As the treasury's door opened, the two entered its interior.
What met Zesshi Zetsumei's eyes left her stunned.
Countless gold coins were not only piled into small mountains but also scattered across the ground, mixed with precious pearl necklaces and agates.
Although Zesshi Zetsumei, as Theocracy's most secretive existence, wasn't particularly interested in such things, it was her first time seeing so much wealth.
"My apologies, it's a bit messy because I haven't had time to organize it," Lock said apologetically, but a smug smile played on his face.
The reason for arranging the treasures in such a manner was primarily for visual impact.
Previously, only he could be here, with no one to show off to, but now that he had brought the half-elf girl, he couldn't help but flaunt a little, could he?
"It is indeed astonishing wealth. How many gold coins are here?" Zesshi Zetsumei was briefly surprised but quickly recovered, asking with a hint of curiosity.
"I haven't counted. But I think there should be around ten billion," Lock replied. A small display was enough; wealth wasn't particularly important to a powerful individual like Zesshi Zetsumei. "I'll take you to the armory."
With that, Lock tightly embraced Zesshi Zetsumei's slender waist and used Flight magic to fly over the mountains of gold coins towards the deeper parts of the treasury.
At this moment, Zesshi Zetsumei noticed the bookshelves against the wall, almost submerged in gold coins, or rather, they could no longer be called bookshelves but book walls. Books, tightly packed together, filled the shelves, obscuring the wall behind.
On the other side, wooden crates were stacked, also blocking the wall behind, though it was unknown what they contained.
"We're here."
Lock gently set Zesshi Zetsumei down in front of the innermost wall of the treasury, where a gem-studded throne was affixed to the wall, but there was no sign of the armory he had mentioned.
This made Zesshi Zetsumei look up at him, her heterochromatic eyes filled with a trace of doubt.
He didn't leave her in doubt for long. Lock inserted the staff of light into the throne's side, his palm glowing with magic, clearly casting some unknown spell.
Click, click, click!
Zesshi Zetsumei felt the platform beneath her feet begin to rotate gently, and the wall behind the throne also started to turn, revealing a secret room.
Thump!
When the platform rotated to its final position, the two appeared in another grand hall.
This place was much more spacious than the outer hall, with only glass-like containers arranged in neat rows.
Each glass container held a complete set of armor, worn by a mannequin.
"Come, pick a set you like from this row," Lock said with a smile to Zesshi Zetsumei, pointing to the second row of glass containers on his left.
Zesshi Zetsumei didn't stand on ceremony and immediately walked to that row of glass containers, beginning to carefully examine the complete sets of armor within.
"What level are these armors?"
Lock thought for a moment, realizing that the natives might not know the equipment levels of Yggdrasil, so he found a more illustrative explanation, "Hmm~ they're the same level as the war spear I gave you."
"Oh! That's truly impressive," Zesshi Zetsumei said with emotion, but from her flat tone, it was hard to tell how surprised she was; it sounded more like a polite remark.
However, Lock didn't mind. After all, one or a hundred of these armors were all the same to her; they weren't hers anyway.
Perhaps in Zesshi Zetsumei's eyes, even without using these armors, he was already a god-like existence.
After all, if you can't beat them, what does it matter how strong your opponent is?
Hmm~ it should be this kind of 'slacker' mentality.
Suddenly, Zesshi Zetsumei stopped in front of a set of silver-white armor. This armor looked somewhat similar to the armor left behind by one of Theocracy's Six Gods, the God of Wind.
It had the same silver-white hue, with six radiant wings extending from its back, exuding a sacred aura. The main weapon was a greatsword with golden patterns, paired with a large shield bearing a griffin emblem.
"I'll take this set."
"Alright." Lock flicked his finger, and the glass-like magical barrier instantly disappeared.
Zesshi Zetsumei didn't shy away, directly taking the equipment off the mannequin and putting it on herself in front of him.
Because they were special mannequin props, with just a gentle force, the parts of its body would dematerialize, allowing the user to easily remove the equipment.
Lock watched the half-elf girl change in front of him with one eye open and one eye closed. Perhaps to facilitate quickly donning the Six Gods' armor for combat, her clothes were relatively loose, having no impact on adding the new equipment; she simply put the new set on over them.
The equipment in Yggdrasil seemed to have an 'auto-adapt' feature. The armor, which originally looked quite large, began to shrink and fit precisely to Zesshi Zetsumei's size once she put it on.
