Although Indianna was surprised that a noblewoman would be traveling with us together with her servant, he was an experienced old man, so he accepted it rather quickly and in the end led us to the same shops where he had recently bought equipment calculated for two people. Now there were four of us, which meant we needed gear and supplies for four.
Unlike the seasoned old man, however, Cecilia just couldn't let go of the thought that the main shady dealings in this city were happening with the permission of the city's own leader.
"I don't understand. If he really is behind all of this, then how were you able not only to get quests to wipe out gangs, but also receive a decent reward for it?" she asked a perfectly reasonable question.
"It's all thanks to Merimi. The owner of that tavern," I decided to explain. "Some might not know it, but she used to be a very famous adventurer, and even now, if she went all out, she'd be perfectly capable of going up against an entire army alone and coming out on top. So most likely it was simply more profitable for them to get rid of a couple of not‑so‑important groups than to pick a fight with her. I even suspect those guys might've gotten too bold, and they just had them erased using my hands."
"You're a bit too calm about this kind of thing," Cecilia said with a slight frown as we watched Indianna haggling.
"I'm not ready to tell you everything yet, but know this: I've seen and gone through a lot of things that made me cold‑blooded toward bastards like the ones I killed. Even if it was all part of Milo's schemes—I don't care."
"I see…" the noblewoman replied shortly, without prying further.
After that we simply continued buying everything we needed as if the conversation had never happened, and I, of course, did not forget to pick up a couple of trinkets from the local perverted artifact peddler. Strictly speaking, they were completely useless materials for average people and even novice mages—things like a certain type of wood that's more receptive to magic—but even so, these little things cost me a full five gold coins. It was sad, but necessary for crafting artifacts.
Back at the tavern.
"Are you sure it's there?" Cecilia asked, obvious doubt in her voice as she looked at the cross I'd marked on the map at coordinates X69Y74.
"Absolutely," I confirmed confidently.
"But that's solid mountain terrain for many kilometers."
"And yet that's exactly where the tomb of the Slayer of False Gods, the Berserker, is located."
"How do you even know about this?" Cecilia asked.
"I've already been there," I didn't lie. I really had visited that tomb both through Lona's memories and in the game. Though, unlike in the game, in reality the sword there wasn't just a regular greatsword, but an absurdly huge hunk of iron—a blade that, due to being soaked in the blood of powerful beings, had become a true curse for any supernatural creature.
"So what's waiting for us there?"
"A trial. We'll have to fight undead, as well as the Berserker turned into a skeleton, and if we manage to defeat him, we'll receive his weapon."
"How difficult will this trial be?" Greyrat asked.
"The regular undead won't pose any real threat—we'll deal with them easily. The problem is the Berserker. Above all, you must never let his sword strikes hit you. Even you, Greyrat—it's better for you to dodge instead of trying to block with your shield. In life, the Berserker, armed with a single two‑handed sword, challenged the supernatural all by himself, and he wasn't called the Slayer of False Gods for nothing, just like his sword wasn't named the God‑Devourer for no reason. So our task will be to avoid his attacks while I bombard him with fire magic. The undead are extremely weak against it."
"And you originally planned to go there just the two of you?" Cecilia asked, raising a brow.
"Yes, I'm confident in my abilities," I replied. Given the inherited combat experience of the sage Lona, along with her knowledge and a portion of her power, it would have been downright stupid to fail.
"And if I had failed, Sage Lona would probably have laughed herself to death," I couldn't help thinking, recalling how she reacted to my unsuccessful attempts during the trial.
"Something wrong?" Cecilia asked, noticing the change in my mood.
"It's fine, I just remembered something unpleasant."
"Give me your sword and shield, I'll enchant them a li‑ttle. I can't do much, but making them stronger and sharper is within my power."
"…," after a brief silence and obvious hesitation from Cecilia, it was Greyrat who first handed me his shield without saying a word.
"Ugh, fine! Here. But I want to see everything you're going to do, got it?" the noblewoman said irritably before handing me her sabre in its scabbard.
"Alright. Just don't distract me while I'm working—I'd rather not damage your things instead of reinforcing them," I agreed calmly and, under the clearly surprised gaze of the big guy, calmly lifted his shield with one hand, took Cecilia's clearly expensive, high‑quality sabre in the other, and went to my room.
How was I planning to enchant a sword and shield if it was obvious that artifacts in this world, just as Cecilia had said, are directly tied to mana and, if the user has none, grant it with a certain side effect? Well, first of all, I should clarify that calling this "enchanting" on my part is actually incorrect. It's more akin to something like magical forging, and the whole thing is based on Lona's attempts to study spatial magic—or, to be more precise, to recreate that magic, since there was no one to teach it to her.
How is that related to spatial magic? Well, first of all, almost everything in the world is made of atoms, and that girl—daring and, I'm not afraid to say it, brilliant—somehow managed, despite her circumstances, to discover the existence of atoms and the way they bind together, all through experimenting with magic. Building on that, she once came up with a rather interesting idea: to make materials stronger by using magic to reinforce the bonds between atoms. And since, for example, the blade of a sword becomes stronger, you can afford to make the edge sharper without worrying that it'll dull or shatter after the very first strike.
While I was musing on Lona's achievements, I was also, under the close watch of my new companions, slowly forming a spell directly on the surface of the shield. As soon as the initial preparations were complete, the shield began to glow and then gradually shrink: the interatomic bonds were growing shorter, and the defects were being filled in with my magic. I could feel my mana draining faster and faster with every second, and when it dropped to about one‑tenth, I cut off the spell and, feeling slightly out of breath, looked at the result. The fairly bulky steel shield, which had been at least ten centimeters thick, had shrunk by around ten percent.
"I've heard that if you eliminate the defects in steel, its theoretical strength increases by almost tenfold. Right now I not only filled the defects with magic, but also shortened the interatomic bonds by ten percent, thereby increasing the material's density at the same time. So compared to what it used to be, this shield should be many times stronger," I said before handing over the slightly smaller, but far tougher shield.
"Ten times, huh… let's see," Greyrat snorted quietly at my words and grabbed the edge of the shield with his hand. His muscles suddenly bulged, and he tried to bend part of the shield.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" Cecilia jumped up at once, but under her slightly skeptical gaze, her servant—who she'd seen bend such shields in half with his bare hands—couldn't do anything now and even turned red from the effort before finally stopping with a huff.
"Good work," the big guy said with a smile for the first time in my memory—and I probably have enough memories with this pair and our not‑exactly‑rare adventures together to last for millennia.
"Let me see," Cecilia immediately snatched the shield from Greyrat's hands and inspected it carefully. "Amazing. The only visible change is that it became a bit smaller, and yet the result is this impressive."
"It'll be even more noticeable with the sword, since I can make the cutting edge thinner while keeping it at least as strong as it is now. That'll make it much sharper."
"Then what are you waiting for? Get to it!" the noblewoman said hastily, her eyes practically sparkling with anticipation.
"Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until I recover my mana. That shield took nearly my entire reserve," I had to disappoint her.
"…," the girl's enthusiasm instantly faded, only to flare up again a moment later. "What about potions?"
"Only if someone goes out to buy them."
"Wait here, I'll be right back," the noblewoman tossed out before leaving.
"Is she always like this?" I asked the big guy.
"Only when something really catches her interest," he replied.