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,

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

"Rhimestone?"

my brow in mild

was an incredibly sturdy rock

was also ridiculously

wall, the

it, we don't have to worry about the facility if the artifacts ever do malfunction.

stupid if they didn't do this

responded, trying my best to memorize the layout

to be more useful

from the other

probably make

no longer a matter of greed. This place could be instrumental to my

asking whether the mana fluctuations and the

"Yea."

In that case, no. Everything in this

towards the corner of

machine over there measures the 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

what about the ones stuck inside? Do they have a

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

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

up surviving, the system will deactivate as soon as it judges that the

"...I see."

quite ruthless

would not go outside

what happened to the people here, I did feel

were ready to sacrifice

would be a pity to

actually quite useful

had previously envisioned became much more

to

to me, moving towards the

one last glance at the

"Yes."