Never Die Extra (Edited)
chapter-24

Evan D. Sherden, Growing Up (3)

“Wha…”

“What are these…”

Back at the mansion, Shine and Belois stood staring at the two bloody daggers and metal plates in front of them.

“Is this my artifact?”

“They look they have a lot of power. Maybe I can feel its magic…!”

Shine and Belois extended their arms and reached out for the daggers and the metal plates, respectively, their eyes shining. But the moment their hands touched the artifacts, they flinched. Then they tilted their heads.

“I don’t feel anything happening, Master? Is this really an artifact?” Shine inquired.

Although Belois didn’t even question Evan, it was evident from her expression that she was thinking the same as Shine.

“Okay, listen to me… Why do you think these two items have never been able to recognize any owner?” Evan asked them.

“Isn’t that because everyone doesn’t realize it’s an artifact?”

“Yes, you’re right. Then my next question is why you didn’t recognize it as an artifact?” Evan inquired again.

“Because they don’t look like artifacts….?” That was also true, but there was one more important reason.

“There’s a reason I chose these two out of all the hidden artifacts from all over the city and brought them here,” Evan told them.

“Master maybe these two artifacts…!”

“You guessed, right,” Evan said, nodding his head sternly. “Both of these artifacts are related.”

“To equip ‘Twin Blood’, you have to touch this double sword to this red iron plate. Furthermore, both artifacts have to be handled at the same time to achieve this.”

Neither Shine nor Belois was aware of this fact before. To understand this phenomenon, it was necessary to have a sense of a player who enjoys playing games.

In fact, these two artifacts met the requirements to equip them rather easily. Their performance was excellent, and above all, they were the type of artifacts that allowed you to acquire special skills the moment you were recognized as the owner of these artifacts. It meant these were exceptional.

“The effect is profound, and once you learn to use them, you can unlock a skill that can be used at the end. So everyone who saw these artifacts in the guidebook, wanted them,” Evan thought.

From the moment the information of these items became known, they became the ‘dream artifacts’ that anyone who learned double swordsmanship and flame magic would want to obtain. It was only a few years after the game was released that these artifacts’ true ability was revealed.

Why was that? Because the original settings of the two artifacts were reversed due to a programming mistake. If you were to acquire and equip ‘Twin Blood’, you’d have to touch the ‘Jade Dragon Ball’ to obtain ownership. There was no other way.

The same was true with the ‘Jade Dragon Ball’.

According to the official guidebook explanations, those who collected information and performed quests to obtain such artifacts… Such people got outstanding rewards for years to come,”Evan muttered inwardly.

After countless trials and errors, a user who had both artifacts, accidentally sorted it out in his inventory one day. He was confused to see that the information about ‘Twin Blood’ had changed.

To acquire the ownership of ‘Twin Blood’, you had to Master the double swordsmanship at level 5, and then touch the ‘Jade Dragon Ball’ while ‘Twin Blood’ was equipped in the inventory.

“That’s why I got these two at the same time. Of course, these two have to be combined, and they’re the best weapon artifacts available in dungeon city,” Evan explained to them.

To be more precise, the artifacts were exceptional, and the skill that could be obtained from them. Regarding their performance as a weapon, there are many better ones available as you proceed through the latter half of the game. But the skills obtained from them were remarkable, so it was an excellent tactic to acquire them beforehand.

“Oh, so that’s the case…” Shine muttered in response.

“…I admire Master’s knowledge.”Belois declared.

“Hey, Belois, you talk a lot!” Shine interrupted.

“Master, you are amazing!” Belois yelled enthusiastically.

“Thank you!” Evan smiled as he watched Shine and Belois argue with each other. He swapped the double sword and iron plate and pushed them in their direction. The two exchanged nervous glances.

“So now, exchange them and then touch them. If I’m right then, this should work,”Evan spoke to them cautiously.

“Okay, Master.”

The results were dramatic. The moment the two reached out and touched the double swords and iron plate, the two artifacts began to transform in appearance, emitting brilliant light!

The swords turned into sharpened twin knives and glowed black. The iron plate made a loud sound and changed into a small bead.

In the middle of all this, the black energy which protruded from the double swords was absorbed by Belois’s hands.

Likewise, the red energy that expelled out of the iron plate absorbed into Shine’s hands!

“It really worked!” Evan had already expected it, but he still received a massive shock because he had never imagined it would work!

“It was concluded that it was a programming mistake, after all, that had changed the developer settings of the two artifacts at that time. Rather than patching it up, they left it the same in the final game…. which means it applies in this world too.” Evan recalled.

In his previous life as Evan, he deliberately decided to not give much attention to the problem as he kept enjoying the game. Still, now, when the game’s errors reflected in reality, he could not help but think about them. It was not the same as making a potion according to the recipe from Yo-Ma Great War 4 or summoning slime with a necklace.

Evan faced a different problem whenever he confronted an enemy. He had felt it to some extent while doing his training when his double dagger momentum started decreasing. But this phenomenon was very ‘random’.

“….How should I feel about this?”

Was Evan real? Was even this world real and alive? Evan was confused, lost in his thoughts. In the meantime, Belois, who had fully recovered now, was smiling a faint smile. But her eyes were glittering.

“A truly mighty power…. So, why was it sealed in such a complicated way, Master?” she asked, still a little breathless.

“Judging by the fact that these two artifacts were found by him, Master is an extraordinary person,” Shine replied to her.

