Chapter 98 - Space Items

Space Items!The mere possibility made Richard’s breath catch in his chest.

A space item!

Having an internal space built into it where you could store various needed items and retrieve them when necessary, could indeed explain why the Mysterious Wizard didn’t carry anything on his person.

Maybe in many modern Earth novels, such an item is so widely used that it has become clichéd. However, Richard was keenly aware of what it would mean if such a thing truly existed.

It meant that the magic of the Wizards in this world had achieved what even modern Earth’s technology has yet to accomplish.

It meant that the magic of the Wizards might be an existence more advanced than modern Earth, possibly by several hundred years of new scientific technology.

Excessively advanced science is always considered magic, this saying is universal.

Just like video calls on modern Earth could completely pretend to be Heavenly Ear Technique or Heavenly Vision.

Then the current world’s achievements in spatial technology could be considered the space items familiar to modern humans of Earth.

But what was the true principle behind it?

Richard knew very well that, just as video calls are not actual Heavenly Vision or Heavenly Ear Technique but the transmission of digital signals, this space item didn’t necessarily have to be a genuine space item.

It simply appeared to exhibit properties of a space item.

Of course, regardless, he still needed to unravel the other party’s secrets to fully understand everything.

The question now was how to decipher it.

According to many novels, the method to unlock space items, as well as other precious magic tools, was rather straightforward, that was… blood recognition.

Once the previous owner of a space item had died, it became an unclaimed object. Merely by dropping a drop of one’s own fresh blood onto it, it would become theirs.

Why was this so?

It seemed there was never an explanation.

But is this the reality?

Richard wanted to try it out.

He reached out for his suitcase and took out a tiny box from within, the box was specially insulated and inside were several ice cubes the size of a fingertip, each containing a drop of ruby-red blood.

Taking out an ice cube, Richard melted it with “Flame Impact” and carefully extracted the blood bead, dripping it onto the Iron Ring.

The moment the blood entered, Richard could feel the Iron Ring tremble slightly and undergo some sort of change.

It seemed… blood recognition might just work.

But was that really the case?

On the contrary!

If it were that easy, Richard wouldn’t have studied the Iron Ring for so many days without deciphering it.

After extensive research and experimentation, Richard had confirmed that so-called blood recognition was, just like blood relation identification… unreliable.

The reason why the ring reacted to the blood was not because it was his, but… the Mysterious Wizard’s blood.

So why did the Iron Ring react upon the addition of the Mysterious Wizard’s blood? Was the Mysterious Wizard still alive?

Alive? Nonsense!

In Richard’s view, an Iron Ring could not possibly possess the function to detect and monitor the life or death of its bearer. This was much like electronic doors on modern Earth, which simply cannot monitor the homeowner’s vital signs.

A more reasonable explanation is that it was a form of identity authentication.

Yes, identity authentication.

It was as though there was a lock on the Iron Ring that wasn’t sophisticated enough to recognize its owner with a simple glance and obediently unlock. It required a special verification method, the insertion of the correct key into its mechanism, to open.

Blood was the key.

Upon depositing the blood, the Iron Ring would verify a component in the blood—the most important component of the human body—DNA!

Yes, DNA!

Wizards are humans, they are organisms, so naturally, they have DNA.

What the Iron Ring was verifying was DNA, or something similar to it.

This inference might seem odd, but if space items exist, then why not DNA verification?

The former is a technology far more advanced than the latter—on modern Earth, we can compare DNA, yet we cannot create space items.

That was the logical explanation—verify DNA to unlock the Iron Ring.

However, this method of verification was not commonly used.

It’s much like how ordinary people wouldn’t accept having to bleed every time they opened a door. Unless the Mysterious Wizard had some kind of special fetish, he wouldn’t want to cut himself and let blood every time to unlock the Iron Ring.

Blood-based DNA verification, in Richard’s many days of investigative experimentation, seemed like a high-authority verification method for emergencies, similar to security questions for account recovery or password retrieval on modern Earth’s internet.

The normal method for everyday use would likely be simpler and more convenient, which is mana vibration verification. The surface and interior of the Iron Ring were engraved with intricate and detailed magic runes, some of which are for carrying out this verification method. The Mysterious Wizard would infuse a special kind of mana into the Iron Ring and as this mana flowed through the magic runes, it would produce a certain effect, eventually passing the verification and opening the internal space of the Iron Ring.

But what exactly was this specific mana vibration?

Richard admitted he didn’t know. After all, the deceased Mysterious Wizard wasn’t about to tell him.

However, Richard wasn’t too concerned.

Because through blood, through the highest authority authentication, he could now use more extreme methods to directly modify the regular verification to none, just like the password-free payments on modern Earth.

Naturally, this wasn’t very safe, as it meant forgoing all verification of the Iron Ring. Any random infusion of mana would be able to unlock it.

But this was a necessary evil.

The reason for this was that the Iron Ring’s activation was time-restricted. If every activation required a drop of fresh blood for DNA verification, once the Mysterious Wizard’s blood was depleted, the Iron Ring would become unusable.

Between a space item that would soon become inoperable and an insecure one that could be used over a long period of time, which one to choose? Any person of normal intelligence could provide the correct answer.

Now the issue was how to modify and operate it, allowing the Iron Ring to be used for the long term.

Richard’s gaze landed on a minute section of magic runes on the inner circle of the Iron Ring.

After many continuous days of blood verification tests, Richard had found the precise spot that needed manipulation.

What followed was to destroy this small area of magic runes without affecting the overall operation of the rest of the runes in the Iron Ring.

To Richard, this was akin to deleting a segment of an if-statement in front-end computer programming in JavaScript to ensure that the code could execute regardless of the circumstances.

It was similar to modifying a circuit by directly short-circuiting an extremely complex part of the circuitry, allowing the current to flow through the wires.

Or like on a phone, inputting the lock screen password and then cancelling all types of lock screens.

Unlike writing code, constructing circuits, or devising a complex smartphone unlock pattern, deletion and destruction were always simpler than creation…

But… that didn’t mean it was easy…

Taking a deep breath, Richard reached for his suitcase.