As the new mist-like creature in his hand departed, Alka returned to his throne.
Four objects floated before him.
A neatly folded blood-red object, a cloth with visible metal accents.
A gem, transparent in itself, but with a hint of brown light within.
A dagger, a very, very ordinary dagger, as if randomly picked from an arsenal.
A belt, seemingly too crude. Woven from some tattered vine, hung a shattered, seemingly crude piece of metal in the center.
These four items were Alka's previous spoils.
The red object was the blood-red cloak, the treasure previously used by Kalutor.
This treasure, unsurprisingly, had been stripped from him.
The remaining three treasures were all obtained from the cultists.
As the realm ascended, Alka swallowed all the cultists into the mist. After his departure, they were naturally killed by the mist-like creatures within the realm.
Shadow Robe gathered these objects.
"Four of them! That's quite a lot!" Alka couldn't help but smile as he looked at the four treasures before him.
But he shook his head with a hint of regret, as these four treasures were left behind by their previous owners who had been forcibly killed.
To restore these four treasures to a controllable state, it would take considerable time to dissipate the aura of their previous owners.
That's why Alka had kept them in the dream realm.
Alka looked at the four treasures, wondering how to quickly dissipate the aura from them.
Judging by the time it took, it would take at least a year or two to dispel the aura.
It's conceivable that these treasures had been carried by the cultists for an indefinite period of time, and it seems those cultists have lived longer than they thought.
The only item with a weak aura was Kaluo's cloak.
Kaluo must have possessed it no more than five years ago.
"Your Majesty, you seem troubled?"
Shadow Robe appeared beside Alka and asked.
Alka nodded, pointing to the four floating treasures before him.
"How can I dispel the strong personal aura?"
Shadow Robe turned and looked. "If you don't mind, could I take a closer look?"
"Whatever."
As a dream creature, Shadow Robe's existence was unusually long. Although he rarely ventured into the real world, the time he'd spent there had allowed him to understand most of the world's affairs.
Shadow Robe nodded, extended his shadowy arm, and with a gentle wave, a treasure fell into his hand.
"A fragment of the rules?"
"A fragment of the rules?" Alka asked.
Shadow Robe nodded and said, "A treasure is something formed by the integration of divine essence into real-world objects.
And the divine essence is the materialized manifestation of the rules of the world."
It made sense, Alka nodded. He'd probably thought about it, so he wasn't too surprised.
What Shadow Robe held in his hand was the seemingly ordinary, even crude, belt.
"Too crude! Real material that's too crude can't bear the rules within it." Shadow Robe shook his head, expressing a look of disdain.
Alka couldn't help but agree with this. Sometimes, you have to admit, the appearance of some treasures is truly unsettling.
It looks like divine essence, casually fused with unknown objects.
They've also definitely obtained divine essence, more than once.
Naturally, they've conducted relevant research.
They've compared the objects they've custom-made to carry divine essence. These newly crafted treasures, more suited to divine essence, are meant to be more practical and appropriate.
They're primarily designed to perfectly match the user.
Shadow Robe said this, examining the other three floating items one by one.
Holding the red cloak, he said, "Excellent. The toughness of real-world materials, combined with the appropriate rules, blends perfectly."
Holding the crystal with a hint of brown in the middle, he said, "Not so good. The rules and materials don't match, and the power of the rules can't be fully realized."
Holding the final dagger, he said, "Crude."
Alka listened, pondering, and asked, "How can you sense it so clearly?"
It was obvious that Shadow Robe could sense the subtlest details within the treasure.
"It's because of our race, Your Majesty. Pure dream creatures are deeply connected to the world. And the rules are part of that world."
Alka nodded at this.
He hadn't sensed it as clearly in his dreams as Shadow Robe, but he could, with his eyes, roughly discern the secrets of these treasures.
Careful observation could give him a rough idea of the abilities of these treasures.
It wasn't too difficult, because even in reality, there were many ways to understand a treasure's abilities without even possessing it. "Having said all that, is there a solution?"
Shadow Robe nodded. "We can extract the rules from these treasures.
To prevent the rules from returning to nature, we can extract them into divine essences, which will be slightly more stable."
Hearing this, Alka was slightly surprised and stood up to ask, "Can it be done?"
If the divine essence of the treasures could be extracted, that would be a much better solution.
They already had more than a dozen treasures, but you had to admit that some of them looked rather unremarkable, or perhaps even unsuitable.
Shadow Robe nodded and pointed to the towering furnace tower in the distance. "Simply throw the treasure into the furnace. However, accurately extracting the divine essence, rather than completely stripping it back into the rules, requires skill."
