Chapter 7417  The Elegant Cut - Fixed

Though Ves found it difficult to justify his request, he had made the right decision to frame his acquisition as a desire to prepare a birthday gift for Andraste.

Master Laila Devos did not have an immediate and obvious reason to doubt his motives.

Andraste's most important birthday was truly coming up, and she was known to be a sword-wielding enthusiast.

Though Ves had access to enough superdimensional matter to gift her with a powerful superdimensional sword, Destroyer weapons possessed their own charm.

There was good strategic sense in bestowing Andraste with a Destroyer weapon.

Such a move would bring her closer in alignment with the Terran Alliance and its people.

After all, if Andraste fell in love with Destroyer weapons and wanted to obtain more powerful ones in the future, then it would be natural for her to cooperate more actively with the Terrans as she matured!

It just so happened that he truly had the intention of gifting a weak Destroyer sword to his rambunctious daughter.

Though there were risks associated with wielding them, he believed his daughter was more than capable of controlling such a weapon.

Even the weakest of infantry-grade Destroyer weapons posed a certain risk to their wielders.

They introduced enough danger to force an aspiring swordswoman such as Andraste to respect her weapon and maintain constant focus and discipline.

Ves considered this practice to be the light version of wielding a D-arm.

If Andraste wanted to get ready to confront truly powerful champions and monsters, then it would do her a lot of good by wielding a somewhat adversarial weapon.

Of course, there were still vast differences from one Destroyer weapon after another. Although the low-tier weapons were more widely available to the point where many of them had been produced in series, different parameters produced different effects.

After he successfully convinced Master Laila Rebecca Devos to provide a low-tier Destroyer weapon in exchange for a bit of spare medium-grade superdimensional matter, the Terrans moved quickly.

Ves had conveyed a certain degree of urgency. He also made it clear that he was pretty much willing to accept anything so long as it was a genuine Destroyer weapon.

It just so happened that there was at least one Terran scion in the fortified star system that carried a personal Destroyer weapon around.

When the Terrans quickly delivered the weapon to the Tarrasque, Ves couldn't help but twitch his lips at the sight of requested armament.

"Is this… a serious Destroyer weapon?" He asked in a dubious voice.

"It is." The Terran official responsible for delivering the item responded. "When issued your latest request to us, we approached every Terran with a personal Destroyer weapon in their possession. Ultimately, a young Terran officer of one of our armed forces agreed to exchange his luxurious dress sword for a small amount of superdimensional matter. This is the weapon in question."

Ves looked down at an opened rectangular container.

Resting on a soft, velvety surface was a thin, needle-like sword that was not too long.

Its length left a bit to be desired. While it couldn't be called a knife, its reach was fairly disappointing, especially in relation to its width. Such a skinny blade did not seem robust enough to withstand powerful forces.

The Terran deliveryman anticipated Ves' reaction. He smiled and continued to praise the armament.

"Please do not doubt the strength of this sword, sir. The Elegant Cut is a custom work by an up-and-coming artisan. Senior Smith Jiesera Dostoevskaya accepted a commission to forge a dress sword that is both functional and aesthetically impressive at the same time. She did so while working within a tight budget. As you can see with your own eyes, the resulting work of art is a weapon that any highborn Terran can wear with pride on their hips."

Ves was not familiar with this senior smith, but he knew that many members of the Dostoevsky Ancient Clan dedicated their lives to art and culture.

Such heritage must have granted Jiesera Dostoevskaya so many advantages that she already gained the qualifications to work with Destroyer weapons despite not getting certified as a master smith.

All of the information he heard so far made it clear that the Elegant Cut had been commissioned on the cheap.

It was a budget weapon that pretended to be classy and elegant.

What surprised Ves was that it did a decent job at the latter. Though it was merely a low-tier Destroyer weapon, even the weakest of those armaments could not be obtained without possession of a certain amount of wealth or connections or both.

Though it was clearly overboard for a military officer to carry around a Destroyer weapon as a dress sword, the regulations clearly did not prohibit it, so this was a great opportunity for the ambitious young man to stand out and distinguish himself!

Ves could easily envision the Elegant Cut fulfilling its purpose as a statement piece to anyone who carried it. Even if people disregarded its nature as a Destroyer weapon, its artful design ensured that no one would call it ugly!

He carefully reached out with his hands and rubbed the tips of his fingers against the inscribed surface of the scabbard.

It was a genuine work of art in its own right. Though it had not reached the standard of a masterwork, Ves could perceive and feel the passion and dedication that Jiesera Dostoevskaya channeled in this tedious manual work.

Her efforts clearly paid off in his opinion. The sculpted lines, symbols and objects added a sense of grandeur and prestige to what was otherwise a sword with very little mass and volume.

The centerpiece of the weapon was its basket hilt. It contrasted with the rest of the dress sword with its reflective golden exterior and its wide and extravagant design. Senior Smith Jeisera truly dedicated much of her creativity towards bending and polishing the metallic alloys to the desired shapes.

