He withdrew his hand, looking at Qidunston very differently than before.
Beside him, Ma Linya was still stunned by Qidunston's earlier whisper. She had never expected this. When exactly had he realized that Nameless was an Elementalist? When he had dealt with those two drunks? No, that was impossible. He had used no Elemental Power at all, only his physical strength.
Then how had he figured it out? That question had her mind firmly in its grip.
Only when Zeng Mu spoke did she snap out of her deep bewilderment. "Uncle Kiddon, this Elemental Artifact was made by you...?"
"That's right." Before he could finish, Qidunston nodded and answered in a voice only the three of them could hear. "I'm an Elemental Artifact Master. This was my first creation."
Surprise appeared on the faces of Zeng Mu, Ma Linya, and Stee Jane. The first two had not expected this revelation; the last had not expected this turn of events. It was the first time she had ever seen him admit his identity to anyone other than her.
Elemental Artifact Masters were people who refined Elemental Artifacts. They used their own Elemental Power to forge precious artifacts with different attributes and functions, which meant they had to be Elementalists themselves.
There were no more than a hundred Elementalists on the entire continent, and Elemental Artifact Masters were rarer still. Their numbers across the continent could be counted on two hands. Some ancient Elemental Artifacts had been made decades or even centuries ago by masters who had long since died. Today, their scarcity meant that even monarchs treated them with deference, hoping to bind them firmly to their own side and prevent them from defecting or rebelling. Such things had happened before, and their devastating consequences had left bloody marks in the