Vol 3. Chapter 75: Flickering Star

“Weapons at the [Magic Tool] tier might not have any spirit of their own, but at least they won’t reject you. In a sense, in the eyes of those little thieves, [Magic Tool]-tier weapons are actually the most valuable—after all, only [Magic Tools] and weapons at or below the [Magic Tool] tier even can get stolen.” the old man said.

“Ah, are the usage conditions for [Divine Armament] weapons that harsh? How is that fair?? For a young master as peerlessly gifted, handsome, and dashing as me, is there seriously not a single [Divine Armament] weapon that thinks I’m good enough for it??” Vinny, who’d already gone numb from being rejected by [Divine Armaments], said in deep unwillingness.

Up until just now he’d still felt that he had ridiculous survivability; just based on that alone, there had to be at least one [Divine Armament] that wouldn’t look down on him, right?

Yeah, no.

Reality proved that not everyone was a Destiny Heroine. Don’t plenty of so-called prodigies and freak geniuses also go their entire lives without ever being fated to wield a [Divine Armament]-tier weapon??

Unlike Aesphyra, who could literally be out on a countryside stroll and have the [Vow of Valor Holy Sword] fly over to her to auto-recognize her as its master.

“You brat, you think this is a matchmaking event or something?? Enough already, stop bragging about that completely ordinary face of yours.” the old man clicked his tongue. “If you think the requirements for [Divine Armament] weapons are too demanding but still insist on using one, well, that’s not impossible either. However...”

“However??”

“However, that kind of [Divine Armament] might be usable by anyone, but it also demands an extremely steep price from its user.” the old man explained. “If I remember correctly, there’s a lower-grade [Divine Armament] called [Blood-Debt] that anyone can use. It’s just that the user has to pay a massive price. Once this [Divine Armament] binds itself to a user, that user has to offer it, every single month, a mass of flesh and blood as large as a small mountain—and it has to be from sapient beings that died not long ago.”

“If the user is unable to offer that much flesh and blood, then it will take that price from the user instead.”

“[Blood-Debt]??” Vinny instinctively felt that the name of this [Divine Armament] sounded a bit familiar, like he’d heard it somewhere before.

“That’s right. Supposedly, in terms of raw power, that [Divine Armament] called [Blood-Debt] shouldn’t be ranked as merely lower-grade at all. It has the killing power and destructive might of a mid-grade or even high-grade [Divine Armament]. But purely because its side effects are too terrifying and its degree of threat to humanity is too great, it was forcibly assigned the rating of lower-grade [Divine Armament], and it’s an extremely dangerous weapon that’s strictly forbidden to possess in every country.”

“You should’ve gathered this much from my earlier explanation too: no matter what the original intentions of the person who uses this weapon might be, they never meet a good end. Once you wrap your hand around this [Divine Armament] and awaken it, it will force you to create slaughter and chaos. In the end, every user winds up turning into a bloodthirsty lunatic from the endless killing, and then dies under the joint encirclement of countless nations, crushed beneath the weight of the blood-debts they’ve piled up.”

“Just like this [Divine Armament]’s name, [Blood-Debt]—in the end, evil karma coils around you, and you’re crushed to death under the sins on your own back.” the old man said in a low, distant tone.

“Old sir, have you seen that [Divine Armament] before?” Vinny asked.

“I haven’t, but plenty of [Divine Armament] illustrated compendiums include its depiction. The very first lesson in the artificer introductory course is about the degree of danger posed by that [Divine Armament] called [Blood-Debt], as a cautionary example. You didn’t know that?” the old man said mildly.

“So in that case, is it really me using the weapon, or is it actually the weapon using me??” Vinny complained. “Which of us is supposed to be the master here??”

“And that is the heart of the issue. For other, normal [Divine Armaments], the usage conditions are demanding, but once they recognize someone, you are the master. But for a [Divine Armament] like [Blood-Debt], which basically doesn’t have any principles at all, anyone can use it, yet the master is not you—it’s it. From the moment you wrap your hand around it, it is your master.”

“[Blood-Debt]... Wait! The [Blood-Debt] you’re talking about—does it look like a giant sword, with a hilt crisscrossed by what look like living blood vessels, and a blade bristling with strange, blood-red thorns that resemble living things? Those thorns can drain the flesh and blood of living beings??” Vinny muttered a few lines to himself, then suddenly spoke out.

“What the—so you have seen the illustration of [Blood-Debt]? And you were pretending you didn’t know it just now??” The old man shot Vinny an amused sidelong glance, then suddenly felt something was off.