The encrusted jewels did not add any extra performance, but they added further class and color the dress weapon.

All in all, Ves had to admit that the Elegant Cut deserved to be one of the most impressive ceremonial weapons that he had laid his eyes on in his lifetime.

Yet that was only in the context of a work of art designed to impress rather than utilize on the battlefield.

Though Ves did not doubt the Elegant Cut's effectiveness in close-quarters combat, he did not think its former owner would ever seriously think about using it in favor of a firearm.

After scrutinizing its exterior a while,, Ves carefully reached out and unsheathed the blade from the scabbard.

It was beautiful though also as slim as he feared. While the blade still possessed an edge across its length, it did not look thick enough to withstand crushing force.

At least the straight edge ended with a very narrow but sharp tip. This was clearly a weapon that was excellent in thrusting attacks. Its narrow blade worked in its favor as the Destroyer weapon should more easily be able to penetrate through armor.

Clearly, Jiesera Dostoevskaya could not have gone for a more economic design for a Destroyer weapon unless she chose to design a poker or a knife.

While such armaments demanded less Destroyer-resistant materials and Destroyer particles to make, they were also much less suitable to fulfill the purpose of a ceremonial weapon.

Hence why the Elegant Cut took the form of an ancient court sword. It was small and slender enough to minimize its encumbrance to its wearer.

While everyone could guess that there were economic reasons behind its slender shape, this also added to the elegance of the beautiful sword.

"Well, this sword is certainly light and short enough to be carried around by a young teenager." Ves remarked.

Andraste was a growing girl. Though her designer baby genes ensured that she would grow faster and taller than many other humans, for now her height remained within the bounds of her physical age.

This was a deliberate choice. Neither her father nor her mother wanted their second daughter to develop her physicality too quickly and come across as a freak to other people.

This restrained growing pattern should hold until her late teens.

Once she approached her 20th birthday, her genes and other factors should spur on a second growth spurt.

Though not as dramatic as her puberty, this second surge was not only designed to give her dense and highly efficient musculature to fight as well as an elite commando, but also provide her with superior height and reach.

Of course, her exact physical development could never be completely planned in advance. Life was chaotic in this way. There was only so much gene programming could determine in advance.

Nonetheless, by the time Andraste turned into an adult who was ready to take on the universe, she should definitely be able to tower over her parents.

Ves partially dreaded this outcome. Even though he was a phase lord who could easily tower over mechs, his human stature was only average compared to other humans.

It would be difficult for him to rein in his second daughter's boundless enthusiasm once she grew old enough to follow her own pursuits.

Oh well.

To a soldier and especially an aspiring swordmaster, possessing a tall and incredibly fit body was a boon rather than a bane.

The only problem was that the Elegant Cut would lose much of its suitability as a main weapon at that stage.

While its light and slim design still made it easier for her to carry it around in situations where a larger weapon may come across as too intimidating, it would still look disproportionate compared to her projected mature form.

Ves shrugged his shoulders. Perhaps he should arrange a more powerful Destroyer weapon at that time.

He felt a bit better about procuring this birthday gift if he regarded it as a stopgap solution.

The Elegant Cut should serve Andraste well in the next decade.

Ves had more than enough time to work together with Ketis to procure or develop a much more suitable sword for his daughter!

As he continued to study the thin and deceptively fragile blade, he furrowed his brows for another reason.

"It is a pity that this is just a tier 10 Destroyer weapon."

He could already feel it from the exposed blade. Compared to the tier 3 Destroyer spear assigned to the Riot Mark III, the Elegant Cut radiated none of the danger and lethality of the former!

When Ves compared his impressions of the two weapons with similar natures, it was like comparing a ferocious tiger to a harmless kitten!

Though the Elegant Cut was definitely not as pitiful as a butter knife, there was no way to avoid the conclusion that it ranked at the bottom of the hierarchy of Destroyer weapons.

"Please do not look down on this blade." The Terran official politely retorted. "Our tier 10 Destroyer weapons are more than dangerous enough to wield to most Terrans. It is dangerous to underestimate its potential for harm. There have been instances in the past where disrespectful wielders have lost limbs due to lacking care when carrying them. The Elegant Cut may not be able to slice through armor as easily as tier 9 or tier 8 Destroyer weapons, but its performance is still superior to many transphasic weapons."

In terms of cutting power alone, the court sword did not come close to the unnatural performance of superdimensional weapons!

Of course, Ves considered this to be an unfair comparison. He did not begrudge the Elegant Cut for not being able to outperform a genuine superdimensional blade. The former was an outdated show piece that belonged to the previous age.

Well, tier 10 Destroyer weapon or not, it at least contained enough Destroyer particles for Ves to work with.

He had not forgotten about his true objective.

The difficulty of extracting a single particle from this weapon should be much easier!

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