Moreover, the marked clothing didn't necessarily have to be worn. Nolan could simply gather some high-quality materials and ask Raiden Ei to forge a set of armor or garments with exceptionally high damage absorption.
Then he could mark the armor, himself, and the girls as well. If anyone took damage, it would automatically be transferred to the armor.
As long as the armor remained intact, the effect would persist. Tsk, how ridiculously overpowered!
Thanks to his flexible thinking, Nolan quickly thought of the best use for the affection skill "Grace of the Night's Opulent Splendor."
But at his current level, any attack capable of threatening him would likely overwhelm even high-tier defensive clothing—possibly even golden-grade items focused purely on defense.
In that case, even if Ei crafted a legendary armor set, its actual effectiveness for him might be limited.
Sure, a single redirected attack wouldn't destroy a divine artifact right away, but it wouldn't come out unscathed either.
And if the incoming strike was powerful enough, even the artifact might be obliterated in one hit.
In that sense, transferring the hit to a divine-tier armor or to ordinary clothing would result in the same thing—destruction in one strike. Obviously, the latter had better cost-efficiency.
So he could ask Ei to craft artifact-tier armor for the girls, but for himself, regular clothing was the smarter choice.
He'd bring it up with Ei tonight. Their storage had plenty of materials that weren't currently being used—hopefully enough to forge at least one divine-quality set of armor.
As Nolan pondered, he soon spotted several floating islets ahead, suspended in midair, connected by translucent bridges.
"Floating isles? Very much in line with the style of those old immortals."
Keqing, in her short purple skirt, lifted her chin slightly as she gazed into the distance.
"This domain was probably built by the immortals," Nolan replied.
He remembered that the God of Dust had close ties with the Adepti, and during the Archon War, she was even allied with the Geo Archon.
"Look ahead—there seem to be a lot of mechanical constructs," Yelan said, arms folded, eyes narrowing at what guarded the floating islets.
The constructs looked wooden, shaped like mechanical beasts—tigers, wolves, bears—and there were also ruin guards, ruin hunters, and even massive automated arrow towers!
"Oh? They don't look very friendly…"
Nolan noted how the mechanical beasts began to stir, slowly rising and locking their blood-red eyes onto the trio.
"Hehe, looks like we'll need to get past them before we can reach the floating isles," Yelan said with a soft chuckle.
"Something's not right… they seem to be controlled by something,"
Keqing said, frowning. The hostility radiating from the constructs was far too intense—totally unlike how mechanical automatons were supposed to behave.
"Yeah, I noticed that too."
Nolan used his spiritual sense and confirmed that some malicious force was indeed present within the machines.
Normally, automatons like ruin guards were driven by some form of energy. But they were still just machines—they had no souls, and without souls, there should be no spiritual energy either.
"ROAR!"
Suddenly, a mechanical tiger let out a deafening roar and lunged straight at them.
[Level: 72]
Nolan's pupils slowly turned gold. That thing was over level 70! Stronger than most adventurers!
It had to be one of the constructs created by the God of Dust, Guizhong. No ordinary machine would be that powerful.
"How rude."
Yelan curled her lips into a smirk. She raised her right arm, gloved in long black sleeves, and aimed her palm at the charging automaton.
Glowing aqua-blue threads of water appeared from thin air, extending from her palm and wrapping around the mechanical tiger's limbs and tail, binding it mid-air.
"ROAR!"
The mechanical tiger unleashed a thunderous bellow—no different from a true beast king—and even generated an invisible sonic wave in its rage.
Sonic waves were hard to dodge due to their area of effect. Yelan snapped her fingers—though the sound was muffled by her gloves, it didn't stop her from conjuring a water wall to shield them.
The invisible shockwave slammed into the wall of water, sending out ripples in neat, rhythmic patterns. Within that ebb and flow, all the sonic energy was dissolved and neutralized.
"ROOOAARRR!!"
Just then, a slower but larger mechanical bear stomped forward. Its massive paws had clearly been designed for raw force—it must have been specially modified for power during its creation.
