Chapter 105: Unlimited Blade Works
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All three Saint Quartz had dropped today from a boss defeated by Artoria, and Jeros had used his own privileges to claim them directly.
Bosses dropping miscellaneous items was exceedingly rare, comparable to equipment dropping above one’s level, so no one found Jeros’s actions particularly puzzling.
After six boss battles this month, Zhao Tianhe had confirmed that the drop rate of materials exclusive to the system was determined by the proportion of damage dealt by Artoria and Ereshkigal.
Fortunately, his teammates possessed enough firepower, and the bosses were sturdy enough that, to date, this was the only abnormal boss drop they had encountered.
“But it won’t be possible to keep this hidden much longer, will it? I should come clean at some point.” Zhao Tianhe sighed. There was nothing he could do about his cursed luck with drops.
He stretched out his hand. Three crystal-clear, multicolored gems emerged one after another from his palm, slowly revolving in the air. Their speed gradually increased until they transformed into a radiant ring of shifting colors…
As spiritual energy surged, a golden frame appeared.
“Ugh.” Zhao Tianhe sighed. He already knew it would be another Craft Essence.
Sure enough, in the next instant, the golden frame solidified. A vast scarlet background emerged within it, along with several enormous gears turning slowly.
Across that crimson earth, red as though stained with rust, countless broken longswords of every shape and design were thrust into the ground. The filthy white cloth wrapped around their bloodstained hilts fluttered gently in the scorching wind, which carried drifting sparks…
“What is this?!” Zhao Tianhe froze. This scene looked astonishingly familiar!
A card that trembled faintly and periodically emitted golden light descended into his hand.
Unlimited Blade Works—Master-Exclusive One-Time Craft Essence
Upon use, deploys the Reality Marble “Unlimited Blade Works.” The Craft Essence disappears after use.
The Reality Marble “Unlimited Blade Works” lasts for one hour.
Only Zhao Tianhe himself could use this Craft Essence. To be honest, however, he felt deeply conflicted about it.
Unlimited Blade Works was one of the most renowned techniques in the entire Fate universe…
Because it was unbelievably cool!
Yes, the greatest advantage of this technique was that it was cool!
Its power was certainly not insignificant, and it performed well in close combat, at range, against groups, and against single targets alike. But its greatest virtue was still that it was cool!
After all, it was the signature skill of the protagonist, Shirou Emiya.
Zhao Tianhe liked the technique very much too. The problem was that its owner, Shirou Emiya…
Was Artoria’s destined partner!
“Am I being a little shameless here?” Zhao Tianhe looked at the Craft Essence and smiled bitterly as he muttered to himself. “Not only am I dating another man’s wife, I’ve even stolen his signature skill for my own use… But why does this Craft Essence seem so strange?”
Looking at the card that appeared to tremble faintly in his hand, Zhao Tianhe took out the Summer Crown Craft Essence he had drawn earlier.
The difference between the two was obvious when placed side by side.
The Summer Crown was made of unique material and featured an exquisite image, but sitting there, it looked no different from an ordinary card. Unlimited Blade Works was another matter entirely. The faint trembling and intermittent bursts of golden-red light made it look as though it might explode at any moment!
“Has Mr. Emiya been angered so badly by being cuckolded that his grave is about to blow?” Zhao Tianhe thought with a grin as he picked up the card, then began switching between various sensory attributes to examine it.
After augmenting himself with numerous support spells, Zhao Tianhe’s perception had improved even further. At last, he sensed what made this Craft Essence so unusual.
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“The energy it’s releasing is constantly weakening, and…” Zhao Tianhe frowned. He felt a faintly familiar quality in that energy.
Moreover, he now understood why the Craft Essence was behaving so strangely.
It was because the Craft Essence contained a one-hour manifestation of Unlimited Blade Works.
Compared with the status effect of Summer Crown, this thing was powerful enough to crush at least one A-rank dungeon boss.
Although Summer Crown could be used without limit, its internal cycle of charge storage and release existed in perfect equilibrium. This one-time Craft Essence, however, was carrying an entire hour of Unlimited Blade Works and had already reached its limit. In other words, it did not merely look as though it were about to explode—it genuinely might explode!
“So I have to find an opportunity to use it within a short period? No… The Craft Essence is expelling excess energy on its own. That means it should be fine as long as I store it in the system and allow it to solidify naturally.”
With that thought, Zhao Tianhe hurriedly drew the Craft Essence into his body.
But the instant he absorbed Unlimited Blade Works, he sensed something strange…
“The energy is still overflowing? No wonder this energy feels familiar…” Zhao Tianhe stared at his own hands and spoke in astonishment. “I already possess this kind of energy within my body… The energy in Unlimited Blade Works resembles the energy cycle the Hero System uses to strengthen my soul and body!”
That was not all. Zhao Tianhe could also sense the energy overflowing from Unlimited Blade Works slowly merging into the Hero System!
“Should I take it out? No… This probably isn’t a bad thing…”
Zhao Tianhe carefully examined the process and discovered that the energy merging into his body was not causing any changes in the Hero System. Instead, it was slowly forming another system altogether…
“Could this one-time Craft Essence allow me to learn Unlimited Blade Works?!” Zhao Tianhe was stunned. Judging from the changes in the energy, however, the possibility could not be ruled out.
