The weapons I forge are absolutely flawless.

"Huh! It can actually talk?"

Felix wasn't disappointed by the rejection; instead, he became extremely interested in the fact that the other person could speak.

"Vina, is it okay to keep this as a pet?"

Felix turned to look at Vina, his eyes full of anticipation.

"Get out of the way!"

Wiener was startled and broke out in a cold sweat.

The moment Felix turned his head, the clay statue attacked without warning, showing no sign of killing intent until the moment the Mura Yoshiki sword was thrust out.

In the heat of the moment, Venere only had time to use the scabbard in his hand to catch the sword.

Seeing that his sneak attack had been blocked by Venere, the clay statue immediately spun the sword, shaking it out of Venere's hand from its sheath.

Taking this opportunity, Vena pulled Felix backward and jumped, putting some distance between them and the clay statue.

"You have no sense of martial ethics!"

Felix, who was always extremely confident in his perception, almost capsized in a ditch.

If Wiener hadn't responded in time, he would have already been on the verge of death.

But the clay statue's attention was no longer on Felix.

It glanced at the scabbard that had been rolled back, pulled it out, and then swallowed the scabbard into its stomach in a sword-swallowing motion.

"You!" Felix exclaimed, his face filled with disbelief.

The clay statue, having swallowed the scabbard, slowly turned its gaze back, its tone carrying a childlike innocence: "What is martial virtue? Can you eat it?"

It asked the question very seriously, as if it were truly seeking knowledge humbly.

"Ugh! How come there's someone who can eat even more random things than me!" Felix nearly collapsed.

“If you want some, don’t you have some?” Vena suddenly said.

Upon hearing this, the clay statue actually turned its gaze to the Murakami sword in its hand.

He brought the blade close to his lips, but after just a moment of contact, he jerked back as if he had been electrocuted.

"I can't eat this," the clay statue honestly replied.

The hero's sword is still far too overpowered for Rimuru, who is less than one-tenth the size of the hero.

To restore it to its complete form, it can only be gradually digested from the base.

After swallowing the scabbard, the clay statue's eyes seemed to become much clearer.

She even went so far as to ask the three of them for some: "You smell wonderful, and you have lots of delicious food. Can you leave it all for me?"

“I can barely afford to support Felix alone,” Viner shook her head. “I can’t afford to support another one.”

He probably already had a guess about the identity of the clay statue.

"But I'd really like to know what your name is?"

Wiener asked a question on the surface, but secretly made a hand gesture behind his back.

“Rimuru.”

The clay statue, unaware of the lurking danger around it, continued to respond to Venus's questions.

But before he could finish speaking, two short knives pierced the chest of the clay statue.

The revenge for the previous sneak attack was instantly avenged.

Felix used his wrists to spin the blade, quickly crossing it left and right, forcefully splitting the seemingly soft clay statue in two.

If it were any other monster, being cut in half like that would be fatal, but Rimuru is no ordinary monster.

"The body isn't the problem!"

Wiener's reminder rang out just in time.

Rimuru twisted his neck 180 degrees, his entire upper body seemingly reversed, and swung his sword at Felix.

Felix immediately abandoned the opportunity to pursue, using his twin swords to block Rimuru's simple and unadorned sword strike, but the weight transmitted from the sword still made his hands go numb.

The force of the impact alone caused him to leave a deep crater in the ground.

The demon's physical strength is far beyond what ordinary people can imagine.

Humans may be able to injure demons with weapons, but it is extremely difficult to suppress them with pure force.

Fortunately, he was not fighting alone.

Before Rimuru could pursue again, the three-meter-long Musou Blade had already fallen towards its head.

It could disregard the damage from piercing and slashing, but it dared not let this peerless weapon completely shatter its body. So it turned its direction and blocked the Peerless Blade that Liuhua was slashing at with its sword.

Its monstrous strength, comparable to that of a fifth-tier magical beast, combined with the terrifyingly powerful heavy blade, finally caused it to pause.

"Goodbye."

Vena's arrow was already pressed against Rimuru's forehead.

Chapter 242 The Last Murakami Sword

One arrow to annihilate.

It was clearly a long-range burst attack that involved risking everything, but Viner used it for close combat.

Although it's reckless, its power is not diminished in the slightest.

With a deep and resolute tremor of the bowstring, the world seemed to be torn apart by an invisible force.

The intense wind pressure, powerful enough to shake mountains, felt like a massive boulder pressing down on him, making Rimuru's movements incredibly slow. He could only watch helplessly as the beam of death pierced through him.

"Boom!!!"

A deafening roar shook the entire cave as if an earthquake had struck.

Dust rose everywhere, obscuring the sky and the sun.

When the smoke and dust cleared, a huge crater five or six meters deep was clearly visible.

