Chapter 43: Epic

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally returned to my room at sunset. Vilen helped me change into something more comfortable.

I flopped down on the sofa and ordered him:

"Get me the ring from the box, and run me a bath."

"Wouldn’t you like to have some dinner, young master?"

"I’m not hungry."

"as you wish, young master,"

he said respectfully and left after handing me the ring... It’s not that I suffer from a poor appetite, but let’s just say that losing to that damned bastard had completely ruined my mood, especially knowing that he’d only picked a fight with me to make up for his loss to Yevfrosiniya.

I slipped the ring onto my left thumb and remembered...

Huh...

Speaking of Rosa... I’d forgotten about the fragment I’d left with her. She’d taken it from my hand before I started the fight with Roman, and afterwards I’d completely forgotten about it because I was so angry and frustrated with Roman... Never mind, I’ll get it back from her later...

This girl is getting greedier and greedier. Is she a crow or something? Whenever she sees anything shiny, she completely loses her mind... What a silly girl. She certainly deserves to be the heroine.

I opened the storage ring and, alongside numerous documents and files, found some interesting items.

Lots of weapons and artefacts ranging from Hero-rank right up to an Epic-rank!

In the entire Grand Duchy, at least as far as I know, we only have ten Epic-rank weapons, but because most skilled fighters always prefer to use domain weapons, these physical weapons often just gather dust in the family’s storeroom, or are given to people who haven’t gotten their domain weapons, or whose domain weapons are dangerous, or are simply used as a status symbol, as the late Rolan used to do

At present, I use one of them—the —Tear of the Falling Star— Epic-rank Sword. And four years ago, when I visited the imperial capital to play, I bought one at the Royal Auction called ’Elegy for the Sun’; it is a dagger that, when you sacrifice your heart to it, causes an explosion of light and fire around the area, obliterating everything.

I gave it to little Rosa for her tenth birthday.

In any case, this dagger doesn’t count, as it’s something I bought with my own money; as for the ten in the family cabinet,

I know that three of them are used by some of our knights, who also belong to one of the collateral branches of the family. One of them is son of uncle Arseni

—Roxana also has one for emergencies, on the Grand Duke’s orders, and one that I stol—I mean, that I borrowed—because I thought its name suited my ability, —Collapse of the Stars—.

The Sixth belonged to Rolan, whilst the rest are simply gathering dust.

I took the sword first and examined the markings on the blade

-The Light of Guidance- Epic-rank Sword

A white sword adorned with blue and gold

Although the colours are unusual, it’s elegant and beautiful in its own way!

I scratched the palm of my hand and then smeared the distinctive gem between the blade and the guard with my blood to form a contract with it

Weapons and artifacts of epic rank and above always require a contract before you can use them

The concept of the contract is simple: either the sword accepts you as its master or it rejects you.

If it accepts you, you’ll receive information about its abilities; if it rejects you, that’s the end of it – in your hands, it’s no different from a useless piece of metal that wouldn’t even cut an onion for you.

After the gem drank my blood, faint red veins spread across the sword before it vanished. After that, I instinctively felt that I knew how to use this sword and all its abilities, most of which are guidance-based.

Oh, it seems to be a guidance-type sword! Well, that’s clear from its name.

It has five abilities in total, the benefits of which can be summarised as follows:

- It guides you to your desired destination

- It warns you when there is an intent to kill, or a killing aura, around a person or place.

- It alerts you when there are treasures nearby

- It can be used as an alternative key to any ruins that require a sword to unlock them

- It guides you to safe areas when you are injured

I put the sword away and picked up what looked like a crown – an epic artefact

and repeated with it what I had done with the sword...

The Crown of the Forsaken Star

The Black Winter Land recognises you as its master and protects you

A defensive artefact that significantly boosts defence and luck in the northern lands beyond the Frozen Sea. It appears to belong to the royal family of that fallen kingdom in the Black Winter Land, the one the Grand Duke told me about—

or perhaps not? I don’t know...

It’s certainly a useful artefact...

But... why does everything around me have the word ’star’ in its name???

Although my domain is called the Land of Chaos, the first ability I gained from it was ’Collapse of the Stars’, and even the sword I currently possess—which I acquired from the family—is called ’Tear of the Falling Star’... Well, even though I borrowed it specifically because of its name, still—of all the things in the world, why did my family have to get a sword related to stars!

It’s definitely suspicious...

I’d like to look into it, but before that...

"Young master, the bath is ready."

We’d better have a wash after that bastard dragged me through the dirt.

But before I went, I dumped the documents and files on the floor and ordered him:

"Sort them out for me; I’ll read them later."

"Understood, young master."