The day arrived that marked exactly eight months since Eric, Lyria, and Livy had left the orphanage and arrived at Heart-Shaped Island for their education and training.
It was early dawn; Eric was sitting alone in the royal living room, hesitating.
He had been hesitating for a long time, ever since he had become a Mana Wielder.
He disliked hesitating over anything, but this world was far more complicated and unpredictable than his imagination. Just his own abilities were beyond his understanding and logic, so who knew what other strange methods were out there in this world?
Currently, Eric was staring at a decorative item in his hand.
It was the pocket watch that Bella Noll had gifted him on his eighth birthday. He was hesitating over whether to register it or not.
The reason he had never registered the pocket watch with his Mana Signature was simple: he didn't trust the creator enough.
He had complete faith in Bella Noll and her confirmation; he also didn't want to doubt something she had personally gifted him with such good faith. But what if the guy had placed a tracking device or something?
The moment he sent his Mana inside the pocket watch, a light would pierce through the sky, and it would give away his location to everyone in the world—signaling that a fool had discovered a unique treasure.
Find the idiot, kill him, and obtain the powerful treasure for yourself to become the king of the world!—that would probably become everyone's life goal from now on.
He knew he was exaggerating and overly paranoid, but who knew? After all, this item seemed to be the "greatest masterpiece" of such a great artisan.
Even if the guy was no more, what if someone else was searching for this fancy pocket watch?
So, to this day, Eric had never registered the pocket watch to avoid giving away his location. Yet he couldn't keep delaying this forever either.
He had long decided that he would register it on the final day before leaving Heart-Shaped Island.
Although he didn't know what other arrays Lysandra had planted on this island, in a sense, only this place was the safest he could find in a long while. His current location was also too isolated, and even if someone managed to chase after him, only Ringwood Town would be sacrificed.
He could only apologize and lit some incense for them.
There was also a high chance that Lysandra had planted anti-tracking measures in this place.
At least, he could imagine that much for his mental peace, couldn't he?
Even if someone did manage to find this place, they should also realize after some investigation that it was guarded by a powerful figure of this world—a rogue, nine-foot-giant, perverted Grandmaster!
If they were still determined, perhaps they would be able to trace it back to Lysandra. Then, only she would need to face these troubles, and he would be more than happy to pass them on to her—to entertain her. At least, that much he should do to show his gratitude.
Troubles were definitely entertaining to powerful figures. At least, he would feel very entertained... passing them to someone else.
Regardless, this place was the safest he could find in a long while. Until he found another trusted Grandmaster—and the chance of that happening was too low.
So, now was the only time!
Eric slowly—very slowly—sent his Mana inside the decorative pocket watch with extreme caution.
Yet even after sending nearly a quarter of his Mana, there was still no reaction from the watch.
Eric wondered if this adorned pocket watch had gone defective after being sealed inside a box for so long, so he kept feeding more and more Mana into it. After sending over half of his Mana, something inside the watch seemed to click.
A blue light rose from it, and along with it, Eric's heart also flew out.
However, unlike what Eric had imagined, the light stopped after reaching just a few feet above the watch, right in front of his face—so his heart also paused in his mouth. He quickly gulped it back down and stared dazedly at the oval hologram that appeared before him.
Some words appeared on the 2D screen:
-Mana Signature Recorder.
-Please speak your name...
Eric wanted to avoid naming, so he confidently declared—"Skip!"
-'SKIP'—Is the Name correct?
Eric's lip twitched. He nearly wanted to throw the pocket watch away.
Even after coming to an entirely different world, why did he have to go through all this?
In the end, he sighed and decided to just say his original name in this world—without the title.
"Zephyrion."
Eric was ready to throw the pocket watch for good if it said the name was already taken.
Good thing it didn't.
After confirmation, new words kept appearing one after another:
-Welcome, Zephyrion.
-After these messages, the current abilities of Zephyrion's Watch will be shown.
-Note: To obtain full access to the watch and the important message left by the creator, Elendo, the main user needs to send their Spiritual Sense inside.
-Note: Only Zephyrion's Spiritual Sense will be granted access.
-Note: Multiple sub-users can also be registered.
-Zephyrion and other sub-users can access the pocket watch's unlocked features through their Mana.
-Zephyrion can adjust various settings through the 'Settings' option.
