Chapter 182
After Zeke faked Kay's death, the operation to divide the Syndicate proceeded step by step.
Rumors of internal discord within the Syndicate were spread, and at the same time, several other Syndicate executives were also made to appear dead under the pretense of being purged as traitors and then secretly sent to the Southern Continent.
Zeke had all the Syndicate executives' identities changed and ordered them to lie low in the Cusco Kingdom for the time being.
He planned to deploy them to clean up the cartel organizations within the Cusco Kingdom once things calmed down.
Zeke closed all Syndicate hideouts and moved to the Duchy of Troy territory instead of Mycenae.
He planned to recuperate there for a while and observe Abel and Narak's movements. It was time for a break.
However, he still had to finish what he was doing, so Zeke summoned Paynun to the Troy territory.
Paynun, who arrived at the castle a few days later, looked quite haggard.
"Did something happen?"
Paynun shook his head at Zeke's question.
"Jeff and Al... Sigh , it's nothing."
It seemed that the alchemist twins, despite their young age, were eccentric and difficult, giving Paynun a hard time.
Zeke looked at Paynun with pity and patted him on the shoulder.
"If there's a problem with Jeff and Al next time, I'll go with you."
Paynun's face brightened at Zeke's words.
He finally relaxed his expression and asked Zeke,
"While I was away, some incredible things happened in the Syndicate, didn't they?"
Paynun also knew about what had happened in the Syndicate.
Knowing how much Zeke trusted Kay and how diligently she worked, he couldn't believe she would betray him.
Moreover, he was quite shocked to hear that Zeke had purged Kay and several other Syndicate executives as traitors.
Zeke took Paynun to a room inside the castle and spoke quietly,
"Paynun, actually, Kay is not dead."
"Pardon? What do you..."
Zeke showed him the parasite that was inside Kay's body and explained what had happened.
Paynun's face was filled with shock.
"Who in the world would use such evil magic..."
Zeke gestured to Paynun.
"There's something I want you to see."
He took Paynun down to the castle basement. There, Sion, whom Zeke had captured alive, was imprisoned.
"Damn it! Let me out of here!"
Sion shouted, banging on the prison door with his fists.
Paynun was startled to see Sion imprisoned.
"Who is that boy?"
"He's one of the special bloodline ability users sent by the Nostra clan."
"Pardon? That young boy?"
"Don't be fooled by his appearance. He's fine now because his abilities are sealed, but he possesses power at least equal to a Red Knight, if not greater."
"Really? I've never heard of a bloodline ability user possessing such power."
Just then, Sion, who had been cursing profusely, suddenly started trembling and collapsed, having a seizure.
Zeke hurriedly opened the door and went inside.
He then used healing magic on Sion.
Tsssss!
As Zeke used healing magic, Sion's seizure finally stopped, and he stabilized.
Zeke sighed and laid Sion, who had fallen asleep, on the bed.
Asleep, he looked just like any other boy his age, innocent and pure.
Zeke looked at Paynun and said,
"This is what I wanted to show you. He has seizures periodically, almost every day."
Paynun approached Sion, who was lying on the bed, and checked his pulse and eyes. Then he activated his magical power and examined Sion's body.
After the examination, Paynun opened his eyes and spoke,
"Huh, this doesn't make sense..."
"What's wrong?"
"This child... everything is too fast."
"Too fast?"
"His heart rate, his pupil reaction, everything is about three times faster than an ordinary person."
Zeke nodded at Paynun's words and said,
"I heard that the Nostra clan gathers bloodline ability users and conducts experiments on them. Experiments to enhance bloodline abilities through drugs or procedures."
"Enhancement experiments? That's clearly illegal research!"
"They're Mafia, so they won't hesitate to do anything. The problem is that the Empire might also be involved in this experiment."
Paynun's expression hardened at Zeke's words.
He looked at the sleeping Sion and slowly said,
"In his current state, this boy won't live long. It seems he was regularly receiving some kind of medicine to forcibly slow down his body's reaction speed."
