The Broken Halo

Chapter 1034 - 1033: Elemental Treasures

Simon took another look around before choosing a direction.

This time, he noticed the lettering above the aisles.

Thin bands of silver light hung between the pillars, each carrying a section’s name. Beneath them, curved arrows pointed toward passages and ramps, with smaller numbers indicating the terrace and gallery.

Techniques. Bloodline Materials. Elixirs and Herbs. Beast Remains.

Near the landing, a waist-high stone column displayed the vault’s terraces as concentric rings. Names hovered beside them, connected to their respective locations by fine lines.

Simon approached it.

He had walked past the thing twice while occupied with the egg.

Now he took note of it.

His gaze moved toward a label on one of the upper rings.

Elemental Treasures.

Now that sounded worth examining.

He followed the indicated ramp, passing beneath another silver band that confirmed the direction.

The gallery ahead was divided by low stone partitions. Transparent cases rested on pedestals of different heights, their contents casting scattered colours across the floor.

Simon slowed at the entrance.

A red stone floated within a flame that bent downward instead of rising. Nearby, a bead of blue liquid repeatedly stretched into a thin ring before gathering into a sphere again.

Farther along, a pale root hung upside down, its exposed tip producing tiny leaves that withered and regrew.

There were objects whose shapes he couldn’t quite make sense of, and others that looked deceptively ordinary.

His affinities responded to several of them.

He felt drawn toward a case on the left, then another farther inside. The sensations differed slightly, but each carried something familiar.

Simon stopped before the red stone.

The plaque beneath it called it an Emberbirth Stone. After refinement, it could grant a Daemon an F-grade Fire affinity. An especially compatible recipient might obtain E grade instead.

He read the next description.

The blue bead could awaken Water affinity.

Another case contained a dark-brown pellet with layers resembling tightly packed soil. Earth. The pale root was meant to grant Wood, while a curled translucent leaf farther along could provide Wind.

Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Wood.

The five basic affinities.

He already possessed three of them.

Simon glanced back at the blue bead, then moved on.

An affinity he lacked might be useful, but F grade? E grade at best?

He had enough abilities that still needed development. Adding weak affinities would complicate the balance he was carefully maintaining without giving him much in return.

These treasures could be valuable to someone who needed a particular element.

He wasn’t that someone.

A stronger response from his Wind affinity drew him into the next aisle.

There, inside a clear case, rested a dark-green crystal roughly the length of his palm.

A narrow spiral turned within it. The spiral divided as he watched, becoming countless fine currents that crossed without disturbing one another before gathering together again.

His eyes moved to the plaque.

Abyss Gale Origin Crystal.

{Upon complete refinement, raises a Daemon’s existing Wind affinity to S grade. Effective even when the original affinity is F or E grade.}

Simon read the line again.

From F straight to S?

That was a much more convincing reason for something to occupy a place in this treasury.

He leaned closer, watching the currents inside the crystal.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t do much for him.

His Wind affinity was already at peak S grade.

The connection he felt made the crystal tempting, but taking it would spend one of his remaining choices on something he didn’t need.

He straightened and continued.

A few pedestals away, a crimson crystal contained a small golden flame. The light passed through its facets in sharp, wavering lines.

Infernal Flame Origin Crystal.

Its description promised the same improvement for Fire.

From any affinity grade to the S grade.

Simon released a quiet breath.

He had a feeling that his Fire affinity had reached peak S grade after his One-Horned Demon bloodline evolved into the Uruqath bloodline.

Two excellent treasures, and neither offered the improvement he wanted.

He looked from the flame to the dark-green crystal and a thought he had pushed to the back of his mind appeared once again.

After his successful evolution, he had felt that his wind and fire affinity grades were close to something beyond S grade.

He couldn’t properly describe it but it felt like he was just a step away from crossing into that new realm, but he had no idea what this new realm was and it felt like the difference between the S grade and the grade beyond was not as small as just a step.

He couldn’t say exactly what would carry them across that boundary, but he suspected he was missing something more important than another supply of elemental essence.

A treasure whose limit was S grade wouldn’t solve that problem.

There was no reason to keep reading every plaque.

