Chapter 173

‘I should head out.’

Merlin turned his head and used Enhanced Eyesight to view his next destination. After calculating the coordinates, Merlin manipulated his mana and opened a dimensional door.

Zap!

In an instant, Merlin teleported ten kilometers away, making it seem as easy as breathing. Merlin soon reached the hidden housing card door and stepped inside.

“Oh, you’re here?”

“Ack, Quiet Heaven. Why aren’t you working?”

With its red wings lazily sprawled out as it leaned back against a chair, Quiet Heaven appeared more like a cat than a bird. When Merlin popped in and immediately started berating Quiet Heaven, Quiet Heaven couldn’t help but bark back.

“What? I’ve been working up to now! I’m taking a break!”

“What about the results?”

“They’re in your desk drawer.”

Merlin walked to his desk and opened the drawer to find three glimmering magic stone gems.

“Good job. You’ve worked hard, so take some rest.”

“Thanks, you good-for-nothing boss.”

As Quiet Heaven complained and stretched out to get some sleep, Merlin smiled and gathered the three magic stones. Though Quiet Heaven could only work on one part of the process, this in and of itself was a tremendous help to Merlin.

‘I don’t feel good about what’s happening behind the scenes.’

Merlin had always wondered about the organization that made DIO, as its power and technology seemed to be far beyond modern civilization. In truth, if the organization behind DIO chose to do whatever they wanted to the humans in real life, the latter wouldn’t be able to muster a response. Other than having various talents like the ability to use magic, the beings behind DIO seemed to possess scientific knowledge that was centuries beyond what existed on Earth.

‘However, they haven’t done anything noticeable on Earth. Perhaps they’re planning something in secret.’

In Merlin’s eyes, DIO’s popularity and rapidly increasing player base weren’t normal. Of course, a system that ran with only a designated CD, CD player, and earphones was playable anywhere, but it still didn’t make sense that no country was resisting this mysterious technology. Nation-states often stole technology through political or economic pressure or extreme special forces, but this didn’t seem to be occurring with DIO.

‘He mentioned that the boss would change.’

Merlin was quite concerned with this alteration. Perhaps the boss Tan referred to was the head of DIO. An executive change meant that the basic policy of the organization behind DIO would also differ. Hence, though DIO’s policy towards users was relatively peaceful so far, there was no guarantee that this user-friendly policy would continue.

‘I’ll have to prepare as much as possible. I need to arm myself sufficiently.’

Information within DIO was limited. There was a lot of accumulated knowledge in DIO, but intel that could help Merlin understand the current situation was thoroughly blocked and harder to find than expected. However, Merlin could still infer a few things from his conversation with Tan.

‘First off, he called me Yongno. That Tan guy seems fairly quick-witted. So, his inability to discern the differences between how I am in DIO versus real life means that he hasn’t been keeping a close eye on me.’

Furthermore, the fact that Tan was allowing Merlin to spend a huge amount of gem points and create a custom flying shuttle signaled that Tan was planning on using the flying shuttle or its tech for his own purposes.

Ting!

Merlin took out the longsword and gauntlets he had brought from Aidelin’s smithy and placed the longsword on the spiritual magic circle he had made in advance. Merlin then took out some magic powder, which had preservation magic applied to it, and started preparing the other magic ingredients, including mithril fragments and the magic stones and cores.

“Huh? You’re planning to start now?”

With its curiosity and interest peaked, Quiet Heaven got up and approached Merlin. The bird was highly interested in the research Merlin was currently conducting.

“Before making my armor, I need to gather some data.”

Bubble. Bubble.

Merlin glanced to the side where three large glass tubes were situated. Each one was cylindrical, one meter tall, and had a diameter of about 30 centimeters, and they contained a bubbling metallic liquid. Merlin placed the longsword down and began to create a magic system. One after the other, Merlin applied the magic ingredients he had prepared to create the magic system’s foundation. Though this type of multi-tasking was tricky, Merlin was making a vessel that could contain a huge amount of magic power, much like his Golden Pill Immortal Technique’s gold core or his Seven Jewel School’s magic stone.

Crack.

Blue gems started to form on the pommel of the longsword, and, like growing icicles, the previously empty pommel was filled. However, the process was slow. For five to six hours straight, Merlin had to continually add designs and changes to his magic system.

“Arise. Take your place. Protect, imbue, and work your great power.”

As Merlin chanted the spell, a foundational frame took shape. No additional ingredients or materials were needed. Once magic was imbued into the longsword, Merlin simply had to set the direction and property of the magic. There was only one effect he wanted for the new magic weapon he was working on. However, for the effect to stay, Merlin had to add numerous underlying techniques.

“Oh, you’re placing all the foundational systems into the longsword despite it only having one function?”

