Chapter 22: At The Black Sea

Chapter 22: Chapter 22: At The Black Sea

Days passed while sailing the endless sea.

?Aegon occasionally enjoyed the sea view, but most of the time, he experimented with the Grimoire.

?For example, he learned to create more complex items, such as the Mana engines on which the entire civilization thrived. From small horse carriages to massive ships, everything ran on Mana-powered engines.

?To create such complex things, he needed a vivid imagination, so he turned to books.

?However, those kinds of books weren’t available everywhere, especially on a ship.

?Fortunately, he encountered an engineer who was heading toward the Imperial Capital to find better jobs.

?He thanked the man and absorbed the information like a sponge.

?After getting a clearer view of the engine, he immediately tried it out.

?The first one turned out to be a failure.

It turned out crude and disorganized, like a lifeless tangle of mismatched gears and warped iron that couldn’t channel a single spark of mana.

?Refusing to be discouraged, Aegon took a slow breath and closed his eyes. He recalled the blueprints from the engineer’s manuals page by page, reconstructing the machine inside his mind from the core outward.

Every interlocking cog, every etched mana circuit, and the exact pressure tolerances of the containment chamber clicked into place.

?His mystical Quill moved again, gliding across the dark page of ATUM with pinpoint precision. This time, he didn’t just write the name; he imagined every angle, every law of logic, and every microscopic rune that bound the mechanism together.

His Soul Power drained rapidly.

?[ Soul Power: 1 / 10 ]

?By then his forehead was covered with sweat, and a heavy wave of dizziness threatened to break his focus. Despite that, his hand remained steady until the final stroke was complete.

?Hum...

?Soon, a humming sound echoed.

?When Aegon opened his eyes, a compact, palm-sized Mana engine sat before him. Unlike the first mangled attempt, this one was a masterpiece of polished brass and reinforced silver-iron.

Through the miniature glass viewport at its center, a delicate assembly of mana conduits glowed with a faint, rhythmic pulse, waiting to be fed a crystal.

?"Finally... It actually worked..." Aegon murmured, a breathless grin breaking across his face despite the throbbing ache behind his temples.

?He reached into his pouch, retrieved a low-grade mana shard, and slotted it into the engine’s core.

Hummm

?Instantly, another low melodic hum filled the quiet room.

The internal gears spun to life with seamless, clockwork grace, venting a wisp of warm, azure steam as pure kinetic energy thrummed against his fingertips.

There was no friction and no wasted energy. It was even more efficient than the standard models described in the engineer’s notes.

?Yet as he stared at the whirring creation in his palm, a realization struck him.

?Creating simple household objects had barely taxed his mind individually, whereas manifesting a single, functional Mana engine had nearly emptied his entire reserve of Soul Power in one go.

If he wanted to materialize truly earth-shattering concepts, or high-ranking Grimoires and artifacts in the middle of a battle, a Nascent soul with a capacity of 10 would never be enough.

?However, as he leaned back against the bedpost to rest, he noticed something peculiar on the shimmering panel before his eyes.

?[ Soul Power: 1 / 12 (Nascent) ]

?His eyes widened slightly. "Twelve? Wasn’t it ten just minutes ago?"

?He guessed: the constant cycle of draining his Soul Power to the brink and letting it recover over the past few days hadn’t just sharpened his control; it was actively expanding the vessel of his soul itself.

Just like a muscle torn and rebuilt through relentless training, his spiritual capacity was growing.

?Before he could celebrate the discovery, the gentle, rhythmic rocking of the Behemoth-class ship abruptly vanished.

Suddenly—

Rumble!

?Outside his cabin window, the serene blue ocean had darkened into an unnatural ink-black abyss, and the ship’s warning horn let out a deafening, prolonged roar that echoed across the waters.

?They had officially entered the Black Seas.

Aegon didn’t waste a single second. With a mental command, he dismissed both ATUM and the Quill of Finality back into the depths of his soul, causing the dark notebook and feather to dissolve into motes of unseen light.

?Still fighting off the throbbing ache behind his eyes from his depleted Soul Power, he scrambled across the tilting cabin floor and snatched up the whirring miniature Mana engine. He then pulled out the mana shard to silence its hum, then grabbed the primera failed hunk of warped iron as well. Stuffing both pieces deep beneath the false bottom of his heavy leather trunk, he clicked the iron padlock shut.

?If anyone in the Noiré family discovered he could conjure functioning machinery out of thin air, his peaceful plans for the Imperial Academy would evaporate overnight.

He wouldn’t just be treated as a family asset; he would be locked in a basement and dissected like a lab rat.

Clatter! Clatter!

?A second violent tremor rocked the vessel, accompanied by the creak of reinforced iron plates straining against immense pressure.

?Aegon splashed cold water from the washbasin onto his pale face, adjusted the red scarf Lucia had knitted for him around his neck, and strapped his training blade to his waist.

Despite his spiritual exhaustion, his physical body and mana reserves were still at their peak.

?Stepping out into the narrow mahogany corridor, he was immediately met with chaos.

?"What is the meaning of this?! Do you know who my father is? Turn this ship around at once!" a young nobleman shrieked, grabbing a passing crewman by the collar.

?"Please, sir, return to your cabin! We’ve hit an abnormal current in the Black Seas! The Captain is raising the grand barrier now!" the sailor shouted back.

?Ignoring the panicking aristocrats and screaming merchants stumbling through the hallway, Aegon pushed his way up the main stairwell and burst out onto the sprawling white deck.

?The picturesque blue sky had vanished. In its place hung a suffocating canopy of ash-grey clouds that blotted out the sun, plunging the afternoon into premature twilight.

Below the ship, the ocean looked like a cauldron of boiling black tar. The fog became thick with stench of rotting biology and tainted spirit..

The ship’s defence mechanism created a massive, translucent golden barrier, enclosing the entire deck in a protective dome.

?"Aegon! Over here!"

?Cutting through the howling wind, Clara’s voice reached his ears.

?Aegon turned toward the starboard bow, where Cardigan stood like an unmoving iron statue against the gale. Around him were Clara, Zane, and Marcus. The arrogant poise the three ten-year-olds had displayed when boarding the carriage was nowhere to be seen.

Marcus was clutching the railing so hard his knuckles were white, while Zane’s eyes darted nervously toward the pitch-black water.

?Aegon walked over calmly, his silver-dyed hair whipping across his forehead in the damp wind.

?"What took you so long? What were you doing down there, hiding under your bed?" Zane asked, trembling himself.

?"Just packing away some reading material," Aegon replied smoothly, coming to a halt beside Clara.

?Cardigan glanced down at Aegon.

?"You look exhausted, Aegon..Did you overdraw your mana training in your cabin?"

Aegon admitted without elaborating,

?"Something like that, Elder Cousin.I’ll recover shortly. More importantly, what is going on out there?"

?Before Cardigan could answer, Clara pointed a trembling finger toward the water 30 meters off the starboard side.

?"Oh lord! Look at the waves," she whispered.

?Aegon followed her gaze and felt his stomach tighten.

?"FU*CK!"