Summons

Viria walked up to Lithsar glaring her down with an ice-cold expression before leaning forward, pointing at the fresh clothes with his face mere inches away from hers.

"Am I supposed to beg for them too while I bow down to pick them up?"

"E-eh~?"

The young man asked in an annoyed voice, and the reaction of the gold-haired girl was instantaneous.

"Ehehe~ Noo, of course not~ Here you are, boss~!"

"...?"

Lithsar's face turned bright red as she started fidgeting and giggling like a troubled puppy before immediately crouching down and hurriedly picking up what she dropped before offering it to the taken-aback Viria in a flirty ditzy voice.

"...thanks...?"

"AH!"

Only when the young man took the clothes and nodded his head at her did Lilith flinch in realization and stood up with a loud voice.

"Sorry! Sorry! I just didn't expect you to give off such gang-boss vibes...! Sorry, my switch was instantly flipped and... Kirri, we are leaving!"

"Eh? EEEEHHH?! Why me too?! I wanted to talk with mister Viria...!"

Lithsar got flustered by her own reaction and grabbed the resolute girl's hand, dragging her away without listening to the complaints and ignoring her attempts to struggle.

"..."

Viria watched the two girls leave, slowly blinking trying to make sense of what just happened, but he ended up giving up on that and just changed into a fresh set of clothes as soon as they both left his field of view.

Refreshed and hungry as ever, Viria directed his first steps after leaving the Bathland of respite to the establishment serving the mole-rabbit bone bread.

*WHAM*

"HEY! Druu! What the hell did you put into one of the loaves of bread that you sold me?! I almost shitted my guts out, you know?! This place might not give any refunds, but I demand at least a discount for the next purchase!"

The young man entered the restaurant with a kick and declared in a loud voice.

"Whatever the last one was, you have seriously damaged the trust between the consumer and the merchant!"

Although there were two or three other customers inside, Viria did not lower his voice even a little bit and walked up straight to the counter until he could lean on it and glare at the baffled shopkeeper.

"Don't be ridiculous! There was nothing wrong or different about the loaves you got, both of them were from the same batch!"

Stiffened with the initial shock, the prisoner in charge of the shop could not stand for the slander under his product's name.

"Oh, really...? Then what...?!"

"Prisoner Viria!"

Viria was about to reveal the horrible state that his visit to the bathlads of respite left one of their baths, when a guard entered the building, calling after him in an urgent voice.

"Y-yes...? It's me."

The young man straightened his back and raised his hand though he was quite a recognizable person – not to mention that the guard who was catching his breath was one of the two that would usually stand in front of the second gate of the monster spawning grounds.

"Lord warden is calling for you! Immediately! Follow me!"

The guard called out and waved his hand at the young man before rushing out of the establishment.

"..."

Viria looked after him with confusion, but despite not really knowing what was going on he ended up rushing after the guard.

"Quick! He is in a bad mood."

It turned out to be a good choice as the guard was waiting at him outside and declared while beckoning him with a tense expression.

"...umm... any idea why he is calling for me? And if that bad mood of his is connected with me...?"

As the two walked towards the blocky building in the middle of the prison town, Viria ended up taking a deep breath and asking in a tense voice in an attempt of gauging the situation.

Was he in trouble for the mess he made?

Or worse, did the warden learn about his soul artifact not being just a trash grade?

"...dunno..."

But the guard wasn't even half as helpful as Bossac.

"...!"

Speaking of which, Viria focused and had his prison shiv appear in his hand.

[Prison shiv (mole-rabbit bone) – low grade soul artifact – it sometimes breaks but can be remade from any kind of trash in your possession.

Abilities – Bone weapon (The higher the mastery level, the higher the damage dealt by the weapon) - - Rabbit strike (Adds the speed of a mole-rabbit's jump to the attack) [Mastered] Rabbit aspect (Imbues the user with the speed of the mole-rabbit)

Mastery – level 7/10

Durability 12/12 –repair– -remake-

???]

Just as it was the last time he checked, Virai's soul artifact was completely different from when the warden had seen it for the first time.

If somehow Viarai's soul artifact revealing itself to be something more was not the reason for the young man being called, it would be simply stupid to risk it being discovered.

"Remake."

Viria glanced at the back of the guard leading him and whispered.

[Pick trash from your possessions to use as a material for remaking your soul artifact:

-tin trash-]

"Tin trash."

Viria confirmed the only choice that he had at the time, and the next moment a dim light covered his soul artifact, and the weight of the tin trash disappeared from his pockets.

In the next moment, as the light faded, the weapon in Viria's hand looked quite different than before.

...well, it actually looked more familiar than ever because...

[Prison shiv (tin) – trash grade soul artifact – it's easy to break but can be remade from any kind of trash in your possession.

Ability – none

Mastery – level 10/10 (max)

Durability 7/7 –repair– -remake-

???]

It turned into the exactly same thing that the young man was used to seeing since the spiritual awakening ceremony when he was five years old.

Feeling a bit uneasy over the regression, Viria gulped down his saliva and made the soul artifact disappear – it would be bad if someone saw him following the guard closely with the shiv in hand.

That would definitely look as if he was up to no good for any bystander.