Chapter 62: Unlocking the Gate

The three Space Crystals on my key began to glow with a sharp blue light, counteracting the dark energy radiating from the basalt wall.

I closed my eyes and focused my mind.

This vault door had seven internal spatial tumblers. Each one was designed to shred the body of anyone who tried to force it open with normal magic.

"Seven tumblers. too childish," I smirked softly.

Locksmith’s Eye!

The complex internal architecture of the vault door unfolded in my mind like an intricate three dimensional puzzle. I saw how the black threads were being fed from a deeper source far below the sewer level. It was a massive pool of dark energy pulsing like a beating heart.

The Black Circle wasn’t creating the black mana threads.

They might harvesting them from an ancient, corrupted entity in my theory.

The dungeon breaks, the corrupted cores, the black-market smuggling. It was all part of a plan to weaken the kingdom’s divine seals so the entity could fully awaken.

"I can’t let this stay locked," I muttered.

I inserted the tip of my Spatial key into the node.

Open!

Click.

Click.

Click.

One by one, the seven spatial tumblers unlocked in rapid succession. The golden mana from my key purified the dark threads lining the door, burning them away into harmless white smoke.

The massive basalt wall shook violently before slowly sliding upward into the stone ceiling, revealing a long, illuminated hallway lined with glowing purple mana crystals.

Standing at the end of the hallway were several guards dressed in dark robes, holding staff weapons pulsing with black energy.

Their leader, a tall man wearing a silver mask, turned toward the opening vault door in absolute disbelief.

"Who opened the gate?!" the masked man shouted, raising his staff. "The seal shouldn’t be breakable from the outside!"

I stepped out from the shadows into the purple light of the hallway, holding my Star-Iron key casually in my hand.

I pulled down my black mask slightly and smiled at the stunned cultists.

"Your lock was outdated," I said, my golden mana flaring around my body. "So I upgraded it."

The guards glanced at each other, their grip tightening on their weapons. The silver-masked leader took a step forward, his eyes narrowing behind his mask.

"A brat?" the masked leader sneered, pointing his staff at me. "How did a child break through an ancient spatial barrier?"

"I told you already," I replied casually, taking a slow step into the hallway. "Your barrier was cheap. I just picked it."

"Silence!" the leader roared. "Do you have any idea where you are standing, kid? This is sacred ground. You brought yourself straight into your own grave."

"Is that so?" I tilted my head, tossing my spatial key up in the air and catching it effortlessly. "You guys spend all this time harvesting dark threads from a sleeping monster, and yet you rely on a sewer door that took me less than ten seconds to break. That’s pretty embarrassing."

One of the robed guards stepped up beside the leader, his hands trembling slightly. "Lord Miguel, look at his hand. That key in his hand is radiating Space Crystals!."

Miguel stared at my key, his eyes widening in realization. "Where did an eight-year-old boy get items that belong exclusively to the noble houses?"

"I made it myself," I lied smoothly, offering a bright smile. "Do you want one? I can give you a discount if you tell me what you’re planning to do down there."

"How dare you!" Lord Miguel shouted, his staff emitting a surge of black mana that made the surrounding air drop in temperature. "Seize him! Do not destroy his magic core! I want to examine whatever technique he used to bypass the tumblers!"

"Wait!" the guard beside him called out nervously. "What if he brought reinforcements? What if the Royal Guards are right behind him?"

I let out a small laugh, crossing my arms over my chest. "Reinforcements? Do I look like I need back-up to deal with a bunch of cultists hiding in a sewer?"

Miguel scoffed, though he cast a quick, wary glance toward the open basalt doorway behind me. "You came alone? You really are stupid."

"I am standing right here," I said, pointing to the floor beneath my feet. "And your door is wide open. If you want to stop me from walking any further, you better move faster than those slow beasts you sent into the Normal District."

Miguel froze, his voice turning deathly quiet. "The West District break. You were the one who tampered with our infected beast cores."

"Guilty as charged," I grinned, channeling a faint golden light through my fingertips. "Your corrupted cores were sloppy. Just like your lock."

"So it was you," Miguel hissed, his silver mask reflecting the purple glow of the hallway crystals. "You disrupted the distribution flow in the market. You ruined weeks of preparation in a single afternoon."

"Ruined?" I chuckled softly. "I barely did anything. Your little experiment was so unstable that a kid with a couple of iron lockpicks managed to disarm it. You should be thanking me for showing you how weak your setup was."

The second guard leaned closer to Malakor, panic evident in his voice. "Lord Miguel, if he knows about the beast cores he might have already alerted the authorities. We cannot risk compromising the harvest now."

"Shut up!" Miguel snapped at his subordinate. He turned his glare back to me, his dark mana flaring higher. "It does not matter what he knows. A child who relies on cheap tricks cannot withstand true corruption. Do you really think picking a lock makes you a match the Circle?"

"I don’t need to be a match for your organization," I said, tapping my spatial key against my palm. "I just need to lock you inside with it."

Miguel sneered under his mask. "Lock us inside? You arrogant little stray. This gate responds only to the dark frequency of the core. You managed to slip through the spatial gap, but you cannot command the mechanism."

"Is that a challenge?" I asked, my golden mana flaring brighter around my hands. "Because every time someone tells me a door can only be controlled one way, I end up proving them wrong."

