The next few days went by, with their efforts dedicated to making their way to the office, dragging the weird artefact out, and then dying a moment later. It was a bit masochistic, when Claud reflected on their actions, but when he brought that up to Lily, Lily pointed out that there wasn’t any pain when the Second Shadows they occupied were killed.

Therefore, it wasn’t masochistic.

Granted, the word itself meant a quality of deriving pleasure from pain, and it carried sexual connotations, so his use was more colloquial than anything else. At any rate, however, today was a special day.

“We ran out of meat, huh,” Lily frowned. “We’ve been rationing it too…”

“Well, today’s the day when we can finally grab that damn artefact out, so I guess we might as well do so and then pack up,” Claud replied. “I really miss an actual bed now. Barriers are good substitutes, but they aren’t quite the real deal…it’s psychological!”

Lily nodded. “Let’s go back after today, then. We’re out of provisions anyway. It’s been fun, though. If only the ruins weren’t this dangerous…right, how many days has it been? It’s going to be Gibbous Moon soon, right?”

“Put that way…damn, we’re already eight months into this year.” Claud wiped a bead of imaginary sweat off his forehead. “Whew! And…the Trial of Aeons will soon be starting. At the start of the year.”

“Two seasons from Gibbous Moon.” Lily grimaced. “And of course, let’s not forget about the Moons, who will be descending once this season is over. This war is going to span decades and centuries, but it already feels like a huge mess.”

She paused. “If it was up to you, how would you stop it?”

“Me?” Claud looked at Lily. “Before I came to know about the Moonlit and Shadowed Ones, I would have just pulled out Absolute One and blasted as many targets as I could within ten seconds. Now, however…”

Claud fell silent. He had been avoiding this topic for a long time, to the extent that he didn’t even want to think about it.

“You…don’t want to think about it?” Lily probed.

“We have more important things on our plate,” Claud replied. “The Red God and everything, remember? And besides, the Bearers of Destiny still need to duke it out. I’m going to go with the flow. All I have to do is to get rid of everyone else.”

He paused. “We can’t wait it out, since they’ll all just withdraw into their shells or something. Unfortunate, but that’s how it is.”

“Killing, huh. You were never comfortable with taking lives,” Lily muttered.

Claud slapped his cheeks twice, and then got up. “Let’s not think about this for now. We have a weird artefact to bring back, and once it’s here, we can check it out all we like! Assuming, of course, we can bring it here without dying.”

“Pessimism aside, it is a bit bulky, though. Bringing it with us is going to be a pain.” Lily made a face. “I wish we had a storage artefact. This is really getting to me.”

“It’ll occupy a backpack, that’s for sure. We really need to look into things that have an expanded interior.” Claud frowned. “I’ll go and ask Norn. She definitely knows where to get one.”

He got up. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Popping out of their base, he glanced at the yellow cube. Norn’s party members were lounging around outside, apparently waiting for their leader to be done with her own preparations. Hein, who was wearing a hood and playing with a dagger, glanced at him as he approached, a hint of warning in his eyes.

“Morning.” Claud nodded at them. “Is Norn busy? I’ve a bunch of questions.”

“She’ll be out in a jiffy,” Skald replied, her mask obscuring her facial expression.

“Wait here,” Hein added, before returning to the dagger, which was now flipping around his fingers at a blinding speed. He was clearly an accomplished warrior in his own right, which made him a danger up close. Claud, who was simply winging it with artefacts and skillsticks, didn’t think that he could handle this danger-wielding fellow up close.

If it came to a duel of mana, however, Claud was more than willing to play around. Of course, this wasn’t the right place or the right time to do that, and besides, he was here to ask for help, not for a spar.

Before he could pull out a strand of mana to play around with, the door opened, and Norn stepped out. “Ah, Claud! You need something?”

Claud nodded. “We need to know where to get storage artefacts. We’re still using normal backpacks and everything, but it’s becoming restrictive.”

