Golden Crate
The Eerie Forest was situated to the south of Roa Village, its southern edge directly touched the perpetual calm waters of Mare Cessabit, the great inland sea that lies between Gaia and Astrea.
Roa was but a small rural village in the fringe of the kingdom's southern territory, meagerly populated by no more than 150-odd people. The village itself was a personal property belongs to Jason Lyon, lord of Texel, every tax extracted from it will directly enter his pocket.
Even so, the lord does not personally manage the village. To represent and help him manage it, a person he picked from the local populace was assigned in the seat of magistrate.
The current magistrate, Elton, was of the same generation as Maximus' father, Caio, and his mentor, Regan, who also happens to be the village's constable. Elton has been the magistrate for almost 20 years, although literate, he lacks the necessary skills and knowledge in governance.
He also never seems to have any desire to manage the village well, and never listens to the villagers' suggestions either. He only cares about being in the lord's good grace by constant boot-licking and being a slave.
Maximus held an extremely bad impression of that old man, even most of the villagers did not like him as well.
Thinking about that man, Maximus couldn't help but feel slightly irritated.
Elton has been in odd with Maximus' father long before he was born, and the feud continues on to this day. Maximus was always mocked and scorned by Elton whenever they met. While the mocking frequency lessened after Maximus was known to be in the possession of an Inner Channel and later serving as the vice constable to Regan, the relationship between them never turn for the better.
Maximus wasn't a petty man who held grudges for long, he had no desire to make Elton pay for all the mockeries he has suffered. Honestly, that old geezer's mouth was annoying most of the time it opens, but otherwise harmless.
Maximus was currently still on his way back to the village while riding his horse. He had wandered really deep into the forest, so the return journey will take quite a long time.
[Attention, Host! A magical interference has been detected close to the host's position. The system suggests to immediately check up on it directly.]
The system's voice suddenly rang inside his head.
'Huh? What kind of magical interference? Is there any importance in checking it?' Asked Maximus through his mind. He was baffled why the system told him this out of blue.
[The magical interference has caused a small disruption to the spiritual connection between the system and the host. You can see the effect yourself by calling out the main interface.]
Hearing that, Maximus was really curious, so he tries to call the interface out…
The interface usually pops out right after he imagines it appearing, but now, even after waiting for a while and calling it a dozen times, the interface still does not appear.
Maximus frowned in response, 'What the hell is going on? Has this happened because of the interference?'
[Correct, Host. There are not many things that can cause the same effect, but without direct visual, the system unable to verify the exact nature of the interference. It is imperative to investigate it.]
Maximus nodded in agreement, this situation was truly dangerous. The system was the most valuable and precious companion that he has, he absolutely cannot allow anything bad to befall her.
As he stared at a mini holographic map on the top left corner of his vision, Maximus' face turned really ugly. This holographic map was one of the system's important functions, it can project the map of an entire area around his position up to 5 km of radius, along with everything that was happening and exists inside in highly detailed quality and real-time.
Maximus has always relied on the function whenever he was traveling. It's really convenient to use, especially in an unfamiliar place. He doesn't have to worry about being attacked since the map will detect any object-of-interest whether buildings, roads, forests, cities, villages, towns, ruins, and including people, animals, fierce and demon beasts.
But now, the holographic map's screen was flickering with tears and noises just like a broken television. This was really bad!
'System, can you tell me the interference's original location? I'm gonna check it, this can't continue.'
[Around 400 meters to the west. Once you get closer to that point, the system can detect its precise location.]
Maximus hastily looked to the west. This entire area of the forest was dominated by flat grounds and the trees were not very dense. Hence, he can perfectly see the situation around the interference's supposed source even from afar.
'There is nothing there but trees and small rocks, I think whatever caused the disruption should be buried on the ground.' Murmured Maximus inside his mind, he also started to drove his horse to the west.
[Affirmative, Host. That is what the system presumed as well.]
A few minutes later, Maximus arrived at where the interference beaming from.
[20 meters to your left, next to that large boulder.]
Without wasting any more time, he proceeds to the place the system pointed at. There were a two meters large boulder that stood there.
Maximus approached closer before stamping his foot on the ground next to the boulder, 'Is this the exact place? Below this ground?'
[Yes, Host. You should start digging the ground, it's only a meter deep. Some kind of rectangular object has been detected buried under your feet.]
'Alright.' Maximus replied shortly.
Then he took a crude iron shovel that was carried by the horse. This was one of the few mundane tools he deliberately brought to be a guise. After all, traveling to the forest without sufficient preparations was kind of odd, particularly in the eyes of the villagers.
Other than a shovel, other tools he brought including a simple trap mechanism, a wooden longbow, a quiver of arrows, a water pouch, a small fur tent, ropes, and an old bronze knife. Maximus let these tools be carried by the horse, instead of, inside the inventory space, so that the villagers can see it, giving them an impression that he was well-prepared.
