Translator: CinderTL
Roland shook his head helplessly at the words "Defective Goods" on the notice.
But with a "Since I'm already here" attitude, he stepped forward and began carefully examining each item on the shelves.
As the labels suggested, these things indeed looked—
wrong.
He picked up a palm-sized metal disk covered in tiny holes. When he tried to inject a trace of energy into it, it only warmed slightly before emitting a wisp of blue smoke and falling silent.
"This thing looks like—a failed hand warmer?"
He then grabbed a cylindrical object with a trigger and complex lenses, aiming it at the wall and "pulling the trigger." Nothing happened, except for a mechanical click from inside.
"As for this, it seems to be—a broken flashlight?"
Shaking his head slightly, his gaze fell upon a small, exquisitely crafted box adorned with intricate bas-reliefs. He instinctively opened it, revealing several tiny metal reeds and gears.
"Is this—a music box?"
He gently plucked a reed, but it produced only a dry, distorted noise, completely devoid of melody.
Roland muttered to himself with a hint of self-mockery as he pulled a relatively large and clean dust cloth from the surrounding debris and spread it on the ground.
He then carefully picked up each of these seemingly useless "rejects," examined them for a moment, and gently placed them on the cloth, preparing to pack them up and take them away.
What if I'm mistaken, or don't know how these things are actually used?
With this thought, Roland picked up a plain, unadorned dark silver bracelet.
Hmm?
His movements faltered slightly.
The bracelet was crafted entirely from an unknown dark silver metal. Its surface was smooth and warm to the touch, the craftsmanship exceptionally fine. Its lines flowed flawlessly, the joint nearly seamless, and the surface was polished to a mirror-like finish.
Compared to the surrounding "rejects," which were either crude or structurally unbalanced, this bracelet resembled a highly finished work of art.
Roland frowned slightly and brought it closer to his eyes.
The light orbs surrounding him emitted a steady glow. He narrowed his eyes and carefully examined the inner surface of the bracelet.
On the smooth inner wall, a line of small, slightly messy, yet uniquely charming characters was etched.
To my dearest friend, may this guide your path ahead.
Roland's self-illuminated gaze fixed on the inscription, remaining motionless for a long time.
What drew his attention wasn't the warm, blessing-filled message, but rather—
This mark...
His fingers gently traced the grooves of the etching, his brow furrowing deeper.
The edges of the carving weren't as smooth and uniform as machine engraving; instead, they bore the subtle roughness characteristic of hand polishing.
It looked as if someone had painstakingly carved it, bit by bit, with an extremely fine file or engraving needle.
This handwriting...
An inexplicable sense of familiarity surged through him.
He was certain he had seen similar handwriting somewhere before, but no matter how hard he searched his memories, he couldn't recall any specific person.
The feeling was like looking through frosted glass—blurry yet undeniably real.
In the end, he shook his head, temporarily abandoning this fleeting sense of recognition.
Perhaps it's just déjà vu...
Thinking this, Roland casually reached for the bracelet, about to place it in the cloth bundle on the ground.
Yet, the instant his fingers were about to release the bracelet...
An extremely faint, yet utterly distinct, sensation of strangeness rippled through the depths of his soul, like a pebble dropped into a still lake.
It wasn't a fluctuation of energy, nor a physical touch, but something more fundamental, more direct—
Resonance.
As if a dormant "fragment" within the cold bracelet, subtly attuned to the frequency of his own soul, had been unconsciously awakened by their contact.
Like a long-sealed lock encountering its one true key, it emitted a faint, barely audible chime that only the soul could hear.
Roland's hand froze mid-air, his pupils contracting slightly.
He abruptly tightened his grip on the bracelet, all his attention now focused on this seemingly ordinary object that had suddenly forged a mysterious connection with him.
"Strange—"
Roland was certain that the sensation originating from the depths of his soul had not been an illusion.
He raised the dark silver bracelet to his eyes again, turning it over and over as he examined it closely. He even tried using the power of the Source Law Engine to sense its interior.
However, the result was the same.
Apart from its exquisite craftsmanship and the engraved inscription, it appeared to be an ordinary ornament, devoid of any energy fluctuations.
Roland scratched his head in confusion, then tentatively slipped the bracelet onto his wrist.
The moment the bracelet made contact with his skin and closed, an indescribable sensation of fusion, like milk and water blending, surged through his entire body.
The bracelet seemed to cease being an external object, instead transforming into a natural extension of his body, fitting perfectly without any trace of foreignness. Even its weight seemed to vanish.
Before Roland could recover from this wondrous sense of fusion, a startling transformation erupted.
The dark silver bracelet, as if suddenly imbued with life, liquefied instantly, transforming into a flowing stream of liquid metal that shimmered with faint starlight.
Instead of dripping downward, the molten metal moved with conscious intent, surging upward along his arm at an unimaginable speed.
