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 facility are made of Rhimestone, ensuring some solid safety. This

"Rhimestone?"

raised my brow in mild

I remember, Rhimestone was an incredibly

also

finger across the wall, the guard nodded in

we don't have to worry about the facility if the artifacts ever do

if they

trying my best to memorize the layout of

turn out to be

place isolated from the other areas?"

I could probably make up for the

longer a matter of greed. This place could be instrumental to my

the mana fluctuations and the like

"Yea."

case, no. Everything in this place is completely

corner of the room,

density reaches a certain level, it will trigger a defensive mechanism and activate

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

artifacts in the distance before shaking his head. "They'll be sealed inside, and probably die. We don't want to take any risks. For better or worse, everyone here knows how

across the guard's eyes as he

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

"...I see."

ruthless of

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

to the people here, I did feel that Inferno had taken

ready to sacrifice their

be a pity to lose

actually quite useful to

previously envisioned became

go to the

to me, moving towards the door of

one last glance at

"Yes."