"So he's having seizures because he doesn't have that medicine."
"If Master's words are true, this is likely a side effect of the experiment to enhance his abilities."
Zeke nodded at Paynun's words.
Currently, Zeke was managing to keep him alive with healing magic, but that was only a temporary solution.
Zeke pondered and thought of Arina.
'Lady Arina might have a way to heal him.'
Even if he wanted to interrogate Sion, in his current state, he would probably die before he could ask anything.
Currently, Arina was with Boris in the Holy Kingdom to rescue the Lubern bloodline members.
'I'll have to show him to her when she returns.'
Zeke asked Paynun to make some medicine for Sion temporarily.
Paynun nodded.
"Understood. If I can get the ingredients, I can quickly make something to alleviate his symptoms. Ah, and there's been some progress in the research on the golem's heart, Dragonslayer, and Sky People's armor you entrusted to me."
Zeke's face brightened at Paynun's words.
"Is that true?"
"Yes. As you suspected, Master, those armors are indeed powered by highly compressed magic stones. If that armor was used during the Liberation War era, it's presumed that it could have been used as a high-powered device to fight giant monsters."
"I see. Can it be repaired?"
"It's a very old artifact, and the operating circuit is unlike anything I've seen before, so I'll need to examine it further."
Zeke nodded.
"Understood. Please let me know if there's any more progress in your research."
Paynun stayed at the castle, made medicine to alleviate Sion's seizures, and then returned to Atlas.
Zeke finally got some proper rest and decided to proceed with the enhancement of his equipment, which he had been putting off.
By adding the necessary materials and enhancing the Orichalcum sword he named 'Roland,' he could upgrade it to higher stats.
Zeke put the jewels and various metals needed for the enhancement into his inventory.
While organizing his inventory for the upgrade, Zeke looked at one of the materials on the list and pondered.
"Meteoric iron ingot. It's not easy to obtain meteoric iron."
Even as an intermediate administrator, it was impossible to purchase such metal materials from the store.
While looking through the items again, Zeke found the mace he had received from a random box before.
It was an artifact containing the Light's Punishment skill, but he hadn't used it much and had forgotten he even had it.
'Lubern's Mace. Perhaps...'
Zeke put the mace in the dismantling window and checked the list of materials that could be extracted.
"There it is! Meteoric iron ingot! Alright!"
As he expected, the mace was a weapon made of meteoric iron and mithril.
Zeke dismantled Lubern's Mace.
Ding!
With a cheerful sound, the mace was dismantled into a meteoric iron ingot, a mithril ingot, leather, and a rune.
"What's this rune?"
When he checked the rune, the 'Light's Punishment' magic was engraved on it.
"Oh, this would be good to put on the mace Clone has."
If she could use the Light's Breath magic, which strengthened her power, together with Light's Punishment, Clone's combat strength would surely increase.
Zeke set aside the rune and mithril extracted from the mace and put the meteoric iron ingot into the enhancement window.
He had finally met the conditions for enhancing Roland.
Zeke pressed the enhance button with a pounding heart.
Woooong!
Light flashed from the enhancement window.
Unlike dismantling, enhancement took quite a while.
'Considering the time it took to repair Hersion, it's not that long.'
After about ten minutes, the enhancement progress reached 100%.
Ding!
A clear sound rang, signaling the completion of the enhancement.
[The equipment 'Roland' has been enhanced.]
[The equipment name has been changed to 'Jeweled Sword Roland'.]
[The stats of Jeweled Sword Roland have been enhanced.]
Zeke took the enhanced Roland out of his inventory.
"Wow, what is this?"
Roland, which had a rather rough appearance, had transformed into a splendid form.
The scabbard, as well as the hilt, were intricately crafted with mithril and gold, and jewels were embedded throughout.
Zeke was flustered by the excessively flashy appearance of Roland.
"Is it this flashy because it's called a jeweled sword?"
