Playing with Metal

Ignoring the large clouds of smoke in the background, I turn to Serabane for an answer, "what the hell was that? Just what was that shit you had us carry around? I'm certain that it's responsible for this."

"Hmm~, shit."

"I... ok, you know what, I'm not gonna argue with that."

"Eh? Teacher, why'd you give up so fast? If I still had any left wouldn't I have also exploded?"

"Non~ non~, If the little kitty still had some left you wouldn't have been teleported," Serabane says while waving her finger side to side.

"That reminds me, since when could you interfere and make use of the System?" I ask.

"Who knows ~, if you think about it you might just figure it out. Oh, by the way, a nice little present has been left for you all in that testing area with the mech you're trying to make. This magical girl has knows other people who need some visiting like those silly children in the Tower, I always pay off my debts after all. Until next time~," Serabane says before disappearing.

As she leaves we immediately realise we never actually got the hihi'irokane that we were originally trying to find, but as we are returning to the testing area Yue mentions that the so-called present she left behind is likely hihi'irokane. The caused Gyosu and Boshi to speed up and run straight towards the testing area, even Hakase speed up, but she had already been lagging behind and only brought her speed up to keep up with our walking speed.

As we arrive in the large testing area, we find that both Gyosu and Boshi are using all sorts of tools to open up a large metal box that has been placed a few metres away from the entrance. But despite their attempts, they've hardly scratched the box. In addition to being reinforced by mana, there are also traces of it being aided by Divine Energy, chances are the box was made like this so that I would open it. That's what I thought at least until I actually got closer and realised that both Gyosu and Boshi are idiots. I've heard there's a fine line between genius and stupidity but did these two really not think to just try lifting it up?

I create a pair of handles on one of the sides of the box and immediately lift it up, revealing a large shining red metal and beside it is another box, but a much smaller one that can fit on top of a person's hand. Inspecting the metal with my Draconic Insight reveals it to be 100% pure hihi'irokane. The small box also contained the same thing, 100% raw hihi'irokane, but a much smaller piece. Realising the intent behind this, I swallow the metal and join everyone else by the larger piece.

The metal gives off a strong heat that causes everyone but me and Yue to start sweating. Since I've already eaten it and can now create and manipulate it as I see fit, the scientist trio along with Aurelie and Yue starts preforming tests on the large chunk of hihi'irokane. In the meantime, I move off to the side with Lia as she lets me rest my head on her lap while Wanjing decides to remain in her small Taotie form and curl up on my stomach as we watch everyone else play with the metal.

I take a bit of time to look over any changes in my status as I ignored quite a lot of notifications when I was rampaging around earlier. My EXP went up by around 30,000 but I'm still a few ten thousand away from levelling up. The more noticeable change is the increase in souls jumping up by 107.

As for the various test that the others had been performing on the hihi'irokane, they've come to the conclusion that the metal is virtually indestructible, at least to anything they could possible do. When Yue tried using all her strength to attack it, even she couldn't leave so much as a scratch on it.

Hakase wanted to try melting it down in her cauldron, but it was too large for her to move let alone fit, so I made a small one that she could carry to use. We were all expecting it to be impossible to melt and it certainly met that expectation, but it did much more than that. Additionally, the hihi'irokane also absorbed all the energy that was released by the flames, thus putting out the fire beneath the cauldron and increasing the heat that was being let off by the hihi'irokane. The increased heat being released by the metal seemed to be proportional to the temperature of the fire. As to test this hypothesis, Hakase, Boshi, Gyosu, and Yue began to heat up a furnace in the testing area to as high as they could possibly withstand then toss the hihi'irokane I previously made into it.

As they are setting up, Aurelia comes over towards us and sits down, "so how was your trip?" she asks.

"Putting aside the part where we were unknowingly carrying around explosives, not bad, not gonna say it was good though. You don't think they'll trace the damage back to us, will they? The Demigods who live, or lived, in the Tower."

"I think She took care of that. Although there might be a couple who notice something, most of their attention should be focused on Serabane. Speaking of her, I really need to know, how the hell did you manage to put up with her for as long as you did? We only spent a few hours together and I wanted to pull my hair out from how annoying she is."

"You know, don't you? How she is manipulating the System. When I asked her before, I saw her eyes glance in your direction, although it didn't even last a second."

"I'm surprised you even noticed something like that, but anyway, I do have an idea, but I'd rather not be the next person on her hit list so I think I'll remain silent."

"Oh c'mon, it's not like she's here right now."

"Just when I thought you were getting smarter too... Just think about it for a moment, she has control over the System. Everyone in Grauntia except her and a few others are connected to the System. Now you call me out for not respecting people's privacy and peeping, but she is probably omniscient or close to it so long as she is in Grauntia," Aurelia explains.

"You know what, I just realised how great a person she is. I'm going to go help the others with their tests, I can't squander the gifts she left behind," I say, getting up and placing Wanjing on top of my head.

***Lia***

"She certainly changed gears quickly. The moment she found out that Serabane way probaly listening she immediately went into ass-kissing mode," Aurelia says.

"Yeah, but she's still cute when she does that," I say, "but I wish she'd stay on my lap a little longer, you always have to ruin my fun, don't you."

"Personally, I think she's more beautiful than cute, but I don't get you. How can you find her ass-kissing cute?"

"Because everything she does is cute, from laying on my lap to slaughtering people with blood on her face. I need to get stronger so she kisses my ass, both figuratively and literally," I say.

Aurelia shifts away from me slightly with a tense look as she says, "you know, your a lot more twisted than you look."