The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 173

Chapter 173: A New Sword?
Reid walked into the old man’s forge lab, only to find it empty.

“That’s strange,” he muttered “didn’t Ember say he was in here?”

That’s when he heard a clanking noise behind one of the work desks.

Walking towards it, he spotted the old man there, completely passed out with multiple pieces of papers with what looked like scribbles on them.

A few meters away from the passed out old man was the sword which produced the clanking sound due to it falling.

Reid knelt down beside the old man, careful not to step on the scattered papers.

“Hey, old man,” he said, giving him a light shake on the shoulder. “Wake up. You’re gonna catch a cold sleeping like this.”

The old man groaned, eyes fluttering open slightly. “Mmh… damn sword… still won’t stabilize…”

Reid’s brow furrowed. “What sword?”

That’s when he looked again at the weapon lying on the floor.

It wasn’t like the typical mass-produced blades the military issued. Its surface was dark metal, almost obsidian-like, with runes were etched all along the blade, some of which were still incomplete.

Reid stood, carefully picking up the sword. It was oddly warm to the touch, and as soon as his hand closed around the hilt, there was a reaction from his void core, as it attempted to pump void energy into the sword.

[The sword’s resonating with your core] Evo suddenly informed, [but the core won’t be able to output enough void energy to activate it until it’s stabilized enough.]

‘I see’ Reid muttered as he assessed the sword.

[But still,] Evo continued, her tone tinged with suspicion [how can he master runes this much in just a few days?]

[Even with the notes we gave him, it should at least take him a few months.]

‘You’re right,’ Reid mentally replied, ‘but his reaction to us showing him the notes makes it obvious that he has a past with runes.’

[I see] Evo muttered before going silent.

The old man sat up, groaning as he rubbed his temples. “Don’t touch that carelessly,” he muttered. “It’s not ready yet.”

Reid set the sword gently on the work desk. “Mind telling me what this is? It doesn’t look like normal swords.”

The old man exhaled. “It’s an experimental prototype. An adapting blade.”

“I was trying to forge a weapon that could adapt to its wielder’s strength while allowing the wielder to channel the abilities of their forged beasts through it. But the damn thing just wouldn’t stabilize, no matter what I try.”

Reid was quiet for a moment before turning to the sword on the work desk, “it resonated with me.”

His words caused Garrick’s hand to freeze halfway through brushing a paper aside. His head turned slowly, eyes narrowing. “Resonated? With you?”

“Yeah,” Reid nodded, “there was a reaction when I touched it, almost as if it was trying to draw from my…. soul power.”

“But that should be impossible,” Garrick said as he rushed towards the sword laying on the table “I’ve performed hundreds of tests and not a single one of them yielded a response. The runes are still incomplete, and a reaction from them should be impossible.”

Garrick hovered over the sword, eyes wide with disbelief as he traced a finger along the blade. Some of the runes were glowing faintly now—barely noticeable, but they hadn’t been glowing before.

“I’ll need to run more tests,” he picked up the sword and tossed it to Reid “and you’re going to help.”

Reid caught the sword and the feeling of his void energy being drained immediately returned.

[I can stabilize it] Evo informed.

‘You can stabilize it?’ Reid asked ‘how?’

[Well, since the runes used to create it are similar to the ones we gave him] Evo started [so I should be able to complete it. I just need you to keep contact with it for a while.]

Garrick interrupted his mental conversation with narrowed his eyes. “You okay there? You’re holding it like it’s whispering sweet nothings.”

“Just trying to get a feel for its balance.” Reid said

“Hmph.” Garrick turned away, grabbing a pencil used for engraving runes and one of the papers that were previously scattered around.

“That sword shouldn’t be able to do anything. But if it’s reacting to you, then I’ve got something new to work with.”

He looked over his shoulder. “Tell me exactly what you felt when you first picked it up.”

“It felt like my soul power was being drained into the sword” Reid explained while Evo tried completing the runes.

“That’s weird,” Garrick muttered as he read over the notes before looking back at at Reid with narrowed eyes.

“Have I ever told you about my home land?” Garrick suddenly asked.

His question waa sudden and caught Reid off guard but Reid just shook his head anyway.

The old man sat on one of the work desks before he started, “As I said before,my home is a place I cannot access right now.”

Reid took a seat next to him.

“But not because it’s in a far away land…. Well, it’s kind of like that,” The old man took a short pause before continuing, “you see, I’m not from this world.”

The old man stopped to see Reid’s reaction but tothe reaction was the one he expected.

Internally, Reid was surprised but he also suspected that the old man wasn’t from their world from the moment the old man said something about runes being used by the blacksmiths in their world.

Garrick gave a dry chuckle at Reid’s lack of shock. “You don’t seem surprised.”

“Well, I am” Reid also said with a chuckle “but with all that has been happening lately, I guess you being from another world isn’t much of a surprise.”

“Hahaha” the old man laughed, “I guess you’re right.”

“Let’s move on then,” Garrick continued, “the world I’m from is known as Elarion, a world just beneath this one.”

This successfully surprised Reid as he muttered, “the world below?”