Listening to Toki's long story was a chore, so I just let the main parts sink in.
Apparently, to protect the city from the monster's attacks, Toki volunteered to offer the Staff of Destruction, the most powerful weapon that she knew, to the most powerful mage of all in this city.
That person was also the very first fourth-class user, an undeniable powerhouse with the catchy-sounding class name Witch of Ruin, a mage-type class.
"Without that person and without letting her use the staff you made, then the monster invasion would have lasted longer than a day," Toki said with a sigh.
Apparently, after she was allowed to use the staff, she went around the city "sweeping" the monsters like they were dust on the floor. It became so easy that she even went as far as the neighboring cities and cleaned everything up.
"Other countries mobilized their entire military forces just to clean up the monsters that were rampaging in the civilian areas, whereas we only needed one person to protect several cities. Amazing, right?"
Those countries that were forced to use all their military forces to clear the monster wave were still struggling to restore their borders to their previous barricades. The entire event was literally a catastrophe in terms of damages and deaths, but at least it wasn't that hard to contain.
We, on the other hand, didn't need to go that far just to protect our city. It was all thanks to the mysterious Witch of Ruin, who literally saved everyone singlehandedly.
"So? What's with the Staff of Destruction then?" I asked, feeling a bit of foreboding.
"That... The government requested that we relinquish its control to the Witch of Ruin..." Toki said with an awkward smile on her face. "Of course, not for free. The government said that they'll be paying the market price for the staff... In installments."
"F*ck... My money..." Words slipped through my mouth as disappointment sank in.
It's not like I'm devoted to money or that I have incredible debt that needs payment. However, knowing that you should be getting billions at once, turning into hundreds of millions every month, it was slightly underwhelming.
"Your money?" Mother asked, her eyes narrowing down to slits. "Don't tell me, was it you who made that Staff of Destruction?"
I guess from hearing Toki talk about the staff and the mysterious powerhouse, even Mother figured out the connection between me and her story. I felt a little awkward but still answered "Yes" to her question.
"It was made by accident, though. I doubt I can make another one of that level." I clarified quickly.
"... That's amazing. I'm proud of you, son." Mother just smiled sweetly as she leaned over and petted my head. It felt a little awkward having your mother do this to you in front of strangers, but I didn't stop her. It's just Toki watching anyway.
"Ahem. Right, so, that means the staff is relinquished to the government, and now your company is handling the receipt of the installment amount, am I right?"
I quickly went back to the story at hand, forcing the strange atmosphere around us. Toki chuckled cutely before answering. "Well, basically, it was Father who relinquished the staff and not the company. Ah, also, the meeting with him was postponed until after you finish this one-week crafting contract. So Good luck with that!"
"M-Meeting her father?! Hiro, don't tell me she's really your gir-*mmmmh*!" Before my sister could go on another rampage, Mother quickly blocked her mouth and stared at her with a sidelong glance. Like a little rat gazed at by a snake, she shivered in her seat and quieted down.
"Well, I guess he'd be busy after all that happened suddenly..."
I recalled the fact that I, potentially, was the cause of all this tragedy and scratched my head awkwardly. I can't share this with them yet, though, as I still need to look for proof at least.
As we were talking, I could feel the car suddenly stopping. Toki looked out the window and was slightly surprised. "Oh, looks like we've arrived."
The spot we stopped before was the towering residential building, about thirty stories tall, that was right next to the Dismantling Facility. Toki only sent Mother and Sister out of the car, passing them a key card and explaining.
"That key is to the penthouse on the top floor. Feel free to use the rooms there as you please, as the entire floor was reserved for your family's use."
Mother received the card without flinching, even bowing her head lightly in thanks before dragging my sister away. She seemed to want to say something else but was stopped by Mother's glare. I guess she was still pissed at how our home was destroyed.
A few more minutes of drive and we arrived at the dismantling facility... Or the building next to it. At the entrance, hundreds of meters away from our position, swarms of people were standing in wait. It looked like they were waiting for something or someone.
"Those mages are really something else. They've been stalking our facility since yesterday." Toki grumbled as she walked away from the crowd. "We'll need to enter using the underground tunnels. Follow me."
