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.

I was having, standing next to me, the

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

"Rhimestone?"

raised my brow in

incredibly sturdy rock that could

was also ridiculously

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

if they didn't do

to

out to be more useful than

from the other

I could probably make up for

matter of greed. This place

Are you asking whether the mana fluctuations and the

"Yea."

in this place is completely isolated. Take a look

guard pointed towards the corner of the room, where a

there measures the mana density in the room. When the mana density reaches a certain level, it will trigger a

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

The guard looked at the duergars working on the artifacts in the distance before shaking his head. "They'll be sealed inside, and probably die. We don't want to take any

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

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

"...I see."

quite ruthless

not go outside of the room, they were

the people

ready to sacrifice their

a pity to lose

information was actually quite useful to

I had previously envisioned became

to the next

out to me, moving towards the door of the

last glance at the

"Yes."