Time elapsed and a few days passed in a flash.

Our progress at rebuilding the airship had been without many hiccups. This was all thanks to Tuilë’s ingenuity as well as Lunaria’s extensive knowledge. Both of them were the main contributors to this part of the project, all the while I’d been mostly inscribing runic inscriptions and doing some simple menial labor.

It appeared that the inner workings behind the new airship would involve a lot in the use of these runes. I might have done a job well-done with Alfredo before, but here I was mostly copying the inscription that Tuilë had previously inscribed.

One such inscription was used to reduce the total weight of the material. It was no wonder that she claimed that the new ship would be able to carry ten times the total cargo than before despite having a smaller zeppelin balloon percentage to its total weight ratio. Some others were used to give air resistance to the ship. Interesting.

As a former programmer student, this was especially intriguing.

Out of the blue, a whirling of aircraft appeared and gradually became closer. Soon afterward, Tuilë’s steam kite landed on an empty field not far from the airship.

As the pilot — Tuilë — got off the aircraft, and she waved at me, saying, “Maxxy! You done there? I think I’ll need your help to move all these materials.”

Tuilë had almost always been using the steam kite to go back and forth to procure some stuff, and she had only returned just now. Since giving her the two thousand source crystals, the progress had only skyrocketed.

I turned toward the steam kite, lazily marching there while stretching my body. “Sure. Is this all the materials this time? It doesn’t look like much. To be frank, aren’t these things for…”

What she carried with her on the aircraft were mostly utensils like water pipes, sinks, and even toilet parts, among other sanitary hardware. I didn’t know that it was possible to procure these things in Aquarine — though Tuilë did have one installed in her house.

“Mm-hmm. The steam kite has a small carrying capacity, but most of the materials we need are already gathered here.”

That’s not what I meant. Oh, well… I shook my head internally.

“Say, there has been something bugging my mind lately.”

With her hands on her hips, her smile broke into a toothy grin, as if anticipating something. “Do speak up and don’t shy away; I’m all ears.”

“Uh, okay. You see, the way that the artifact sword was able to shrink in size was always in the back of my mind. Are there no ways for normal catalyst weapons to do the same?”

“Huh?”

“W-Well, it’s something I thought of in passing — my imagination. If it sounds absurd, then forget it.”

“No, not at all,” she affirmed.

“Huh?” It was now my turn to be surprised and say the word.

“You’re not hearing it wrong, though this is only a rumor.” She held her forehead and recalled, “If my knowledge is anything to go by, a catalyst weapon can become a ‘source-bound weapon’ — an upgrade from a normal catalyst weapon. However, I ain’t aware of the details. But… it has something to do with being a Tier-1 evoker.”

Sweet! If I can turn the artifact sword into becoming my source-bound weapon… perhaps it may solve one of the mysteries of the sword. What she said remained to be proven, but it was better than nothing.

Tuilë had previously inspected the artifact sword as per my request as well as her insistence, and yet not even she was able to decipher the “password” held by the sword. On the flip side, she was able to find more information regarding the weapon itself, like how it had four forms besides sword and gauntlet (not including badge), namely battleax, spear, shield, and gun.

Yes, gun… It could transform into a pair of magic handguns that shoot magic bullets condensed from the source energy channeled into it, and it could become elemental bullets at will.

You must know that this artifact was made eons ago when civilization supposedly shouldn’t be as advanced as it was today, at least in terms of science and technology, so I could only wonder what sort of civilization existed back then.

Likewise, this meant that I could fight in all sorts of ranges. Whether that be a gun for long range, a spear for medium range, or a sword for close range. For even shorter distances, I could use a pair of gauntlets… or I could make a shield if I wanted to defend… or even a battleax for explosive power.

Either way, she discovered this fact by taking no more than ten minutes, which was incredible. After all, even if her people were natural engineers and liked to explore ruins of the past, it wasn’t easy to tinker with things that she had never seen before.

“Then, um, does anyone come to mind who might know about this?” I inquired.

She held her chin for a moment before answering, “Spitzek will know.”

“Damn right! Thanks!” It was foolish of me not to remember him; if even he didn’t know, who else would?

“Hehe. Any time.”

Without further ado, I rushed to Spitzek’s camp. However, when I was barely a dozen steps out of the camp, a voice appeared from behind me along with a floating drone.

“Maxim…”

I stopped in my tracks and looked back, inquiring, “Yeah, what is it, Lunaria?”  

Right now, Lunaria was tasked with welding the interior of the airship — it was possible to do that thanks to Tuilë’s modification. Hence, I couldn’t bother her to accompany me, not that it was needed.

“No, it’s…” she hesitated.

“Ha? Speak louder, I can’t hear you well.”

“It’s just… if all of this ever ends, will you still believe in me, come what may?” Is this pertaining to her secrets?

I took a deep breath. “Of course! How long have we been together, and how many hardships we have overcome? If I can’t believe you, then I’m not worthy of your trust.”

“My, maybe later then. I hope you hold true to what you said.” Upon that, Luna-1 flew into the ship through the large gap in the roof.

