A high-tier treasure?!
In the kingdom of Lanthanor, there was an official rating system for treasures. Daneel only had limited information about it, but he did know that high-tier treasures were usually the backbone of a kingdom, judging from what Elanev had said.
He couldn’t believe that there was one right under the Anivron house. The old man who had asked them to use this place must have somehow known the information.
Their luck had finally turned.
Daneel carefully came out of the room and climbed up the hole.
When he explained it to Robert saying that he had read about it in the library, a look of shock appeared on his face.
Robert knew about Natural Energised Chambers. This was a treasure over which wars often occurred. Once, the king had even led an expedition personally on finding out that such a chamber was located in a neighbouring nation. Sadly, they had been too late and that nation had snatched up the treasure.
They returned empty handed. But when a minister had asked him if it was worth it, he said, "I am willing to sacrifice my whole army if it means that a Natural Chamber can be obtained. This is because obtaining one will mean that I can definitely step into the next level. It is a priceless treasure, capable of giving an unlimited supply of Ether to a nation. With my increased power, I would be able to conquer the rest of the nations, building an even bigger army.’
These were the chilling words he had uttered. This information was carefully hidden because of its potential to cause unrest in the people. Such a ruthless king would scare people, even if it meant benefits in the long term.
Robert only knew about it because he had been there by chance when those words had been uttered. Later, he had had to swear an oath that he would never repeat them.
He did not hesitate to break that oath now that he was disgraced so. Hearing how valuable it was, Daneel first felt danger. It would definitely be taken away and his family killed if anyone found out that they were in possession of it.
This had to be a secret that would not go outside this house. The thieves were dead and they had not finished the contract, so the person who had given the contract had no way to know where the map lead to. Hence, it would be enough if they did not speak about it to anyone.
Daneel asked if Robert would share the room with him to train. He declined, saying,
"My path as a fighter was cut off when I was thrown out son. I can no longer absorb Ether. You must train with redoubled effort for my sake too." Holding Daneel’s shoulder, an expression of longing and sadness appeared on Robert’s face as he said these words. He knew how it felt to have the power of a hundred bulls coursing through one’s body. He had felt the sheer pump of adrenaline when his sword was buried mid way in an enemy’s body, warm blood shooting onto his face.
Now, he had to struggle to even walk. He wished he could train again, but the damn army had used a secret technique to disperse his power and make him unable to absorb Ether. Robert resented them, and wished he could tear them to pieces.
Seeing the anguish in his father’s eyes, Daneel could not even imagine what difficulties this man had gone through.
With even more determination, he started his training.
He opted to use the chamber instead of the blocks, as the blocks could be saved for a rainy day.
"System, can I develop both my potential and my mageroot simultaneously?", had been his first question on the first day he had entered the chamber.
[Negative. It is impossible at this level. Tool: Parallel Processing is available in the store, but host has yet to reach the requisite level to unlock it], came the reply. Well, at least he could look forward to using it in the future.
Daneel decided to concentrate on his mageroot. Each day, he would activate the Mageroot Development Technique and meditate, feeling a piercing pain in his forehead.
Day by day, he found that his vision was getting clearer and clearer. His thoughts flew faster in his mind, and even the dust particles in the air could be seen by him. He was often enamored by the simple beauty of swirling dust on a bright night.
The system explained that this was because of the development of the pineal gland. The gland had certain esoteric powers which enabled such phenomena. Even on earth, Daneel had heard of people with ’Yogic’ powers who said they could decalcify the pineal gland in someone. This apparently lead to clearer thoughts and less stress in life. Daneel wondered if the glands were the same in both the worlds. But, right now, he was confined to this kingdom. He had yet to find out even the name by which this world was called. The days turned into weeks as Daneel got into the training schedule, not even taking a day’s break. His determination let him power through the hours and hours of prickling pain.
2 months passed in this fashion.