Chapter 484 [White Flask]

He hadn't even had time to examine it closely.

Almost the second his consciousness withdrew from the Secret Realm, the silver-white ring on his right ring finger—the transformed state of the [Dream Weaving Corridor]—began to vibrate at a frequency only he could feel.

A familiar mechanical notification chimed in his mind.

"Ding!"

"Charging substance detected. Replenishing automatically..."

"[Remaining Energy] +0.3%"

"[Remaining Energy] +0.5%"

"[Remaining Energy] +0.6%"

"..."

"Recharging complete!"

"['Dream Weaving Corridor' - Neural Roaming Terminal] — [Remaining Energy]: 6.2%"

"..."

To Xia Nan, the fundamental reason he showed such great interest in Secret Realms was the immense value they contained.

Combat techniques, feats, equipment, and even attribute points—he had acquired all of them from Secret Realms.

Those few Secret Realm expeditions were largely the reason he had grown to a point where his actual combat power far exceeded that of other Class Holders at his level.

Ever since he obtained the [Dream Weaving Corridor], Secret Realms had held an additional layer of attraction for him.

Xia Nan didn't know the exact mechanics behind it, but after multiple practical tests, he had grasped the underlying pattern.

Secret Realms, or rather the core items within them, could provide precious energy for the [Dream Weaving Corridor].

The last time he recharged it using a Pastel Gemstone from Sheep Horn Town, he had used the [Lucky Coin] to input the key, activated the [Dream Weaving Corridor] to enter the simulated dreamscape, and leveled [Gravity Etching] to max. After that, the [Dream Weaving Corridor]'s once abundant energy reserves had been drained to a pitiful 0.12%.

With so little left, even if he obtained a key, it wouldn't be nearly enough to open the dreamscape and increase a combat technique's proficiency.

But now, after concluding the Twin Canyon Secret Realm, he had just received a supplement of slightly over six percent.

It seemed like very little—not even ten percent.

However, forcing [Gravity Etching] all the way from Level 3 to its Level 5 max had only consumed about 9% of its energy.

For [Heavy Tide], a 6% charge in the [Dream Weaving Corridor] would definitely be enough to raise it by at least one level.

This meant that as long as Xia Nan could find the key at the Lunar Tide Banquet in two months, the time needed to push [Heavy Tide] to Mastery would be drastically reduced.

When that time came, he would also level up again. In just two short years since entering the trade, he would go from an ordinary, bottom-rung nobody adventurer to a seasoned Level 4 Class Holder.

Thoughts swirled in his mind, his eyes flashing.

But since it was still early and his proficiency with [Heavy Tide] still needed grinding, he buried these future considerations deep in his heart, planning to figure it all out after the mission ended and he returned to Barracuda Bay.

His gaze shifted back to the leather briefcase he had opened on the sofa in front of him.

Lying before Xia Nan was a metal pocket watch with a quiet luster.

Its main casing displayed a warm, understated platinum hue. It seemed to have undergone a meticulous wire-drawing process, leaving countless fine striations across its surface that shimmered with a silken glow under the sunlight.

Its overall silhouette was a full, clean-lined circle about six centimeters in diameter and two-thirds the thickness of a palm. It looked delicate and compact, yet resting it in his hand revealed a hefty metallic weight.

The dial was a flawless white, reminiscent of operating room walls, with deep, crisp black markers that stood out sharply against the pristine background. The top, bottom, left, and right markers—corresponding to "12," "6," "9," and "3"—were slightly thicker, while fine, precise dots ringed the spaces between them.

Although the watch was forged from what looked like exceptionally expensive platinum and its contours were clearly designed with great care, it lacked any superfluous ornamentation. It wasn't flashy in the slightest, but sharp and minimalist.

From top to bottom, its only true decoration was the raised engraving on the back: a vertical stethoscope symbolizing the Medical Association.

Xia Nan reached out and clasped the pocket watch in his palm. As he felt its warm, slightly cool touch and the subtly raised metal engraving on the back, the translucent Attribute Panel quietly materialized in the empty air.

...

