Once the asteroid vault was sufficiently warm such that it wasn't instantly killing his exposed flesh, Felix entered the vault and looked around. However, after stepping inside the vault, Felix realized that he had already seen everything. The entrance portal was set upon one of the walls and there were no hidden passageways, nooks or crannies.
The cave was easily large enough for what Felix had planned and luckily the floor was relatively flat, likely by design. It wasn't flat enough for him to inscribe the portal directly onto it, not that he would anyways, but it was good enough that he could build off of it. More specifically, Felix planned to add a layer of starmetal across the entire floor that he could use to inscribe spells upon.
Felix didn't waste any more time and first reverted his starmetal suit into a large mass of metal that he started laying across the floor. Once he ran out of starmetal from the suit, he started pulling ingots out of his inventory and adding them in as well. His goal was a perfectly flat circle about 3 meters across.
The biggest obstacle he had to work around was the lack of gravity in the asteroid, luckily a single of simple force spell provided a perfect facsimile of gravity that made it much easier to work. The rest of the work was relatively easy. The circle was laid out and flattened without issue and Felix began inscribing the portal spell he planned on using into the starmetal. He still didn't have coordinates for a star yet but he could simply inscribe the rest of the spell for now and add in the coordinates afterwards.
Once the portal spell, minus the coordinates, was ready in the asteroid vault, Felix headed back into the castle basement and began constructing a different portal spell. In Erolan's research notes, Felix and Grim found multiple coordinates that supposedly led to random locations in the middle of space.
At some point he had tried to find a pattern with the coordinates so he could guess the coordinates of specific locations but there was no mention of him ever succeeding. As for the random locations he still had recorded, Felix theorized he kept them around for disposal of sensitive materials, bodies and otherwise.
Felix chose one of them at random and started to construct another portal with the coordinates, this time about the size of a large coin. He knew he was likely opening a portal into empty space meaning the air in the room around him would be sucked into it.
Theoretically, according to the multitudes of physics books he had memorized, the smaller the portal, the less force the vacuum would apply. He needed it to be big enough for him to cast a spell through it though so he didn't make it miniscule. He also wasn't sure a portal the size of a pinprick would even be stable. He spent a few hours designing the spell with solid mana and visually inspecting it for flaws.
Once he was certain the portal spell form was as perfect as he could make it on his first try, Felix inset the spell form into a new starmetal sheet then reabsorbed the solid mana. Left with a massive spell form made of channels, Felix moved onto the next step. He added a few million mana to the empty channels and experimented with it in an attempt to find any flaws. He pushed mana forcefully around and tested areas he knew were a problem on the last portal and in previous spell forms he had cast. He found a few minor issues that he fixed but was interrupted by a System screen before he could actually open the portal itself.
World Event
All 12 fragments of the key to the final vault of Ky'bel have been assembled. The final vault is now open. The portal will remain open for one hour at which point it will be sealed. If you choose not to enter the final vault, you may instead return to Trenus. Those who enter the vault will not return to Ky'bel afterwards, so do not leave anything behind. Heading through the portal will bring you to Erolan's champion in it's lair. If defeated, those who participate will have one day to raid the final vault.
You have one hour to enter the final vault, if you do not do so you will be returned to Trenus.
Wait, is that different? I thought the key was supposed to summon Erolan's pet then defeating it would then let them get in? Am I misremembering that? Also what gives, I thought I had a day once it was opened?
I don't think so, that's how I remember it to. Maybe we both misinterpreted it? I… guess you should have saved it in your library?
Just a few moments later, almost as if it was answering their questions, another System screen appeared.
World Event: Special Quest
You, Felix Kade, have decided to forgo most of the treasures of the vaults throughout the city along with the final vault. Instead you have fixated on the fallen kingdom of Kroterra and Erolan's body along with his personal treasures. Your familiar has already entered the final vault and will act as a participant, subject to the same rules they are.
You will have one day alone in the World Event starting in one hour. Any attempt to open a portal with absolute coordinates, outside of the world event space, within the next hour, will fail. You may prepare as you see fit for the next hour. In 25 hours you will be returned to Trenus. If you unseal Erolan and he bests you, he will be returned to the multiverse. Should you succeed in killing Erolan and unbinding any pieces of the Devourer set, you will be eligible for bonus rewards.
Rewards: Unbound pieces of the Devourer set. Any remaining pieces of Erolan's mind, body and soul will be added to the remaining pieces of the Devourer set once bound to you. You will be provided the portal coordinates to the capital city of the multiverse. Additionally, the progenitor of your class has agreed to reward you with the full class should you succeed. Lastly, you will be given a crystal tied to a pocket dimension in which you may relocate your tower from Trenus.
Conditions: Should you succeed, you will have 6 months left on Trenus at which point you will be forced to leave the integration universe entirely. If you do not leave yourself, you will be ejected to a random location within the multiverse.
Warning: Once you leave, you will be unable to return to Trenus until the integration is complete. If you leave without choosing a successor for Atalus and the Stormbringer's Demesne, they will be forfeit and free to claim. If you do not accept this quest and it's conditions, you will be subject to the same restrictions as everyone else and be forced to either enter the final vault or return to Trenus.
Do you accept this quest and it's conditions?
Yes.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
No.
After pausing for a few minutes of silence, mind completely blank, Felix read through the unexpected second prompt again. The second time because to make sure he had read it properly and the third to be sure he got everything. Though there were downsides, Felix didn't have much to think through, he already knew his answer.
Yes.
So, we have just under 25 hours to finish this.
Yup. Then I'm getting kicked out of the integration universe.
Yeah that was… unexpected.
I was going to end up leaving anyways, or at least trying to. It's just… being forced out is different… I guess this means the System thinks it's possible then? Killing Erolan and destroying a seal?
