READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 31
“For such a fancy title as ‘laboratory’, what the curator brought down with a grunt was just a big cardboard box.”
In the lab I was in, we used security cases that opened with a key card.
Not that I wanted to dwell on it, but just looking at it brought back memories.
Was it the difference in the items handled, or the budget spent? Or maybe the level of importance?
…Surely, there aren’t any syringes in there. Or bone saws. Hammers or chisels. Not even scalpels.
I bit my cheek and synthesized some serotonin to forcibly erase my anxiety.
“Sorry for making you wait! My back has been acting up lately, so I can’t lift heavy things as well. Maybe I should go for some physical therapy…”
“W-what’s that…?”
“It’s where they realign your bones using sheer force! That’s what I heard!”
“W-What?!”
“It’s not that painful, so there’s no need to be too scared, Lapiz. It’s a legitimate treatment, really. There are experts for that!”
Minho seemed eager to talk to Lapiz, but she chose to stay terrified instead.
In the meantime, Jinhyeon was still looking at me, and it was kind of unsettling.
“Haha, guess I rambled on for too long. Let’s get the artifacts out first.”
The curator seemed to realize he was babbling and opened the cardboard box, placing the artifacts on the table.
“This is an artifact…”
“I thought they’d be all shiny and glamorous…”
“Ugh, they look… surprisingly ordinary?”
“Most artifacts look plain, actually. If they’re carried by famous hunters or heroes, they’d be S or A grade stuff, which are hard to come by.”
The curator got excited when the topic of artifacts came up, rambling off all sorts of things I wasn’t really interested in.
From how artifacts are graded to their methods of extracting anomalies for artificial artifacts.
It was intriguing, but there was no mention of the artifacts we had right in front of us.
And the longer I stayed in this lab, the more intense my hallucinations became, so I felt the need to interrupt him.
I could feel my bones grinding, that grating sensation creeping up on me.
“So, what abilities does this item have?”
“Oh, sorry about that! I got carried away again. This cloth here is what we call Ignition Cloth.”
The curator snapped back and explained the effects of the artifacts to us.
This plain-looking white cloth was rated as a C grade Ignition Cloth.
It could keep burning simply by igniting it until someone extinguishes it with their mana.
Even if you throw it in water or put it in a vacuum tube.
“Wow… that’s just a C grade?!”
“There are many items that are more powerful, and it’s specifically a item that must be touched by someone with mana, so it’s kinda not fit for generator purposes. There’s just not enough of it.”
Plus, thermal power is kind of outdated.
“I can see how a flame abilities user could put it to good use…”
“If I add some to my costume, it’ll fit perfectly! I can ignite it whenever I infuse mana!!!”
Yeonhwa looked absolutely thrilled that something she’d actually use came up.
And honestly, I had no objections. It wouldn’t be useful for anyone other than Yeonhwa anyway.
“Then let’s say that’s for Yeonhwa… what about this one?”
“Oh, you mean this shining mace? This one’s really fun! How do I explain… Ah, right. This is what it is.”
The curator said this and smashed the mace against his own head.
“Ugh, ahhh… huh? Huh? Why is it fine…”
“What an amusing artifact! When you hit something, it ‘stores’ the impact it receives.”
The curator was swinging the mace haphazardly around, hitting anything and everything, and nothing was breaking at all.
“Follow me. It might be a tad risky to demonstrate here.”
So we followed him into a room filled with piles, where he handed the mace to a waiting test subject and gave him an ok sign.
“The more impact it absorbs, the brighter it glows. To get it to shine like that, it needs to be filled to nearly its limit. Then when someone infuses mana and swings it…”
As soon as the mace struck the pile, the result was absolutely unbelievable for something that could be lightly swung.
The upper half of the pile made of metal was nearly ripped off, barely hanging on.
“It’s released like that. That’s rated B+. It’s good, but stacking impact to reach that level takes way too long.”
“That looks… dangerous for use on a person.”
Minho couldn’t help but chuckle at that insane power but still voiced the truth.
“It’s definitely too risky for a hero. Plus, there’s no quantifiable way to measure how much impact is stored, making it ambiguous when to release it.”
