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At his current level, any weapon below the rank of a divine artifact could be forged at will.
Which also meant that Unlimited Blade Works could freely replicate any weapon beneath the level of a god-tier armament.
As for forging true divine artifacts, he would still need to return to the DanMachi world and study under Hephaestus.
Over the past week, Alex had forged an absurd number of weapons.
Every single one of them was modeled directly after weapons from Genshin Impact.
All the one-star, two-star, and three-star weapons in Genshin had already been forged at least once.
Once he had more time, he planned to finish off the four-star and five-star weapons as well.
At this point, the number of weapons stored inside Unlimited Blade Works had already exceeded ten thousand.
Even so, in Alex's eyes, this was nowhere near enough.
After completing his mission and returning to the DanMachi world, he intended to visit both the Goibniu Weapon Shop and Hephaestus's forge and copy every single weapon they sold.
Oh, and when the Fifth Holy Grail War began in the Nasuverse, he could just wish on the Greater Grail to see all Noble Phantasms once and copy them wholesale.
"Actually, there's no need to watch them all one by one. I can just wish for the Gate of Babylon," Alex muttered to himself. "Back then, I was too weak to handle that much crystallized history, but now I'm a godslayer. I should be able to handle it."
His future path to power was already roughly planned out.
After successfully integrating the forging art, Alex stopped forging weapons altogether.
He returned to the palace baths, washed up, and went to rest.
The moment he lay down on the bed, a private message came in from Luo Hao.
Luo Hao: Little brother, I've killed Perseus.
Alex: That's great! Sis, what new Authority did you get?
Luo Hao: Blessing of the Sun Wheel. Authority over the sun.
Alex: Nice. A pure combat-type Authority.
Luo Hao: It's decent, but not particularly useful to me.
Alex: Authorities are like trump cards in battle. You can never have too many. By the way, did you get any system points from the godslaying?
Luo Hao: Yes. Five thousand points. I bought a new Authority.
Alex: Which one?
Luo Hao: Same as yours. Black Dragon of the Underworld.
Alex: Hahaha, guess we really are in sync.
Alex wasn't surprised at all by Luo Hao's choice.
Her offensive Authorities were already more than sufficient, and combined with her god-realm martial arts, she was easily among the strongest godslayers in existence.
Of course, that didn't include him, who had already surpassed the limits of godslayers entirely.
Since her offensive options were more than enough, what she needed most was defense or a resurrection mechanism.
The Black Dragon of the Underworld was the perfect choice.
It allowed the soul to leave the body and transform into a black dragon. The immortality of dragons and serpents ensured the soul could not be destroyed. Even if the dragon's body was annihilated, it could regenerate from the soul.
If a human body was killed, even reduced to ashes, it could still be fully restored at the cost of a massive amount of magical power.
In short, once you had this Authority, dying became extremely difficult.
Luo Hao's combat strength surpassed that of Marquis Voban, yet despite their long-standing feud, she had never been able to kill him precisely because of this Authority.
That was also why Alex had chosen it as his very first Authority.
After chatting with Luo Hao for a while, he finally closed the chat.
There was no helping it. With Luo Hao's personality, she couldn't be bothered to talk to anyone else in the group. Alex was the only one she would share her joy with.
By the time the conversation ended, it was already past eleven at night.
Alex closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.
At midnight, a pure white kitten slipped silently into the bedchamber.
It leapt onto the bedside table and stared at Alex's sleeping face, a glimmer flashing through its eyes.
The next moment, the cat transformed into a beautiful girl.
She had long orange hair, wore headphones, and had a lollipop tucked between her lips.
Her slender figure was dressed in a high school uniform, radiating youthful energy.
Standing beside the bed, she gazed at Alex's handsome face with clear reluctance. "Such a handsome guy. What a waste to kill him."
She shook her head and pulled out a dagger.
"Even if you're a good prince, your actions have already become an obstacle to the Revolutionary Army."
Muttering to herself, she plunged the dagger toward Alex's chest.
At that very instant, the "sleeping" Alex opened his eyes.
He let the dagger stab into him.
A sharp metallic clang rang out.
Clang!
Chelsea froze on the spot, completely stunned.
How was this possible?
How could a human body be this hard?
