Chapter 313 - Bestowal Ceremony

Mercury walked through the ruins he looked rather careless as he strolled forwards with his cane tapping against the ground, but that could not be further from the truth, he sent pulses through the bedrock as he walked which rendered a picture inside his head of the surrounding area, so far he had only spotted insects and critters the size of rats, though he had a feeling that something bigger was out there

'...I haven't seen any kind of magic beast so far, which is bad'

If there were more magic beast in the area he would be calmer as it meant that their territories were smaller, but the fact that he hadn't meant that he had entered a large territory, and a large territory mean a large, powerful magic beast

'Though that's why I am alone, I'm semi-immortal after all…'

The ruins might be devoid of life so far, but not of sound, the constant clicking in the distance told the presence of a magic beast it crescendoed around Mercury that in turn tightened the grip on his sword while tapping his finger against his cane with increasing speed updating the mental picture of the magic beast that was circling around him

"Why does it have to have that many legs…"

What Mercury saw was… Well, a giant centipede around 30 meters long that was covered with scales that shone with a metallic shine, Mercury tapped his cane which sent a pulse through the ground before it activated the mana in the local area making the bedrock violently contract before it then expanded upwards in the form of a rock shard that then hit the giant centipede's underbelly, right between two scales on its supposedly weakest point, however, it simply fractured with a loud clang, Mercury showed a slight frown before he tapped the cane repeatedly a few times

*Clang, Clang, Clang!"

A few high sounding 'clangs' sounded out as multiple rock shards hit the centipede targeting its weak spots, this didn't injure the centipede, it simply pissed it off as it let out a shriek of anger before stopped circling Mercury and closed the distance on him, Mercury sighed before he muttered

"Of course it's not that easy…"

Then with practiced movements, he turned his cane into a cast around his injured leg and drew the adamantine sword as he stood ready the centipede, that still was letting out an infernal shriek, mowed through the ancient buildings, and with an open maw it attempted to swallow Mercury whole, Mercury kicked off the ground and twisted his body as he leaped above the centipede and sent a slash out towards the joint on the centipede

*CLANG!*

Another loud clang sounded out as the adamantine blade hit the joint of the centipede Mercury twisted his body before he landed on its back briefly using it as a foothold before he kicked off its back and landed on a nearby building, the centipede swung its long tail towards Mercury that quickly jumped off the roof of the building again before he twisted in the air, over the centipede and sent a slash towards it as he yelled

"[Forging blows]!"

As the sword made contact with the scales it sent the force of several hundred kilograms through the scales before it crushed the inside of the centipede's body, the shrink of the centipede turned louder as it now was filled with pain

"Another one! [Forging blows]!"

Mercury once again briefly made contact with the scales of the centipede before he made a front flip with the sword raised above his head striking down on another scale once again crushing its insiders, from there the fight turned onesided as Mercury used [Forging blows] to kill the giant centipede when it laid weakly on the bedrock Mercury delivered a final [Froging blows] to its head, killing it completely, then he walked over to the scales and touched them with his free hand before he muttered

"...[Metal assimilation]"

After a bit nothing happened, Mercury sighed

"No luck huh…"

He shrugged before he walked onwards towards the temple which he soon found, the temple was grand, much bigger than any he had been to before, luckily he knew where to go and soon he found himself in a large prayer room and touched the crystal in the middle of the room

[SUBJECT NUMBER #5 CONFIRMED, STARTING PREARAGNED DIAL-UP… DEPLOYING ISOLATION BARRIER… COMPLETE, DIAL-UP COMPLETE, STARTING DECENED]

A large amount of formless pressure descended into the avatar that lay on the alter, Mercury was temporally unable to breathe, this was way more intense than he had ever witnessed before, soon the avatar sat itself up and spoke

[Yo! Did ya miss me~]

"... A bit"

[Right-o! Let's-o! Get-o! This-o! Started-o!~]

"You seem a little excited Party…"

[Well it's been a while since I've been in such a high-class avatar, after all, they simply don't make them as they used to~]

"I-I see…"

[Well then, come here, boy-o~]

Mercury walked over to the avatar that laid its hand on top of his head before an emotionless voice sounded out inside the room again

[OPENING DATA-BRIDGE… DATA-BRIDGE OPEN, HOLDING STEADY, BESTOWAL CEREMONY STARTING…]

Mercury suddenly felt like a vast amount of knowledge was being filled into his brain, it wasn't overwhelming to him, though he got a little dizzy at the end, the avatar soon lifted its hand from his head and asked

[How was it~?]

