Chapter 205 The Haven Cube Unlocked
A/N: The second release…… sounds a bit dirty after the last chapter!
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The next day, Jon woke up with two naked girls on his left and right. The room was still warm and the magic in it was still flowing through it.
Jon was still tired from all the night activity he went through and started drinking a whole keg of water on his own.
He then looked at the two sleeping beauties and smiled, his two future wives are just the best in his eyes.
Getting this lucky in this life feels way too good, he had everything he wished for, the power, the money, the girls…… he knew he finally made a full life but he understood that this is far from over, his achievements were not a thing his enemies wanted for him to keep. The report that got delivered to him this morning was the best reminder to him.
Last night, a High Elf tried to infiltrate into the Dare Dragon Company building and managed to reach the secure door of the laboratory. If not for the complicated magic lock on the door, the infiltrator would have broken into one of the most top-secret facilities in Winterhold. Jon was a bit angry but he knew what that elf was after.
He dressed right in a second and went to the Dare Dragon Mercenary Barracks in the east.
"Fill me in." Jon asked his housecarl Trudvar.
"An annoying fellow, acting all arrogant and mighty even after getting caught."
"Typical high elf, what else?"
"We found that on him."
Trudvar handed Jon a magic scroll. The scroll was still sealed as it was a common sense not to open a none appraised Magic Scroll.
Jon checked the magic scroll for an instant and clicked his tongue.
"Tsk, a dispelling magic scroll, a very high grade."
This scroll was a very simple but dangerous one, if the intruder used it on the laboratories door, most of the Magic Rune would have been removed. Luckily, Jon had that door enchanted to reconstruct the Magic Rune on its own and initiate a lock down if it was opened the wrong way.
"Show me to the elf."
Jon followed Trudvar to the underground cell under the barracks and there he could see an elf with an arrogant look on his face.
Jon didn’t say anything and simply stepped into the cell.
"You are the Thane of Winterhold, good good, your filthy men dared to lay a finger on me? If I am not released this very second, you can’t blame me for not…… ARGH!"
Jon simply punched the high elf. He looked with cold eyes to the prisoner and smiled.
"So the Thalmor decided to move in such a time? What a shitty day!"
Jon walked to the high elf lying on the ground and stepped on his face while looking down on him.
"I’ll kill you…… I’LL KILL YOU!" The High Elf couldn’t take the humiliation of being stepped on by a human and tried to react, Jon didn’t give him time to do so and went down on the elf with all sorts of kicks and insults.
"Bring the torturer here, I want him to have it hard."
Trudvar nodded and went away for a second then returned with a fat Redguard man carrying a small bag.
"Thane Jon, Thane Jon, you finally have work for me! I am very pleased, haha!"
"Richie you sick bastard. I never thought for a day that I would ask for your help."
Richie was the warden of Winterhold former prison, the Chill, and was also the executioner and the torturer, he was a short and a fat man with a sickening attitude.
Jon didn’t like that man one bit and kept him away but Richie was always begging for Jon to use him as a warden or an executioner. With Richie’s bad reputation, Jon preferred to keep him away but he knew that he would need him one day so he kept him close.
The sickening tales about Richie were still vivid in the memories of some people in Winterhold so Jon knew that this guy was sickeningly capable and that was the time.
"Make that elf sing all that I need to know!"
"Hahahaha, Thane Jon, you only need to ask and Richie will deliver, finally I can get a job too hahaha, and an Altmer at that. What a day! What a day!"
Jon left the High Elf to Richie and went back to the company’s building.
***
Deep in his laboratory, Jon was setting on a stool while playing with the Dwemer Haven Cube in his hand, he was able to figure out the activation rune but he understood that it needed a form of registration to make the Cube recognize him as the owner of itself. Nefertiti was coming and going in her cat mode while playing with a rubber ball Jon made for her, she was supposed to be trained on Shadow Magic but she was super bored from studying.
Jon was bored too after failing to open the Dwemer Haven Cube, he thought he was getting close but each time he creates the magical rune he thinks is right, he finds something missing.
At that time, he looked at Nefertiti who was wholly given over to playing with the ball and noticed something strange, the ball was clearly out of Nefertiti’s reach but suddenly, some strange black extensions came out from her paw and redirected the ball.
"Huh?"
Jon stood up and walked to Nefertiti.
"Come here, girl."
Jon caught the ball and Nefertiti came towards him, he held the ball up away from her and started waving it.
"Now catch it!"
"Hooman! Give back you meanie."
Nefertiti tried to catch the ball a few times until she did that thing again, Jon could see her claw extending and becoming longer while trying to catch the ball, he quickly caught her paw and checked it thoroughly.
"What is that?" he asked.
Nefertiti looked at her paw and tilted her head cutely.
"Try to maintain it!"
Jon gave some of his Magicka to Nefertiti and her shadow claws became stronger and more visible.
"That’s some cool Shadow Magic!" Jon exclaimed.
"Shadow Magic, nya!" Nefertiti wondered.
Jon nodded with a wide grin.
"Yicks!"
"Shut up, Magic is awesome, keep training on that move and I will give you a dried fish."
"Nya! Meow hate Shadow Magic."
"Really, you will get more fish, you know."
"……"
"A big fish with a dripping oily fat and a big bowl of milk."
"…… Two fish!"
"You little…… fine, but you will only get an extra fish if you show a new trick, deal?"
"Deal."
Nefertiti was striking a new deal with Jon who sat with a wide grin after finally convincing her to practice the Shadow Magic.
"By the way, how did you come up with that…… Shadow Claws trick?" Jon asked.
