"Make me an Elder of the Council."

Tyler said it so casually that for a moment nobody reacted properly. Most of the elders were still staring at the giant robot behind him, trying to process everything they had already seen today.

Then his words finally registered.

"What?"

"No."

"Absolutely not."

"That’s impossible."

Several holographic elders rejected the idea immediately. Some sounded offended while others looked genuinely alarmed.

Only two people gave different answers.

"...Maybe."

"Let us think about it first."

The ones speaking were naturally Old Lady Veena and Alan Runner.

One of the projected elders stared at them in disbelief.

"What do you mean maybe?!"

Alan pointed toward the unveiled machines behind Tyler.

"Look at those things first," he said seriously. "The exosuit alone could improve our soldiers tremendously. The hoverboards solve mobility problems in rough terrain. And that giant robot..."

Even Alan himself still looked slightly shaken after watching the mech move earlier.

"These inventions already have enough value to shift the balance between us and the Capital."

The room became quieter after that.

Nobody could deny it.

The Embers had survived all these years through secrecy, sabotage, and guerrilla tactics. But Tyler’s inventions were something else entirely. They weren’t tools for survival. They were the beginning of an actual technological advantage.

Alan folded his arms and continued more calmly.

"And honestly, a genius like this becoming one of us officially is far better than risking him ending up somewhere else later."

Old Lady Veena slowly drank her tea before speaking again.

"Also, the two witches are very attached to this young man."

The "two witches" she mentioned were obviously Rose and Tansy. At this point, those nicknames had already spread through multiple Embers bases.

One elder rubbed his forehead tiredly.

"That’s exactly what worries me."

The discussion immediately became noisy again. Some elders strongly opposed giving Tyler authority while others were clearly more interested in securing his inventions before the Capital somehow discovered them.

Meanwhile, Tyler simply stood there quietly and waited for them to finish arguing.

After a while, he spoke again.

"Well, I don’t really care about becoming an Elder."

That immediately got everyone’s attention again.

Tyler shrugged lightly.

"Just give me the compressed storage unit."

This time, even Veena stopped drinking tea.

Alan’s expression stiffened slightly.

One of the elders narrowed his eyes.

"How do you know about that?"

Old Lady Veena let out a slow sigh.

"It’s not that we don’t want to lend it," she said carefully. "But that item is the last functioning piece we possess."

Alan nodded.

"And it can only be used a few more times before collapsing permanently."

Another elder joined in.

"We still don’t fully understand its technology. A palm-sized compressed storage device is beyond our current scientific level."

That part was true.

Even the Capital, with all its floating cities and anti-gravity technology, had failed to reproduce proper compressed storage technology.

The object Tyler requested was essentially this world’s equivalent of a storage ring from cultivation worlds. A tiny cube capable of containing a separate storage space within itself.

Tyler naturally understood how valuable it was.

He also understood why this world struggled to recreate it. In cultivation worlds, storage devices relied on arrays, spiritual materials, aura circulation, and dimensional techniques that simply did not exist in Libria. Without those foundations, true spatial storage should have been impossible to reproduce.

But Tyler wasn’t planning to use ordinary methods anyway.

He smiled slightly.

"If I fail to reproduce it, I’ll return it exactly as it is."

The elders remained silent and waited for him to continue.

"But if I succeed," Tyler said calmly, "taking over the Capital will only become a matter of time."

Several holographic elders frowned immediately.

Normally they would have dismissed such confidence as arrogance. But after seeing the things inside this laboratory today, nobody dared call it impossible anymore.

Alan looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking.

"Only Council Elders are normally allowed access to that item."

Tyler shrugged again.

"That’s why I asked for the Elder position."

Then he added casually,

"But honestly, that’s unnecessary too. Just lend it to me for one day." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The elders exchanged uncertain looks.

Unlike the weapons and machines Tyler created, the compressed storage cube wasn’t something they could replace. If it got damaged, the Embers would permanently lose one of their most valuable relics.

A private discussion immediately began between the holographic projections while Tyler waited quietly.

Even Veena looked hesitant now.

Several minutes later, one elder finally sighed.

"Fine. One day."

His expression became stern.