A fleeting, icy sensation swept over his skin, quickly replaced by a peculiar feeling of being tightly encased yet completely unhindered in his movements.
Liquid metal rapidly covered his entire body—torso, limbs, and even his head.
The entire process was silent and swift, completed in an instant.
When the last trace of liquid metal settled into the contours of his face, Roland lowered his head to look at himself, his eyes wide with disbelief and awe.
His original clothes had been completely covered, replaced by a visually striking full-body armor.
The main body of the armor was a deep, dark silver. Though it appeared metallic, it subtly shimmered with a ceramic-like luster. Its lines were both fluid and sharp, exuding a sense of power and speed.
The shoulder pauldrons were asymmetrical. The left was heavy, shaped like a dragon's head slightly lowered, while the right was lighter and more agile, its edge razor-sharp.
The chest and abdominal plates were composed of overlapping, ergonomically designed layers. Faint blue light emanated from the seams, as if energy pulsed within.
The vambraces and greaves clung tightly to his limbs, featuring a complex, scale-like layered structure at the joints that ensured maximum flexibility. Long, slender energy conduits, glowing with the same ethereal blue light, were embedded on the back of his hands and the outer sides of his shins.
The entire suit of armor perfectly blended the robust aesthetics of Western Fantasy with a timeless sense of precision technology. It resembled both the heavy plate mail of a knight from an ancient epic and the high-tech power armor of the distant future.
It quietly enveloped Roland, the azure energy lines slowly circulating across its surface.
Standing still, Roland raised his armored arm slightly, marveling at the sudden, yet seemingly custom-made, armament. His heart filled with awe.
"Wow!"
Tracy let out a soft gasp of amazement, flapping her wings as she circled the armored Roland twice.
"Roland! This—this armor is so cool! It's so shiny! What just happened?"
Roland shook his head slightly.
"I'm not sure either, Tracy. It—it just changed like this."
After answering softly, he walked over to a relatively intact metal shelf and used its mirror-like surface to carefully examine his current appearance.
Only then did he realize that a fully enclosed helmet now covered his neck.
The helmet's design was strikingly futuristic, with sharp contours. At its center, a slightly concave diamond-shaped crystal emitted a calm blue light.
The face was covered by a seamless, dark-colored faceplate, but where the eyes would be, two narrow, horizontal optical lenses glowed with an icy blue light.
Even by his exacting standards, Roland had to admit that this sudden armor was stunning, seamlessly blending power and speed in its design. The flowing, ethereal blue light lines added an aura of mystery and majesty.
"Let's test its capabilities first."
Roland focused his mind and began to assess the armor's practical functions.
First, he sensed his strength, speed, and the operation of the Source Law Engine within his body.
However, the results left him somewhat disappointed.
The armor provided no tangible increase in his strength; his base attributes and combat prowess remained unchanged from before he put it on.
Shaking his head slightly, Roland drew the Radiant Moon Longsword from his waist with a metallic clang.
Without channeling any energy, relying solely on the raw power of his arm, he tentatively drew the peerlessly sharp blade across the outer side of his forearm, which was covered by the vambrace.
Screech!
A grating, metallic shriek pierced the air, accompanied by a few sparks.
Yet when Roland withdrew the blade and leaned in to examine it closely, his heart skipped a beat.
The dark silver surface of the vambrace bore not even the slightest white mark.
"The defense is quite remarkable," Roland thought.
Even the Radiant Moon's edge, without any energy enhancement, had failed to scratch the armor.
Its physical defense was truly monstrous.
Sheathing the sword, he again examined himself in the shelf's reflection.
His gaze swept over the armor's sleek lines, finally settling on the waist belt, which seemed to merge seamlessly with the armor, serving as both a cinching mechanism and a structural support.
There, he noticed a circular hole.
The hole was about the size of an egg, its edges smooth and polished. Inside, he could discern an extremely intricate slot structure and several tiny energy contact points.
Its design, size, and internal structure—
Roland's eyes suddenly narrowed.
"This hole's design—"
He recalled the details of his previous encounter with the Rust Knight Order.
Whether it was Hagrid's damaged power armor, the roaring vehicle he rode, the chainsword, or the Corrosive Hand Cannon, the core energy source of each had a design strikingly similar to the hole before him.
A hypothesis instantly surfaced in his mind.
"Could it be that this armor... is missing a 'power core' to drive it?"
(End of the Chapter)
---------------------------
📖 You are reading [262] Chapters behind with [104] Free Chapters available on site.
🔥 Read up to Chapter [700] now, only on ᴄɪɴᴅᴇʀᴛʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ.
📊 [17] Novels, [14.4K+] Chapters with [11.2K+] Free Chapters!, [23M] Words on ℂ𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕋𝕃.𝕔𝕠𝕞
---------------------------