The mechanical giant bear, its blood-red eyes glowing fiercely, let out a thunderous roar and slammed its enlarged mechanical paw down toward them!
Its target was Yelan, who was currently binding the mechanical tiger—seemingly intent on rescuing its comrade. That kind of behavior wasn't typical of mindless constructs.
Unless, from the very beginning, the God of Dust had programmed their instructions with something like "assist one another."
But rather than that, Nolan was more inclined to believe something was controlling them from behind the scenes.
Based on basic logic and observation, that specially reinforced bear paw probably packed a terrifying punch.
"Zzztt—"
The crackling of lightning rang out beside him as violet arcs of electricity surged across Keqing's body, even dancing along the pale skin of her arms.
Her twin tails of purple hair lifted slightly with static charge. With a cold snort, she summoned her sword from her Vision and vanished in a streak of lightning, moving faster than the eye could follow.
A sound like metal piercing glass echoed through the air. The next instant, Keqing had already appeared above the mechanical bear's head.
The legendary sword Lion's Roar gleamed sharply as she drove it down from above, piercing through the bear's blood-red eye and skewering its entire skull!
Judging by the way its body sparked wildly like a shorted circuit, the construct's energy core had most likely been destroyed.
As expected, it wasn't long before the mechanical giant bear went still and collapsed.
From the corner of his eye, Nolan caught sight of a few nimble mechanical wolves circling around, ready to pounce from the flanks.
Their jaws, forged from solid metal, opened wide. But instead of just teeth, a thick steel tube suddenly extended from their throats!
Covered in runes and formation inscriptions, the tubes gathered massive amounts of elemental energy within—reminding him of the time the Adepti aboard the Jade Chamber activated Guizhong's automatons.
Tsk. Don't tell me you're trying to fire laser cannons now... Nolan grumbled internally. Not wanting to risk anyone getting hurt, he didn't give the mechanical wolves a chance to attack.
Without any visible movement from him, several translucent, arm-thick threads emerged from the surrounding void and instantly coiled around the machines, twisting with immense force!
The screech of twisting metal and snapping wood filled the air. At the same time, a prompt popped up on his character panel:
[Defeated Powerful Enemies ×4. Obtained 22,311 Adventure EXP.]
Farther ahead, more constructs—resembling Ruin Guards and Ruin Hunters—were beginning to activate. But the "Sword God" was already on the move. Its golden eyes flashed, and an invisible sword aura ripped through all of them!
Adventure EXP +6233
Adventure EXP +8235
Two more notifications followed in quick succession.
CRACK!
Meanwhile, Yelan used her Water Threads to dismember the restrained mechanical tiger, its rune-etched metal and wooden fragments clattering to the ground.
"Even if something is controlling them, these constructs don't seem all that impressive."
Yelan shook her head, her side locks swaying gently as she spoke.
"They're still just machines, after all—limited by their materials."
Keqing sheathed her sword, Lion's Roar, with practiced grace.
Nolan was just about to call the two of them to move toward the floating isles when he noticed a strange shadow forming over the remains of the destroyed constructs.
A swirling mass of darkness rose into the air, merging into a strange, circular silhouette with elongated, narrow eyes and a wickedly curved grin:
"Excellent! Excellent! Only powerful bodies deserve to be possessed by me. Compared to those wooden puppets, you are far more worthy!"
The voice echoed with the effect of several people speaking simultaneously, making Nolan instinctively uncomfortable.
The dark shadow continued, as if it hadn't noticed or didn't care:
"Hehehe… Come forth! Ascend the highest floating isle—I await you above. Whoever reaches the summit first shall earn the right to become my vessel!
Those who fail… shall become my puppets! Hahaha! Tremble! Despair! Ahahahaha!!"
Nolan, Yelan, and Keqing exchanged glances. He stared up at the swirling black shadow and muttered in disbelief:
"…Is this thing serious? Did it go insane after being sealed away too long?"
[Level: 98]
His golden "Eye of Judgment" easily saw through the shadow's level—98, already close to the power level of a god. But to come flaunting its strength in front of him? Clearly looking for a beating.