[White Flask]

Type: Medical Pocket Watch / Spatial Storage Item

Grade: /

Effects:

1. Item Storage (12 items);

2. [Healing Acceleration]: +25% Healing Speed (Passive / Constant)

Description:

To commemorate Professor Adonis Pope's pioneering contributions to the field of psychiatry and his great achievement in rebuilding order for shattered minds—"Mind's Guardian," the 216th Silver Radiance Healer Award.

Note:

"Calibrate time, heal wounds."

...

Spatial storage!?

Xia Nan's gaze involuntarily paused.

To be honest, ever since his transmigration, it wasn't as if he had never thought about finding this type of item.

After all, there were simply too many bags and bundles to carry on his everyday adventures.

Tents, food supplies, medicine, all sorts of basic tools...

Especially with a personality as cautious and thorough as Xia Nan's, he always wanted to stuff every useful item into his backpack before heading out, terrified that insufficient preparation would lead to disaster in the wild.

Whenever he ran into an "either-or" situation where he had to choose between different supplies, he would agonize over the decision for half the day.

Under those circumstances, he naturally longed to own a spatial storage item of his own.

It didn't even need to be big; just one cubic meter would save him a tremendous amount of hassle.

It was a pity that this involved the concept of "space."

Just because low-level Spellcasters could cast various summoning and teleportation spells didn't mean they had actually researched the concept of "space." They were merely pouring mental magic into pre-memorized spell models.

It was like a veteran who had fought on the front lines for years. He might be able to use and even disassemble a firearm with unparalleled proficiency, but if asked to stand in front of factory machinery and manufacture a functioning gun from scratch, very few could actually do it.

The difference in difficulty between casting a space-related spell and crafting a spatial item was like night and day.

Because of this, even though there was a massive number of Spellcasters on the Aifala Continent, spatial items had never flooded the market.

Quite the opposite. This type of equipment was usually rare and prohibitively expensive. The moment one appeared on the market, people would ruthlessly bid up the price.

Xia Nan had seen these items in the auction houses of Rivervale Town and Barracuda Bay; he had even considered joining the bidding early on.

But when he confidently sat in the auction hall, only to hear the auctioneer call out a starting price higher than his entire bank savings combined, that dream immediately died.

Until now...

Xia Nan gripped the small, exquisite platinum pocket watch, his eyes running over it again and again as emotions quietly surged in his chest.

The feeling deep in his heart at this moment was hard to describe with words, much like when he first transmigrated and looted his very first enchanted item, the [Deathline] ring, off a Bugbear.

Of course, at the same time, he didn't ignore the information revealed on the item's Attribute Panel.

It was unlike the "spatial rings" and "spatial pockets" he had seen in the anime and novels of his past life.

The storage capacity of the metal pocket watch named "White Flask" before him wasn't measured in cubic meters like traditional items, but rather by an "item count."

It could only store twelve items in total.

But exactly how they were stored, and how a single "item" was defined, wasn't explained on the Attribute Panel. He would have to figure that out on his own later.

To use the supplies Xia Nan usually carried as a simple example:

A single Healing Potion could count as one item. That was fine, of course.

But if he added a few rolls of bandages and some splints, bundling them together with the Healing Potion, Xia Nan figured it could just as easily be considered one "healing kit."

And if that logic held true, what if he took that "healing kit" and threw in a tent, food, water, and adventure tools, cramming it all into a bursting backpack? Couldn't that whole bag be classified as a single "survival travel pack"?

He didn't even know if the [White Flask] had any volume or weight limits for the items it stored.

Otherwise, he could stuff an entire mountain or a miniature plane inside, and it would still just be "one item."

Reality obviously wouldn't be as exaggerated as Xia Nan's hypothesis, but it did mean he would need to spend some time defining the exact limits and conditions of the pocket watch's storage.

By comparison, the [White Flask] pocket watch's other passive effect was straightforward and easy to understand.

—+25% Healing Speed.

Come to think of it, Xia Nan currently had quite a few healing abilities on hand.

The [Tears of Spring Breath] alone provided him with two actively castable healing spells.

For that matter, after using [Ember Echoes] to enter the Ember state, his vitality would increase by a percentage. Unless he was mistaken, that should also passively trigger the pocket watch's effect.

This ability could further boost Xia Nan's combat strength and versatility to a certain degree.

Besides that.

"Adonis Pope..."

