The Author's POV

341 Taking the initiative [1]

Halting his steps in front of a large metallic door, the guard paused for a moment.

Placing his small blue hand by the side of the door, the metallic structure rumbled and slowly opened up.

Rumble-

Once the door was halfway open, the guard started talking.

"This over here is the artifact testing area. As you're probably aware, this place is dedicated to testing artifacts and their power."

"Oh? I've heard of this place."

Walking into the room, I pretended to be unamused by what I saw.

In truth, I was beyond shocked. With all sorts of complex machinery around the room, duergars could be seen testing all sorts of artifacts.

BANG-

Covered in sophisticated equipment, the duergars tested weird-looking artifacts against some sort of odd machinery. Displayed on the machine was all sorts of data which other duergars looked at by the side, taking notes on their holographic- looking devices.

Some of the artifacts were so powerful that I could sense the mana in the air convering towards it.

Keeping a straight face had never been more difficult for me.

'...I wonder if I can steal them.'

I thought to myself.

Oddly enough, that was the first thing I thought as I looked at the artifacts. I couldn't be blamed though.

Each one of the artifacts present would sell for astronomical prices back in the human domain.

To be honest, the probability of me being able to steal them was low, but a man could dream, right?

'Mhm... Actually, it's not impossible for me to steal them...'

A wild thought suddenly entered my mind.

If everything proceeded as planned, then, perhaps, I may be able to take some of the stuff here.

to

walls of the facility are made of Rhimestone, ensuring some solid safety. This way,

"Rhimestone?"

brow

was an incredibly sturdy rock that

was also ridiculously

across the wall, the guard nodded in

place is made of Rhimestone. Because of it, we don't have to worry about the facility if the

be stupid if they

responded, trying my best to memorize the layout of the

turn out to be more

from the other areas?"

I could probably make

greed. This place

fluctuations

"Yea."

got it. In that case, no. Everything in this place is completely isolated.

guard pointed towards the corner of the room,

level, it will trigger a defensive mechanism and activate the security system, which in turn will

about the ones stuck inside? Do they have a chance to flee? I assume this must

and probably die. We don't want to take any risks. For better or worse, everyone here knows how the system

flashed across the guard's eyes as he looked at the researchers in front of

way, if they do end up surviving, the system will deactivate as soon

"...I see."

ruthless of

make sure the threat would not go outside of the room,

I didn't really care about what happened to the people here, I did feel that Inferno had taken some

sacrifice their

pity to lose

was actually quite useful to

previously envisioned became much more

go to the

guard called out to me, moving towards the

one last glance

"Yes."