Devil’s Temptation

After leaving the Undercity, Art did not waste any time and went straight to his house. He landed on the rooftop before changing out of his street rat disguise, and into clothes fit for an upper-class citizen of Piltover before entering the house.

He had dinner with his parents and it was the same as always. Everything his mother cooked was delicious and he had finished everything, even licked his plate clean before going straight to his room to train his magic.

The moment Art entered his room, he lazily laid down on his bed, his gaze on the intricately designed gold and white ceiling... Here we go again.

Art conjured 1 sword instantly, then 2, 3, 4, 5 and soon, the room was filled with swords amounting to 99, but he wasn't done. He tried to conjure another sword but compared this time it started to flicker like a light bulb at the one-hundredth sword before slowly materialising.

Art tried to conjure the 101th sword, only to fail again after running low on mana. "Still no progress," he said disappointingly.

Each of these swords took a lot of mana out of him and burdened his mind but it was only a little. The swords Art had conjured had the same design and thanks to this, he could conjure the same swords he wanted if he had enough mana.

On the other hand, if he were to conjure different weapons, at most he could conjure three considering he needed to split his focus three times. This would fry his brain after a while and he would have a splitting headache the next morning.

Of course, these swords conjured from his magic could not be underestimated in the slightest.

Compared to the first sword Art conjured, these swords were on another level. He had gone to a weaponsmith store many times for inspiration. He would talk to the boss of the shop to learn what made a good sword, basically anything there is anything to know about a sword or any weapon to make it easier for him to imagine.

Thus, by incorporating what he learned with his [Creation magic], he was able to create highly detailed and sharper swords that could cut through steel.

Because of this, Art's body did not have enough mana to conjure the 101th sword which was why he wanted, no, needed the hex crystals.

Over the years, by constantly exhausting the mana stored in his body at night and recovering the mana he lost during the day every day, his mana pool had increased little by little. His mana pool was now so large that every time he ran out of mana, the more it took time to recover. As a result, his magic training had slowed down because he needed more time to wait for his mana to recover.

But it wasn't always like this.

It took roughly half an hour for him to recover his lost mana by absorbing the ambient magic a few years ago, but now it took half a day. The difference was clear between his mana pool now and then.

This difference would only continue to grow bigger over time the more he trained, albeit rather slowly. This was where the hex crystals came in. Art believed with the crystals, all of his problems would be solved.

He would no longer need to wait several hours to wait for his mana to recover.

His mana pool would increase drastically.

He would have more mana to work with to improve his magic (pure skill and precision).

When Art took the crystals out of his pocket, he felt like the devil himself was tempting him.

He was planning to absorb the magic within the crystal, but he hesitated upon thinking about the explosion earlier that day and the innocent souls within the crystals.

He thought about it deeply... Should I use it? But what would happen to the souls in the crystal? Then again, I eat meat, and I don't care what animals have been killed to procure the meat I eat? Is it so wrong for me to use the crystal? Even if I do use the crystal, is it worth it offending a giant magical scorpion?

After what felt like hours, Art sighed and finally decided not to use the crystal, at least not yet. "I might have other uses for them in the future," he stored the crystals away in his drawer lest he gets tempted again before laying down on his bed, burrowing under his soft and cozy blanket.

"Maybe, I should just ask mom and dad if we could go for a vacation in Ionia," Art said to himself as the swords in the room dissipated into thin air.

Closing his eyes, Art yawned and slowly but surely, he drifted off to sleep.

The next day... the sun bloomed, its golden petals stretching ever outwards into the rich blue sky. Morning sunlight passed through the window of Art's room, waking him up from his sleep.

Art got up from his bed with a yawn and stretched his body before going downstairs to have breakfast. "Mornin," he greeted his parents who were already at the dining table.

"It's almost afternoon. How was your sleep?" Lilah asked, a little worried. "I heard you were tumbling a lot in your bed last night."

