City of Desire [Kingdom Building] - Chapter 748: Forged Seed
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Less than a minute later, Bell came in, and she looked worried.
“What happened?” she asked. She must have sensed what I was feeling a few seconds ago. Even now, those emotions hadn’t gone away.
“This,” I replied, pointing at the bar on my table.
“What is it?” she asked. “I don’t know, but it had made me feel something I had never felt before,” I replied, shuddering.
Her expressions turned serious, and she sat in front of me, before taking the far in her hand.
A few seconds later, a frown appeared on her face.
“I can’t sense anything,” she said more to herself than me, before I sensed her taking out her aura, which only deepened the frown further.
My aura might be weaker than hers, but I don’t think she sensed anything from it. It’s why she had used Mana, but that didn’t seem to work as well.
“You used the legacy’s power?” she asked, and I nodded, not surprised that she was able to guess.
“What have you sensed?” she asked after a moment of silence. “Power, that I had never felt before. It feels something like artifacts, but they are structured, while this one is chaotic.”
“No, that wouldn’t be the right word. I would say raw,” I replied.
I am still trying to understand what I felt. It’s different from the artifacts or thing I am sensing below the city hall, but it feels like there are some similarities among all three.
I was lost in thought when I looked at Bell and found her shocked. I had never seen her this shocked.
She is looking at the bar, like. It is the last thing she had expected to see.
“What is it?” I asked. I could tell she had realised what it was, and it had shocked her. She didn’t answer. Instead, she had put the power of the legacy on it, just as I had.
She did it for a second before turning it off and closing her eyes.
When she opened them, they were clear, but I could still see the shock in her eyes.
“I am feeling greed as I have never felt it before,” she said, and pushed the bar toward me. As if not daring to take any chances with it.
It shocked me. I had never heard this composed woman say something like this.
She is powerful and possesses two very special artifacts that I feel envious of. These are just a few of the many she has.
“Do you know the main artifact of my house?” she asked. “Tome of First Light,” I replied. She nodded.
“Lance of Ashvale, Searing Saber, Kaltis’s Coin,” she named things. I only heard about Lance of Ashvale, an extremely powerful artifact of the ruling house of Belnin.
Some even say it has reached the relic class.
I had never heard about the other two she had named; I activated the skill to remember, to check if I ever did, but I didn’t.
“All these artifacts are different from the other types. They are born through the forged seed,” Bell stated.
Forged Seed.
I heard about it, or rather, I read about it. There was mention of this word in the books I had read in the Archmage Tower. When I tried to find out what it is, I didn’t get an answer.
Seeing that there were books about everything. The knowledge of it was above the level I have access to.
“What is a forged seed?” I asked.
“You know, the two types of artifacts?” she asked instead. “Yes, forged and converted,” I replied, and she smiled. She is the one who told me about them.
Even that knowledge was hidden. The artifacts we use aren’t simple.
“There is a third type—an extremely rare one. Many consider it a subtype of forged artifact, including my mother, but my father was among the group that considered it a completely different category.”
“The conceptualized artifact,” she explained.
“What does it have to do with this thing?” I asked, and she smiled. “Because they are conceptualized through the forged seed,” she replied.
Saying I am shocked would be an understatement, but with this shock, there is new excitement.
“So, this is an artifact?” I asked excitedly. “Yes and no,” she replied, and I arched my brow in question.
“A Forged Seed is a condensed core of material, magic, or essence forged under extreme, ancient conditions. Unlike standard artifacts, which are fixed in purpose and abilities, a Forged Seed is blank.”
“Once the master conceptualized the artifact through the forged seed.”
“It begins to adapt to its master’s choices, experiences, and growth, developing the abilities according to it,” she replied finally.
It made me frown, but also excited.
“So, I could turn this into an artifact?” I asked excitedly, and she nodded. Though a moment later, a smile appeared on her face, the smile I didn’t like.
“But do you want to?” she asked. “The forged seeds are extremely rare. You could get three to four powerful artifacts easily in exchange for it,” she stated.
I remained silent for a moment before nodding.
“If I had just found it, I would have done that, but it’s my inheritance. My father had died for it,” I replied, to her surprise.
The rational thing would be to sell it. Even at this late juncture, I could make a deal with merchants and receive the artifacts before the battle, but as I said, it’s my inheritance.
I am being selfish, but I can’t even think about selling it.
“Think about it carefully, not all conceptualized artifacts are powerful.”
“The Tome of First Light and the Lance of Ashvale are among the best conceptualized artifacts, but Searing Saber and Valtiz’s Coin are nothing more than trinket artifacts.”
“My father had said, more than half of conceptualized artifacts turn out average,” she said, looking carefully.
I heard enough to understand. The power of an artifact depends on the master; it could turn into a trinket artifact or one of the most powerful.
It all depends on the master of it.
“I am sure,” I said after nearly a minute of silence. It’s not like I didn’t think about it, but I can’t let my inheritance go. It is selfish, I know, but I just can’t.
