Chapter 160: Broken Yard, Pride’s Burden

Malrik remained silent for a long time, staring at the descriptions of the armor and the spear. His room was quiet and still... not at all like the storm that was currently raging in his heart.

This was the description displayed before his eyes...

[ Broken Yard ]

[ Rank: Fallen ]

[ Description: The Grandmaster reluctantly spent his precious time smithing this weapon. He didn’t want to make it. He hated making it. Forging this masterpiece was a complete tragedy for his celestial talent, and he only hopes it survives the reckless incompetence of its master—and doesn’t end up demolished like his flawless training ground. ]

[ Bound Skills: Piercing Intent, Fluid Extension, Shrouded, Tethered Call ]

Then, his eyes shifted to the second screen.

[ Pride’s Burden ]

[ Rank: Fallen ]

[ Description: The Grandmaster reluctantly spent his precious time smithing this armor as well. Why? Because after forging the spear, he realized that a fool wielding a masterpiece without defense is just a dead fool waiting to happen. He forged this solely to protect his own reputation. Try not to die in it; it would look bad on his resume. ]

[ Bound Skills: Weight Alteration, Shadow Veil, Kinetic Dispersion ]

Malrik furrowed his brows, blinking several times.

Broken Yard?... Pride’s Burden?

What the hell are these bizarre names...? Wait... did he write these himself?

Malrik muttered in disbelief as he reread the names and descriptions of the two items. He had never known a blacksmith could influence the names and descriptions the system assigned to weapons!

Was such a thing even possible?

Could a weapon-maker imprint his own thoughts and personal insults into the very fabric of his creations, to the point that the system would read them and display them as official descriptions? That old dwarf was arrogant and insolent even in his magical creations.

He was apparently still furious about the destruction of his training ground.

But Malrik’s shock at the Grandmaster’s audacity vanished the moment his eyes landed on the Bound Skills section.

His eyes widened. He hadn’t expected to see anything like this.

"...How many skills do these two items have?"

This was the first time Malrik had seen Fallen-rank gear, but he was certain that ordinary Fallen-rank weapons couldn’t contain this many Bound Skills, especially passive ones.

Malrik had never examined the details of a Fallen-rank weapon before. The highest-rank weapons he had inspected were the Awakened-rank weapons resting in the family treasury and his own Soul Weapon. All of them, without exception, contained only one skill, or two at most.

Driven by curiosity, Malrik began studying the armor’s skills first, since it had fewer Bound Skills.

[ Weight Alteration (Active.) ]

[ Description: Allows the wielder to alter the physical weight of the armor at will, shifting its density by an unspecified degree to either grant unexpected lightness or crash down with unseen burden. ]

[ Shadow Veil (Passive.) ]

[ Description: The armor naturally blends into dark environments, dampening the sound of the user’s footsteps and erasing their presence from basic sensory detection. ]

[ Kinetic Dispersion (Passive.) ]

[ Description: When sustaining a heavy physical blow, the armor absorbs the impact force and disperses it across the entire frame, drastically reducing internal damage. ]

Malrik scratched the back of his head.

"Huh..."

The first skill, [Weight Alteration], seemed rather simple. It allowed him to change the armor’s weight, but he could already think of several interesting ways to use it in combat.

As for the second skill, [Shadow Veil], it was even more impressive.

For a mage like him, it would be incredibly useful, complementing the stealth-related skills he had copied from Fenrir perfectly.

"Excellent... this is perfect!"

The final skill, [Kinetic Dispersion], was just as impressive in its own way.

Malrik didn’t fight most of his battles against opponents on his level.

He fought monsters stronger than himself, relying on his souls and strategies to survive. But things didn’t always go according to plan.

He remembered his fight against Biggie.

At the start of the battle, Lokris’s support had multiplied his attributes, giving him a chance to face the Fallen monster. But things changed when he had to separate Lokris from himself, leaving him to observe Biggie and imposter its form.

Lokris couldn’t activate [Black Shroud] and [The Silent Observer] at the same time, especially in the middle of a deadly battle.

Without Lokris’s support, Malrik had taken several devastating blows.

Several of his ribs had broken, and one of his arms had been dislocated.

He had survived...but only barely.

[Kinetic Dispersion] wouldn’t stop blows from reaching him, nor would it make him invulnerable against stronger opponents.

But it could turn a fatal blow into an injury he could survive.

In his kind of battles, that was a big enough difference.

"Very well, let’s see what you’ve got." Malrik set the armor aside and turned his attention to the spear’s skills.

Four of them!

[ Bound Skills: Piercing Intent, Fluid Extension, Shrouded, Tethered Call ]

Malrik had been searching for a new weapon for a long time.

The Crimson Gale Spear, which Alex had gifted him, was an excellent weapon. Unfortunately, its rank was no longer suited to the caliber of opponents Malrik faced in Blackthorn.

Its [Crimson Wound] skill, which inflicted a bleeding effect, was useful as well. However, it had one major drawback: activating it required him to land five consecutive strikes on his opponent, all of them successful. That was an incredibly difficult condition for a mage like him to meet.

Malrik’s eyes gleamed as he read the description of each skill.

[ Piercing Intent (Active.) ]

[ Concentrates the wielder’s kinetic force into a single, microscopic point at the tip, enhancing the spear’s capacity to bypass physical armor. ]

[ Fluid Extension (Passive.) ]

[ Allows the wielder to freely control and alter the length of the spear’s shaft at will, seamlessly extending or contracting its physical reach mid-thrust to deceive the enemy’s perception of distance. ]

[ Shrouded (Passive.) ]

[ Suppresses any gleam from the spearhead and mutes the sound of the metal cutting through the air. ]

[ Tethered Call (Active.) ]

[ Establishes a gravitational link between the wielder’s palm and the spear. If thrown or dropped, the weapon can be summoned back to the wielder’s hand. ]

Malrik studied the first skill and felt satisfied when he realized it imposed no special conditions for activation. It simply enhanced the spear’s ability to pierce armor whenever he activated it.

The skill seemed simple, but it would undoubtedly prove useful.

The second skill was... more complicated.

The ability to alter the spear’s length at will was certainly impressive, but it came with a drawback. Unless the wielder could adapt to the changing reach quickly enough, sudden shifts in length could easily become a liability rather than an advantage.

Fortunately, Malrik didn’t need to change the spear’s length constantly. The skill was better suited to sudden strikes and surprise attacks, allowing him to catch opponents off guard by manipulating the distance they thought separated them.

Malrik moved on to the third skill.

Hmm... this will be useful.

Suppressing the spearhead’s gleam and muffling the sound of the weapon cutting through the air would make it harder for his opponents to notice his attacks or predict their timing.

The skill wouldn’t make his movements impossible to predict, but it would at least deprive his opponents of some of the cues that might give away his attack before it landed.

Malrik moved on to the fourth and final skill, raising an eyebrow as he read its description.

"A gravitational link..." he murmured, a wry smile tugging at his lips. "Am I going to become like Thor now?"

This time, he decided not to settle for simply reading the description and imagining how the skill worked.

He rose from his seat and picked up the spear, weighing it in his hand for a moment before tossing it gently toward the other side of the spacious room. Thanks to [Shrouded], the weapon made no sound as it cut through the air before landing on the plush carpet.

Malrik remained where he stood, extending his right hand toward the spear as he focused on it.

Return.

Come on, little boy. Get back to your daddy.

A second passed, then another, but the spear didn’t budge an inch. It remained motionless on the carpet.

Malrik’s wry smile faded, replaced by a deep frown.

"Why the hell isn’t it working?"