Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 1924: Genesis: Space

Braving the rain, the rain-soaked Shard slowly emerged from the river, transformed into a red butterfly, and entered through the central water outlet still spewing water. He then reverted to human form and proceeded inward. The water outlet was extremely large, so even if Shard stood upright, he wouldn’t hit his head. The flowing water nearly reached his knees, but Shard didn’t mind.

After walking inward for a dozen steps, he stopped upon "her" reminder. Closing his eyes to use "Enhanced Spatial Awareness," he reopened them to find that in the huge channel, which had previously been just full of water, there was now a golden-decorated metal box.

The box resembled a typical "treasure chest" in appearance, not only gold all over but also adorned with diamonds and various gemstones on its surface and joints. Even a glance was enough to know that the box must contain incredible treasures. However, with such an exaggerated design, it would only really appear during an opera performance.

The box was almost entirely submerged by the water, with only one top part exposed above the surface. The constant washing hadn’t caused it to rust or corrode, merely entangling some drifting debris around it. The surface remained shiny with a luster belonging to wealth.

Amidst the loud sound of rushing water, Shard frowned slightly and took a step back. Then, with lightning crackling in his hand, he hurled a dazzling spear formed of silver-white thunder forward with force:

"Thunder Spear!"

The Arcane Technique struck the chest head-on, and just as Shard anticipated, the chest, which dented slightly from the Thunder Spear’s impact, immediately "sprang" to life.

Shard watched as two slender legs appeared beneath the chest, supporting it to stand up and lift the body away from the water flow. Thin arms extended from both sides, waving wildly in the air.

The lid of the chest snapped open, but instead of gold and silver treasures, it revealed sharp teeth and a thick, bright red tongue. With its two slender legs serving as legs and the treasure chest itself as the body, this humanoid creature opened its large mouth, waving its slender arms, and lunged at Shard.

"So it’s you, the Scribe Level Relic—Treasure Chest Monster."

This was a well-known humanoid relic that Shard had once encountered on the Fishbone Pirate Ship with Lecia, who was using the alias "Miss Princess."

The Treasure Chest Monster typically manifested by transforming into a treasure chest to lure people into opening it, then seizing the opportunity to devour those attracted to it.

However, different Treasure Chest Monsters had different behaviors. For instance, the one on the Fishbone Pirate Ship merely blocked the passage in the ship’s corridor, whereas this one in Green Lake City used a concealed space crevice to hide, continuously throwing out "treasures" to lure people into seeking the source of the treasures.

If Shard guessed correctly, those who came to search for the treasure must have already been devoured by it.

These thoughts flashed through his mind as Shard took a step back and disappeared from his original position, letting the monster, with its arms wide open, miss its "embrace."

Appearing behind the Treasure Chest Monster, Shard didn’t attack immediately but instead threw two "Great Sin Chains" at the creature. The clinking of chains was drowned out by the sound of the water. One chain was deftly dodged by the creature with slender legs, while the other collided with the thick, bright red tongue that emerged from the chest.

The collision wasn’t loud; Shard was slightly surprised to see the Treasure Chest Monster’s tongue bounce back the Great Sin Chain entirely for the first time. But considering that his own "greed" came from this creature, and that such relics were inherently sinful, Shard wasn’t too shocked.

The monster turned to pounce at him once more. Shard stood still, holding his breath, counting silently in his mind: one, two, three:

"Moonlight Greatsword!"

He thrust his two imaginary hands forward, and a silver greatsword appeared out of thin air, piercing through the mouth of the chest and stabbing the body. As relics, these kinds of monsters were extremely difficult to destroy. Aside from Lecia having put them to Sleep with Hypnosis before attacking them, their only weakness was the mouth.

However, back in Coldwater Port, even with only two rings, Shard, with Lecia’s cooperation, managed to handle one. Thus, this battle wasn’t considered difficult either.

The greatsword turned into starlit silver light and dissipated into the air. The monster’s slender limbs and the chest itself turned ash-gray, then, like a sand sculpture, crumbled into a pile of dust, merging with the water.

With a plop and a clatter, a continuous stream of jewels and gold and silver jewelry fell into the water with the settling sand. These treasures were part of what the "Treasure Chest Monster" contained. In reality, after killing such monsters, one could usually obtain their treasures. The last time on the Fishbone Pirate Ship, apparently, the pirates had looted the monster’s treasures beforehand, so there was no harvest then.

"These things have Whisper Elements attached, amplifying human greed; they must be processed before being sold... Hm? Not just ordinary items?"

