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.

the thoughts I was having, standing next to me, the guard patted the

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

"Rhimestone?"

raised my brow in

what I remember, Rhimestone was an incredibly sturdy rock that could withstand

was also

his finger across the wall, the guard nodded in

have to worry about the facility if the artifacts ever do malfunction. The walls over here

they didn't

to memorize

to be more useful than I

the

I could probably

greed. This place could be instrumental to

asking whether the mana fluctuations

"Yea."

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

pointed towards the corner of the room, where a lone monitor

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

inside? Do they have a

We don't want to take

across the guard's eyes as he looked

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

"...I see."

ruthless of

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

about what happened to the people here, I did

sacrifice

be a pity to

the information was actually quite useful to

I had previously envisioned became much more

we go to

me, moving towards the door of the

glance at the facility,

"Yes."