-29- Alloy Battle Blade

Half a month later, on a bone-chilling frosty morning.

Outside, each breath turned to ice, and frost patterns crystallized on the windowpane like intricately carved ice emblems, fracturing and refracting the faint dawn light, casting delicate, shimmering rainbows across the room.

Standing in the cozy warmth inside, Rosaline, about to step out, wrapped herself in a thick cloak. Turning back, she saw her teacher had also donned a beige trench coat over a gray sweater with a high thermal collar, lending her slender figure an unexpectedly intellectual air that contrasted with her youthful face.

These garments came from an underground warehouse in an abandoned clothing factory. Perhaps due to the advanced preservation technology of the Origin Civilization, strange nano-fiber materials, or some special treatment, nearly half of the clothing items had survived six centuries, escaping decomposition by microbes, photo-oxidation, and thermal degradation, eventually falling into their hands. Otherwise, with their almost zero knowledge of textiles, without warm clothes in winter, they would have had no choice but to stay indoors all season.

“Let’s go, Teacher!” Rosaline cheerfully announced after adjusting the collar of her teacher’s coat.

Their destination that day was the eastern district of Ish City, near Gray Harbor City. According to insights from their dreams, there should be a New Eden government military base on Ish Island.

With the “Elemental Decay Restoration Technology” now at their disposal, Yvette planned to retrieve some military-grade arcane equipment, hoping to find any still functional. After repairing the elemental capacitors, the equipment could be used directly.

Of course, this was mostly a matter of luck. If any military gear was of excellent quality and still operable after six centuries, she would just top up the batteries and bring it home. If it wouldn’t start, then so be it — it was just a lucky dip anyway.

Half an hour later, riding their arcane motorcycle, the two arrived at the gates of the derelict military base. Perhaps due to the cold limiting activity, they encountered almost no attacks from aberrations along the way; the world seemed hushed, transformed into a vast white expanse.

Inside the base, after dispatching some humanoid aberrations, they entered several weapon warehouses with wide-open doors. Yvette tested the remaining arcane equipment one by one, but unfortunately, none responded to the infusion of magic.

After checking multiple rooms, Yvette had a sinking feeling they might return empty-handed.

However, at that moment, Rosaline made a discovery in a spacious hall resembling a large training ground deep inside.

It was a semi-mechanical aberration, but unlike others, this one had two military-grade alloy combat blades in place of hands. Upon spotting Rosaline, it immediately activated the blades, allowing her to clearly see the electrical sparks dancing along the edges and hear the captivating hum they emitted.

Yvette soon arrived and dismantled the semi-mechanical aberration, removing the flesh and blood tissue clinging to its body and blades. Beneath lay a pair of bionic mechanical hands, effectively two alloy blades held firmly — ready to be taken and used.

“So cool…” Rosaline exclaimed in awe as she grasped and activated the alloy blades, watching the blades tremble and the cold gleam crackle with electric light.

Yvette was just as surprised. Having scavenged so long without any findings, she’d thought they would return empty-handed. She hadn’t expected equipment to drop from an aberration on their very first try.

In that sense, although semi-mechanical aberrations tend to be more threatening than biological ones, the fact that their gear can be salvaged means they could be targeted more frequently in the future.

---

“Teacher, what do you think of this blade? Is it powerful?” Rosaline asked, stroking the now dormant blade after switching off its combat mode.

“It’s decent,” Yvette replied with a slight nod after connecting her arcane terminal to check its parameters.

The blade was named “Ripper Type Seven,” part of the New Eden United States’ self-developed military weapon series, featuring two effects: “High-Frequency Oscillation” and “High-Voltage Current.”

Since its arcane circuitry was unreadable and forcibly extracting the data resulted in encrypted gibberish, Yvette couldn’t determine the exact specifications, quality, or parameters of these two embedded spells. But just by casual testing, if paired with the “Muscle Unlock” technique, its power was comparable to her own “Wrath of Thunder” spell. At the very least, it could easily eliminate a basic aberration in a single strike.

However, the battery degradation was significant. It seemed that when the aberration was still intact, it could supply energy directly to the blade. Now that it was detached, the elemental capacitor was weak.

Additionally, both “High-Frequency Oscillation” and “High-Voltage Current” consumed energy quickly. Without replenishing the battery’s elemental charge, if Rosaline used it nonstop, her mana gauge would be depleted in about half an hour.

...

After searching for a while longer and confirming no further gains, Yvette returned to the manor with Rosaline before noon and swiftly began restoring the elemental charges, bringing the two military-grade arcane weapons back to peak condition.

That afternoon, watching Rosaline enthusiastically practicing various sword swings and strikes braving the cold winds in the manor grounds, Yvette silently resolved to expedite the optimization of the two spells “Crimson Armor” and “Muscle Unlock.”

This was not only for her apprentice’s sake; even Yvette herself found these two military weapons from the Origin Civilization quite tempting.

After all…

What boy can resist the allure of swords and blades?

Right?

Of course, from a practical standpoint, traditional elemental spells—fire, ice, wind, and lightning—offered far more destructive power than the alloy blades. Their firepower was on an entirely different level.

Still, it was good to have more options.

...

Time flew swiftly. Before they realized it, three months had passed, and the season shifted from the heavy snows of winter to the cusp of late spring and early summer.

---

After a period of meticulous refinement, the two spells “Crimson Armor” and “Muscle Unlock” were finally optimized to near their limits, dramatically reducing mana consumption.

Yvette had even thoughtfully modified the coverage mechanism of “Crimson Armor” — now, even clothing worn on the body received protection, eliminating concerns about intense battles causing wardrobe malfunctions.

Rosaline was delighted, as she had begun intensive training in swordsmanship and close combat.

It wasn’t that she wished to change her specialization; in fact, melee weapons and magical cultivation were not mutually exclusive. The issue was that her mana pressure was very low, meaning that for the same spell and mana input, her effects were far inferior to her teacher’s.

But wielding the alloy blade with its built-in enhancement spells was different. The mana pressure for “High-Frequency Oscillation” and “High-Voltage Current” came from the blade’s internal high-voltage capacitor, allowing her to unleash destructive power comparable to her teacher’s simply by swinging the blade.

Driven by the simple desire to “share the burden with her teacher,” she naturally preferred to use the weapon that allowed her to exert stronger instantaneous combat power.

Meanwhile, Yvette, after some time practicing with melee weapons, silently gave up on this path.

Yes, it was too time-consuming. With the time she saved, there were many other things she could accomplish.

Since completing the comprehensive optimization of “Crimson Armor” and “Muscle Unlock,” her next goal was to enhance the “Regeneration Pump” spell by adding an emergency function to counter infection by the aberration virus.

The challenge in this research was that she knew nothing about the mysterious virus causing biological aberrations, only that it transmitted through blood, so she had to avoid wounds inflicted by aberrations.

Thus, to study the filtration or purification effects of “Regeneration Pump” against this virus, a long period of biological experiments on various small animals was inevitable.

...

And so, in the verdant manor atop the wasteland, the daily lives of the master and apprentice returned to peaceful routine: exploration, meditation, study, experimentation... day after day.

In this tranquil rhythm, three years passed in the blink of an eye.