- Silas -
"Che, who needs magic power? You can always train your body and swordsmanship. You already got enough for your Device. Train hard and show everyone." The samurai guy with Bang clicked his tongue.
"Indeed. The Almighty has given us the greatest gift in this body of ours. We should be grateful to him and devote ourselves to training it to the best of our capabilities as a show of respect to him and Martial Arts." Issac-san added too.
Shigure patted his shoulder. "Learn Ki. Martial Arts is strong. I can teach."
"Yes Ikki-san. I cannot use any Esper powers or magic either because my body just erases every supernatural power. But martial arts is really good. I have become much stronger than before. Also, you should eat the salad from the restaurant. It increases the rate of training by several times." Touma added his two cents to support the guy.
"You can do what?!"
"Yeah. He needs to put on his gloves at all times because of this." Kensei-san confirmed.
"Know what? Show me your swordsmanship. If you are good enough, I can give you some pointers as well." Atomic Samurai spoke.
We were looking at all this from the side when I suddenly had an idea.
I looked at Rimuru and spoke. "Rimuru. This Device thing, maybe… Do you think we can get some for ourselves?"
"Hmm. It might be possible if we go to that world. I would need to analyse the process once more."
Yes.
We can actually analyse the process. In fact, I can probably use my Chef Ability too.
Ikki probably heard our conversation and spoke. "Umm, Shop Owner. Not everyone can awaken Devices. You need to have magic power, enough to awaken your device."
We all looked at the guy who seemed genuinely worried about it and we smiled.
"It's fine. I might just have enough magic power for it." I raised my hand and water swirled in my palm before freezing in the shape of a katana similar to Intetsu. "We only need your permission in case this is something harmful for your world."
"No no. It's not harmful."
"In that case, it's decided." Kisuke-san clapped his hand in excitement.
He was probably the most excited of all people here….not to say others weren't. Hell, even Cid-kun looked intrigued.
So we all waited for him to finish his Ramen as the others finished their food and we all walked into what looked like modern Japan.
We were in an alleyway.
Looking around the place, the differences were apparent. This was similar and yet quite different from Tokyo in our world. This place seemed….more modern.
Kisuke-san made some handsigns and chanted something as I sensed a barrier around the place. "There, no one will notice anything amiss here as long as there is no big commotion." He said.
"That's quite thoughtful of you, Kisuke. Leave the rest to me." Rimuru looked at Ikki and spoke. "Can you summon your sword….device once more." He then looked at me. "Help me out here. Connect your Sage with my Great Sage and use your Chef's ability so that we can share the data on the analysis. It will just make the process faster."
I nodded and activated Chef as I felt an intrusion in my head and accepted it rather than resisting it.
A voice was heard in my head.
Connection to Extra Skill: Sage has been established.
Information Sharing initiated.
This must be Rimuru's Great Sage.
Damn, that's so cool.
It sounds like a futuristic AI in one's head.
"Ready." On Rimuru's signal, Ikki began.
"Come forth, Intetsu." He said as he clutched the air in front of him, making a flash of light which slowly transformed into his sword, Intetsu.
My Chef analysed the whole process in detail.
His Device was attached to his soul. In fact, a part of his soul manifested outside and it became the core for his magical power to gather around and form the….shell or rather the physical body of Intetsu.
"Did you get that?" I asked, looking at Rimuru who nodded.
"Yup." He opened his palm and a flash of light lit up on his hand, turning into a blue coloured sword. He swung it and it changed into a whip and struck the ground and with a slight pull, it returned to its original shape and came back to his hand.
"That's convenient. What can it do, shapeshift?"
"Yes. It's called Mimic. It can not only change its shape but also eat things and gain their properties over time."
He looked pleased with the sword's ability and sheathed it.
"Let's get one for you all."
Since Great Sage was connected to me, I was the first one after Rimuru to use the process.
This time, under the guidance of Great Sage, I felt a strand of my Soul Power move. This power concentrated around my hand as my Magic Power moved next, twirling around the strand, creating the body for the weapon. The light around my palm increased more as the figure of the Device was finally revealed.
"It kinda suits Silas-kun the best." Bang-san commented.
I saw the two knives in my hand. They were a pair of kitchen knives. One Icy Blue while the other with a completely white blade with a black handle.
The names of the Devices came to my mind almost instinctively.
Blue Fang and Black Thorn.
The first one controlled water and ice while the other one had the same power as my Chef Skill.
With this I could probably use my Chef Skill with my Innate Cursed Technique.
According to Rimuru, I could do so with practice and experience with my Skill too but I haven't had a chance to practise using the Chef. One of the most important reasons for it was the fact that it required enormous amounts of Magical Power and was not something I could use at will.
My thoughts were broken by Ainz's words.
"Must have something to do with his size." The guy said to Rimuru and Saitama as the two laughed among themselves.
These two have been a bit too much today.
"At least I have one." I replied, making them quiet.
Rimuru recovered from the comment first. "Alright, who's next?"
Ainz went next and got a….bone staff.
Talk about original.
"You should try too, Sakura." On my encouragement, she went ahead and her Device turned unexpectedly into a pair of earrings.
What happened next was not something we were expecting.
In front of our eyes, black chains emerged from the air and bound around Sakura and almost at the same time, her magic power started falling down.
Was someone attacking us?
Almost on an instinct, I grabbed my Black Thorn and used Chef at full power and slashed at the black chains.
The chains shattered almost instantly as Sakura fell into my arms.
"Are you alright?" I asked and she nodded slowly at my question.
I looked back at Rimuru. "Okay, what in the world was that?"
Rimuru looked tense as well but tried to explain nonetheless. "I think those Chains were a sort of a limiter forced on people by the world. Maybe that's the reason why people of this world cannot raise their power beyond a certain level? Let's go inside and talk about it."
We did just that.
The first thing I did when I went inside was check on Sakura's condition to see if she was unhurt.
Fortunately there was no harm to her body or soul.
Kisuke-san checked and verified it.
Only after that did I let her go.
Rimuru was talking to Ikki in the meantime. "Do you have any idea on what those chains were, Kurogane-kun?" He asked.
The poor guy himself looked confused about the whole debacle and shook his head in denial.
"Are you sure there is nothing wrong with her?" I asked Kisuke-san.
"Nothing from what I could say but then again, I cannot say much from the lack of information. That was quite interesting though. I wonder why the chains only appeared on Sakura-chan and not you three. Could it be because of your unusual heritage?" Kisuke-san asked. "Could it be that the chains only bind humans? Too bad we don't have any more test subjects."
"Perhaps it would need humans with Magic Power to go through the process for there to be any chance of something like that happening." Ainz said. "But getting volunteers for it is hard."
"I don't think there is any need for any volunteers. We can't see Kurogane-kun's chains either. It's better to not risk those." Rimuru said. "If anything, we are lucky that Silas is the living cheat that he is to salvage the situation."
At this time, a voice came from behind us.
"I wouldn't mind giving it a try."
We looked back to see a familiar figure in black hooded overcoat.
"Cid-kun!"
"I am Shadow, he who lurks in the shadows to hunt the shadows."
….
Ah….he's in his roleplay mode again.
I was told by Ainz that some people like to do this. Even Ainz did it, especially when among his subordinates.
"....Shadow-kun, it's not safe."
"When you stare at the face of the abyss all day, death becomes just another word to you. Do not worry, I will be fine."