I guess? I mean, not necessarily. Maybe it thinks we are more likely to unseal him than we are to anything else.
Maybe. Then why even give us the quest, it mentions success so it must be a possible outcome, no matter how unlikely. I know we talked about it but up to now I still wasn't convinced it was even possible for any of this to work. It's all just so far… outside my imagination even. Even just opening a short range portal was a little mind bending. This almost feels like… encouragement? or an endorsement?
While I get it, portals and teleportation seem like a godlike ability to some, they really aren't that crazy. Anchors screw them over and they aren't exactly easy to use and cast. Also most people can't move the mana while the portal is open.
I thought you didn't know about portals before Erolan's notes?
I knew about them, I just had no idea how to cast one. It was so commonplace in my universe that it wasn't really a secret. No one bothered to store it in my pages. I had heard about them though. Seen a few in my own travels.
Commonplace? Really?
Yeah. Transportation of people, goods and anything else.
Wow. It just seems… insane. People back on earth had dreamed about instantly moving from one place to another for thousands of years. Now I'm just… doing it… and I'm only in the D grade.
You also have more mana in your mana pool than most people in B grade or even more. Portals are usually an endeavor taken on by a large group or with a lot of preparation, at least in my universe.
Fair enough… still.
Theoretically, 25 hours was plenty. Felix already knew what he needed to do and didn't think it would take that long. In reality, he expected there to be complications that slowed him down so he moved as quickly as he could.
He wasn't certain the portal spell form was perfect yet, but he had exactly one hour where he couldn't actually open it anyways so he immediately started testing the spell. He moved mana through the channels, compared the spell form to the vault keys and notes as well as examined the spell as many times as he could before the hour was up.
With nothing else delaying him, forcefully or otherwise, Felix started pouring mana into the portal's spell form. He corrected and adjusted for minor flaws with his mana control as he went but nothing major enough for him to stop channeling mana altogether. Exactly as expected, a small circle just a few inches wide appeared directly above the spell form with no forewarning whatsoever.
This one however, was accompanied by a slight popping noise then a rush of air being sucked into it. The force wasn't nearly enough to pull him towards the portal but it did create a strong breeze in the chamber. He didn't waste any time and peered through into the inky black beyond. Unfortunately, he didn't see anything though so he quickly reached out for the spell form with his mana senses and began manipulating the spell form, ever slightly.
Felix rotated the portal around until he spotted a few pinpricks of light through it. He chose the brightest one and focused on it while he cast the coordinate measuring spell. In theory, the spell could measure the coordinates of anything he could see but he wasn't exactly sure how that would work. In the room around him, it was instantaneous. Across space, pointing towards something that was easily thousands of lightyears away, Felix just hoped the spell didn't try to actually measure the distance to it's target.
Luckily, the spell just as instantaneously as it had when pointed at the wall, created a series of coordinates in the air in front of him. It felt different in an almost indescribable way but he just attributed it to the weird circumstances under which the spell was being cast. Felix quickly memorized them and then repeated the spell a few more times on the same star, and a few more times on the other two pinpricks of light he saw.
The spells returned the same coordinates every time so Felix was pretty sure they were accurate and wasn't too worried when he closed the portal. He quickly added coordinates to the spell form on the floor of the asteroid vault and reheated the room. He then worked on the simple spell work that would cause the portal to cast on a delay. All he ended up creating was a massive spell form that did nothing except hold mana surrounding the portal spell form. He connected that to the portal spell form with some simple enchantments nodes that artificially created a delay just by being slow.
By his calculations and experiments, the spell would be delayed from casting for a few minutes. He wanted more of a delay, but any more than that and he wasn't sure his makeshift spell form would be able to handle the amount of mana flowing through it. Even now, he was mostly hoping and doing whatever experiments he could to reassure himself. Lastly, Felix triple checked the portal spell form using the knowledge he had gained from the last portal he had just cast.
With the other portals, Felix had held the mana into the mold. With this one, he wouldn't be around to do that so, once he had tested it for a couple hours to satisfaction, Felix pulled out the materials for inlaying enchantments he had gotten in the tutorial.
Though the materials were E grade materials mostly, they seemed to hold up to his testing and were more stable than just pouring raw mana into empty channels. He found that he just had to make them thick enough, too thin and they would melt. Felix quickly formed a large tank out of starmetal with a small tube running out of the bottom. He placed ingots of inlay material into the tank and heated it with a Pocket Star in the middle of the tank. The material slowly liquefied and poured out of the tank and into the starmetal mold on the floor.
Felix paid careful attention to make sure the material poured in evenly and as flawlessly as he could manage. The funnel that he poured the inlay material through was tiny, which made it a slow process, but ultimately he wouldn't have dared go any faster anyway and rush it. With the entire spell form complete, Felix tested and modified it until it was as perfect as he was going to be able to manage.
Finally, Felix flew up to where he knew Erolan's body lay. It lay there, unmoved from where he remembered it, in the exact same position. Completely still other than the slow and slight expansion and contraction of his chest, breathing at the exact same rate as he remembered. The body was tall, muscular and his skin was shiny, almost like a carapace. The worst part of all though, was the face that for some reason held 5 eyes and just generally disgusted Felix.
Initially, he intended on cutting Erolan up into small pieces and carting those down to the portal room but when he tried to remove his head with the axe, Felix found he could just barely scratch his neck.
Erolan showed no signs of rousing with an axe to his neck though so Felix felt a little less nervous removing the chains from around his body. Erolan was technically still alive so Felix couldn't stow his massive body in his inventory, instead Felix carried it. Erolan was far heavier than he had expected but it wasn't unmanageable. Felix placed the body in the asteroid vault off to the side so it wouldn't interfere with the portal. He was pretty sure it didn't matter how close the body was considering what he was planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .