Chapter 161 - S Rank Weapon: Into The Swamps arc (16)

Later that night...

Arnold stood alone in the dimly lit workshop, only half of the shadow was visible as every muscle on his torso was moving from the light into the dark. He was busy making a work of art, his light skin gave a hint of the strength his body contained, despite his calm looks, his eyes were locked onto the sword he was forging for someone special.

Tomorrow was going to be a long day for him and he needed to calm his nerves. The only way he knew to do so was to make weapons and gears like he felt he was destined to do so.

Why was he making weapons when he was stressed? It was because whenever he made something while he was under stress, not only did it calmed him, the fruits of his labours were also better and the sword in front of his eyes was a product of such labour.

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• [BLACK WIDOW]: A broadsword made up of the bones of The demon Orc. Upon the creation of this sword, it was further enhanced by its creator. This sword is a true work of art having skills and abilities that no one had ever seen before.

Grade: S

Strength (STR) : + 105

Weapon Type: Broadsword

Weight : 1.8 kg

Additional effect : [Defender] - Each successful strike by this sword temporarily (effective for 10 seconds) increases the user's defence by 2 points. Continuously killing three enemies give a bonus of 5 defence points. This skill has a cooldown of 3 seconds.

Additional effect : [Chain Reaction] - Actively striking the enemies for 5 times in a row would permanently boost the agility and evasion of the user by 2 points.

Additional effect : [Copy Cat] - Killing enemies having the same rank or lower rank than that of the user, would allow the user to copy a skill of the dead target and store it inside the sword which later on can be used freely by the one wielding the sword (At maximum only 3 skills can be stored).

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He had just finished making his first-ever S rank weapon. The sword had a unique skill attached to it called [Copy Cat], which allowed the one wielding the sword to freely be able to steal the skills of a dead enemy. It was because of this skill that the sword managed to achieve the S rank, and it all happened just because Arnold of the chaotic mind of Arnold decided to use a blood rune as one of the core materials for making the sword and gave it everything he had got.

Making his first S rank weapon also meant that...

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• SUPREME CREATIONIST :

[ INTRODUCTION ] : Your arsenal of weapons might be enough for now, but in future, they'll become useless and so will you.

[ TASK ] : Upgrade your existing weapons and build new ones and arm your helpers.

[ PROGRESS ] :

3/3 Gears repaired.

1/1 S ranked weapon created.

0/1 Relics created.

189/250 Gear made.

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"I've made some progress through the quest..." Arnold mumbled, "The automatons are regularly producing more and more gears every day so I don't need to worry about making 250 gears... but I do need to think what a 'relic' is..."

Arnold continued, "Literal definition of 'relic' means... something old, like an artefact. But then how am I supposed to make something old? That doesn't even make any sense. Maybe I need to make a replica of a historical weapon? That would make a little sense. *sigh* I need to focus on tomorrow instead of getting worried about something I can revisit later."

He yawned and stretched a bit before placing the hammer on top of the anvil. He stored the black sword in his inventory as he hadn't made it for his summons, but for Nina.

Nicole had told him that Nina always wanted to ask him to make a weapon for her but as he left for Brazil before she recovered, she never got the opportunity to do so and now that he was back, she didn't want to bother him with such a request when he was already so busy being the Section Chief of zone 4.

"Nicole is really trying to bind the two of us together... that girl. I'm grateful to her for what she did but the fact that she might have a system troubles me a lot." Arnold shook his head and calmed his raging nerves down, "Overthinking won't help me either."

He pulled a chair and sat down on it while drinking water. Soon Allen entered the workshop and sat down in front of Arnold.

"So?" Arnold put down the bottle and asked him.

"Everything has been taken care of. Tomorrow morning the soldier would leave to destroy the nearby monster lairs and gather resources, so you don't have to worry about them getting in between your fight and can go berserk on her if needed." Allen replied playing with the knife Arnold had made for him.

"What about those women that we rescued?"

