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

made of Rhimestone, ensuring some solid safety. This way, our researchers can conduct experiments

"Rhimestone?"

my brow in mild

I remember, Rhimestone was an incredibly sturdy rock that

was also

his finger across the wall, the

worry about the facility if the artifacts

if they didn't do

my best to memorize the

place might turn out to be

the other areas?"

could probably

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

the mana fluctuations

"Yea."

no. Everything in this place is

the corner of the room, where a lone monitor

mana density in the room. When the mana density reaches a certain level, it will trigger a defensive mechanism and activate the security system, which in turn will shut the whole place

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

We don't want to take any risks. For better or worse, everyone here knows how the system works so they come prepared to

across the guard's eyes as he looked

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

"...I see."

quite ruthless

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

care about what happened to the people here, I

to sacrifice their own, after

a pity to lose so many

information was actually

I had previously envisioned

we go to

me, moving towards

last glance at

"Yes."