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Chapter 70

“Th-thank you!”

Giving a deep ninety-degree bow, like they were addressing a superior, the student left. Watching their departing figure, Ren started speaking calmly.

“That friend just now seems to have some potential. Put in a word with the Department of Archery for their funding.”

“Yes.”

“Also, reduce the funding for that Department of Alchemy student earlier; they don’t seem to have the aptitude needed. If they try to cling on, have them sign a contract or something.”

“Understood.”

The members of the Noblesse who had brought the students according to Ren’s instructions nodded in response. They were currently going through the sponsorship selection process for the freshmen invitees.

At a glance, some might think Ren was merely ranking students based on their aptitude for his own purposes, but that wasn’t the case at all. With a word from him, the selected students could receive sponsorships from various backgrounds—corporations, guilds, or even high-ranking heroes who attended the Noblesse.

We’ve become stronger than before.

Once Ren took control of the Noblesse, they had become more organized than ever before and had even begun receiving sponsorships from various groups. Under Ren’s leadership, they had become an elite group that was solidifying around its origin of Babel; they were a new powerhouse in the making.

And Erika was currently quietly watching the cause of it all do his work.

Checking the time, Ren smiled.

“Let’s end it here for now. Good work, everyone.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

The others bowed their heads and left, leaving Ren and Erika alone.

“When I become a fourth-year, you’ll have to take over, so make sure to watch closely today. It will be a great source of strength for our family once we solidify the foundation,” he said calmly.

“Understood.”

Though Erika thought it was meaningless, if it was necessary for the family, then she would get it done.

Glancing at her due to her dry response, Ren slowly said, “By the way, that guy, Lee Se-Hoon, was it? He seems a bit disappointing.”

“...”

“I thought that he would have been able to detect the Black Mist Curse.”

By itself, the Black Mist Curse was merely a vision spell that connected the target and the caster—a curse without much of an effect—but its true value was revealed when used with other curses.

With its effect of connecting the target and caster, it allowed other curses, including itself, to infiltrate deeply into the body of the target without resistance.

“It’s quite amusing that one can lose control of their body with just a snap of a finger without them ever realizing why.”

Just like Carter Douglas, whom he had previously driven out of the banquet hall, Ren could summon Se-Hoon right now and make him kneel if he wished.

He couldn’t help but sigh with disappointment upon feeling the still-connected Black Mist Curse and the unstable mana beyond it.

“I don’t think he’s worth looking at any further.... What do you think?”

“...”

At his question, Erika recalled the sight of Se-Hoon from earlier.

He noticed it.

The moment the Black Mist Curse was placed on Se-Hoon’s right hand, she noticed that his consciousness had been drawn to it for a brief moment.

It was such a subtle reaction that it would have been nearly impossible to notice unless one was already observing him closely. And having noticed due to doing just that, Erika decided to speculate what Se-Hoon’s true intention was instead.

Considering the level of the countermeasures he’s shown before, it’s probably easy for him to dispel something like the Black Mist Curse. So if he’s leaving it alone, then that probably means... he plans to retaliate.

Having quickly reached that point in her thoughts, it became clear what she needed to do. She indifferently responded, “If that’s what you think, then please proceed as you see fit.”

Her answer which was full of indifference and yet carried a sense of certainty intrigued Ren.

So she’s this sure about that guy.

Was there something he hadn’t seen yet? Although Ren had been about to dispel the curse, he paused and decided to reconsider.

It wouldn’t hurt to observe a bit longer.

Looking at his sister, standing by his side indifferently, he began pondering carefully.

However, he was interrupted by the movement of mana that was transmitted to him through the Black Mist Curse. Then, a sudden burst of light and ensuing murmurs came from one side of the banquet hall.

Recognizing that the light was coming from the exhibition zone prepared by the Barmuths, he quickly realized what was happening.

“Vier...”

Even though Vier had seen Ren intervene, he still dared to act again. His displeasure growing, Ren immediately began heading toward the exhibition zone.

And the moment he arrived after cutting through the crowd—

Click! Clack!

He saw a piece of newly assembled equipment floating in midair.

***

Alchemical equipment was a type of equipment that was highly versatile and could be assembled into various forms depending on the situation, occupying a significant place in the future blacksmithing industry.

