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.

standing next to me, the guard patted

ensuring some solid safety. This way, our researchers

"Rhimestone?"

raised my brow in mild

Rhimestone was an incredibly sturdy rock that could

was also ridiculously

the wall, the guard nodded

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

be stupid if they

best to

place might turn out to be more useful than

place isolated from the other areas?"

answer, I could probably make up for

it was no longer a matter of greed. This place could be instrumental

the mana fluctuations

"Yea."

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

towards the corner of the room, where

there measures the mana density in the room. When the mana density reaches a certain level, it will trigger a defensive mechanism and activate the security

it shuts down, what about the ones stuck inside? Do they have a

before shaking his head. "They'll be sealed inside, and probably die. We don't want to take any risks.

the guard's eyes as he looked at the researchers in

surviving, the system will deactivate as soon as it judges that the mana density in the room is

"...I see."

ruthless of

sure the threat would not go outside

really care about what happened to the people here,

to sacrifice their own, after

pity to

information was actually quite useful

previously

to the

moving

one last glance at the facility,

"Yes."