“My qi is quite satisfying to use.” she muttered with a smirk as she looked at the carcass of the headless wyvern. She can see aura flowing from the wyvern to her gauntlet as she focused on connecting the aura thread to awaken her gauntlet.

This is one of the game-like features she added in the novel to not overcomplicate awakening special items. Usually, there is a prompt on Cain’s system to see how to awaken artifacts with quests such as killing a hundred specters or killing a shadow attributed entity. The special artifact would consume the aura, mana, attribute, and soul of the newly killed monster to awaken itself automatically but there’s a catch.

It must be killed and immediately start the aura thread and that the monster has the right requirements. Only Cain and some ancient blacksmith know about this information. It’s quite a relief that awakening the artifact is still the same in her novel. It was terrifying that everything she created and knew was changed. The feeling of the unknown and unpredictability is foreign to her as she gazed at Lawrence who stared at her back silently.

“What are you doing?” Luke asked, seeming interested in what she’s doing.

“I’m awakening this gauntlet…i can awaken this artifact by letting the gauntlet absorb the fire wyvern” she replied as Luke nodded. Waiting for more explanation.

“Don’t bother. Such awakening of artifacts are usually hard to do or near impossible without the right knowledge and privilege” Lawrence replied with hidden ire in his voice

“Well do you know how?” Luke asked as Lawrence stared at him before nodding

“I know how to awaken a few artifacts but Catalinna is more knowledgeable” he replied

“Hey wait! Why didn’t you tell me that you’re planning on stealing that cursed artifact?” Catalinna yelled while pointing at the black material covering Lawrence’s arms

“I figured that you would stop me. Besides, I got this artifact in control after that blind teen broke my arm” he replied

“Yeah who is that? That…whatever that was. It was too powerful” Luke pondered as both Lawrence and Catalinna had no idea who was that.

‘Is he the one who put us in this world? By his strength, it might be possible. Dammit. What the hell is he.’

“He said that he gave us gifts..do you guys know what it is?” Catalinna asked

“I figured that my gift was better control over this cursed artifact. It didn’t awaken its ego and consciousness yet.” Lawrence replied

“Mine….there doesn’t seem to be anything for me. No…it seems that my eyes changed. It’s like I can see the future if I focused enough but only by a second. " Luke opened his eyes while looking around before nodding to himself. Before looking at Vania wearing a mask.

“I-don’t know what gift he gave me…forgive me..i really don’t know” she replied hurriedly once knowing that everyone is staring at her as Catalinna glanced at the gauntlet to find it melting to her forearm and hands as it sizzled but she didn’t feel any pain. After waiting for a minute, the metallic gauntlet is gone and is replaced with a red pattern of a wyvern running from the back of her hand to her elbow as she flexed it to see if she feel anything weird but luckily, the pattern appearing is the only thing that changed on her arms as she felt that her right arm to be strengthened by three times and she has easier time letting the aura, mana, and qi flow in the parts where the pattern is located.

“Amazing” Vania muttered before hiding her face despite wearing a mask as Catalinna chuckled.

“Yes, it’s fine to gawk at my majestic physique and my flawless and beautiful face” she boasted with a huge smile

“and rotten inside..Let’s go” Lawrence smiled as the effects of the potion of changing appearance vanished as his youthful and handsome face returned while his fiery red hair returned as the mustache was gone. He caressed his face for a bit before nodding to himself.

“How…you weren’t an old noble?” Vania asked like her world was destroyed. She can’t believe that her boss looks younger than her and he is probably younger. She shouted inwardly as she cowered. If she can hide in a hole, she would do it.

“I’ll explain later…we should leave for now” Lawrence suggested as Catalinna nodded before hopping over the carcass and exploding the wall to reveal a secret room.

“What is this?” Luke asked

“Even you don’t know about this?” Catalinna asked back as she went deeper in the room as Lawrence followed her silently.

“No…there isn’t a record of a room behind the wyvern…this seems to be an alchemist hideout” Luke replied while looking at shelves full of books and bottles littered all the room. There doesn’t seem to be any light as a musky smell emanates from the rooms as if no one is cleaning the room for years.