Norn paused. “You’ll have to head to a dukedom capital for that. Most artificers capable of making such things are residing in dukedom or sovereignty capitals.”

“I see. Any recommendations?”

“I would give you some, but I got my artefacts from the Voidum Sovereignty,” Norn replied. “I also got some from Saran itself fifteen years ago.”

Claud grimaced. “Damn.”

“I won’t be able to tell you much…but hold on for a moment.” She went back into the yellow house, and then went out with a ring. “For you.”

“What’s this?” Claud asked.

“It’s a storage ring,” Norn replied. “I never did pay you back for the Second Shadow, and I don’t need this anyway. I got a really awesome storage artefact in Voidum a few years ago; it has a hundred cubic metres of space, freezes time of everything stored inside and is also in a shape of a ring.”

“Damn.”

“In contrast, this only has eight cubic metres.” Norn paused, and then hurriedly said, “It’s still a lot, though!”

“Oh, no, this is plenty enough for us,” Claud replied. “I won’t turn it down or anything…this is really more than enough for us!”

“Ah, you’re the straightforward kind, aren’t you? Usually, people dither on and off about taking and not taking it.” Norn smiled. “Your kind’s better.”

“Well, we are busy people, after all. You’re off to do something, right? I don’t want to hold you up, and I do want this storage ring.” Claud looked at it. “How do I use it?”

“To open it, just tap the square gem once, and you’ll be able to project a huge space into the area around you. Place whatever you need inside, and then tap the gem again to dismiss it.,” Norn replied. “I’m not too sure how it actually works, though.”

Claud touched the gem, and then nodded. A translucent white box appeared in front of him immediately, one that was taller than him. “What happens if someone stands inside?”

“It’ll take far longer to retract the space,” Norn replied. “And there’s only a limited supply of air inside. Don’t think of using this on an enemy either; the gem is fragile. If someone attacks it with all their might, the gem will break. At best, you can transport unconscious people around.”

Claud rubbed his nose. “This is abnormally useful for kidnappings.”

“So it is. But those who can buy it normally won’t need to kidnap people for ransom anyway,” Norn replied. “Anyway, see you guys around.”

“We’ll probably be leaving soon,” Claud replied. “We’re out of meat.”

“Ah. I see. That’s indeed one of the more common reasons for ending one’s expedition in the Celestia Ruins,” Norn noted. “Anyway, don’t let me keep you here. Once again, thank you for the Second Shadow. It’s been proving to be a real asset in our exploration.”

“Same here,” Claud replied, retracting the space. “This storage ring is going to be very useful for our future expeditions. Thank you so much for it.”

“Hahaha!” Norn patted his back. “Alright, we shall be going now. Have a safe trip home, the two of you.”

Chortling, she gestured at the others and left. Claud patted the ring happily, before heading back to the base.

“You’re back.” Lily, who was playing with the three little fellows, looked at Claud. “Found something related to storage artefacts, I see!”

Claud grinned. “Better than that, actually. I got one from Norn!”

He raised the ring, and then tapped the gem once. The translucent box appeared once more, eliciting a small cry of surprise from Lily and a whole lot of meeps from the three little fellows. “This is the storage artefact that Norn gave us. As thanks for the Second Shadow!”

“I’ll go and thank her—”

“She left the plaza, though,” Claud replied. “They just went out to explore again. And…well, it’s to thank us for the Second Shadow.”

“Let’s hope she comes back before we leave, then.” Lily paused. “I should leave a letter, at least. Do we have some paper lying around? I’m going to pen my thanks. This is so convenient!”

“Still, it has limited applications in combat, so don’t go stuffing everything into the storage ring.” Claud pondered for a moment. “Combat artefacts still need to remain on our persons, but things like clothes and non-combat artefacts can go inside…still, I think I’d still want to have the Refresher on my body…”

He looked at the transparent space fondly. “At any rate, we can now bring that artefact out now. And so much more with it too.”

There so many more applications that he could think about too.

Like his old trade, for instance.