Hmm? What’s Lucia doing? She’s not absorbing the tomb? Was the defensive formation still active? Even though I promised myself I wouldn’t leave my weapon body and communicate with Lucia until after I was able to withstand one of her attacks, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about something bad happening to her. Only a few seconds have passed, so there’s no cause for alarm, but why didn’t she absorb it right away? Perhaps she’s mentally preparing herself. Any activity involving Lucia’s mental prowess takes a long time to process.

“Is everything alright, Lucia?” Puppers asked. He seemed worried. Him, worried about Luca? That’s new. “I found out that I’m highly resistant to this tomb’s techniques involving despair. I tried telling you that the defensive formation might not work on me even if it’s active, but you wouldn’t give me the chance to speak.”

Puppers is resistant to despair? What did he experience in the second trial? I doubt it would be something similar to my experience. Puppers would be overjoyed at being forgotten; he wouldn’t be as abused as much if that were the case. …Not that I felt any despair at the thought of Lucia abandoning me. A weapon spirit is born to kill, and if they’re lucky, raise their new masters. I’ve already done a splendid job of raising Lucia; I brought her to the point where she even became stronger than me. Though I’ve accomplished what I was born to do, it’s hard to say I can pass on without regrets. Why? Simple. I can’t stand the fact that Lucia’s stronger than I am. …Perhaps I’m a terrible weapon spirit.

Puppers frowned. “Lucia?”

Lucia’s not responding. But there’s no signs of her wanting to rip her face off, and her qi seems to be flowing normally. If it didn’t flow normally and showed signs of wanting to explode, I don’t think I could help either way.

“She seems to be stuck in the defensive formation of the tomb,” the fake Ilya said. I didn’t even notice her leave Lucia’s crown. And the fake Vera is still hiding inside of it, not daring to show her face in front of me. “She should’ve reinforced herself with her aura of slaughter before touching the tomb. Is she stupid? No, I shouldn’t have asked when I already know the answer.” The fake Ilya sighed, acting eerily similar to the real one despite Lucia not paying attention to her. “To free her from the formation, we’ll have to trigger her slaughter aura. I noticed she unleashes it when she gets angry. Any ideas?”

We could steal her food. That usually makes her mad, but she’s not eating right now.

Puppers sighed. “I guess I’ll sacrifice myself.” He lifted the spear he obtained from the tomb. How come he got a spear and I didn’t get a sword? Did he pass the second trial? His eyes narrowed, and he positioned himself with his feet spread slightly apart, taking aim at … Lucia’s tail. Unlike usual, her tail was limp and resting against the ground. With a shout, Puppers thrust forward, and the spear cleanly stabbed into Lucia’s tail near its base, coming out of the other side.

Lucia shrieked, and her tail stiffened, acting like a surprised animal who, well, just had her tail pierced by a spear. With a swing of her arm, Puppers’ upper body exploded, and the rest of him turned into motes of lights that sank into Lucia’s socks. As for the spear, it disappeared along with Puppers. Lucia’s head swiveled back and forth. “W-where am I?” She patted herself before exhaling and collapsing to her knees. The hole at the base of her tail was already patching itself up thanks to Lucia’s ridiculous bodily regeneration. “It’s the ground! Fuck water! When I become an immortal, I’m going to remove all water from existence!”

…It seems like she had a bad time with water inside of that defensive formation. Is that really the thing that causes her to despair the most? Water? I don’t understand why she hates it so much. Yes, she told me she was almost drowned in a barrel once, but she was almost eaten by wild beasts too, yet she’s not afraid of them. Maybe it’s because she can kill wild beasts but not water.

“But before then, you’ll probably want to absorb this tomb to help you become an immortal,” the fake Ilya said and pointed at the tomb.

“No!” Lucia shouted. “No touch!” Her tail stiffened even more, pointing straight up at the sky, her furs bristling. “That defensive formation is evil! Too evil!”

Ilya’s brow furrowed, but it relaxed in the next moment. “Does that mean you’re giving up on finding out Durandal’s secrets?”

My what? Wait, what does this tomb have to do with finding out my secrets?

“No!” Lucia shook her head. “I hit the tomb with my qi, and nothing happened right? That’s how I carved out that engraving. All I have to do is demolish the tomb the old-fashioned way.” Her hammer appeared in her hands. “I’m going to destroy it in a satisfying manner!”

That … might take a while considering how large the tomb is. From the ground, I can barely see the edge of the first layer when looking straight up.

“That’ll take you forever.”

See, even the fake Ilya agrees with me.

“Not true,” Lucia said and shook her head. “All I have to do is destroy the foundation! Once anything’s foundation is destroyed, the rest topples over.”

…Do those bones of intelligence really work? Why don’t I force her to consume more of those?

“Even still, the foundation’s extremely sturdy…,” Ilya said. “And there’s no guarantee that the defensive formation won’t activate if you hit the tomb with a hammer.”

Lucia frowned. At that moment, someone appeared next to her, a random stranger who had been kicked out of the tomb. Without giving him a chance to orient himself, Lucia put a sword in his hands. “Smack the tomb for me.”

“E-excuse me?”

Lucia sighed and grabbed the person, then she picked him up as if he were a doll and swung his arm for him, cutting the tomb’s wall with the sword in his hand. “So? Feel like exploding?”

“N-no. Can you explain to me—”

Then, Lucia pressed the person against the tomb’s wall.

He exploded.

Lucia turned towards Ilya. “See? It’s only direct contact that triggers the tomb’s defensive formation!”

Ilya looked at Lucia with wide eyes. “Did you just formulate a hypothesis and test it out with an experiment?”

Lucia tilted her head. “Did I just what?”

“Never mind.”

What am I watching Lucia for? She’s improving herself, whether it be in her mind or body. I have to cultivate if I don’t want to be abandoned by her.