[9:00 AM]

[Underground Training Area]

I gave Chloe the [Veil Necklace] that I had enhanced earlier and taught her how to use it. Surprisingly, she was able to use it easily. Her face changed only a little, but that was enough.

People who saw her right now wouldn’t even try to link her to Hero Chloe; she would only be Chloe like she wanted to be. Her eyes were a bit bigger than her usual face, and she became cuter.

After changing her face, she then left the house to go to a cooking school, while I went to the underground to enhance my [Arash Bow].

I took out the necessary things to enhance the [Arash Bow], the Great Lich’s blood.

“Let’s start”

The process of enhancing an Artifact with the Great Lich’s blood was not too different from enhancing a normal item. Only the ingredient was changed from dust to blood.

First of all, I held the glass that I used to keep the Lich’s blood in my left hand. I held it carefully because I didn’t want to mess this up. I only needed one drop of blood; that was all.

“Make it work, please. At least reduce the side-effects… I don’t hope for too much, but at least let me use the special effect of the bow without dying.”

My hand sweated out of nervousness. If this doesn’t work, I could only find a new weapon.

As much as I loved the effect of [Arash Bow], I didn’t want to die while using its special effect. It was indeed powerful, but there were still a lot of mythological bows out there.

There was also the bow used by Heracles or Tristan. I knew both locations of the bows in case this enhancement failed to reduce the side-effect.

The attribute of Mana that I used in this enhancement was the fire attribute.

From the name of the special effect, [Stellar] Lone Meteor, I knew that it was related to fire, so I chose the fire attribute for this enhancement.

It would be good if an additional effect also appeared. But I shouldn’t hope for too much.

“Please work…” I muttered as I infused fire attribute mana to the bow and dripped a single drop of Great Lich’s blood on the bow.

The blood seemed to drip slowly from the glass. It was at such a time that having heightened senses was killing me. I wanted this to be over as soon as possible.

It seemed like forever for the drop to touch the bow because of my heightened senses. Something that could be over in a few seconds seemed to last more than a minute.

‘Ah, it’s so slow.’

Finally, the blood touched the bow. The bow let out a brilliant shine of red light at that moment.

“Guh!”_-.

I covered my eyes with my hand out of reflex. The light was so bright, unlike the items that I enhanced before.

I quickly put the remaining Great Lich’s blood inside my magic bag to secure it. I would cry for at least a few hours if it fell over when I panicked.

Usually, the light would begin to dim in a few seconds, but the bow was still as bright as before.

“It’s not over yet?”

The red light that covered the bow suddenly turned blue after 30 seconds. I couldn’t comprehend what had happened. I never wrote the Enhancement in detail in the novel, so I didn’t know that something like this would happen.

The light lasted for a minute before it finally dimmed. The bow’s appearance was still the same, but the pattern on it glowed slightly, like a burning fire.

Then the notification that I was waiting for arrived.

[Your Luck has miraculously helped in the enhancement.]

[Arash Bow enhancement was successful. The effect of the enhancement has been amplified.]

[The side-effects of the Arash Bow are reduced.]

[Miraculous Luck appeared again! The side-effect is further reduced.]

[Arash Bow turned into Arash Bow +2.]

The notifications seemed to be promising. I had high hopes for this.

My hand reached out to [Arash Bow] and opened its description.

—–

[Arash Bow +2] [Artifact]

[Composite Attribute: Fire, Light, and Dark]

The bow was used by the Persian Hero, Arash, to end the war between Persia and Turan.

Special Skill:

– [Stellar] Lone Meteor

Fire a single arrow that can travel anywhere on Earth.

Enhanced with Mana, the arrow will be divided into nine and destroy any single enemy in its path.

Activation Cost: Use all of your remaining Mana.

Effect:

– Mana Arrow

Create a mana arrow.

– Mana Bowstring

Create a mana bowstring. It’s more durable than a normal bowstring.

– Small Meteor

Create an exploding mana arrow.

—–

The side-effect for activation was reduced to the point where I only needed all my remaining Mana to use its special effect. Not only that, there was also a new effect.

“Fuck yeah!” I shouted as I raised the bow to the sky. This was the best result that I could hope for.

Next, I got down on my knees and worshiped the goddess of luck.

“Oh, my S-Rank Luck! I really love you!”

No one answered me, but that didn’t stop me from worshiping my Luck.

After a few seconds, I realized that I probably looked like a fool.

“Cough.” I let out an awkward cough and sat with crossed legs.

There was still a lot of time before the interview.

“Let’s just train with Mana Breathing,” I muttered to myself as I put Arash Bow in my magic bag.I also set the alarm on my smartphone at 4 PM, as I needed to prepare for the interview that was held at 6 PM.

Then I closed my eyes and did Mana Breathing.

***

Chloe walked along the street after she found the place that teaches how to cook. She looked up on the internet and finally found a place called ‘Cordon’s Kitchen’ located near their house in the middle of Los Angeles.

She smiled as she walked. Everything she needed for the class was already prepared in her magic bag.

For a long time, she wanted to live freely like this. She had a lot of hobbies that she couldn’t do; one of them was cooking.

Furthermore, she had someone who would eat her meals in the house.

“I hope Vincent will love the meal that I cooked for him.” She smiled when she thought of her savior—the one who nullified her promise with the Association.