"Then I'll leave this matter to you," Alka said, looking at Shadow Robe.
Shadow Robe nodded, but explained, "Your Majesty, I must explain something upfront.
A perfectly combined treasure like this is difficult to separate, and it's very likely to become a rule."
He was referring to the blood-red cloak.
Then, holding up the belt, he said, "This is very easy to master, because it's so fragile and simple."
"And, Your Majesty, there are no mist creatures here who can skillfully use the Crucible Tower."
Hearing this, Alka frowned. "Then where can we find skilled users?"
Shadow Robe shook his head and said, "Those who can skillfully use the Crucible Tower must be powerful dream creatures that have survived from ancient times. Most of these creatures are found in the ancient kingdoms of kings."
The meaning was simple: Alka should forget about it.
The reason Alka's kingdom had flourished so well was entirely due to his acceptance of Mirmi's legacy.
But Mirmi himself was the most youthful of all the Dream Kings.
His kingdom hadn't even built a Forge Tower, so how could it possibly possess a skilled user?
However, Shadow Robe suddenly changed his tone and said, "I can master it with precision, but I can't guarantee it will be my first time."
Hearing this, Alka understood the meaning of Shadow Robe's rambling remarks.
Simply put, he understood the importance of treasures to the real world and to Alka.
But the problem was, he had never melted such a thing before, and if he didn't control the force properly, it was very likely to melt directly into rules.
If dissolved into rules, the rules would return directly to reality, back into the world.
This was clearly not what Alka wanted.
So, he needed an item to improve his proficiency.
And this first treasure would likely be useless, as he would use it as training material.
Alka understood his meaning and nodded. After a moment's thought, he handed him the belt and said, "Use it for training."
The reason he chose the belt was because its owner was the towering cultist who lacked facial features but had a mouth on his belly.
Perhaps because the artifact was too crudely integrated, Alka could only roughly discern its power.
He only had a vague understanding of the blood-colored cloak and the gem.
His ability was simple, seemingly inducing unidentified changes in his flesh and blood. Similar to the realm of flesh and blood transformation, it could completely enhance physical fitness and heighten the perception of his five senses.
With deeper or complete mastery, he should gain even more abilities.
The disappearance of facial features and the growth of a mouth on his belly were consequences of these changes, and they weren't necessarily controllable.
For a normal person, these would be side effects.
So, he had to reluctantly let him be the victim. The other three items were all quite useful. In fact, Alka had half-heartedly wanted to use the perfectly fused cloak as a training piece.
But as Shadow Robe put it, a fusion that was too perfect wouldn't help him improve his proficiency, as it would almost certainly be stripped away to its own rules.
Hearing Alka's words, Shadow Robe nodded.
"Then leave it to me."
Shadow Robe said, carrying the three treasures from the throne platform. Appearing at the edge of the furnace, Alka watched as he tossed the belt in.
The whole process was smooth and effortless, without a trace of heartache. Watching the simple belt disappear into the furnace, Alka silently turned away, vanishing into the dream world.
Still holding the blood-red cloak in his hand.
...
Back to reality.
The Shadow of Dawn continued to soar across the sea.
In Alka's hands lay a folded cloak, having brought the treasure from his dream.
The reason he brought it out instead of giving it to Shadow Robe was because Shadow Robe had directly instructed him not to attempt to disassemble it.
Even after becoming proficient, he still considered himself incapable of precision. Perfect treasures require not skill, but absolute precision.
Simply put, extracting the divine essence from this treasure would require a gamble.
Alka didn't want to take chances. Since the combination was so perfect, there was no need to dissect the treasure.
But if it couldn't be dissected, the aura would remain.
He could only wait for time to pass.
A year or two was indeed too long, and the reason he brought it up was because he wanted to conduct a small experiment.
At least the lingering aura wouldn't prevent others from testing for compatibility.
Alka had already tested them, and none of the four artifacts matched him.
Finding a third artifact that matched him proved exceedingly difficult.
Sometimes, one had to face situations like this: for example, two of Alka's artifacts thought the new artifact was good, but the new artifact rejected one of them, which made it unsuitable.
Similarly, choosing an artifact is a two-way process: both must agree that the other is compatible for it to be suitable.
This meant that with each additional artifact, the difficulty of choosing a new one increased exponentially.
This was why, if a scepter-level artifact and a holy grail-level artifact weren't compatible, it was fine to just use them.
Because a scepter-level artifact would suppress the other with its own strength.
When they arrived on deck, it was just dawn.