Xia Nan's eyes swept over the description field on the [White Flask]'s Attribute Panel, recognizing the incredibly familiar name.

He had no idea what the "Mind's Guardian" or the "Silver Radiance Healer Award" actually were; he could only guess they were medical accolades from that other world.

And the [White Flask] was likely a commemorative gift given to the winner by the organizers.

But he had seen the name "Adonis Pope" more than once.

This psychiatry professor was none other than the mentor to the doctor Mand at the Royal Medical Academy, the protagonist whose perspective Xia Nan had followed during this Secret Realm.

He remembered that Mand had written quite a few letters to the man during the Secret Realm. In the end, Adonis had even personally traveled to Mand's residence in Fishhook Town, coming face-to-face with the seemingly completely mad doctor.

It was a pity that the Secret Realm had abruptly ended during their confrontation. Otherwise, he was quite curious to see what kind of power system existed in a world dominated by the Medical Association.

Recalling the final scene of the two men in the underground darkroom, Xia Nan shook his head, scattering his distracting thoughts.

After all, a Secret Realm was ultimately just a spatial fragment from another world, like a meteor that had accidentally crashed onto the Aifala Continent, not a complete fusion of two worlds.

There was a high probability he would never run into this "Medical Association" again, so thinking about it was pointless.

Clasping the pocket watch in his palm, Xia Nan straightened up and carefully searched the operating room at the top of the altar once more. He confirmed that there was nothing else worth taking, not even the operating table or the briefcase.

Only then did he step down from the altar, pocket watch in hand, and return to the others.

Since Lorraine had been so fair and open in letting him search for the loot, Xia Nan felt he had nothing to hide. He directly presented the pocket watch he had taken from the briefcase for everyone to see.

The events in the Secret Realm had felt earth-shattering, but in reality, Xia Nan—who had touched the briefcase acting as the Secret Realm's core—was the only one who had seen any of it.

To the Blade of Vengeance squad below the altar, the elapsed time had felt like an instant, and they hadn't noticed anything unusual.

From their perspective, Xia Nan had simply climbed the altar, opened the suitcase, taken something out, searched around a bit, and walked back down.

"I tested it out a bit. It's a spatial storage item. It might have some additional effects, but there are limits," Xia Nan admitted honestly to Lorraine and the others, holding the [White Flask] pocket watch.

To minimize the risk of exposing his Attribute Panel, he naturally didn't reveal the exact stats and effects he knew, but he made the pocket watch's nature as a spatial storage item crystal clear.

As expected, the people sitting and lying on the ground ahead of him looked incredibly surprised that Xia Nan had found such an item.

After all, even as seasoned Adventurers who had sailed the seas for years, not a single one of them had ever owned a spatial item.

But afterward, while the expressions on their faces might have held envy or astonishment, there was none of the malicious covetousness or greed that Xia Nan had imagined.

On one hand, this was because Xia Nan was a teammate who had fought shoulder-to-shoulder with them through life and death.

If it had been any random stranger, they wouldn't have been nearly so "friendly."

On the other hand, it was also due to the strength Xia Nan had displayed in combat and the contributions he had made to the team.

They were all Adventurers who lived with their lives on the line; they knew exactly what life was worth.

Between a rare, expensive piece of equipment that didn't belong to them and the very real ability to keep breathing fresh air, they knew how to choose.

Turning with some effort, her gaze swept over the members' faces, seeing that none of them had any objections.

Lorraine turned back around, reclining on the ground against the broken wall, and smiled at Xia Nan. "If you want it, keep it. It's your loot."

Without refusing, Xia Nan nodded and tucked the pocket watch away.

"Then I won't participate in the distribution of the rest of the loot for this mission," Xia Nan said. "This piece is more than enough."

Calculated by the total value of the loot and his personal contribution during the adventure, taking the [White Flask] pocket watch was perfectly within the bounds of reasonable distribution.

If he asked for more... Lorraine and the others wouldn't have been able to refuse if he insisted.

But since these teammates of his had shown themselves to be so understanding, Xia Nan, having just acquired a spatial storage item, was more than willing to earn a few dozen fewer gold coins so that the rest of the team could enjoy a wealthy, peaceful vacation upon returning to Barracuda Bay.