After removing his jacket and throws it to the boulder, he then commenced the digging. But he tries to perform it with extreme carefulness, this iron shovel on his hands was really fragile, it'll be unfortunate if it broke.
Soon, once he digs deep enough…
Dang!
The shovel suddenly hit a metallic object!
Maximus kneels, swipes away the dirt, and takes a closer look at the object.
"What the hell is this?" He blurted out.
The object he saw gleamed with shining metal. And when he touches it, he could feel how pristine the structure was.
"This! This is gold! A freaking genuine gold!" Said he, almost yelling.
[Quick, Host! Dig the rest and take the object out.]
The system's urge wakes Maximus up, he says, "Okay, okay."
He resumed the digging until the object's form was completely revealed.
"Ugh! This is so heavy… Even with my current strength, this thing is too hard to pull." Maximus complained as he pulls the object away from the pit.
Once he's done, he can finally examine the object with ease.
"It's a crate… made of entirely gold. Man! This is all gold! And holy shit! Some kind of hologram sign on top of it! System, do you see this?!" Maximus exclaimed loudly. He was normally a calm and collected person, but this object really made him thoroughly shocked.
[The system see it, Host. That hologram is a mini magic formation, utilized for identification purposes. This formation is exactly the main culprit that caused the disruption. You can feel it too, don't you? The mana or what today's people called Inner Force converging around the crate.]
"Yeah, I feel it." Maximus nodded weakly. He can feel a huge stream of Inner Force centered around the hologram.
[After analyzing the crate directly, the system finally managed to roughly determine its origin. There is a high chance that this crate was left behind by a wizard. Only wizards that can master the utilization of mana in the way of magic, thus able to create a magic formation and other magical instruments.]
'Wizards?' Maximus wondered in confusion.
As far as he knows, and this knowledge was derived from his experiences of being a simple commoner for 18 years of his life; wizards were a group of people that once ruled the entirety of Grand Azov thousands of years ago. They were famously known to have wielded powerful and terrifying magic that were simply unimaginable and beyond common sense to people in the present day.
In addition, they were also celebrated for being great inventors, legend says their inventions can make people wonder in awe and even shame the gods.
The civilization they build was so advanced to the extent they were able to venture out to the dark void beyond the skies, and into other realms such as the moon and the legendary Twenty Great Realms that was said to be the companions of the Grand Azov in the cosmos, the equivalent of a universe known to the people of this realm.
One day, the wizards vanished completely, together with their entire civilization. The reason for their disappearance was completely unknown, some say they have moved to one of the realms among the Twenty Great Realms, others claimed they were destroyed by a powerful enemy, and few say their kind still existed in this world and simply hide.
But whatever happened, the wizards have never been seen again for a very long time, and their stories have become a myth to many cultures. Even though they have disappeared, few of their legacies managed to survive and have a profound impact on today's society.
[Yes, Host. Wizards. The utilization of Mana or Inner Force in the way of magic is declining ever since they disappeared. Even now the practice has effectively vanished. Only a few arts survived to this day such as the metal configuration in weapon-forging techniques performed by master blacksmiths. The same too for artifact-making techniques performed by skilled master craftsmen. But if it is judged by the wizards' standard, those arts are considered basic techniques, not advanced. Crafting a magic formation is one of the advanced arts that the present-day people unable to master, not a single person alive today capable of making a magic formation. Therefore, this golden crate should belong to a random wizard, who might have buried it for one unknown reason.]
Maximus fell into contemplation, he learned a lot from the system's explanation.
Who would have thought that the secret techniques prized by those famed master blacksmiths or craftsman were just some basic stuff in the eyes of wizards?
Each blacksmith or craftsman who had attained the title of Master possessed a lofty reputation. They were famous and highly sought after by many guilds or countries, especially the weapons, armors, and artifacts they created. Any items with grades higher than Top can only be made by those masters, and they can cost lots of fortune.
Master blacksmiths and craftsmen were also possessors of Inner Channel, their numbers were even fewer than knights. Maximus has heard from his mentor that there were only three masters in the whole of Everglade; two blacksmiths and one craftsman. And all three resides within the kingdom's capital, Davengard. Proving how rare these kinds of masters were.
Soon he asked again, 'Do you know how to open it? You said before that the magic formation placed on the crate is for the purpose of identification, which means it would need some kind of what? Password? Fingerprint? Or maybe some proof of identification like an identity card or something?"
[It should be one of the things you said. But don't worry the system has a way to open it. However, the system needs 5000 System Credit as a remuneration, are you willing?]
Maximus shrugged, 'Why not… It's cheap, anyway.'
[Very well…]
In the next moment, a brilliant light shot out from Maximus' chest and hit the crate's hologram sign.
Pshhh!
A tiny explosion erupted, causing a small ruckus.
Maximus waved his hands to clear the smoke and saw the hologram has vanished. Without hesitation, he opened the crate and look inside to see its content.