Chapter 878: [Magician's Escape Box]

An interesting thing happened during dinner. Xia De went to the washroom halfway through, and when he washed his hands and walked back to the restaurant, he saw Miss Swift head-on.

The young apprentice did not bump into Xia De by accident, but seemed to be waiting for him:

"Mr. Hamilton."

She was somewhat hesitant, with her hands behind her back, and called out to Xia De in the corridor. Seeing that there was no one around, she asked in a low voice:

"You met that Miss Sylvia, didn't you?"

"Yes, she is a very excellent lady."

Xia De nodded, so this young lady with flaxen hair asked with flickering eyes:

"We cannot inquire about information about other great witches at will, but I remember that Miss Sylvia is not very old."

"Yes, twenty-one years old this year."

Although it is impolite to discuss the age of ladies, given that Miss Sylvia is young, Xia De answered.

"Younger than all of us..."

Miss Swift nodded somewhat lost.

Although she looked about the same age as Ajelina, her actual age was the same as Xia De's body, which was one or two years older than Miss Sylvia.

Xia De naturally knew the thoughts of this young girl, so he comforted her:

"You should compare yourself with the apprentices of the great witches, not with the great witches.

Miss Sylvia can become a ten-ring witch at such a young age, besides her own efforts, it is also related to the era... I mean, related to her encounters. I have had an in-depth conversation with Miss Sylvia and know that she has not had it easy either; without the protection of a teacher, she has to face everything herself. I will not lie, and of course, I will not tell you that you are more excellent than her, but sometimes people cannot look too far; they must look at what is near and at their feet."

Miss Swift nodded; she had always been somewhat unconfident:

"Grandma Cassandra intends to train me as a successor, but I don't think I can be more excellent than Miss Sylvia."

"Grandma Cassandra is several hundred years old and is still a ten-ring witch, while Miss Sylvia is already a ten-ring witch now. This kind of comparison is actually meaningless. Although it might be impolite to say so, Grandma Cassandra is not more excellent than Miss Sylvia, but she is still the most respected one in the contemporary council."

Hearing Xia De say this, Miss Swift finally revealed a slight smile. She looked at Xia De somewhat embarrassedly:

"Sorry, listening to me talk about these things must be very boring, but I can't find anyone else to share these thoughts with."

She was currently Grandma Cassandra's only apprentice, so naturally, she could not talk about these things with those followers.

"It doesn't matter, everyone has their own troubles. By comparison, your troubles are actually very normal. Let's go back."

He said, but Miss Swift shook her head:

"Mr. Hamilton, you go back first; I'll go back in a while."

Saying this, she walked toward the washroom, then suddenly turned her head:

"Thank you."

"Is this kind of thing worth thanking for?"

Xia De thought in surprise, and then heard "Her" laughter:

【Sometimes I really have to wonder if the only one who gave you a blessing is really the God of Gamblers.】

After finishing dinner, the old witch took Xia De, Sister Daifulin, Grace, Helen, and Miss Swift to the basement to get a close look at the relic she found for Grace and Helen that could safely conduct space transfer.

That was the Keeper-level relic 【Magician's Escape Box】. Its appearance was a metal "escape box" with black and dark blue colors, looking like a coffin no matter how you looked at it.

The box was a standard rectangular parallelepiped, with geometric patterns of unknown meaning on the four sides. Besides that, there were openings running through both sides at the top, upper-middle, middle, lower-middle, and bottom, allowing sharp weapons like swords or knives to be stabbed in:

"Have you ever seen a magic performance?"

Grandma Cassandra asked Xia De. Xia De recalled:

"No."

Not in this world.

"There is a classic escape magic where a magician enters a sealed box, and people outside attack the box with weapons, but after opening the box, there is no corpse inside. At this time, the magician will walk out from the corner of the stage in a very dramatic form of expression."

Helen explained to Xia De with great interest, tugging at Xia De's sleeve:

"My sister and I have seen this before, but I don't remember when it was. Yes, if it is this relic, then it will definitely work."

Keeper-level relic 【Magician's Escape Box】: After any humanoid creature enters the inside of the box, closes the box door, and is pierced by five sharp swords into the inside of the box, the creature inside the box will be transferred to the location of the pre-set "escape ritual" after feeling slight piercing pain.

The specific base array of the ritual is drawn on the bottom of the box, as long as it is redrawn on a flat ground with chalk. If multiple escape rituals exist simultaneously, it will transfer to the last one that takes shape.

Of course, the negative characteristics of Keeper-level relics cannot be ignored either. In the 【Magician's Escape Box】, a terrible ghost who calls himself "Magician Willwood" resides; he is very likely the original owner of this relic. And after the magic box became a relic, the ghost was also affected by the whisper elements, sublimating into an unknowable and unheard strange existence.

Anyone who uses this box for "escape" may be targeted by Magician Willwood, or even release the ghost imprisoned by the escape box.