However, right now, in its early stages, it hadn’t receive much attention at all due to two main reasons.

“First off, their actual performance is terrible, and secondly, they’re utterly lacking in stability. This scar on my chest was from mishandling one of the prototypes, not from a monster.”

The S-tier hero Weapon Master, who was one of Se-Hoon’s regulars, often complained about nearly losing his life because of a prototype alchemical weapon that he had been provided in the past.

And since he had heard this story more times than he could count, he remembered the name of it well—Iron Warden. It was the equipment in front of him.

...This is definitely bound to explode.

True to its Hero tier, it boasted a high output and a respectable eighteen forms of transformation. It was decent overall, but it had a problem due to its overly precarious structure.

The smelting process itself seems to have been faulty, reducing its durability. And they also recklessly increased the number of mana circuits to enable more transformations, lowering the durability even more.

To put it simply, it was like stacking blocks in the form of an inverted pyramid without any adhesives. It looked majestic, but it was so unstable that even a breeze would collapse it.

The durability is too low to be used as a conventional weapon... so in that case, it would be better to specialize its weapon skills.

Having decided on how to improve the Iron Warden, he immediately began to manipulate the connected Black Weaver.

Click! Creeeak-

The fragments of the completely disassembled Iron Warden began to rearrange, fitting together like a new puzzle. Its new form was that of a sword, its blade made of smaller blades layered on top of each other like an alligator tail. Though it was a rather grotesque shape, there was not a single part that felt unstable.

Clank!

When the last piece clicked into place, Se-Hoon immediately snatched up the completed sword.

“Let’s see... Waiter, come here.”

Calling over a passing golem, he picked up a piece of fruit from the tray it was carrying.

Then, throwing the fruit into the air, he lightly swung the newly recreated Iron Warden in his hand.

Whoosh-!

With the sound of the air tearing apart, a wind blade split the fruit in two.

Boom!

But rather than dispersing, the wind blade continued forward, striking the protective magic that was cast on the ceiling of the banquet hall. It had outputted such an absurd amount of power from just a light swing.

Everyone but one was dumbfounded by the sight.

“Give it to me!”

Rushing toward Se-Hoon, Vier snatched the Iron Warden from his hand, immediately examining its information message.

[Iron Warden: Gale Cutter]

[Tier: Hero] [Quality: Above Average]

[A piece of alchemical equipment forged from Ripple Crystal.

Its organically connected joints allow whip-like flexible movements, and the embedded mana circuits accelerate the sword, creating wind blades.

*Can create wind blades by infusing mana

*Can be transformed into other weapons

*Enables the use of the skill ‘Gale Cutter’]

“...”

Originally, the Iron Warden was a poor-quality Hero-tier piece of alchemical equipment, and no matter what form it transformed into, its quality had never increased.

However, the Iron Warden that Se-Hoon had just reconstructed had risen to above-average quality. In just that short amount of time, Se-Hoon had managed to solve the issue of the Iron Warden.

This is absolutely nonsensical...

The reason Vier chose to use the Iron Warden as bait was because it was believed to be impossible to fix, despite its obvious flaws. As such, he couldn’t believe that Se-Hoon was somehow able to fix what even their entire research team couldn’t.

And that very fact made Vier’s eyes grow cold.

He must be eliminated.

If Vier wasn’t able to deal with Se-Hoon right now, it was certain that it would be much harder the next time due to his elevated status.

His decision made, he composed himself and glared at Se-Hoon.

“Trickery.”

“What?”

“You increased the output without considering its stability to refine its quality, right? Did you think I’d be fooled by such a trick?”

Upon his accusation, the crowd stirred. Seizing the moment, Vier continued his tirade.

“To think you’d boldly pull a trick in front of me, do I look that foolish to you?”

Hearing the earnest contempt in his voice, which was full of hostility and disdain, the surrounding students had been convinced.

“Did he really use some trick?”

“But the quality improved, didn’t it?”

“He’s saying that Se-Hoon used a shortcut by just boosting the output, though. Don’t you know that stability is crucial for alchemical equipment? Without it, it’s meaningless.”

Between Se-Hoon and Vier, it was clear who the students’ faith would lean toward.

Vier was a third-year student of the Department of Blacksmithing and the next heir of the Barmuth family. On the other hand, Se-Hoon, a first-year honor student, had various controversies surrounding him, including his injuries.

