Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
The lights adorning the walls illuminated as footsteps approached Anom's location.
"...you understand?" A faint voice accompanied the footsteps.
"I understand, father." As the voices drew nearer, Anom recognized them as belonging to Sino and his son.
The father-son duo soon arrived where Anom was, but he had already made himself scarce and was hiding in the shadows.
They walked up to the wall, where Anom suspected the presence of a hidden room.
Sino raised his hand, holding a palm-sized token. As he placed it on the wall, a subtle ripple that was hard to detect spread out, followed by a slight buzzing sound.
The seemingly sturdy wall began to split in the middle, revealing a large wooden door with beautiful patterns carved on it.
Sino pushed open the door with ease, and both he and Selvo entered the room.
"Here, take this with you. This should be enough for your expenses." Sino's voice came from within the room.
"And take these too. Don't give me that smile! They are not for you! Use these when you find yourself in a bind and need someone to help you," Sino warned. "Use them wisely, and remember not to show your wealth to anyone. Even though we are not as wealthy as the Sorneo House, the things you carry could still invite envy from others. So, always be humble and attentive, alright?"
"I know, father. You've already told me that a hundred times. I- ugh, fine. I'll be careful," Selvo replied helplessly.
"I have also arranged for two servants to follow you. They are for your convenience, not your protection. From now on, you will have to learn to rely on yourself. And remember to never cross any member of the Sorneo House, whether a blood descendant or not. Those people are not to be provoked; they can cause calamities for the entire Handler family."
Sino's nagging continued for a while longer before they both emerged from the treasury. Sino then placed the token on the wall outside the door. Following a slight buzzing, the wall that hid the treasury slid back into place, leaving no trace of the door.
Sino and Selvo left the area, their footsteps fading away until they were completely gone. The lights behind them also turned off.
Only then did Anom come out of his hiding place.
Opening his eyes, which had been closed the whole time the father-son duo was inside the hidden room, Anom muttered to himself before turning toward the inconspicuous "wall."
He placed his hands on its surface before closing his eyes once again.
Anom's soul strengthened his spirit, connecting him to the energy in his surroundings. As his "sight" turned clear, Anom could once again witness the complex mechanical lock intertwined with array lines.
This time, Anom didn't have to blindly analyze the formation. Focusing his spirit, he locked onto three specific points within the array structure.
These points were where the token sent a rhythmic burst of energy.
Anom had been in his most focused state and had studied the whole process of unlocking the door with absolute concentration.
However, the crucial point was that to "touch" those three points, one would need to send energy outside their own body.
This act was impossible for him only at the second base stage, the fortification state. Moving the energy away from the body itself was beyond his current abilities, which required one to have awakened their spirit.
Sino, on the other hand, relied on the special token exclusively made for someone who had yet to awaken their spirit, allowing him to enter the treasury as he wished.
But Anom didn't worry; his soul allowed him better control over energy, indirectly mimicking the properties of an awakened spirit.
Though not comparable to the real thing, the mimicked property was still useful.
Now Anom had to copy the sequence and rhythm at which the token sent out bursts of energy at the three designated spots.
However, Anom was not in a hurry. He had to ensure he could control the faint traces of energy as he intended, as triggering the alarm would be the least of his worries otherwise.
Gathering a bit of energy from his surroundings, Anom attempted to move it in three separate portions.
In reality, given his ability, he could have also used the energy from within himself without requiring external energy. However, the obstruction to that lay within his own level. Only at the third base stage, the materialization state, could he move his internal energy towards his skin and then utilize his unique soul to make it leave his body and still be under his control.
Now he had to make do with what was available.
It was different from the last time when he created an invisible barrier to cover him and Loreana. That only required him to hold the energy together to form a crude structure.
But continuously moving the energy was a different challenge altogether.
"Alright!" Anom exclaimed inwardly after getting the hang of moving the energy in a specific rhythm. It was a bit difficult at first, but since he only needed to move a minute trace to "touch" the key points and not attack the lock, Anom soon practiced enough.