From now on, he would concentrate on treasures capable of bringing an affinity to S grade, whether they improved an element he already possessed or granted something new.

Anything less could remain on its pedestal.

He passed two more displays before a pale-blue glow caught his attention.

A crystal shaped like a cluster of narrow spears lay inside a square case. Its edges were almost colourless, but the centre darkened to a blue so deep it appeared black.

Frost formed along the inner surface of the case, arranging itself into delicate branching patterns.

His Ice affinity stirred.

Nether Ice Origin Crystal.

Simon bent slightly to read.

{Raises a Daemon’s existing Ice affinity to S grade upon complete refinement, regardless of its previous grade. Keep sealed until preparations for refinement are complete.}

His interest immediately bloomed.

Unlike Wind and Fire, his Ice affinity was only High C grade.

He rarely relied on it when his other elements could achieve more with the same effort. That didn’t mean Ice was useless. He simply hadn’t been able to develop it to the level of his stronger affinities.

This crystal could change that.

He pictured freezing an opponent’s movements before following with a wind slash, or spreading ice through the ground without having to devote so much energy to maintaining it.

There were techniques he would have much more reason to learn.

Simon examined the case, then memorised its position.

He was about to continue when another sensation drew his gaze past the next partition.

Space.

He followed it to a pedestal standing apart from the others.

Within a transparent case rested a small, clear vial. A silver-white substance filled less than half of it, moving with the slow thickness of marrow.

As Simon changed his viewing angle, the liquid seemed to slip behind itself.

For an instant, he could see the far wall of the vial through its centre. Then the silver-white substance filled that space again.

He stopped moving.

Even through the seals, his spatial perception responded to it.

Void Origin Marrow.

The description beneath the case was brief.

{Used to refine and strengthen an existing Space affinity. The quantity preserved here is sufficient to raise a C-grade affinity to peak S grade.}

Simon’s eyes remained on the last words.

Peak S grade.

He was fairly certain his Space affinity had not reached S grade. Even after his One-Tailed Byakko bloodline evolved into the Nine-Tailed Byakko, he believed it had only risen to A grade.

He suspected it might be near the peak of that grade, but that remained a guess. The strength of his spatial abilities wasn’t enough to give him a precise answer.

But this would take it to peak S grade.

He could already think of several uses for the improvement. More precise spatial folds and teleportation, less wasted energy, and better control when manipulating the space around him.

It wouldn’t erase every limitation he faced, but it was far from a minor benefit.

Simon looked back toward the ice crystal.

Two possibilities.

If he could find similar treasures for Shadow and Earth, perhaps he could raise all his remaining lower-grade affinities to S.

The thought encouraged him to keep searching.

He followed the gallery’s smaller labels, reading the relevant descriptions rather than stopping before every interesting object.

There were materials that responded to Shadow. There were Earth treasures too.

But nothing he found promised the improvement he wanted.

Some had other uses entirely. Others could improve an affinity, but their stated limits fell short of S grade.

He checked another aisle before accepting that this section didn’t seem to have what he was looking for.

Simon returned to the Nether Ice Origin Crystal.

Its transparent case could be carried without opening it. He directed his Will toward it, and the Seed of Pride responded.

The case rose smoothly from its pedestal.

He brought it beside him, then did the same with the Void Origin Marrow.

Both floated in plain sight, their seals untouched.

He wasn’t ready to register them.

They were valuable, certainly, but he had only seen a small portion of the vault. Something elsewhere might be worth giving up one of them.

For now, they would remain possibilities rather than his second and third selections.

Simon turned toward the gallery’s exit.

Then he paused.

”Why don’t I look for something related to poison?”

It had been a while since he searched properly for the ingredients needed for the Poison Empress’s ultimate creation.

She had been one of his friends in his previous life. Now she was dead, but he still remembered what she had created.

He had already obtained the Ice Corpse Flower and the Hydra’s Blood Essence. There were other things he needed.

A treasury like this might contain some of them.

Even if the exact ingredients weren’t here, perhaps there were substitutes. Materials from Daemons and creatures she had never encountered might offer possibilities that her original method hadn’t accounted for.

Simon glanced toward the silver directions beyond the entrance.

Perhaps the next thing he found would be something he hadn’t even known to search for.