Chapter 3: Spatial Dimensional ring
Jenna didn't leave the market after buying that ring. She continued buying more rings. After the 99th ring, Jenna's body was trembling, feele a strange energy weighing down her backpack.
She didn't think that 99 rings in small wooden ring boxes could feel like a stack of bricks on her spine. Not to mention, she was about to freeze to death!
It was unnatural. She knew that much.
Moreover, she didn't plan on buying 99 rings, but something strange kept pulling her towards stores to buy their oldest, weirdest rings.
Even though she could feel her life was being threatened by those rings, she couldn't stop the weird hunger to purchase more of those obviously dangerous rings.
The worst part was, even after buying 99 rings, she didn't feel anything but cold. No magic space, no nothing, just freezing cold and an unsettling feeling.
"At this point, I need to go home." She mumbled, sitting on a bench, near a shop selling porcelain dolls dressed in medieval princess dresses.
Despite everything, Jenna couldn't help wondering if De Warden experienced the same strange things?
Did the ring have side effects? If so, what was it? How did he even find the storage space?
Or was De Warden's ring not one-of-a-kind like these ones she bought? Was it just a normal ring? Was the rumor even true?
"Wait, what if it wasn't a ring?" she blinked, dumbfounded by her own thoughts.
No, really, what if it was something else and they spread a lie about it being a ring to distract people from knowing the real source of his storage?
Or maybe…whatever it was, remained glued to De Warden, like a permanent companion…?
If that was the case, did she just waste her time and money buying 99 rings that seemed to be after her life…?
Jenna felt a headache from those questions. But worse, it was the biting cold seeping into her bones.
She rubbed her arms and shivered again. The temperature wasn't even low, and the sun still hung above the skyline, but her skin felt chilled, like she'd been dipped in snowmelt.
She checked the time on her phone:
5:47 PM.
The doomsday notification sat right above her message notifications, unnecessarily pinned like a weapon fashioned against everyone.
Crash!
A disturbing sound of something breaking, rented the air.
Jenna turned and her eyes widened at the sight of an old man falling from a ladder, his limbs flailing as the wooden structure buckled beneath him.
"Ahh!" he cried out.
Without thinking, Jenna dashed forward, leaving her backpack on the bench.
She caught the old man like a princess but his weight crushed her arms and they both fell, rolling over the old man's fallen wares.
She hissed as her arm scraped against an iron. The old man hit the ground with a groan. His wares – mostly dusty books and metals, and rings – scattered around them like spilled secrets.
"Are you alright?" Jenna asked, kneeling beside him as she tried to lift him up.
The old man grimaced, nodding slowly. "Bloody ladder. I should have thrown it out ten years ago."
Other people hurried over, helping the man gather the fallen items, and Jenna joined them, picking the ones around her.
"Girl, you're bleeding," the old man pointed out.
Jenna glanced at the blood trailing down her forearm and sighed. "It's alright. I'll get it treated once I get home."
Saying that, she picked up a jade ring with her bloody fingers. Just as she was about to put it in the tray with other jewelries, the ring glowed.
Time froze.
Everyone froze.
Jenna blinked.
The market which was alive just seconds ago had gone utterly still.
A woman mid-step, with one hand reaching for a scarf on a stall hook, was suspended like a statue. A child chasing after a rolling apple was paused, mouth open in a gleeful shout that no longer made a sound. Even the old man's finger was still pointing towards her bleeding forearm.
Jenna's breath caught in her throat. The air had thickened, filled with the familiar chill she felt from the 99 rings.
She glanced down at the jade ring suspended between her fingers, only to find that the blood stain had vanished.
What the actual hell?!
Her heart thundered in her chest, leaping even.
What was that…?
Suddenly, her vision blurred and she vanished from her spot. When she reappeared, it was…
A– a space?
Jenna's eyes widened.
She was standing at the entrance of what looked like a storeroom, with faint, almost invisible walls.
