The weapons I forge are absolutely flawless.

"I have no opinion."

Wiener spread his hands.

Jessica guided Lisette's training, served as Felix's sparring partner, and also worked with Vena.

This time, Jessica is leading Lisette and Felix on the mission.

It has a lot of permutation and combination implications.

But there's one thing Wiener still needs to clarify.

"If we discover any movements by the demons in the future, we'll need the four of us to carry out missions together—"

"Then it's up to you to decide who's on top."

Chapter 395 Wiener Verifies the Conjecture

With Tilisa keeping an eye on things, and considering the precedent of facing the Apostle Giants, Venere wasn't worried about Jessica causing any trouble.

Rather than worrying about those things, I should be concerned about how Jessica will ridicule me if I don't produce any results after half a day.

Wiener took a deep breath, banished his distracting thoughts, and focused intently on the work at hand.

As a replacement for Rikka, Tilisa left Venus a crystalline fragment that was once a remnant of the Demon Blood Soul.

These are fragments she extracted from the Armor of Calamity.

After the Iron Giant died, the fragment did not disappear directly. Instead, as if it had been washed clean, the ominous aura vanished completely, leaving it just like an ordinary, pure crystal.

The premise is that Venerer did not test it with Tyr's Staff.

Ironically, these seemingly ordinary fragments contain the most crucial information from Wiener's research.

Under the influence of the Staff of Tyr's, the lingering demonic aura on this fragment was nowhere to be hidden, though, like Rikka, it was so faint that it could not be detected by conventional means.

If it only happened once, it could be explained as a coincidence.

Since a second occurrence has happened, there's a high probability that there will be a third and fourth.

Wiener did not think this would be an accident.

So he went through all the relevant literature and combined it with his own experimental records to come up with a completely new hypothesis.

Any exchange of magic energy with the outside world, whether through absorption or release, will produce certain fluctuations.

The more magical energy it contains, the more pronounced this fluctuation will be.

The aura of the demons and the emblem wielders rippled through the air like invisible waves.

The stronger an individual is, the higher the frequency of the waves they emit, and the wider the range of their propagation.

This is why you can detect someone's presence even from a great distance.

Based on this, the demon race and the emblem wielders developed two different methods of concealing their aura.

Human heralds need to actively absorb magical energy from the air, so their method of concealing their aura is to stop exchanging magical energy with the outside world and eliminate the wave patterns they emit.

For demons, absorbing demonic essence is simply an instinctive act, which can only be stopped by death.

Therefore, if they want to conceal their presence, they can only suppress the wavelengths they emit, even to the point of being as inconspicuous as flowers and plants.

Having grasped this premise, let's then consider the special properties of cold iron.

Iron oxide is a mineral with extremely high density and strong inertness.

Forget about amplifying the release of magic essence, it's already a good thing if it doesn't just shut it down completely.

Whether it's battle aura or magic power, it will rapidly diminish and its power will be greatly reduced when it strikes equipment made of cold iron.

This is why cold iron is mostly used for forging armor and protective gear.

The Iron Cavalry, uniformly equipped with armor forged from cold iron, is also the only knightly order whose organization contains absolutely no spellcasters.

While everyone believed that cold iron could not be used to make weapons, Tauronio took a different approach, using it as an inert stabilizer to reduce the mutual repulsion between high-level materials and achieve the most perfect blending ratio.

This requires a very deep understanding of the properties of the material.

Otherwise, if things go wrong, the weapon, which was made with a lot of rare materials, could turn into a fire poker that is only hard but has no other properties.

However, many people did not expect that the Cold Iron is actually very sensitive to external magical elements.

Only cold iron formed in extremely harsh environments such as frozen snow and ice exhibits its inertness when it is forged with other materials.

Beyond that, it is like a blank sheet of paper, capable of capturing even the slightest fluctuations in magical energy.

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

Three days have passed since Jessica and her group entered the dungeon.

While they were adventuring in the dungeons, Vener was not idle at all.

The number of failed prototypes alone is already piling up, not to mention the scrapped designs that only remain at the design stage.

"Don't disappoint me again."

Wiener muttered to himself as he carefully placed a meticulously carved, cold iron spoon on the square tray base.

Upon closer inspection, one will discover that the tray is not simple either, as it is covered with complex and mysterious magic patterns.

Since it was difficult to decipher the specific effects of each rune, Venerer simply copied the runes on Tyr's Staff in sections and engraved them on different trays.

To meet this requirement alone, Wiener made nearly twenty trays.

Although failure is the mother of success, if this painting still fails to achieve the effect Wiener expected, then his conjecture will need to be re-verified.

Wiener took a deep breath and gently stirred the long spoon with his fingers.

The long spoon spun around on the tray several times before finally pointing in one direction.

What's displayed there is precisely the Demon Blood Soul Fragment, which serves as a reference.

To verify that this result was not a coincidence, Wiener switched the positions of the Demon Blood Soul Fragment and stirred the long spoon again.

Miraculously, the long spoon pointed in the direction of the fragment again.

Wiener's heart suddenly raced.

"Is there a show?"

