Chapter 287: Nine Divine Artifacts (Patreon)

Joma

Joma La’Vordi, the Alchemist of the Deep Woods, was becoming more and more impressed by Camoran the Spirit Smith.

First, the closed off subspace she’d arrived at upon using one of his puzzle books was amazing, a beautiful green grassland surrounding a pond of specialized A rank water known as elder nymph tears.

Made from the actual tears of a rare B rank monster known as an Elder Sea Nymph, the pond by itself was worth roughly two times Joma’s entire accumulated wealth, and the first thing she’d been told upon her arrival was that the pond was now hers, a gift for using one of Camoran’s puzzle books even though she didn’t qualify for his inheritance.

Compared to the nine divine artifacts which had appeared in front of her, however, floating above the grass, the incredibly valuable water was almost nothing.

First there was Giantslayer, a small knife seemingly made from entirely one piece of purplish bone, which gave off an aura of poison and death that made Joma uncomfortable. Second was Thread Guider, a small needle made of a pure white pearly substance, useful for divine level embroidery. And third was Truthfinder, a pair of glasses made out of a blue metal for the frame and a clear type of divine level crystal for the lenses, obviously some sort of auxiliary tool.

From what little Joma could sense, these three smaller artifacts were the strongest of the nine, Camoran the Spirit Smith, as an A rank, probably unable to seamlessly craft divine level materials which were much larger.

Twilight Sun and Hellwater Moon, for example, two divine longswords whose auras made it obvious they were created for the Lord of Twilight Flame and the Lady of Hellwater to wield, Joma could tell hadn’t been finished in the Spirit Smith’s lifetime. Twilight Sun, a half-white and half-black blade with a red handle, had, if Joma’s alchemical knowledge was correct, spent several dozen trillion years bathing in boiling yin yang ink, a powerful A rank chemical concoction, to reach the divine rank despite being made of divine level materials. And Hellwater Moon, an inky blue blade with a grey handle, had seemingly spent the same amount of time buried in the bark of a poisoned world tree.

Thunder Crusher and Endless Seal, on the other hand, a large metallic war hammer and an engraved stamp showing the image of an infinity sign respectively, had been created in the Spirit Smith’s lifetime, making use of divine level materials and the Spirit Smith’s own divine level Space and Time Laws to become relatively weak divine weapons.

Then, finally, there was the Kiminary Armor, a set of black and red leather armor obviously designed for a female humanoid, and the Vazifor Spear, a long piece of somehow incredibly flexible metal tipped with a point made from a divine Chaos Dragon’s tooth. These were the armor and weapon of a human goddess who’d died fighting against the start of the undead invasion during Camoran’s lifetime, and both were still damaged despite trillions of years of recovery, the armor still having three small rips between where a human’s ribs would be, which Joma knew from history had originally been three large gashes, and the dragon tooth tip of the spear still with a small noticeable chip.

And all the divine artifacts had spirits inside which could talk, each having introduced themselves to her with the same type of mana based communication cultivators used when not in an atmosphere.

“Well, Ms. La’Vordi, now that introductions are out of the way and you know about your reward, could you tell us why you, an A rank, decided to take one of the 108 spots for competing for Master Camoran’s inheritance?” Truthfinder, the pair of glasses, asked using the same ancient dialect of Universal Common the others had used as well, its voice sounding male and proper.

Joma took a second to think, realizing from the way the artifacts talked they might not be fully aware of what was going on outside the demiplane where they all lived. And only then did she answer. “If the competition for the inheritance is based on crafting skill, it’s pretty obvious who would win, so I didn’t see much harm in using one of the slots myself.”

“So, you are saying you used up part of our master’s final hard work for shits and giggles?” Giantslayer, whose voice sounded female and angry, hissed at her, giving Joma another useful data point.

Giantslayer at least was still very fond of Camoran the Spirit Smith.

“I used the puzzle book to save my life.”

“Who was trying to kill you?” Thread Guider, whose voice sounded female as well, albeit more maternal and less deadly, asked.

“It’s complicated.”

Joma could feel some mana vibrations, almost certainly the spirits of the artifacts talking with each other, and then Giantslayer moved to put her edge up against Joma’s throat. “Speak more, or I’ll cut you.”

This action gave Joma a lot more data, but she still needed more, so she locked eyes on the pair of glasses in front of her, pretending to ignore most of the other artifacts, even Giantslayer at her throat.

“Is this how the artifacts of Camoran treat guests?”

“Why are you looking at him and not paying attention to me?” Giantslayer hissed again.

“Why am I looking at the artifact designed for interrogations when I’m being interrogated?” Joma forced herself to smile even though she was actually feeling quite a bit of fear. “Who else should I be paying attention to?”

There were more mana vibrations, mainly between Truthfinder and Giantslayer, and then Giantslayer floated away from Joma’s neck and back to the others.

“How do you know about my abilities?” Truthfinder still sounded calm, but there was something in the way he floated which made Joma feel he might be nervous. “Am I somehow famous in the outside world?”

And there it was. They almost certainly did not have access to the System, and it was likely due to the nature of the demiplane, as Joma herself had lost access since being teleported in, not their identities as artifacts.

