Arthur's original staff had been forged from a part of the Prince of Death's body. Its original name was the Prince of Death Staff.
However, Arthur didn't feel like constantly muttering Godwyn's title, so he had simply renamed it the Staff of Death.
He hadn't expected to obtain yet another staff with the exact same name now.
Arthur decided that when he had some time, he would fuse the two Staffs of Death together.
He had already mastered Shu Mountain's artifact-refining techniques. Merging two staves like this would be no challenge at all.
Putting away the Staff of Death, Arthur turned to Ranni and asked, "You're not going with her?"
Ranni had looked just as interested earlier, so Arthur assumed she would follow Hermione to test the staves' power.
Ranni shook her head. "Compared to those staves, I'm more interested in that book. What is it?"
As she spoke, she pointed at the book in Arthur's hand.
Arthur shook it lightly. "Robot design blueprints."
He handed the book to Ranni.
Although it was called a set of blueprints, it was actually a thick tome.
It contained detailed records of how to manufacture the robots from the game—from operating principles to construction methods, everything was meticulously documented.
Even someone with zero prior knowledge could build a robot as long as they followed the instructions step by step.
Of course, unlike the game, this blueprint had been modified by the system.
In the game, building a robot only required electronic chips and fiberglass.
In reality, constructing one now required at least a hundred different materials, and the craftsmanship involved was extremely complex.
Part of that was due to the fundamental differences between a game world and reality.
The other part was that the system had taken Arthur's "mystic-side" background into account and adjusted the design accordingly.
Strictly speaking, anything built from these blueprints should be called a runic robot—or, more accurately, a magic-powered golem.
Ranni took the book and flipped through it. Before long, she was completely absorbed.
Seeing that, Arthur turned his attention to the first reward the system had given him: choosing three artifacts from Forager's fifteen.
They were called artifacts, but most of them—much like the artifact trio from Cat Quest—were simply special pieces of equipment.
Arthur quickly made his selections.
They were: Fairy Aura, Nerd Glasses, and the Magic Scepter.
Fairy Aura was a pink-based medal, decorated with the image of a small platinum-and-white fairy.
In the game, its effect was automatic regeneration of health and energy. In reality, that translated to healing injuries and restoring magical power.
It was a powerful item that greatly enhanced sustained combat ability.
Nerd Glasses looked like nothing more than an ordinary pair of black-rimmed spectacles.
But once worn, they increased the wearer's learning efficiency across the board by 25%.
An absolute treasure for scholars.
As for the final item—the Magic Scepter—it was the one Arthur believed truly deserved the title of "artifact."
Despite its name, it was only about the size of his palm.
It looked like a large brooch, or perhaps a short hairpin.
Its shape resembled a tiny wooden cane, with a round pink gemstone—about the size of a thumbnail—embedded in the handle.
It looked completely unremarkable.
Its effect, however, was nothing short of absurd.
Effect: spells cast by the wearer consume no magical power whatsoever.
In other words, it was an infinite source of magic—one that could never be exhausted, no matter how recklessly it was used.
The system had personally assured Arthur that even in the real world, this item's effect would suffer no reduction at all.
That was why Arthur considered the Magic Scepter worthy of being called an artifact.
And that was also why he chose to materialize it.
After obtaining the three items, Arthur ignored the first two and picked up the Magic Scepter, casually pinning it to his chest like a brooch.
He then cast a few harmless, low-level spells.
As expected, there was no consumption at all.
At that point, Arthur stopped testing.
He did want to see what it felt like to repeatedly cast high-consumption spells—but reality simply didn't allow it.
Spell power was often proportional to magic consumption. The more magic spent, the greater the spell's might.
Coupled with Arthur's profound mastery of magic, a proper test might very well tear apart half of the Zen Garden.
He removed the Magic Scepter and held it in his hand, clearly reluctant to part with it.
Everything about it was perfect—except how inconvenient it was to wear.
It was about the length of a fountain pen. Too big to be a brooch, and as for using it as a hairpin… Arthur didn't have long hair.
As he examined it carefully, Arthur realized something surprising.
The part that actually mattered was the pink gemstone at the top.
The scepter's body itself was nothing more than ordinary wood.
That was excellent news.
It meant he could remodel it into something more convenient to wear.
A necklace, for example.
He could hang it around his neck and tuck the gemstone beneath his clothes—hidden, secure, and hard to lose.
Of course, "losing it" was just a joke.
The moment Arthur obtained this artifact, it became bound to him. Even if it were lost, he could summon it back with a single thought.
Acting immediately, Arthur pried the gemstone off the scepter, planning to turn it into a necklace.
When he looked up, he noticed Ranni watching him.
His spellcasting earlier had interrupted her immersive reading.
"Well?" Arthur asked. "Get anything useful out of it?"
"Quite a lot," Ranni replied.
The runic robots would be extremely useful to her.
As time passed, the number of mutated plants she had created—from Plants vs. Zombies—had only continued to grow.
She'd been worrying about how to manage them all. The appearance of runic robots solved that problem perfectly.
"By the way," Ranni asked, "what are those in your hand? Game items as well?"
Arthur nodded. "Yes. You remember the game's artifacts? These are three of them."
As he spoke, he handed them to her.
Strictly speaking, it was four items—since the Magic Scepter's gemstone had already been removed.
Ranni naturally remembered the fifteen artifacts with their various effects. Most didn't truly live up to the name, but a few were genuinely impressive.
Looking at the three items that closely resembled their in-game counterparts, she quickly recognized their names and functions.
Only the Magic Scepter looked strange—the gemstone had been separated from its body.
Ranni asked in confusion, "Is there something wrong with the Magic Scepter? Don't tell me it doesn't actually provide infinite magic?"
She guessed that Arthur might have discovered a flaw after testing it, and in frustration, dismantled it.
She was wrong.
Arthur replied, "Nothing like that. It really does provide infinite magic. It's just inconvenient to wear, so I'm modifying it."
Ranni nodded in understanding. A pen-sized wooden stick really wasn't convenient to carry anywhere.
Then she asked, "But won't modifying it damage its effect?"
Arthur waved his hand. "No. The gemstone is what actually matters. The wooden body is just decoration."
Ranni examined the pink gemstone in her hand, quietly astonished.
Such a small gem, yet capable of providing infinite magical power.
Every world truly had its own brand of wonder.
After testing the three artifacts, Ranni returned Fairy Aura and the Magic Scepter gemstone to Arthur.
She kept the Nerd Glasses.
An item that boosted learning efficiency was exactly what she needed—she hadn't finished studying the robot blueprints yet.
So she decided to borrow it.
"King," Ranni said, "I'll borrow these glasses for now."
Arthur nodded. "Go ahead."
Ranni nodded back and immersed herself once more in studying runic robots.
Arthur, meanwhile, began modifying the Magic Scepter.
To match the gemstone, he used a branch from the Erdtree's trunk as the main material, supplemented with a large quantity of precious ores he had collected.
Using Shu Mountain's artifact-refining techniques, he smelted everything together into a necklace.
Since pink didn't pair well with gold, Arthur removed the Erdtree branch's golden hue and chose silver as the necklace's primary color.
Once the necklace was complete, he set the gemstone in place.
A beautiful necklace was born.
The only issue was that the gemstone was a bit too girlishly pink, making the necklace look more like something meant for a woman.
Arthur stared at it, hesitating over whether to wear it.
He even considered giving it to Hermione or Ranni instead.
Arthur was already strikingly handsome. If he wore this necklace on top of that, strangers might genuinely mistake him for a girl.
As he was agonizing over the decision, a fiery-red figure in the distance came flying toward him on a sword.
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