While she was still in shock, Alex spoke calmly. "You're Chelsea, right? The Revolutionary Army sent you to assassinate me?"
Chelsea nearly jumped out of her skin. Seeing him awake, she didn't hesitate for even a second. She abandoned the assassination attempt and turned to flee.
But with her strength, how could she possibly escape right under Alex's nose?
Alex snapped his fingers, and a barrier instantly enveloped the entire bedchamber.
Chelsea ran straight into it at the door, slammed hard, and was bounced back, landing flat on her butt.
Meanwhile, Alex got out of bed at an unhurried pace and lit the lamps in the room.
Seeing she couldn't escape, the girl suddenly put on a pitiful act. Tears welled up in her eyes as she pleaded, "Your Highness, please spare me! I didn't mean to assassinate you!"
Alex laughed. Since when did assassination come with intent levels?
Dragging a chair over, he sat down in front of her. "I know who you are. Chelsea. Your Teigu is Shapeshift Freedom: Gaia Foundation. I won't hold the assassination attempt against you, but you'll have to swear loyalty to me. Can you do that?"
Chelsea stared at him blankly, not knowing what to say.
She couldn't understand how a prince like him knew her, someone who wasn't even a famous assassin, or even knew her Teigu.
But given the situation, if she refused, death was pretty much guaranteed.
Whether it was his blade-proof body or his casual use of barriers, none of it was something she could deal with.
"So if I swear loyalty to you, you'll let me live?" After a long silence, Chelsea chose to surrender.
"That's right," Alex nodded.
Chelsea took a deep breath, then dropped to one knee before him. "Commoner Chelsea pays her respects to Your Highness the Prince!"
To be honest, she hadn't been eager to take this mission in the first place.
Since Alex became prince, the Empire had changed almost overnight.
Internally, he wiped out corrupt officials and rotten nobles.
Externally, he had Esdeath crush every neighboring non-human tribe, doubling the Empire's territory in one fell swoop.
With the capital as its core, people's lives were getting better by the day, and that prosperity was rapidly spreading outward.
In an empire like this, aside from the suppressed nobles and the Revolutionary Army, very few people still wanted to overthrow it.
The common folk were busy praising it. Who would want to become a rebel?
Chelsea felt the same way. She had wanted to leave the Revolutionary Army for a long time, but never acted on it.
Then they handed her this mission, leaving her completely helpless.
Now that she could leave the Revolutionary Army and serve the prince instead, she felt lighter than she had in years.
"I know you're sharp, but you're not familiar with court affairs yet," Alex said. "Go study under Najenda for a while. After that, you'll assist Sheele in the Ministry of Rites."
"Um, Your Highness," Chelsea asked, utterly confused, "I know Najenda, the leader of Night Raid, but where is she now? And what is the Ministry of Rites? And where's Sheele?"
Alex didn't answer. He dispelled the barrier and instructed the guards outside to summon Leone.
Now that Leone was the captain of the palace guards, she lived within the palace grounds.
Not long after, she arrived with over a dozen guards.
"Your Highness, what are your orders?" Leone asked.
"Take her to Najenda. Have her learn under Najenda for a while, then send her to the Ministry of Rites to assist Sheele," Alex said.
"Understood!" Leone glanced at Chelsea and immediately accepted the order.
Alex looked at Chelsea. "Just follow Leone."
Chelsea nodded quickly. "Yes!"
After everyone left, Alex let out a sigh, turned off the lights, and went back to sleep.
…
Over the next few days, Esdeath's offensive against the Revolutionary Army grew even more ferocious.
Perhaps she had learned that they sent someone to assassinate Alex, and that had thoroughly pissed her off.
Under Esdeath's onslaught, the Revolutionary Army stood no chance.
In less than a week, they were completely shattered.
All of their top leaders were captured, and every Teigu they had collected was sent back to the capital.
There were plenty of capable people within the Revolutionary Army. Aside from the power-hungry upper echelon, Alex had Najenda persuade the rest to surrender and serve the Empire.
Najenda delivered results, successfully recruiting many talented individuals.
They neatly filled the vacant government positions left behind by the purge of corrupt officials.
With these talents in place, the Empire's new bureaucratic system was finally complete and officially began to operate.
"..."
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