21-40 · 024

Chapter 23: The Divine Pillar

The next morning at ten o’clock.

I went down to the loading bay in the basement of the tower apartment, the one reserved for large vehicles.

“All right, all right! Stop!”

With the signal from the guide, the massive twelve-ton truck arranged by the Dungeon Guild came to a halt. The wings of the cargo bed opened, revealing a huge stone pillar about three meters tall, tightly secured with thick cushioning and wires. The men from the mid-tier guild who were the sellers were sweating as they prepared a forklift.

“Well, I never thought anyone would actually buy this with the Buy It Now price! But sir, this thing is seriously heavy. How are you going to get it up to your room? Even the freight elevator can’t handle this weight.”

The guild man scratched his head in confusion.

“Ah, don’t worry about transport. I’ll receive it right here.”

“Huh? Here… but something this heavy, you can’t move it by hand, you know?”

“It’s fine. Can I sign the receipt here? Thank you for your work.”

After making sure the guild men had left and that no one was watching, I approached the pillar and touched it gently. I channeled magic power into the ‘Ring of Subspace’ on my left hand and willed it.

“—Store.”

Shoop! With a sharp sound like cutting through air, the five-ton stone was instantly sucked into a spatial distortion and vanished without a trace.

An infinite-capacity, weight-ignoring Mythic Level item box. With this, no moving company or heavy machinery was needed. How convenient, I thought, feeling refreshed as I rode the elevator back to my 35th-floor room.

◇

Back in the living room, preparations for the restoration were already complete. Multiple layers of blue sheeting covered the floor and walls, and a simple drainage pump led out to the balcony.

“All right, let’s bring it out.”

I quietly brought out the giant pillar, setting it down in the center of the room with a solid thud. Up close, the grime was indeed dreadful. It must have been left in the depths of the dungeon for thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years. Beneath the thick green moss were layers of dark, sludgy residue formed from decayed magical power.

“With this size, the usual cheap cleaners won’t cut it.”

I donned goggles, a waterproof apron, and rubber boots, and aimed the nozzle of the ‘Industrial Ultra-High-Pressure Washer’ I’d brought in from the balcony’s water supply. The tank was loaded with a special high-concentration alkaline detergent, plus my own custom cleaning fluid—baking soda and citric acid blended in exquisite proportions.

“Here we go!”

I pulled the trigger.

BWOOOOOOM!!

The tremendous water pressure blasted the pillar’s surface. The combined force of the water, the detergent, and the trace amount of magic I channeled through the nozzle mercilessly stripped away the hardened sludge layers.

Dark sludge and green moss washed away in muddy torrents. Little by little, the pillar’s true form emerged: translucent white marble, its surface densely carved with geometric golden magic circuits.

Two hours after starting, I finally switched off the pressure washer, breathing hard.

“…Amazing.”

What now stood in the center of the blue sheeting was no mere pillar. It was a majestic column radiating a divine light, as if enshrined deep within a temple. The golden lines etched into its surface pulsed faintly, like a living breath. I could feel the room’s air filling with the pure magic power emanating from the stele.

《Restoration Complete: The ‘Divine Stele of Universal Transfer’ has awakened from its dormant state.》 《Searching for nearby magical sources… Initiating synchronization with the ‘Ring of Subspace.’》 《Synchronization complete. Items in inventory can now be individually transferred to any coordinates or specific individuals.》

The system voice echoed in my mind. The next moment, the enormous stele floated lightly into the air, dissolved into particles of light, and was automatically absorbed into the ring on my left hand. Apparently, rather than keeping the physical object in my room, it could be integrated as part of the item box system.

“All right, time for a test.”

From my item box, I selected an ‘ordinary apple’ I’d stored for experiments. A translucent transfer menu, like an augmented reality display, appeared at the edge of my vision. I set the destination to ‘Coordinates: On the glass table in the living room’ and willed the transfer.

—Shoop!

No sound. Not even a flash of light. It happened in an instant. Right before my eyes, on the empty glass table, a bright red apple materialized out of nowhere.

“Perfect. Too perfect.”

I picked up the apple with trembling hands. There was no deterioration or damage from the transfer. With this, I could deliver products to far-off VIPs overseas in a single second. But that wasn’t the only idea that came to mind.

“Couldn’t this also be used to deliver weapons and potions directly to explorers while they’re in the dungeon?”

Not just a resale business, but a support system that could provide unlimited supplies from the rear to explorers fighting on the front lines. If I could set something like that up properly, perhaps eventually I could even be involved in managing dungeon expeditions. I felt my dreams expanding again.

“For now, I’ll register all the weapons I have in stock and the high-grade potions I just ordered online with this system.”

I linked the various Mythic Level and Legendary Level weapons, armor, and recovery items stored in my ring to the system so they could be transferred by the ‘Divine Stele’ at any time.

Indulging in fantasies of what was to come, I grinned to myself as I repeated transfer tests alone in my room.