After calming himself somewhat, Zhao Tianhe went to Li Mei’s home.
He had learned almost everything there was to learn about cooking long ago. The reason he continued coming was simply because he had agreed to pretend to be Li Mei’s lover.
Zhao Tianhe chatted with Li Mei’s parents for a while, and they had already begun probing the two of them about when they planned to get married…
What a headache. Fortunately, that lunatic Jeros would have his seventh-level mage certificate in two months at most. He really was insane—he could have finished long ago.
Zhao Tianhe pushed open the door to Li Mei’s room and skillfully collapsed onto the sofa. While grinding skill experience, he continued doing his best to sense the energy inside his body.
In truth, obtaining a seventh-level mage certificate only required mastering ten seventh-level spells across three schools of magic. Jeros had met that standard long ago. The problem was that the man believed he should train every sixth-level spell he currently knew until he could cast each one instantaneously before advancing, so he had kept putting off the examination.
Li Mei’s room was divided into an inner and outer section. The outer room, where Zhao Tianhe was staying, was a bedroom with a bed and sofa. The inner room was both a study and laboratory, occupying three times the area of the bedroom.
Normally, Zhao Tianhe simply spent his time in the outer room, lying around and reading. Before leaving, he would check on Li Mei. If she was reading rather than conducting an experiment, he would say goodbye. If she was performing a magical experiment, he would leave without a word.
Just then, however, a buzzing sound suddenly came from Zhao Tianhe’s arms.
He took out an iron box and opened it. Embedded inside was a tiny recording crystal capable of playing a brief voice message.
“East, sector three-seventeen-twelve waters! A monster has appeared! Requesting support, requesting support!”
Zhao Tianhe rose to his feet, and Li Mei emerged from the inner room at the same time.
Although the situation was unclear, the fact that they had received a distress signal meant that they were the two people nearest to the endangered coastal defense unit.
“Good thing I have a map here.” Li Mei rummaged through her desk and pulled out a map.
“That’s strange.” Zhao Tianhe studied the position of the coastal defense unit on the map, then looked at the location of Li Mei’s home, puzzled.
A whole neighborhood of villas belonging to B- and A-rank heroes lay directly between the two locations!
“There’s nothing surprising about that. Today is…” Li Mei glanced at Zhao Tianhe and sighed. “Well, you don’t seem very interested in other women, do you?”
Over the past month, aside from Jeros, Li Mei was the person who had spent the most time with Zhao Tianhe and grown closest to him.
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Naturally, she could tell that Zhao Tianhe did possess some desire for her, but it was extremely faint, because his attention was focused entirely on Artoria and Ereshkigal.
That was precisely why Li Mei had decided to maintain this relationship.
Though she hated to admit it, Artoria and Ereshkigal truly were superior women to her.
After Li Mei explained, Zhao Tianhe finally learned that today was the annual Miss Bal Island Food Festival competition—a spectacle that, in simple terms, was little more than a flesh-selling beauty pageant designed to attract attention.
Most people had gone to join the festivities. Since heroes were predominantly young men and women in the prime of their lives, the Fuguang residential district was naturally almost deserted.
“Yes, I think your parents mentioned something about it just now.” Zhao Tianhe nodded. He and Li Mei flew directly from the second-floor window toward the apartment complex.
The site of the incident was a long distance away. Flight magic was not fast enough; they would need a skyship.
Yet after a long journey, when the two finally arrived at the scene, they found no sign of anything unusual.
Of course, that itself was already unusual!
An empty vessel drifted slowly across the surface of the sea. All around it, the only sound was the repeated crash of uneasy waves…
“I can’t sense anything abnormal…” Zhao Tianhe shook his head from inside the skyship. Even after maximally strengthening his sight and hearing—the two senses with the broadest range—he could find no trace of any human or monster nearby.
“Search again. Something’s wrong!” Li Mei said.
“Right.”
Zhao Tianhe opened the cabin door and climbed onto the top of the skyship.
With his Agility reaching twenty-six points, Zhao Tianhe walked steadily across the vessel’s smooth hull. He cast the zero-level earth cantrip Adhesion on himself, then continued sensing from the elevated position.
Li Mei slowed the skyship and began carefully surveying the surrounding area.
The view from above was indeed excellent. Zhao Tianhe discovered a strange shadow fifteen degrees to the northeast.
Hearing him shout, Li Mei hurriedly changed course and headed in that direction.
Zhao Tianhe returned to the skyship and went to the cockpit, where the view was better. Activating super-vision, he observed the area ahead.
As they drew closer, Zhao Tianhe finally made out what the object was…
It was a pitch-black tornado!
“Stop, stop, stop! Turn around!” Zhao Tianhe roared. “It’s a tornado!”
“What?” Li Mei froze. Then, as though she had thought of something terrifying, she hurriedly asked, “Is it black?!”
“It is!” Zhao Tianhe nodded. “What’s happening?!”
“It’s a magical disaster!” Li Mei shouted in terror. “A Wind Fiend! I saw one when I was a child!”