Chapter 165: Stupidly Lucky

Being on the receiving end of Fabio's intense stare, Sol could only embarrassedly scratch his head.

"I wanted to give it to you sooner, but I was busy at the time. After the tournament, you were busy. I just didn't want to distract you from your business."

Before the tournament, Sol was more focused on getting stronger to be prepared for whatever might come his way. After he won the tournament, it was Fabio who became busy, dealing with merchants and clients every day while also having to make items and equipment daily to keep up with their demands.

Feeling Sol's sincerity, Fabio calmed down.

"Hah… Sorry about that. I overreacted a tad bit. Still, you are stupidly lucky to stumble into this."

Sol nodded in agreement. "If I was a minute later, another group of adventurers would have gotten it."

"What? No, that's not what I mean. If it was a literal minute later, it would have disappeared by then."

"Huh? How?"

When Sol found the void root, it was stuck to a random wall on the 13th floor of the dungeon.

Noticing he wasn't very knowledgeable about the material, Fabio asked, "How much do you know about the void root?"

"Only what the [Analysis] results show, which isn't much. I checked the dungeon guide, but it didn't have anything on it either."

"I'll start from the beginning then. Take a seat."

Two chairs walked towards them and stopped in front of the workstation with the void root on it. Sol wasn't weirded out by the chairs, as it wasn't the first time he dropped by and was used to the random inventions. The two sat down, and Fabio began to explain more about the material.

"It makes sense for it not to be included in the guide. After all, void roots don't appear often, only once every 100 to 150 years. There is no real point in including it in a guide when adventurers don't have a chance to even find one in their lifetime." After giving some context, Fabio continued to his main point. "Now for why you were lucky to find it when you did. Well, that's because the void root would be nurtured by the dungeon itself. It would be moved from floor to floor wherever there is dense energy to feed it."

Sol had some doubts. "Does that mean the dungeon is sentient? Why would it nurture the void root anyway?"

"Only A-Rank dungeons show signs of sentience, but that's not the point."

"I feel like you're glossing over something important…"

Ignoring his comment, Fabio continued, "You're lucky because the void root would be moved frequently. Reports of the last time it appeared mentioned adventurers who found one, celebrated, and during their celebration, it got absorbed back into the wall. This happened more than a few times, and it was generally estimated that it would only stay in one place for around five minutes at most."

"I see, but what can you make with it?"

While understanding how rare it was, Sol was more interested in what he could do with it.

Fabio placed his hand on his chin. "It can be made into a lot of things… really depends on your needs. Overall, it's a highly potent energy source. It gains its void energy from absorbing all types of energy."

"All types of energy?" Curious, Sol activated [True Sight] and saw even mana was being sucked into the root.

Fabio nodded. "Yup, you only see light because it's the most noticeable, but it's also absorbing mana right now. I have only read about it, but it also absorbs heat, gravitational, electrical, and sound energy. There could be more, but I'd have to test it myself."

"Can it be used to absorb attacks?"

"Definitely, but you are focusing on just one part of the void root. All the energy it absorbs turns into void energy, which means you have a near-infinite supply of one of the most dangerous forms of energy."

"I've never seen void energy. How strong is it?"

Fabio stood up and grabbed the void root. "Good question. I've been wanting to know that myself. Follow me."

Sol was led to the edge of the workshop where a one-foot cube metal box with a rod on top sat on a table.

"I prepared this to run a few tests if I ever got my hands on one. I'm glad I can finally make use of it."

For a while, Sol had been noticing how knowledgeable Fabio was regarding the void root, so he decided to ask about it while Fabio placed the void root in the box.

"Why do you know so much about the void root?"

Closing the metal box, Fabio said, "It's the only reason I came to this city in the first place. Legendary materials are incredibly rare to find, appearing randomly throughout the world with very few locations where they could consistently appear, like the void root. I found out that another would appear soon and moved here two years ago. At first, I tried to explore the dungeon myself, but with its random migrations, it didn't matter if I was on the 1st floor or the 40th. I couldn't search the entire dungeon myself, which is why I thought about hiring help or buying it if it was found. That's why I created Gearworks in the first place."

Sol had always felt since he first met Fabio that he was stronger than he appeared, but to casually say he was on the 40th floor surprised him.

"Do you need the void root for something then?"

It worried him that there would be a conflict of interest, and while he liked Fabio, he wasn't willing to just give away a legendary material.

Luckily, Fabio's next words eased his fears. "Nothing particular, I just wanted to take a good look at it and figure out how it generates void energy. Whether I can replicate it would be up to my own abilities. Now let's see what it can do."

He activated the box, which began to hum gently as it stimulated the void root inside. The rod on top of the box began to glow dark purple as both men watched.

"Energy extraction is successful. Now, let me release some of it… Oh shi-!"

The rod glowed ominously brighter as it released all the energy at once, sending a thick ray of void energy into the sky. It pierced through the roof of the workshop, creating a foot-wide hole as the ray of void energy obliterated everything in its path. Through the newly created hole in the roof, the two could see clouds in the distance being pierced by the ray as well. They continued to watch in silence until it disappeared in the far-away sky.

Once the void ray was gone, Fabio opened the box to check on the condition of the void root.

"There goes a quarter of its energy…"

Now it was Sol's turn to be mad. "A QUARTER?!"