“How confident are you in escaping?” Alec asked Azrael.

Azrael lifted his handcuffed hands to the suppression collar at his neck.

“With or without these?” he asked.

Alec briefly glanced up from a tangle of wire that he was fiddling with. Multiple other metallic components lay scattered around him in a disorganised mess.

“Ah” he said, understanding briefly lighting up his eyes, “a mage type. Nice. What classes?”

Azrael hesitated. Depending on how he answered, Alec could realise that he was a player. That was if he hadn’t already. Azrael realised that he might have blown his cover earlier when he asked about the golems. Getting out of here was probably more important than keeping his identity as a player hidden though.

“Elemental type combat mage, with some runic knowledge” he finally supplied.

Just like for a successful job, it was better to lay the available tools on the table.

“Primary spells?” Alec asked carefully bending wires into strange shaped with a pair of pointy-nosed pliers.

“Fire bullet, wind burst and earth shaping, though I can also use simple water spells.”

Alec didn’t reply, instead soldering the wires onto a copper plate along with several mana stones. Azrael watched interestedly as Alec flipped the plate over and began engraving runes with a stylus. Halfway through Alec finally spoke again.

“How long do you think it would take you to get through the door?”

Azrael looked at the cell door. He hadn’t taken the time to really look at it though. He walked towards it and gave it a rap with his knuckles. It was thick, at least ten centimeters, and covered with metal.

It wasn’t pure metal though. The sound was wrong. The door itself probably had a wooden core, which was then covered in sheets of metal. If his guess was correct, then there were plenty of defensive runes carved on the inside of those sheets. With his mana sealed he could neither confirm the thickness of the door, nor the spells inscribed on it.

Azrael looked at the cell wall instead. The wall was smooth stone, magically raised and joined without a gap. Undoubtedly it also had enchantments on it, though they were probably weaker than the door. Stone was, after all, a worse mana conductor than metals.

A thought presented itself to him and he used a long unused skill, [Craftman’s Eye], on both door and the wall.

Reinforced Enchanted Prison Door

Crafted by several experts the door has been enchanted to hold great resilience against attacks of both physical and magical nature. It is extremely fireproof.

It has absorbed a small part of Purity’s divine energy and will never dent or rust.

Enchanted Prison Wall

Raised by magic the wall is completely flawless and has been enchanted to resist against attacks of both physical and magical nature.

It has absorbed a small part of Purity’s divine energy and will never bear a flaw, chip or blemish.

Azrael read through the description, though the information only confirmed what he had guessed. It was unfortunate that the Skill didn’t tell him exactly what enchantments were on the door and wall. Maybe if he levelled the skill up it would become an option?

“I think we would have a better chance breaking through the wall” Azrael answered Alec, after his assessment.

Alec seemingly registered it, in his own distracted way. Or at least, Azrael assumed that he had heard it, since Alec was bobbing his head. That may have simply been because the contraption he was working on was coming along well though.

Out of curiosity Azrael glanced at the handcuffs with his [Craftman’s Eyes].

Mithril Handcuffs

Crafted from mithril by a dwarfen blacksmith, these handcuffs, by virtue of their nature, are completely resistant to mana and magical attacks and almost unbreakable.

Azrael looked at the handcuffs with both admiration and horror. He was looking at a mythical metal. A metal that every gamer dreamed of getting their hands on. But why was an endgame metal being used as handcuffs? And how did Holy Empire get their hands on it?

He looked at the description. Mithril in this game seemed to be extremely strong and completely resistant to all forms of mana and magic. Azrael looked at the bright silver handcuffs and considered the use of the metal.

It would be ideal for armour and possibly antimage weaponry, though it would also have extreme potential for carving rune structures on. Since the mithril wouldn’t degrade from the constant flow of mana, while being nigh indestructible would prevent the rune structure getting damaged in combat. The mithril also wouldn’t absorb any of the mana, meaning that the rune structure would be more mana efficient.

Without anything else to do, or prepare, Azrael settled in to watch Alec’s strange contraption grow in size. By now the mess of wires, metal plates and runic text had lost all sense of order, causing even Azrael with his system enhanced rune reading skills to feel lost. The fact that he wasn’t sure of what he was looking at in the first place made the whole matter a whole lot more complicated.

Eventually though, after some parts had been scrapped three times Alec held up his… his… his mess of wires and touched it to his neck. A suppression collar, the Azrael had previously missed, opened with an audible click and fell off.

Alec sighed in relief, “So much better.”

Rising from his seated position with a groan he brought the device over towards Azrael’s’ neck. Azrael raised his chin to allow for better access and the suppression collar opened. He pulled it off his neck and threw it on the bed.

“Thanks” he said, while rubbing his neck.

Without the collar he once again regained his sense of mana. He hadn’t even noticed how much he’d missed it; the flow of mana in his core and through his veins, the ambient mana in the air and even the barely perceptible thrum of mana from the runes on the door and walls. Now that he could once again feel mana again he could appreciate the sheer amount of mana that was racing through the wards of the cell.

Using [Stone Shaping] Azrael created a rough key, which he used to unlock the handcuffs. They fell open as well. Meanwhile, Alec was storing all his wires and tools away back into his invisible space. As he did so he finally noticed Azrael’s curious gaze.

“Spatial toolbelt” he said with a shrug “it’s a Skill”

Azrael nodded with understanding. That explained all the mysteriously appearing and disappearing items.

Alec picked up one of the suppression collars and looked at it a bit sadly.

