Negraazul
Arwan was left in awe. He had seen weapons before, both at Mars and while touring Moribus City with Femi, but he had never been so close to them.
That has now changed.
Everywhere, every side, every corner of the room. They were displayed.
'Swords, shields, guns... And the most beautiful, battle mechas.' In his head, Arwan was twirling like a kid.
"You guys shouldn't touch anything," Gallagher said with a stern expression.
Arwan's fantasy was cut short by the sight of Gallagher's face. Then he realized they had been rude to their helper.
Following the realization was a short moment of embarrassment, then an apology.
"I'm so sorry for barging in. My body moved on its own. Sorry, sor—"
"It's good, as long as you respect our wishes, it's all good," Gallagher shrugged. He was weak to younglings.
Arwan was silent for a moment, then asked, "Mr. Gallagher, why didn't you want us to enter though? Privacy?"
"Well... Yeah," Gallagher was shocked by the question, and it led to him being ruffled.
"This is his collection. He says he's not proud of it," Ruth, who was silently watching everyone in the room, interjected.
"Eh... Yeah..." Gallagher agreed.
"Oh, what's not to be proud of? Everything is so cool! How did you get enough money to get all this? As an adventurer, this should take a load of your money!" Arwan said enthusiastically.
"Well, I just obtained them over the years, no biggie..." Gallagher waved off the compliments. "Anyways, you like mechas right? Come over—"
"Oi, be careful with that!"
While Gallagher tried changing the topic, his words were cut short by Eva's loud voice.
Arwan, Gallagher, and Ruth paid attention to Femi and Eva, who were on the opposite side of the room.
*****
In front of Femi, occupying most of the wall space, was a two-tier shelf.
Displayed on the upper shelf were different swords and daggers, while on the lower were large shields.
In Femi's hands was a longsword. Immediately he glanced at this particular sword, he knew it matched him well.
"Oi, be careful with that!"
Eva's loud voice simply graced Femi's ear. For the first time, he paid no attention to her rage.
He hurriedly swung the sword and repeated another slash until he stopped to look at the sword again.
"You like that?" Tapping his shoulder, Gallagher's voice finally reached Femi.
"Yes, I really do. Can I have it?" Femi asked genuinely.
"Femi, you can't ask for it like that. Weapons are very expensive. It can't be given just like that," Arwan, now knowing it was a collection of Gallagher's, tried to help Gallagher reject the offer on his behalf.
"Ahh," Femi let out a low sigh of realization.
"It's yours. Keep it," Gallagher's words put everyone including Eva in shock.
"Thank you! I appreciate it!" Femi exclaimed.
"Tch... Lucky." Arwan hissed. He just lost his opportunity to make his own selfish request.
'The weight and shape, it's kind of what the old man explained. It'll fit my swordsmanship perfectly,' Unaware of Arwan's pain—or maybe just ignoring him—Femi whispered to himself.
The sword had an obsidian black, narrow, straight blade that was engraved with patterns.
The patterns, which had blue hues, extended from the fuller of the blade to the point of the blade, with the fuller having fewer blue hues compared to that of the point of the blade.
The simple longsword hilt was black, with only the middle of the pointed cross-guard having a small-sized hole.
"Whoa, it uses a tether battery. How does it work with a sword though?" Arwan was also inspecting the beauty of the sword and spoke out of curiosity.
In response, Gallagher said:
"That's a sword I call Negraazul. The patterns are engraved with blackites, a substance that absorbs Tether. When a tether battery is inserted in its slot, the blackites absorb the tether and create a higher damage than a normal thrust and slash. It's a very nice sword. I would have loved to use it, but neither Eva, Ruth nor I are skilled enough. That's why I'll entrust it to you."
'Negraazul, it has a nice name... You also use a tether battery... Huh,' Out of confusion, Femi asked, "What's a tether battery?"
Everyone was left speechless.
Who didn't know a tether battery in this age?
"Fool!" Eva blurted.
After the break of silence, Ruth began sharing her knowledge.
Firstly, after the chain reaction, tether was one of the newly discovered elements. It became an important power source for the modern day.
Tether originally existed as some sort of energy in the atmosphere, until Tether Stones were discovered. Simply put, Tether Stones are naturally solidified Tether and refining them create something akin to Tether Core to suppress the energy. Further refining reproduces Tether Battries.
With these cores, batteries of different sizes were artificially made to simplify its use. Tether's worth truly lay in the ability to enhance things.
For example, the bodysuits Femi and Arwan wore had slots for a tether battery. When active, the bodysuits absorbed damage from external bodies in exchange for Tether procured from the battery that was fixed on the chest part of the bodysuit.
Other instances of Tether usage are power sources for spacecraft and other modern-day vehicles, the dome of the Adventurer's City and other cities, etcetera.
"Ahhh, it seems like my old man stuck with using the old things," Femi let out a chuckle.
"You're just oblivious to complicated things," Arwan mocked.
That's true. Femi didn't pay attention to things he didn't find cool right off the bat, so no matter how curious, he never bothered to ask how deep things were, especially if they were complicated.
"Femi's weapon has been taken care of. Arwan, you're interested in the mechas, right? I have only two, so just pick one of them," Gallagher instructed. "With that, weapons are settled. Eva, you're the one who hunts most, what formation and plan do you suggest for this mission?"