Chapter 59: new weapon

I did not panic or try to run back to the entrance. I uncoiled my body from the path, my high speed allowing me to dodge the incoming spear by an inch. It crashed straight into the stone floor, breaking the bricks apart and throwing a cloud of dust into my face.

Before the machine could pull its weapon back, I opened my jaws wide and activated my new core ability.

[Divine Nurturing]

The blast hit the first guardian directly in its chest, vaporizing the bronze casing and breaking the internal gear links instantly. The machine stumbled backward, its red eye light turning off permanently as it collapsed, completely broken.

’Two left,’ I thought, their long spears cutting down at the same exact time to block my exit paths.

I did not stay in my small reptile form to trade strikes. I triggered the internal link to my core, shifting my shape instantly. My snake body vanished, and my human frame appeared in the center of the vault. my muscles tightening under my clothes as I dropped low to avoid their spears.

The two weapons crossed directly above my head, I reached out both hands, my palms gripping the their spears with absolute physical strength.

"your access permit is totally invalid" i roared, my active skill bursting out of my chest.

The wave of manager authority hit both constructs at the same time, short-circuiting their magic cores. While they were frozen for three seconds, I used my palm connection to trigger my main conversion skill on their weapons. There Spears began to melt instantly, turning into a stream of coins that fall into floor. I followed up with a fast, double-handed punch straight into their faces, shattering them and knocking both into the ground until they stopped moving.

my chest feeling tight from using so many skills back-to-back without a break. I wiped a line of sweat from my forehead and walked up the basalt steps, standing right in front of the sword.

I extended my right hand, my fingers wrapping firmly around the sword handle.

The moment my skin made contact with the sword a jolt shot straight through my arm, rushing into my chest core. The sword did not submit easily; its old royal signature fought back against my energy, trying to push my hand away with a massive wave of rejection magic.

[System: Ownership conflict detected! The weapon is resisting your administrative signature! If your output drops even a single percentage, your human hand will be vaporized, host! Channel your full power right now!]

"I don’t lose an asset once I’ve laid my hands on the inventory," I gathered every single drop of my energy.

I forced the raw force of my core down my right arm, flooding the sword with my own signature. The sword began to vibrate violently, the hum growing so high that the ancient basalt sarcophagus cracked down the center line. For thirty long seconds, it was a struggle of wills, my muscles burning as I fought to balance the ledger.

Finally, the old royal signature snapped completely. The sword went quiet, its dense energy turning smooth and obedient as it accepted my ownership lines.

[System: success!’The Executioner’s Verdict’ has been successfully added to your inventory ledger!]

[Signature Technique Locked into Brain: [Heavenly Punishment: Divine Annihilation].

[Description: Allows the host to channel his full Ascendant energy through the sword, delivering a devastating, high-tier physical slash that cuts through all defense targets.]

I tucked the new weapon under my arm and turned to leave. But before I could take a step, the broken basalt container in the center of the room made a sound.

A small compartment opened up in the stone side panel. Inside sat a thin sheet of paper wrapped in a protective clear layer. I picked it up and held it under the light from my wrists to read the handwriting.

It was another note. It did not have any long, poetic speeches or complicated riddles. It just listed three specific map locations with precise numbers next to them.

[System Update: Map coordinates successfully recorded.]

- Target Location 1: North Valley Mining District.

- Target Location 2: West Bank Logging Sector.

- Target Location 3: South Border Trade Outpost.

At the bottom of the list, a final sentence was written in the same neat style.

"The Prince took them all for his core project. The ledger lines are empty. They are already dead."

’So the missing village people are already dead,’ I thought,’The old royal family completely destroyed the local workforce to build their own private strength.’

[System: Threat assessment updated, Barry! The text confirms the old Prince wiped out the population in these three sectors. If we want to expand our new trade branch, we need to march our guards to these exact locations, clear out the remaining royal holdouts, and claim the raw land assets for the village project!]

’We will balance that debt soon’ I thought, placing the paper inside my system panel.

I turned around and walked straight back, carrying the weapon with me. The passage led me all the way back to the large underground factory hall.

The scene inside the facility was completely full of movement now. The village workers had cleaned the dust off the conveyor lines, and large piles of fuel coal were stacked neatly near the doors of the furnace.

Suzy stood right next to the central control panel, her clothes looking dusty as she watched the old village blacksmith adjust a large valve on the side of the boiler. Victor was standing a few paces behind her.

"Turn the main pressure valve now!" Suzy called out.

The old blacksmith pulled the lever down. The ignition items we found earlier flared bright inside the lower vents, and a sudden rush of steam heat vibrated through the pipes. The giant drive shafts slowly began to rotate, their large gear wheels turning smoothly as the main factory system returned to life for the after a long time.

"The machinery is fully operational, Barry!" Suzy said, as she turned around and saw me walking.

But her smile stopped instantly when her eyes locked onto the sword in my hand. She stepped closer to me, her fingers reaching out to touch the guard of the weapon as she felt the immense pressure coming off the sword "Where did you find this? The energy signature on this metal is incredibly dense."

"I went a little deeper down there," I said as I handed the weapon to her. "It was inside an old royal vault right under the ravine. It belongs to us now. Also, I found this paper inside the container."

I pulled the note out of my system panel and handed it to her. Suzy took the paper, her eyes tracking the map coordinates and the final sentence about the dead villagers. Her face went completely serious. "They are all dead... My father was trying to save them, but he was too late. The Prince just used them up like material."

"The old Prince was such a terrible monster," I said, putting a hand gently on her shoulder to keep her calm."But we have the tools to build a better operation now. Let’s test the new inventory."

I took the sword back, walked over to a large stack of logs that the workers had loaded onto the main cutting table, and gathered my energy into my arm muscles.

I didn’t use the full force of my new signature technique yet, but I channeled a direct surge of my power straight through in swinging the sword down in a clean line.

Slice.

The sword cut through the logs like a hot wire through butter, splitting the metal blocks into twenty perfect, straight structural beams in less than a second without making a single loud noise.

The old blacksmith jumped back, his jaw dropping in absolute shock as he looked at the clean, smooth cuts on the iron. "That steel... it didn’t even slow down. We can shape the house supports in half the time with a tool like that!"

"Victor, get the wagons ready," I ordered, turning back to the staff. "We are loading these structural beams and taking them up to the yard. Toby needs these materials to start the home foundations before nightfall. Tomorrow, we map out the march to these three new sectors."

Suzy looked at the clean iron beams, then looked back at my face, "Let’s change this valley, Barry. One sector at a time."

"Yeah, That’s the plan "