He raised his eyebrows excitedly and flicked the spoon handle again.

The long spoon slowly rotated, and after passing the direction of the fragment, it did not slow down, but stopped in the completely opposite direction.

"Is it another coincidence?"

Before Wiener's doubts could dissipate, suddenly, with a loud "bang!", the workshop door was violently pushed open.

"I'm back in Vina! Did you miss me?"

Felix appeared in the doorway, looking somewhat disheveled, but his excitement was undeniable. (The last line appears to be unrelated and possibly a fragment from another source: "Reimu Wife II Scattered_Other Thoughts Long Fin Umbrella,")

He opened his arms, ready to receive a warm embrace from Venere.

However, someone seemed to feint and then swept past him.

"Eh?!"

Felix's smile froze on his face.

He threw his backpack into the workshop and turned to chase after Vina.

"Even if you're attracted to someone, there should be limits, Vina!"

Viner, however, seemed not to hear, his entire attention focused on the long, cold iron spoon.

Finally, as we approached the Demon Academy dormitory, we saw that longed-for figure.

“Vina?” Lisette looked at Vina in surprise.

She had just finished her mission and intended to tidy up a bit before meeting with Venere, but she didn't expect him to come looking for her so eagerly.

"So impatient, can't you even wait a moment longer?"

Lisette murmured softly, a warm feeling welling up inside her.

When she gently brushed her hair behind her back and closed her eyes in preparation for her lover's embrace, Venus did not grant her wish.

Instead, he walked straight past her and grabbed Rikka, who was standing behind her with a blank expression.

“I’ve finally caught him.” Vener’s eyes gleamed with excitement as he raised the compass in his hand, the tip of the spoon pointing steadily at Rikka. “Come with me.”

Lisette froze, staring wide-eyed at Vina in disbelief.

Felix, who had just caught up, was also completely bewildered and didn't understand what had happened.

"Vina, you big idiot!"

Lisette was furious.

Chapter 396 Report

After returning from the dungeon, Jessica gave them an hour to rest and agreed to review and summarize their experiences at the Silver Wolf House.

She has always placed great importance on the concept of time.

It is never early and never late, as precise as a clock.

When Jessica arrived just in time, she saw a guy who had betrayed the girl's heart kneeling on the cold ground.

Tissa, who always favors Venus, simply stood by and watched this time, as if he deserved his fate.

Seeing this, Jessica's mood suddenly improved.

"Felix, recount the details of this mission."

"Hey, me?"

Felix, whose name was called, obviously didn't expect to be the one to start. He had no choice but to stand up and rub his hands together as he reported on the trip.

"...Based on the connection between Rikka and the Demon Slime, we finally found its trace on the seventh floor of the dungeon."

"Then, Rimuru, the Demon Lord, seemed to sense Rikka's presence and immediately approached the seal of the Gluttonous Demon Lord..."

Perhaps because he had been on the run ever since he transformed into a demon, Rimuru's decisiveness in escaping was beyond everyone's imagination.

Realizing they had been exposed, Jessica immediately led the group to Rimuru's location to intercept him.

After discovering that the Silver Wolf Class was tracking him by teleportation, Rimuru immediately began digging in the ground, intending to escape along the quicksand beneath the surface.

The quicksand on the seventh level of the dungeon, though it looks similar to sand and gravel, has an astonishingly high density, so Jessica obviously cannot teleport underground to fight the demons.

To prevent the demon from escaping, Lisette cast a water-making spell, using the water flow to cover the demon's activity area. Then, using the power of Tyr's Staff, she swapped the boiling point and freezing point of the pure water formed from demonic essence.

The purified water seeped into the ground in an instant. Instead of evaporating under high temperature, the purified water froze at high temperature, freezing the demon Rimuru in place.

To escape his predicament, Rimuru had no choice but to transform into his giant form and use the change in size to break through the ice.

However, increasing size sometimes simply means becoming a bigger target.

Without even thinking, Felix swung Amra and slashed at the suddenly protruding ground.

Even slimes, which are born with slashing resistance, find it difficult to withstand Amra's weapon, which was specifically crafted to counter demons.

Jessica seized the opportunity and transferred the sealing spell she had prepared in advance directly into the demon's body.

Compared to her previous attempt to take down her opponent single-handedly, Jessica was much better prepared this time.

Whether it's a trigger-activated sealing scroll or equipment specifically designed to counter slimes, she carries them all, just in case.

The ideal scenario would be to defeat the slime demon into its demon blood soul state before sealing it.

However, considering the opponent's tenacious vitality and the fact that they were not an easy opponent to defeat, coupled with the risks of staying on the seventh floor of the dungeon for too long, Jessica chose the safest option.

Since triggered scrolls are less effective than the original spells, quantity will prevail.

These newly made sealing scrolls, crafted by Jessica herself, have negligible magic loss and each can maintain the effect of a seventh-tier spell.

This level of spell is naturally ineffective against seasoned demons, but it is perfect for demons who have not yet matured.

The only thing needed is for someone else to hold the demon back for a while, giving her the opportunity to apply the seal.