After gaining a good grasp and ensuring he wouldn't mess up the lock sequence, Anom finally took action.
Three small dashes of energy, invisible to the human eye, pushed forward through a thin veil of energy. The connection they shared with Anom faltered because of the barrier, but he quickly recovered it by gathering his focus to pierce only a single spot instead of a scattered area.
The three dots moved forward a bit and paused just before their respective points.
The first point of the lock was on top, while the other two were below, sharing a similar height.
Anom moved the first spot of energy towards the topmost point. A slight buzz was felt by Anom, but he paid it no heed, knowing that the next action for the particular rhythm of energy waves expelled by the token had to be followed immediately.
The second spot of energy, followed by the third with only a slight delay, also touched their respective points before backing off.
The three spots took turns reaching their respective contact points, but never simultaneously.
The whole process, which lasted less than three seconds, had the spots of energy touch the points over a dozen times.
Click!
Like the opening of an old-school locker, Anom imagined a slight click while there was none in reality. However, a slight buzzing sound accompanied the action.
Following that, Anom backed off slightly as the wall before him began to move in the same way he had witnessed earlier.
Anom didn't waste any time, pushing the wooden door open and successfully entering his first treasury in this new world.
The scene inside was not too different from what he had imagined. A small array inlaid with a clear crystal emitted a soft light from the ceiling, allowing Anom to study the treasury.
It was a small room, with all the walls except the one with the door supporting shelves. Each shelf was filled with various kinds of boxes, pouches, and other items.
A piece of shiny armor was displayed on a stand, though it looked more like a decoration than an actual usable piece of equipment.
A chair and a small table at the side, in addition to the square mat on the ground, suggested that the room could be used as a resting place, or maybe it was simply arranged for the owner to calmly study the items inside.
"Whatever." Anom shook off his over-analyzing state and began to pay attention to the items.
But before that, he made sure there weren't any other contraptions or traps installed.
There weren't any. The lock on the door seemed to be the only safeguard, and if Anom were to be honest, it was actually more than enough.
His subsequent investigation also confirmed that it was not needed. The resources inside the boxes and a couple of storage pouches were all priceless when examined in the context of Nulis City's level.
But that was all.
Even considering the quantity, the resources here could only be sold to acquire a decent amount of wealth, but they wouldn't provide any substantial increase in strength, at least not for Anom.
The fruit that he had "collected" with Tiana's help was actually worth more than all the items combined in the treasury.
But did that mean the Handler family didn't have any resources at the ranked level? The kind that could be utilized by Spirit Rankers?
Of course they did!
So where were they placed? Obviously, in the hands of the only Spirit Ranker in the Handler family!
Sino's paternal uncle and the younger brother of the late Handler family head. As the only one who could put such resources to good use, where else could they be besides his storage pouch?
Practically, being in his possession was much safer than being placed in this treasury.
Then what was the purpose of building this treasury with such an "unbreakable" mechanism?
Well, from what Anom could gather, the treasury was not something made in recent years. In fact, it appeared to be quite old, maybe from a more prosperous period when the Handler family was thriving. Even the Safaira family had one, though Anom didn't have any reason to breach theirs.
And since Anom was currently "wealthier" than the whole Treasury, why was he still here?
Of course, it was to execute his main plan!
To raise his own strength!
"Let's begin!" Anom muttered before looking around the door. A switch array the size of his palm caught his attention.
Buzz!
Activating it resulted in the Treasury getting sealed again as the walls from two sides came together to become one again.
Turning around, Anom sat himself on the square mat on the floor before taking out the blue-colored fruit that had made him temporarily rich.
Not wasting any more time, he gobbled up the fruit instantly before closing his eyes.
A small dash of energy began to bubble forth within his body upon consumption, which soon transformed into a torrent. But that only described the volume. The actual nature of the stream of energy was quite gentle, not harming his body at all.
His spirit guided the stream, thread by thread, and began to infuse it with his own internal energy.
But that was not all, as increasing the volume of energy contained within himself was not Anom's goal.
He wanted to improve his control. He aimed to reach the third base stage—the materialization state.