-...
While reading all these messages, Eric felt he had truly picked up a troublesome item.
Various clues suggested that this item was supposed to go to a "protagonist" or an "hero's" hand!
This made him wonder if Bella Noll's family's extinction was related to a certain "villain" of this world.
Eric wasn't entirely baseless in his guess.
Perhaps Elendo, through some special technology or prediction methods, knew that Bella Noll's son would be a great hero or savior, and passed his top-secret mind-manipulating "message" to the cute, innocent hero—along with the pocket watch.
The villain, who didn't know about the pocket watch but had similar predictions or means, knew that a great idiot—ahem, hero—was being born in that city. So, they used a fight between experts as a disguise and brought the entire city down?
Though he was just randomly guessing, somehow this entire thing felt a little too sketchy to him—especially after learning of Elendo's death from Elara.
There was also a minor chance that Elendo knew his watch might fall into someone else's hands, so he might have prepared countermeasures—and perhaps Eric still being a Rank 1 Mana Wielder didn't trigger it, but instead delayed the "message" until he became a Master Rank?
Also, this sub-user thing—was it supposed to be the hero's team?
Eric rolled his eyes and felt like laughing.
Maybe he was imagining too much, and as Bella Noll had mentioned in the past, the pocket watch was supposed to be a great help to a new Mana Wielder. So, it might be that Elendo just wanted to help a new bud and request something in return. That possibility was also high.
Well, whatever it was, it was clear that Elendo's "master plan" had failed. Because it didn't land in any "hero's" hand—but instead, it had fallen into the Final Boss's hand!
That's right. Today, when Eric walked out of this island, he planned to declare to the world that he had made enough progress to upgrade from being a small-time villain to a Minor Elite Boss! His next goal was to become a Named Elite Boss—and soon, one day, he would be the Final Ultimate Boss.
If his previous random guesses were correct, then whoever the hero, villain, civilian, or others may be—they could only tremble under their feet in his presence!
For now, he decided to stop musing about these things and looked forward to what exactly this pocket watch could provide him with.
As Eric checked the abilities and features this artifact could provide him, his joking attitude slowly disappeared, his pupils narrowed. He somehow felt that his previous guess's likelihood had increased by another 20%!
He also suddenly realized just how scary the "Time" Element could be.
There were many spells or abilities provided for the users of the watch.
For example:
-Time Dilation: The user can create bubbles of time around themselves or others, causing everything inside to experience time at a different rate. Useful for accelerating healing, faster spell-casting, and so on.
-Aging and Rejuvenation: Through this option, users can manipulate the aging process of living beings—either rapidly aging them or rejuvenating them to a younger state. This could be used for healing, interrogation, or as a form of punishment or mercy.
Note: The natural lifespan of the individual cannot be touched or changed, yet due to the sudden massive change of physical body, some negative effects on lifespan and health would be inevitable. Only individuals whose Intelligence stats are far below the user's can be affected. If the target has a defensive item or means that protects them from Time Spells, it won't work. It is not practical to use during a fight.
-Time Resistance: The holder of the watch is granted resistance against any negative time-based spells or effects.
There were a few other time-related "options," which made Eric's heart thump with amazement. Most of them weren't fight-related, while some were useful for tracking and so on.
There were various limitations as well—for example, none would work on too-high Intelligence stat creatures or certain objects.
After reading all these, Eric started desiring the Time Element—for no other reason than to terrorize the world! Ahem... this Element really suited him.
Leaving those aside, this pocket watch even had the option to capture pictures and videos!
Eric quickly experimented and was amazed.
This pocket watch didn't have a "camera," but it could capture images from any side! The image quality was very lifelike—he couldn't estimate the pixel density, but it should be well above 8K for sure.
There was also an option to stop holograms altogether—only the watch face would show information. Eric immediately toggled on that effect, and the pocket watch turned into a smartwatch.
Other than those, there was one particular "option" on the pocket watch that completely blew his mind with utter disbelief and astonishment.
-Dimension Space Storage: This pocket watch can open a pocket Space Storage, providing a near-endless space to store items. The size or weight of the items doesn't matter, but registered users must have the necessary Mana Control to put things inside the storage. To pull out anything already stored, the user can select the item from the storage list...
Eric's crystal-blue eyes started shining brightly.