166. Holy Fire

Snow stood in place, staring at the broken pieces of the black box in hand. She was trying to figure out different reasons why the black box series was harmonizing with her so well. The only thing that she could think of was that this black box series had Holy properties in it already, becoming an extra part of her that she didn’t expect.

She could feel it pulsating in her vein, becoming a part of her blood. She couldn’t stop it even if she wanted to.

“I swear, every time you go into a dungeon, something happens to you.” Mike had made his way over. “Plus, we didn’t expect that to happen with the Black Box series.”

“You knew it was a Black Box?” Snow asked. Not many knew what a Black Box was. Plus, Mike and Dairen had seen one before, but that did not mean they knew that there were more out there in the world.

“Yea. We were lucky enough to find one here,” Mike sighed. “And sadly enough, we couldn’t even use it--still.”

“Well, there are prerequisites to opening one up,” Snow said. Even though she didn’t know exactly what it was, she was glad that it was used. Still, the lingering fire worried her.

Mike took a moment to spin around her, making her there was nothing wrong with her. He lifted her arms and even moved her white hair back to check her back. “Nothing.”

“Huh?” Snow asked, a bit confused.

“I thought you would be burnt along with the box.”

“Luckily, that didn’t happen,” said Snow awkwardly. She felt like a specimen being examined a bit too much.

“Either way, that was one scary black box,” Mike blandly chuckled. Mike moved closer to Snow. Snow wished she could just step away from his uncomfortable curious gaze. “Are all Black Boxes that scary?”

“Yes,” Snow replied. “It's the Black Box series. They are old artifacts that were made in the olden times. I’m not sure who made or why, but inside each box have unique abilities.”

“Like the barrier one like last time, correct?”

“Exactly.”

“How many are there?”

“I don’t know.” Snow shrugged. She wasn’t in the inner sanctum of the Dragon Express, so she didn’t have much information about such things. There was only a certain level she could access without being penalized. But the rumors were that there were over fifty of them hidden away in the Dragon Express building. Though supposedly, there were about a hundred of them in total from her understanding.

The number of chaos that would happen if someone else got a single Black Box brought shivers. She was glad that their security system wasn’t lenient, but sending a Black Box for her to use was a different matter. Such a dangerous mission needed a hazardous object, and lucky for her the biometric was specifically curtailed to her.

Which allowed her to be the only one to use it.

Though she didn’t quite understand how the Black Box that Mike and Dairen had found would allow her to use it.

“You know,” Mike chirped up, thinking about something that made Snow a bit curious. “Those Black Boxes are like the Pandora Boxes that you hear about from the old fables.”

Snow froze. She, too, had a moment when she thought of such a legend. The infamous Pandora’s box that was supposed to have all the worst things bottled up. Pandora was the one that opened it up and let all the ill things free out into the world. Was she like Pandora? Opening up the boxes that she shouldn’t and bringing with it a calamity?

She hoped not. Such thoughts were quite depressing in thinking such away. But for now, she changed her mind.

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“Is it?” He turned toward her again.

“I don’t know, but what you say might be true.” Thinking about it, she did remember something on the files with that similar name. Where was it?

Then it hit her—the forgotten files.

Snow remembered seeing a stack of old written files that weren’t put in the database, which they all had catalogs when Mr. Jay’s were cleaning up. She remembered seeing the Black Box pictures, but the word Pandora was written over the file. Other than that, she didn’t have any chance to get to read the papers as she was quickly ushered away by Mr. Jay.

For a brief moment, she wondered how Mr. Jay was doing after he got fired. She could only sigh at the change of higher-ups, reminding herself that she needed to talk with Lily later.

Mike shrugged it off as if it was nothing of a big deal. He then nodded. “I’m just glad that you can use it. If that box was used by anyone else…” His voice trailed off.

“What’s wrong?” Snow tilted her head, unsure what he was going to say.

“Well, the thing is…” Mike pulled back his hair, uncomfortably shifting from one foot to another. “Whoever opens it will get cursed if it isn’t the right person to open the box.”

“Huh?” Snow was stupefied by what Mike had said. “I am cursed, though. I think.”