He gazed at the glittering "hill" that had formed in the water, squinted slightly, then bent down, placing his hand in the water and piercing through the jewels, finally retrieving a key:

"Time Key..."

He secured the key, then took a handkerchief out of his pocket, transforming it back into fabric to cover the jewels. Since they were imbued with Whisper Elements, transforming them into toys would consume slightly more Spirit, but Shard didn’t care.

He gathered the toys in his hand, straightened up, and put them away, suddenly froze, seeing beneath the slightly cloudy surface, there was still one item that hadn’t been turned into a toy.

To be precise, it wasn’t really an item, it was a card lying underwater, yet not damaged:

"What? This is..."

Even Shade, who didn’t have much emotional fluctuation when the tavern exploded just now, held his breath. He sensed his surroundings and confirmed this wasn’t a trap before quickly bending down to pick up the card from the water. Only then did he realize the card wasn’t damaged in the water because it was embedded in the center of a transparent glass plate.

He gently shook it a few times, shaking off the water droplets from the glass plate. Then he saw on the card face, a man with an indistinct appearance had his back to the card face, holding a book with one hand and pointing inside the card face with the other, while the card face background was bizarre glowing bubbles in an infinite black starry sky.

Shade controlled his somewhat shaking hands, took a deep breath, and looked again at the top of the card face.

He saw a number 10 marked on the top right corner and the highly familiar "Moon" symbol on the top left corner. Between the two, in the center at the top of the card face, was a black vertical line drawn in a white circle, the symbol of the "Genesis" series.

He shifted his gaze to the bottom of the card face, where some small text was written:

[After drawing this card and before the stall phase, you can choose to activate the effect only once: Flip a coin, if it’s heads, make the opponent discard the first and last cards at this time and redraw cards; if tails, exchange your first card with any non-"Moon" suit card shown by the opponent.]

"The spatial effect is forced exchange, huh."

Flipping the glass plate to the other side, it was indeed the familiar Roder card back pattern. Then with a slight exertion of his fingers, the glass of unknown age shattered completely.

Glass shards fell into the water and were washed into the Duin River by the flow. Shade waited a bit while holding the card in his hand, and "she" whispered softly in his ear:

[Authentic.]

The Outlander was facing away from the pipe exit, so even the sparse sunlight piercing through the clouds couldn’t illuminate the smile on his face at this moment.

From the Fifth Era’s Lostwoods where he brushed past this card to the eve of the Green Lake showdown today. [Impermanence: Space] still came into Shade’s hands in a completely unexpected way.

He lifted his hand, placing the card in front of his right eye. Looking forward again, he didn’t see anything abnormal. Shade wasn’t disappointed because of this; rather, he wiped his hand dry, carefully took out his deck, and then replaced it with Moon 10[Genesis: Space].

He turned and looked at the pipe exit a dozen steps away, gazing at the city across the river, feeling his exploration in the Green Lake Region was finally complete.

Shade was sure the smile on his face was impossible to hide because when he threw the Crystal Shoes and returned home, then emerged from the hotel basement, the girls he encountered could see he was very happy at that moment.

"Shade, you’re back? Hmm? Why are you so happy?"

When meeting Miss Aphrola and Miss Galina conversing on the first floor of the hotel, the two even asked the quick-footed Shade what good things he’d encountered. And when Shade showed [Genesis: Space] and recounted the story of the boy and the Treasure Chest Monster, the Red-Haired Duchess unexpectedly raised an eyebrow, then thought of last night’s divination:

"Could she really have been so accurate with her divination?"

The rain remained heavy, and when people prepared to welcome some major event, they realized that the passage of time and the falling speed of raindrops were the same, only perceptible but untouchable.

Time swiftly reached five in the afternoon since the invitation letter only mentioned tonight without specifying a particular time. Thus, everyone had agreed to treat anytime after five as the time when Laplace Klein Howard could "forcibly invite" at any moment.

The clock in the hotel corner struck five times, and in Green Lake Hotel with only Angelina as an ordinary person left, everyone sprang into action.

Hurried footsteps went up and down the stairs, pleasant voices commanded or relayed information. Spiritual Light expanded and burst on the walls, complex and dense ritual circles carried elements of Miracle, Desecration, Enlightenment, and Whisper, perfectly connecting and merging to exert their effect.

Even the most skilled Ritual Master couldn’t discern how many rituals unfolded within the few short minutes after five in Green Lake Hotel, nor how much Arcane Technique, Sorcery, and Witch’s Secret Arts influenced them.

The final battle of Green Lake was finally about to begin.