For some reason, the artefacts from the Celestia Ruins all had this sleek, metallic motif going on. Ranged artefact? Sleek and metallic. Melee weapon? Sleek and metallic. An artefact to knock someone out with a zap? Also sleek and metallic. Just about every single artefact Schwarz had bought shared the same motif, and while these artefacts were aesthetically pleasing, what happened if someone got it wrong?

As an illustration, the NX-1 Plasma Pistol looked quite similar to the NX-1 Energy Knife; wouldn’t it be a problem if Schwarz wanted to shoot someone but ended up creating a blade of radiant light instead?

She shook her head. Nonetheless, the NX-line artefacts, as they were called, were apparently weapons that showed no mercy. Schwarz had used them a few times, and the result was a burned target.

It was so impressive that everyone had one or two such artefacts by the time they left the market.

The air hummed as Farah activated her NX-3 Radiant Longsword.

“Stop playing with that.” Schwarz, who was close to her, stepped away. “It’s scary!”

“Yeah, but it’s cool, you know.” Farah fiddled with the sword hilt again, and the blade of light vanished. “Still, it really does cut through things like butter…”

“That’s why you don’t use it near friendlies.” Nero sighed. “If you slice my arm with that, it’s going to drop off or something. I’ll need some incredible healing skill to restore my body.”

“Speaking of healing skills, I was actually looking for an artefact that could heal wounds,” Schwarz said. “It’s a shame, though. Can’t find a single one.”

“Healing skills and artefacts are very rare, after all. We’ll still need to make do with the trusty bandage,” Dia replied. “Still, the chances of us being injured, as we are now, is very low. And I’m not saying this out of arrogance.”

“Really? That sounds very arrogant to me, though.” Schwarz folded his arms. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, I’m certain that the types of enemies we’ll be facing from here on would be either woefully weak, or strong enough to squash us in a single attack,” Dia replied. “Injuries? Not happening, unless we get lucky.”

“That’s…a fair argument, I suppose.” Schwarz looked at his new artefacts. “Thanks for reminding me about the sad things. I totally needed that, yes. Thanks. Come on, let’s pick up the pace.”

The four of them scurried back to the ISV Carpark 1A. A mercenary group just happened to be landing there as they arrived, but other than a few wary gazes, nothing else happened, and Dia followed the others as they continued on to the Civilian Teleportation District. There was actually a faster path from the district to the plaza, but the four of them had chosen the roundabout road to throw off pursuers and because they already knew the path anyway.

“It’s a lot more peaceful than I thought it would be,” Dia muttered.

“Did you forget what you saw when we first entered the market?” Schwarz asked.

“That seems like an isolated incident to me, though. I mean, it looked like a shady seller, and we didn’t see another such incident afterwards anyway,” Dia replied. “I’m sure that people aren’t willing to fight and kill each other, especially since we’re all here to grow stronger.”

“What do you think will be the outcome of that dispute then?” Farah asked.

Dia tilted her head. “Maybe the shopkeeper will do a refund.”

“Refund, eh?” Farah clicked her teeth. “I bet that happens, but the shopkeeper hires a bunch of mana-users to go after her when she leaves the market. What do you think?”

“Very possible, yes,” Schwarz analysed. “I’ve seen this before. There was this shopkeeper who was forced to refund an item and even forced to compensate, but you see, when you’re a shopkeeper, you usually have a lot of money. And when you have a lot of money, you can do many, many things. Like hiring goons.”

“Well, it’s not like we’re ever going to find out, right?” Dia chuckled.

“True.”

The four of them moved on to the final stretch of their little journey, and Dia reflected on their trip to the Celestia Ruins. The whole thing had taken quite a few days — they needed to make their way from Liquet to Lacuna, a cross-dukedom trip. That was probably a main reason behind why Farah had felt that staying here for a day wasn’t all that worth it, but like Dia and the rest, she too had felt a burgeoning desire to improve her strength…and probably to evacuate the Celestia Ruins too.

