Steam Age: I Fight Against Divine Authority with Otherworldly Tales

Chapter 35 The Ring of Mandara

Back home, Suren turned on the gaslight and threw the canvas bag on the table.

He sat in the chair, feeling no hunger despite not having eaten dinner yet.

In her previous life, Su Lun worked at the Bureau of Anomalies and witnessed many deaths, but none of them were as impactful as Ellie's.

He poured a glass of ice water from the kettle, gulped it down, and the cold sensation as it went down his throat seemed to calm him down.

He needs to do something else now to distract himself.

Suren took the box containing the "Ring of Mandara" from his pocket and placed it on the table. Then he took out the "Manuscript of the Truth Speaker" from a box under the bed and began to write on it with a dip pen:

What hidden dangers does this "Mandala Ring" possess?

After receiving the answer that "there are no hidden dangers," Suren fell into deep thought.

"Is the 'Manuscript of the Truth Speaker' concealing relevant information, or is that mysterious person truly making a sincere investment?" Suren pondered to himself.

Suren connected this to Cole's abilities and had a guess in his mind: "Perhaps Cole and that person have the same abilities. The most direct evidence is that the other party can predict Suren's actions."

"So, in other words, the other party also has the ability to influence the entire so-called 'causal chain' through seemingly insignificant events, perhaps even more so." Suren frowned. "The answer given in the 'Manuscript of Truth' most likely only pertains to the ring. In other words, the ring itself is indeed without fault; the problem lies in the act of giving it away. So, what kind of chain reaction does the other party intend to trigger?"

Suren took a deep breath. Compared to a direct threat, this kind of person who manipulates everything from behind the scenes is far more terrifying.

"Regardless of what the other party is planning, at least for now, the ring is providing a stable positive boost to me." After thinking about it, Suren decided to use the ring. After all, spatial items are rare, and the improvement it brings to Suren is enormous.

As for whether or not to use [Revelation], Suren's choice was no.

Knowing full well that the opponent is powerful, trying to spy on them is tantamount to suicide, and Suren is not that foolish.

He put the ring on the index finger of his left hand. A cool sensation enveloped his finger, and Suren felt a sudden clarity in his mind. The fatigue from the battle was also relieved.

Suren attempted to communicate with the "Ring of Mandara" using "Source Knowledge." The instant communication took place, a void space appeared out of thin air in his mind. It seemed to exist naturally within Suren's mind.

There was no ground in that space, and the background was also a void, as if it were a desolate universe.

"This should be the space inside the ring," Suren nodded to himself.

The note clearly stated that only items that the user had come into contact with could be directly included in the collection.

Suren clutched the "Manuscript of the Truth Speakers" and tried to move it into that void.

Without warning, Suren's hand went empty; the copy vanished into thin air without even a gust of wind.

At the same time, a book appeared out of thin air in the space in Suren's mind, floating in mid-air as if weightless.

Suren tried to take it out again, and in the instant his mind turned, he felt a familiar touch in his palm, and the book appeared out of thin air in Suren's right hand.

"So, the item appeared in my hand out of thin air?" Suren looked at the copy in his hand and noticed that its position had changed, and it was not the same as when he put it in. He immediately had a guess: "Maybe it didn't appear in my hand. Maybe it could appear anywhere that came into contact with me."

With a sudden thought, he repeated his previous actions, taking the copy into his hands and releasing it.

This time, the copy appeared on Suren's arm. Keep in mind that Suren was wearing a uniform at the moment, which means that the ring's detection of contact was very lenient.

A bold idea popped into Suren's mind. He emptied the bullets from his ammunition pouch onto the table, grabbed a handful of bullets, and fed them into his ring.

He then took out the "Eye of Destruction," pressed the latch on the left side of the gun, and the entire gun folded open from the middle, revealing the cylinder. The spent cartridges in the cylinder were also automatically ejected, revealing the internal magazine.

With a thought, three rune bullets appeared out of thin air in the rotating wheel.

"It really works!" Suren couldn't help but feel excited. This meant that his reload speed was far superior to others, which was a huge advantage in battle.

Furthermore, the ability to store items simply by touching them allows for creative maneuvers in actual combat, such as storing the opponent's weapon in one's own ring.

Of course, Suren also knew that in higher-level battles, it was extremely difficult to get hold of the opponent's weapon, not to mention that high-level experts might not even need conventional weapons.

"Could we just store a part of the items?" Suren tore a piece of paper from her notebook, held it in her hand, and tried to tuck a single corner of the paper inside, unsurprisingly failing.

Suren was not discouraged and conducted a series of experiments.

After testing for a period of time, he discovered that items exceeding a certain size could not be stored inside, such as houses.

Moreover, the ring seems to have its own logic. Like a complex object such as a house, it seems unable to contain only doors, but it can contain bricks or land.

As for living objects, Suren was unable to test them due to a lack of experimental facilities. However, Suren guessed it was highly unlikely to work. After all, if possible, imprisoning an enemy for a period of time would either kill them or drive them insane; the mysterious person would probably not entrust him with such an overpowered item.

Nevertheless, the ring's function is incredibly powerful; Suren guessed that it was at least a Level II "Blasphemy Creation".

Back inside, Suren suddenly realized something: had his act of accepting the gift today violated the "doctrine"?

"Uh..." Suren was somewhat relieved that ordinary people outside had limited understanding of superhumans, so the trader today did not notice anything unusual, and the mysterious person probably knew from the beginning that Suren was not a superhuman who engaged in "equivalent exchange".

Suren smiled wryly, after all, what he really had to strictly adhere to was the principle of "secrecy." He was just a fake "battlefield alchemist," and although he tried his best to play the role, he still made mistakes in some details.

This further solidified his goal—to become an "Awakener" as soon as possible and save up some funds to leave the "Deathbird Monks" as quickly as possible.

"But there's still one thing I need to verify," Suren thought to himself, as he slowly shifted his gaze to his left hand.