Some special means, such as carrying the holy emblem of a true god, bathing in holy water, or carving the marks of other powerful existences on the skin, can effectively reduce the possibility of encountering "Magician Willwood," but if one's luck is very bad, one may still be entangled by him.

Strictly speaking, the main function of this relic is not space movement, but when entering the escape box and conducting transfer, one hears the ghost's whispers, thereby obtaining the strange but useful "magic" knowledge of "Magician Willwood." Space movement is just an additional effect of the relic, but it happens to be useful for Grace and Helen.

Even if their power is sealed, they are still Angel-level humanoid relics. "Magician Willwood" and this box combined can only be rated as Keeper-level; the two are not even worth comparing, so there is no need to worry about the relic's negative effects taking effect on them.

Everyone is a relic, so there is no need to consider too much like humans.

And if a human like Sister Daifulin uses this box, Grandma Cassandra suggests that one must be at least high-ring to use it, and the frequency of use should not exceed once every six months.

Listening to the whispers of "Magician Willwood" to obtain knowledge is something that will definitely happen. Even without considering the possibility of being entangled by that terrible whispering ghost, one must also take into account the influence of the ghost's whispers on the human soul.

Of course, for Sister Daifulin, she is the Chosen, and can enter the 【Space Labyrinth】 unconditionally. Therefore, Xia De only needs to take the nun to touch the Ancient God statue at the ruined tower of Mount Sikar first, and then use the 【Magician's Escape Box】 to touch the Ancient God statue at White River Valley Vineyard, and she can successfully establish a road sign between the two places, so there is no need to use this relic again.

It is a pity that if she wants to visit Tobesk, she still needs to wait until she finds a similar relic or go there in person. However, currently, nothing has happened in Tobesk that requires the nun to be present to solve, so this matter is not urgent.

Grandma Cassandra told the characteristics of the relic. With the help of Miss Swift, Xia De opened the box locked by nine padlocks. The inside of the box had a soft red wool lining, obviously wanting the person inside to be more comfortable. Only the top position inside had no lining, but instead, there was a line of Fifth Era text that seemed to be gouged out with fingernails:

【The last way to escape this box is death.】

"The body cannot escape, so the soul escapes? But his soul, in the end, could not escape either."

Xia De translated the text and then said regretfully.

Grace, who was wearing a white long dress and looked fifteen or sixteen years old, tugged at Xia De's sleeve like her sister and said softly:

"Sir, I still remember that Helen and I went to see his performance. It is said that he died alone in the box in the end, his corpse pierced by five long swords, but it was impossible for anyone to enter that sealed room, as if he himself, outside the box, pierced himself inside the box."

"This is also a kind of magic."

Sister Daifulin said softly, while Helen tugged at Xia De's sleeve and added:

"This magician, while alive, always wanted to touch the power of mysticism to enrich and expand his magic techniques. But you also know that men in the Fifth Era could not use supernatural power, so it is difficult to judge whether the magician's death was due to an accidental accident or whether he really provoked those terrible existences in his exploration of the field of mysticism."

Listening to Helen's voice, Xia De reached out to touch the line of text on the top of the inside of the box, but crossing an era, there was completely no residual power left for Xia De to judge:

"The stories of these relics are perhaps more interesting than the relics themselves."

In short, relying on this 【Magician's Escape Box】, Grace and Helen could go to No. 6 St. Deran Square, but their injuries had not completely healed yet, so they planned to wait until the official start of winter, after it snowed, to go to Tobesk.

And Sister Daifulin was not in a hurry to go to Huntington City to establish a new road sign now, but planned to wait until Xia De completed the task on him before setting off together.

Thus, the fulfilling and busy Monday passed like this. After returning home at night, Xia De was not idle either, continuing to perfect his thesis in the study. Once this kind of work focused attention, it was easy to forget the time.

By the time Xia De discovered that he had almost finished the first draft, the time had actually reached one o'clock on Tuesday morning:

"Still have to attend the wedding during the day!"

Glancing at St. Deran Square, which was foggy under the night outside the window, Xia De got up to prepare for rest. Only after a hurried wash did he discover that he could not find Little Mia anywhere.

After walking around the second floor, he saw the cat in the study, poking its head to look at the thesis manuscript by the moonlight:

"You don't know how to read, what are you looking at?"

He picked up Mia, who had three rings on her tail, smiled and fiddled with her tail, and was glared at by Mia with dissatisfaction.

"Meow~"

Rubbing against Xia De's arm, the young orange cat also opened its mouth and yawned.

Xia De picked up the fountain pen at will, wrote a system of two linear equations in two variables on the scratch paper, and the smudged ink listed four answers:

"Which one is the answer? If you get it right, I'll make you a midnight snack."

The cat narrowed its eyes and lay in Xia De's arms, with no intention of moving at all.

Only then did Xia De feel relieved, and in a very good mood, he prepared to go to rest.

7017k ===== CHAPTER 879 =====