Chapter 83 — The Wooden Box (Part 2)

Damn it—why now, at the worst possible moment…

I left that girl in the house, surrounded by corpses. She’s definitely going to have problems.

Alright… I need to examine this box carefully. There has to be some kind of lever, button, or something to move back and forth.

Damn it, why is there nothing inside?

"Hey, Alisar, what’s wrong with you? Why are you silent? Answer me! Are you out of your mind?" Sherial said, her voice already sharp with obvious anger.

"Sorry… but something urgent came up."

"What urgent thing? You vanished for a while, and now you’re back and you’re just staring at that box. Talk. What happened?" Sherial said.

Yeah. She’s right.

I don’t understand a damn thing about this situation.

Maybe everything I saw—this girl, those bandits—was just an illusion… or something like that.

But it didn’t feel that way. It felt too real.

If it really was an illusion… then I’ll start doubting reality itself.

Yeah, in a situation like this, Rem and Sherial definitely know what to do better than I do.

I moved us into the Training Room—time mattered too much right now.

I didn’t want to leave that girl there for long. More bandits could show up at any moment.

Rem was already carefully examining the box, holding it in her hands.

"Are you sure it wasn’t an illusion? Or something similar?" Sherial asked.

"Yes… I mean, no. I don’t know. It felt just as real as this conversation right now," I answered.

"Alright. Let’s assume it was real. But most likely, it isn’t in the nearest towns. The local lord keeps tight control over this region. Any bandits that appear are usually destroyed quickly—and brutally," Sherial said.

"Well, it’s hardly that perfect. I know bandits already attacked one village. And they tried to attack us too," I said, remembering those adventurers.

Well… can you even call them adventurers? More like annoying bugs, as Sherial put it.

"Bandit attacks can happen even in the safest region. You can’t avoid it completely. And those bugs… they exist everywhere," Sherial said calmly.

I understood what she meant.

The local lord probably wouldn’t allow large organized crime to exist.

But…

What if the lord himself is involved?

What if he only pretends to protect the region so he looks like a good ruler, while in reality he turns a blind eye… or even helps them?

Or maybe that girl isn’t even in this region at all.

At that moment, Rem suddenly opened the box.

She put some small object inside, closed the lid, and stared at it intently.

Several seconds passed.

Then disappointment flickered across Rem’s face.

"Did something happen?" I asked, feeling a bit nervous.

"I figured out what it is," Rem said.

"And what is it?"

"It’s a transfer box. Basically a magical tool. These boxes are made in pairs. They work simply: you put an item inside, close it, fill it with enough mana—and it transfers the item to the other box linked to it," Rem explained.

"So I can use this box to transfer myself to the other box the girl has?" I asked.

"No. You won’t be able to."

"Why? You said I just need enough mana."

"First, this box only transfers inanimate objects, so it can’t transfer you. And also—the item has to be inside the box, and you can’t crawl inside it," Rem said.

"But it already transferred me," I said.

"I don’t know how that happened, but by its nature this box can’t transfer you to the other one," she replied.

Damn it… I let out a disappointed breath.

"If it can transfer items, we can write a letter and ask the girl what village she’s in. We could go there," I said.

"Yes, you’re right—we can write a letter. But the girl likely won’t be able to send an answer back," Rem said.

"Why?" I asked, already getting irritated. I thought it was a great idea.

"To transfer an item, this box needs about one hundred thousand mana. You can send a letter from here, but how will the girl send a reply? She probably doesn’t have enough mana reserves," Rem said.

Ah. Now I got it. I can spend one hundred thousand mana to send a letter—but she’d need the same amount to reply. Damn it…

"Can you somehow determine the location of the other box?" I asked, hopeful even though I knew it was probably impossible.

"Yes. Roughly, I can," Rem said, unexpectedly.

"You can? Then please—figure out where the second box is."

"That’s the hard part," she said.

"What, is locating it that difficult?" I asked.

