68 A Man Has His Ways (2)

"I created a phantom body especially for this situation, it's just to make sure he gets this." The man pointed at the chest on the ground.

He waved his hand that was wearing the ring and gave a wry smile. Although he expected it to be with him, he couldn't forget how much trouble losing this gave him. Now, he was using the ring that caused him to fall from supremacy to open a chest that will give him a chance at redemption. What a strange thing, this destiny of his.

Emilia watched the man with focused as she felt her connection with the Tower waver for a second. A phenomenon like this means that someone is connecting with the tower, becoming another host. Or in Zel's case, taking the entire Tower as his due to absorbing the Tower's core. In any other time, this would have made her happy if she was with Zel, but with the man in front of her controlling his body, she felt uneasy.

The man shook his head and turned his attention at Emilia once again. "Anyway, for now, give this to him. He'll probably be too out of it when the time comes." The man tossed the chest to Emilia using a strange usage of mana, something she had never seen before.

A small formation appeared under the chest and it carried the chest, and Emilia didn't feel a single mana leak out from Zel's body. The Primal Force wasn't used, and mind energy couldn't do anything with physical, inanimate objects. She couldn't understand what he just did.

"It's time he learns how to use his power." A smile was in Zel's face, one that was very similar to how he usually does it. But after a second, his body became limp and fell to the ground. Luckily, his body was carried by the wolf whose body had turned to a much smaller one at around half a meter. It was still pretty big, but not as big as it was before. 

'Until we meet again, Lord Brovnan.' Benil whimpered as he carried Zel's body to Emilia. It would take a while before they meet again, but he'll help these two younglings to get there.

...

Looking quite excited, Zel carried himself to the chest that was lying on the ground. He looked at Emilia who still had a disturbed expression on her face, but when he looked at her, she nodded her head. "Yeah, he said that the things inside are yours. I didn't open it, and Benny didn't either."

"Awuu! Of course, I did not open master's chest!" Benil, now called Benny by Emilia raised one of his paws in the air in agreement. His previously black hair had turned pale white while the wolf's appearance looked less threatening due to his now, much smaller size.

Though it was also inquisitive about what was inside, it didn't dare to open the chest. First, it was because the chest had been the last mission given to him by the lord. Secondly, the survival of his race depended on this chest being received by the man it was intended for. He could never compromise his goal for a stupid thing like curiosity.

Zel knelt on the ground with Emilia on his right and Benny on his left, their eyes glued to the chest. Zel raised his hand and placed it next to the chest, concentrating his attention on his next action.

When Zel was inside his mind palace, he was given a complete guide on the usage of the Tower, the reason he could enter this pocket dimension from the time stream and lastly, what it means to become the new host of the Tower.

This pocket dimension had lost its host when Zel Brovnan decided to enter Samsara, ending his life while keeping his Karma. The soul then travelled across time and space, growing stronger as it went through many lifetimes without awakening properly. Those who awakened the soul could be counted into three, with Zel being the latest one.

Those two others, while able to create miracles that changed the course of history of humanity, were not able to fulfill the mission Zel Brovnan wanted to accomplish. The reason for that was simple, the dimension was still too immature. The mana density couldn't allow those two incarnations to grow more powerful, powerful enough to awaken the soul to its full potential.

But that all changed when Estophelia created a hole in the space between this dimension and a higher dimension. This change allowed mana to seep into every corner of the dimension, but she didn't stop there. She ended up creating a system that collected the mana and allowed that system to distribute the mana directly into creatures whose souls have affinity with mana.

The system she built wasn't her own idea alone but was instead a plan that she and Zel Brovnan had come up with together. Its original purpose wasn't to help Zel Brovnan's incarnations to speed up their growth, but to make the creation of a kingdom for the would-be king. That's the reason Zel was able to get the King class and was available to him alone.

But now that Zel was able to awaken the soul to a high enough rank, he got the rather limited ability 'Temporal Manipulation'. A basic ability related to time, and the ability that would enable Zel Brovnan to finally attain a path to get what he had always wanted, closure.

Thanks to his new-found ability, Zel was able to use Estophelia's mana crystal to power himself just enough to travel in the time stream. In there, he was able to complete a paradox that would start the whole reason for his existence. It was there that his soul was able to fully accept time energy. It was there that the Tower found him, even though his entrance was quite possibly a fluke.

To simplify the situation, the Tower's role in this dimension was to protect the dimension from harm while allowing it to grow safely. It was a door that leads to everywhere, keeping everything bad out, while letting the good things in.

The good in this aspect is the mana a dimension would need to grow, the elements that could be beneficial to Zel's plans. The details regarding the bad isn't quite as specific as Zel would have wanted, but that was because Zel Brovnan didn't intend on making assumptions.

After all, what could count as bad depends on who's looking. For Zel Brovnan, at least at the time he was alive and kicking, there were very few things he would consider as bad. That's because he could handle everything that could come his way without a sweat. But for Zel Huertazuela, there were very few things he could consider as good. That's because most things could kill him and everyone in this dimension, and he couldn't do shit to stop them.

But while Zel Brovnan was strong for his time, he was also a man who looks out for the future. That's why he made the Tower using a material called 'Zelium' and created a formation that runs on an energy called 'Primal Force'.

Both materials aren't even available to unearth outside this place, much less procure more. That was because Zelium is made from a mixture that only Zel Brovnan could manufacture, as it used his blood as a catalyst after all. On the other hand, Primal Force was the last vestiges of the Brovnan heritage, the power that allowed the millennium-old kingdom to protect themselves from the many powers that surrounded it.

Now, Zel was thinking that the things inside this chest would either be one of those materials or even both! If he could use Zelium to create a weapon, he'd be very pleased with the unexpected gift. If he got more Primal Force, he could use it to further his new system's capabilities.

Zel turned his hand that was facing down to face up while his eyes had traces of runes pass by in a blink of the eye. Inside his body, the mana moved on their own without him manually controlling them. 

"Lift!" Zel murmured while feeling a quarter of his mind energy getting consumed. A formation immediately manifested on the lock on the chest, unlocking it. 

This method of mana usage was called 'Spells' in Zel Brovnan's memories. They not only made it faster to produce effects, they also allowed for complex formations to occur without much strain to one's body. That was because the 'form' of the spell is made in the mind palace, allowing for instant incantation.

"Is this it?" A young man looked at the chest in front of him and felt more confused than amazed. Inside the golden chest were three objects, a ring, a mana core and a crown. The ring was already self-explanatory, though it was kind of useless for Zel. He decided to keep it, just in case he could make use of it later.

The mana core looked as empty as it could be, making Zel wonder if Zel Brovnan made a mistake. Perhaps he didn't think that the process would take this long, so long that his own mana core dried out due to the lack of sustenance. A mana core needed a host after all, just like the Tower. But unlike the Tower, it didn't have a storage of Primal Force that could keep it active even without a host.

The last thing in the chest, however, made Zel very happy. In his memories, he had seen the use of this crown. This simple, golden band that was just big enough to rest on his head was actually Zel Brovnan's personal artifact. The man's only weapon that he used to conquer his whole dimension.

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