CHAPTER 172: PARASITE

Inside the artifact workshop, the atmosphere shifted the moment Grom placed his hands over the technowatch. His workbench glowed with layered runic circuits, gears unfolding in quiet, precise movements as though the very table were awakening in anticipation of something extraordinary.

Zane leaned against the wall, arms loosely crossed, the faintest hint of amusement in his eyes. Lucen stood nearby—tense, unsure how far this madness would actually go. Seris hid a trembling curiosity behind her composed expression, while Corvin watched warily, clearly expecting an explosion... or a murder.

Elena and Vira, who had intended to leave earlier, now stayed out of sheer intrigue. Grom had staked his life on this attempt. No mage or engineer could walk away from witnessing that.

The dwarf lowered his face close to the technowatch, his runic eye whirring faintly as layers of microscopic inscriptions came into view. His fingers hovered above the artifact, tracing the air just a breath above its surface.

"First observation..." he muttered, voice thick with disbelief. "The runes are so microscopic yet precise... this level of detail should be impossible."

Elena’s brows twitched, and she shot a sharp glance at Zane. He didn’t react—only watched calmly.

Grom didn’t notice anything around him. He reached for a fine-tipped extraction tool and gently attempted to pry open the back panel of the watch.

Or what should have been a panel.

"There seem to be lock-runes hidden inside the microscopic layers... a puzzle within a puzzle." He frowned, leaning closer. "This isn’t normal rune integration. These are—no, no, that’s impossible."

He fed mana through the tool. Immediately, a series of luminous lines bloomed in midair—branching fractal patterns, weaving like nerves, pulsing like something alive. They spread into a floating schematic above the watch’s back.

Elena’s eyes widened. "Is that... mana latticework?"

"No," Grom said sharply, almost offended. He shook his head, beard trembling. "This goes beyond latticework. These formations react not only to mana... but to thoughts, emotions, and internal rhythm."

He inhaled shakily, his runic eye flickering faster as it attempted to keep up.

"This thing adapts to its wielder."

Zane’s lips curved just slightly.

Of course it does.

Grom’s next words were barely above a whisper—disbelief, reverence, and fear blending into one rare moment.

"...A self-evolving artifact."

The room went dead silent.

A self-evolving artifact—the very phrase felt like blasphemy.

Techniques that evolve with the user existed, yes, but only a handful across the entire continent... and all of them belonged to legends.

But an artifact capable of evolving on its own?

It shouldn’t exist.

It couldn’t exist.

And yet—it was sitting casually on Zane Creed’s wrist.

Grom exhaled shakily, then said in a strained voice,

"Looks like I made a mistake... thinking I understood its level.

To know more, I’ll have to look inside this thing."

He picked up another tool, dwarven runes glowing along its tip. He approached the technowatch carefully and activated a mana scan.

The moment the mana touched the artifact—

It vanished.

Absorbed in an instant.

Grom jerked back, eyes wide.

"What—?! My mana disappeared. It didn’t reject it... it consumed it."

Zane didn’t move.

"I told you, old man. You won’t understand it with normal methods.

You can’t brute-force this thing—it has a very specific way of unlocking."

But instead of backing away, Grom grinned—half furious, half exhilarated.

"That only makes me want to tear it apart even more!"

He grabbed a crystalline caliper marked with triangular inscriptions—one of his highest-grade analyzers. The moment it neared the artifact—

The lights flickered.

The workshop hummed, low and ominous, as if the technowatch were responding to the intrusion.

A bead of sweat rolled down Grom’s cheek. He didn’t stop.

He pressed the tool against the watch.

CRACK—!!

The analyzer shattered instantly.

A violent force burst outward like a shockwave, scattering papers, tools, and shards across the room.

Lucen cursed and cast a barrier.

Elena conjured a cascade of golden sigils around herself.

Vira’s nature mana spiraled like twisting vines.

Caelum... did absolutely nothing. He simply stood there, unbothered.

Grom stared at the ruined tool—his best analyzer.

"It... broke it."

"No." Zane stepped forward, calm and faintly amused.

