Alloy Combat Blade

Half a month later, on a biting cold morning.

The air outside was so frigid it could freeze breath, and the frost etched onto the windowpanes resembled intricate crests carved from ice crystals. It fractured and refracted the faint morning light, casting a soft, hazy iridescence across the room.

Standing in the warmth of the indoors, Rosaline, about to head out, put on a thick cloak. She turned her head and saw her teacher had also changed into a beige trench coat, layered over a gray sweater with a warming turtleneck. The ensemble lent her slender figure an air of intellectual charm that belied her youthful face.

These clothes came from the underground storage of an abandoned clothing factory. Perhaps due to the Origin Civilization's advanced preservation techniques, peculiar nano-fiber materials, or some special treatment, nearly half the garments had, over the course of six hundred long years, escaped the fate of microbial decomposition, photo-oxidation, and thermal degradation, falling into their possession. Otherwise, with their near-zero knowledge of textiles, they would have been confined to their home all winter without proper clothing.

"Let's go, Teacher!" Rosaline said enthusiastically, walking over and adjusting her teacher's collar slightly.

Their objective today was the eastern district of Ish City, near Grayport City. Based on her dreams, there should be a military base belonging to the New Eden Commonwealth on Ish Island.

With the "Elemental Decay Completion Technology," Ivette intended to salvage some military-grade Magitech equipment, see if any were still functional, and then repair the elemental capacitors to use them directly.

Of course, it mostly depended on luck. If a piece of military equipment was of excellent quality and still usable after six hundred years, she'd recharge its battery and take it home. If it couldn't be activated, then so be it; it was just a gamble.

Half an hour later, riding the Magitech Motorcycle, the two arrived at the entrance of the abandoned military base. Perhaps due to the cold weather affecting activity, they encountered almost no Aberration attacks on their way. The world seemed to have calmed down, transforming into a vast expanse of white.

Upon entering the base and eliminating some Mechanical Aberrations along the way, they entered several weapon storage rooms with their large doors ajar. Ivette tested the remaining Magitech equipment inside one by one, but regretfully, none responded to her input of magic.

After consecutively checking several rooms, Ivette began to suspect they might return empty-handed today.

However, at that moment, Rosaline made a discovery in a large, open hall deep within, resembling a training ground.

It was a Mechanical Aberration, but unlike other Mechanical Aberrations, this one had a pair of military-grade Alloy Combat Blades in place of its hands. Upon detecting Rosaline, the intruder, it immediately activated the Alloy Combat Blades on its hands, allowing Rosaline to clearly see the electrical sparks on the blades and hear their distinctive hum.

Later, Ivette, who had arrived after hearing the commotion, dismantled the Mechanical Aberration. After removing the flesh and blood clinging to its body and the blades, she found they were actually attached to a biomechanical hand. The two Alloy Combat Blades were held in its grip and could be taken off and used directly.

"So cool..." Rosaline exclaimed, gripping the Alloy Combat Blade and activating it, gazing at the trembling blade and the sparks of light erupting from its edge.

Ivette was also surprised. After searching for so long without finding anything, she had thought they would return empty-handed. She hadn't expected to get equipment from an Aberration on their first try.

From this perspective, although Mechanical Aberrations were often more dangerous than biological ones, if they yielded salvageable items, it would be worth targeting them more in the future.

"Teacher, how is this knife? Is it powerful?" Rosaline asked curiously, stroking the now-calm blade after deactivating its combat mode.

"It's alright," Ivette replied with a slight nod after connecting her Magic Guide Terminal and checking its parameters.

The knife was called "Ripper Model 7," part of the New Eden Commonwealth's self-developed military weapon series. It had two effects: "High-Frequency Oscillation" and "High-Voltage Current."

Because the magic circuits could not be read, and even if she forcibly read them, they would only appear as encrypted gibberish, Ivette couldn't determine the specifications, quality, or actual parameters of these two attached spells. However, based on a casual test, when combined with "Muscle Unlimit," its power was by no means inferior to her own "Wrath of Thunder." It should be more than enough to instantly kill a basic Aberration.

However, the issue of battery degradation remained. It was clear that its previous usability was likely due to the Aberration directly supplying power. Now that it was removed, the elemental capacitor was insufficient.

Furthermore, the energy consumption rate of "High-Frequency Oscillation" and "High-Voltage Current" was indeed quite high. If the battery wasn't replenished with elemental energy, giving it directly to Rosaline would likely drain her mana pool within half an hour.

After searching for a while longer and confirming there were no further discoveries, Ivette and Rosaline returned to the manor before noon. Ivette immediately began working on the elemental replenishment, restoring the two military-grade Magitech equipment to their most perfect state.

In the afternoon, watching Rosaline enthusiastically practicing various slashing techniques with the blades in the manor's cold wind, Ivette silently decided to expedite the optimization of the "Scarlet Armor" and "Muscle Unlimit" spells.

This wasn't entirely for her disciple's sake. In fact, even she herself was somewhat tempted by these two military weapons from the Origin Civilization.

After all...

What boy could resist the allure of swords and blades?

Right!

Of course, from a practical standpoint, the traditional elemental bombardments of ice, fire, wind, and thunder were definitely more useful than the Alloy Combat Blades in hand; they were on a different level in terms of firepower.

But having more options was always good.

Time flew by, and before they knew it, three months had passed. The season had shifted from the snowy winter to the cusp of early summer.

After a period of meticulous iteration, the "Scarlet Armor" and "Muscle Unlimit" spells had finally been optimized to a level very close to their limits, with a significant reduction in magic consumption.

In particular, Ivette had thoughtfully changed the coverage mechanism of the "Scarlet Armor"—now, even the clothes on their bodies were protected, so there was no need to worry about wardrobe malfunctions during intense battles.

Rosaline was very happy about this, as she had begun intensive training in swordsmanship and close-quarters combat during this time.

It wasn't that she wanted to change her specialization. In fact, close-quarters combat and magic cultivation weren't mutually exclusive. It was just that her current magic pressure was low; with the same amount of magic input, the effect she produced was far inferior to her teacher's.

But it was different when using the two enhancement spells that came with the Alloy Combat Blades. The magic pressure for "High-Frequency Oscillation" and "High-Voltage Current" both came from the input of the "High-Voltage Capacitors" within the blades, allowing her to possess destructive power comparable to her teacher's simply by wielding the blades.

Therefore, driven by the simple desire to "share the burden with Teacher," she naturally gravitated towards using this weapon that allowed her to unleash greater immediate combat power.

As for Ivette, after a period of close-quarters combat training, she quietly abandoned that option.

Well, it took too much time; she could do many other things with that time.

After completing the comprehensive optimization of "Scarlet Armor" and "Muscle Unlimit" some time ago, her next goal was to optimize the "Regeneration Pump" and add a capability to handle emergency treatment for infections caused by Aberration viruses.

However, the problem with this research direction was that she knew nothing about the mysterious virus that caused biological mutation. She only knew it could be transmitted through blood, so she had to be careful about avoiding wounds from Aberration bites.

Therefore, to research the filtering or purification effects of the "Regeneration Pump" on this mysterious virus, biological experiments involving various small animals would likely be unavoidable for a long time to come.

And so, in the verdant manor on the wasteland, the daily lives of the master and disciple returned to a state of peace. Exploration, meditation, learning, experimentation... day after day.

In this comfortable rhythm, three years passed in the blink of an eye.