Well, she didn’t entirely feel like she was, but the fire inside of her wasn’t going to go away anytime soon.

“You are?”

“Kind of?” Snow was unsure how to explain it to him. “My body just absorbed it.”

Mike gaped. Then he sighed, shaking his head. “That’s typically like you.”

“What?!”

“Nothing.”

Snow’s instinct felt an uncomfortable tingle from the back. She whipped around to take upon the opponent that mean her, but Jose came running over. He glomped onto Snow. “You’re okay!”

“Well, yes.” Snow patted his head. “I’m glad to see that you are alright.”

Jose held on tightly, burying his head into her body. Snow thought that she saw a glimpse of tears running down his cheeks, which he used to wipe away the tears.

“Jose!” Olgom shouted in excitement. “Jose!” He ran over.

Jose broke apart from Snow, he turned around and sprinted over towards Olgom with a giant smile. “Grandpa!”

This was the first time hearing such words coming from Jose’s mouth. She couldn’t help but feel a warm tingle in her heart as they embraced each other. Olgom looked up towards her direction, gently nodding in respect towards her. No words bubbled out of his mouth. He was too preoccupied with laughing and smiling with Jose.

Angie and Dairen walked over. Dairen was exhausted and drained as Angie was healing him. His right arm was over her shoulder.

With a plop, he sat on the ground. Tired. He then glanced up and smiled with relief to see Snow was alright but didn’t say anything. Out of the whole battle, Dairen had expended his energy the most, making him very vulnerable. Without Angie’s help, he could have died.

“I think we should set up around here to rest for a bit,” Snow spoke with concern. Looking at everyone’s exhausted expression told her that they might not have the energy to even move, which was dangerous.

The others nodded, leaving Snow, Angie, and Dairen.

At that moment, Snow came over. Her hand resting on Dairen’s head. She willed soft energy into her hands, healing his torn body that Angie couldn’t all get. Even a bit of his stamina was restored, allowing him to at least move a bit better.

“I’m glad to see you are alright,” Dairen said, looking up at her while Snow was healing. “It’s good to see you back, Snow.”

“Well, it's thanks to all you guys' effort.” Snow summoned up a bit more light than she expected, which even healed Angie, next to Dairen. At first, she was having difficulty keeping up with Dairen's expensive rate of magical consumption that he was losing, which in turn was making her weaker. But the flow of magic slowed down, telling her that everything was being healed.

Angie was glad that Snow had arrived. She had been the main force for her healing ability even though there were other healers present. They could not keep up with her, which was why she was sought after by major groups of parties.

“Where exactly did you guys find the Black Box?” Snow couldn’t help but ask. Mike barely went into it.

“At a cave,” said Dairen, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes. “We stumbled upon it when we were searching for the dungeon boss. In which, we triggered a trap when I took the Black Box.”

“You just went in there and took it without checking for traps?” Snow was a bit taken back by Dairen’s bold decisions.

“We did. There was none. It only happens when someone touches the box, and it goes off. It’s why we have been struggling with the unexpected swarm.”

“Yea, but you guys should have been able to win against it, no problem. She believed that her guild could easily have won the fight. It was just weird that it didn't.

Dairen shook his head. “The trap cursed us, sent the guardian that protected the Black Box, while the Overflow happened all at the same time.”

Snow couldn’t believe the amount of bad luck that befell upon them.

“He’s right.” Angie plopped down next to Dairen. She had bags under her eyes that Snow didn’t quite notice until now. The magical energy around her hand glimmered and dampened away. “This all didn’t happen all in under one day. In five days, we have constantly been fighting non-stop. We lost quite a bit of people, but you have resurrected many of them back.”

They gazed at her with gratefulness.

“Either way, I need some rest. Could you guys wake me up a bit later?” Dairen flopped on the ground. His eyes closing.

“Wait, you guys, you should sleep a bit later. This is the battlefield.” Snow had said with concern. All around them were burnt grounds, dead bodies, and even pieces of monsters still remaining. It was quite unhygienic.

Dairen and Angie were too exhausted to say anything as they fell asleep without a word.

Snow frowned. She shook her head. With her newfound power, she went around burning the monsters.