Assimilate All Talents

Chapter 221.5: Next Time Use the Door (Side Story)

A day before Sol arrived to receive his new weapon, Fabio and Taliya were hard at work completing their masterpiece.

Fabio was carefully placing a glass like plate into position. If it was off by even the smallest amount, the void beam’s trajectory from the Tynamo Cannon would always be slightly off center. If the target was within 10 meters, it wouldn’t matter much, but when targeting someone thousands of miles away, even a milligram of difference would send the beam miles off course.

Bang!

’Almost there...’ Fabio encouraged himself.

Bang!

His hand shook slightly, and his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

Bang! Bang!

The glass lens trembled and slipped out of place, falling into the mechanism and getting stuck among other delicate components. Extracting it without causing damage would be time consuming. Fabio’s patience finally ran out, and he turned back to the source of the noise, yelling, "Could you keep it quiet over there for one second?!"

Taliya, who had been hammering a piece of void metal into shape, lifted her welding goggles and yelled back, "You want it done or not?! I’m almost done, so give me a moment! Lisa, can you hand me that file?"

Lisa, who was on standby, nodded and passed over the titanbronze file.

Fabio rolled his eyes. ’Almost done, my ass. You said that four hours ago.’

It was clear to him that the noise wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. At that moment, he had an idea and reached into his spatial ring to pull out a pair of earmuffs.

’I almost forgot I had these.’

The earmuffs had been sitting in his spatial ring unused for years; the only time he ever used them was when Taliya was too loud and didn’t let him focus on his work. He looked at the earmuffs, which were noticeably worn with small scratches and frizzled fur, with a sentimental gaze and let out a small chuckle.

’But I could never forget my first creation.’

The earmuffs were his first successful creation, technically. He bought them at a market and inserted his real creation inside one of the muffs: a small cube that, when infused with mana, created a localized noise suppression zone around the wearer’s head. At the time, he made it because it was impossible to study or work in peace with Taliya always hammering away for hours on end.

Putting them on, Fabio sent a sliver of mana into the item, which immediately showed its effects.

Tunk.

Tunk.

Fabio smiled. ’I can still hear it, but it’s much more bearable now.’

As expected from something created by a half-baked tinkerer and worn down by time, it didn’t perform optimally. If Fabio really wanted to, it would only take him a few minutes to make something better, but he didn’t need or want to do that. This worked more than fine and held a special place in his heart.

With peace of mind, he began trying to extract the glass lens that had fallen inside the mechanism with precision.

But the peace wouldn’t last for long.

...

Ryogan frowned as he gazed upon Taliya’s forge. It had taken him a while to track down the source of the void energy because the forge had a barrier to prevent such energies from leaking out. But luckily for him, one of Taliya’s blacksmiths had drunkenly mentioned at a bar that Fabio, the tinkerer famed for creating the Lipon used by Knight Captain Sol in the knight selection, was visiting the forge and staying there for an extended period. Only Taliya herself and her apprentice were ever allowed inside her personal forge, which is why it caused quite a few rumors about their relationship.

Were they friends? Business partners? Lovers? Nobody knew. But Ryogan knew better. He knew no craftsman worth their salt would leave such a valuable item in their workshop. They likely took it with them to continue working undisturbed by the grunts he had been sending.

This gave him a golden opportunity to go in himself, with no chance of any Royal Knights stopping him this time.

But he still hesitated. After all, the place he was considering stealing from belonged to the only A-Rank smith in the entire black market, Taliya. Pissing her off was not a good idea by any means, as it would anger the many forces she supplied, especially the other two of the Big Three. But the temptation was extremely powerful.

’If I can get ahold of the source of the void energy, I can get the final push I need to comprehend a space law technique. If I’m lucky, maybe a void law technique. Fuck it, let’s do this.’

Taliya yelled while lifting a nearby anvil and preparing to use it as a makeshift shield. "You’re casting a law technique in here?! You’re mad!"

