Chapter Seventeen

The dining hall was filled with the sounds of cutlery. Occasionally, shouts and random noises would resound, deleting the quiet atmosphere that was present an hour ago.

The arrogant youth wiped his mouth with a nearby handkerchief. All of it were exquisite, it would be a shame not to enjoy them slowly.

Nearby, the chairs had gotten cold, Karan and Loine had left long before him. He took his time on savoring all of them, after all.

Kyle stood up from his chair and made his way to the gate.

He didn't expect for himself to be immersed in the food, so much that he forgot about the artifacts in his room.

Also, the number of people that came here made him uncomfortable.

'But this confirms it, this place is far more advanced than Antis,' He tapped his thigh, raised his other hand, and pushed the half-closed door open.

Artifacts from this place were way more aggressive and powerful than those of the academy. Even the quality of life such as food was better.

Exiting the dining hall, he arrived at a hallway that went from left to right.

Kyle closed his eyes and tried to recall the structure of this building.

After moments of contemplation, he opened his eyes and went left. Passing the other residents of the building, he kept walking around until he was met with a wall.

"Hmmm…"

Turning around, he traced his path and went in the other direction. Kyle circled around before finally meeting another dead-end.

He clicked his tongue.

Nobody had shown him the map of this building, making him clueless in most of this building's area.

'I should've told them to wait.'

Earlier, the sibling only left after Kyle reassured them that he would be fine by himself. After all, he was trying to experience the dinner to its fullest.

On another thought, he should've asked for directions from them.

'This isn't a beginning of an adventure, I have to go back and study those artifacts,' He pursed his lips.

Unwilling to waste his time anymore, he asked the people nearby for the way.

Fortunately for him, everyone here was practically a resident of this huge place. They were able to lead him to the place he wanted to go.

Walking up the round staircase, Kyle exercised his energy. Since the battle earlier, his energy has recovered to the point that he was able to spend it lavishly.

Feeling the warm sensation on his body, he hastened his pace so he could inspect those artifacts quicker.

Finally reaching the eighth floor, where his room resided, he passed through identical doors and stopped in front of a room.

Just like the other on this floor, a sign was hung in front of the entrance. "…186," he spoke.

Kyle pushed the door open and was met with a familiar room, just with scraps of metal lying everywhere.

"I'll have to clean that later," sighing, he put tidying his room as a priority. Kicking away the hindrance on the ground, he picked up a severed object from the ground.

These cut balls were the main entertainment for today.

"Okay, now show me what you really are."

He then brought the incomplete artifact near the lamp on the desk. Putting it near the source of light, he started to observe the half-artifact.

Relying on his enhanced eyes, Kyle scrutinized the uneven and rough metal.

"Hmm?"

He rubbed his eyes and glared at the thing on his hand fiercely, moving his head once in a while.

The first thing he noticed was the black lines on the metal. It was hard to spot with the naked eye, and he could barely see it thanks to the light source.

The second thing he noticed was how hard it is to observe this object. The uneven and ragged metal even managed to infuriate him.

'These lines look familiar, but where have I seen them before?'

After observing it from multiple angles, he dropped down the artifact in annoyance and walked towards the artifact stash.

He fumbled the tools inside before taking out another ball-shaped artifact. The ball was red, almost identical to the ball he had lost earlier today.

[Tschk!]

Sparks flew out when he used it, confirming its use.

'This should work,' a corner of his mouth rose.

Inserting his hand to the drawer again, he took out a knife and ran his fingers through the flat side.

He inserted his energy towards both artifacts, creating fire and sharpening a knife at the same time. As he looked with expectation, he brought the knife closer to the hot flame, heating it.

The knife appeared unscathed after a while, and Kyle responded by giving more energy to the red ball.

After a while, the surface of the knife turned into a slight pink. However, the youth was still unsatisfied. He lowered the amount of energy on the knife and increased the temperature.

This way, the knife would get heated faster, but with the risk of breaking. Of course, Kyle didn't care about that.

Raising the handle of the steaming red blade, Kyle warily brought it closer to the split ball. He steadily held the artifact on the floor and ran his hot knife through it. And to his delight, the ball split easily, finally creating a smooth surface.

The youth was satisfied with the result and put the knife down, scorching the floor in the process.

He heard the sizzling from the floor and realized what he had just done.

He had gotten too excited again, a bad habit that he always had.

"Deep breaths…"

In…and out, the arrogant youth managed to calm himself down. With his mind fully cleared, he started to observe the object in his hands.

Its surface was still hot, so he didn't want to touch it yet. But the metal was now clear for him to observe.

Small lines were engraved on the metal itself. from its core to the outer-most layer, this pattern could be seen with keen observation.

And as he expected, he had seen this pattern before.

"These lines… are the same as the ones on that building!"

That's right, these lines appeared disordered and random at first glance, but the more you look at it—the less you would find such disorder. It would even turn harmonious after a while.

Kyle was surprised, but that was it. This discovery wasn't that shocking, to be honest. He had linked this place with Ancient Antis since he came here, seeing this pattern wouldn't bring him to the point of being mind-blown.

He tried to insert his energy and observe the metal next. Unsurprisingly, flames began to condense from the metal.

This was basically the same with the artifacts back on his home, and he got quite disappointed.

'Wait, then why are these artifacts generally more powerful?'

He tossed half the ball to the air continuously and came up with some ideas. The split artifact had cooled down already, leaving the metal slightly warm to the skin.

'Since the way it worked was identical, perhaps these lines were the reason for the abnormality? No, these lines can't be that powerful to do what that black bracelet did. Or was it the metal used? What did they use to make these, anyways?'

'If I can figure how this worked, then the impact it would have on the world would be enormous! Of course, assuming that I won't be staying here for the rest of my life.'

'But here's the strange part, why has no one announced this already? I'm sure someone out there had known about these lines or the metal used to create these artifacts… then why not reveal it to the world? Was It dangerous?'

As speculations and thoughts arose in Kyle's mind. He quickly shook his head repeatedly in order to shoo all of them.

Thinking about it too much would only burn him out, it would probably be in his favor to dissect another artifact and observe it.

Of course, that was what he did.

He split open another round-shaped artifact and scrutinized its contents. Just like the one he had cut earlier, the strange pattern covered the inside of the ball.

So, he decided to memorize the strange pattern.

----

Inside the dark room, a young man was traveling in his slumber.

But unfortunately, his dreams would be shattered shortly. The earth suddenly shook violently, shaking him off his bed.

The arrogant youth instantly became fully awake and tried to stand up, only to stagger due to the overwhelming force from the ground.

Everything in his room became wrecked. The statue depicting a corrupted fell over, severing its head in the process. The small notes on the wall detached one-by-one, a result of the shaking building.

The furniture inside the room fell over, even knocking to Kyle occasionally.

"What's happening!?" Kyle yelled in panic.

It continued shaking, and everything that he did was useless.

Until finally, a burst of light emerged in his room.

"Come!"

In the next moment, only the wreckage of his room remained.