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.

was having, standing next to me, the guard patted the side of

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

"Rhimestone?"

raised my brow

an incredibly sturdy rock that could withstand

was also ridiculously

across the wall, the guard

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

they didn't do

responded, trying my best to memorize the layout

out to be more useful

from the other areas?"

answer, I could probably

a matter of greed. This place could

whether the mana fluctuations

"Yea."

Everything in this place is completely isolated. Take a

guard pointed towards the corner of the room,

level, it will trigger a defensive mechanism and

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

"They'll be sealed inside, and probably die. We don't want to take any risks. For better or worse, everyone here knows how the system works so they

eyes as he looked at the researchers in front of

system will deactivate as soon as it judges that the

"...I see."

quite ruthless

would not go outside of the room,

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

to sacrifice their own, after

a pity to lose so many

information was actually quite useful

previously envisioned became much

we go to

out to me, moving towards

glance

"Yes."