Especially when my bastard siblings had taken what my father had left for me in his will.
“There is one more thing; the most important one,” she said, and I looked at her.
“Do you know the core material of the forged seed?” she asked, and I shook my head, to which she sighed. The box only has two letters, and there is no mention of the core material.
My father didn’t even know what it was, and it is unlikely that Grandfather knows about it as well.
He is well-read and uses his wealth to gain more knowledge, but this is a particular kind that even he couldn’t get his hands on.
“The knowledge of the core material is important. It is on it that the abilities of the artifact will develop,” she informed.
“Could you find out?” she asked, and I shook my head.
I don’t know where my father got it from. Grandfather might know, but we can’t go to that place, nor could I ask Grandfather, nor my mother.
The communication could be spied on. I can’t take risks.
There is an option to wait, but I can’t. This thing could increase the chances of victory in the battle.
I need it.
“So?” I asked after a moment of silence. She didn’t answer immediately and kept looking at my eyes before sighing once more.
“Since you want to do it. Then I will say, Remember everything you see in the vision. It might help us determine the core material and help you develop its abilities later,” she replied.
“How do we start?” I asked. “Place the drop of blood on it and think about the artifact you want.”
“Since we don’t know about the core material. Keep the conceptualization simple. You can work on core material-specific abilities later,” she advised.
That is the wisest approach.
I didn’t immediately drop the blood on the bar. I closed my eyes and thought about the kind of artifact I want; the shape and abilities I want it to have.
It didn’t take me as long as I had thought. I thought it would take me minutes to sort this out, but I did it in seconds.
With the artifacts I have, it seems like I pretty much know the type of artifact I want.
I opened my eyes and punctured my skin with the letter opener, before dropping the blood on it.
Hun!
“Nothing,” I said several seconds later. I didn’t feel anything from it. Not even the slightest thing.
“It might be drained after the years,” she replied. “Try emotion essence,” she suggested after a few seconds. I nodded, linking the emotional essence to it.
Hum!
The moment, I did. I felt a deep hum ring out, before everything in front of me turned black, before it seemed to clear.
Only a little, it is still dark, but I could see the ocean in front of a starless sky.
The only light is from the lightning flashing from above, with waves taller than a mountain rising in the sea, with the power to crush anything in their paths.
I could feel the power of these waves and could tell that the spells of grand mages would be like the towers of rotten wood before them. Crushed with the slightest force.
It filled my heart with fear. I felt like these waves would crush me, despite knowing that I do not have a body.
It feels like it didn’t matter whether I had a body or not.
“Roar!”
I was watching the scary waves when a mighty roar rang out. The roar filled with power and authority, which demands absolute submission.
I felt my heart shake and found myself bending to its will.
“No!” I stopped myself. I can’t surrender myself to a thing that I couldn’t even see.
The roar came again, but I didn’t see its source, and it was powerful. As if the roar was enough to crush waves, and could crush my city along with everything else in it.
So, I resisted with every ounce of will I have, despite the effects of roaring wanting me to bend to my knees.
The waves of roars kept coming, increasing the weight of suppression, but I resisted. I am not going to bend the knees in front of the thing that hadn’t even shown itself.
I was thinking that, when two crimson eyes became visible, the eyes that are as big as me and slitted with rings of black and white. They contain wisdom, but also tyranny within them.
Seeing those eyes, my head started to hurt badly. It becomes torturous in an instant.
I wanted to look away, and I know it will take all my pain away, but I didn’t. Those eyes, looking at me, like I am an ant.
I may be an ant in front of it, but I will not kneel in front of it.
It seemed to sense the challenge, and its eyes brightened further.
“Ahhhh…!”
I screamed as the pain intensified further. I felt like it would shatter my soul. Still, I didn’t look away; I kept looking into those eyes, despite the increasing pain.
I didn’t look away, even when I felt something from my legacy.
It is when the sky crackles loudly, releasing giant lightning, which lights up the sky and falls toward the eyes.
It was then that I saw it! It was still tough, but I saw its defined, elongated head, which seemed made out of the blackest ivory, and long, sharp crests over its head that seemed to be carved out of the moon itself.
The massive lightning bolt appeared over it before it started collapsing.
It took less than a second for sheer suppression to collapse, the massive lightning bolt seemed powerful than the spell of the Grand Mages.
It once more shrouded everything in a near darkness. Though those eyes remained fixed on me, the pain I kept feeling kept increasing.
RAOR!
Time passed, and suddenly those eyes blazed and roared; a sound that could shatter the world apart rang out.
I felt its power, and I feel like it would crush me. All thoughts of resistance vanished. The only thing I focused on was my survival as waves of roars crashed against my consciousness.
Every moment, I felt like I was dying, but I held on while the waves assaulted me over and over.
It felt like hours had passed when it was finally over.
The eyes have disappeared, so has the ocean, and the sky is full of lightning. I found myself in complete darkness.
I was thinking of ways to get out of this space when everything cleared in front of me.
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