Chapter 18 - FlameBlood Strongest Artifact

Inside the treasury, countless artifacts were organized in order from the lowest grade to the highest. The further we walked, the more rare and... exotic? The artifacts became.

Erica didn't bother to explain about grade 5 and below, as if flaunting her family's treasure. So, we skipped those sections.

Yet so far, nothing had caught my 'eyes'. Deed complained that most of what we passed was trash and didn't deserve its place here. However, Zeroze had a different opinion from him.

Rather than dismissing the lower grade treasures, Zeroze felt like all of this would be more useful to me.

His argument was that I'm still unawakened and couldn't even handle anything above grade 9.

But Deed said that we better get overgeared early, and take the highest grade as fast as possible. Even if I couldn't use it yet, I could lock it for my future and claim it when I reached Phase 1.

In some ways, both of them are cautious, but in a different way. One is prioritizing the present, while the latter leans more towards the future.

"What you've seen so far isn't even the tip of our treasures." Dino Grandpa said, as if noticing my disinterest.

What good is an artifact if I can't even use it yet?

To be honest, I quite agree with Zeroze. Prioritizing my safety at this present moment is way more important to me than anything else.

'But future preparation is important too.' Deed said.

'Only if we actually have that future.' Zeroze said. 'So many things have changed from your original timeline. Obviously, the danger level has also increased for us.'

'I can feel that it's as if this world is balancing itself for us.' ROH said.

'Balancing?' I asked curiously.

'You have four powerful beings residing inside of you. Although the four of us are also weak right now, the scale is different. How this world defines weak isn't similar to the other worlds.' ROH explained. 'The more you grow, the stronger we'll also become.'

'Interesting, so rather than trying to nerf us directly, it actually makes the game balanced by sending more challenges towards us.' Zeroze said.

'If we're not careful, Null will die instantly and we'll lose all our chances huh...' Deed could finally see what the others meant.

'Aren't you normally a cautious fella, you stupid knight? Did all that immortality cause you to take risks you normally wouldn't do?' Zeronoz said.

Deed started to have flashbacks of his early life. He would use all sorts of methods in order to get his revenge. And in order to achieve his goal and protect others as a knight, he would use all the tools he had on hand for it. Those memories somehow resonated with me.

'For me, who had reached the peak of power and even achieved immortality...' Deed muttered. 'For me, who struggled to survive...'

'How do I become better? How do I become stronger? Way more than my first life.' Deed started to think.

Rather than just relying on his memories, and how his life was before it ended, Deed figured he couldn't just see my life as how he'd seen his, but rather as a better version of himself.

'With all of the FlameBlood's high grade artifacts in hand, it would benefit me a lot, but I shouldn't be greedy. That's only true once I reach the peak. But now, I should first address the biggest problem of my body.' Deed said, looking towards the treasures.

'My SoulCraft consumes a lot of SoulPower, which made me rely a lot on battlecraft, but if I was able to use my SoulCraft longer, then a lot of fights would be easier. I only managed to solve this problem after becoming immortal. Null, let's see if there's an artifact to solve these issues.' Deed said.

'What's your SoulCraft?' I asked him.

'Ravish.' Deed said.

'Huh?' I was dumbfounded. 'What kind of knight are you even?!'

'I knew you were bad but not this bad...' Even Zeronoz was speechless.

'No, no, no, it's not that kind of ravish!' Deed said, trying to explain.

'It's common for knights to ravish others in medieval settings, mainly during war and such.' Zeroze said. 'But for my first life to even do that...' Zeroze looked towards Deed with disgust.

'...' ROH couldn't say anything.

'Guys, please listen first!' Deed said. 'My Phase 10 SoulCraft allows me to ravish my opponent's weapon and even SoulCraft.'

'Isn't that quite powerful?' I said. 'Also, why don't you just use the word steal rather than ravish?'

'In theory, it is powerful.' Zeroze said.

'It is powerful. I managed to defeat a lot of strong opponents with this. However, it costs a lot, and at Phase 10 I could only hold it for 3 seconds before my SoulPower depleted.' Deed said.

'What about the requirements?' ROH asked.

'I need to clearly see the weapon being used or the SoulCraft being cast. During that period, the person whom I ravished couldn't use that weapon or SoulCraft since I've taken it forcefully.' Deed explained.

'That's quite overpowered...' I said.

'Not really, if you compare it to other SoulCrafts ever existed. The SoulPower it uses is way too much, and if I'm not adept with using the weapon or the SoulCraft, it just ends up being dead weight to me. The cast range is also quite short at Phase 10.' Deed said.

'To be able to not only disarm your enemy but also steal their weapon and power?' Zeroze said. 'I bet this SoulCraft saved you countless times.'

'That's right.' Deed said. 'If we could find a way to increase my SoulPower earlier, then it'll increase Null's survivability.'

'I'm sure we could get at least one artifact with that function here.' He continued.

While discussing with my other selves, we walked through a lot of high grade artifacts. They were explained a lot, but I wasn't paying attention to any of that.

Finally, we reached the end of the treasury.

There, there were three sealed doors. Each had a different symbol on it.

In the middle, an abstract red symbol of a lady figure and a peacock.

On the right, an abstract black symbol of a sword.

And on the left, a white symbol of an abstract circle.

'To have three Grade 1 artifacts sealed tightly here, the FlameBlood family is indeed a major powerhouse.' Deed said.

Erica started explaining the three sealed Grade 1 artifacts.