“I never thought when I built these that I would be on the receiving end.”

He tucked it away into his [Spatial Toolbelt] and went to pick up the other one from the bed, as Azrael registered his words and the implications. Alec never got the chance to pick up the second suppression Collar before Azrael conjured a dagger and held it to Alec’s throat.

“You did what now?”

Alec froze stiff as he felt Azrael’s blade rest against his throat.

“Who do you work for?” Azrael asked.

“No one”

Azrael changed tack, spitting out the next question immediately, to try and keep Alec off balance.

“Did you make these collars?”

“These particular ones? Probably not, no, but…”

Azrael applied a little more pressure to the dagger and repeated his question.

“Did you make these collars?”

“Y-Yes”

“When did you make them?”

“One and a half months ago? Two, maybe? Of course, in real time that’d only be…”

Azrael applied a bit more force to the blade and Alec stopped his rambling.

“Did you, or have you ever worked for Holy Empire?”

A tiny trickle of blood ran down Alec’s throat as Azrael unconsciously increased the pressure yet again. He could feel his [Aura] subtly kicking in, bearing down on Alec.

“W-w-well, technically…”

Azrael pushed down with his [Aura], forcefully applying it on Alec.

“…yes.”

Azrael got ready to end this confrontation when Alec rammed something into his side. His entire body immediately went limp and it felt as if it had been struck by a hundred consecutive bolt of lightning. Alec pushed him away as he collapsed onto the bed behind him.

“I worked for them, WORKED as in past tense!” Alec shouted as he held up his hands defensively, “Otherwise I wouldn’t be in here with you!”

Azrael thought as he tried to recover. It was made worse by the fact that his whole body was still painfully numb would twitch intermittently.

“Is that a taser?” he asked, looking at the still sparking device in Alec’s hand.

“It’s a magitech personal safety device”

“It’s a taser.” Azrael replied flatly, his tongue feeling strangely fuzzy.

There were a few brief moments of silence before Alec spoke.

“We good?” he asked hesitantly.

Azrael thought about it and then nodded. Alec hadn’t killed him when he was down, which was usually a good sign.

Alec stowed the taser away, before holding out a hand towards Azrael. He pulled it back a moment later.

“I think introductions are in order once again.” He said, “I am Alec, EX-Head of magitech research for Holy Empire, current active member of the player magitech research guild, tinkerer, inventor and golemancer extreme.

Azrael nodded.

“So, what are you in here for then Alec?” he asked.

Alec hesitated and glanced at the cell door, before carefully pulling a fist sized orb out of his [Spatial Toolbelt]. The orb was perfectly circular and seemed to be made from a deep clear red crystal, light reflected, glimmered, and flashed, from facets hidden in its depths . Judging from the amount of power he could feel contained in the core and who the person was who held it, Azrael was fairly certain he could guess what the orb was.

“Is that..?” He began.

Alec nodded. “It’s a golem core”

Azrael held out a hand and Alec hesitantly let him hold it.

“It’s beautiful” Azrael breathed reverently.

And it truly was. It was a masterpiece. Upon closer inspection the facets that reflected the light in the crystal were actually countless runes painstakingly hand carved in bands, that miraculously vanished into the depths of the crystal.

“That, is an alchemically forged golem core, made up of close to 700 D-grade mana stones and the core of the Orc world boss from the first ring. It took twenty-six days to make and is the work of over twenty alchemists, mages, artificers and blacksmiths. It contains fourteen layers of runes and is both a processing unit, as well as a battery. And could be counted as the current greatest marvel and achievement in magitech to date!”

Alec took the orb back and stowed it away into his toolbelt.

“It just so happened that the management of Holy Empire and I had a disagreement on how the core should be used and how the information of the process should be managed.” He looked at Azrael with a grin “Information rights, am I right?”

Alec turned to Azrael curiously, “You never said what you were in for.”

“Eh,” he said with a shrug “Some people just couldn’t agree with my sense of artistry.”

Alec crossed his arms at his answer and a brief silence ensued.

“All right.” Azrael conceded “I might have messed around with the massive statue of The Saintess in the city square.”

“You what?”

Alec stared at him disbelieving, before he began talking to himself.

“The guards, no, actually… yes, that might explain everything…”

Alec lapsed into silence and Azrael had to clear his throat to catch his attention again.

“Ah… Shouldn’t we go before someone comes to check up on us?”

“Ah, yeah. Right… Ready?”

“Ready”

Collecting the handcuffs that he had previously dropped, Azrael turned to face the cell door. He drew upon his mana and activated [Void Shaping] to infuse it with the energies of the void. The unstable energy fought against his control, but he handled it with extreme care and concentration.

Placing a hand on the wall beside the door he flooded it with his mana. The void energies followed a moment after, already warping the cell’s walls. He let the Skill fill out a hole the size of a door before drawing all of his mana together and compressing it into an impossibly small space. The void energies, the stone and the mana from the wards all compressed together into that impossibly small space.

A round marble fell to the floor, leaving a small dent in the stone. Azrael cast [Craftman’s Eye] on the marble.

Dense Stone Marble

Made through impossible means it is a marble made of hyper condensed stone. It is unbelievably heavy and extremely resistant to both physical and magical force. Despite containing some mana of its own, it is resistant to foreign mana.

He shrugged impressed and gave it a nudge with his toe. It didn’t move.

With a slightly smug grin on his face, he turned to Alec.

“After you.”