When she put on the last piece, the helmet, a magical barrier isolated her face but did not impede her vision.
With just a gentle flap of the six light wings on her back, Zesshi Zetsumei slowly floated into the air.
It was indeed equipped with a Flight effect, just like the Wind God's Armor, Zesshi Zetsumei mused silently.
Since she wasn't very proficient in magic and mostly relied on close-quarters combat to suppress enemies, equipment that provided Flight would be very convenient for her.
"Now that you've chosen your equipment, I also need to take an item from here." Lock smiled, then walked towards the deepest part of the armory. Zesshi Zetsumei naturally followed closely behind.
They passed through rows of armor until they reached the very end.
On the wall were eleven square storage compartments, each specifically dug out. All were sealed by extremely strong protective shields, and inside each was an exquisite display stand; three of the stands were empty.
Next to each storage compartment was a golem holding a sword and shield, guarding it. Their eyes glowed red, indicating they were in an activated state.
Zesshi Zetsumei's gaze moved among these compartments and then suddenly stopped, fixed on a completely jade green bracelet.
She remembered that this seemed to be the item Lock had given her for self-defense during their previous battle with Nazarick and others in the forest outside the Royal Capital. Although she hadn't used it last time, she could still feel the immense power contained within it.
Items placed in the same position and with the same protection should be of the same grade, right?
She hadn't expected him to have so many items of such strength!
Zesshi Zetsumei was surprised by this.
Lock walked to the central compartment, and as the protective shield vanished, he took down a divination orb-like object from the display stand.
"What is this?"
Lock looked at the transparent orb in his hand, a smile involuntarily appearing on his face, and he spoke the item's name, "Avalon."
The World Item Avalon, a highly special defensive World Item, ranked among the 'Twenty' most powerful.
Although this item had no offensive capabilities and didn't even directly apply effects to players, in Lock's mind, the status of this World Item surpassed all other World Items he possessed!
"Let's go, I think preparations outside should be almost complete."
When Lock and Zesshi Zetsumei returned to the central plaza of the underground city, over ten thousand Magic Casters of Theocracy, led by the Tiger Knights, were already assembled throughout the city.
They formed six irregular circles centered around the plaza, somewhat resembling archery targets.
Beside each group of a hundred Magic Casters was a small, obelisk-shaped structure, around which they gathered.
Currently, they were performing their final prayers before the ritual, praying to Theocracy's Six Gods, which was a standard procedure for Theocracy's grand ceremonies.
Although Lock was the officiant for this ritual, he tacitly allowed it, adhering to the fundamental principle of respecting religious beliefs.
After all, he himself would become a god of Theocracy later; wouldn't the Magic Casters' faith in the Six Gods be roughly equivalent to believing in him?
Lock slowly closed his eyes, clutching the necklace around his neck.
In the darkness, countless points of light immediately appeared.
"Lord Lock!"
"Lord Lock!"
...
"Can all of them connect?" Lock transmitted a message to all the points of light, each representing a Tiger Knight.
"Yes!" * N
"Good, now set the time. Uniformly set it to 21:00:00."
Lock slowly opened his eyes, then took out a slap bracelet-like item from his storage space. As soon as he placed it on his wrist, it automatically tightened.
After setting the time, all that remained was to wait.
"The ritual will begin in five minutes. At that time, I won't be able to defend against surrounding attacks, so I'll be relying on you, Anti," Lock said to Zesshi Zetsumei.
She nodded solemnly, then raised the shield in her hand.
Although she wasn't entirely familiar with this equipment yet, its main abilities could still be activated normally, including a special skill that could nullify one attack, usable once a day.
Seeing her nod, Lock smiled contentedly, then looked up at his massive stone statue in front of him, a hint of excitement in his eyes.
"Flight!"
Enveloped in magical light, Lock flew towards the top of the statue's head.
Upon reaching the position of the giant crown on the statue's head, he paused briefly. Lock took out a caloric stone disk from his storage space and placed it into the central groove of the crown.
"Starting today, you shall become one with this stone statue," Lock chuckled softly, grasping the staff of light and activating his magic.
Instantly, a transparent energy, like spring water, surged from the golden disk, spreading along the crown with incredible speed. Approximately one minute later, the entire statue was enveloped by this energy.
The entire statue seemed to be draped in a starlight-shimmering cloak, exuding an incomparably sacred aura.
Lock stood on top of the crown, one hand gripping the staff of light, the other holding Avalonn, waiting for the final moment to arrive.
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