That may also have been possible. Evan looked at them blankly.

However, they were at a stage when unknown information and power were engraved in their souls and bodies, which helped them collect new skills through artifacts.

The two were so dazed that they did not notice Evan’s gaze on them.

“….young Master, why are you looking at us like that? We got the skill safely! I haven’t tried it out, so I can’t confirm it yet, but it seems to be a good ability.” Belois said to Evan.

“Belois, thank you very much,” Evan replied.

“No Master… I’m just glad you’re happy,” she said with a smile.

After fully returning to their senses, the two of them put away the artifacts they had exchanged, which had restored to their original appearance.

Evan smiled as he looked at them.

He had no problems to worry about right now, and he felt that there would be no problems in the future.

“Thank you, Shine, Belois.”

“Why is the Master suddenly thanking us? It is us who have to thank you… Thank you for giving me such a nice gift, Master!” Belois uttered.

“Thank you, Master,” Shine followed.

Evan’s heart melted at these words. Evan though Shine and Belois had thought it strange, they still bowed their heads politely in his direction with the joy and gratitude of this moment.

This bizarre atmosphere between Evan and the Rookies was disturbed by Maybell, who had returned from handling some urgent affairs. She was invoked with jealousy and made a mess of the situation.

“….Okay, Master, now it’s my turn.”

They began testing the performance of the artifacts and the skills they had acquired.

Shortly after everyone left, Evan glanced down at a pair of black leather gloves in his hand.

The pub was called ‘Oak Pub’ because it was a bar run by an owner who boasted of great power. Evan had purchased the gloves from him by giving him a lot of gold. Now that the owner had lost the power he had before, it would become a normal bar, but the owner would live happily with the gold he received.

The leather was very luxurious, but its exact kind was unknown. Furthermore, it consisted of some strange material that did not feel weird when worn. They were very thin.

As much as they would be helpful to Evan in the future, they actually repulsed him more than the Miraseul necklace.

“But I was able to become this much stronger only due to the Miraseul necklace,” Evan thought. “It was only due to the necklace of Miraseul that I have learned to kill a slime that had to be killed in 11 seconds, to killing it in only 1 second. I can now also summon and kill them with both my hands at the same time.”

To avoid death that lurked everywhere in this game, sometimes you had to do dangerous things, and you must know how to rush forward without hesitation.

“Alright.” After strengthening his determination, Evan exhaled a short breath and put the leather gloves on both his hands. At that moment, the glove shimmered and shrunk to the size of his hand. This was a basic property of an artifact with pure magic powers.

“Exactly like ‘Twin Blood’ or ‘Jade Dragon Ball’ which were not common.”

Moreover, he realized something when he wore it. This artifact did not raise the absolute amount of power of its wearer. These gloves reinforced power in proportions to the power of the owner.

Anyone who was strong enough would have benefited enormously from it, but Evan didn’t feel himself getting stronger. The reinforced strength wasn’t in a large amount as Evan was only a 10-year-old kid who only had a year of slime training. Moreover, the gloves would prove to be useless while wielding a weapon, so they could only be used for slime training. This was an improvement, but an absolute value increase would have been better.

Evan was very disappointed initially, but then he became satisfied with how those gloves fit his needs perfectly. When he wore them, it felt like the gloves became one with the hand, which was not a property to be laughed at.

He clenched and unclenched his fists several times, feeling the texture and smiled with satisfaction. After checking his surroundings, he took a deep breath.

“Let’s do it then.”

After stretching out both his hands, he activated the function of the necklace and summoned a slime on both his palms. He clenched his fists with all his strength. Then he checked his palms. Only a small amount of the slimes’ corpses remained, which scattered in the air and disappeared.

[Bang!] [Bang!]

He repeatedly summoned and clasped his fists over and over, this time killing dozens of slimes in succession. All the slimes decomposed completely and disappeared without making a single sound.

“I did it!” Evan muttered in disbelief even when he knew he had done it. Soon he was clenching his fists again. “I did it!”

There was a gap that seemingly stretched to infinity between the first and the last step. Evan had succeeded in transcending that eternity! He cheered while continuing to activate the necklace.

Since he had succeeded in killing slimes without making any sound, the time it took to exhaust all the magic power during one session of slime training was overwhelmingly reduced. As he got used to it, slime training felt as if almost natural!

“I did it! I did it!” Evan conducted his slime training joyfully! his two fists constantly burst slimes, and he repeated this action at breakneck speed. But then, suddenly, Miraseul’s necklace emitted a dazzling light!

Even the necklace had evolved.

This time, a fairly large jewel began to shine. Evan cheered again, constantly summoning slimes left and right, popping them.

And then, a slime took one second to explode in a painful flurry.

“What the hell happened?” Evan’s eyes narrowed. “That was strange. I was succeeding in killing the slime with no delay until now, and the gloves are also definitely working…? But why did it suddenly take 1 second again? I used all my power and obviously held my grip to the maximum I could…” Evan had already known this was going to happen. It was just a matter of time before he accepted it.

“As the necklace leveled up, the level of the slime being summoned also increased! But why did this have to happen at this time! Why now!?”Evan was furious.

“Ahhh! Die!”

[Bang!]

Evan started screaming due to this incredible misfortune and clamped both his hands. The slimes burst with a chaotic flurry.

Only three days remained until Evan’s tenth birthday.