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.

having, standing next to me, the guard patted

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

"Rhimestone?"

raised my brow

what I remember, Rhimestone was an incredibly sturdy rock that

was also

wall, the guard

have to worry about the facility if the artifacts ever do malfunction. The walls over here

they didn't do this

to memorize

out to be more useful than I

the other areas?" I carefully

could probably make up for the

matter of greed. This place could be

Are you asking whether the mana fluctuations and the like reach outside of

"Yea."

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

pointed towards the corner of the room, where a lone monitor

reaches a certain level, it will trigger a

down, what about the ones stuck inside? Do they have a chance to flee? I

probably die. We don't

flashed across the guard's eyes as he looked

up surviving, the system will deactivate as soon

"...I see."

quite ruthless of

would not go outside of the room, they were prepared to have

really care about what happened to the people

were ready to sacrifice their own,

a pity to lose so many

actually quite useful to

that I had previously

to

me, moving towards

glance

"Yes."