"…T–this…is this a spatial dimension?" Jenna whispered, her voice bouncing off walls that weren't quite there.
She stepped forward slowly, her shoes echoing faintly across the pale stone floor. The air was still. Dustless. Silent. The light came from nowhere and everywhere all at once – soft, ambient, unreal.
Her pulse pounded in her ears.
This was real.
This was the space.
Was this the one De Warden had used? The one from the rumor?
She looked down at her hand. The ring had vanished, but she could feel its presence.
She swallowed hard, trying to calm her racing thoughts.
"If this is De Warden's ring, then…" her breath hitched. "Then I have what he had…before everything began."
A million thoughts scrambled in her mind.
Aside from bringing supplies in, what else could she do with this space? Could she bring people? How did De Warden even access it? Did it grow with time? Could it be expanded?
She turned towards the entrance, and she could see a green field. She walked out slowly. A small plot of lush, untouched land sat around a crystal fountain. Beyond that, a blank horizon with no sky, no sun, just an endless soft gray shimmering like mist suspended in a globe.
Jenna froze.
"What the hell…" she murmured.
Hold on, this was too much. She needed to get out. This wasn't the time to explore. She was still in the market!
"How do I get out of here?"
Just as she voiced it, her vision blurred once more and she found herself in the same position she'd been in earlier – the ring was no longer pinched between her fingers. It was sitting perfectly on her index finger.
Jenna remembered she didn't wear this ring on her finger. She also recalled that the ring was bigger for her slender fingers, so how come it was perfectly encircling her thumb now?
Did it shrink?
Well, that wasn't the most important thing right now.
"H– how do I unfreeze them?" she didn't even know who she was asking. She just asked and suddenly, time resumed.
"Thank you for saving me," the old man's voice came to life the same time everyone began to move.
No one suspected a thing.
"I– it's nothing," she stuttered again, voice low. She was still shaken from what she just found.
"That ring," the man said, looking down at her finger. "You seem to like it."
"Ah, yes. How much is it?"
The old man waved his hand. "No need. You can keep it. It's a junk nobody wants."
"No, no, no," Jenna quickly disapproved. "I cannot take it for free. I didn't try to save you to get freebies. Moreover, I couldn't save you. You still fell."
"You broke my fall," the old man said with a slow smile, brushing dust from his knees as he rose to his feet. "That's more than anyone else would've done. You saved me a hip replacement and possibly my life. So please… take the ring."
Jenna still refused. She went back to the bench, reached for her bag and brought out a folded stack of Ƶ500 notes, then hurried back to the man and pressed the money gently into the old man's hand.
Unbeknownst to her, when she dipped her hand into the bag to get the cash, the 99 rings glowed.
"I'd feel worse walking away with it for free than I would if I'd let you hit the ground."
"But this is too much," the man protested, unwilling to accept it.
Jenna gave him a small, tired smile. "It's not. Not for something this important."
The old man looked down at the bills again, brows furrowed, then back at the jade ring on her finger. "You value that junk this much?"
Jenna grinned, "My grandfather. He'd been looking for something like this for a long time and I planned on surprising him on his birthday. Who knows, I might get a lot more reward from him for this."
The old man chuckled, low and wheezy, eyes twinkling with amusement as he stared down at the money. "Youngsters and money." He tucked the bills into the front pocket of his dusty apron. "Fine. Consider it sold."
Jenna said nothing more. Bugging him farewell, she walked back to the bench, grabbed her backpack and was about to leave when she realized something strange — the weight had been lifted. It felt light, as if only her books were inside.
Jenna's heart trembled. What happened to the weighty rings?
Just as she was about to open the bag, she caught the old man staring at her curiously.
"Is anything the matter?"
Jenna quickly smiled, giving up on the idea and flung the backpack over one shoulder. "No, nothing. I thought I forgot something." She waved at the man, "have a good day, grandpa."
With that, she turned and hurried into the crowd.
She needed to get home fast and find out what the hell was going on.