Looks like a better fit for a hunter than a hero.
The curator smiled and seemed slightly let down as he said, “You said we could extract anomalies from artifacts, right?”
“Yeah. We’ve actually done some extractions. The technique is established, but the problem is… what we extract tends to have less power than the original.”
They’re looking into methods to transfer it while maintaining its original form.
The curator said that listlessly.
He then looked at us and asked, “Hey kids, just in case… Anyone want to use that mace?”
Everyone except Minho clearly shook their heads in response. Minho hesitated, wanting to use it, but found it too destructive.
“Then… I’d like to pass that artifact to the curator as research material. Can I? I’ll work on making it something Minho can use.”
“Blanca.”
“Sorry, Jinhyeon. But… I want to give it.”
“Blanca. Are you really going to let it go?”
“…Yeah, I really want to.”
“If Blanca wants it, then there’s no stopping you. Do whatever you want, Blanca. Without you, we probably wouldn’t have gotten these items. Right, Jinhyeon?”
“…That’s true.”
“I think that works for me.”
“Are you sure? If you’re okay with it, that’s fine for us…”
“I’ll do it. You choose which item you want to put that anomaly in, Minho.”
It’s yours after all.
Minho expressed his gratitude and relayed a rough design to the curator.
After that, there wasn’t anything worth seeing.
There were no items that someone like Minho or Yeonhwa could wear perfectly, just awkward ones or overly plain ones.
At least there was a bottle that looked wider inside than it appeared outside, so I asked them to extract the anomalies from that and apply it to a test tube the size of a finger, and that was all.
That’s all I gained from this.
There was also the sales money from the mana stones I distributed among the four, but I was not struggling for cash.
Having finished what I came for, it was finally time to leave the lab.
I was shaking in a way that even the drugs and hormones couldn’t hide anymore. If I stayed much longer, I’d definitely give myself away.
I didn’t want to get caught by the protagonists.
“I’ll contact you once the anomaly grafting is finished. Thank you, your theory can finally be verified!”
“…If something goes wrong, the anomaly won’t disappear, right?”
“No way! It’s extraction, not enhancement, so how could anything go wrong? Rest easy!”
What a relief.
I tried my best to calm my mind with aimless jokes until I left.
“Oh, can I take this box with me?”
“This one? Sure, do as you please. I don’t get why you want to take it though.”
Once I grabbed the big cardboard box and walked out of the lab, it felt like the steel shackles binding me were released.
“…Hah.”
Feels like I can breathe again. I thought I had overcome it. Are my body and mind still remembering?
“I never imagined I’d visit a place like this in my life… It’s fascinating, right?”
Yeonhwa was stroking the box containing the Ignition Cloth while chatting amicably with Lapiz.
Minho seemed to be pondering something, keeping a distance.
I was getting excited at the thought of flipping this huge cardboard box over at home.
“Blanca, why were you so scared earlier?”
Suddenly, Jinhyeon approached and quietly asked why I was trembling.
“W-What do you mean scared? No one…”
I was flustered and almost denied it before I could even get upset, claiming he must have seen wrong.
“Your tail has been curled in since earlier. Cats act like that when they’re scared. I don’t think Yeonhwa or the others caught it…”
But he was just sticking me with the cat analogy, insisting I was scared.
…
“…The white tiles and smell remind me of the dentist, which somehow freaks me out. Please keep this a secret from everyone.”
I barely restrained my murderous intent behind an awkward laugh, trying to stay as pleasant as I could with Jinhyeon.
“I see… Got it. I still fear ghosts myself. So, you have your own fears too.”
Jinhyeon seemed to find it amusing and grinned widely, nearly splitting his face in the process as he got into the limousine.
Minho was watching all of this calmly, almost like he was trying to see through me.
* * * * * –
It was clear that Blanca had been scared in the lab.
She was visibly fearful while she was there.
Though she seemed skilled at hiding her bodily reactions and expressions, her tail and ears subtly revealed her fear.
I also figured she hadn’t revealed everything to them.
I wouldn’t either.
As I watched Yeonhwa laugh about silly things in the limousine with Blanca, I thought that to uncover her true identity, I might have to look into the people around her as well.