“No. I’d never heard of you before today.” Joma took a few deep breaths. “But it is pretty obvious what your abilities are.

“First, you are an artifact shaped like glasses, meaning you almost certainly have an auxiliary effect, and likely more than one. Second, while I am not as talented as your creator, I am knowledgable enough to recognize you as an artifact designed to run on your own energy supply rather than that of a master, so it is almost certain you were made for someone weaker than a god to use, likely Lord Camoran himself. And, third, having taken as an apprentice the latest reincarnation of your master’s truesoul, I can make an educated guess as to what Lord Camoran would want a divine artifact to help him with, being better able to see into the workings of the universe and, more important to our current situation, being better able to see through the deceptions of people.

“Finally, and this was the biggest clue, you introduced yourself with the name Truthfinder.”

There was more chatter among the artifacts, quite a bit actually, and Joma started feeling more relaxed for a few seconds. But then she realized the simplicity of the artifacts, if they were involved in choosing who would become the Spirit Smith’s inheritor, might make them easily convinced by the likely 106 cultivators from the Primordial Humans who would be competing against Aalam.

“You said who wanted to kill you was complicated. Could you elaborate?” Truthfinder, sounding somewhat embarrassed, asked, Joma taking his chagrin as a good sign.

But, at the same time, Giantslayer moved to float around Joma’s head in a way which was quite unnerving given how sharp the obviously poisoned blade was, asking, “What’s the reincarnated truesoul of master like?”

“Your questions are connected.” Joma squatted down and took a step back before rising back up, getting a bit further away from Giantslayer’s sharp blade. “The truesoul of Runemaster Alashan and your creator Camoran has now formed the core of my second apprentice, Aalam Alvaro, by far the most talented of the many children of the Primordial Human’s goddess Bellessia, the youngest divine child of the Primordial Sovereign.

“Born on an unintegrated planet to a G rank father, he died shortly before his planet would undergo an apocalypse style integration and was reborn as a monster known by the System as the Heavenly Spark Soul King through a new process added to the System a little less than 5.2 billion years ago, his force earning the final two puzzle books your master gave to the System to give out as rewards just as his mother intended.

“My daughter interacted with him in the F rank trial tower, which he entered with the help of his now wife, and later the E rank War of the Chosen, so, when he and his full blood sister were looking for someone to teach him, they reached out to me and I took him on as an apprentice, none of us knowing at the time who his mother was.

“A few years later, his mother tried to kill him using a bloodline curse, partially to retrieve the two puzzle books, the rest of which the Primordial Humans had already collected over the last 45 trillion years since they were released, but she failed due to Aalam no longer having her bloodline, just killing his full blood sister instead.

“And then she and her family started threatening my life so they could find and then kill my apprentice, but so far they failed and Aalam and his force just managed to save me by giving me his second puzzle book.”

“Those bastards.” Thunder Crusher, the war hammer’s voice deep and booming, sounded angry as he spoke in a way Joma could understand for the first time.

“How dare they treat master’s reincarnation like that?” Thread Guider also sounded angry.

“Master’s reincarnation sounds so loyal and cool.” Giantslayer, meanwhile, seemed excited, thankfully having moved to spinning around Thunder Crusher instead of Joma herself.

But the other artifacts weren’t having the same reaction.

Truthfinder and Endless Seal were both quiet. Twilight Sun and Hellwater Moon were chatting with each other in a way Joma couldn’t understand. And the Kiminary Armor and Vazifor Spear were having a conversation she could understand, but did not like.

“Who cares about the truesoul. He’s a monster, so he must die.”

“Yes.”

Then all the artifacts disappeared, none of them seemingly activating any power, leading Joma to realize there was likely another divine artifact responsible for the closed off subspace she was in, and Joma started to worry.

She’d been saved by Aalam and his wife, but Aalam, like her, was now trapped in Camoran the Spirit Smith's demiplane, unable to help his force even as their universe was almost certainly being assaulted by the Primordial Humans. Meanwhile, so far, Joma had been more of a burden than a help.

She’d felt as her obligations to four of the forces she couldn’t pay a penalty to had cancelled their contracts with her, and she’d felt the same from the force under War Dance Koraline. Meanwhile, after accepting the contract request Aalam and his wife had given her when her apprentice had tossed her that spear during the end of the C rank Universal Tournament, having the Forest Cauldron become a subordinate force to the United Federation of Planets, her contract with the largest of the human empires had been broken upon the Lord of Twilight Flame trying to assassinate Aalam. But, before being cut off from the Prime Material, she’d felt nothing from her contract with the Shadow Collective, the force under the Silent Shadow, one of the subordinate gods under the Lady of Laws, and that had her worried.

While she was trapped yet protected, not able to help Aalam much beyond presenting true facts in as beneficial a manner as she could to the likely judges of the competition for inheritance, Aalam’s wife was seemingly making enemies for her sake, and was probably about to antagonize the Shadow Collective as well, yet Joma couldn’t even correctly manipulate some obviously innocent artifact spirits to make things for her apprentice easier.