ARMAMENT

If Ivan had to say what his favorite thing about this new world was, then he'd have to say it would be the convenient skills he was equipped with.

Using his tendrils of mana to sort the mana crystals in front of him in corresponding color and capacity of mana, he thought of what would be his first creation.

Unfortunately, he was unable to get his hands on the mana crystal from the larger Rockmount seeing as how he had no contribution in killing it. But the smaller Rockmount on the other hand was given to him by Captain Meld seeing as how he saved the casters and immobilized the monster allowing for a finishing blow.

And so looking at the orange-brown crystal in his palm, Ivan remembered the signature move of the Rockmount. While all monsters have mana, only the strong have the ability to use magic, and even then they're only allowed one type of spell.

'Intimidating Roar,' while only paralyzing a foe for a few seconds, was a debuff that affected more than one foe. And in those few seconds, there's nothing to stop Ivan from finishing them off. Of course, the duration of its effect is congruent with the victim's stats.

Now, what Ivan intended to do with the mana crystal was create some sort of mechanism that'd allow him to use the spell imbued momentarily. As for what mechanism he wasn't quite sure.

At first he felt a gauntlet would be nice, but then he wrote it off thinking an enemy would immediately assume where the roar is coming from just by looking at his hands.

'Hmmmmm…. What to do, what to do… A weapon would once again be too noticeable, and yet the mana crystal must be out in the open if it is to release its desired effect.'

And so he thought of a bunch of different ways: a ring would be too small, a helmet would be intrusive, and no way in hell would he imbue it in his forehead.

'I got it!'

As an alchemist it was finally his time to create something other than potions. So grabbing the decent metals he had bought from trading in some of his weaker mana crystals, Ivan placed them on his table along with the crystal and sat crisscrossed.

He deeply focused on the shape of the armament, it's uses, and the size. Together with his imagination he output what he thought to be the necessary amount of mana to finalize his creation.

Gray wisps of light shot out of Ivan's fingertips and engulfed the table along with the items on it. In a loud crashing sound the items were attracted to each other and shot at each other with a speed that would most definitely leave more than a bruise if someone were to get in between.

However none of this ever broke his concentration, even if he was curious he couldn't afford to spare his attention or else things could end badly for both him and the mana crystal.

The metals and crystal finally stopped rubbing each other before merging together in a perfect blend. Not hesitating for even a single second, Ivan smashed his hands on the table and engulfed solely this orb of metal and crystal with his own body. The orb slid into his chest without even the slightest resistance.

Breathing heavily Ivan could clearly envision the orb inside of him, he knew that if he didn't do anything soon the mana inside the crystal would explode from within and take his body along with it.

It possessed no sentience yet as if it could tell its impending doom, the crystal part of the orb started swelling in what appeared to be an attempt to free itself.

Ivan fought back with even more of his mana, even if this would leave him dry it's not like he lacked any mana potions.

And besides, he had already reached his max limit of 20 potions for the day. At first he had thought increasing his mana would increase the allotted amount but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Even with his mana capacity having not dropped below 75%, he still couldn't create more than 20 potions. He speculated it had something to do with class instead, perhaps something like a hidden condition.

But for now he'd focus on the bomb inside him.

Ivan could visualize the orb inside him being contained by his gray mana, slowly but surely calming the swelling and compressing it back to its former state.

And that was it for the dangerous part of this creation, now all he had to do was form it to become what he had originally intended and wear it.

An artifact is a magical tool with powerful effects applied to it, as per the recorded history of Tortus, only one person in the previous era has been known to possess the ability to create an artifact.

And yet today, there was another.

The orb slowly pushed itself through the chest of Ivan, resting itself half-submerged. There it sat for a few moments before shining a bright orange-brown light.

When the light dissipated all that was revealed to be left was a beautiful amulet made of gold with a bronze crystal in the shape of a diamond embedded in the middle.

Caressing the amulet gently, Ivan grinned to himself as he saw it glow dimly.

"Success…" He whispered to himself.

It took all the willpower within him to stop himself from unleashing its power right there and then. He was sure that the effect of the amulet would spread to the neighboring rooms and accidentally paralyze his classmates.

After all, area of effect attacks never discriminate.

