Chapter 19: A Voice

"Sigh…"

Aleph relaxed upon laying down on his bed. He had just finished taking a bath after his meeting with Einstein.

"This kind of fatigue is familiar to me."

An entire day had passed since the events in Sapphire City. It took them more than half a day to return to the Mu Continent. After that, he arranged for the convoy to take care of some things as well as the findings generated from their expedition. 

After that, he had to meet with Einstein to discuss the aftermath of his actions.

All in all, Aleph only had the chance to rest now.

"Interfering is not a bad choice. I will unlock some achievements on the way…"

Aleph scrolled through his rewards earlier, though it was only now did he claim them.

The first thing that he got was a bag of [Senzu Beans]. It was a brown paper bag with twenty nine green beans inside. They felt slightly hot to touch. 

"It's quite hard. I bet it's crispy."

He only did some inspection before he placed them back on the bag. 

Aleph chose not to claim the other two bags.

The next thing that he took out was the [Knight Killer].

A jagged red dagger appeared on his arms. It followed the shape of a mail as a form of armor-breaker. One pinch of its blade was all it took for him to know how tough it was.

"If I add [Ratio] with it…"

Just imagining the damage he could do made him slightly more lively.

The next thing that he took out was the [Black Keys]. They are a set of six long silver daggers with a black horizontal crossguard. It didn't seem anything out of the norm, but the description made Aleph think otherwise.

[Black Keys: A standard weapon of the churchs' exorcists. It works greatly against unholy beings such as undeads.]

"A specialized weapon just like [Knight Killer]..."

The moment he claimed a reward, he could no longer hide it back on the 'internal storage'. Fortunately, Aleph prepared for this and took out a silver suitcase underneath his bed. It was stored further underneath the floor which was carved by his [Ratio] technique.

He had to pierce each section with the ratio line just to carve out a slightly deep hollow ground.

Now, it was transformed after some simple welding.

Upon opening it, a M9 magazine was present. It was the [Unlimited M9 Magazine] that he received after his first undead kill.

Aleph placed the six [Black Keys] as well as the [Knight Killer] in the briefcase. He placed it back immediately after doing so, lifting the carpet and making sure that everything was back to normal.

'The crystals feel important.'

He didn't take out any of the [Blank Sephira Crystal Fragment] due to that intuition of his. Moreover, the explanations from the panels are evident enough.

[Blank Sephira Crystal Fragment: A portion of a Sephira Crystal broken into five pieces. It will automatically become complete after five portions were placed next to each other. It will be bound to the owner. The owner will transform into a [Spirit] upon usage of the complete Sephira Crystal.]

Just its long line of texts made it evident how important it was.

Finally, Aleph took out the [Perfect Energy Box] and [Major Energy Box]. The former is a small jade chest the size of his palm. It is golden orange in color. The latter is nearly the same as it, with its color only being pure green jade.

Like before, their function was to increase his [Cursed Energy]. Though, the [Perfect Energy Box] gave out 100~1000 units of cursed energy, which was a huge difference compared to the 10~100 of the [Major Energy Box].

In the end, the [Major Energy Box] gave him a total of 17 energy units. The [Perfect Energy Box], on the other hand, gave him a shocking 580 energy units.

[Cursed Energy (Converted): 301 → 898]

It was, by far, one of the biggest harvests he got in the span of a night. It was certain that it would be difficult for him to come across such an achievement again. After all, it was included in the "firsts" type of achievement.

"Huh..?!"

Aleph immediately felt the changes on his body. If it was subtle yesterday, his current changes made him sweat intensively. It was as if 'something' was affecting his entire body. It wasn't a physical energy but a metaphysical one.

A while later, these changes stopped.

"It's increased by that much?!"

Aleph sensed that his current reserves are nearly thrice more than what it was before. It was no longer like his strength since a night ago. He became more confident to face seraph-class beasts barehanded. As for actual results, he has to verify it later.

'I need to fight again! But director Einstein told me to be more silent the next few months.'

He was lost in thought as his cursed energy kept being emitted by his right hand. It was akin to a black smoke, but with a tinge of pink.

"Hm..?"

Surprisingly, he found out that his limits when it comes to [Sphere Boundary] was still ten centimeters.

"Huh?!"

No, scratch that.

It decreased. From the prior ten centimeters, Aleph sensed that it was cut by half, which was five centimeters.

"How come? Was it the issue of control?" he guessed. "This might've been an issue for those who suddenly became stronger… like me. How did they deal with it?"

Unbeknownst to him, he got everything right. One of the special-grade sorcerers couldn't properly control his cursed energy at first. His innate cursed energy was extremely absurd that his mere uncontrolled presence was more than enough to physically affect other sorcerers.

'I'll deal with it later.'

Aleph glanced at the final reward that he hadn't touched yet.

[Great Sage: A unique skill from a certain world. It possesses several functions that would help the skill owner.]

[Note 1: Certain mechanisms were recalibrated to increase adaptability. As a result, most of its functions will be affected until the effect of the recalibration has been completely eliminated.]

[Note 2: It will remain inactive until it finds a "voice".]

Lines of texts blocked his sight. It was the first time that Aleph saw a reward with descriptions as long as it.

"The achievement… [Blessings of Miracles]... was it supposed to be when I fought a nigh indomitable enemy at my current strength? The Templar-class does fit the bill…"

Aleph spent a third of his cursed energy with each strike of its leg. If it was uninjured, its mobility was more than enough to surpass his reaction time. 

He, who only has a high attack power but extremely low endurance and agility, is akin to a glass cannon who will die after being hit.

The achievement that was supposed to be given out to him after an extremely desperate battle was acquired that easily.

"I'll claim it first…"

The moment Aleph chose to claim it, a blinding light appeared all over his room.

Then…

"Ugh… Where was it?"

He looked at his empty palm. He tried finding it all over his body, but to no avail. It got to the point that Aleph looked at the entire room and found nothing.

"That was it? A flashbang?" He muttered. "Great Sage? Ahem?"

Only silence remained. It wasn't until Aleph remembered the second note from earlier did he feel dumb.

"It will remain inactive until it has a voice… But what exactly is that?"

Just like his other rewards, Aleph was left hanging alone.