The treasure room stretched out before them like the belly of a sleeping dragon. Gold coins lay in drifts against the walls, some piled higher than Asta's head. Jeweled scepters jutted from the hoard at odd angles. Suits of ancient armor stood silent guard, their visors crusted with gems. The air was thick with the smell of old metal and older magic, and every torch flame reflected a thousand times in the polished surfaces of scattered treasure.
Asta stood frozen at the threshold. His mouth opened and closed like a fish. "TREASURE! REAL TREASURE! YUNO, ARE YOU SEEING THIS?! THERE'S SO MUCH GOLD I COULD SWIM IN IT! I COULD DIVE INTO IT LIKE A POOL! A GOLD POOL!"
"I can see it," Yuno said, and though his voice was calm, his amber eyes were wide. His four-leaf grimoire pulsed with light, responding to the ambient mana that saturated the chamber. "There's enough here to buy a small kingdom."
"Buy a kingdom?! I'm going to buy Hage Village! Then I'll buy the church! Then I'll buy Sister Lily a new hat! A gold hat! Wait, would a gold hat be too heavy? Probably. I'll buy her a normal hat but with gold threads! That's practical AND fancy!"
"Sister Lily would not want a gold hat."
"She would if she saw it!"
Noelle pushed past them, her royal training barely keeping her from running toward the nearest pile of jewels. "Some of these gems are cut in styles I've never seen. The Silva treasury has been collecting for three hundred years, and I don't recognize half of these." She knelt and picked up a sapphire the size of her thumb. It glowed faintly blue. "This is enchanted. Really old enchantment. My brother Solid would give his left arm for something like this."
"Take it then," I said.
"I can't just TAKE it! There are protocols! Procedures! Royal decrees about the proper distribution of discovered wealth!"
"You just picked it up."
"That's DIFFERENT! Picking up is not taking! It's... examining! Royals examine things all the time!"
"Take it."
"FINE!" She shoved the sapphire into her pocket. "But this doesn't count as looting! It's cultural preservation!"
Klaus adjusted his glasses and surveyed the room with the pinched expression of someone doing mental math. "The Golden Dawn will need to document everything. A formal inventory. Treasure this size can't just be... grabbed. There are forms. Proper channels. The Wizard King's office will want a detailed—"
"NERO SHOWED US THE WAY!" Asta interrupted. "Finders keepers! That's the rule!"
"That is not a rule. That's a playground chant."
"Same thing!"
While they argued, I walked deeper into the room. The treasure crunched under my feet. Coins slipped and slid with every step. I passed a suit of armor holding a sword that crackled with dormant lightning. I passed a chest overflowing with scrolls so old their wax seals had turned to dust. I passed a crown sitting on a velvet cushion that had rotted away centuries ago, leaving the crown floating an inch above the stone.
And then I saw it.
In the far corner, half-buried under a drift of silver coins, stood a pedestal. It was simple stone, unadorned, untouched by the wealth around it. On the pedestal rested a scroll. The paper was yellow and cracked at the edges, but the cylinder itself was perfectly intact. Faint golden light pulsed along its surface, like a heartbeat made visible.
The wheel behind my head began to turn faster.
"What's that?" Asta had followed me. He squinted at the scroll. "Is it treasure? It doesn't look like treasure. It looks like old paper."
"I don't know yet."
I lifted the scroll. It was lighter than it should have been. The paper felt strange under my fingers—not dry like old parchment, but smooth and slightly warm, like living skin. The golden light pulsed once, twice, then settled into a steady glow.
I unrolled it.
The writing inside was in no language I recognized. The letters curved and spiraled in ways that hurt to look at. But as I stared, they began to shift. The ink rippled like water. The old symbols dissolved and reformed, rearranging themselves into words I could read.
Shadow Storage: The Weight of All Things
The caster may store any object within their shadow. The shadow will accept all things without limit. No matter the size. No matter the number. The shadow is endless. The shadow is patient.
But know this: All things have true weight. The shadow does not carry it lightly. Every stone. Every coin. Every sword. Their weight becomes your weight. Your muscles will bear it. Your bones will bear it. Your body will feel every ounce, as if you carried the objects upon your back. The shadow hides them from sight, but never from your flesh.
This is the price. This is the law. Take only what your body can bear. For if you take too much, the weight will crush your bones and tear your muscles from their moorings. You will not be able to move. You will not be able to breathe. You will become a statue of living flesh, pinned by your own greed.
Choose wisely.
The shadow waits.
I read the words three times. Each time, the meaning sank deeper. This wasn't just a storage spell. It was a physical burden. Every coin I stored would press down on my actual body. My bones would carry the weight. My muscles would strain against it. And that meant I could train with it. I could use the treasure as a constant, adjustable load, making myself stronger every day just by carrying it. The Talent would adapt my body to the strain. My muscles would grow denser. My bones would harden. I would become unbreakable.
The scroll dissolved. Its dust swirled around me, gold and silver motes that sank into my grimoire. The book shuddered. The pages flipped on their own, faster and faster, until they stopped on a fresh page. The ink was still wet, still glowing.
Shadow Storage had been added.
"Did you just learn a spell from READING?" Klaus's glasses had fallen askew. "That's not—you can't just—spells don't work like that!"
"He does that," Noelle said. She was watching me with a mixture of concern and resignation. "He adapts to everything. Even learning."
"But that scroll was in a DEAD LANGUAGE!"
"Apparently not dead enough."