The cracks spread all around, as dense as a spider web.

Rimuru's figure had completely disappeared, leaving only a Murakami sword stuck in the ground.

Felix leaped up gently, caught the free-falling Venus, and helped him lean against the stone wall.

"Let's try again."

After giving Felix a word of advice, Venere completely fainted.

-----------------

"Little blacksmith."

"Wake up, little blacksmith!"

"The sun's already high in the sky, get up!"

A phantom floated back and forth above Venus's head.

Hearing someone calling her, Venus slowly opened her eyes, only to find herself in a pure white space.

"Phew, I'm finally awake." A voice, tinged with relief, rang out.

Under Viner's focused gaze, the phantom's face slowly became clear.

“...Arios?” Vena’s tone was full of uncertainty.

Because the other person looked so young, even younger than when Arios left Lumiel Village.

“It’s me—though I’d ​​like to say that, what you see now is just a remnant soul holding a trace of Arios’ memories,” the young Arios replied.

"That's it."

Upon hearing the reply, Wiener's anxiety finally subsided.

"So when did you die?" Viner asked without dwelling on it.

"Whom are you cursing? Who will die?" The other party clearly did not expect Vena to say such a thing.

"Whoever dies, curse them."

"Who told you Arios is dead?"

“You yourself said you’re a remnant soul, how could that be false?” Viner retorted.

"...So that's how you understand it?" The boy shook his head helplessly. "I never said I was a remnant of Arios's soul, did I?"

"Then who are you?" Viner frowned.

"I am the remnant soul of Murakami Yoshitsugu," the boy said slowly.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible."

Viner suddenly stood up and circled the boy six or seven times, as if trying to see through him.

"I have forged so many fine swords from the village. If any of them had developed sentience, I would know it."

Even though the other person looked like Arios, Viner didn't immediately believe his story.

The Wanbing Village Sword was merely a practice piece by him and had never undergone the spirit-awakening process.

Even if one were to accidentally acquire a trace of spirituality, it would be impossible to reach the point of being able to converse with people.

"I wasn't born with intelligence the moment I was born." The boy, who called himself Murakami Yoshitsugu, sat cross-legged in the air.

“I am the ninety-ninth Murakami sword that Arios used, and also the last Murakami sword he used.”

"But he truly developed intelligence when he left me behind to guard the underground city."

It stayed by Arios's side the longest and experienced the fewest battles.

It wasn't until after he and Arios lost ninety-eight village swords that he finally gained sentience.

As Vina gazed at the remnant soul who called himself Murakami Yoshitsugu, though doubts still lingered in his eyes, he was mostly convinced.

"When did he steal so many good village swords from me?"

“It’s not just that some were bought directly from you. Some were also rewards that Arios received for eliminating bandits and wild beasts for the village,” the remnant soul explained. “According to him, if he hadn’t been limited to taking only ninety-nine, he would have emptied the blacksmith’s shop.”

"However, from my perspective, I'm glad he could only take ninety-nine of them, otherwise I wouldn't have had a chance to awaken them."

The brave warrior Arios changes weapons faster than he changes girlfriends. If he didn't keep a good sword as a souvenir, even twice as many weapons wouldn't be enough for him.

You said he doesn't have a girlfriend? Then it's okay.

“I roughly understand,” Wiener nodded. “So, what is his purpose in placing you here?”

“Make those demons sealed in the dungeon behave,” Murakami Yoshitsugu replied.

"Just you?"

It wasn't that Wiener looked down on the Murano Yoshitsuki he forged; it was simply that the difference in their levels was too great.

You say that an A-grade weapon that has survived countless battles and awakened its intelligence can suppress monsters below the highest rank simply by the pressure it exudes? How much of that can you believe?

In the context of Viner's entire blacksmithing career, this sword is merely an early work, a Murano Yoshikazu, at best no better than a D-rank weapon.

To say it can be used to suppress demons is just ridiculous, isn't it?

Putting everything else aside, if it weren't for the timely arrival of Venerable and the others, the last of the Village Swords would have been consumed by the demon.

“I really can’t do it.” Murakami Yoshitsugu nodded in admission. “It’s mainly because of the trace of aura that Arios left on me.”

"With this trace of aura present, those demons he captured and brought into the dungeon dared not make any rash moves."

Leaving a keepsake containing one's own aura within the dungeon serves as a warning to others, a tradition among heroes throughout history.

Seeing the token is like seeing the hero.

This is also the only movable array eye outside of the thirty-five array eyes in the dungeon.

The grade of the equipment is secondary; the key is that the equipment must contain enough spiritual energy to house more of the warrior's power.

"With so many layers in between, is it really effective?" Wiener was very skeptical.