Ryogan laughed maniacally as the flames spread throughout the forge. The highly heat resistant walls and floors began to melt as the flames approached the trio.

Fabio didn’t have time to pull anything out of his spatial ring to defend against such flames, as he never expected the situation to escalate so quickly. Thinking fast, he reached for the unfinished mechanism he was working on. He hadn’t finished adjusting the glass lens, but he didn’t need it for what he had in mind. He moved in front of the others and manually twisted the inside, flipping the void root inside.

’Please work!’ he desperately prayed.

The void root inside the mechanism hummed as the wild yellow flames began changing course and were drawn into the half-built creation.

VRRRR!

The flames were sucked inside, but the proximity of the heat began to affect the components. They heated up to the point that the metal and other parts caught fire or began to bend in unusual ways.

’Just... a bit... more!’

Fabio’s hands were burning from the sheer heat, but he held on until all the flames were absorbed by the void root inside the mechanism.

Ryogan was stunned. "How did you—Is that what I think it is?!" His eyes widened as he saw the very object he had coveted was within reach.

Fabio, on the other hand, celebrated.

"Haha! It worked! How’s that for a test run?!"

He had previously calculated there was a 70% chance of his design working, but he wouldn’t know for sure until he tested it. He couldn’t be more glad; it worked exactly as he wanted, even if it resulted in half of it being melted.

Ryogan was amazed that the item had completely absorbed his full power attack, but he didn’t panic.

"I’d like to see you do that again. [Frenzi—[Blink]!"

"Oh no you don’t!" Before he could cast the spell again, Taliya interfered by tossing the anvil she was holding, which flew frighteningly fast for its large size. It forced Ryogan to cancel his spell and quickly teleport out of the way.

"You bitch!" They were like two flies constantly bothering him. He was about to cast the spell again but was shocked by what he saw.

An odd looking machine and two large cannons stood behind Fabio, while Taliya was wearing full body blue armor and wielding two large hammers. In the short time he teleported, the two had retrieved all their weapons from their spatial rings and were fully equipped to deal with whatever might come their way.

Seeing this caused Ryogan to falter and take a step back in surprise. His instincts told him it was time to retreat.

"[Rift Walk]!"

He cast his spell but didn’t move a single inch. The odd machine was a spatial stabilizer that prevented the manipulation of space in the surrounding area. With nowhere to escape, Ryogan could either run or fight them head-on, and he doubted he could outrun them as a mage. He regretted not bringing his own men not wanting them caught in the crossfire, but now he wished he had them to serve as a meat shield for his escape.

Fabio could tell Ryogan was already regretting messing with them and taunted him. "You know, there’s a saying about crafters: ’If you can’t cause destruction...’"

Taliya knew where he was going and finished his sentence as she charged forward with her fire resistant armor and anti-magic hammers. "’Create it!’"

Fabio grinned as he used [Overclock] on both cannons and sent two powerful blasts of water and lightning.

"[Sea of Flames]!" Ryogan responded in kind, sending a massive wave of fire at them.

As the three fought, Lisa stood at the back wide eyed, witnessing a true battle between A-Rankers. A normal person would have died standing this close to such an intense fight, but Fabio had gone out of his way to shield her from harm with various gadgets while Taliya fought Ryogan head-on.

The fight seemed even at first, with Ryogan using his fire magic to its full potential to create distance while unleashing his own attacks at the two of them. But without his space magic, Taliya eventually closed the distance and smacked him with one of her hammers, breaking his flame barrier and sending him flying. Before he could even land, a lightning blast hit him mid air, shocking him and knocking him back toward Taliya, who followed up with another hammer swing.

Helpless against the two’s unceasing onslaught, it didn’t take long for him to beg for mercy.

Ryogan, barely conscious from the vicious beating, was chained with magic sealing chains, with Taliya and Fabio looking down on him.

Taliya took off her helmet and said, "Next time, use the door."