So holding in his jubilation, Ivan scurried outdoors to the woods next to the training grounds.

"Here is fine." Settling down in a relatively open area he wound deep in the woods, Ivan sat down and opened his notebook.

It wasn't that he was necessarily writing anything important, it was just a notebook where he put in some random stuff just to confuse the hell out of anyone who read it. Everyday he would spend at least an hour writing about possible creations, food, movies, the weather, and even more random shit.

It was one point a prank on anyone who dared go through his stuff, and another point a ploy to make it seem like he was working hard.

After an hour he slammed the notebook shut as even he got headaches reading it just because of how many times it jumped from one topic to another.

"Let's do this, partner!" The amulet shone dimly according to his words, and once again while it harbored no sentience it did however instinctively use the remnant soul of the Rockmount. And as Rockmounts followed a similar way of life to gorillas, its soul instinctively obeyed Ivan as it's leader, this can be attributed to the submission Ivan put it in inside his body.

So, getting up from his ass, Ivan stood up and spread his arms open wide. He wanted to make sure to get the full effect of the amulet, and on his way here he had spotted a bird nest 30 meters away from the spot he chose.

For this test, he would keep an eye on the birds inhabiting the nest to see if his range will reach there.

Ivan closed his eyes and focused on the amulet that hung around his chest, with the mana he imbued it took no time for the amulet to go from a dim light to a flashlight.

"GRAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

The sound of the Rockmount's roar emitted from the amulet as bronze colored waves spread out from Ivan's body. The birds who had zero resistance to the roar stiffened tightly instead of fleeing, it only took a second before they fell out of their nest paralyzed.

And then—

THUD THUD THUD

From the sky fell a multitude of birds that seemed to have just been passing by.

"HAHAHAHA!"

Marveled by the range of his attack, Ivan laughed merrily. It seemed that his range was 60 meters.

With this he would have a tool that could reliably be used in case of emergencies. Let's say his meeting with the King and Pope Ishtar doesn't go well, hypothetically they attempt to restrain Ivan and force him to make potions for them forever.

All he would have to do is pump some mana to his amulet and he'd have a moment to escape, albeit it would be a very brief moment, but so long as he had enough mana Ivan was sure he could restrain even foes on the scale of Captain Meld for at least 3 seconds.

And in those 3 seconds it wouldn't exactly be impossible for Ivan to buff up with some speed potions of his and chuck a smoke bomb at his feet.

Now he had already had a purpose for the remaining mana crystals, unfortunately crafting more tools with them would be a waste considering they came from relatively weak monsters, it would only result in tools with no special abilities.

However, it didn't seem impossible to Ivan to fashion the mana crystals with enough mana to turn them into lethal bombs. After all if they worked similar to a battery then he was sure overloading them with mana would create a powerful mana imbued explosion

SO the 'when shit hits the fan plan' went as follows: 1. Paralyze all foes with the amulet 2. Buff up on speed potions 3. What is an escape without smoke bombs? 4. Drop some bombs off with your foes if possible, and run the hell away!

Ivan was sure this would work well, though he was salivating at the thought of sneaking into the dungeon and grabbing himself some more powerful mana crystals. He was sure sooner or later he'd have to find an alternative to jewelry before he became a walking wardrobe.

He sure hoped that his body would be able to withstand the strain of being the catalyst for artifacts, otherwise he'd have to find a way to increase his strength and vitality.

'Well, maybe I should already work on doing that.' If he didn't want to explode from the inside Ivan was sure that he'd need a stronger body.

In the meantime he was sure as hell not going to reveal to the Kingdom or the Holy church that he was in the possession of an artifact, let alone the fact that he made it. So if anyone asked him what that thing hanging around his neck is then he'd just tell them it was a gift he brought with him to this world from his mom.

RUSTLE RUSTLE

"Hm?"

Hearing something moving through the bushes, Ivan slapped his cheek before running in the opposite direction.

Of course the roar of a Rockmount would attract the kingdom's knights to investigate!

'I should've thought of this beforehand, I didn't even bring my speed buffs!"

Running the best he can to not get caught, Ivan woefully reprimanded himself for his lack of foresight.

He knew he couldn't afford to get caught, he has to speak with Aiko-sensei before his meeting with the king and Pope Ishtar tomorrow!