Shaking my head, I returned to my objective: learning about source-bound weapons.

I hoped there was nothing serious behind Lunaria’s statement…

***

“You want to know… about source-bound weapons?”

Sitting before me on a cushion was a bipedal molluscoid with two protruding eyes with black spots as his pupils. There was no other person I knew with a similar appearance besides Spitzek.

“Yes! Can you teach me, please?” I repeated.

“I promised to help you before… but now that you have become an evoker… by your own effort… I must repay you in another way… Let’s see… this should work as a repayment… for that time… but I feel like tossing in… another favor,” he said slowly, enough to make me fall asleep.

“Spitzek, you have helped me a lot! It should have been me to repay you. I mean, you teaching me this is already more than enough.”

I was incomparably rich right now, and no amount of money was too much. A Second-Order source crystal that I’d given him in the past was just a spare change for the current me. Maybe I should give him more source crystals.

His mollusk eyes stared at me; the black spots contracted slightly. “To know how to be humble. You’re worth teaching.”

Subsequently, he told me all he knew about source-bound weapons: their origin, practicality, and use. There was nothing interesting about how people discovered this except that someone accidentally stored the catalyst weapon they had been using their whole life and found that it could be taken out of one’s heart’s content.

In actuality, it was anything but making the wearer more powerful. It didn’t make the weapon stronger nor provide any additional power. Its main usage was in its practicality.

Nevertheless, for someone that came from another world like me and had read countless novels and played countless games, this was nothing but a cheat. If reading novels and playing games had taught me anything, then I shouldn’t take oral information at face value, unless proven.

“If I may ask, do you have one such weapon yourself? And if yes, can you show me?”

“I do…”

He raised his right arm and spread his three plump fingers, wide enough to hold a pole. Then, as though materializing from transparent particles, a wooden cane with a lustrous green catalyst stone embedded in its top appeared in his hand.

“And with similar process… I can make it… disappear.” And then poof, the cane vanished into nothingness.

“This…” I felt my facial muscles going slack by watching all this transpiring before me.

To be able to conjure up a catalyst weapon and then made it disappear… I bet the application of this ability wasn’t limited to just this. At any rate, I had to master this and explore its practicality further by myself.

“This is a natural ability. But only Tier-1 evokers… that understand the inner workings of source hearts… may use this ability… and you have to, first of all… mark your catalyst weapon… To do that…” He continued on and on, explaining the secret recipe.

I must make the weapon a part of myself as if it were an extra limb? Did I hear it wrong?

What Spitzek told me was to make the weapon a part of me. To top it all off, at any time, I could only mark one weapon. The mark — also called “source mark” — could also be easily removed if I hadn’t managed to fully complete it yet…

“Furthermore, the process can… take as short as almost an instant… to as long as a few months… It all depends on compatibility. But of course… if you’re a higher rank evoker… the process will be relatively faster…” he resumed.

“Ohh! So it’s like that.” I exhaled a lungful of cold air. Figures that it won’t be so simple.

Processing the information he just dumped on me could take some time, so I might as well do it here and now while he was guiding me. The only catch would be that the secret of the artifact sword would likely be leaked to him.

Even so, if I wanted to learn from him, it was necessary to reveal my secret. Besides, there was no harm in telling him a bit, though minimizing it was a must.

Taking that into account, I took out the badge that I kept in one of my jacket’s pockets and showed it to him.

“A badge…? No, this is an artifact… a magical artifact.”

“You know about artifacts?”

He nodded. “The airship that you used… is one such thing, isn’t it?”

Er, what? Wait, he probably can’t discern between modern and ancient artifacts. Although, in a sense, it wasn’t wrong either. It was highly likely that he never went into a ruin of way past civilization.

“You can say so… Yeah, it is an artifact. Now, I wanna know how to start marking this badge!”

What he explained earlier was still conceptual at best.

“…Just channel your source energy…”

“All right. I will try.”

I did as he instructed me, circulating the source energy within my body and channeling it into the badge — establishing a connection between me and it. Nevertheless, even after twenty minutes of trying, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing at all.

“Remember when I said that the prerequisite… was to become a Tier-1 evoker? Because you need… to have a source heart… for this to work… These weapons didn’t truly disappear into thin air… but actually stored inside the source hearts.”

“Aah, no wonder…”

With all that said, I spent the rest of the afternoon doing trial and error in order to mark the badge. Hard work did not disappoint me indeed, as over time, I was able to know the artifact better.

It might sound weird, but this was what exactly happening.

Hang on, this badge… I mean, is this sword even counted as a catalyst weapon? Well, it does have many colorful crystals that look like refined catalyst stones…

It had to be mentioned that Spitzek had specifically stated that only catalyst weapons could become source-bound weapons. In that case, this thing was a bona fide catalyst weapon through and through — a weapon that was most suitable for me.

“…Good. Keep it up…” he praised. “I estimate it will take no longer than… three days, and maybe sooner.”

“How is it compared to other people?”

“Above average.” A short but convincing reply but enough to give me confidence.