Death Ascension - Chapter 114

<Skill: Full Integration Lvl. max is activated.>

Mikael used what little amount of MP he had recovered to possess Deon.

“Sir Finn.” He called out in a serious tone.

The Almagi turned to him and took a moment to peer into his eyes.

‘Green… it’s here!’ Finn shivered in excitement. While working on Dame Nora’s prosthetic arm, he had learned to differentiate the Prince from the unknown entity that possesses him.

Although Finn adored the puppy-like prince, he found the unknown entity to be way more interesting. It was just so mysterious that he could barely keep himself from asking the prince about it.

“Yes, your highness?” he squeaked.

‘The hell? Why did he become polite all of a sudden? What’s wrong with this guy?’ Mikael inwardly frowned. He thought the Finn right now shared an uncanny resemblance to his dog, Choco, whenever Mikael came home from work. He could almost see Finn wagging his metaphorical tail from the glimmer in his blue eyes.

Mikael decided to ignore his disgusting behavior and moved on to his agenda.

“Is it possible to create an artifact that can be used for tracking?”

“Tracking?”

“Yes. perhaps a pair of artifacts that can recognize each other over a distance? Maybe tune them such that one emits waves that the other receives as a signal?” Mikael tried his best to explain his idea of a GPS tracker-slash-RFID-based artifact which was going to be Deon’s security insurance—The last resort for when the case becomes too much to handle with just Mikael and the Ascension System’s power.

“Hmm… I don’t understand what you mean by emitting waves, your highness…”

Before the others could feel disappointed, Finn continued as if proving why he was the smartest in their group.

“But I believe it is possible with the current Almagology.” Finn stood up from the couch and strode toward the book shelf on the other side of the room.

He extracted a thick, leather bound book from the shelf and quickly flipped the pages. He traced his index finger over the illustrations of complex mana circles, pausing every once in a while to think and resuming again.

He scribbled some notes on the side and a few minutes later, he returned to where the group was.

“I have confirmed that it is indeed possible, your highness. Although it might need a little tweaking…” Finn rubbed his weary eyes. He placed the book and the notes on the low table for the group to see.

The book entitled “Almagology through the ages: The Revisited History” was opened to show the first chapter.

“As you know, we, combat Almagi use our own blood as ink to draw mana circles. On the other hand, Artisan Almagi carves mana circles to artifacts and powers them using mana crystals. However, this was not always the case.” Finn explained, “In the early years of Almagology, this distinction between Artisan Almagi and Combat Almagi wasn’t as clear.”

Finn pointed to one line in the textbook.

< Historians show that the first excavated artifact was powered using blood, the substance with the highest known mana purity. They have also discovered that such artifacts recognize only one owner and thus become useless after losing their masters.>

“As stated here, artifacts that use blood instead of mana crystals can recognize only one owner. When turned into a weapon, the artifacts’ power outputs are much stronger compared to what we have today.”

“I don’t understand… if artifacts powered by blood are much stronger, why did Artisan Almagi abandon this practice?” Dame Nora asked. This topic greatly interested her since she, herself, had an artifact as a prosthetic arm.

Nora clenched her metal fist in regret. If she knew about this before, she would have asked Finn to use her blood instead of crystals. Her desire for strength to protect her master was so great that she wouldn’t mind even if she shed some of her blood.

“That’s because these weapons are parasitic types. In exchange for high power outputs, these artifacts draw much more blood than a person could handle. As a result, many of its users die early. Compared to the regulated blood ink consumption of Combat Almagi, these parasitic artifacts are dangerous to both the wielder and the target.

When they discovered the use of mana crystals, Artisan Almagi opted to give up this power to achieve practicality and safety. Now, artifacts can be used by anyone without endangering themselves.”

“So? How I this related to the thing I asked of you?” Mikael asked. He doubted that Finn would deliberately give a dangerous parasitic artifact to his superior- No. he just refused to acknowledge it.

“Well… there was once a pair of artifacts that fit your description, your highness.” Finn flipped the page and pointed to the illustration of an ancient-looking ring and a bone boomerang. The boomerang’s edges had sharp spikes reminiscent of a torture device.

“When this ring was excavated, it was strongly attached to the index finger of a skeleton. Almagi scholars found that this parasitic ring used the blood of its owner to call back this boomerang wherever it was.” Finn peeked at the young prince to see his reaction, “To be honest, I am quite surprised that you are asking me this, your highness.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Don’t you already have an artifact similar to this, prince?”

“Me?” Mikael pointed to himself in astonishment.

“Yes, Your Highness. Didn’t you use an artifact with the same function in the Ant Colony?” Finn sat on the couch as he continued to pry open his superior’s secrets, “Didn’t you see that as well, Dame?”

As if to corner the prince into spilling his secrets, Finn slyly called out to Nora for backup.

“Ah… are you pertaining to that time when my liege made things fly around according to his will?” Nora recalled one of the mysteries surrounding the prince.

“Yes. That.” Finn concurred.

Cold sweat beaded the young prince’s temples. The two souls inhabiting him felt like they were in the middle of an interrogation room. They thought that Finn was definitely a terrifying character.

‘Ugh! Finn, you b*stard! What are you trying to pull this time?!’

Luckily, the partners already prepared an excuse for such situations.

“Ahaha! It’s a power I inherited from my ancestor.” Mikael struggled to keep a straight face as he lied, “You know? The legendary Heinken I? I got it from him. Amazing, right?”

“Ahh… Is that so, Your Highness?” the dastardly Almagi flashed him an insidious smile. He didn’t even bother pretending to believe their made-up story, “Oh my… it seems the first king was more impressive than I thought…” he sarcastically replied.

“That makes sense since he was blessed by the goddess herself.” Thankfully, Dame Nora nodded her head, readily accepting Mikael’s lies as the truth.

Her blind faith that her liege was an innocent and kind boy incapable of lying helped Mikael escape Finn’s interrogation.

“Well, if you say so, your highness…” Unimpressed by Nora’s naivety, Finn returned to the topic at hand, “I will be tweaking this concept to make the artifact that you asked for, your highness. Is there a particular item that you would like?”

Mikael and Deon deliberated for a moment before deciding,

“An earring. I want a simple earring with a design like this.” Mikael pointed to his left ear where the Aquamarine Medium was.

“But… how long would that take, Sir Finn? last time, when you made my arm, it took you a month…” Nora asked, worried about the time limit of the king’s bet.

“If it’s just a small earring with no other function than to trace his highness’ whereabouts, then probably about a week? But if I sacrifice sleep, maybe I can finish in four days?”

Finn’s nonchalance prickled Mikael and Deon’s conscience.

They felt like they were abusing Finn by making him work overtime without sleep. Finn’s lab guests all gazed at his sleep-deprived figure in pity.

“In case you misunderstand, this isn’t for free, Prince.” Finn wickedly smiled.

‘Ah… sh*t. I should’ve known. Give me back my pity, you @#%$!’ Mikael thought as he canceled Full Integration.

–Chapter end–