Zeke checked the information on Jeweled Sword Roland.
―Jeweled Sword Roland Information―
Description: A sword made of Orichalcum, crafted with the utmost care by a skilled artisan, enhanced with precious metals and jewels.
Inherent Abilities: Light's Punishment (effect applied only upon striking), Light's Veil, Light's Arrow, Will of Jewels
Special Notes: Deals 3.5 times damage to undead and demons. / Inherent abilities granted by the jewels activate randomly.
The damage increase against undead and demons had increased by 0.5 times, and a new skill had appeared.
"Will of Jewels? What kind of ability is this?"
Zeke drew the sword from its scabbard.
The Orichalcum blade shone beautifully.
Zeke activated the 'Will of Jewels' skill.
[The skill will activate randomly.]
[Will of Ruby activated.]
Whoosh!
The ruby attached to the scabbard sparkled, and flames erupted from the sword.
"So this is what Will of Jewels is?"
There were a total of seven jewels attached to the scabbard.
It seemed that each jewel activated a different inherent will.
Zeke tried using the Will of Jewels skill again.
[The skill will activate randomly.]
[Will of Aquamarine activated.]
Crash!
Suddenly, cold air surged from the sword.
Zeke deactivated the skill and slowly examined the Jeweled Sword Roland again in admiration.
"This means I can use seven different abilities with this one sword."
Of course, the skills activated randomly, but even so, its value was enough to surpass that of a rare artifact and become a unique artifact.
Just then, a message appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[The durability of Ruby and Aquamarine has decreased by 5% due to skill usage.]
[Repair with new jewels before durability is completely depleted.]
"What? Repair with jewels?"
This meant that every time he used the skills, the power of the jewels would be consumed, requiring continuous repairs.
Zeke clicked his tongue as he looked at the Jeweled Sword Roland.
"This is a real money pit."
Even without the Will of Jewels skill, it was an excellent sword in itself, so it wasn't really a loss.
Zeke put the Jeweled Sword Roland back into his inventory and took out the meteoric iron sword in which Arataso was sealed.
This sword could also be enhanced, but unfortunately, he didn't have any Fairy Stones currently, so enhancement was impossible for now.
Zeke released the seal after a long time and spoke to Arataso trapped within the sword.
"Arataso, are you there?"
Despite Zeke calling him, Arataso didn't answer.
'Did his soul return to the demon world?'
Zeke held the sword and used the Sacred Flame skill.
Whoosh!
The meteoric iron sword was instantly engulfed in sacred flames.
[Kyaaaak!]
Arataso, who had been silent, screamed.
Zeke confirmed that Arataso was indeed there and withdrew the Sacred Flame.
"Why didn't you answer when I called you?"
Arataso spoke in a low voice.
[I am the vanguard and an honorable warrior of the 'Clear Green Aspiration.' You are holding my soul captive and insulting me. Yet, how can you expect me to answer obediently?]
Zeke pondered Arataso's words, then activated Sacred Flame again.
Whoosh!
[Kyaaaak!]
Zeke held the sword and said,
"Don't give me that honor crap. Stop spouting nonsense and answer me immediately when I call you."
Arataso gritted his teeth within the flames of Sacred Flame.
[You... A terrible curse will befall you! My master will inflict punishment worse than death upon you!]
"Those who can't even come to the physical realm are talking nonsense. Well, who told you to come all the way here?"
Arataso ground his teeth at Zeke's words.
He couldn't do anything as his soul was bound and he was trapped.
Eventually, Arataso, with his spirit broken, asked Zeke,
[What will it take for you to let me go?]
Zeke smirked, hearing Arataso take the bait.
"Well, let me think about it."
[If you are a knight, keep your honor!]
"It's absurd for a devil's minion to talk about honor. Hey, Arataso. There is one way you can escape from there."
[What is it? Tell me.]
Zeke gave a devilish smile and said,
"The barrier magic you used. Teach me that."