Shadow's Edge

Creating the blueprints for the nanobots, August checked the block size and confirmed with the system.

' System, check if the block size can sustain itself ?'

[ Checking block size…]

[ Mapping the nanotubes with the blueprint. ]

..

..

[ Correction needed 24% ]

' Initiate correction.'

[ Correction initiated.]

..

[ Correction complete.]

'Divide half of the resources, and start building the first batch of nanobots.'

[ Initiating fabrication..]

[ Progress.. 1%]

[ Progress.. 2% ]

..

..

[ First batch nanobot fabrication complete.]

August looked at the pile of shining dust in front of him. It was enough to fill up a small jug.

The shining dust looked like matt black coal, but it was actually a pile of recently created nanobots.

He activated his force field and injected it inside the nanobots. The pile of nanobots started shaking and wriggled like ferrofluids. He tried to change the shape of the nanobots, but to control each individual nanobot to make their orientation, was quite hard. It required a lot of focus.

' System, take over. Change the shape to a sword.'

He knew it was harder to control all the trillions of nanobots with his mind alone, the system on the other hand was very good at this, so he left the task to it. He needed more time to get used to controlling them. The downside of this was, he couldn't change the shape of the nanobots whenever he pleased. If he could change the shape on his own, he could control it in any way he wished. During a fight, he could reshape them at any second.

He grabbed the black sword that was made of trillions of nanobots. The sword was shimmering with a sharp glint. It was really thin, almost like sheets of paper. The sides were only as wide as 4 inches. The whole sword was perfectly balanced and felt as light as a stick.

*SWISH* *SWISH*

Air vortexes appeared as he was swinging the sword. He put the sword in his palm and slashed through.

There was a cut for a split second, but it quickly disappeared.

' Hmm, it's good enough, just need a little power-up.'

He opened his palm and two A rank beast cores appeared in his hand. He specifically picked two beast cores that were suited for this. Fire and lightning attributes.

Due to the high conductivity of carbon nanotubes, it can tap into the whole power of the beast core. These two core will reinforce each other and with the carbon nanotubes, it can really become a deadly weapon.

As he was thinking about creating the artifact, he looked at his room. He was inside his house, so there was a chance that if the synthesizing process didn't work then, it might cause an explosion, He needed a place where he could do experiments without destroying his house.

' System, scan the underground, find the optimal spot, where I can build the lab.'

[ Scanning optimal space..]

[ Found a solid space ]

[ Depth : 207 meters ]

' Initiate the lab construction'

[ new construction process added ]

[ Initiating lab construction..]

[ Dividing resources from first construction…]

[ Progress..1%]

[ Progress..2%]

..

..

August wanted the lab to be built quicker, so he told the system to put more resources into the lab construction. He looked at the timer and the estimated completion time was around two hours. He started to look at the nanobot designs in the meantime, to add some features or if he could improve some attributes.

The lab was built so that it could hold all of the research material and all the defense artifacts for the house. That would act as the base of all operations for him for now. He planned how he would create the defense mechanisms. He had an idea about using artifacts to create an energy field that covered the whole house. This required at least S rank cores to handle all nodes if any powerful enemy came. But for quantum life forms, this was easy to break. So he needed at least SSS rank grade cores to keep them at bay. For foreign entities, it was not difficult to break the SSS rank but they have to physically manifest here in this world.

' I hope I can make stronger artifacts by then.'

He was too early in the study of artifacts, but he felt that with the help of the system, he can speed up the process quite a bit.

..

..

[ Lab construction complete.]

With that notification, August teleported himself to the newly built underground lab.

The room was about fifty meters on each side like a rectangle and the height was fifteen meters. The walls were made up of titanium with aerogel coating. He looked at the empty room with the tasting table in the middle.

' Change the walls, use marble over the aerogel.' He instructed the system.

The system applied white marble all around the room. It was a one piece coating with the purest of marble. The whole room transitioned into white from one end to another. The room turned entirely white with only the table in the middle with a matt black color.

August placed the sword in the center of the table and put the two beast cores beside it.

' Start the synthesizing '

[ Initiating synthesizing…]

..

..

[ Artifact condensed matter fabricated ]

' Apply it to the sword.'

[ Applying the artifact matte to the nanobot sword ]

[ Progress..1%]

[ Progress..2%]

..

..

*Bzzzt*

Sparks flew everywhere around the table as the merging process commenced. The two beast core condensed matter were attaching themselves to the sword.

It was really difficult to mix two beast cores into one artifact, but due to the quantum force field, August can force them to merge. As the force field was being applied to the process, violent sparks erupted from the center. The sword was merging with the beast cores.

*Bzzzt* *crack*

The sword's hilt changed color as the beast core merged with it. There were two circular blocks being formed at the end of the blade, just above the hilt.

[ Merging complete.]

[ Artifact fabricated successfully ]

[ Shadow's edge ]

[ Type : Artifact ]

[ Grade : S (upgradable) ]

[ Attack : 200 ]

[ Defense : 90 ]

[ Accuracy : 180 ]

[ Durability : 3000/3000]

[ Weight : 1 ]

[ Skills : Lighting slash(S), Flame wave(S), Tear(A), Pierce(A), ]

[ Level requirement : 50 ]

[ Imprint : Augustus Grey ]

He applied his aura to the blade while the artifact was being made, the Aura mixed with the beast core when they were combining made the artifact imprinted to him. He could change the imprint if he wanted to, by removing the aura from the blade while dismantling it.

He grabbed the sword and swung it around the room.

*SWISH*

*CRACK*

The mere attribute-less swings caused cracks in the walls of the room. The system initiated the automatic repair and the cracks disappeared.

' Oh, this turned out better than I thought.'

August was very satisfied with the result.