D.I.O

Chapter 236

Manifestation was an inefficient use of time and resources for the Heaven above the Heavens—in other words, Arthur, Merlin, and Cruze. How many minutes did it take to deal with an invading force of Legion or Grotesque? Definitely not sixty minutes. This meant that even if the Heaven above the Heavens members took care of their responsibilities in a few minutes, the gem points they consumed would be the same as that of other users who actively used their entire sixty minutes of manifestation. In other words, the three people would be spending their precious gem points but also idly wasting the majority of their manifestation period.

For the run of the mill Masters, even an hour of manifestation was not enough time for them to resolve most situations. This was because they couldn’t deal with all the enemy forces at once like the three members of the Heaven above the Heavens. Moreover, if a manifested Master were killed by the enemy, the country or region that the Master was designated to protect would be devastated. So reinforced weapons became an essential item for many Master level users, and the market price of reinforced weapons increased constantly.

“Anyway, what’s going on with you? Recently, you’ve only been corresponding with me through mail.”

“This time around, I want you to make something a little special.”

“Something special?”

Merlin held out the bottle that held out the liquified Anyform Stone to Aidelin, who looked at the bottle with a puzzled expression.josei

Then once he looked at the bottle a bit more closely, Aidelin spoke with a tone of surprise, “Is it a metal? No, it’s not a metal. Rather… it’s more like a jewel. A liquid jewel? Can something like this happen? What is this?”

“I was curious about that, too. It seems like a great treasure when I see how it’s emanating an unknown type of spiritual qi, but… why did something like that come out of a user’s body? Is it a new type of spiritual core created by the Golden Pill Immortal Technique?”

Both Quiet Heaven and Aidelin expressed amazement over the liquified Anyform Stone. They knew of the existence of mercury, a metal that turned into a liquid at room temperature, but they had never heard of a jewel that existed as a liquid at room temperature. However, Merlin was even more surprised when he saw and heard Aidelin’s reaction and response.

“You knew that it was a jewel just by looking at it? You have absolutely no basis to know of such things…”

“What a stupid thing to say. I possess the ability to control and understand minerals. I knew the moment I laid my eyes on it.”

After Aidelin said so, he took the bottle of liquified Anyform Stone that Merlin offered him and measured the amount. There wasn’t that much—at least, not enough to make a complete weapon with.

Above all, Aidelin thought, ‘Would there be any use in making a weapon from a jewel?’

“Please make it into a dagger.”

“A dagger?”

“Yeah. You can use Beast Metal for the pommel and hilt guard and solidify the liquid I gave you to make the blade. How long will it take?”

“As for the handle of a dagger of this size… I just so happen to have just a handle on hand as I’ve made quite a few mockups before for other uses. But… it’s a jewel blade. Will it be useful?”

Merlin looked at the puzzled Aidelin and nodded. “It’ll be a magic weapon. It won’t be used to hit and break things. However, make sure to make it sharp. It’ll be used more for stabbing than cutting.”

“Well, it won’t be difficult to create such a dagger. There’s nothing in particular that’s taking up my time right now, so by tomorrow…”

After speaking up to this point, Aidelin paused. Then he took out his Beholder from his pocket. The Beholder’s whisper notification sound was only audible to Aidelin, so from Merlin’s point of view, it seemed as though Aidelin had just suddenly decided to take out his Beholder.

“Ugh, things are a mess outside.”

“What’s going on?”

“Arthur is turning Japan upside down. Even their military has been defeated, so, for all intents and purposes, Japan is under Arthur’s control. Moreover, he doesn’t seem to be restricted by the manifestation time limit.”

After hearing the words Aidelin mumbled out while looking at his Beholder in amazement, Merlin shrugged his shoulders. “Well, of course.”

“Of course?”

“Because Arthur has reached Level 20.”

“What? He’s a transcendent being?!” Quiet Heaven screamed after hearing Merlin’s calm reply.

On the other hand, Aidelin remained silent for a moment before sighing. “I see… He had been at Level 19 for quite some time, so I guess it’s not a total surprise that he broke through to become a transcendent.”

“No, wait, what is this old man talking about? What do you mean he’d been at Level 19 for quite a while?! He only reached Level 19 not too long ago, you geezer! Even if he is a genius, does it make sense that he’s already become a transcendent?! In such a short period of time?!” Quiet Heaven couldn’t hide its surprise.

Quiet Heaven was a practitioner of the Dao and knew all too well how difficult it was to reach the transcendence realm. Even creatures born with special powers, like the Legendary Serpent, needed to train for a thousand years to become a dragon. Yet a human was able to reach the transcendent realm in a little over half a year in real time and less than ten years in DIO time…

Of course, there was DIO’s training room. However, the training room was a special environment with its own limitations, so the things they could do to develop themselves in such a space were very limited. At most, they would be able to meditate or conduct repetitive training. Realizing the extreme meaning of martial arts by only practicing stabbing for a hundred years seemed like something that could be considered worthwhile, but in reality, such a training scheme was absurd and virtually impossible for mortal beings to effectively undertake.