I looked at the treasure surrounding us. Mountains of gold. Rivers of silver. Enough wealth to reshape the Clover Kingdom. And now I had a way to take it.
"Everyone step back," I said. "I'm going to use the new spell."
"Are you sure?" Noelle grabbed my arm. "The scroll said the weight could crush your bones. Your actual bones. Not magical damage. Physical damage. You can't just adapt to having your spine shattered."
"I've had my spine shattered before. It healed."
"That's not—you can't just SAY things like that!"
I raised my hand. My shadow stretched across the floor, long and dark and hungry. The wheel behind my head glowed brighter.
"Shadow Storage."
The shadow moved. It spread like spilled ink, flowing toward the nearest pile of treasure. Gold coins. Silver chalices. A crown studded with rubies. The shadow touched them, and they sank into it—not slowly, but fast, like stones dropped into deep water. The pile vanished.
And I felt the weight.
It hit me all at once. My shoulders dropped. My spine compressed. The muscles in my back bunched and strained. Every bone in my body suddenly felt heavier, denser, like someone had replaced my marrow with lead. I took a sharp breath. Two tons. Maybe three.
"Ouga?" Asta was watching me with wide eyes. "Are you okay? You made a face. You never make faces. Well, you make faces, but not like THAT face."
"I'm fine. The weight is physical. My body has to carry everything I store. Right now it's about three tons."
"THREE TONS?! You're standing there with three tons on your back and you're just FINE?!"
"It's training. I've carried boulders before."
"Boulders aren't THREE TONS!"
"Some of them were."
I moved my shadow to the next pile. Ancient swords vanished into the darkness. Their weight settled onto my shoulders like an invisible yoke. The Talent noted the strain and began adjusting my muscle fibers, reinforcing the attachment points where tendon met bone. Four tons. My knees bent slightly. The stone under my feet cracked.
"Four tons," I said.
"You're counting?!" Noelle's voice had gone shrill. "You're just casually announcing how much weight is currently trying to crush you into a pancake?!"
"Five tons."
"STOP COUNTING!"
I kept going. Pile after pile. Chest after chest. Gold coins that shone like captured sunlight. Jeweled daggers with blades that hadn't rusted in a thousand years. A shield so large it could have covered Asta completely. Each new addition pressed down on me. My breathing grew deeper. My heart pumped harder. Sweat beaded on my forehead. But the Talent was already adapting, reinforcing my bones, thickening my muscle fibers, making microscopic adjustments that would, over time, let me carry even more.
Seven tons. My legs were shaking. Eight tons. The cracks in the floor spread wider. Nine tons. My spine felt like it was being compressed by a giant's fist.
Ten tons. I stopped. My shadow shrank back to its normal size.
"That's enough for now," I said. My voice was rough. "My body needs time to adapt to this weight. In a few days, I can add more."
Noelle stared at me. "You're carrying ten tons of treasure. Right now. In your shadow. And you're just... standing there."
"It's a good starting weight. Once I adapt, I'll double it."
"You're going to double it?!"
"Eventually. The scroll said the shadow has no limit. The only limit is what my body can bear. And my body adapts."
"You're insane. You're completely insane. Everyone in this squad is insane."
"Thank you."
"THAT WASN'T A COMPLIMENT!"
Klaus was muttering something about "reckless commoners" and "proper treasure distribution protocols," but even he couldn't take his eyes off the empty space where the treasure had been. "The Diamond Kingdom will not be pleased when they discover an empty vault. We should leave before—"
"Wait." I held up my hand. The Talent was warning me. Something at the edge of my perception. "We have company."
Everyone went still.
From the dark corridor at the far end of the treasure room came the sound of footsteps. Heavy. Measured. Two sets. The first was light, accompanied by the click of a staff on stone. The second was heavier, much heavier, each step falling with the weight of something massive. The ground trembled slightly with each impact.
Two figures emerged from the darkness.
The first was an old man. Short. Thin. His grey hair was pulled back in a severe knot, and his face was a map of wrinkles earned over decades of harsh living. He leaned on a wooden staff that clacked against the stone with every step. His grimoire floated at his shoulder—ancient, its cover worn smooth by years of use. But the mana radiating from it was anything but weak. This old man had power. The kind of power that came from surviving when stronger people died.
The second figure was enormous. Nine feet tall. His body was encased in jagged mineral armor that gleamed like obsidian, plates of grey-black stone overlapping across his chest and shoulders. Flames licked across the surface of the armor, a cloak of living fire that pulsed with regenerative energy, healing every crack and chip that appeared in the stone. His face was hidden behind a helmet of the same mineral, only his eyes visible—purple, empty, utterly vacant. He walked with the mechanical precision of a puppet, his massive arms swinging in perfect rhythm. His grimoire floated beside him, bearing the diamond symbol of the Diamond Kingdom, but its mana felt wrong. Darker. Heavier. Like a wound that had never healed.
Mars. The name surfaced from my past-life memories. A child soldier, experimented on by the Diamond Kingdom's magical research division. They had fused multiple magic types into his body, turning him into a living weapon. He didn't fight because he wanted to. He fought because he had never been taught to do anything else.
"Well, well," the old man said. He smiled, but it wasn't a friendly smile. It was the smile of someone who had already calculated your value and found you wanting. "Clover mages. And you've dealt with our smoke specialist already. He always did lack finesse." He prodded the unconscious mage with his staff. "Still breathing, at least. That's more than I expected."
(Author note: Phew that was a close call 🤙 Almost got my boobs ripped off!)