Toki led me to stairs leading underground, before entering through several layers of bulwarks, metallic sliding doors opened through a bio scan, just like the door at her personal workshop.
We followed the connecting passage and, in just a few moments, reached her workshop, which was underground.
"There are the materials for about fifty Blast Wands here, so use them as you see fit. Also, just press this button to call for room service."
Toki pointed at the stack of wooden boxes to the side before pointing at a green button embedded in the wall. I was curious about the room service, so I checked the button to see that there was a speaker beside it. I guess it's like a small radio to communicate what I want.
"Food, drinks, anything you want, you can ask them... Ah, no naughty things, though~! We don't do that here."
"Do I look interested in something like that?" I sighed at her not-so-funny joke. "I'm under a tight schedule here, with a hundred wands on the waitlist. How long do you think that'll take?"
Previously, I could make two of them in under an hour. However, I doubt I could maintain that much concentration and work nonstop for a few hours. Breaks would need to be included, so at my pace... I can finish only twenty to thirty wands a day at that pace.
"You've gotten a class up, right? Becoming a blacksmith, I'm sure~! Then you should be able to craft faster now!" Toki said with a smile.
"Actually, I'm not able to choose a blacksmith for my class. I'm still a crafting class though, at least I think?" I muttered with a slight doubt.
World Breaker was a pretty vague name for a class, not telling me anything about what it really does. However, it did give a large boost to my crafting skills, so I think it is a crafting class. "Right, there's also that skill that came together with it..."
I remembered about it and quickly brought up my status panel. As soon as I saw the number, I was a little surprised, though.
[
Name: Giza Mahiro
Level: 6*
Class: World Breaker
Badges: 52 (expand>>)
Titles: 5 (expand>>)
Skills: 6 (expand>>)
Strength: 238 (37 + 181.5)
Agility: 238 (37 + 181.5)
Intelligence: 93 (18 + 75)
Wisdom: 96 (18 + 78)
Endurance: 373 (78 + 295)
Luck: 10
Free Stat Points: 50
]
"D*mn, did I forget to check my stats after that day? I'm already level 6!"
Now that I see this, I can guess why I was able to overpower Kaede before. My stats were basically approaching hers now! Anyway, other than that, I need to check my new skills. "... [World Storage], was it?"
[
Skill Name: World Storage
Level: 1
Rank: Legendary
Description: Using the enormous energy stored in a single Nanomachine, it opens a hole in space where the user can store their belongings. Time dilation doesn't apply. There are no size limits, but it needs to be liftable by the user to be inserted into the storage. The energy used is equivalent to 10 MP for each cast.
Cooldown: None
]
"10 MP?" I tilted my head and stared at my status panel.
I have 93 intelligence points. If converted, that's like 465 MP, since one intelligence point is equal to 5 MP. It was a basic conversion rate that mages use since there's no concrete number shown as their actual MP value.
"But this means I can use the storage only 46 times today..."
Toki, curious, peeked at the window and read its description. Her eyes widened before her brows furrowed, asking with a quizzical tone. "What's with this cheat-level skill?! Are you dating the nanomachines or something? Did you bribe them?!"
I grinned wide, boasting at her. "This is my class skill. Amazing, right?"
"What class did you... World Breaker? What's that?" She asked with question marks floating on her head.
Even I didn't really know, so I just smiled and walked to the pile of materials. I was curious as to the effect of the [World Storage] skill, so I decided to use it first to test the functions.
Fortunately, activation conditions can be triggered by mental cues too. I didn't need to shout the skill's name all the time. As I focused, a small, dark hole about as large as my fist appeared. The hole opened up and swallowed the entire pile of materials as if it were a black hole. Everything vanished from sight in just a few moments.
"... The materials wouldn't just vanish, would they?" Such scary thoughts entered my mind, but as soon as I thought of confirming the contents of the storage, a popup window, just like a game's inventory, appeared before me.
"Sweet! There are even item descriptions!"
I was happy since I could use the descriptions to identify items that I didn't recognize. Toki was just looking at me, her mouth wide open, muttering in an absentminded tone. "Dude, that's cool... But it's so broken it's unfair."
... To be fair, even though it was my own skill, I had similar thoughts.