"Enough talk!" Miguel commanded, pointing his staff straight at my chest. "Destroy his limbs! Drag him and kneel for me!"

The leader raised his staff higher into the air. His dark mana flared up like a dying flame, turning the purple light of the hallway into a gloomy shadow.

The two robed man behind him moved quickly. They spread out to both sides, pulling thin iron daggers from beneath their dark sleeves.

"Move idiots!" Miguel roared.

The two man did not hesitate. They lunged forward with surprising speed for men wearing heavy robes.

Their daggers glowed with a sickly black light, leaving faint trails of dark vapor in the damp air.

They were targeting my shoulders and knees, clearly intending to pin me to the stone floor before I could use my key again.

I did not move an inch. I did not pull out a sword or cast a flashy barrier. I just stood there in the center of the area, letting my hands hang loosely at my sides while twirling my iron lockpick between my thumb and forefinger.

Locksmith’s Eye.

The world around me shifted instantly. The stone walls, the glowing purple crystals, and the dark robes of the cultists faded into translucent golden shapes. In their place, the hidden framework of energy revealed itself to my vision.

Every living person carries a network of mana pathways inside their body. It works almost like the internal brass tumblers of a mechanical lock.

Mana flows from the central core near the chest, passing through primary control valves located at the throat, the shoulders, and the heart before reaching the limbs.

Under my skill, those primary control valves looked like glowing golden keyholes embedded directly into their flesh.

The two attacking men had wide, unstable mana pathways. Because they relied on dark threads from the subterranean entity to boost their strength, their internal control valves were forced open far too wide. Their energy was wildly surging, making them fast, but it also made their internal locks extremely fragile.

"You guys really should have learned proper mana control before joining a group," I whispered softly.

I focused my golden mana onto the tips of my fingers. I did not target their weapons or their dark spells. I targeted the main control valves located right at their collarbones.

Close.

Close.

Two tiny sparks of golden light thread shot from my fingertips, flying through the air faster than any arrow. The sparks passed right through the dark vapor surrounding their daggers and struck both cultists square in the chest.

Pop!

Pop!

The sound was quiet, like two small soap bubbles popping in the air.

Instantly, the dark glow on their daggers vanished. The wild black mana surging through their arms was cut off in a fraction of a second. The sudden loss of physical enhancement caused their muscles to seize up completely. Their feet caught on the uneven stone floor, and both cultists tumbled forward, crashing hard onto the cold stone floor right at my feet.

"My... my legs! Ahhhh!" one of them gasped, his face pressed against the damp ground. He tried to lift his arm, but his fingers would not even twitch. "I can’t feel my mana! What did you do to me?!"

"I just locked your main output valve," I said, stepping over his trembling shoulder. "Do you know that it’s a basic safety protocol? When a pipe is leaking bad energy, you shut the valve off."

Lord Miguel backed away, his mask reflecting the soft golden glow surrounding my hands. His breathing turned ragged and loud. "Wa- what kind of trick is this?! You didn’t even cast a spell! Where is your incantation?!"

"Incantations are for people who don’t understand how locks work," I replied, taking a calm step toward him. "You rely too much on loud speeches and dark magic. You forgot that your own body runs on a mechanism."

Miguel gritted his teeth in sheer rage. "Arrogant brat! I will tear your core out with my own hands!"

He slammed the butt of his black staff against the floor. A massive wave of dark mana erupted from the staff’s head, forming a giant, writhing snake made of pitch-black threads. The snake opened its jaws, letting out an echoing screech that made the stone walls tremble. It lunged straight toward my head, threatening to swallow my entire body in dark corruption.

I did not even bother to duck.

I looked straight through the writhing black snake, using my Locksmith’s Eye to locate the central power node inside Miguel’s staff. It was a small, cracked dark crystal hidden beneath the silver headpiece.

Close.

I slammed my golden mana straight into the staff’s core valve.

CRACK!

The dark snake vanished mid-air, dissolving into harmless black dust that drifted down like soot.

The dark mana trapped inside the staff had nowhere to go. Because I locked the output valve while Miguel was forcing his energy into it, the dark mana surged backward into his hands and arms.

"GAAAH!" Miguel screamed in agony.

The black staff shattered into tiny splinters. The violent energy feedback blasted Miguel backward, slamming his back against the heavy inner doors of the sanctuary. He slid down to the stone floor, his silver mask cracking down the middle and falling off his face to reveal a pale, sweating man in his late thirties.

He clutched his chest, gasping for air like a fish out of water. Every time he tried to circulate his magic, his internal valves blocked the flow, causing intense pain to shoot through his ribs.

"Your... your magic..." Miguel choked out, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. "You shut my mana core..."

"Uh-uh. No. I locked your primary valve," I corrected him, stopping right in front of him and looking down. "Your core is fine, but if you try to force it open again, your own mana will snap your ribs. I suggest you just sit there and take a nap."

I locked everyone’s sense’s to force them to sleep for hours but Lord Miguel’s will is so strong that I can’t force him to fall in a deep sleep.

I decided to close his muscle strength so he would be paralized and not able to move.

The Duke Voulstridge personal assassins would be here soon to interrogate this bastards.

"Now," I said, looking at the massive double doors behind him. "Let us see what you guys were hiding behind this big door."