"That idiot Fabian.... Sigh... he took this cube from me because he said he wanted to find the possibility to a new invention..."
"But his deepest desire was to find a way to revive his own dead wife... I warned him not to use this artifact, but he kept urging me..."
"I could not disappoint my disciple... and he ended up finding a way to open a temporary miasmic rift! He was trying to use the power of miasma to find his wife’s departed soul!"
Kehrid sighed as he used telekinesis to fill his beer mug again and gulped down even more beer.
"Theoretically, the cube did help him find the ’possibility,’ but it was not a good way; even if his wife had been revived, her soul would have been corrupted with miasma..."
"The miasmic rift spewed out miasmic corruption, which Fabian could not withstand, and he died a horrible death... which confirms the second rule of using this cube..."
"You need to be strong enough to actually withstand the consequences of this artifact..."
Rio frowned at Kehrid’s words and asked,
"But you have had this artifact for so long; how are you fine?"
Kehrid nodded his head at Rio’s words and replied in a solemn voice,
"I am someone who received the blessing of ’Astra,’ the greatest healer in the world; even King Allen gave me a powerful soul barrier for self-protection... obviously I am not affected by this artifact..."
"Although this artifact has horrific outcomes, bringing powers, it’s still just a peak SS-rank artifact at most; it can’t really harm SS-rankers that much..."
"Its actual side-effects show up when a weaker person uses it... most of its users have died from miasmic or mental corruption..."
"I don’t know the true extent of its abilities, but it’s not an artifact any random person can use..."
Kehrid could see that Rio was a young talent who had a bright future ahead; it was not a good idea for Rio to use this artifact because it might lead to a bad outcome for him.
"Kid, you have become friends with my grandson and you brought ’Vinash’ to visit me... although we are pretty much strangers to each other, I don’t wish to see you become a victim of this thing..."
Kehrid does not know Rio’s true identity and does not even know that Rio is world famous nowadays, as he’s cut himself off from society and does not involve himself with the rest of the world nowadays.
He retired long ago, and thus the matter of the dwarf nation is none of his business anymore.
Rio became friends with his grandson, and that was all that mattered; he didn’t care about other complicated things.
"Since fate has helped us meet... It would be wrong to deny your request; I can give you this artifact but I don’t recommend using it..."
"Ask yourself first, ’What is your deepest desire?’ and will it help you find your lost friend? If your deepest wish is not the same as finding your friend, this cube is useless for your current journey..."
Rio frowned a bit at Kehrid’s question and thought to himself.
’My ’path’ my ambition and my greatest desires involve getting stronger, defeating the calamity that will descend on this world in the future, and then living a peaceful life...’
’It’s true that this does not overlap with saving Liam... if we consider it from this perspective, the cube of possibilities might really be useless for me, but...’
Rio narrowed his eyes and asked,
"Actually, I want to do an experiment... You are here too so you can stop it if anything goes wrong. can you tell me how to use this artifact..."
"If my experiment does not bear any fruit, I will not pursue this artifact anymore..."
Kehrid was confused by Rio’s words; he couldn’t figure out what Rio was going to do.
"Well, as long as you use this artifact when I or someone strong is around it’s possible to prevent any bad outcomes... but what are you trying to do?"
"Usually people just need to embed their mana into it to activate it, but in your case it would be better to use your sword intent I guess..."
Rio gently placed Kifrid’s little head down on the sofa, got up from his seat, and took the cube from the table.
He walked to an open area of the living room farther from Kifrid so as not to involve the little kid in the experiment and took a deep breath.
’This artifact is indeed not a good choice but I have something that might help me in this kind of situation perhaps...’
[Sword Intent!]
Rio nodded his head towards Kehrid to signal that he was going to start and then used his sword, intending to use the artifact.
[Ding! A powerful artifact has begun scanning your threads of destiny!]
[Ding! A powerful energy has started to calculate your fate and the strings of fate connected to you might get affected!]
[Ding! Your skill ’True Immunity’ has been ’Triggered’!]
[Ding! The interference and calculation of your fate has been stopped!]
[Ding! You are now ’Immune’ to any scanning or interference via destiny or fate-related artifacts!]
[Ding! The energy has been used to ’counterattack’!]
Just like Rio had expected, the moment this artifact tried to influence Rio, it was immediately countered by Rio’s skill, ’True Immunity,’ and he managed to offset the effects of the artifact.
Once Rio managed to offset the ’side effects,’ the ’Cube’ trembled from the counterattack and immediately stopped messing with Rio.
It became ’docile’ towards Rio’s powerful sword intent and stopped behaving like a rebellious kid as if it had received a severe beating after doing something wrong.
"Wha-what the actual f*ck!?"
Kehrid almost fell from his chair as he was shocked to the core!
As a peak SS-ranker and the actual owner of the ’Cube,’ he’s had this artifact in his possession for nearly a millennium!
But he’s never seen this artifact become so docile towards anyone!
He even saw that Rio let go of the cube, but the cube itself started floating around Rio as if it were an obedient puppy who dared not disobey its master!
"What did you do!? D-damn! Are you sure you really aren’t the illegitimate child of the demon king or something!?"
Kehrid opened his jaw so wide in shock that it seemed like it would fall on the ground, and he even forgot to drink his beer, as he was too shocked to do anything else right now!
"T-this is insane!"
Ignoring Kehrid’s shock, Rio ’ordered’ the cube to show him a safe and short route to ’Liam.’
And the cube did not dare disobey Rio’s order as it immediately calculated the strings of destiny of the world itself to provide Rio with a proper direction!
It even started showing a virtual screen on its own to guide Rio with arrows!
Seeing that rebellious artifact behave in such a manner, Kehrid nearly coughed a mouthful of blood!
"I tried to control it for so long, and you did it in a single touch! You really are something kid!..."
Rio shook his head and sat down on the sofa and asked in his usual emotionless tone,
"So, what do you think? Will you lend this artifact to me? I can bring you some rare specialties of the spirit realm if you want..."