After Oris, Jael, and Iven went home, Cail was the only one left at the hospital.
It was dim and quiet. A good environment to think.
Sitting alone on the hospital bed, this was a rare moment of peace for Cail. The past few days had been hectic.
His mother, of course, knew what happened to him, but since he'd be discharged tomorrow, she didn't think it was a big deal. It wasn't Cail's first time in the hospital.
Thinking about his upcoming transaction with Neris, Cail felt a bit of a headache. "Their tournament is on Friday, and Neris wants the artifact delivered on Wednesday. They still need time to tune with it properly."
About his injuries, Cail touched his ribcage. He couldn't feel any pain and also knew that under the gauze were dry scabs from the wounds. "I guess it already healed?" Void energy is amazing.
He'd need to find an excuse tomorrow to avoid the check-up, or else those doctors would probably notice something wrong. Aside from the possibility that he'd be dissected, he could also attract unwanted attention from the other side.
Staring at the cross on the hospital wall, Cail thought of the God Iven had mentioned.
That was Illunis, right?
It felt very familiar. "Where have I heard it?" But again, no matter how hard he tried to recall, he couldn't remember a God named Illunis.
"Have I read that somewhere? Maybe in the book?" Cail wasn't sure. His memory wasn't bad, but maybe… he had forgotten about it?
He covered himself with a blanket and took his cellphone with him inside.
Although it looked awkward, Cail actually noticed something from the space in his arm. When he was wearing his eyeglasses, there wasn't any visible void energy coming from the mark.
Cail felt happy about that discovery; the hidden space probably wouldn't be easily noticed by those Void Users.
He opened the book and turned on his phone flashlight. His vision was still blurry, but at this short distance, the letters on the book were visible.
"It could worsen my eyes… but you know, that's probably the least of my concerns."
He flipped through the book pages, looking for something.
"Was the name Illunis written somewhere here?"
He skimmed the book, but there was no mention of any names or Gods.
"Seven Void User levels..." Cail remembered what Neris said. He had already read this section before, but he didn't really understand it deeply because he had never seen it in real life.
The first level was Innate. These were the newly awakened Void Users. They couldn't tune with any artifact, and this was the level most Void Users would be stuck on for the rest of their lives.
The second level was Resonant. Void Users at this stage were still very weak. They could tune with D level or below artifacts, but the compatibility would be halved, and the chances of the artifact going rogue were high.
The third level was Conductor. Neris's group seemed to be on that level. They were full-fledged artifact users. They were what the world of the void called'real Void Users.' They could tune with any artifact that matched their innate aptitude.
The fourth level was Warden. This was the level where unique traits of void energy would start to show. An example of this is: during the Conductor level, your void energy is for example, fire, but once you reach Warden, there is a chance your void energy will mutate into something strange.
The fifth level was Voidborn. Mr. Thade or Mr. Quill is on that level. People who reached this realm were overflowing with void energy. They could affect reality with their abilities. What's amazing about them is that they could restrain rogue artifacts and tune with them. They were often called overlords because of the oppression they raidated.
The sixth level was Voidlord. They could create independent space around them. That space was called a domain. Everything that happened in their domain was under their control.
And the last level was Ascendants. According to the book's explanation, people who reached this level surpassed human limits. There weren't any details, but it was said they were the enforcers of rules in the human world.
"That sounds awesome," Cail said, saying what he was thinking. Reaching that level of power was a dream. But reading the word enforcers snapped Cail out of it. Of course, you can't gain power without responsibilities. Unless you become a villain, reaching that height of power must come with enormous responsibilities.
"Being a villain sounds cool." The morally gray Cail, of course, thought so, but, "It's kinda tiring. Just thinking about how to ward off those righteous heroes will make me go bald."
What Cail wanted was power with no responsibility and no bothersome enemies. Of course, growing up was a harsh reality; Cail knew that was impossible, but he could dream, right?
He sighed and continued reading. He had only understood this on a surface level before. He was very sleepy last Sunday, so his mind was kinda off when reading the book. Now that he had free time, he might as well read it properly.