"But you return it exactly as you received it."

Tyler nodded calmly.

"Deal."

Old Lady Veena immediately waved her hand.

"Good. Meeting over."

Before the other elders could continue speaking, she directly cut off the holographic communication.

"Wait, we still wanted to examine the robo—"

The projections vanished instantly.

Alan looked at her helplessly.

"You just didn’t want them stealing your future grandson-in-law."

"Shut up," Veena replied without embarrassment.

---

A week later, Tyler finally received the package personally delivered by Alan Runner.

Alan looked unusually serious while handing over the sealed container.

"Do not use it," he warned immediately.

Tyler nodded patiently.

"You can only store objects inside it three more times before the internal structure collapses permanently. And absolutely do not dismantle it."

"I know."

"You are only allowed to scan and study the exterior," Alan continued. "That’s the maximum permission the Council agreed to."

Tyler gave the same calm smile as always.

"I understand."

Alan still looked unconvinced. He repeated the warnings several more times before finally leaving reluctantly.

The moment the door closed, Tyler locked the entire laboratory.

Then he activated every internal security seal inside the room.

One by one, he manually disabled all cameras, monitoring systems, activity logs, and hidden recording backups connected to the lab.

Only after confirming everything was offline did he finally open the package.

Inside rested a small black cube.

At first glance, it didn’t look particularly impressive. But the moment Tyler picked it up, he immediately felt how unnatural it was.

The cube was small enough to fit inside his palm. Its surface reflected light like polished black glass, smooth enough to resemble liquid obsidian.

The longer he looked at it, the stranger it felt.

The edges didn’t seem completely fixed. They weren’t sharp like metal or rounded like stone. It almost felt as though the cube itself decided where its boundaries existed.

Thin silver lines stretched across every side, forming patterns that resembled both advanced circuitry and ancient ritual engravings. Depending on the viewing angle, the lines subtly shifted like liquid mercury moving beneath transparent crystal.

Tiny symbols occasionally flickered within those lines before disappearing again.

The object felt technological and ancient at the same time.

Tyler quietly observed it for a long moment before finally taking out the Copper Pot.

The small bronze pot appeared harmless as usual.

He placed it on the floor and enlarged it until it became large like a size of a basketball.

Without hesitation, Tyler carefully placed the mysterious storage cube inside the Copper Pot.

┉┈ ◈ ◉ ◈ ┈┉

A day later, Tyler returned the storage cube to Alan Runner.

Alan carefully checked the cube several times before finally relaxing slightly.

"Did you make any progress?" he asked casually.

Even though he already knew that nobody could fully understand such technology within a single day, part of him still hoped Tyler might have discovered something.

Tyler simply shook his head.

"Nah."

Alan nodded as expected.

"Well, don’t worry about it too much," he said while storing the cube away carefully. "Once you become an Elder in the future, you can access it anytime you want."

After Alan left, Tyler quietly returned to his laboratory and locked the door behind him.

The moment he walked deeper inside the room, the scene completely changed.

Broken cubes were scattered everywhere across the floor.

Some were dismantled completely.

Some had their outer shells peeled apart.

Others were sliced open into thin layers exposing complicated silver structures inside.

There were dozens of them.

No—

Hundreds.

Tyler casually walked across the broken remains without caring.

"So the captail and the Embers can compress space inside massive buildings," he muttered while picking up one shattered fragment, "but they still can’t stabilize it properly in small independent structures. I can understand why."

He examined the glowing metallic fragment carefully.

"Even after dismantling them, there are still too many things I can’t fully understand."

The materials themselves already looked abnormal. Some metals behaved unlike anything found naturally in Libria.

Tyler narrowed his eyes slightly.

"These probably came from another world through the portals."

After studying the fragments silently for a while, he finally sighed.

"Well... first I need to become an Elder properly."

"Only then can I continue the actual plan."

Tyler walked toward a sealed glass storage compartment near the back of the laboratory.

Inside were several completed storage cubes.

He casually took one out before walking toward the giant mech standing silently nearby.

Then he stored both the VR headset and the giant robot inside the storage cube.

After confirming it worked properly, Tyler placed the cube itself inside the Copper Pot.