"It rejected you.

It rejected your method. Look again."

Grom tried. His runic eye flickered erratically, the patterns shifting too fast to track. But he wasn’t done yet.

"Maybe... maybe the answer is not to use my mana."

He grabbed another device—a metal precision probe—and gently brought it close.

This time, the runic formations moved.

Rearranging. Shifting. Reacting.

Grom’s face lit up with excitement.

"Excellent... excellent design! A layered runic puzzle for unlocking!"

Twelve circular runes rotated around the backplate like shifting constellations.

Each layer needed to be turned in a specific sequence.

Just one mistake—

Click. Reset.

The entire array rearranged itself into a new pattern.

He tried again.

Click. Reset.

The combination changed slightly every attempt, never repeating twice—intentionally designed to stop brute forcing.

Grom’s breath quickened, both exhilarated and terrified.

"This mechanism... the complexity... It’s beyond anything I’ve ever seen.

Even I... even I don’t know if I can solve it..."

The room watched, holding their breath—not because they feared he would fail.

But because if he did...

He would die.

Little by little, Grom’s frustration built.

His hands trembled. His breath grew heavy. Sweat lined his forehead.

Every failed attempt reset the puzzle. Every reset mocked him.

But he refused to stop—refused to lose.

Then—

Click.

A perfectly aligned harmony of runic circles locked into place.

The room stilled.

Grom froze... then exhaled in relief.

"Finally..."

He wiped the sweat from his brow using the back of his hand, fingers shaking from effort.

Carefully—almost reverently—he lifted the backplate of the technowatch.

And what he saw inside made his eyes widen in disbelief.

Tiny interconnected tubes.

Miniature mana chambers.

Hair-thin capillaries.

And runes—thousands of microscopic runes—engraved on pieces so small normal eyes would never detect them.

Grom activated his runic eye, zooming his vision.

"...Impossible..." he whispered.

The internal structure was too complex.

It’s too refined and precise.

He tried to analyze.

"This part... it should be stabilizing mana," he muttered.

"No... not stabilizing. It’s channeling mana across multiple... layers? But stabilizing mana is happening somewhere else... but where...?"

The more he saw, the less he understood.

"What is this design...?

What principle is this...?

I don’t understand..."

His breath grew harsher.

Frustration deepened.

Irritation turned to obsession.

And while he was drowning in it—

Zane spoke. Loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Just a little more...!"

He smirked.

Caelum’s gaze sharpened—he understood immediately.

He nodded subtly.

Elena, Vira, Lucen, Seris, and Corvin remained confused... until they felt it.

A pulse.

A ripple of sinister mana.

Lucen’s face hardened.

"This mana...! It’s the same as those Vassel bastards we fought in the dungeon!"

Vira’s expression turned sharp.

"Look at Grom."

Only now did they notice—

The black, writhing energy leaking from Grom’s body.

Its was not controlled or intentional.

But bubbling out as his frustration peaked.

Elena’s grip tightened around her staff.

"He’s the traitor...!"

She raised her staff—and in that instant—**

Zane appeared in front of her.

Effortlessly.

Like he had always been there.

His hand wrapped around her staff.

"No," Zane said calmly.

"He is not a traitor."

His violet eyes lifted toward Caelum.

"You know it, right?"

Caelum crossed his arms, unfazed.

"I felt it the moment he tried to grab your artifact."

Lucen looked between them—bewildered.

"What are you two talking about?!"

Zane finally released Elena’s staff, stepping past her as his eyes settled on the trembling dwarf.

Grom still hadn’t noticed the mana leaking from him—dark, oily, unnatural.

His entire focus was still drowning in the impossible mechanisms of the technowatch.

Zane exhaled softly.

"There is something inside Grom," he said.

Everyone froze.

"A foreign presence. A parasite buried deep. And if we don’t remove it soon..."

His gaze sharpened, tone dropping into something cold.

"...it will kill him."

Zane’s voice was calm, final:

"And guess what it’s from those Vassel guys and now... it needs to be expelled immediately."

A cold shiver ran across the room.