"This circular white symbol door holds an ancient artifact called The Infinite Halo." Erica started. "It was created from the remains of an ancient OUTSIDER monster who viewed himself as an angel. To bring salvation to this world, he destroyed countless civilizations in order to remake it. The one who defeated him is Dino Grandpa."

"He had a unique ability which he called Infinity. A term which we had never heard of at that time." Dino Grandpa said. "No matter how many times we cut him and his Salvation Army down, they would keep growing more and more. Thus we understood what infinite means. It took many nations to suppress their invasion and a countless amount of sacrifices."

"The Infinite Halo has the ability to create a Salvation Army." Erica said. "You will be able to bestow infinite stamina, regeneration, and even enhance the capabilities of the receiver."

'Isn't this what we're looking for?' I asked my other selves.

'This isn't it...' Deed said, as if familiar with the artifact.

"However, being a Grade 1 Artifact, it has a massive drawback. As the wielder, in exchange for making your Salvation Army invincible, you will bear all the damage received by your army. And for the receivers, they will become a mindless, loyal army who can no longer think for themselves. This means that if you told them to just fight, they would ignore all the consequences and damage made to their bodies, and end up killing you in the process if your body can't hold it." Erica explained.

"Even for a Phase 1 SoulCrafter, this artifact is troublesome." Dino Grandpa said. "Not only that, this living artifact will try to consume your mind in the process, making you forget your goals and even yourself."

"I doubt you'll even be needing this." Erica said.

"As for this sword one, it holds the artifact named Soul Eating Sword." Erica said. "This is our only Grade 1 artifact that isn't made by an OUTSIDER monster, but rather an ancient one. This was made with the remains of an evil SoulCrafter that had fused with an ancient monster."

"To reach the peak of SoulCraft, he conducted a lot of inhumane experiments regardless of the subjects, from humans, to animals, and even monsters." Young Grandpa said.

"He wasn't satisfied with only reaching Phase 1, but wanted to uncover more and beyond it. He wanted to become divine. However, his greed became his downfall when he experimented with my mother's kin." Young Grandpa continued.

"His SoulCraft abilities allowed him to consume souls from beings that he had killed, and become stronger with it. You should be able to imagine it, he'd been hiding for hundreds of years and had been killing many with his inhumane experiments." Young Grandpa said.

"This Soul Eating Sword allows you to consume the souls of those you kill with this sword. Not only that, you will be able to use not just their SoulCraft abilities, but also their battlecraft as if it were your own. For that, you can store 3 souls." Erica explained. "This sword is just so disgusting, don't even think of using it." Erica complained, as it didn't align with her morality.

"The side effects are also massive. The moment you touch it, it will demand souls from you, telling you to kill at least 10 beings every few hours. Daily, you would need to feed it more than a hundred souls, or else it will consume you instead." Erica said. "Not only that, you would also keep hearing ravings from the souls stored inside the sword. If your mental and willpower aren't strong enough, you will easily lose yourself and be consumed by the sword."

'Compared to the first one, this one isn't that bad.' I said.

'Only if you don't mind being a mindless killer.' Deed said.

'Can't I just use it, kill my enemies, and just seal it again?' I asked.

'Sealing artifacts is a hassle. Just look at all three of these FlameBlood elders. They need to guard the treasury themselves in order to ensure the artifacts are being kept in check, or else they wouldn't need to be down here.' Deed explained.

'Despite being a sealed artifact, there are chances that the monsters could be reincarnated using that as a medium.' Deed continued.

'I guess. It's not like they have better things to do in the first place...' I commented on the three FlameBlood elders.

"As for the last one..." Erica said, seemingly hesitating to explain.

"This is the most powerful Grade 1 Artifact in our possession." Bear Grandpa said.

"No it's not!" Erica struck back.

"The only worthy possessor and wielder for this artifact is you, Erica." Dino Grandpa said.

"Leon can use that too!" Erica said.

"No, no, no, it wouldn't fit him." Young Grandpa said.

"What's this all about?" I asked curiously.

"You see, this Grade 1 ancient artifact is able to greatly enhance our flame abilities." Young Grandpa explained.

"Not only that, any fire attacks being thrown towards the wielder would also be absorbed and increase the wielder's power further." Dino Grandpa said.

"Indeed, this Crimson Flame Dress is our strongest artifact." Bear Grandpa said.

"Dress?" I questioned curiously.

Erica held her forehead, unable to accept that the FlameBlood's strongest artifact is a dress.

Suddenly, unlike the other Grade 1 artifacts, the door for this artifact slowly opened.

"Behold!" Dino Grandpa said proudly.

A frilly, princess-like dress was floating at the center of the sealed artifact room.

"The strongest!" Young Grandpa said.

"FlameBlood Artifact!" Bear Grandpa continued.

"Stop that!" Erica said, somewhat embarrassed by their behavior.

'No way! This dress! Impossible!' Deed was shocked to see the Grade 1 Artifact.

'To think that all this time, that woman...' Deed continued, shocked, as if puzzles were connecting in his mind.

"Its only massive drawback is that, if the wearer is a man, then their gender would change into a woman." Dino Grandpa said. "If it's a woman, then their emotions would be greatly enhanced."

"Aside from that, it isn't worth noting." Young Grandpa said.

Deed was speechless with his mouth wide open. He was familiar with this dress.

In his memory appeared a mysterious, captivating figure which wielded flames far stronger than the Flame Emperor. It was rumored that this woman might've been the illegitimate child of Leon himself.

To think the woman that had captured the hearts of many men was actually a man himself...

Even I would be shocked.

'Did you tap?' I asked seriously, while the others looked very suspiciously at Deed at the round table. Causing Deed to sweat bullets...