“I got a hint from the enhancement processes in other online games. To be honest, I’d like to raise the enhancement limit a bit more, but it’s difficult to do that.”

When the magic circle was fully activated, the longsword rose into the air as dozens of magic circles began to shine in five colors. Merlin adjusted his Close glasses and wiped the sweat from his brow.

“Is it tiring?”

“It’s not that the work itself is difficult, but the organization of the data. There are multiple factors I need to be mindful of and observe when trying to extract data from a single experiment. That’s why it’s taking me a long time.”

Merlin memorized the entire process of the experiment. Taking a video of the process would have been effective, but Merlin didn’t know how DIO’s system handled saved user videos, so he felt uneasy using the video recording function. Merlin had exceptional memory anyway, so he didn’t need to rely on outside assistance.

Ting!

“Wow… awesome. I never imagined that this sort of….”

Behind Quiet Heaven, six twisting cylindrical columns started inscribing enchantment runes. Merlin was conducting the experiment and gathering data to try and find a hint on how he could improve his Dao magic arts.

“The process should be finished soon.”

After expanding his magic circle and operating it at full capacity, Merlin started putting the final touches on his magic system. Then, once the enchantment runes were complete, Merlin compressed magic power and imbued the magic system and its effects onto the longsword. The longsword spun in the air before landing softly on the ground.

[Item: +0 Striking Sword

Tier 9

Unique

Description: This is a magic martial arts sword that possesses the fundamental structure to contain multiple magic spells and conduct spell-strike attacks. This item may be reinforced using magic stones or cores. The max reinforcement is +9, and as this item becomes reinforced, it will be able to overlap multiple magic spells in a single strike. Moreover, the rank of this sword will increase with each reinforcement.

If reinforcement fails, this sword’s tier will fall by one, and the item will be restricted from further attempts for 24 hours times the item’s tier.

Currently, the chance of reinforcement success is 100%. Reinforcement requires 100 tetra of mana magic power.]

“Done.”

Merlin made a satisfied smile as he took out the various magic stones and cores that he had picked up while hunting in the past. He placed a magic stone near the longsword’s gem-encrusted pommel.

Woong!

A small magic circle rose from the gem pommel and absorbed the magic stone, and the longsword emanated a white, shimmering light as it gently shook.

/Reinforcement success! The +0 Striking Sword has now become a +1 Striking Sword!/

“Huh… a DIO message window appears after my proprietary system operates… this must mean that no individual being is developing the items or quests… DIO’s system is being run by AI.”

While mumbling to himself, Merlin started taking out more magic stones and cores. The next reinforcement had a success rate of 90% and required 200 tetra of magic power. One positive of this system was that the magic power didn’t have to be pure. Hence, a user could reinforce an item somewhat easily if they had relatively worthless magic stones and cores, which contained a minuscule amount of spiritual power.

/Reinforcement success! The +1 Striking Sword has now become a +2 Striking Sword!/

/Reinforcement success! The +2 Striking Sword has now become a +3 Striking Sword!/

/Reinforcement success…/

Each time a reinforcement was successfully applied, another spell could be used when attacking with the longsword. An item that could imbue two or even four spells in one strike was considered priceless, so this continual addition of spells with each successful reinforcement was a tremendous feat. Fortunately, Merlin reached +7 reinforcement without much trouble. Now, in order to get +8 reinforcement, 12,800 tetra of magic power was needed, and the success rate was 39%.

“I should stop here. I also need to reinforce the gauntlets, but I’ve already spent so many magic stones and cores on the longsword.”

Merlin’s reinforced longsword required an ever-increasing amount of magic power to add an additional reinforcement and give it another overlapping spell. Merlin only possessed 2,000 tetra of magic power, so 12,800 tetra was an astronomical number.

In truth, it wasn’t easy to find any items that contained more than 10,000 tetra of magic power. Typically, for most magic weapons, a magic system was placed onto an item, and the magic circuitry of such a magic system usually couldn’t handle magic power above 10,000 tetra. Most magic system circuitry would burn up and shut down if overloaded by too much magic power. Moreover, making a high-rank magic system with stable magic circuitry usually took a high-level mage one month at the earliest; also, the required magic power to operate the magic system necessitated a high rank magic stone or core.

Hence, the power and force behind a 10,000 tetra magic weapon were considerable.

Unless one had a defensive force at least equal to 10,000 tetra, the magic weapon’s strike would inevitably go through one’s defenses.

Considering that more magic power in a weapon also resulted in greater explosive offensive force, one could surmise just how terrifying Arthur’s Excalibur attack was, as Excalibur contained 9,000,000 tetra of magic power.

‘Well, that was probably why he could defeat Sungmuk with a single sword strike.’