It made sense that looks of doubt and suspicion gradually began being poured toward Se-Hoon. Without proper evidence, the situation seemed likely to turn against him.

Feeling the gazes, Se-Hoon finally realized what Vier was aiming for.

So he’s trying anything he can, huh? And he had a rough idea of what Vier intended to do.

With a slight smile, Se-Hoon looked straight at Vier.

“If you’re that suspicious, why don’t you just test it out?”

“...”

“If I did cut corners like you said, infusing it with a lot of mana at once should cause it to overload. Try verifying it that way.”

Hearing Se-Hoon’s words, everyone began watching them with tense expressions.

And Vier, holding the Iron Warden, coldly said, “Don’t regret this.”

Gray mana immediately gathered in his hand, indicating the significant amount of elixir he had consumed so far, and the Iron Warden began to tremble.

Seeing how it looked unstable even before he fully infused his mana, Vier thought he could easily break it with just mana. However, just to be sure, he also activated his skill, Ore Resonance.

Ore Resonance was an A-tier skill that allowed one to manipulate the ore freely by resonating their mana with the essence of the ore. It was typically used during forging, but it could also be used to destroy equipment naturally.

He’ll be hurt more than I initially planned... but I guess it can’t be helped.

In a way, Vier was just clearing up any suspicions thoroughly. Vier infused the rest of his mana into the Iron Warden.

Creeeak-!

Sounding like was about to explode at any moment, the stacked blades of the Iron Warden began to tremble, unable to contain all the mana. It seemed like it was about to break apart.

Vier prepared to deliver the final blow by destroying the essence and exploding the sword, but before he could—

Whoosh!

A gray blade unfolded before him.

“...?”

The blades, structured like a spine, separated and expanded in midair, the gray mana he had infused forming the blade. The scene was drastically different from what was expected.

Everyone was watching in awe, when suddenly, someone bewilderedly murmured, “Is that... sword aura?”

The clarity of its form was too distinct for it to be merely a mass of mana, meaning it could only be sword aura. And that realization, left everyone, including Vier, utterly stupefied.

How...?

Though its mass production had failed, weapons capable of generating sword auras already existed. However, everyone was so astonished because it already existed.

He should’ve needed a hero that could wield sword aura to process the mana circuits...

Even if they were identical mana circuits, without someone who could properly wield sword aura to process them, it was impossible to create sword aura weapons. That one specificity was the main obstacle preventing the mass production of sword aura weapons.

And yet, Se-Hoon had easily overcome it, using the equipment that Vier had deemed a failure at that.

“...”

When Vier’s thoughts reached this point, he hesitated no more, his eyes filling with gray as he maximized the power of Ore Resonance.

Immediately, the vividly maintained sword aura began to disperse and cracks began spreading through it, slowly breaking it apart piece by piece.

Kaboom!

Shards of gray sword aura shot in every direction.

So, this is how he’s going to act.

Se-Hoon knew Vier’s personal feelings were involved, but he hadn’t expected Vier to choose a method that could harm the other students around them.

Se-Hoon began gathering his mana in response.

“Hm.”

But before he could, a white hand reached out from the side, its fingertips scattering the afterimages left by the shards covered in sword aura flying by.

Swoosh!

In the blink of an eye, the shards covered in sword aura vanished without a trace.

At the overwhelming scene, Se-Hoon’s eyes widened, and the owner of the hand stepped forward.

Click- click-

The owner of the hand had a white jacket draped over her shoulders, covering the elegant red dress hugging her body, and long golden hair that seemed to emit its own light. Her presence was so commanding that no one dared say a word.

And right now, that woman was nonchalantly fiddling with a shard covered in sword aura in her hand, full of interest in it.

“So that was actual sword aura...”

Done inspecting the shard, she lightly crushed it.

Crack-

With no resistance at all, the shard, which was supposedly sharper and more durable than ordinary steel, crumbled into dust.

The woman, who just demonstrated how easily she could eliminate the shards of sword aura, was currently the strongest student in Babel.

That woman was the one destined to become a Perfect One—and the Destroyer of Light—in the future.

“Shall we have a chat?”

Aria Myers was smiling warmly at Se-Hoon.