The interior of the Magical Artifact Storage Room was even more spacious and lofty than one would imagine.
There wasn’t a single window here, only the magical crystals embedded in the walls providing a dim illumination.
The air carried a faint mixture of dust, metal, and wood.
As far as the eye could see, rows upon rows of towering metal shelves stood like silent giants reaching all the way to the ceiling, neatly displaying thousands of magical artifacts categorized by type.
From the lowest grade—ordinary magical pendants and scrolls that glimmered with only a faint halo—to high-grade wands, armor, and orbs that emanated powerful energy fluctuations and were placed individually beneath transparent protective covers, everything was present.
The higher up the shelves, the stronger and more ancient the aura exuded by the stored magical artifacts.
Between these shelves, fine strands of magical energy beams crisscrossed, forming a dense detection network. Any object passing through would immediately trigger the artifact alarms.
Aside from that, it seemed there were also triggered binding arrays etched into the floor, clearly measures to prevent teleportation magic. Evidently, the security here was extraordinarily tight.
Sefina held her breath, her ice-blue eyes swiftly scanning the internal environment.
As expected, the guards at the entrance were merely the first line of defense; it was the ever-present detection artifacts and magical traps within the storage room that posed the real challenge.
Not daring to slack off, Sefina immediately took out a small device shaped like a pocket watch from her bosom, crafted by Nona.
She pressed the button, and a ring of gentle, ever-shifting magical ripples lit up on the device’s surface.
This was the “Anti-Detection Artifact” forged by Nona. It could temporarily interfere with and deceive most common magical detection methods, creating a small, safe blind spot.
But time was limited—Sefina had to find the ancient magical artifact the adjutant mentioned, and confirm its exact location and protection, before the next wave of guards arrived.
At this moment, time seemed to stretch, each second beating in sync with her heart.
Sefina’s white-haired figure moved like a cautious hunter, weaving between the dense energy detection beams and the silent shelves of magical artifacts.
Her ice-blue eyes scanned sharply over every possible target, her mind racing as she recalled the adjutant’s vague description of the artifact:
It had a square outline and emanated a purple glow.
Sefina moved as lightly as a falling feather. She turned her body to avoid a slowly sweeping magical ripple and lowered herself, sliding beneath two intersecting energy beams.
The Anti-Detection Artifact crafted by Nona grew slightly hot in Sefina’s hand, emitting a faint hum as it barely maintained the fragile “safe barrier.”
She didn’t dare stay in one place for more than three seconds; continuous movement was key to minimizing the risk of being discovered.
Starting from the lowest level—those primary magical crystals and scrolls that emitted only weak fluorescence and were stacked like groceries—her gaze quickly filtered through them.
No suitable targets.
So, Sefina moved deeper along the narrow aisles between the metal shelves, her gaze climbing up level by level.
The mid-level artifacts began to reveal stronger energy reactions—
Gem-embedded daggers, runic shields, elemental cores suspended in crystal domes…
Their forms varied, their radiance dazzling, but still none matched the square shape with the unique purple glow.
From outside the window, the sound of the night patrol’s orderly footsteps approached from a distance, then faded away again. Every noise tightened Sefina’s nerves.
The night wind howled lowly through the cracks of the ancient building.
Inside the storage room, only Sefina’s faint breathing and the subtle sizzling of magical energy beams could be heard.
She arrived at the innermost area of the storage room, where the highest-grade magical artifacts were kept.
The shelves here reached the dome, each artifact shrouded in its own magical barrier and emitting a heart-stirring aura.
Ancient wands, broken holy relics, crystals sealing unknown creatures…
Sefina’s gaze swept over them one by one like a precise scanner.
A wand inlaid with a dragon crystal, surging with violent energy and radiating a red glow.
A compass carved with a star map, emanating silvery spatial ripples.
An Angelwing Shield, holy white light streaked with golden patterns.
And a black box suspended at the center, bound by multiple runic chains, deathly still, with no light at all…
None of these were the target Sefina sought.
Nothing.
There wasn’t a single square, purple-hued artifact here.
Sefina’s brow furrowed tightly, a trace of disbelief flashing in her ice-blue eyes.
She even risked quickly circling the topmost shelves to check for any missed corners, confirming that nothing was overlooked.
But everywhere she looked, not a single artifact matched the adjutant’s rather simple description.
How could this be? A tremendous doubt rose in her heart.
Though the adjutant sometimes held back information, the chance of a mistake on such a key feature was extremely low.
Could the artifact have already been moved? Or was the information itself wrong? Or…
Just then, a thought struck her mind like lightning—
Could it be…
That notion sent a chill through her heart. But now, there was no time to analyze it further.
“Tap—tap—” Faint footsteps echoed from the corridor outside the storage room’s main door, accompanied by the light scraping of metal armor.
It must be the changing of the guard!
Sefina’s heart trembled. She immediately gave up searching.
She retraced her path at a speed faster than when she’d entered, slipping soundlessly through the gaps in the energy detection web like a white flash of lightning, retreating toward the door.
As she neared the door, she once again used Nona’s device to interfere with the lock’s sensor, quietly opening a small gap, her figure slipping out into the night and closing the door softly behind her, as if no one had ever entered.
Once she was out of range of the storage room, Sefina didn’t dare linger for even a moment. She dashed towards the more secluded shadows of the garden, intending to take a roundabout route back.
The plan may have hit a snag, but at least she hadn’t been exposed. She had to leave this place of trouble as soon as possible.
But would things really go so smoothly?
Just as Sefina dashed a short distance and stepped into a patch of moon-dappled shrubbery, a sudden change occurred…
A familiar yet utterly untimely heat flared abruptly from deep within her abdomen, spreading like wildfire through her entire body in an instant.
“Ugh—!” Sefina grunted, staggering as her legs nearly gave out beneath her.
She felt a wave of weakness seize her limbs, her once light and strong body suddenly drained of most of its strength, leaving her numb and powerless.
Her heart pounded uncontrollably—thump, thump—so fast it made her panic, her breathing quickened and grew hot, and her pale cheeks were quickly flushed with an abnormal redness.
Damn it! Sefina’s mind blared with alarm, nearly cursing out loud.
Why did the magical mark have to act up at a time like this?!
Bracing herself, Sefina grabbed onto a nearby rough tree trunk, a flash of panic flickering in her ice-blue eyes at her body’s sudden loss of control.
She was still a considerable distance from her instructor’s villa, and the area near the Magical Artifact Storage Room happened to be one of the main patrol routes at night!
If she couldn’t quickly find a safe place to deal with the wretched side effects of the magical mark—or at least suppress them…
She would almost certainly be discovered and captured by the patrol.
Big trouble.
An unprecedented sense of crisis, like an icy tide, instantly flooded Sefina’s heart.
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