It was obvious this was the being controlling the mechanical constructs. It probably also had something to do with the damage to the elemental monuments that powered the formations.
With power and sentience like that, it was hard not to be suspicious.
It must've been something originally sealed within this domain, and due to long-term neglect and disrepair, had finally broken free.
"What—?! You dare mock me, the supreme and greatest King of Cursed Artifacts?!"
Upon hearing Nolan's remark, the shadow became utterly enraged.
Malicious energy surged out like a tidal wave, its overwhelming presence causing even the air around them to feel noticeably colder.
It felt as though one moment they were in summer—and the next, they were plunged straight into winter.
"So cold… and such overwhelming malice…"
Yelan and Keqing crossed their arms, instinctively frowning. Unlike Nolan, they weren't strong enough to remain completely unaffected.
Under the oppressive wave of malice, even their internal elemental energy began to destabilize. Guiding the elements became difficult, and their focus wavered.
"Hmph."
Nolan stepped up beside them and wrapped his arms around both—one on his left, one on his right.
While sharing his body heat with them, he released a surge of spiritual power, crashing into the dark shadow's oppressive aura and smashing it back!
"Impossible!"
The black shadow widened its eerie eyes in disbelief. How could a mere human's spiritual force overwhelm that of the supreme King of Cursed Artifacts?
"You bastard! What illusion trick did you use?!"
The shadow struggled and growled through clenched teeth,
"No way a human could possibly be this powerful!"
Nolan didn't bother arguing with villains. His immense spiritual power surged once more—
The shadow didn't expect the sudden second wave, and before it could resist, the crushing force from all sides pulverized it into nothingness.
From what Nolan observed, the black shadow didn't appear to wield any kind of divine authority—meaning it wasn't a god.
So there was no need to worry about killing it causing some kind of catastrophe. He could just wipe it out cleanly.
As expected, the shadow was obliterated without incident, and its presence disappeared from the area. But strangely, no EXP notification popped up on his character panel.
He didn't even need to think—there was no way that thing was dead.
"Hahaha! Foolish human! The great King of Cursed Artifacts is eternal and undying!"
The voice came again from above—arrogant and mocking. It was coming from the highest floating isle in the sky.
"It escaped?" Keqing looked up at the sky.
"Looks like it," Nolan replied, standing very close to both women, catching the faint fragrance from their bodies.
"How long are you planning to keep holding us?"
Yelan gently covered her lips and coughed lightly, hinting with a smile.
Although the moment she was pulled into his arms had brought her a fleeting sense of security, that didn't mean he could use it as an excuse to take advantage—Yelan rolled her eyes internally.
Keqing didn't really mind. She was used to being hugged by him by now.
"It thinks it can escape after that sneak attack? Let's go catch it!"
Nolan pretended not to hear and kept his arms wrapped around their soft waists.
"You…"
Yelan could feel the firmness of his hold and realized he had no intention of letting go just yet. With a helpless expression, she thought—fine, she'd let it slide as a reward this time.
[Yelan Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 320 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.7 (250/700)]
Nolan blinked in surprise at the affection notification. As expected—being a little shameless with a girl who already liked you really did accelerate the bond.
This could barely be called one-sided anymore… it was mutual, in a way. The thought made him quietly pleased.
"Ahem, you two should stay close to me. That creepy shadow might try another sneak attack," he added, offering a convenient excuse, then headed toward the first floating isle—arms still around both women.
"Hmph. Shameless and fake," Keqing muttered coolly, arms crossed.
They stepped onto a golden, semi-transparent bridge inscribed with runes. Nolan didn't bother arguing back—because his "Sword God" avatar had already reached the first floating isle.
This island was around a hundred square meters in size, covered in overgrown grass—likely due to long neglect.
Some of it had grown as tall as his knees. If the plants weren't constrained by their limits, they might've grown taller than a person.
Of course, many were also withered and dying. The island lacked the vitality of a truly living environment.
Floating midair, the "Sword God" scanned the entire area. No constructs or monsters were present.
However, beneath a tree at the edge of the isle, a Luxurious treasure chest sat quietly waiting.
(End of Chapter)
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