Chapter 150: [X] - 150: Red Lightning
The text on the pedestal finished changing and locked into place.
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The box opened.
"Shit!"
A sudden dense pressure flooded outward and settled across the chamber like a second atmosphere.
The weight of it pressed against skin and breath in equal measure, denser than the ordinary wards of the treasury and older in feel.
"Argh..."
But it did not hurt, it simply existed, heavy enough that a weaker cultivator might have staggered under the first wave of it, even Alex barely held himself together.
Inside the open box, held within a transparent oval barrier of mythical glass that neither muffled nor fully contained their presence, sat multiple elemental stones.
"What are these....?"
The first was a water stone, cool and deep blue, giving off a slow tidal aura that felt heavy and patient.
The pressure it exerted suggested depth, the quiet certainty of something that would outlast most opposition and simply continue to exist even after the surrounding formations had long since faded.
Beside it rested a fire stone, bright orange red, radiating sharp heat and restless motion even through the barrier.
Its energy constantly shifted as if looking for something to burn or consume, never fully still, the kind of force that would spread the moment it found an opening.
A wind stone followed, pale and almost translucent, its aura thin and constantly shifting as if trying to escape the glass entirely.
The air around that section of the barrier seemed to move in response to its presence, light enough that the stone itself appeared ready to drift if the glass were not there to hold it.
An earth stone sat heavier than the others, dark brown green, its presence solid and immovable.
It did not need to announce itself.
It felt like once set in place it would not yield to pressure or time.
Further back were multiples of the same types along with additional stones of rarer elements, each one distinct in color and in the particular pressure it exerted against the mythical glass.
Some carried signatures Alex could not immediately name.
Others felt older still, their residual force sitting deeper than the standard four, as if they had been sealed here long before the current household formations were designed.
The entire collection was arranged in neat rows, protected but fully visible, as if the barrier existed more to preserve the stones than to hide them from anyone who had already gained access to the box.
Alex took one look at the contents and thought he had hit a jackpot.
"This...I have hit a Jackpot!!!"
The restriction of one item immediately reasserted itself in his mind.
"Oh...about that..."
Alessio’s limit still held.
The inventory clerks would record whatever left the vault on his dad’s name.
He could not take the entire collection no matter how useful it looked.
He stood in front of the open box and analyzed the stones for a short stretch of time, weighing residual signatures against future usefulness and the current state of his own foundations.
Water would expand control and recovery.
Fire would add aggression and raw destructive force.
Wind would improve speed and evasion.
Earth would reinforce durability and grounding.
They all could be aligned cleanly with the Adaptation Aspect if he found the right meathod.
"But..."
The standard elements would require him to build an entirely new foundation from the ground up, and that would slow everything else he was already forcing into place.
His eyes settled on a stone that contained red lightning moving inside it like living veins.
The energy was sharp, fast, and unstable in a way that felt closer to pure force than to any of the standard elements lined up in front of him.
It did not sit quietly.
It moved way too violently.
The veins of light shifted and reformed without pattern, as if the stone itself were still deciding what shape the power should take once it found a proper host.
That instability was exactly what made it useful.
"And the pressure and danger it is releasing right this moment..."
Adaptation thrived on things that refused to stay fixed.
A stone that already refused to settle into a single shape was the closest match he was going to find in this particular vault.
"Well, let’s go with my gut feeling." But it was not just the gut feeling he was acting on, he had calculated what would be the best option out of all of these, and the basic elements were something he would eventually encounter in future, but right now he needed something that will make him an outlier even among the best in this Rank.
And so, he selected that one and lifted it free of the barrier.
The mythical glass covering the stone did not resist him.
The red lightning remained active and contained within its own smaller casing even after removal, the veins of light continuing to move as if the stone itself were still deciding whether to accept the new owner.
"It really is beautiful..."
The residual signature sat sharp against his palm, distinct from every other mana source in the chamber.
The box waited a full second, as if confirming he would take nothing further, then closed on its own with a soft finality that left no room for second thoughts or additional claims.
The dense pressure vanished from the chamber at the same moment, leaving only the ordinary weight of the treasury’s standing wards and the residual light of the suspended crystals overhead.
Alex pocketed the red lightning stone.
"I have already spent too much time... let’s just hope all goes well."
The residual signature sat against his side, sharp and contained, distinct from every other mana source he had felt in the treasury.
"Sorry but you have to go say here for now."
He deliberately dropped the mana circulatory skill book he had originally chosen, letting it settle back onto the nearest surface without ceremony.
One item, that was all he was allowed, and he had chosen it.
The book could stay.
The stone was the better investment for the path he was already walking, and the restriction Alessio had set left no room for second claims.
He returned to the circular formation platform he had first arrived on, the same marked circle that had delivered him into the vault through Vespera’s authority.
The residual light of the suspended crystals still caught the edges of the platform.
"Time to go back!"
The moment both feet settled on the circle he was pulled back through the temporary path.
He emerged in a different room where Vespera and Alessio were waiting, still in the same formal clothes from the banquet.
The transition was clean.
The treasury was already sealed behind him.
The residual signature of the stone in his pocket was not.
It leaked through the fabric in a thin, unmistakable thread of force that anyone with trained senses would notice within a few steps.
The red lightning inside its casing continued to move, a quiet pulse against his side that did not match any of the standard elemental signatures the household formations were built to recognize.
Vespera’s gaze dropped to the slight bulge in the fabric.
Shock crossed her face the instant she registered what was leaking through.
"Alex, how did you even..."
Alessio followed the same line of sight.
The first thing he felt was shock, then a sharp shift into raised volume as he looked straight at Alex and—
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End of Chapter 150: Red Lightning
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