Lucia continues to get stronger as I waste away. I’m not really wasting away; I’m actually becoming stronger bit by bit as well, but the gap between her and I continues to increase. First, she surpassed me in strength; though, I remain stronger than her in terms of using techniques, but what good are techniques when brute strength can break them? Also, she’s surpassed me in intelligence—I’m sure of it. It might be due to an outside influence, the bone of intelligence she carved out of the tomb, but it’s an undeniable fact she’s learned how to read. And now, even her willpower is increasing. Before, she would never do anything that brings about the slightest bit of discomfort to herself unless I poked and prodded her into it, but now, she’s willing to set herself on fire to improve her mental state.

Am I still in the second trial of the tomb? The annoying voice isn’t here, so I don’t think I am, but I might as well be. If Lucia continues to improve as a cultivator and as a person, she really won’t have a use for me in the future. She’ll use me less and less like Roland did when he became more dependent on magic because it was more convenient. When Bouncykins told me the era of weapon spirits was over, I knew it to be true, but then I discovered the Immortal Continent with Lucia, a world where the sword was still a viable weapon. But viable for how long? Even Lucia’s preferring to use a hammer over my weapon body; though, that might just be because of her personality. Yes, she recently used me to kill almost a million people back in the tomb, but I’m sure that’s because she didn’t have any boats left to throw at them. Instead of thinking to use her sword, she threw boats at people. In her mind, are even boats better weapons than swords!?

Now that I think about it, doesn’t Lucia’s strength rank among the top in the Immortal Continent? Not counting immortals, of course. The Slaughter Seeking Sect, Despair Seeking Sect, and Death Seeking Sect are supposed to have enough power to control a country. That means, the three of them can fend off invasions from other countries seeking their resources. And if Lucia can demolish two out of the three sects, including their strongest quasi-immortal fighters, by herself, doesn’t that mean she has the strength to confront a whole country on her own? It seems like I have to become a quasi-immortal to keep up with her, but I’m not sure how to go about doing that. There was nothing about quasi-immortals in the sword-related cultivation technique I’m training in. Well, it’s not like I don’t know how to become stronger.

While Lucia’s distracted by her Secret Phoenix Rebirth Technique, I’ll leave my weapon body, take these sky-realm-ranked daggers that she extorted from a poor man and—

“Those are my daggers! Please, can I have them back?”

…This man’s still here? He did enter the tomb with Lucia, so it makes sense if he’s outside of it now, but everyone ran away when Lucia pounded the two quasi-immortals into meat pastes. I thought Lucia’s victims would be the first to leave. And, unfortunately for this man, I can’t give him his wish. “No.” To get stronger, I can eat swords. However, does it have to be limited to swords? Of course not. Lucia’s fed Puppers spears even though he should be eating socks; though, Puppers did say the taste was a bit unbearable when he ate the spears. I should be able to get stronger after eating these sky-realm-ranked weapons despite them being daggers. Sure, they might be bitter and disgusting, but the best medicines taste that way. …As does poison, but I’m not going to think about that.

“W-wait! Why are you licking them!? Do you know how long I spent on polishing them!?”

They taste like … animal bones inside of a broth? What are these things made out of? It’s some kind of alloy, so it should have a metallic taste, no? Odd, very odd. But since it tastes like actual food, this’ll be much easier to eat than expected. Hmm? I shouldn’t eat Lucia’s daggers that she can sell? Well, if she didn’t want me to eat them, she wouldn’t have given me access to her interspacial rings. And if she really didn’t want me to eat them, then she’d stop me before I did, but she’s showing no signs of doing that, so it’s not an issue.

“I’ll pay! I’ll pay the monthly fee to rent them from you! Mrs. Foxkin, please, make him stop violating my weapons!”

Right now, Lucia’s on fire with Mrs. Feathers’ help, she doesn’t have time to stop me. Delicious, and the texture’s not bad either. An abundant amount of warmth is flowing from my throat to the rest of my body; it’s making me stronger. With one bite, my strength’s risen noticeably. How strong will I get after eating them both?

“My, my dagger! I’ll kill you! Gold Crushing Punch!”

Versatile Path of the Sword: Impenetrable Shell! A barrier of qi rose up around me and blocked the man’s golden fist. I haven’t been slacking in the ten years Lucia was cultivating. Not only have I learned her Impenetrable Shell, I’ve also learned Footsteps of the Giant and…. “Versatile Path of the Sword: Madness Strike!”

“Golden Barrier!”

My sword struck the man’s barrier. It held for a second before cracking, but that gave the man enough time to retreat before my sword could hit him. His eyes widened, and he pointed at me, or more specifically, my sword. “Is that a sky-realm-ranked weapon!? Not only are you eating my sky-realm-ranked daggers, but you have your own sky-realm-ranked sword? Why don’t you eat that instead!?” The man turned his head to the side, and I took that chance to lunge at him with a stab.

“Golden Barrier!” Another barrier popped up around the man, and he glared at me as he grabbed the blade of my sword, his hand covered by a golden light. “Treasure Finder, now!”

Hmm? Was there another one? I spread my qi out, scanning the area, but I didn’t sense anything abnormal. So I pushed my sword harder. Cracks appeared on the barrier around the man’s hand.

“Treasure Finder…? I can’t hold on much longer!”

“Of all the people to pick a fight with, why did you have to pick the foxkin’s item spirit!?”