“…I hear some fighting from up ahead,” Schwarz warned. “And I think we’ve been a bit too laid back for our return, haven’t we? We didn’t even prepare half of the measures we used to get to the Secretary-General Building.”

“Well, this skilstrip is going to expire anyway, so I’ll go and check it out.” Farah pulled out one of Risti’s Skyward Eye and tore it into two. “Let’s see…three people bullying a single person…and that person’s companions seem to be unconscious. What should we do?”

“Three people, huh? Farah, do you see someone familiar in that little fight? Like a certain woman who kicked over a store, for instance?”

“…Yes. She’s that person who’s being bullied right now,” Farah replied. “What, you want to save her?”

“I want to, but it’s a group effort, really,” Schwarz replied. “I’m not dumb enough to do it alone. However, I do want to try out those artefacts…isn’t it nice for them to provide some live practice targets?”

Dia felt her hands itch. Indeed, after taking out Absolute Terror, she hadn’t had a good fight for a long time. And besides, that fight was less of a fight and more of an ambush. The others were also too busy to spar with her for a bunch of reasons, and sparring could only go so far anyway.

“Practice targets, huh?”

“I see you’re interested,” Schwarz noted. “What about you, Nero? You bought quite a few artefacts too.”

The Holy Son of the Black God made a face. “It does sound nice to test our weapons, but unless we kill them here, we’ll be sowing trouble for ourselves. Are we going to kill them all?”

“I don’t mind.”

Dia glanced at Schwarz, whose answer had been touched with a hint of coldness. Of course, she wasn’t a stranger to killing either, but she was rather intrigued at the chill that had permeated his words. “You seem displeased.”

“I don’t like shady business practices,” Schwarz replied.

“Let’s kill them all, then.” Farah let out a snort. “Besides, they’re all bi or one-folders. If they’re open to doing things like this, imagine what they’re likely to do to normal people.”

“It’s against the law, though.”

Farah looked at Dia. “You think they’ll care about that? They’ll kill a bunch of people, snatch what they need, and then live as a fugitive with fake identities. It’s quite easy once you know where to look, really.”

“Huh.” Dia drew her sword, before tucking it back into her sheath. “Well then, let’s give our new artefacts a whirl, shall we?”

“All in agreement, then.” Schwarz’s eyes flashed with a piercing light. “We’ll sneak attack those buggers and off them instantly. I don’t like games, and I want to see just how well these new artefacts cut flesh…although, of course, you guys are free to toy around with your own prey.”

“There’s four of us and three of them, though,” Farah pointed out.

“I’ll watch over you guys,” Nero cut in. “You guys have fun and test the new artefacts. I’ll make sure that nothing weird happens, so feel free to toy with them and test out your artefacts instead.”

“Thanks, Nero.” Schwarz cracked a grin. “I love it when there’s a really easy target for us to abuse, by the way. I won’t feel any pain in my heart, and my conscience definitely won’t flinch from me testing out my new toys on them.”

Dia glanced at Schwarz once more. She didn’t know if the others could feel it, but she could sense a faint bloodlust from the innocent-looking bartender. From the looks of it, Schwarz definitely had some bad blood with bandits and hired thugs who didn’t care about the law.

Instead of asking about his well-being and issues, however, Dia simply held her tongue. It was clear that his simmering anger, hidden just enough such that it would be hard to notice, came from a long-standing hatred and distaste of such people in general. In fact, it was possible that someone of the same…occupation had wronged him before, with Schwarz unable to forget that.

Unfortunately, Dia wasn’t sure if the Second Tutorial was meant to help people get over these feelings, because her own Second Tutorial was so odd that she had absolutely no frame of reference. To make things worse, the exact content of an individual’s Second Tutorial was usually something sensitive; even in the Seekers of Life, none of the others shared what their own Second Tutorials were about.

It was unfortunate…but especially so for the three people, who were about to be ambushed by Dia and the others.