Chapter 286: The Gift!!
I made my way down into the deepest subterranean levels of the Raith Manor, past the wine cellars and the standard storage vaults, until the masonry turned from clean, cut marble to ancient, moss-slicked bedrock.
The heavy iron key felt like a block of ice in my pocket. I knew this place was something special, even though I never came here before.
During the gifting ceremony, the moment Cassandra had pressed this iron key into my hand, father’s face had turned an apocalyptic shade of purple. He had glared absolute daggers at her, his mana flaring so violently it had nearly cracked the crystal glasses nearby.
Why did she give it to me? Why risk Father’s absolute wrath just to hand a family disgrace the key to a forbidden vault?
I didn’t know her angle yet, but I wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip away.
Finally, I reached the end of the damp, stone corridor.
Blocking the path was a massive, seamless door crafted from abyssal iron, completely devoid of handles or keyholes. Instead, the surface was webbed with a complex, glowing network of dead runes.
Because it had been sealed for maybe around a decade, the magical defenses down here had grown erratic and highly unstable. As I stepped within five feet of the door, the air instantly grew heavy with the smell of ozone.
A faint, low hum vibrated through the floorboards, and the stone walls subtly shifted, hidden golem guard mechanisms and automated traps buried deep within the architecture, just waiting for an unauthorized mana signature to trip the wire.
I stopped, narrowing my eyes.
"Let’s see what we’re working with," I muttered.
[Activating Debugger Vision]
My vision instantly inverted into a matrix of cascading blue data streams. The seamless abyssal door was suddenly painted with hundreds of glowing red vulnerabilities, system errors, and hidden defensive logic loops. The security grid was incredibly dense, but a decade of absolute isolation had caused the ancient code to decay.
[Warning: Core Mana Core Tracker detected. Three automated Granite Golems primed for deployment upon proximity breach. Lethal Lightning Ward status: Active]
"A standard mage would have to spend months decoding this," I murmured, a cold smirk touching my lips as I extended my hand, my fingers hovering just inches away from the iron surface.
"Too bad I’m a Debugger."
[Administrator Mode Initiated]
[Scanning Vault Security Grid... Logic Error found in Line 402 (Proximity Sensor decay)]
[Executing Override: Inject Null Void Command to Golem Activation Sequence]
[Executing Override: Force Sleep Status on Lightning Ward]
My fingers tapped the air, mentally rewriting the ancient parameters of my own family’s security system. The red lines flashing in my vision violently glitched, stuttering before turning into a calm, placid blue.
The low, ominous hum in the floorboards completely died out. The hidden stone panels on the walls locked into place, completely neutralizing the golem guards before they could even register my presence.
In the center of the door, a hidden, circular keyhole suddenly ground open.
I slotted the heavy iron key into the mechanism and turned it. With a loud, echoing CLANG, the massive abyssal iron door slowly parted releasing a heavy cloud of stagnant, dust-laden air.
I stepped into the archive, bringing up a small Light Orb to illuminate the darkness.
The room was vast, lined with towering stone shelves containing the true history of the House of Raith. The current family was a joke, a minor Baron household struggling for political scrap, but the loot gathered down here proved those tales about the mighty Raiths were entirely true.
Too bad, except Cassandara, no one could enter here, as she was the sole owner of the room for this generation.
And from what I know. She can only grant one time access key to anyone she wanted to.
So why me?
Frowning, I walked past rows of forbidden texts until I reached a central, velvet-lined pedestal. Resting upon it were three distinct items, preserved perfectly by stasis fields that my system instantly bypassed.
First, a heavy, obsidian-bound tome detailing the Lost Martial Arts of the Raith Family. It contained the high-tier, forbidden extensions of the techniques that had been stripped from the family records generations ago due to their sheer, self-destructive lethality.
Second, a terrifying, midnight-blue crystalline eye floating in a glass jar, a Dark Legacy Item humming with an immense, suffocating dark-attribute mana capacity that made my own Dark Lightning affinity pulse in violent resonance.
But it was the third item that made me let out a low, victorious laugh.
Resting inside a silver scroll case was an Ancient Alchemical Recipe titled The Celestial Nectar.
I unrolled the parchment, quickly scanning the molecular and magical breakdown of the compound. It was brilliant.
It utilized a rare, high-density mana-stabilizing process that was entirely forgotten by modern alchemists.
With this ancient formula, I didn’t just have the means to upgrade my current potions... I had the exact blueprint to create an entirely un-copyable, tier-shattering elixir. This was the perfect weapon to fulfill my promise to Matthew Vance and systematically destroy the counterfeiters black-market network.
I swept the items directly into my spatial ring’s inventory, the heavy iron key clicking against my knuckles as I turned back toward the exit.
"Thanks for the birthday present, sister."
I had barely taken three steps toward the vault door when a sudden spasm gripped my chest.
Thump!
My heart violently hammered against my ribs, a searing spike of pain bursting through my mana pathways.
A thick, metallic warmth rushed up my throat, and a splatter of blood poured from my lips, staining the stone floor.
"Shit..." I wheezed, wiping the blood with the back of my sleeve as my knees buckled. "The time limit’s... already over?"
My vision began to swim violently, the blue data streams glitching and fracturing into jagged, static lines. I needed to get back to my room before the feedback completely paralyzed me.
I stumbled out of the vault, locking the door behind me with a blind, panicked swipe of the key, and dragged my unresponsive legs. The world was spinning, the dim hallway torches blurring into streaks of orange light.
I rounded the final corner into the main residential wing, my breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps. Just a few more rooms. Just a little further—
Thud!
My shoulder violently collided with someone walking in the opposite direction. In my severely weakened state, the impact completely shattered my balance. My hands slipped from my pockets, and I dropped heavily to the floor.
I forced my blurring eyes upward, trying to focus on the figure towering over me. The moment my vision cleared, the air completely left my lungs.
Standing there, bathed in the cold moonlight of the corridor, was Aldric Raith.
He stared down at me, his sharp, severe features twisted into a look of immediate, profound suspicion. His eyes locked onto the fresh blood dripping from my chin, and then flicked down to the iron key gripped tightly in my trembling fingers.
Damn it... not now, I cursed internally, desperately trying to command my muscles to move, to stand up, to hide the key, to do anything.
But my body completely refused to cooperate.
My strength evaporated entirely, and before he could even utter a single word, my vision went completely black, and I collapsed sideways onto the cold marble floor, dead to the world.