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 me, the guard

of the facility are made of Rhimestone, ensuring some solid safety. This way, our researchers can

"Rhimestone?"

brow in

Rhimestone was an incredibly sturdy

was also ridiculously

the wall, the guard nodded in

don't have to worry about the facility if

if they

responded, trying my best to memorize the layout of

place might turn out to be

the other areas?"

answer, I could probably make up

was no longer a matter of greed. This place

fluctuations and the like reach outside

"Yea."

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

corner of the room, where a

it

Do they have a chance to flee? I assume this must happen in a

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

eyes as he looked at the researchers in front of

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

"...I see."

ruthless

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

really care about what happened to the people here, I did feel that Inferno had taken some

ready to sacrifice their

would be a pity to

information was actually quite

I had previously

go to

out to me, moving towards

one last glance at the

"Yes."