Art rubbed his eyes lazily, yawning once again as he sat down at the dining table."Uhh," he groaned like a zombie and started eating his breakfast."I just had a hard time sleeping."

"Or maybe..." Zalie, who was reading the morning newspaper, spoke up. "... our son has finally learned to masturbate."

"What?! No!" Art denied, almost choking on his food. He hurriedly grab the cup of water next to his plate, drank all of the contents in one Go and began to explain. "I, I was…"

"Oh, it seems you know what I am talking about," Zalie raised an eyebrow.

Oh shit! Art thought before trying to think of a way out of this situation. Then an idea suddenly came to mind. "Ezreal told me what it was. Of course, I haven't done it, anyway, what's in today's newspaper. You seemed really interested."

Seeing his reaction, Zalie and Lilah laughed a little. Zalie stopped teasing Art and said. "There was a robbery yesterday."

"Robbery?" Art stopped moving for a moment, shocked... oh shit, it's in today's newspaper. Jesus, who did we rob to gain this much attention? Could it be someone from the Ferros clan?

Zalie nodded. "Enforcers are looking for five suspects in the Undercity."

"It seems I'll be a bit busy today. I just read that the student that was robbed has been detained for unauthorised research," he continued on to say. "It says the student was favoured by the Kirammans and Professor Heimerdinger. I suppose I'll be required by the Council to attend the trial today."

The Truefall, well, House Truefall was just a rank below the mercantile clans. The difference between a clan and a house is that clans are larger, do not necessarily have all of their members related by blood by direct family connections, and have larger political influence and income for their ventures.

Although House Truefall was only a clothing business, they still held power and needed to attend the trial, especially when it involved very important people such as the Kirramans and Professor Heimerdinger from the prestigious University of Piltover. They were both part of the governing Council of Piltover and both supported the defendant.

If Zalie or anyone from House Truefall failed to appear, it meant they were looking down on the other clans and houses. Even the 8 mercantile clans, the ruling families of Piltover, were required to attend the trial.

Art breathed a sigh of relief upon learning that the person they robbed was not involved with the Ferros clan. Otherwise, he would have been scared shitless if he were to be targeted by the John Wick of this world.

"Did it mention the name of the student?" Art asked, feeling a little guilty.

"Jayce Talis," replied Zalie.

Art was surprised and asked. "Jayce Talis, as in House Talis?"

House Talis was a family that runs a factory that makes hammers and other tools, but it wasn't Jayce's background that gave him a surprise, rather it was the person himself.

Jayce in the lore along with Viktor were the geniuses who learned to harness the magic within the hex crystals. But there were so many wrong things in what Art just heard from his father... Jayce, supported by the Kirramans? Wasn't it Clan Giopara that gave him patronage? Why is Caitlyn's family supporting him, and if Jayce gets arrested, will there be no hextech?

Art was confused, but after thinking about it, the things he had seen so far were different from the lore. An example was that in the lore basic Hextech was already being developed, and the devices were lacking a sufficiently powerful battery.

"Yes," Zalie replied while flipping to the next page.

"That's unfortunate," Art coughed nervously. "Thank god no one was hurt."

"Indeed, but this would have in the first place if the council didn't neglect the Undercity," Zalie nodded. "Now they are making it worse by sending Enforcers to capture responsible."

"Is that so?" Art said nervously. "What will happen if these guys are caught?"

"Obviously they will be sent to Stillwater for life," Zalie replied immediately.

"..." Art didn't know how to respond and so he didn't at all.

Just now he had been worrying about whether or not the actions he had done affected the development of Hextech, but upon hearing what his father had said, his priority had changed.

Compared to the development of Hextech, he was more concerned about his friends and wanted to see how they were faring.

I better go see if Violet and the gang are okay, Art thought worriedly.

He started eating his cold breakfast at a faster pace and after putting his plate in the sink, he changed into his street rat disguise, left the house and headed straight for the Undercity.