“This is the experiment god’s children…where they tried using the bodily fluids of the dead giant after noticing that no matter how much they cut the corpse, it would still regenerate” Lawrence replied with a frown as they found beds where small skeletons are chained to it and a couple of skeletons laying on the floor.

“Sick bastards!” Luke muttered angrily but Vania felt off from his anger. It seems fake but she shuddered to see a close-up look of a skeleton as she accidentally gripped Luke’s arm after tripping as he shouted in surprise.

“H-hey….if you’re scared…you can use my a-arm” Luke replied awkwardly as Catalinna tried her best to avoid laughing.

“They would inject the fluids to a woman to see what would happen..” Lawrence stopped talking as Catalinna opened a metal room to find it littered with skeletons as they entered it.

“What happens to them?” Vania asked

“She would usually explode to become a gruesome abomination”

“Ughh..” Catalinna trembled in disgust as she burned the skeletons blocking the room in the far north of the room.

“Although there were times where a child would be born. They would either die a second later or become a hero of humanity” Lawrence explained

“You mean, the undying barbarian hero of the north is a result of this experiment?” Luke asked as Lawrence nodded.

“Why did they stop the experiment?” Luke asked once more as Catalinna opened the door to find a spiral staircase heading upstairs in the middle of a large dark empty room.

“The giant’s corpse released a deadly toxin that killed everyone. In an attempt to hide it, the empire walled off the entrance and blocked any information for getting out. For that wyvern, it was about to be sacrificed by the third prince to gain more power since his affinity is dark magic” Lawrence informed as all of them walked through the staircase leading up to the surface as they passed rooms upon rooms of unknown knowledge being left behind.

“How do you know more information than the black syndicate?” Luke suspiciously asked as Lawrence shrugged

“I have my ways”

After walking for half of an hour, Catalinna opened the trapdoor as dirt and soil rained on her after forcing it open. Once leaving the sewer through the secret room, Lawrence can finally see the moon and the stars lighting up the dark sky. The wind blowing across his felt liberating until it turned to chilly air as he felt something stirring in his stomach. He felt something breaking inside him as he immediately loses consciousness as everyone panicked

“W-what happened! B-boss?” Vania hurriedly checked Lawrence but there wasn’t anything wrong with his body. It’s as if he’s sleeping while Luke opened his eyes and he peered inside his dream to only feel his body weakening as he immediately loses consciousness.

Inside the darkroom, Lawrence found himself sitting on a metal throne as spears rained towards his shadowed enemy as they were skewered and pinned to the ground as their screams in pain and asking for forgiveness seems like music to his ears. He yawned as he looked bored out of his mind.

“What a lazy way of fighting” a teen appeared beside the throne with an amused smile as Luke looked around to find himself beside the throne

“Oh, you’re here” Ozial looked at Luke who is confused about what is happening.

“Luke?” Lawrence gazed at him

“You’re not supposed to be here~” Ozial smiled as Luke finds himself waking up with his eyes darting around to find himself near the trapdoor.

“What happened?” Catalinna asked

“Lawrence is currently talking to that teen” Luke replied as Catalinna gulped. Whatever that teen is doing, she doesn’t have any way of stopping him as she can only wait for Lawrence to wake up.

Inside the dream, Lawrence didn’t speak anymore as Ozial looked amused at the slaughter happening in his eyes.

“Have you never doubted yourself?” Ozial asked

“What do you mean?”

“Have you ever thought that you are merely a vessel, flowing along with the fate with no real will?” Ozial smiled as Lawrence didn’t reply as his smile widened

“Someone merely using someone’s body to do things that they were never able to achieve normally?”

“Get to the point” Lawrence angrily replied as Ozial chuckled.

“No need to be angry. Have you never wondered what happened to the soul of that body? Why you were even here and how?” Lawrence jolted as Ozial smiled widely

“Why am I the only one getting this treatment? I’m the same as Catalinna”

“Oh, perhaps…perhaps not. You see, she’s important to this world as the creator of the idea of this world.”

“Idea of this world?”

“You’re not gonna get an answer from me. I’m not your guide. I’m here for entertainment.”

“So why are you even here?”