This kid... isn’t that description a little too vivid??

Almost like he’d seen the real thing.

“Hold on, kid—how do you know it in such detail??” The old man’s expression instantly turned serious.

“No, I...” Vinny rubbed his own head, his expression rather dazed.

Yeah. How did he know?

No, the fact that he knew wasn’t actually strange.

Because, if his guess was right, that [Divine Armament] called [Blood-Debt] was precisely the weapon used by Vinny in his previous life—in other words, in the game.

In the original work, Vinny was the one who used this sinful [Divine Armament] to slaughter in all directions. Combined with his own gifts and talents, his similar-type attributes made him perfectly compatible with [Blood-Debt], and he pushed that [Divine Armament] to the limit, to the point that even Destiny Heroine Aesphyra wound up getting overturned by him.

Strictly speaking, he shouldn’t know about this weapon at all. He’d never dug that deeply into the original work; all he knew was that in the original, Vinny was a major villain who became more and more deranged and vicious, and in the end hacked Destiny Heroine Aesphyra to death—and it still didn’t accomplish anything.

Serves you right, idiot. She’s the Destiny Main Heroine wrapped up in the world’s luck; of course she can respawn. After she respawned, she killed you, the designated final boss, and used you to heat up her relationship with your childhood friend. She stole your childhood friend right in front of you. Kill the man, then shatter his heart.

But why?

Why did he suddenly remember this weapon? When by all rights, he shouldn’t have even known that a weapon like [Blood-Debt] existed in the first place.

“I... saw it somewhere... I just guessed the rest.” Vinny could only answer that way. He couldn’t exactly tell the old man that he’d used this weapon in his previous life, right??

Setting aside what the other party would think of him, he’d definitely get written off as a mental case, wouldn’t he??

What previous life? What, did you eat some mushrooms and start hallucinating, or did the Forgetfulness Soup not drown you properly? Haven’t woken up yet and you’re already spouting this crap??

And even if the other party did believe him, getting tangled up with something like this definitely wouldn’t lead anywhere good.

“Really??” The old man sounded half-skeptical. Watching Vinny’s expression, he spoke earnestly. “Child, you’re still young. I’ve heard you reached the Magus realm in your very first year. To put it bluntly, true prodigies are rare—and easily broken. I hope you can stay resilient.”

“What I said earlier was mostly in jest. If you really have seen [Blood-Debt], then run as far away from it as you can, and report it to the Academy. Let the Academy handle it. Don’t do anything stupid, understand??”

“I got it.” Vinny nodded. “Don’t worry, old sir. I’m the type who clings to life and is scared of dying; what I long for is a calm, cushy rich-kid life. I’m not about to do something that stupid.”

“I hope so.”

“In that case, old sir, since this [Divine Armament] is that dangerous, why didn’t the various nations seal it away after wiping out its user?” Vinny asked.

“You think the human kingdoms never tried that?? That [Divine Armament] [Blood-Debt] is far more cunning than its users. Its intelligence is extremely high. The moment it senses danger, or senses that its user’s life is nearing its end and they’re no longer useful, it runs away on its own.”

“Holy crap, it’s that slippery??” Vinny couldn’t help but say.

“Why else do you think it’s called one of the most dangerous, sinful [Divine Armaments]?”

“So you’re saying there are other [Divine Armaments] just as dangerous as it is??”

“Hard to say, but there definitely are. It’s just a matter of whether anyone has ever seen them, and whether they’re recorded anywhere. That, I don’t know.”

“Fine, so basically I pretty much don’t have any hope of obtaining a [Divine Armament], huh?” Vinny looked at those gold paintings floating in the distance—the gold frames representing weapons at the [Magic Tool] tier and above.

“What a revelation. Go ask around Carillian Academy and see how many of your seniors actually own [Divine Armament] weapons. I’d wager you couldn’t even come up with enough to count on one hand.” The old man clearly looked down on how taken-for-granted Vinny’s thoughts were. “Most of them don’t even have [Magic Tool] weapons. Think about how many [Divine Armaments] actually exist in the world. If every so-called genius could just casually have a [Divine Armament] weapon of their own, then [Divine Armaments] wouldn’t be worth anything at all.”

True enough. If Vinny remembered correctly, Aesphyra’s [Vow of Valor Holy Sword] was a [Divine Armament] weapon too, but that particular [Divine Armament] was a little special. It wasn’t a normal [Divine Armament]; it was one that could level up. By cutting down demonic races, monsters, and monsters from demon-god domains, it could keep leveling all the way up to top-grade [Legendary] rank.

