Chapter 522: Modified Weapons!
Chapter 522
SWOOSH!
A portal opened up in the middle of a quiet room, and two figures stepped out of it. One of them was Grey, who strode straight to the bed and dropped into it with a heavy thud, utterly exhausted.
His body ached all over, and his mouth was still stained with dried blood, but he didn’t care. With slow, almost lazy movements, he pulled off one of his boots and let it fall to the floor with a dull sound. Meanwhile, Thalos walked calmly to the window and stood there, staring out at the dark horizon where the night sky stretched endlessly.
"Who even knows what time it is now," Thalos sighed as he plopped himself into the chair nearby, his tone showing no real interest.
Grey only shifted deeper into the bed, snuggling into the sheets with a weary groan.
"Aren’t you going to sleep?" Grey asked in a muffled voice.
"I don’t sleep," Thalos replied promptly without turning his gaze from the window.
"That’s strange. I could’ve sworn I’ve seen you sleep a few times," Grey muttered before casually shrugging it off. A moment later, he was already slipping into slumber, leaving the gargoyle standing silent like a vigilant guardian.
’I wonder what his real plan is for the future,’ Thalos thought quietly, his eyes glinting faintly as he watched Grey begin to snore softly, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
_
A few hours later, dawn had already broken, and the room was lit faintly by the golden morning rays. The duo were awake—well, more accurately, Grey was awake.
He was quick to take a refreshing bath, the sound of splashing water filling the chamber for a while, before he emerged looking revitalized. He adjusted his mask carefully, making sure it sat snugly across his face just in time to hear a knock echo on the door.
"Come in," Grey called out, his voice slightly altered by the mask.
The door creaked open, and Dame strode inside with a small smile tugging at his lips. Yet, despite the smile, something was visibly off about him.
His eyes were ringed with dark black bags, his movements heavy and weary. The exhaustion clung to him like a shadow, but still he forced himself to look presentable as he approached the Supreme Magus.
Grey noticed it all but didn’t comment. He simply let it slide.
"So, what’s the surprise?" Dame asked with a half-smirk, his tone carrying a hint of anticipation. He was already imagining a mountain of pills waiting for him, his eyes almost gleaming with expectation.
Grey didn’t reply with words. Instead, he moved his hand through the air. The wind surged at his command, brushing past like a phantom breeze before striking against a sack at the corner of the room. To Dame’s greatest surprise, the sack floated smoothly through the air until it hovered right in front of him.
The warrior instinctively reached out, catching it with a raised brow. His mind replayed the scene a few times before he slowly shook his head in disbelief.
’Should I really be surprised? He didn’t just save Talon’s life that day, he also crafted pills completely different from the ones we’ve ever seen here. I always thought he was more of an alchemist, but maybe I was wrong. Just what’s inside this sack?’
Under Grey’s calm nod, Dame opened it carefully.
"Huh?" His eyes widened slightly when he discovered half of the weapons he had delivered yesterday were now returned to him. He blinked in confusion, lifting his gaze. "Why are you giving these back to me? Aren’t they useful to you anymore?"
"They have already served their purpose," Grey answered calmly.
Dame frowned and pulled out a pair of gauntlets from the sack. Recognition dawned on his face.
It was his personal pair, the ones that had cracked just a week ago during a beast hunt when he went to acquire the cores Grey had requested.
Yet now, not only were they repaired, but they gleamed as though brand new. In fact, when he slipped his fingers across the surface, he could almost feel the subtle increase in their power.
The gauntlets had never been rare or special. They were merely earth-tier weapons, not precious enough to care about. That was why he had thrown them into the mix of items for Grey without a second thought. And yet, here they were, returned and transformed.
"Those pieces of equipment, and the rest of the items in that sack, have been modified by me. They’re stronger now and can serve more than one purpose," Grey explained casually, as if it were nothing.
"Modified? In what way?" Dame asked curiously as he dug deeper into the sack. His hand brushed over the hilt of a sword he recognized, but what caught his attention most was something unfamiliar.
At the very bottom rested a strange, plain mask. He was certain he had never given this to Grey, and yet it was sitting there, simple but oddly out of place.
"Huh? What even happened to the others? I remember I brought in two of every weapon except the gauntlet."
"They got destroyed in the process of me forging the equipment." Grey casually replied.
"So back to my initial question, when you say modified, what do you mean?" Dame asked with a raised brow as he stared into the sack of equipment.
"The mask," Grey began with a sigh as he pointed at the item in Dame’s hands. "Once worn, the wearer can take the face of anybody they want. If they are trying to impersonate someone, the mask will also alter their aura to match the impersonated individual.
Know this! You can only mask your aura a stage below or above your current stage."
Dame was stunned. His mouth hung slightly open as he stared at his hands—more precisely, at the mask he held and he didn’t know how to react.
Without letting Dame recover from the initial shock, Grey spoke again.
"The gauntlet. I will just tell you one feature it has and leave the rest for you to figure out. I noticed it was an earth-ranked weapon, so after modification, it is now a sky-ranked weapon. Also, when worn, the user can integrate it into their body.
Which means, no one will know they are wearing a weapon as the gauntlet will camouflage itself as skin and avoid detection from certain people. As for the last feature, figure it out yourself. Same goes for the sword." Grey explained before waving his hands dismissively with a tired yawn.
’Th... th... who the fuck is this Supreme Magus?! The hell is with these equipment? If I tried to sell these, the amount I’d receive would be exuberant. No! I can’t sell them. If what he says is true, then I’ll happily keep them.
Even Alba won’t know about this.’ Dame thought, his mind running wild. He smiled and clutched the sack with a fierce grip before bowing slightly towards Grey.
"Thank you. You really don’t know what you’ve done for me." He smiled genuinely this time, his weariness momentarily forgotten.
"The pills—how are sales coming up?" Grey asked, ignoring the show of gratitude as Dame rose back to his full height.
"My partner is on it, and they’re selling like hotcakes. We might need more soon." Dame replied.
"You already know what I need, so get to work. I need to finish it before today ends, because Pink and I will be heading somewhere afterward." Grey said firmly.
Without hesitation, Dame turned around and left the room to gather the cores needed for the Supreme Magus.
’After these pills are done, it will finally be time for me to get my lightning magic back.’ Grey thought with his fists tightening until his knuckles cracked. His eyes glowed faintly behind the mask, filled with both resolve and anticipation for what was to come.