“You see…after an eon. I got bored so once I found some interesting people… I can’t help but wonder what entertainment your small group can bring. I must say, I wasn’t disappointed. "

“So you are not the one who brought us here”

“You don’t know that” Ozial’s mischievous smile appeared on his face as he glanced at thousands of warriors impaled to the floor with spears in their corpses.

“If you aren’t gonna be helpful then release me from this dream”

“Oh, but I did help you. You wondered why the potion didn’t activate inside the sewer but once you went outside, you felt its effects. It’s because the moon goddess is gonna forcefully force out the potion that you drank.”

“She can do that?”

“Of course, she has an influence on your body.”

“No need for thanks. I just don’t want for you to crumble to her control” he added as Lawrence is getting annoyed. It means that without Ozial’s help, he would’ve lost his mind and been controlled by the moon goddess and his hardships would be useless from stealing the ingredients. He gritted his teeth in anger as he slammed his fist on the armrest of the throne. Ozial smiled widely once noticing this before returning to his smiley expression

“Oh well, congratulations. You have gained gravity affinity” Ozial clapped his hands as Lawrence immediately woke up.

“Boss! Are you alright?” Vania asked worriedly

“I’m fine” Lawrence sighed as the anger in his heart vanished. Realizing that being angry isn’t helpful. He needs to test his body immediately as he glanced at Luke training with his dagger on a tree. Lawrence motioned his hands in front of him as Luke felt his body getting tugged forcefully as he looked behind him to find Lawrence stretching his palm forward as he is getting sucked towards his palm.

“This is quite amazing” Lawrence stopped pulling Luke towards him as he tried repelling himself in the air by pointing his palm on the ground. With a small amount of mana, he can boost himself up before landing. It was crude as it gets as he forcefully uses the mana to repel and attract since he needs to create a proper magic node to make it more efficient and easier to use. Because of the inefficiency of his use of mana, repelling and attracting objects and people is too slow that it would be merely a small annoyance to his enemies.

“My back is nearly broken and that is how you treat me? Experimenting with your new affinity?”

“How do you know about my new affinity?” Lawrence tilted his head as Luke pointed at Catalinna who is preparing for a campfire as she snapped finger before the wood practically disintegrated from the strong fire as Vania chuckled softly while creating a fire by smashing sharp edges of stones to create sparks before it inflamed the balled up dry leaves while she carefully put small woods to fuel the ever-growing fire.

“What?!” Catalinna snapped angrily once she noticed Lawrence staring at her

“I figured she would do that, anyway. Where are we?” Lawrence looked around to find he was surrounded by trees with a simple mat where he was sleeping from as the night sky still remained, giving light to the nocturnal forest as the sound of creatures can be heard practically everywhere.

‘God..i hope there aren’t any bugs here. The fantasy world doesn’t have any mosquitos right?’ Lawrence sighed inwardly as he remembered his time on earth where he was nearly bitten off by mosquitoes during camping.

“We are currently in a forest heading to the southern part of the continent. I suggested we head to Sekai Kingdom as it is far enough from the Swordwin Empire and it is where the hub of the ocean travel since they control the legal routes where ships can pass. Besides, it is one of the kingdoms where the black syndicate’s influence is weak.” Luke replied while staring at the wolf fang’s dagger.

“It would take us months before we can reach the Sekai Kingdom. Hmm…We are currently in the northern part of the continent but if we head to the Sekai Kingdom it would be too late before we can head back to the wall of the north next year.” Lawrence pondered

“What do you mean? Isn’t it protected by six-star warriors and mages?”

“You don’t understand. Next year would be the descent of the heavenly generals of the demon king from the northern continent.”

“That isn’t possible, only lesser demons and monsters can walk in the continent? Are you telling me the sacrifice of the heroes didn’t seal the demon king completely?”

“Sadly enough, they didn’t seal the demon king but merely injured that monster. The weapons used by the heroes created by the holy church only slowed the demon king’s regeneration. Still, it would take years before he can leave his mansion.” Lawrence informed with a grim expression

“How do you know all of this?” Luke opened his eyes as everything lay bare under his sight as Lawrence chuckled.

“I have my ways” Luke closed his eyes before leaving Lawrence alone with his back facing Lawrence.

“If you are indeed an enemy, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill you” Luke replied as Lawrence laughed softly

“You aren’t the first one to tell me that. I know”