Thinking of that, something occurred to Vinny.

“Old sir, speaking of which, does this so-called [Painting Hall Tower] have any [Legendary]-tier weapons in it?” Vinny asked.

“Why are you suddenly asking that?” The old man’s expression turned a bit odd. “Don’t even think about that kind of thing. You absolutely won’t be able to touch it.”

“I’m just curious. Can’t you at least satisfy my curiosity?”

“If you insist on asking whether one exists, then yeah, there is one.”

“Huh? Just one?” Vinny sounded a bit disappointed when he heard that. “You’re telling me this is supposed to be the collection of treasures from the entire Tyrelis Ancient Empire era, and there’s only one [Legendary] weapon??”

“You brat, do you think [Legendary] weapons are like wild mice on the ground?” the old man said crossly. “These are artifacts where just seeing one once would be a blessing for three lifetimes. That’s why they’re called [Legendary], isn’t it??”

“You need to understand, [Legendary] weapons are existences capable of twisting certain laws. Of the [Legendary] weapons currently recorded on the books, you can count them on two hands.”

“Unfortunately, most of those only exist in records from primordial times. Plenty of [Legendary] weapons have long since been lost and disappeared without a trace.”

They weren’t necessarily “disappeared without a trace.”

Vinny knew that it was just that, for certain reasons, quite a few [Legendary] weapons had changed their outward appearance. For example, Aesphyra’s [Vow of Valor Holy Sword] was the degenerated version of the once-[Legendary] [Saint’s Pinnacle Sword]. It had completely changed form, to the point that no one could recognize it anymore.

After another dozen or so attempts, Vinny still came away empty-handed. There was still not a single [Divine Armament] willing to look favorably upon him.

At this point, even he was starting to feel a little lacking in confidence. He was starting to feel a bit of a sense of defeat.

“Old sir, what’s that key supposed to be?? Is that also a [Divine Armament]?” Vinny pointed at a painting depicting a jeweled golden key.

“That one’s a [Divine Armament] too, but it’s a bit strange. Supposedly it’s a key that can open any door. Whether that’s actually true or not, nobody knows.”

“Kid, you’ve already looked over almost all the [Divine Armament] weapons in here. Not a single one of them has been willing to recognize you as its master so far. I’d say the chances are pretty low. You’d better be realistic and go pick a top-grade [Magic Tool] to take back. It’s an enchanted item all the same. Having one more top-grade [Magic Tool] is no bad thing. It’ll be a huge boost to your combat strength.” the old man said.

“Like I don’t already know that?” Vinny rolled his eyes.

Top-grade [Magic Tools] were indeed pretty powerful and did give a big boost. No need to look any further than the [Frostfang] in his hand—that had given him enormous support. Whether it was in the entrance Secret Realm or the Marsmo Secret Realm, the ice dragon had repeatedly saved him from danger.

But right now, he felt that top-grade [Magic Tools] just couldn’t satisfy him anymore.

Vinny looked around in frustration. Suddenly, his expression turned strange, and he rubbed his eyes. “Old sir, do you have light bulbs installed in this tower or something??”

“What are you even talking about? It’s already bright as day in here; why would we need magic lamps?” The old man followed Vinny’s gaze. All he saw were a few floating paintings. “There aren’t any lights there. There are only a few paintings; nothing else. You’re seeing things.”

“Huh? You really don’t see it?” Vinny pointed straight ahead. “But there is something sparkling over there. It’s so obvious.”

“There’s nothing there. What sparkling thing are you going on about now?” The old man looked at him with a strange expression.

“Move a bit closer to that spot. I think I see something!” Vinny urged quickly.

The old man said nothing. He still had no idea what Vinny was talking about, but he went along with it anyway.

Then, as they drew closer and closer, Vinny suddenly felt that little star rapidly expanding in his field of vision.

What the hell?!

Vinny blanked for a moment. It wasn’t until that star smacked right into his forehead that he belatedly realized: it wasn’t that the star had gotten bigger—it was that the star was rapidly approaching him and had just collided with his forehead.

Vinny’s vision went black. He proceeded to demonstrate, perfectly, what it meant to be young: he toppled straight over and fell fast asleep on the spot.

Right before he lost consciousness, the old man was shouting at him, but he didn’t hear it—because the sound at his ears was drowned out by a very childish girl’s voice, like that of a little girl.

‘That’s weird? How come it’s a guy?? But I definitely sensed a successor’s aura. What’s going on??’