The next day, the royal palace's carriage arrived in front of Peiya's cottage.

Lin Qianxuan and Peiya got on the carriage and were brought into the royal palace in less than twenty minutes, then met Vera in the dining room.

"Welcome, heroes of the Kingdom!"

Vera smiled and invited them to sit down, then instructed the attendants to bring in the food.

Even in the palace, the food wasn't much different from outside, just more abundant.

Peiya watched as Lin Qianxuan moved the cutlery, then carefully followed and began to eat.

Meanwhile, Vera ate and observed the two.

She remembered Peiya as a humanoid artifact brought back initially.

Considering the limited abilities that posed no threat, she did not impose any restrictions.

As for Lin Qianxuan, she had never heard of him before.

The information she had gathered indicated that he seemed to have arrived recently from the Abyss Ruins and was exceptional in the art of forging.

The meal was eaten in silence until it was finished, and the attendants took away the dishes. Vera then began to speak.

Vera got straight to the point, saying, "You both possess extraordinary powers. Have you ever considered collaborating with the Kingdom? Currently, the living space for humans isn't very expansive; we're surviving only within the Kingdom. If you were to assist us, we might be able to open more living space in the Abyss Ruins..."

Vera did not speak in terms of serving the Kingdom but rather used collaborative language.

Her plan might be to make the Kingdom the core and let capable people expand territories, bestow titles, and build an alternative empire.

This was not much different from the Kingdom's original strategy.

It's just that the Abyss Ruins are too dangerous, and after generations of struggles, only this one Kingdom remains.

Faced with Vera's invitation, Peiya looked at Lin Qianxuan.

She couldn't make a decision, or rather, she had come to rely heavily on Lin Qianxuan.

If Lin Qianxuan wanted to stay and collaborate, she would naturally follow.

However, unfortunately, Lin Qianxuan did not plan for Peiya to stay long.

In the Dark Diary, disasters caused by artifacts came wave after wave.

If Peiya did not grow before this, this time loop could inflict real damage on him.

After all, he was not yet a true Enlightened and did not really belong to this time loop.

In contrast, Peiya might just enter a new loop.

Lin Qianxuan's current goal was to cultivate Peiya to grow quickly and thoroughly guide her to grasp her Dao Fruit.

To achieve these things, conditions were relatively lacking in the Kingdom.

Moreover, he wanted to learn more about this world. How could he gain information without venturing out?

"Count Vera, we are grateful for your favor, but we have already made plans to leave the Kingdom in some time to seek out Peiya's homeland," Lin Qianxuan said.

Peiya glanced at Lin Qianxuan; why was this news to her?

However, she did not object.

No matter where they were going, as long as Lin Qianxuan stayed with her, it would be fine.

"That's truly a pity," Vera said.

She said it this way, but her tone didn't carry much sense of regret.

It was within her expectations.

If Lin Qianxuan had any intention of collaboration, he should have come to the royal palace yesterday.

"Count Vera, although it may not be possible to collaborate in opening human territories, we might have another project to cooperate on," Lin Qianxuan said.

"And what would that be?" Vera asked.

"Artifacts," Lin Qianxuan said. "We can create some artifacts, which would be at a much lower cost compared to those controlled by the Kingdom, without compromising on effectiveness. Perhaps we can exchange these artifacts with the Kingdom's."

Vera fell into contemplation.

She understood the nature of artifacts better than anyone.

She certainly didn't believe the rhetoric that artifacts would bring misfortune.

That was something she had spread herself.

If there were artifacts with lower costs and better effects, an exchange wouldn't be a bad thing.

"No problem, but I want to know to what extent you can achieve this," Vera asked.

"Peiya, could you lend me your sword for a moment?" Lin Qianxuan whispered to Peiya.

"Mm."

Peiya nodded and handed over the short sword from her waist to Lin Qianxuan.

Lin Qianxuan then handed it to the knight beside Vera, saying, "Count, you may try using this sword. It's the best we can do."

Though he said this, the sword was far from the limit.

Theoretically, given enough time, they could infinitely stack attributes on an artifact.

Even if those attributes were low-level, accumulating them to a certain magnitude could still be quite powerful.

However, these low-level attributes hardly formed qualitative changes, being merely a pile of quantity.

Vera accepted the short sword from Anthony.

Upon grasping it, she immediately recognized its extraordinary nature.

Feeling the continuous stream of power flowing into her, she also understood the various abilities this sword possessed.

It was a "manual" entry that Lin Qianxuan had previously endowed it with.

It had no other function but to let the person who obtained this sword understand what abilities it truly possessed.

Peiya had endowed it with too many entries back and forth, stacking up to over a thousand entries, so much so that she herself couldn't quite remember them all, and using it made her a bit confused.