"We've shifted them in the lower levels... not even a nuke can touch them." Allen proudly slammed a fist on his chest, clearly proud of himself but the moment he saw the look on Arnold's face he doubled down, "I admit it was an overstatement... Ahem, allow me to rephrase my statement. A couple of kilos of explosive would be enough to do the trick, but, but! Talos is looking after them so you can rest assured that nothing will happen to them and even I'm going to be there, so don't worry about them and focus on dealing with Amanda. After all, we still don't know what type of ability she has."

"Don't worry, I've already planned it all. No matter what skill she has, nothing can save her tomorrow... nothing." Arnold got up from his seat and turned towards his bedroom, "I'm going to bed, I'd suggest you do the same."

"Got it Chief!" Allen saluted him and walked himself out.

"Now what are you doing in my bed?" Arnold's mouth twitched and a vein popped out of his head.

"I thought, the master would like to release some stress after working for so long. You must be tired right, master?" Natasha gave him a luscious smile and rolled over the bed to make some space for him, "Would you like me to massage your tense body or would like to release your stress inside me, huh?"

"You want me to release my stress right?"

"Yes, master..."

"Then how about," Arnold pulled out the vindicator from his inventory and pointed it towards her, "I do so by killing you?"

"Eeek!" Natasha shrieked and jumped out of the bed, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Arnold sighed heavily and lowered his weapon, "Just tell me whether you got 's.e.x.u.a.l' energy to do what I asked?"

"Of course I did! After all, I'm the Queen of seduction, the true-"

"Yeah yeah whatever, just go back inside the void, for now, I have to sleep."

"Are you sure, you wanna s-l-e-e-p?" Natasha smacked her lips together.

Arnold immediately pointed his guns at her once again. That was all to he needed to make her obey him.

"You're no fun at all, hmph!" Natasha said as she stormed off.

"Just stay away from Bad-Breath." Arnold smirked and laid on the bed, slowly drifting away into a deep sleep.

***

The next morning...

Arnold was standing on the roof of the workshop. Watching the soldiers slowly leaving through the various gates of the base while the repairs were going on around the walls that the Black trolls had destroyed. He peered out over the terrace, his eyes taking in the bright colours squeezing through clouds.

'It was chilly today,' he thought, but it wasn't enough to bother someone like him who could produce ice just by waving his hands. It had rained the entire night, the scent of rain still hung in the air as he watched the darkened sky slowly takeover the morning sky. The hue of Pinks, yellows, and reds disappeared first. Blue soon followed, overtaken by the greyness climbing over the mountain tops. But as the mist thickened and the unmistakable role of thunder growled threateningly, one colour hung on, it was orange but even it was rapidly fading. It didn't take long until the husky colour faded. Rain splattered the deck, and he went inside.

"Is it necessary to rain every time I decide to fight someone?" He mumbled and equipped his gears underneath his clothes.

"You guys ready?" He asked the others once he was prepared to move.

"I'm ready but we should wait a bit more. The last squad is still at gate-2." Allen replied.

"You, Natasha? All set?"

"Yes, master." Her body shaking with excitement.

"Good then let's move out once the last squad has left."

Arnold wanted to make sure that there was no one in the base because he didn't want Amanda to take someone hostage using her powers, which were still unknown. That's why he told Allen to give an emergency mission to the soldiers, so that all of them would leave and the base would be deserted, thus not giving her an opportunity to get away.

Also after listening to the recording that Allen had provided them with, Arnold and Talos, together determined that Amanda's powers were most probably a type of mental attack, simply based on the fact that it was almost impossible to physically attack someone who was thousands of kilometres away from her and since Amanda's powers were most probably related to mental attacks, Talos and the other automatons, golems and hounds were the best option to protect the women that he had saved after killing the Demon Orc. But if all went according to plan then there wouldn't be a need for them to do anything.

"Okay... alright." Allen disconnected the call and turned towards Arnold, "They have left, we can start now."

"Alright then, move it!"