Chapter 120: The Secret of Beads

*Date: 33,480 Third Quarter — Kingdom of Satar, Capital City Parthanon*

"What are we going to do?" Demir asked.

Marco shrugged. "What do you mean, what are we going to do?"

Marven set down her tools. "She will die if we don't help her. She's neglecting herself and giving everything to that thing."

"And how is that our concern?"

"Come on, Marco."

The trio entered the workshop and started working, fueling the forge and cleaning the place while continuing the argument. In the end, they couldn't reach a consensus. Finally, Marco suggested other ways to help Velori by paying food suppliers beforehand rather than giving her money.

"That way, even if we leave, she can get food. How much food does a tiny elven woman need anyway?"

Marven nodded slowly. "That makes sense, actually."

They decided to put the argument aside and start working on the hot forge. While Demir thought about how to implement the beads, he was preparing charged swings. The first thing in his mind was to use charged swings to implement the bead into the blades. He tried it.

The attempt failed miserably. The faint glow emitting from the holographic bead vanished.

Marco peered at the ruined result. "One down. Seven to go."

Marven watched with concern. "If you fail all of them, I can buy similar beads from the city, and we can return them. They're pricy, though. Each is worth about a gold."

Demir stared at the dead bead in his hand. "Even at this quality?"

"Unfortunately."

"It's all pay to win."

Marven sighed. "Well, this quality probably wasn't this high before, but..."

Marco intervened. "No loot."

---

While Demir was wondering and thinking of ways to implement the bead, the door opened with force and angry Velori entered. She launched herself at Marco before anyone could react.

Demir dropped everything in his hands and rushed to pull the old lady off his friend, who was now covering his face.

Marco clutched his eye. "What the hell, lady!"

His right eye immediately blackened and started swelling.

"Marco, go buy ice or use some ice magic or something before it gets worse!"

Velori pointed a bony finger at them. "You will leave us alone and get as far away from us as possible!"

Demir guided her away from Marco. "Calm down. We're not going to hurt you or him. It. Whatever it is."

"He is my husband!"

Marven sighed from across the room. "Your husband is dead. The construct malfunctioned and merged with him. This world's crazy science is keeping it alive. It demands metal parts because it's programmed to do so."

"I don't want your player nonsense!"

Demir pulled a chair over. "Velori, please be calm. Sit."

He made her sit. Her anger was turning into fear, visible in her trembling hands and the way her eyes darted around the room.

"Look, you clearly value the creature. We will not hurt it. But paying everything you have to him will kill you."

"It's my money! You can't make me do other things!"

"We can't, and we won't. But from now on, until we leave, I will not pay you any rent."

Velori's eyes went wide. "That's extortion! Stealing! Just because I have a secret!"

"Listen. I'm not going to pay you, but I will give the money to your local grocery and butcher. They will give it back to you as food. That way you won't starve like before, and..."

Velori cut him off. "No! I don't accept it! Thurmin needs gold and silver!"

Demir continued firmly. "And... every other money you find, you can take to him."

Velori continued to protest, but Demir held his ground.

Marco returned with a rag full of ice pressed against his eye. "How can you throw a punch like that?"

Velori huffed and puffed, but today she didn't look defeated, even though she accepted the arrangement. She finally stood and left the shop without another word.

---

Marco lowered the ice from his eye. "Demir, look." He pointed at the forge.

In the corner, one of the beads had rolled near the forge when Demir dropped everything to stop Velori. The bead near the forge was clearly absorbing the heat, and its faint glow had started to increase. The blue glow was hitting every surface like a dimmed light bulb.

Demir's breath caught. "Heat."

"Yeah."

They both started jumping up and down.

Marven stormed over. "Stop acting like kids and start experimenting!"

"Well, I wasn't a good student."

Marven sighed. "Stand aside. Give me the glasses."

She looked at the bead through Marco's system glasses. Tried to pick it up with a glove. Nicked it with a knife. Picked it up. Threw it to the ground. She tried every medieval method she could think of. Finally, she gave up.

"What? There's no microscope or syringe to take samples. I just tried medieval things."

Marco scratched his chin. "Maybe we need acids or other liquid solutions."

Demir picked up the dagger he was supposed to enhance and placed it near the bead. "I think the solution must be inside the workshop. If I was designing the game, I wouldn't require outside things."

"Maybe the dagger also should be hot. Put both near the forge and..."

Demir put the bead and dagger near the forge. The bead's glowing continued, but nothing else changed. He placed the bead directly on the dagger.

"Nothing..."

Then they saw a flicker of light beam out from the dagger.

"Wait. You see that too, right?" He looked back at his friends, and they nodded.

A minute later, another light beamed out.

Demir's mind raced. "I think I got it."

He started hammering the empty anvil to charge his skill. When he saw the next beam, he swung the hammer gently at the bead to combine them.

The result was failure. He broke another bead.

Marco groaned. "Is it luck based, like cooling and rune etching?"

"Maybe."

Marven shrugged. "Probably."

Demir took another bead and put it near the forge to get hot. He placed it on the dagger and swung his charged swing again.

Failure.

He tried again.

Failure.

Demir stepped back. "With this method, I've broken three. Should I keep trying?"

Marco held up a finger. "One more."

He repeated the process and failed again.

Demir shook his head. "I don't think it's luck based."

"What else can we try?"

Demir heated another bead and held it thirty centimeters above the blade with the glove, thinking. He saw the bead shoot light just like before, and it bounced off the blade's metallic surface.

His eyes went wide. "It wasn't giving the time to hit. It was giving the place to hit. It was just..."

Marven finished his thought. "Bouncing off the surface since it's so close."

Demir turned to Marco. "Hold the bead, please. Just like that, above the blade."

Demir charged his swing and waited for the bead to shoot another light. When it did, he hammered the blade where the light struck. Nothing happened. The blade and bead looked the same.

But the trio was frozen, waiting.

Thirty seconds later, it shot another light. This time, unlike the white light, this one was red.

Demir grinned. "Oh, it's like a hitting game! Again! Heat the bead, Marco!"

This time Demir didn't just wait between light bursts. He charged his swing. The bead shot red, then yellow, and finally blue light. When Demir hit the correct places each time, the holographic bead vanished, and on the blade, the bead's surface drawings appeared, floating as translucent light.

Demir let out a whoop. "We did it! Give me the glasses!"

When he put them on, it was listing the bead's power as a property of the dagger.