However, since night and day were the same time, everyone had already woken up.
"That thing you're holding..." Sofia looked at Alka approaching and what he was holding, instantly recognizing it.
Alka raised his cloak and nodded. "Yes, it's the treasure that Kalutor had on him earlier."
"Didn't you say there's still a lingering aura on it?"
Alka glanced at Narvi, who was approaching them from the poop.
Then he looked at Sofia, nodded, and said, "Yes, there is a lingering aura, but it won't stop you from testing it out."
"Then why not..." Sofia was about to say something, but suddenly stopped talking.
Since Alka had only brought up one item, he naturally had other ideas, so he didn't say any more.
After all, there was someone on the ship who couldn't be considered a companion.
Extremely deep secrets couldn't be revealed.
For example, Narvi was completely unaware of the dream-related items on the ship before the final battle.
For example, Alka could detect the scent of treasure by looking at a map.
A similar, deeper secret.
Nervi could only say that he understood Alka and his team better than anyone else.
"What is this..." Nervi walked over and looked at the cloak Alka held.
He realized it must be the treasure that had been on Kalutor's person earlier.
How could I have forgotten it?
Alka nodded, then clapped his hands and summoned everyone on the ship.
"Come on, everyone, try this treasure."
A dragon's head reached out from the side and sniffed the cloak in Alka's hand.
Then, its claws covered its nose and it pushed it aside in disdain.
"What a stinking bloody smell."
Clearly, this artifact wasn't suitable for Jason. He shrugged helplessly, then walked over to Crystal and patted her.
"Why are you so picky? I think this artifact is pretty cool."
Alka agreed.
He had also felt bad for not being able to master this artifact. After all, the blood-colored cloak, with its metallic blade edges, looked incredibly cool.
Especially cool when used, manipulating blood and the like.
Sofia, who was standing by, took the cloak from Alka.
As soon as she took it, she handed it back to Alka: "No, it repels the galaxy."
Sofia possessed a Grail-level and a Scepter-level artifact.
After a moment's thought, Alka handed the cloak back to Matlisa.
Let someone on the ship who possessed multiple artifacts test it first. After Matlisa took it, her magic flowed into it, and she too shook her head.
"Both treasures repel each other."
Hearing this, Alka had no choice but to accept the treasure.
The rest of the group took turns testing it, and the results were exactly as Alka had imagined: the treasure was incompatible with any of them.
"As expected," Alka muttered to himself.
In his dreams, he had a very rough idea of the abilities these treasures could display. And as he began to try to check if he was compatible
When he saw something, he could also roughly predict it.
‐‐ It was similar to a certain kind of secret insight, discerning whether treasures were suitably compatible.
‐‐ This ability he acquired after fully achieving the King's Power.
‐‐ Whether this was due to the King's Power or some other reason, Alka couldn't be sure.
‐‐ But there was no doubt that the King's Power had enhanced this ability to peer through the fog and see its deepest secrets.
‐‐ Whether it was for objects or people.
‐‐ When did he begin to be able to see through the fog?
‐‐ It was probably the effect that occurred when Alka truly advanced to the fourth stage in reality.
‐‐ And the reason for this effect was the golden finger that might be hidden deep within him. The thing that could mark the location of a treasure.
‐‐ As his strength increased, he seemed to be getting closer and closer to this golden finger.
‐‐ However, it seemed that without the bonus of the King's Power in reality, Alka could not discern the connection in reality.
Nor could he glimpse too many secrets.
Seeing that no one was suited to this treasure.
Nervi also knew that each of them possessed a treasure, and some even had multiple.
This was perfectly normal.
After a moment's thought, he looked at Alka and suggested, "How about giving me this treasure? I'll return the entire share I received last time."
The last time, Nervi's share of the Nafas family treasure was worth around 30,000 gold.
"Of course, this amount isn't enough, so I'll add a little extra."
He waited for Alka's response.
Because, according to the standard market price, the transaction amount for an ordinary Holy Grail-level treasure starts at around 20,000 gold.
Of course, buying it at the lowest price was obviously impossible. And buying it with a golden sail was a rare opportunity.
If it was preheated beforehand and its protection was excellent,
It would attract a large crowd, and then expecting to take it for 20,000 gold would be sheer wishful thinking.
Alka didn't think twice and smiled, saying, "No need. Just the previous portion will do."
He handed him the cloak.
Alka had already considered selling this treasure to Narvi when he took it out.
Narvi didn't possess the treasure himself, and it was used by his former enemy and his own brother.
Selling it to him could be considered a different kind of return of property to its original owner.
No one objected.