Chapter 405: Chapter 400: Fantasy Weapons Chapter 405: Chapter 400: Fantasy Weapons Ensuring the relative fairness of the Martial Arts Competition, it was proceeding passionately. Absolute fairness does not exist; life is inherently unfair. The concept of fairness is mostly comforting.

Simultaneously with the Martial Arts Competition, other non-combat vocational matches such as those for alchemists, artifact refiners, talisman makers, and array masters, were also underway, albeit not starting at the same time.

Because among the competitors who signed up for the competition, many were energetic and extraordinarily talented, excelling in various fields—they could wield weapons and refine both gold and potions.

Thus, to accommodate them, the Martial Arts Competition and non-combat vocational matches were staggered as much as possible, allowing them to fully display all the skills and abilities they have mastered.

During the knockout stages of the competition, despite several breathtaking battles and contests, due to the limits of the basic magic infrastructure in the Lockman Kingdom, broadcasting to the entire province was not possible (mainly due to excessive consumption). Therefore, only those who were present could watch.

But Muria in the Royal Capital Scarlett didn’t have this problem. Every day, dedicated individuals at the competition venue recorded various high-level battles and contests using recording crystals, then sent them to the royal palace for Muria and two lolis to learn from and enjoy.

Since the start of the competition, Muria has spent half of his day watching these recorded images, selecting the talents he wants.

Therefore, while watching, he would have a notebook in hand. After seeing a talented contender who caught his fancy, he would immediately jot it down and pass it to Mia.

She would then send someone to approach and recruit them peacefully. If they refused, the list would be handed over to Mels, and he would use force to recruit them. In short, the talents that catch Muria’s attention would eventually end up under his control in his semi-plane.

The prizes Muria offered were all solid, without any ambiguity. If one wasn’t selected by Muria, then so be it. But if one was selected by Muria and rejected the approach of Mia’s staff, then obtaining Muria’s prizes would not be so simple.

Muria expended so much effort, deploying all his Cloud Giants and more than half his Storm Giants to maintain order in the competition, even giving out some of his treasures as rewards. Why? Isn’t it to select the talents he needs from among them?

Muria had obtained the semi-plane of the Legendary Mage and Elemental Master Heinal. From it, he acquired a mostly-ruined Mage Tower, a fragment of a floating city, and knowledge on manufacturing golems. However, these could not offer him the slightest bit of help.

Muria wished to repair the Mage Tower, continue the unfinished construction of the floating city, and re-establish the production line of metal golems… To do all of these, he needed a large number of top-tier technical talents.

The talents under the Legendary Mage Heinal were all cultivated over a long period. Originally, Muria also planned like him, to slowly cultivate the talents he needed over the course of his long life.

But due to unexpected circumstances, he found himself authority over a kingdom. Under these circumstances, after accomplishing what Belradin’s wished for him to do, he naturally started to reap benefits for himself—i.e., collecting technical talents.

As for combat talents, Muria expressed no need for them. Regardless of how talented humans are or how high their combat power is, they are merely comparing with their own kind. Compared to the Giant Race and the dragon species, the inherent gap is too large. Only the very few can bridge this gap through talent, luck, and hard work.

Sitting in the main seat, Muria watched the matches broadcasted via the recording crystals below, his face revealing an expression of utter boredom. The flashy and destructive combat techniques and magic used by these human geniuses, were riddled with flaws and somewhat distasteful in Muria’s eyes.

So, most of Muria’s attention was focused on a replay of an Array Master match on the other side.

But at this moment, a newly swapped three-dimensional battle image caught Muria’s attention.

This was a match in the eleven to fifteen years old age group. The competitors were two boys who did not seem to be much older. Among them, a white-haired teenager caught his attention. Or, more accurately, his weapon caught Muria’s attention.

The most common weaponry characteristics in Elasia were thick, long, large; basically, they were all heavy arms. And the weapon in this white-haired teenager’s hand was a long, thin sword that bore little resemblance to the conventional weapons.

“This sword looks familiar!” As Muria stared at the form of the sword behind the white-haired teenager, he furrowed his brows slightly. It felt as though he had seen this sword before; it was quite familiar.

“Settle upon the frosted heavens, Ice wheel!” In the images, after the white-haired teenager unsheathed his sword, he roared a phrase very familiar to Muria, and then the hilt of his sword produced an iron chain, with a crescent-shaped blade at the end of the chain.

“Soul-cutting Sword!?” The attention of Muria, who was initially distracted by the Array Master competition, was immediately captured by the slightly transformed sword, and he froze for a moment.

“No, no, this is not the Soul-cutting Sword.” After watching the combat process of the white-haired teenager wielding the sword for a while, Muria stated decisively.

The white-haired teenager was a living human, not a type of “Shinigami” spirit. Although he swung the sword effortlessly, there was no deeper connection. This sword was just a weapon similar to the Soul-cutting Sword Ice Wheel.

“Mia, please invite the Ancient Golden Dragon Basde over.” Unable to figure out why the sword that should have existed only in imagination had appeared in front of him, Muria immediately asked someone to invite the ancient dragon. If there’s something he doesn’t understand and wanted to learn, these old antiques were the ones to go to.

“Soul-cutting Sword, Ice Wheel!” As the Ancient Golden Dragon Basde stepped into the great hall where Muria was, he immediately saw the three-dimensional projection of the white-haired teenager wielding a sword in battle, and remarked on the name of the sword in a somewhat surprised tone.

“Your Excellency Basde, do you recognise this sword?”

“Of course.” The wise old man with white hair and a white beard, who was the Ancient Golden Dragon, stroked his beard, “This young man is indeed fortunate to have obtained a Soul-cutting Sword. Unfortunately, his development of the sword is rather limited, only capable of unleashing the initial power of the Ice Wheel, and unable to use Bankai to unleash the power of the dragon soul and bolster himself.”

“Obtained?” Muria relaxed his brows, “As expected, it’s not the imagined weapon from my memory, but an imitation.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read