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.

was having, standing next to me, the guard patted the side of the

of Rhimestone, ensuring some solid safety.

"Rhimestone?"

brow in

I remember, Rhimestone was an incredibly sturdy

also

his finger across the wall, the guard nodded

of Rhimestone. Because of it, we don't have to worry about the facility if the artifacts ever do malfunction. The walls over here

be stupid if they

to memorize the layout of the

might turn out to

from the other areas?" I

answer, I could probably make up for the

greed. This place could be

the mana fluctuations and

"Yea."

that case, no. Everything in this place is

of

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

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

die. We don't want to take any risks.

he

they do end up surviving, the system will deactivate as soon as it judges that the mana

"...I see."

ruthless

make sure the threat would not go outside of the room, they were prepared

about what happened to the people here, I did

ready to sacrifice their

to lose so many

information was actually quite useful to

had previously envisioned became much more

to

me, moving towards the door of

last glance at the

"Yes."