章 10: Suspicious
— Morning of the 4th Day —
After three days of no contact from her new partner. The Genius Artificer as she had perceived, didn't even come out of the room, not even order some takeaway from the delivery service, he had completely buried himself within the room.
[Hmm… is he ok? He didn't come out for three days straight.] Wrath pondered within her mind as she walked toward her old safehouse that was now the property of her new partner.
But then an overwhelming feeling rushed at her as she felt a surge of powerful mana come from the direction of her old safe house. She quickly prepares her combat spell on her hand and rushes toward the door.
"Dan!! Are you ok!?" She shouted and slammed her hand that was covered with the spell called "Decay" on the door in hope that it would quickly dissolve and open a small window for her to see if anything is wrong behind the door or if there were any enemies.
Boom!
The sound of the spell slammed on the door but instead of it immediately decaying, Its surface didn't have even a trace of a scratch.
"What!? Impossible!" Wrath exclaimed in disbelief.
But before she has time to do anything more the door suddenly opens and a cloud of metal scarabs rushes at her. Their speed was equal to the speed of a bullet but this attack triggered her second prepared spell.
Whoosh!
The black-red magic shield appears before her eyes as it disintegrates any metal scarabs that were attacking her. Normally, this shield of hers could last hours as she put a lot of her expertise into creating this spell but against the overwhelming number of metal scarabs it only lasted for seconds.
Crack…
The crack appears on the shield as her magic vein begins to overload as it is continuously working at a maximum capacity and still cannot supply magic to the shield that is swallowing her mana like a hungry demon in order to protect her.
[Am I going to die here? Dan… I'm sorry…] The last thought of regret appeared in her mind as her knee gave in as exhaustion began to take over, but then.
"Stop!" A loud order was heard from inside the room. It was the voice of the man she was partnered with.
"Sigh—" Wrath let out a sigh of relief as she saw that all of the scarabs immediately stopped attacking her shield and returned to the room.
"Clean it up" Another order came and the scarab quickly gathered all of the dust and scrap that were piling on the floor at Wrath's feet with their miniature tool on its legs. They merge it into one pile like a dung beetle and carry it into the room.
"Are you ok?" Daniel asks as he extends his hand to help Wrath get up.
"What was that?" She asks while looking at some of the busy scarabs that are still arranging many strange-looking artifacts on the shelf.
"It's the "Self Replicating Scarab", I created it to reduce my workload. These little guys can build almost anything I require in my work. As long as it does not involve the soul of a living being and those forbidden hocus pocus of course." Daniel proudly answered.
"How many of them are there?" Wrath asks with a bit of wariness. She understands how dangerous this self-replicating program could be. If it was not properly controlled, it could bring the end of the world.
"About a little bit over 30 thousand? I think. The raw material was limited after all." Daniel answered, not too sure about the exact number of these little scarabs.
"Sigh…." Wrath let out a sigh of relief again. If it were millions then these scarabs would have attracted some attention due to the sudden pull of natural mana within the world while these things were operating.
"By the way, Did you come here to check on my work?" Daniel asks then walks toward the large weapon rack outside of the workshop.
[No! I just want to check up on you and see if you're ok] Is what wrath thought but said.
"Yes… But, as expected of you who created those construction golems. To be able to create self-replicating small constructs like those little scarabs. To say that I am in awe of what you achieved was an understatement." Wrath said proudly while letting out a self-pity smile with the reason only known to her.
"Are you planning to sell these scarabs?" Wrath asks while looking at one of the metal scarabs that landed on the table near her.
"You are misunderstood, I didn't plan on selling those scarabs. What I'm going to sell is this." Daniel points at one of the two of his weapon racks that are holding various weapons.
At the weapon rack, Daniel pointed at. Weapons such as Katana, Longswords, Spear, Bows, Halberd, Bardiche, Rapier, and even futuristic-looking guns lie neatly on a rack, showing their glamorous appearance.
Seeing the weapon on the rack that emanates a ridiculous amount of magical power, Wrath felt like she had stood in front of a weapon rack full of Legendary weapons.
"This is for you." Daniel gives the black katana along with its scabbard to Wrath.
Wrath received it and pulled out a scabbard to see the blade and saw that it looks like a normal Katana, but the great amount of magical power that was emanating from it told her otherwise. This katana was anything but normal.
"Is it locked? Do I have to do anything for it to accept me?" She asks while checking on the blade.
"Try injecting your mana into it until you feel like it has accepted you," Daniel explains.