"Truly a masterpiece!" Vera exclaimed in awe, closely examining the beautifully patterned short sword, muttering, "Such powerful functions, yet almost no price to pay..."

Most of the functions of this short sword could be triggered and used by itself, with only a few energy-charged attacks requiring it to replenish energy after the sword's own energy was exhausted, or directly draw on the user's energy.

Such a price is comparatively too reasonable when judged against the costs of other magical artifacts.

The Kingdom's Vlad's Armor, once worn, prevents any damage from killing the wearer, but the price is that once removed, all the damage is reflected back onto the body.

The Bow of Death Killing condenses death arrows; if the target is hit, it will bestow death upon them, but the price is the user's life.

The Crown Respect Book is a book recording thousands of magics, which can be directly activated by chanting, but each magic use requires consuming a different amount of lifespan.

Such is the nature of these artifacts—none of their prices can be easily paid.

"We can create not only weapons but also auxiliary tools. We accept function customization, and basically all daily life needs can be accomplished, with the cost being much like that of this sword," said Lin Qianxuan.

Hearing this, Vera was completely moved. Compared to those artifacts that might require sacrificing half a life for each use, the artifacts Lin Qianxuan and his team make are much superior.

One artifact is powerful but absolute, yet can only be kept in a display case, not used for ten or eight years; another may be slightly weaker but can be freely used.

The choice seems obvious.

"Alright, I'll accept the deal," Vera nodded.

After that, it was about negotiating the trade details.

Vera wanted to know the specifics of the functional customization, while Lin Qianxuan also wished to see what kind of magical artifacts the Kingdom actually possessed.

Currently, the Kingdom owned a total of thirteen magical artifacts.

Excluding the five items Vera was unwilling to trade, Lin Qianxuan could see only eight.

They were:

The Staff of Harvesting, which consumes blood to make crops prosperous.

The Golden Pot, which exchanges fat for gold.

The Vase of Youth, which randomly reduces an organ and then restores youth to the user.

The Prophetic Conch, which can foretell the future, but the foretold future will inevitably happen and is always a bad omen for the predictor.

The Splitting Axe, which can cleave any object, but at the cost of the wielder's size being halved with each swing.

Trululi's Dagger, which restores all injuries and returns to a peak state when stabbed, but the price is death one day later.

The Crown Respect Book, which records a thousand magics and can be used by chanting, but each magic requires consuming different amounts of lifespan.

The Undying Copper Coin, which when tossed makes the user immune to death for a day, but at the cost of being plagued with misfortune for that day.

Among these, the slightly more usable ones were the Staff of Harvesting, the Golden Pot, and the Crown Respect Book.

The other five items were somewhat less useful.

However, Lin Qianxuan didn't mind and collected them all, then promised to custom-design eight magical artifacts for the Kingdom.

The custom conditions were something Vera was still considering, and Lin Qianxuan was not in a hurry, temporarily residing in the Royal Palace with Peiya, while also starting to study those eight magical artifacts.

The Prophetic Conch, The Splitting Axe, and The Undying Copper Coin were the three items Lin Qianxuan was relatively interested in.

Their functions were very absolute.

The foretold future will inevitably occur, can cleave all objects, and immunity from death for a day.

Although their costs made them somewhat less useful, looking at it from another perspective, the costs might not necessarily be costs.

Sometimes, thinking carefully, one might even use the cost as the main function.

For example, with the Prophetic Conch, its foretold future is inevitable, and it is a bad omen for the user. So, what if it was given to an opponent to use?

As for the opponent not using it voluntarily?

Lin Qianxuan's Dao Fruit of Artifact was not very powerful, but endowing a "passively activated" entry to something given to others shouldn't be difficult.

That would be akin to an unpredictable time bomb, bringing misfortune to whoever receives it.

The Splitting Axe too.

If the user is a machine, can the cost be transferred onto an inanimate object?

Or would the cost still be paid by the machine's maker?

The Undying Copper Coin provides immunity from death for a day, but during that day, one experiences misfortune.

It can even be paired with Trululi's Dagger.

This dagger restores one to their peak state when stabbed, but the cost is death one day later.

But as long as the Copper Coin is used, the cost can be circumvented.

This was attempted within the Kingdom

However, the person's outcome wasn't very good.

Under the misfortune of the Undying Copper Coin, he suffered a day's torture, only to be left with one breath, after which he used the dagger on himself to restore to peak condition, and then a day later could only use the Undying Coin to avoid death. Repeating this process several times left him exhausted both physically and mentally, ultimately choosing to accept the result of death.

Nevertheless, its effect was quite powerful, and from a certain angle, its price was even slightly lighter than that of Casualty Resistance.

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