"…… Don’t know…… Meow just wanted to reach it."
Jon started thinking about what Nefertiti said of just wanted to do it and reached his hand to the Dwemer Haven Cube, with the simplest Magic Rune, he unlocked the Cube with the intention of just wanting to go into it and……
***……
He is in.
"Holy freaking Moly! This place rocks……"
It was like a large cubic Dwemer style stone room with faint lighting and a strange smell, it was simply very empty and very cold.
"Damn! This place needs a roo……m!"
With just an idea in his head, two walls started being formed in the cube as they seemed to be there all along, they left a small gap between them to be the room’s entrance.
"I see now, so this cube has that function too……"
Jon looked at the cube in his hand with a smile until he realized what was wrong.
"Why is it in my hand?"
Jon wondered about it for a while then he felt like he wanted to go back to the laboratory right away.
Applying the same way he entered, Jon found himself out once again with the cube still in his hand.
He didn’t understand what just happened but it didn’t seem to be that dangerous to go in the cube, it also seemed that there is another version from the cube in the cube that acts as the control panel to the interior of the cube to the cube while the real cube is not really in the cube.
"How cubic!" Jon thought to himself.
Jon then aimed the cube at some scrap pieces of metal in the corner and it all got sucked in by the cube.
Jon was impressed by the cube and decided to look into it while not going in. He tried to change the magical runes and it really was possible, he only closed his eyes and the scrap pieces of metal could be seen inside the cube.
He aimed the cube to the outside once again and let the scrap pieces out.
The next trial was Nefertiti. Jon aimed the cube at her and she got sucked in.
"Hooman, meanieee……"
Jon could hear after he checked the inside of the cube.
"Nothing wrong there?"
"My ball is not here!"
"Here you go."
"Humph! Now make meow a small house."
The silly cat started bossing Jon around so he kicked her out of the cube.
"Okay, now I want you to focus, tell me what will happen."
Jon entered the cube physically then went out again. He then looked at Nefertiti and asked.
"Hooman went poof then came again with no fish."
"Tsk, what about the cube?"
"Cube went poof but it was still around, Meow could feel it."
"I see."
Jon analyzed it based on Nefertiti’s extraordinary sensing ability that the Cube keeps itself in another frequency of reality when the user is in.
"No wonder I could tell what’s on the outside too."
Jon thought about it and arrived at the fact that the Cube is already an overpowered artifact.
"Okay, come here." Jon held Nefertiti up and made her control the cube then told her how to use it.
According to what he knows, Nefertiti could copy some of his powers and his magical fingerprint too, she was very connected to him by soul and she can even use Magicka from his Magicka Pool like an extension to him. And now, she could use the unique artifact that only recognized him as its owner. Nefertiti managed to store things in the cube and get things out of it too.
"If someone other than my cutie can do that, I would have shouted them to pieces." Jon said and hugged Nefertiti intimately.
He was really pleased that her connection with him was growing stronger day by day. It was a blessing any cat lover would kill for.
Jon held the cube and looked at it with a grin, he was happy to have such a convenient tool even so its appearance was very attractive and was hard to be hid.
"…… Unless……"
Jon tried to check more of the mysteries about the Cube and as if it was answering its master saying "You are right!" Jon’s order to the Cube to change its appearance was answered right away. The cube took another form and turned into a ring, then a necklace, then circlet.
"This thing has endless potential. I bet Lord Fyr was grinding his teeth when I took it."
No, he wasn’t, and it was true that the Cube has a lot of potential with the feature Jon unlocked so far.
"Hooman, someone coming!" Nefertiti said.
Jon made the Cube into a ring and decided to call it ’THe Haven Ring’ from now on then turned to open the lab’s door.
It was Trudvar who was about to knock the door.
"Oh, Boss!"
"Report."
"The Elf talked."
Jon nodded and turned around to pick up his coat and told Nefertiti to follow.
***
In the Dare Dragon Mercenary Barracks, Jon was sitting on a chair with Jon in his hand. Opposite to him, a High Elf knelt on his knees with a pale face and some horrified expressions.
Fatty Richie was smiling and acting all proud in front of Jon as if bragging about his work.
From the report, it seemed that the Thalmor wanted to know what does the Firemanes and the Dare Dragon Company are planning for the summer raid on Japhet’s Folly.
"For some reason, you guys are interested in it! Don’t you know why?" Jon asked.
The Elf shook his head in fear right away.
This level of cooperation was indeed something, Jon never would have thought that a High Elf, let alone a Thalmor, would be this timid in front of a human.
"Just what the hell did you do?" Jon looked at Fatty Richie in wonder. There was not a single trace of blood from the Elf.
Richie seemed to be taken aback and put his bag down.
"If Thane Jon is interested, I will demonstrate once again……" Richie took out a few leather strips, a skin tube, some smooth poles and a lot of weird stuff.
"You know what! I don’t even want to know." Jon had a few ideas about how their toys were used and didn’t want any confirmation.
He paid Richie and promised to make his job a full-time one if he kept quiet about it.
Jon went out and Trudvar followed him.
"Go wake up the Firemanes, Ongeim and Mjoll. Tell them we are raiding some close Thalmor hideout."
"Yes, Boss."
Jon decided to go to Wulfur’s house and wake him up then go to his house and take the beauties with him too.
Still, while he was walking, he started thinking of Japhet’s Folly and its riches.
He then looked at the Haven Ring in his left and to Nefertiti that was carried on his right.
He looked left and right, left and right, left and right…… then he smiled.
A devilish idea just came to his mind.