The Titan Forge: Crushing Magic with Absolute Weight

Chapter 3: The Dead Man's Ledger

Kaelen’s fingers closed around the silver spatial ring.

Instantly, a violent surge of crimson mana spiked from the metal, shooting directly up his arm. The curse was designed to seek out a mage’s mana core, overload it, and blow the thief to bloody pieces.

Kaelen just stood there. He didn't even blink.

The crimson mana rushed into his chest, frantically searching for a core to detonate. It found absolutely nothing. Just solid, absurdly dense muscle.

[Ding! High-Tier Mana Detonation Curse triggered.]

[Error: Target has 0% Mana. Curse activation failed.]

[Initiating 'Abyssal Devour'. Absorbing residual curse energy...]

The deadly magical trap was instantly swallowed by the black anvil in his mind.

Kaelen exhaled a breath of hot air as his physical strength ticked up another fraction. "A curse that kills mages is just a protein shake for a Null," he chuckled darkly.

He slipped the ring onto his finger and forced a drop of his blood onto the silver band, bypassing the dead noble's magical lock with brute-force physical binding.

His consciousness entered the spatial storage.

It was massive. Inside, he found heaps of low-grade gold coins, dozens of broken, highly-volatile mana crystals, and an assortment of rusted knight armor. To a normal person, the broken crystals were deadly trash. To Kaelen, it was a five-star buffet for his System.

But what caught his eye wasn't the gold or the magical garbage. It was a black, leather-bound book resting on a velvet pedestal.

Kaelen pulled the book out. He flipped it open.

It was a ledger. And it didn't belong to just any noble. It belonged to Lord Alistair Vance—Cedric's uncle, the Head of the Royal Treasury.

Kaelen’s eyes scanned the pages. His dark smile grew wider and more terrifying with every line he read.

"Unbelievable," Kaelen whispered, his voice dripping with venomous joy.

The ledger detailed a decade of massive corruption. House Vance hadn't just been embezzling funds from the Royal Magic Academy; they had been secretly smuggling forbidden cursed artifacts to the underground rebel factions. Cedric’s uncle was playing both sides, hoarding a fortune while plotting treason against the Crown.

If the Royal Inquisitors saw this book, House Vance wouldn't just be stripped of their noble titles. Every man, woman, and child sharing their bloodline would be executed for high treason.

Kaelen snapped the book shut.

A few hours ago, as he fell into the abyss, his only thought was to climb back up and crush Cedric's skull.

Now? That felt far too cheap. Killing Cedric would just make him a martyr.

"You threw me into the trash because you thought I was worthless, Cedric," Kaelen looked up at the towering, jagged cliffs of the Ravine. "I'm not going to just kill you. I'm going to bankrupt your family. I'm going to take your wealth, your pride, and your magic. I will make you watch as your entire legacy burns to ash."

[Ding! Host's intent aligns with the Titan Forge.]

[New Main Quest Triggered: The Fall of House Vance.]

[Reward: Unknown. Penalty for failure: None. You are already at the bottom.]

"Not for long," Kaelen replied.

He unsummoned the ledger back into the spatial ring. He reached down and grabbed the hilt of the 800-pound Obsidian Slab, effortlessly resting the massive, brutal weapon across his broad shoulders.

He walked over to the sheer, vertical rock face of the Ravine. Mages needed levitation spells to get out of here. Kaelen just had his bare hands.

He punched his free hand directly into the solid rock, his fingers piercing the stone like it was wet mud.

CRACK.

With the heavy black slab on his back and eyes burning with a sovereign's ambition, Kaelen began his ascent.

The Null was coming back to the surface. And he was bringing the abyss with him.