got far enough before he dashed across the street. This region was officially under the circle of Metropolitan Area, but it also very closely bordered The Null Zone. Therefore, the local government was disinclined to deploy many surveillance devices. It was common to find only a single drone making a round within an entire block.

Once he reached the alley next to Daryl's Magic Barrell, he sneaked toward the store's back door. Attached to the metal handle was a square-shaped platform with a tiny dark blue magic stone embedded on its center. The platform was a form of electronic lock while the stone was an electric mana conductor.

The making of locks normally came with the creation of their matching keys. The keys were not physical keys, though. Rather, they were the lock owner's mana signature. Using pure and never-been-used mana stone, the owner imbued it with their own mana while the lock itself scanned the signature being given off and registered it in its memory.

In this case, the store owner and their employees were certainly the ones who held the keys, a.k.a the right sigantures that could open this lock.

But Max had a way to bypass it. In fact, he could pick any lock, regardless of the sort of mana conductor the lock used, whether it was electric, heat, or even light.

The lock was programmed to only respond to the owner's and employees' mana signatures that had gone through the conductor. If anyone else were to straight up use their mana to activate the mana conductor on the lock, an alarm would go off. Unless of course, one could replicate their mana signatures.

Max could do that. He could see mana waves, so naturally he could tweak them to match the owner's mana signature. But wait, the owner was not here at the moment.

No problem; all he needed to do was observe the mana signature coming from the lock's mana conductor itself. It had certainly been shaped to fit the owner's and employees' mana signatures after being used so many times.

And then, using his gloves, he would 'pluck' and 'pinch' the mana waves around him. His fingers moved fast as he shaped the waves in a certain way that matched the 'slots' formed by the conductor's mana signature.

And once the slots were filled, the dark blue mana stone lit up as it converted the mana key Max had created into electricity. The electricity then activated the lock, flipping the red indicator light atop the platform to green.

In the next second, Max was standing inside the storage room of the store. He looked down at the white mana stone—kinetic mana conductor—attached to his glove's wrist. His lips formed a light smirk. He was grateful that his Talent lay in kinetic magic. It was probably the most common magical Talent in the whole Republic, if not the world. Subsequently, kinetic mana conductors were also the most commonly available, followed by heat and electric mana conductors.

Mana was the newest type of energy, and since its discovery, humans had shifted from using other non-renewable energy resources to harvesting mana stones from The Ancient Ruins. Mana was, after all, a unique energy that was compatible with all other types of energy.

Take electricity for example. Countries with small populations had said goodbye to the costly building and maintenance of turbines and solar cells, and had begun utilizing the distribution of mana stones that could convert mana in the atmosphere and from human bodies into other types of energy.

Mana and mana stones consisted of several types based on their compatibility with other energy—kinetic, heat, electricity, and so on. Though kinetic energy in this case referred more to motion energy, which was the more accurate term. Max didn't know who had started it, but people had always called it kinetic energy when magic was involved.

Max believed that other kinetic mana users didn't know what they were missing out on, since they didn't have a way to see and sense the subtlest element of mana—its waves. They could only utilize kinetic mana to move objects, and they thought that was the end of it. Oh, they couldn't be more wrong. In Max's opinion, kinetic mana encompassed all types of mana, perhaps only apart from the rare matter mana—air, liquid, and solid—since they weren't energy to begin with.

For instance, kinetic mana could tap into the waves generated by a light mana conductor as long as the kinetic mana user was able to see and sense them. After that, the kinetic mana would help the user move the waves around, manipulating the light. In fact, the light didn't have to come from a mana conductor. Max could manipulate lightwaves coming from any source as long as he turned his lightwaves viewing mode on.

In other words, kinetic mana was the jack of all trades among all types of mana, yet Max was probably the only person in the world who was aware of this. Probably.

So while other people relied on heat mana conductors to empower heat and electric mana conductors to trigger electricity, Max was right here weaving their waves around with only his gloves.

Satisfied with the smooth performance of the higher quality mana conductors, Max headed out of the storage room toward the front of the store. And there it was, shining like a star, was the item he'd been eyeing for since the first time he'd seen it a week ago. After discovering how much mana waves it emitted, Max went straight to the black market store he had often had dealings with, and informed the owner about his discovery. As a regular supplier, Max didn't have to say much to convince him that the item was legit.

And here he was, staring wide-eyed at the item. It was a small wooden chest, the size of his stretched hand. It looked plain on the outside, but he knew something wonderful was stored in it, owing to the bright mana waves pulsating around it. Ah yes, they were pulsating.

Wait what? Pulsating?

Max's eyebrows furrowed. He hadn't noticed it before from afar, but at this close distance, he noticed that the white mana waves surrounding the chest pulsated in a regular rhythm. Like a heartbeat. Fast it may be, it still indicated that there was a living being inside the chest.

Because as far as Max knew, he had only observed pulsating mana waves around people and animals. Unlike the 'static' mana waves that floated about in the air.

He picked up the chest and lightly shook it. The mana waves' pulse quickened.

Just in case, he shifted his viewing mode from mana waves to soundwaves. And then he shook the item again. The purple sound strings around it trembled slightly. That meant there was something inside it that just produced a low sound.

What kind of animal was kept inside this chest and why? No, more importantly, how come it was able to generate such powerful mana?

All kinds of questions swirled around Max's head. However, he suddenly noticed a movement of soundwaves from the street. He himself was standing right behind the display window, so whatever it was that was making the sound would certainly be able to spot him.

He ducked under the display platform and peeked through the small gap on top of it.

And of course, it was the patrolling drone. He wanted to hit himself for forgetting about it. He waited until the drone passed before bolting back toward the storage room and out of the store, making sure to erase any trace he was ever there. In his right hand, he was clutching the small chest.

He still had his soundwaves viewing mode activated, so he was able to see the chest—or whatever was inside it—making a barely audible sound with every step he took. It was as if the thing was voicing out an 'ouch' from the bumpy ride in Max's hand.

About twenty minutes later, he was back in his nest—the quiet alley located at the edge of The Null Zone. He was once again sitting on a layer of cardboard, leaning his back against the dirty concrete wall. A shade of violet was already peeking over the horizon, and he had a small window of opportunity to decide what to do with the chest now.

Should he still go through with the deal and hand the chest over to his client right away? Or should he inspect what was inside it first to sate his curiosity?

Max shrugged. He decided to go with the latter. What could possibly go wrong?

But after examining the chest, he realized there was no way to open it. Instead of a mana stone, there was only a classic mechanical key hole on its front side. Which might indicate that it was an item from The Ancient Ruins, since most of them were able to emit mana despite not having mana stone attached to them.

Max guessed that the way to open the lock was to interact with the chest itself. So he switched back to mana viewing mode and sent a small wave of mana into the chest, like how he would normally activate a mana stone.

To his surprise, the chest responded by emitting a chain of mana waves that formed a deliberate pattern. It was almost like a puzzle consisting of several shapes. An easy one, actually.

All he had to do was match one shape to another until they all formed a 3D strange-looking symbol. The outlining was in the shape of a star, and inside it was the form of…a dragonfly? No, not quite. It did have the four membranous wings of a dragonfly, but in the place of what was supposed to be its body was some kind of rod. Or staff. The top was adorned with a sphere while a string composed of sparkling dust coiled and twisted around the bottom part.

As soon as Max was done arranging every piece of the puzzle to form that symbol, he felt a slight vibration coming from the chest. The mechanical lock was opening. After the vibration stopped, Max knew he could now lift the lid. And so he did.

Next thing he knew, bright white light flooded the whole alley, temporarily blinding his eyes.