Although Quiet Heaven shouted out in surprise, Aidelin maintained his cool.

He soon said, “Level 20… so, does that mean he’s become an existence as powerful as the Red Dragon I saw before?”

“Even if the whole of humanity unites, they might still be helpless against him.”

“Hahaha, this game is really scary. It destroyed all law and order that exists on Earth. It has created a single man so strong that he can bring an entire nation to its knees.”

With a smile blooming on his face, Aidelin went to go get his equipment.

However, the liquified Anyform Stone in the bottle suddenly disappeared.

Poof! Poof!

It happened in an instant. The moment the liquified Anyform Stone disappeared, Merlin teleported one meter backward. The golden liquified Anyform Stone appeared in the space that Merlin had just occupied. He quickly formed a defensive barrier and grabbed the liquified Anyform Stone.

“Woah! Damn, that was a surprise. If I didn’t react so quickly, I might have needed to go back into the extractor.”

“… Does this thing… Is it some sort of jewel that possesses an ego?”

“It’s not like that. It operates under a set of rules the DIO system set for it to deal with specific situations and conditions. It seems that the jewel’s not allowed to be away from my body by more than a certain distance. Since this is the case, can I watch you work from the side?”

“The liquified jewel has all sorts of peculiar qualities… Well, it doesn’t matter to me whether you’re beside me or not.”

Aidelin accepted the liquified Anyform Stone that Merlin held out and moved to his workbench. Then Aidelin turned on the various functions of his workstation contraption, which had all kinds of complicated devices on it, and poured the rebottled liquified Anyform Stone into a substrate.

Whoosh!

In order to be mixed in with a user’s blood, the Anyform Stone, which had taken the form of a liquid, floated up in the air as if being controlled by an invisible force before forming into a round ball.

After concentrating his mind and opening his chakra, Aidelin asked in passing, “Anyway, is it okay for you to stay here?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Don’t people expect certain things from you? Even if there’s a difference in level now, Arthur and you are tied together as the same kind of user, a Heaven above the Heavens.”

In fact, the Korean government had asked Merlin to stop Arthur. In addition, since Arthur proved that it was possible to overthrow a nation-state with individual force, the general populace’s vigilance against and expectations for Merlin would become exponentially greater.

Merlin did not know if he would ever be able to reach Level 20. Nevertheless, the public saw Merlin as one of the three members of Heaven above the Heavens. So wouldn’t they expect him to reach that level of power too, since they didn’t know much aside from the fact that Arthur was immensely powerful?

“I don’t care; it’s none of my concern. I have no sense of responsibility to people that I don’t even know, and I’m not a hero who is willing to sacrifice my body in the name of justice. If someone makes the only existing hero into a dark hero, they need to take up that responsibility themselves.”

“But it would be unfair to the people of Japan. How can they accept death because of the fault of some people they don’t even know about?”

Upon hearing Aidelin’s words, Merlin nodded. It was a valid statement, but would the current Arthur be moving and thinking logically? Arthur was currently exploding with anger at the pain of losing his mother. If Merlin spoke logically to Arthur and got in his way, Arthur would cut Merlin’s head off.

Besides, Merlin felt there was more to the situation than it appeared.

“Don’t you think it’s strange?”

“What do you mean?”

“The actions of the Japanese government. Although maddened by rage, Arthur made his goals and objectives crystal clear. He said on the air that he was punishing those who shouted their loyalty to the Empire of Japan and killed his mother and everyone who was involved in allowing it to happen. However, the Japanese government mobilized their military against Arthur instead of negotiating with him or helping to find the right-wing group in question.”

“In other words, you think the Japanese government is behind the murder of his mother?”

“There’s no guarantee that it’s the Japanese government, but it’s common knowledge that there are many lawmakers in Japan who are supported by the right-wing extremists. Of course, this is all just a conjecture on my part.”

As the two conversed, the liquified Anyform Stone bubbled and transformed, taking the appearance of a blade.

While observing this transformation, Aidelin said, “Special reinforcement will take about three hours from this point. I have to concentrate, so I can’t keep up our small talk.”

“Please do what you must do.”

“You don’t have to respond so formally…”

Aidelin smiled and closed his eyes. Then a heavy and solid force that was like a big hunk of reinforced steel began to descend around him. The fact that Aidelin was able to enter a state of high concentration in such a short period of time meant that he was a very powerful chakra user.

Quiet Heaven seemed to have something on its mind.

After having been quiet for a while, Quiet Heaven opened its mouth and said, “Master, I’m sorry, but can I ask you for a favor?”

Hearing Quiet Heaven’s question, Merlin asked, “A favor? Do you want some custom-made gear?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. But… if the situation arises and you ever manifest next to that Arthur guy, please summon me. There’s something I want to check.”

Merlin questioned with an unusually serious expression, “Why?”

“That’s… uhm, okay. It’s a confidential matter, but I guess it doesn’t matter since you’re not being observed by the Noblesse right now.”

As Quiet Heaven said this, it flapped its wings, and an aura of red light soon covered Quiet Heaven and Merlin. It was a communication barrier that prevented internal information from leaking out.