Novel Full Chapter 847: Faces
Chapter 847: Faces
For a brief moment, as the energy spread through Cedric’s meridians, Michael saw something else.
Tiny impressions.
Small, faint faces blooming beneath Cedric’s skin.
Along his arm.
Across his chest.
Around his neck.
They were subtle. Almost translucent.
No one else reacted.
There was no sign that anyone else could see them.
Michael was not surprised.
Not everyone possessed his means.
Still, the sight alarmed him.
The faces did not move. They did not struggle.
They simply existed.
Then, slowly, they faded from obvious sight, sinking deeper into Cedric’s body until they were barely perceptible, even to him.
Cedric laughed softly, rolling his shoulders as if testing his newfound strength.
The others were already imagining what it would mean if they could gather dozens of such orbs.
Michael said nothing.
He did not rebuke Cedric.
He did not warn the others.
Instead, his voice flowed silently through mana.
A private transmission.
It reached only one person.
Arianne.
Do not absorb them if you can help it.
His tone was calm and steady, without panic.
If you choose to, that is your decision. But be cautious.
Arianne stiffened slightly atop her Flame Lion.
She did not turn to look at him.
Her expression did not change.
But her thoughts sharpened. She knew Michael was strong and surely had his own secrets and mysterious means. She found herself wanting to ask Michael what he saw but could not bring herself to do so.
In the end, she kept her words to herself and made her decision.
Michael had no idea what Arianne was thinking. He had only felt the need to tell her about the situation because of the relationship they shared. He had no control over her actions and did not want to.
As for why he said nothing to the nobles,
aside from not wanting to reveal too much about himself, Michael did not believe they would heed his words. From Cedric’s actions, that much was obvious.
Michael let the moment pass.
The excitement in the air was sharp, almost tangible. Lucien’s eyes kept flicking from Cedric’s aura to the surrounding terrain, as if the world had suddenly turned into a field of hidden prizes.
Alaric’s calm mask returned, but the greed behind it did not disappear. Michael did not indulge the mood.
He gave a single, quiet instruction, firm enough to cut through the rising noise.
"Keep moving."
No one objected, not with the way his presence pressed down on the group whenever he chose to let it show.
They reformed their spacing and advanced again, boots and claws scraping against crystal-veined stone. The low glow beneath their feet pulsed faintly with each step.
They had not gone far when something caught the light ahead.
It was small at first, just a concentrated patch of glow among the darker ridges. Then the terrain dipped slightly, and the source came into view.
A flower.
It did not belong in any normal sense. Its stem rose from a crack in the black stone as though it had sprouted directly from the crystal veins. The petals were thin and layered, translucent like polished glass, and each one carried a soft inner luminescence that shifted between pale blue and faint violet. The air around it carried a faint, clean scent, like cold rain and crushed herbs.
Even without understanding what it was, the group could tell it was valuable.
Anything that shone like that inside a realm like this was not common.
Lucien took a step toward it instinctively, then stopped, catching himself. Cedric’s hand tightened around his sword hilt again. Alaric’s gaze sharpened, measuring the distance, the surroundings, the angles, already deciding the quickest way to harvest it without damage.
Michael did not rush.
His eyes flicked over the area once, then he reached into his robe and pulled out a pouch.
It was not a normal pouch.
It looked plain, made from dark cloth reinforced with leather strips, but the mouth held something unusual. The inside was deeper than it should have been.
It was a spatial container.
Michael handed it over without ceremony.
This was not his personal storage.
It was an item issued before entry, reserved for team leaders and expedition captains. A space type container meant for gathering within the ruin, precious enough that most nobles in Lionheart had never even held one. Within the kingdom, items like this were rare, hoarded by high houses, the royal treasury, and a handful of teachers within the academy.
Bringing it into the ruin at all was an expense that spoke of how seriously Lionheart was taking this inheritance.
The condition attached to it was just as clear as the object’s value.
Twenty percent of whatever went inside upon exit belonged to the kingdom.
It was not a negotiation. It was the price of being allowed to take the remaining eighty percent out with them.
The pouch was not small either. Inside it, several empty boxes had already been arranged, prepared specifically for fragile herbs and unknown materials that could not be thrown together carelessly. Whoever had issued it had done so with experience, expecting the teams to find more than simple stones.
Arianne watched the pouch for half a second, then shifted her focus back to the glowing flower. She did not reach for it with bare hands. Her movements were controlled and careful, as if she had harvested rare beast herbs before. Even her Flame Lion held still, its breath low and hot, keeping its warmth away from the delicate glow.
The flower was cut cleanly.
The moment it left the ground, the glow around its stem intensified briefly, then stabilized again.
It was placed into one of the prepared boxes, and the box slid into the pouch without resistance.
The opening did not bulge. The pouch did not change shape.
It simply swallowed the item.
The group’s mood brightened again, but this time it was more grounded excitement. Less reckless than after the orb. More practical.
Michael watched the pouch close, then resumed scanning the terrain.
He did not comment on the flower or the orb.
He only kept walking, eyes steady, expression unreadable, his senses spread outward like a net.
The ruin was generous.
That alone made him uneasy.
He remembered what an instructor back at the academy had once told him about situations like this.
A supernatural situation that gave so easily was usually taking something in return.