Chapter 203: Unexpected Reward

While walking on the way, Ilgor follows behind Angus obediently without any word.

Looking at the following orc, "Hahaha… Congratulations, nephew. You got yourself a loyal subordinate. If I am not wrong when an orc pledges their loyalty to someone, they will follow it until their death." said Jade while laughing happily.

"Yeah.. Yeah…" replied Angus casually.

Angus is not in the mood to talk about it since it will create more hassle for him.

'Well, having capable people on my side is never wrong. Besides, he could always become Jayna's bodyguard, though she probably never accepts that.' thought Angus inwardly.

"Angus, you are thinking something bad about me, right?" asked Jayna out of nowhere.

"Hahaha… Of course not. I'm just thinking about how to improve your strength." replied Angus while maintaining his expression.

"Hmm… really?? Hmm… suspicious. Alright, be my good sandbag today, and I will trust you." said Jayna.

"Eehhh… No way, why should I? Just ask Ilgor if you want a good sandbag." replied Angus casually.

'Sandbag??' thought Ilgor confusedly without noticing the horrible fate he will have.

Then, Jayna looked at Ilgor for a moment, "Alright, I decide you will become my sandbag for today." Jayna said in a commanding tone towards Ilgor.

"Err.. Master." asked Ilgor towards Angus.

"Just do what she asked. Besides, this is also good training for you." replied Angus casually.

"Oh yeah.. Since you are now my subordinate. It means you are also her subordinate since she is my dear… Well, just obey her when I am not around." added Angus.

"A-As you wish, master." replied Ilgor.

"Good, don't worry. This princess will take care of you. Hehehe..." said Jayna playfully.

Soon, all of them managed to arrive at the camp. Jade and the others begin to disperse to their respective places. They still need to do a lot of things to prepare for the battle. 

Since yesterday night's meeting, all the Sur Clan's high-grade combatants in the camp have already been notified secretly. Now, they are in the middle of preparation for the brutal battle that will happen around two weeks from now.

In the meantime, Jayna dragged Ilgor towards the nearby training place. As for Angus, he decides to check the rewards he got inside his own tent. After inspecting all the items carefully, he was surprised to find two artifacts in it.

One is a pair of boots, and the other is a cloak. If it is not because of the strange aura they release, Angus will think it is just another enchanted item. 

The boots are made of complete metal on the outer side with a slight metallic wing on its side. While on the inside, it is made of some kind of leather. The metallic has a plain color and is a little bit rusted.

Furthermore, the boots are pretty heavy. If Angus does not open his first gate of life, he probably will have difficulty lifting the boots.

The cloak is also made in plain color. After careful inspection and the use of [Analyze], Angus couldn't identify the cloak's material, like the boots. 

Angus only knows that it is some kind of fabric but didn't know what it was made of despite his vast knowledge about material as a crafter. Similar to the boots, the cloak is also quite heavy.

This is the first time Angus gets his artifact and decides to inspect it carefully. Many people say that an artifact is better than an enchanted item.

The rumor said that, unlike enchanted items, artifacts will never degrade and are pretty durable. In the world of Firuman, where many people live a long life, the meaning of never degrading and being quite durable is very different.

It could mean the artifact may last more than hundreds or possibly thousands of years. It is also possible to be strong enough to withstand a high-grade combatant attack. Such a precious item made Angus still couldn't understand why he got two artifacts as the reward.

If it is only one, he still could believe since the rumor said the hidden group often gives an artifact towards the winner. But, two at once is an entirely different matter.

'Haa.. Forget it. I will just use everything I got.' thought Angus.

However, it is not easy to use artifacts. Each artifact has its sentient spirit and is hard to tame, especially the sealed one like the two artifacts he got. Since both are in a sealed state, the sentient spirit may harbor a grudge and will be more difficult to tame than usual.

No one is like being sealed or being prisoned. Still, before he could use the true capabilities of the two artifacts, Angus needed to tame their sentient spirits.

Otherwise, they will stay still and only become like durable cloaks and boots. Even though it didn't have an effect, it is still better than standard enchanted cloak and boots in terms of durability.

After a few hours of careful inspection, Angus finally understood a bit of the seal in both artifacts. The boots have three layers of the seal, while the cloak has five layers of the seal. Before taming the artifact spirit, Angus needs to unseal them first.

Sometimes, the seal is made of a lot of complicated runes to solve or has unique requirements. From what he inspected, the need for the first seal is mana.

The seal will be lifted as long as the user supplies enough mana in both quality and quantities. This first layer of the seal is quite common among the artifacts. This is also to make sure that the one that could use the artifact is only a mana user.

Otherwise, if all these powerful artifacts fell into the monster's hand, especially the monster overlord, the civilian society would already be extinct a long time ago. The combination of monster overlord power and artifact is not something that everyone could hold.

This is proven with the last monster overlord that uses an artifact to control and summon undead monsters. Just one of the combinations of this power, many small nations suffered, collapsed, and many people died in a few years.

Fortunately, the monster overlord managed to be stopped in time before he could gather more undead monsters and get stronger along with the artifact.

Without any further thought, Angus decided to unseal the boots first by applying his mana. After a few minutes, the boots' rustic color changes and turns into a silver metallic color.

"This.. This is too fast? Didn't the book say that for lower grade combatant, it needs around a week or more for the first seal to react?" said Angus confusedly.

Angus didn't realize that his mana quality and purity are almost comparable with a fourth-grade combatant. This is because his mana core is significantly superior compared to others.

When he designed his mana core, he didn't only create it to have a high mana regeneration but also produce a good quality of mana.

As someone who has been standing on the top, he knows the importance of quality. Just by having a good mana quality, his attack could also have a more devastating effect. 

This is clearly shown when Angus uses Firebolt. Although Angus modified his own Firebolt spell, it will still not have a devastating effect if not because of his mana quality.

After a few hours of supplying mana, Angus finally managed to unseal the boots' first seal. Each seal of the artifact will reveal some function of the artifact. Angus still didn't know its effect but he feels that the boots had become very light.

As he tries to put on his feet, he feels like not wearing boots at all. It also could adapt to his own feet shape and make it more comfortable. After that, he looks towards the following seal requirement, which is made of many complicated runes he didn't understand.

Angus predicts it will take a lot of time to solve and translate the runes to know its requirement. So, he put the boots aside first and looked towards the cloak. He begins to apply mana as he did with the other artifact.

Soon, the cloak also became more vibrant in color. It changes into a bright crimson color. Looking at the cloak color, Angus couldn't help but become gloomy.

"There is no way I will use such a flashy color. Only idiotic will wear a cloak with this kind of color." said Angus while keep applying the mana towards the cloak.

Finally, the cloak's first seal was successfully undone. By coincidence, Angus applied more mana towards the cloak and made it change color into slightly darker. Then, he decides to keep applying mana until it becomes completely black.

After testing a few more times about the cloak abilities, he found the cloak quite interesting. First, it could change its color if applied with mana. It will change into darker tones until it becomes utterly black before starting to change into another color.

He also found that the cloak is light like boots despite its thick material. As for its durability, it's pretty durable that even his sharp Sky Thorn could tear it.

However, the ridiculous part is when he wears the cloak. It tries to siphon his mana at a minuscule rate. When he gives in the mana to the cloak, It starts to blend with the surrounding.