After the Void User levels, there were artifact and artifact-tuning levels.
Artifacts were divided into seven levels: S, A, B, C, D, E, F. Levels D to F were weak and fragile. A common characteristic was that they were unstable and didn't grow.
What did don't grow mean? It meant that all artifacts on those levels would stay at that level. To better understand it, here's an example: Resonant-level Void Users could use artifacts at level D and below, but once their level increased, they could no longer use those artifacts.
Compared to D-and-below, C, B, A, and S-level artifacts had a chance to grow with their user. Of course, the higher the level of the artifact, the better the chances of it growing.
Aside from that, tuning levels could also affect the user's ability to use the artifact.
The tuning level was divided into six stages: Whisper, Veil, Pulse, Void, Hollow, and Resonant.
Whisper-tuned granted minor control over artifacts.
Veil meant solid control.
Pulse was instinctive control.
Void tuning meant you could control your artifact even from another dimension.
Hollow was when the artifact is tuned with your emotion.
Finally, Resonant. It basically meant you were one with your artifact.
Good artifact tuning could also increase the chances of the artifact growing.
First, you're a Conductor: you can use any artifact above D, but you'd have a hard time tuning with artifacts above C. What are the results of poor tuning? It could cause instability, stagnant growth for both user and artifact, failure to unleash the artifact's true power, and worse, there was a possibility of the artifact turning rogue and killing the user.
Seeing the words killing the user, Cail's eyes started to twitch. "I already had a hunch about that." His eyes bleeding from the glasses was probably due to an incompatible tuning level.
Remembering the gears on the side, Cail felt a bit of goodwill. "Fortunately, my artifact seems to be user‑friendly." He had no idea if his body could cope with the full power of the eyeglasses. Heck, he didn't even know what his level was.
"Why do I feel like I'm involved in a very unreliable plot?" He was basically going in blindfolded.
Just by looking at the parchment paper, Cail already knew he couldn't rely on anyone. The only entity that seemed to know about the box sounded a bit crazy.
"This is too complicated." Looking at the classification list, Cail felt a headache coming. To be a qualified dealer, he needed to be reliable. While going incognito and changing identities was a good idea, Cail wanted to have a stable second identity to attract customers. Who knows, what if the box suddenly increased the quota?
"The glasses lightened my burden a bit. At least they can show the artifact's information, compatibility, and more." Cail sighed. He had so many things on his agenda.
"The coin mark on the compass and the broken brooch is called Chaos Coin. No idea what that is. As for the red stone something, I also have no clue." Honestly, Cail felt frustrated, then he had an idea.
"There should be a guidebook for students at the Academy, right? I could try and ask Neris for some."
"I feel a bit stupid. How did I reach this point?" Then Cail finally remembered what kind of person he was. "Ah, I am a bastard greedy for power and wealth. That's why..."
Thinking about what happened, Cail sighed. "It had only been a few days, and I already have two people on my murder list."
He giggled. "I gotta get used to it." The deeper he ventured into this world, the more dangerous it became.
For some reason, his mood lightened. He's just like this, a fickle son of a bitch. Oh, Diran is probably right.
He continued reading the rest.
...
"Teacher Quill… it was already too late," Auren said. In front of him was a dry corpse.
The corpse was leaning on the bathroom wall. Beside it were piles of stuff and an empty bag.
It was hollow. No eyes or internal organs. All that was left was bone, muscle, skin, veins, and flesh. It somewhat resembled a puppet because there was nothing inside.
Quill looked at the corpse. It was a pitiful sight. Dying so young was unfortunate. "Auren, this is the reason why ordinary people shouldn't use artifacts."
Auren looked a bit sad. "I—I couldn't sense anything. I didn't know Jexar had the Chained Sinner."
Hearing that, Quill's eyes narrowed. "Someone's covering up the artifacts… I don't know what they want, but they seem to have a connection with this school."
No wonder, despite staying here for four years, Auren didn't find anything.