Although she lived a good life when she was still in the Association and was paid when she cleared a dungeon, her freedom was still restricted due to how busy she was.

She couldn’t even walk in the city like she did right now.

After walking for a few minutes, she arrived at the place that taught people how to cook—a cooking class. The building was big, around five stories tall. A big screen above the door showed an ad for the cooking class.

There was a man in his forties who was cursing at a man who presented him with a dish.

Chloe was confused, but then she knew the reason for that. The man’s dish was terrible, and the man cursed at him because he was a terrible cook and told him how to improve it.

When she saw that, she became more interested in joining. The teacher taught their students seriously.

“I think I will be able to improve my cooking skills here.”

She didn’t care about whether the teacher was strict or not. The only thing that was important to her was that the teacher did his job properly.

And the ad showed that the teacher did his job properly by giving the terrible cooking advice.

“I will join this place!” She exclaimed with a big smile.

***

[10:30 AM]

[New York]

Jaro arrived at the Association’s headquarters after jumping and running at full speed for three hours.

The distance between Los Angeles and New York was by no means close. But, with his physical strength, running from Los Angeles to New York was easy.

He was even faster than most planes due to his Artifact called Hermes Boots, which allowed him to run faster.

The reason why he returned to the headquarters as fast as he could was due to the appearance of Smith. The appearance of the Sword Saint in Los Angeles was more important than Memento Mori.

He had hidden himself from the secular world for a while now, but he showed himself in front of one of the Six Devas only because their clash of Mana disturbed him.

Usually, the Sword Saint wouldn’t even care about something like that. A clash between Awakeners happened a few times in Los Angeles, but the Sword Saint never showed himself.

“Damn it!” Jaro cursed as he paced inside the building.

The employees were confused by Jaro’s sudden outburst. They didn’t want to look at him because his expression was scary. They looked away when he walked past them.

“Why did that old man interfere with our fight? Shit! I could gain some achievement if I managed to catch that bastard. However, meeting him was not bad at all. I can at least make the old man who sits above me give me some bonus.”

He entered the elevator and pressed the button to go to Mark’s office on the top floor. The door of the elevator then closed before it made a mechanical sound, pulling the elevator up.

Creak– Shwoomp–

After the elevator went up, the employees on the ground floor let out a sigh that they held.

“Why is that person able to become one of the Six Devas?” Asked one of the employees.

“I don’t know. Even though Lady Aura is better than him.” Answered another employee.

“Shh! Don’t say that! We all know about that, but we never talk about it!”

“Oops! My bad.”

“Tsk!” Jaro clicked his tongue inside the elevator. He heard them thanks to his sharp hearing. “It’s obvious because I am better than that woman, fool!” He grumbled.

The elevator stopped after a few seconds, and the door opened.

The top floor was only used for the offices of important people, such as Mark, the directors, and the meeting room.

He immediately exited the elevator and went to Mark’s office.

The door of Mark’s office was enhanced to stop any intruders. It was also enhanced with a magical lock so that no one could enter without Mark’s permission.

Jaro stopped in front of it and shouted, “Oi, old man! I have some information for you! Let me enter the room!”

“You may enter,” Mark answered from inside, and the office door opened automatically due to Mark’s command.

Mark was sitting behind a wooden table, working on documents that created a pile on top of it. He was also wearing reading glasses, which he took off as he looked at Jaro.

“What is the information that you have got? You met with a member of Memento Mori, right?”

“Yeah, right.” Jaro entered the room.

Screech–

The door closed as soon as Jaro entered the room. Then he sat on the couch that was located in front of the work table.

“And I met another person that’s more important than the members of Memento Mori.”

“Who? There are only a few people who are more important than the members of Memento Mori. They are the highest criminals on our blacklist.”

“Hah! This person is definitely more important than that slanted-eyed bastard.” Scoffed Jaro as he leaned his back against the backrest.

He looked at Mark with a serious expression and said, “I met the Sword Saint.”

Mark’s expression turned serious when he heard that. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I am sure.” Jaro’s body trembled as he answered. “Even though he had turned old, the pressure from him was enough to make me shiver in fear. I had no chance to win against him.”

“Is that so…” Mark rubbed his temples. “So the Sword Saint is hiding in Los Angeles… He’s been so close all this time.”

“What will you do? This is different from the appearance of Memento Mori’s members.” Asked Jaro.

Mark leaned his back against the chair’s backrest and looked at the ceiling. He stayed silent for a while, thinking about the next move that the Association should take.

Sword Saint’s appearance in front of Jaro, who was clearly a member of the Six Devas, was a sign that he was done hiding.

“What a troublesome situation.” Muttered Mark.

He straightened his sitting position, put his elbow on the table, and ordered, “Jaro, keep this secret from the others. We can’t let the others know that the Sword Saint is hiding in Los Angeles. Not only will the Awakeners try to visit him, but his enemies will also make their way to Los Angeles to find him… We can’t allow that.”

“I thought so, old man.” Answered Jaro. “Should I stay in Los Angeles to observe him?”

“Yes, I’m counting on you.”

“No problem, old man.” Jaro stood up from the couch. “I need to settle something in that place too.” He then walked out of the office. Once again, the door opened automatically, and as soon as he left the room, it closed by itself.

Once again, Mark looked at the ceiling and mumbled. “Smith… What are you planning? Why did you show yourself at such a time?”