Chapter 39: Closing the Seal

The darkness filled the room and only lasted for a few seconds. But it felt like an hour had already passed.

My heart pounded heavily after hearing that voice behind the coffin. It was just a whisper, but enough to leave a chill down my spine. It was not the voice of a human.

Then a broken sound seemed to come from every direction at once.

It was a low, broken sound that seemed to come from every direction at once.

I did not move. My body was small and fragile, and holding an ordinary lock pick would not help protect myself.

The black mana threads continued moving through the air. Earlier, they moved toward my direction and stopped. It looked like they were examining what was outside. They moved like living threads.

The masked man stood several meters behind me with a blade in his right hand. Behind the mask was a frightened face that I noticed.

"Kid, do not move," he whispered, tightening his grip on the sword.

I slowly turned my head while my eyes locked onto the black mana threads.

"That’s what I’m thinking."

The masked man didn’t answer. His eyes roamed around the room. The mana threads stopped moving, and the room became silent again.

Water dripped from above us, and a bit of dust slowly fell from the ceiling.

Then a sound came from the coffin.

Click.

Our eyes immediately turned to the coffin’s lock.

My eyes narrowed on the internal mechanism of the lock. The pins were starting to move.

The next pins of the deeper layers started moving.

Click.

Click.

Click.

I bent my knees and looked at the moving pins closely. The masked man gulped hard and looked at me.

"Silvester, what are you doing?" he whispered while fixing his fighting posture.

"Shut up. I’m trying to listen to the lock."

"Get away from it!" he shouted in a low voice.

I ignored him and focused on the lock. From what I know, the lock’s outer layer was physical and the inner was spatial, but the next layer was what I was not sure about.

But it doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is that something is unlocking that layer from the inside.

The mana threads moved again and shot toward me. They were so fast that my small body couldn’t move out of the way.

"Move, Silvester!" the man shouted, rushing forward. He can see a shadow moved fast.

However, my mind was much quicker than the mana. I internally cast my Open Skill, and my golden mana threads moved instantly.

Open.

Small holes in space opened in front of me. The black threads of mana passed through the open spaces, but some still reached me.

When the threads touched me, the Master Key inside my magic pouch reacted. The golden mana threads coated my body to repel the dark mana, but a thread still reached my skin.

"Ahhh!" I shouted in pain.

The black mana thread did not cause me any physical injury, but it burned my mana threads. I could feel that my body was burning inside.

I immediately used my Close Skill to nullify my pain.

Close.

The man reached me and held my back to support my body so I wouldn’t fall to the floor. He pulled me away from the coffin.

"What happened to you?! What did it do?!"

"That is exactly the question I’m thinking."

I looked down at the golden threads on my body. They recovered from burning and shone again like nothing happened.

He stared at me, looking confused. He must have been thinking that I was insane, looking at my body and touching the empty air. I couldn’t blame him, though I was the only one who could see the threads of mana.

The coffin shook again, but this time, it lifted an inch into the air off the ground.

Click.

SCREECH!

The loud sound came from the lock, which made our heads turn.

A glow of dark runes appeared above the circular keyhole. The structure seemed familiar, but not entirely.

"That’s the inner layer’s seal," I said calmly.

"Can you stop it?" the masked man said as he slowly raised his blade.

"With what? I’m just a child locksmith, not a sealing mage," I said, looking at him.

He remained silent, but still alert.

Even though the seal was familiar, I could not guarantee that I could completely close it. My skills and knowledge were not enough to close an ancient seal.

"Do you have any idea what kind of seal that is?" I asked quickly.

"No idea. It’s my first time seeing a black seal."

I did not say anything and looked back at the seal that was slowly rotating. It was my first time seeing a dark seal with unknown runes, too. I didn’t know how it was made, even using my Locksmith’s Eye.

"Then what should we do?" the man replied.

"My professional opinion? I will try to close it, and you should run," I said, taking a step toward the seal to study the runes.

"What?! You’re just an eight-year-old locksmith! We should run!" he said, completely shocked.

"No. A locksmith must never run away from locks," I said firmly.

This is why I hated myself sometimes. My obsession with locks was more important than my life.

The man shouted to warn me, but I completely ignored him.

I walked in front of the lock. The black mana threads were scattered everywhere, but they moved away from me.

After they touched me, they became aware of my presence, and they consciously moved back as I moved forward.

I looked closer at the layers of the seal. The outer circle was moving, but it was stuck. It moved back and forth a little, unable to move freely.

This only meant that the entity on the other side was struggling to open it, and the seal was not completely open.

I had to close this no matter what.

I expanded my mana to its limits using my skill.

Open.

The golden mana threads came out of my hand. They were glowing, and the threads were completely interlaced. The air inside the room became heavy as the pressure went up.

Forming into a golden key, it moved closer to the seal. Then the hardest part came to me.

The seal’s mana threads had no locklets. Unlike the ordinary mana threads that had locklets I always saw, this one had nothing.

How could I lock this seal without the mana’s locklets?

I thought again, but nothing came to my mind.

Then the Master Key reacted to my thoughts. Its golden mana enveloped my woven mana key. The key multiplied itself into smaller keys, and they all pierced the seal’s runes at the same time.

The keys turned clockwise as if they were closing a lock. The black rune circle started to move backward, but it stopped.

Something on the other side was trying to stop me.

I focused on my mana and used my Open Skill to multiply my body’s strength.

Open.

Small muscles appeared on my small body, just enough to withstand the mana pressure. Fresh blood started to run down from my nose. I could feel my body hurt, and my head was about to explode.

Close.

I locked the pain all over my body. Now that I was all set, I turned my attention back to the seal.

I lifted my right arm to command the golden mana keys to move. The keys and the seal rotated again slowly, almost locking completely.

The black mana threads became more violent and tried to attack me.

"It won’t work, dirty threads!"

I used my skill to distort the space around my body. The thread went through, but it knotted itself, unable to move.

The room shook violently, but I remained focused.

"Almost... Almost..."

Click.

The key finally locked the seal. The black magic runes slowly dimmed, and the seal grew smaller and smaller until it was gone.

CRACK!

BOOM!

"Kid! Watch out!" the man shouted, running to grab me. I looked up, and a huge pile of rocks was about to hit me.

Then everything went black.