Dragon Spear

While Aolu Academy was implementing emergency measures because of the Book of Calamity, the various government departments of Raging Wave City were also holding all-night meetings to discuss how to respond to the crisis.

The Blade Bearer Brotherhood had undoubtedly become the target of everyone's ire.

After all, Clear Sky had produced the Blade Bearer Brotherhood's Silver Blade several times before. Not only had the city's Security Bureau patrol officers seen it, but so had people from the Secret Intelligence Bureau.

Some of the city's newly risen nobles had long been displeased with the old hereditary nobles who occupied their positions without doing their jobs. Now they had the perfect opportunity to condemn the Blade Bearer Brotherhood.

The various government departments of Raging Wave City jointly issued a notice to the Raging Wave City branch of the Blade Bearer Brotherhood, demanding an explanation for Clear Sky's theft of the "Heart of Red Dragon Nilcolon" and the Book of Calamity.

They demanded that the suspects and stolen items be handed over by the deadline.

Viscount Iskolan, head of the Blade Bearer Brotherhood's Raging Wave City branch, was deeply frustrated. He had only given a Silver Blade to befriend a capable Elf assassin.

How had that gotten him into such a huge mess?

But it also proved that giving her that Silver Blade had been the right call.

He could tell that Clear Sky was probably a lone adventurer with no backing. Now she had stolen the "Heart of Red Dragon Nilcolon" from the City Alchemy Association, and even the Book of Calamity from Aolu Academy.

He had even heard that... she had taken Dean Wilfred's wand, too.

She was a treasure trove.

Viscount Iskolan ignored the notices and instead mobilized the Blade Bearer Brotherhood's forces in Raging Wave City to search for Clear Sky.

This time, he was determined to find Clear Sky and speak with her in person.

Perhaps she could help the Blade Bearer Brotherhood regain control of Raging Wave City.

Luke had no idea what kind of shock his trip to Aolu Academy had caused in Raging Wave City.

Everyone was reacting to the appearance of Clear Sky and the Book of Calamity.

And the Abyssal Temple... all the factions and Secret Arts practitioners coveting this legendary, mysterious item would soon make their appearance in Raging Wave City one after another.

He spent the entire night in the secret chamber, working with Clear Sky to modify the Ruihuo Wand.

After the soft hide from a dragon's neck had been wrapped around the Ruihuo Wand, it felt much better to grip. The Dragon Scales were suitably tough and hard, and the way they responded to force made the weapon feel reassuringly solid in the hand.

A dragon tooth was fitted into the opening at the wand's tip, then secured with heated dragon sinew. Cooling it afterward tightened the sinew even further.

The final step was to make man and weapon one.

This step required Secret Arts.

Because of the limitations of his materials, Luke could only choose a Secret Art that would grant his untrained body basic spear skills.

Still, that was better than blindly jabbing with a spear.

Secret Art Incantation: Soldier's Inheritance.

The subject was a pair of iron gauntlets Luke had picked up at the Whisperer's Mystic House. Their inner lining was deerskin, and their exterior was iron. The backs were covered with marks left by time and battle, showing that their former owner had been a veteran warrior.

Because of their former owner's battle experience, these gauntlets had become a mysterious item.

Mysterious items of this type were very common. With a specific Secret Art Incantation, they could grant the recipient a degree of combat skill.

Many families with ancient lineages passed down their unique martial techniques from generation to generation through this kind of Secret Art.

Luke stood in the subject's position, holding the completed Ruihuo Spear. Following the arrangement of the Secret Art Incantation, Clear Sky first set out the candles and lit them.

Then she used the prepared powder to lay out a hexagram formation on the floor.

She placed the iron gauntlets in the subject position, then took out a horsehair, star iron, a bottle of mercury, salt stone, and Blood Kui Grass and arranged them in the auxiliary positions.

After a moment's thought, she took out the Book of Calamity and replaced the star iron with it.

The quality of star iron varied widely. Though any grade could complete the Secret Art, the results would naturally differ.

But when used as an auxiliary component, the Book of Calamity counted as the highest quality outright. It also helped balance the entire Secret Art Incantation.

That greatly improved the chance of the Secret Art's success.

With a divine tool like this for auxiliary components, there was no reason not to use it.

Still... what would those who viewed the Book of Calamity as a source of disaster, or revered it as a sacred artifact of the Secret Arts, think if they saw it placed alongside a horsehair, a bottle of mercury, salt stone, and Blood Kui Grass?

Luke, at least, didn't think anything of it.

It was just a Secret Art item. Every Secret Arts player in Era had one. He didn't consider it precious or special.

The formation, subject, and auxiliary components were in place.

The ritual began.

As the candlelight flickered, a battlefield appeared on the walls of the secret chamber.

Two armies clashed. Arrows flew, magic flashed, and heavily armored knights wielding lances charged at massive war machines brandishing enormous weapons.

There was no sound, yet the cries of battle, explosions, and clashing metal seemed to ring right in their ears.

The battlefield on the walls spread across the entire secret chamber.

Soldiers from both sides fought to the death all around Luke.

They wore armor bearing the insignias of their respective factions and fought with swords, spears, bows, knives, axes, and all manner of weapons. They were clearly veterans with rich combat experience and skill. When a weapon broke, they would simply pick up another from the battlefield and wield it with ease.

The Ruihuo Spear in Luke's hands began to tremble.

It was responding to the battlefield's fighting spirit and killing intent, resonating with the lethal spear techniques used in real combat.

That resonance affected Luke as well.

Luke was completely immersed in the battlefield illusion. He felt as if he were a soldier there, fighting alongside his comrades with a spear in hand.

Combat was instinctive to him. Though he had never handled a spear before, he could still wield it skillfully, performing all kinds of spear techniques.

Just as when he controlled Clear Sky, he had never known how to use twin blades, cleavers, or bows, but whenever he held them, he simply knew how.

Though Luke in the illusion couldn't yet perform flashy spear techniques, the most straightforward and practical techniques honed on the battlefield were being engraved into his very genes, bit by bit.

The spear in his hands swept wide, capable of mowing down a thousand soldiers, or flashed with countless cold glints as it darted forward like a serpent striking. He wielded it like a veteran who had survived countless battles to the death...

Outside the illusion, Luke was influenced by it and began to twirl the Ruihuo Spear as if sleepwalking.

The dragon hide, dragon sinew, and dragon tooth used to make the spear resonated with the Dragon Snake tattoo on the back of his right hand.

The Dragon Snake flew out and grew larger, winding from the end of the shaft up toward the spearhead.

Luke shook the shaft. The dragon's head at the spearhead exhaled dragon breath at the blade, which burst into a one-meter-long blade of fire.

It also let out a series of imposing dragon roars, startling Luke awake from the illusion.

The Secret Art Ritual stopped, and all the strange phenomena gradually faded away.

On the floor, every ritual component except the Book of Calamity crumbled into dust and vanished.

Luke gripped the spear as the Dragon Snake returned to the back of his hand.

"You're not a Ruihuo Wand anymore, and Ruihuo Spear doesn't seem right either. I'll call you the Greedy Red Dragon Spear. A combination of Greedy Snake and Red Dragon."

Luke deftly twirled the spear.

Man and weapon as one!

The Greedy Red Dragon Spear vanished from his hand.