Wrath began injecting her mana into the katana, at first she injected it a little bit but then she didn't feel anything different, then she began to increase her power until her sweat began to appear on her hand.
Vroom!
The katana shone as its blade turned from pitch black to beautiful crimson and light blue intertwined with each other as the mana began to run through it like a priceless jewel. The unknown power runs through her body as it improves her physical prowess.
Wrath then notices a string of kanji at the base of the blade as it is written "Fu-gen no Haradachi" or Silence Wrath in English.
"Is… is this the self-conscious sword, the one that the owner needs to display their worth before it could accept them?" She uttered in disbelief, as it is the only reason she could think of why the sword needed so much mana from her.
"No, I don't make self-conscious artifacts. It's annoying and I'm not that desperate to find someone to talk to." Daniel denied it with a little bit of a joke and then added.
"This sword was just the soul-bound Artifact. It works the same as the self-conscious weapon in function as it prevents anyone other than you from using it. Also…" Daniel waved his hand for Wrath to give the sword back to him.
Wrath doesn't know what Daniel wanted to do but she still obediently gives the katana back to him. When the katana left Wrath's hand, its power immediately disappeared and returned to become a normal black katana.
Daniel threw the sword inside a large metal chest and locked it then turned toward Wrath.
"You should be able to feel the sword's presence, try to focus on its presence, and call it. The better your focus is, the faster it will respond to you." Said, Daniel.
Wrath then began to focus her mind on the sword's presence she felt and began to call on it.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
At that moment the metal chest begins to ring on the inside startling wrath and the banging sound begins to subside.
"Don't stop, try harder," Daniel repeated.
The banging sounds were louder and louder before the chest was cut from the inside and the katana flew to Wrath's hand handle first.
"This…" Wrath doesn't know how to respond as the sword is more impressive than she had hoped for.
Daniel doesn't care about Wrath's dazing state as he begins to explain about the sword more.
"Other than this, no matter what you do or how disadvantageous you are or what state you're in as long as you are able to attack, your attack will always hit the target first even if the opponent were to attack you first and it was about to hit you."
Hearing what Daniel said, Wrath was even more impressed. As this is nearly the degree of ancient magic. The slightest rewrite of causality that makes your attack always hit the target first. If what the man in front of her said is true then, he would have the same expertise as a Master Artificer.
"Don't tell me, all of those weapons are the same as this…" She muttered in disbelief while looking at two racks full of various weapons.
"No, All of those weapons aren't soul-bound and do not have the power of rewritten causality like the Katana I gave you. It's just normal artifact weapons that improve the power of the user. You should know, I won't make a powerful Artifact to any stranger I don't know. I hate the idea of having a weapon I made stabbing me in the back by someone who randomly bought my weapon."
Wrath was a little startled after hearing the word "Stab in the back" from Daniel. This little movement from Wrath was also in Daniel's eyes. He just silently watched it and didn't comment or anything and continued.
"Miss Wrath, Can you find me more magic material? I already use all of it. I hope the weapon on those two racks could fetch a good price."
Daniel's voice brings Wrath back to reality. She looked at various weapons on the racks and nodded.
"Judging from the magical power that emanated from those weapons. It should fetch a high prize." She then turned toward Daniel.
"It's good that all other weapons other than this "Silence Wrath" didn't have the power to rewrite the causality. Otherwise, there would be a mini-war in the mage's world to get this weapon." Wrath said to Daniel.
"That's why I make it Soul bound. Even if you were to be killed, Anyone who uses it other than you would be no different than using a piece of scrap metal." Daniel replied.
"Thanks…" Wrath said with gratitude. She knew how ruthless the competition for resources in the mage world is. This soul-bound function would make a lot of people in the mage world not have any greedy ideas about her weapon.
"Then why did you decide to make my katana special? We have just known each other for a few days." Wrath inquired.
Daniel let out a smile and looked directly at wrath where her eyes under the hood were supposed to be.
"I don't know, But I have a feeling that I know you well enough," Daniel replied.
Seeing the meaningful and questioning gaze from Daniel, Wrath's heart nearly gave her a heart attack. She knew that she let out her real voice the first time she met with Daniel and now he was suspicious of her true identity.
"Thanks for the blade, I'll let someone come to you and bring the weapons to sell at the auction house I know… See you later." Wrath said then dejectedly got out of Daniel's room. It was clear that what Daniel said was really gotten to her.
Daniel looks at Wrath's back while she walks through the hallway toward the elevator's hall. Now he was 70% sure who Wrath actually was.
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