Chapter 45: The Corruption

What Arsha just said was something she should have considered from the start but she got too excited and forgot about it.

Making weapons with the crystals obtained from Demon beasts was common knowledge to most people, however, making weapons with the crystals wasn't just anyone could do.

It wasn't always common knowledge though because until just a year ago, the government fed the masses the lie of the crystals only being good for energy but it was obvious that their true potential was going to remain hidden forever with the demand for beast weapons.

Forging beast weapons was technically something any blacksmith could do so the government made the law to control that

No civilian was allowed to create a weapon without an official blacksmith license and no one was allowed to purchase weapons without official license numbers.

The problem was that this licence was quite difficult to procure to the extent that some self employed blacksmiths deemed it not worth it.

Anyone caught breaking either of those rules was imprisoned and according to the rumors, they were punished severely.

Another thing the government did to make sure no one tried to violate those rules was create another law that declared every beast crystal theirs.

Storing or hoarding beast crystals was considered a crime, all beast crystals acquired by civilians were to be submitted to the government seven hours after obtaining, they were going to get paid for them obviously but it was obvious that the crystals would cost way more if they were sold just like every commodity in the market.

The payment was still decent though, for Arsha at least.

They claimed that those rules were to control the abuse of beast weapons but any sensible person could tell what their true motives were.

Those rules were the first thing that popped into Arsha's mind the moment Gravin brought up the weapon cabinet but he didn't say anything hoping that he would explain what was going on but he didn't bother to do that.

"Um….Luna." Claudia muttered with her gaze on the sword lying on the floor.

"Yes."

"Are these illegal beast weapons?"

"Negative," Luna responded. "If you would like to confirm that, I'm going to put a call through for you to speak to Master Gravin."

"Yes, do that."

Just after that, the monitor on the screen turned on and there was Gravin with a toothbrush in his mouth as he happened to be brushing his teeth.

"Sir. Gravin." Claudia uttered.

"Yes, you wanted to talk?"

He sounded a bit disinterested and that sort of worried her but she was still going to ask the question.

"Yes, do you have a blacksmith license?" She inquired.

That wasn't exactly what she wanted to ask but it came out like that and there was nothing she could do about it now.

Gravin wasn't too quick to respond to that, he just stared at the screen for a while before letting out a chuckle.

"Oh, I see what's going on, you're worried that those are illegal beast weapons." He chuckled.

"Well, yeah."

"There's nothing to be worried about, I have a blacksmith license so you're good, you can look up the list of licensed blacksmiths to confirm or I could show you my ID when I get out but you don't want to stick around for that long." He disclosed.

Claudia quickly looked up the list of licensed blacksmiths at that moment and after just a minute, she was able to find him.

"Oh, yeah, your name's here." She smiled.

"Well, that settles that, see ya."

The call ended just after that and Claudia couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

"I guess we were worried about nothing." She said as she turned her gaze to where he saw Arsha standing the last time she checked but he was no longer there.

[ Name: Gauntlets of tranquility ]

[ Compatibility: 95% ]

[ Confirmed stats increase ]

[ Senses enhancement: +15% ]

[ Strength: +5% ]

[ Speed: +20% ]

[ Passive skill: present ]

She turned to the cabinet at that moment to see Arsha standing there with his hands in a pair of gauntlets.

"Seriously." She sighed.

_________ _________

The demon invasion sixty years ago brought with it a lot of things and one of those things was the corruption of lands.

On the day of the invasion, different spawn points appeared all over the world and the areas close to those spawn points suddenly began to change.

The soil began to turn red and the crops began to die, a lot of humans were yet to acquire mana flow then and ended up dying under the influence of the corruption.

This corruption swallowed most of the lands in all of the continents leaving only small areas that were marked as safe zones.

That was how Elevor and Elmor City were created but these neighboring cities weren't the only safe zones in the world.

Across the ocean toward the west, there was another safe zone and in the south of that point was another safe zone.

Finally, the last safe zone was located toward the east of Elevor and Elmor City.

Other than these five safe zones, the whole world was covered in this strange corruption and there were billions of beasts roaming around outside the safe zones.

Since the humans wouldn't share their safe zones with the demons, they occupied the corrupted lands but just like the humans they had to keep themselves away from the beasts because they weren't exactly exceptions from their aggressiveness.

Just like the humans they had cities/bases all over the continents, they had two cities in the west, one in the east, and one in the north.

All those areas were deserted and devoid of any meaningful life other than the beasts but they were able to put together structures of their own with their own resources and the abandoned human resources.

The northern demon city served as the central city for the demons as it was the largest city and also the first city they built upon arrival.

The city was just as large as Elevor maybe slightly larger and had equally tall and sturdy walls.

There were a lot of buildings in the city from infrastructural to residential and so on but among those buildings, a particular building stood out.

The tallest building in the city, a very tall skyscraper with a unique rough exterior design that they referred to as Magnus Supreme.

That was the executive building of their exalted ruler, the royal family as a whole, and the demon lords.

The building was quite huge so it made sense that there was a room for all fourteen.

The building had ninety floors and on floor eighty-eight, room number fourteen could be found at the farthest end of the hallway, and inside the room, Melissa could be seen lying on her bed with her gaze on the ceiling.

She seemed to be in her human form at the moment so she looked more like a normal teenage girl.

That wasn't the only thing that made her seem like a normal teenage girl, her room was just like that of a teenage girl.

Her wall was covered with posters, she had a stuffed bear sitting on her bed and she was playing slow instrumental music with the volume turned down.

Ordinarily, she wouldn't be in her room by this time of the day but after she went out of her way to attack Aigis Academy she was suspended and grounded from leaving the building, it looks like Ariel wasn't the only one who got punished.

"That stupid bitch, once I'm allowed to leave here, I'm going to burn her to ashes." She scowled as she folded her right hand into a fist.

A few seconds later, and that scowl turned into a sad expression, it looked like she was about to cry but just at that moment, she heard a knock on her door and just after that, a voice followed.

"Miss Melisa." A soft feminine voice called

"What is it?" She turned to the door with a growl.

"Um….I was asked to deliver something to you."

"Huh?"

She heard something slide in from under her door at that moment and quickly sat up on her bed to see that it was some sort of picture but it was turned upside down.

"What is this?" She inquired just as she picked it up.

"I think he's related to the girl you fought the other day."

"Wait, you mean…."

"Yes, that's her brother, or so I was told." She disclosed.

A grin appeared on Melissa's face at that moment as she stared at the picture with hatred-filled eyes.

"Mark my words, Ariel Logan, I will return the favor."