"No. Can you create a rank-three healing potion?" she asked.

"Yes, I can."

I immediately created a rank-three healing potion and handed it to her. Rem opened the box, took out some object, put it away, placed the potion inside, and passed the box to me.

"Try using it. Transfer that potion to the other box," she said.

"I don’t really understand how to do that," I admitted.

"Don’t worry. It’s much easier than using the fire sword—the principle is the same," she said.

I took the box.

I felt where to direct the mana. When some kind of container inside filled up, I felt something like a click. The mana vanished.

Oh—so it worked?

To be sure, I opened the box—and to my disappointment, the healing potion was still inside. I tried again, spending one hundred thousand mana, but it still didn’t move.

"Sorry. I can’t do it," I said, handing the box back to Rem.

"No. You did everything right," Rem replied.

"But… the potion is still inside," I said. "It didn’t transfer to the other box."

"This box is a rank-three magical item. To explain it simply—it can transfer magical items up to rank three. Anything above that won’t transfer," Rem said.

"But that healing potion was rank three," I argued.

"Yes. You’re right. And that’s exactly the main problem," Rem said after a brief pause. "I tried it myself… and it seems this box only transfers rank-one magical items."

I frowned.

"I don’t get it. What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Normally, a box like this can transfer rank-three magical items without any trouble," Rem said. "Even if the distance between the two boxes is over a thousand kilometers."

She paused for a second, then continued.

"If the distance becomes too great—say, five to six thousand kilometers—then it can still transfer rank-two magical items. That’s already the limit, but it can manage."

I listened in silence, anxiety building inside me.

"But if this box can only transfer rank-one items," Rem said quietly, "then it means the other box is unbelievably far away. At least… twenty thousand kilometers."

She looked up at me.

"In other words—it’s very far."

Twenty thousand kilometers…

I let out a breath without meaning to.

"That’s insane…"

So that means… if this planet is roughly Earth-sized, it’s the other side of the world. Though it doesn’t matter.

"How long would it take to get there?" I asked, fully aware that without planes or trains, a normal person would need years.

But… twenty thousand kilometers is just distance. If I move with almost no breaks and rest only in the Training Room, I can cover it in fifty to sixty days.

"You can’t get there. No matter how much time you spend," Rem said.

"What do you mean, ‘can’t’?" I asked, because her answer made no sense. "Yeah, twenty thousand kilometers is a lot, but it’s still possible. Even an ordinary person could cross it, it would just take time."

"You didn’t understand…" Sherial cut in. "Rem just didn’t explain it well. She meant the problem isn’t the distance. The problem is that it’s impossible to leave this continent."

"Why is it impossible to leave this continent? Does nobody have ships?" I asked, confused.

"No, ships exist. It’s just that about nine hundred or a thousand years ago, there was some kind of abnormal explosion in monster growth in the ocean. After that, all contact between this continent and the others was completely severed. Any attempt to send ships ended with them being destroyed by ocean monsters. And in all that time, not a single ship has arrived at this continent," Sherial said.

"For a thousand years, nobody left this continent?" I asked.

"Maybe someone did," Sherial said.

"But you said nobody can leave the continent and travel to other continents," I said.

"Those are just rumors. People say some S-rank adventurers have left this continent to travel to other continents, because they’re strong enough not to fear the monsters in the ocean," Sherial added.

"So we need to… become strong enough?" I asked.

"No. It’s only rumors. There’s no official confirmation that S-rank adventurers truly left this continent," Sherial said.

"But there’s still hope if we become strong enough—"

"Hey. Stop thinking about such stupid things. How long do you think that would take? If you want to help that girl, there are far more realistic ways than trying to reach her yourself," Rem said, irritation in her voice.

"How am I supposed to help her without reaching her?" I snapped, raising my voice too.

Rem exhaled like she was finally, completely disappointed.

"You idiot," she said quietly. "You have that box. You have enough resources to help her even from here. Think, Alisar. Just think a little. Slowly."