Chapter 18: Source of the void rock. Mysterious Mr Chen

Chapter 18 - Source of the void rock. Mysterious Mr Chen"It's a void rock," Alex called out.

Owen glanced at him, his eyes showing appreciation for Alex telling him what this rock was before returning his gaze to the rock in his hand. He felt that the void rock sounded familiar but he could not seem to recall where he had heard it from.

"Please give me a moment, I'll be back shortly," Owen said before exiting the office and leaving Alex alone.

He was worried that Mr Chen would try to do something improper, there was nothing in the room that would be valuable to a mage after all.

After Owen left, Alex had nothing else to do and so began to recall the experience he had outside the borders. The thrill of using magic and fighting magic beasts rushed through his body and a big smile formed on his face.

Not only that, he had also made his first million while having fun and increasing his strength!

He also thought about the academy, the memories of the previous Alex, and the humiliation he had faced.

A small grin formed on Alex's lips.

"Just wait a little, I promise to give you all the biggest shock of your lives," Alex mumbled under his breath as he thought of the competition happening the coming week.

He also wondered how much the void rock would be sold for and guessed that it shouldn't be too cheap since it came out of a crack and contained some mana inside of it.

While Alex was reminiscing about the experience he had during the day, Owen left the office and headed for another floor of the union building.



He walked quickly after arriving in front of another huge door in a few minutes and pushed it open without warning.

Inside, this room was spacious, and various equipment and items were being showcased on glass tables; racks of magical items and other things could be seen in the room; it was like a gallery of magic items.

Not far from the door was a receptionist desk made of smooth tiles, and behind it was a man who looked to be in his fifties with signs of ageing visible on his face. The man wore a long yellow coat with a white shirt and black pants underneath; a pair of glasses framed his eyes as he looked into the thick book in front of him.

The sudden opening of the door alerted the man, and he slowly raised his head to see who had barged into his workplace without knocking; a ray of light flashed past his glasses when his eyes landed on Owen, and he immediately let out a sigh.

"Elder Owen, mind giving prior notice before coming in like that next time? You always gave this old man a heart attack." The man said with a small smile as he stared at Owen.

Owen waved his right hand, he was not in the mood for the old man's jokes.

"It's not time for jokes, sub elder Lance. I need your help with something." Owen said seriously as he approached the old man who turned out to be a sub-elder of the union branch and was called Lance.

This old-looking man was a powerful mage who wasn't weaker than him; how could he get a heart attack just from a little surprise entry?

Hearing Owen's words, the smile on Lance's face slowly disappeared, and a serious look formed on his aged face as he pushed the bridge of his glasses with his fingers.

"What do you need help with?" He asked.

Owen had reached the front of Lance's desk at this moment and placed the small void rock in front of him.

"You're the head of appraisers in our union, I need your help with checking this." He added.

Lance glanced down at the void rock, he picked it up and stared at it for a few seconds as if trying to recall something. After just three seconds of looking at it, Lance's eyes widened behind his glasses, and his mouth hung open.

It was as if he was trying to say something but the words were hanging down in his throat.

Seeing the other party's reaction, Owen was sure that Lance had recognised the Void rock, his eyes gleamed with curiosity; he wanted to know.

"He said it was a void rock," he voiced out after Lance remained shocked for over ten seconds and didn't say anything.



Owen's words pulled Lance back to his senses and he stopped looking at the void rock in his hand.

"I know it's a void rock," he stated.

"Then what's a void rock?" Owen asked on. He knew that he had heard of the void rock some time ago but couldn't remember everything, he just felt that it sounded familiar.

Lance stayed silent for a while before opening his mouth.

"Cracks, void rocks are found only where cracks have formed." He said slowly, trying to make Owen understand the seriousness of this matter.

And as expected, immediately after Owen heard the word "crack", his expression changed. He had a mixture of shock and despair written all over his face as memories flashed through his mind, gruesome memories.

Before he could come back to his senses, Lance asked another question.

"You said something about "he", I'm assuming it's the person who gave you this void rock?"

Owen nodded without saying anything, his face was now serious.

"Who is he?" Lance asked again, and Owen explained how he had met a masked mage called Mr Chen who came to register as an explorer and had gone out for exploring earlier today; Mr Chen had given this to him after coming back from exploring.

Lance revealed a strange expression after listening to Owen's story.

"You're an elder in This branch, why would you bother yourself with the registration of some random mage? Aren't there enough staff to handle that?

No, that's not important right now. You said he went to explore today and gave you the void rock after coming back? So he came back in less than a day of exploring, then it's safe to say that he didn't go too far outside the borders; do you know what that means?" Lance asked with a grave tone.

Owen remained silent, he didn't say a word but knew the answer to Lance's question.

If Mr Chen really found this void rock today, then a crack must have appeared not far from the city borders. Even a distance of a hundred kilometres was considered too close!

"Tell me more about this Mr Chen," Lance placed the void rock on the desk and looked at Owen in front of him.



Owen rubbed his face with his palm after being asked to talk about Mr Chen, what did he know about Mr Chen? The latter rarely spoke and Owen wasn't able to see through him.

He still told Lance what he knew about the other party anyway.

"He covers his face and body all the time; you can't see through his rank, and he barely says anything.

So there's literally nothing on his besides his element and name." Lance said in disbelief and Owen nodded in response.

Both of them fell silent for a while before Lance spoke up again.

"This won't do, we have to inform the leader about this. A person who can have a void rock in his possession can't be a nobody; he must have shown this to you on purpose."

"Hmm, I suspected the same since I can't see through his rank and with the rank of the beast corpses he had returned with. I think he's trying to stay low profile." Owen added.

The two chatted for a bit more. Owen asked how much a void rock could be sold for and was stunned when Lance replied that the small piece of rock could be sold for 5,000,000 Zen!

After a few more minutes, Owen left. They had agreed that one of them would go attend to Mr Chen and try to form a connection with him, preferably inviting him to join their union branch, while the other person would contact the leader of their branch and inform him of this matter.

Obviously, the duty of inviting Mr Chen to join them fell on Owen's shoulder since he was the one Mr Chen was familiar with while Lance tried to contact the branch leader.

.....


"Sorry for keeping you waiting, Mr Chen."