"...[Meditation] huh…"

[Exactly!~ Looks like it went well~]

"Thank you Party"

[Ehem~ You can praise me more~]

"Well then, I'll head back to Ode"

[You're not going to raid the storage facility~?]

"Storage facility?"

[Yeah, you might find something good there~]

"...Where is it?"

Party quickly gave Mercury instructions to get to the storage facility, then after he said his goodbyes to Party he left the temple to get to the storage facility, he soon arrived at what looked like a giant storage facility and after cutting open the door he walked inside and was amazed at once, metal bars of various kinds were stacked up high in neatly arranged rows, perhaps that was why he didn't notice the magic formation under the dust, as Mercury walked around in amazement he unknowingly walked right in the middle of it, then after feeling a moment of weightlessness a bright flash of light appeared and Mercury disappeared from the storage facility…

Mercury let out a groan, he felt like he had died once so he muttered

"Status…"

Name: Mercury

Age: Error

Race: Null

Class: [Metal]

Class level: 11

Titles: [Last member of the ********* ** *** ******] [First of the ********] [Sinner of the ****** race] [Cursebreaker] [Crippled leg] [Iron ranked hunter]

Strength [17/1000] (-2) - Constitution [17/1000] - Dexterity [18/450]

Intelligence [18/100] (-1) - Wisdom [20/100] - Carisma [20/10] 

Class skills: [Metal assimilation, lv--] [Essence refining, lv--] [Essence consuming, lv--] [Essence shop, lv--]

Active skills: [Earth magic, lv10] [Lesser metal weaving, lv--] [Metal domination, lv--] [Blacksmithing, lv4] [Swordsmamship, lv3] [Forging blows, lv1] [Meditation, lv--]

Passive skills [Cursebreaker, lv--] [Pain resistance, lv03]

"Shit… I really did die, where is this..?"

Mercury looked around and found himself in a dark room, thankfully his night vision was as sharp as ever so he quickly found the exit of the storage facility and walked out

"What the…"

Sunlight was shining down on him, he was in a ruin that looked much like the one he had been in before, only this ruin was on the surface, sunlight was shining down on him

"...I've got a bad feeling about this"

Mercury walked around the ruin for a bit before he found the temple and walked inside, there he found a working prayer room and touched the crystal ball in the middle, after a few moments of silence a robotic voice sounded out inside the room

[SUBJECT NUMBER #5 CONFIRMED, REQUEST DESCEND Y/N?]

"...Yes"

[ISOLANTION BARRIER POWERING UP… COMPLETE, DAILING ACHANGLE NUMBER #26… DIAL-UP COMPLETE, REQUEST CONFIRMED, STARTING DESCEND...]

Soon a formless pressure descended into the avatar that soon raised its body from the altar and looked around before it spoke in a rather serious tone

[Mercury… Where is this?]

"...I was hoping you could tell me that"

[One moment… Oh shit…]

Right after Party spoke a loud bang sounded out before the robotic voice spoke again

[ISOLATION BARRIER HOLDING STEADY AT 37%]

[Shit… Mercury, I am sorry]

"...What's happening?"

[Well I accidentally broke one of my promises… Shit, he's going to be mad…]

Another bang sounded out before the robotic voice spoke again

[ERROR: ISOLATION BARRIER DESTROYED]

Then there was a knock at the door before it suddenly was kicked open and a voice sounded out

"Honey I'm home!"

A man that seemed around 20 walked into the room, he had short black hair and blue eyes that seemed deep as the sea itself, Mercury felt a shiver when he looked at him, the man however ignored him and looked at the avatar before he spoke

"Hey there Party… Didn't I tell you not to show up on my continent again?"

The avatar knelled down and spoke in a slightly shaky voice

"Please forgive me… Mars"