'Open.'
Just then, his system screen went blank, right before a golden wheel appeared dead centre.
『Processing request...』
It spun, and an arrow at the bottom cycled through four possible options: weapon, enchantment, rune, and consumable.
After a few seconds, the wheel came to a stop, and a soft chime rang in Han's mind.
『A C-rank weapon has been added to inventory!』
"Chul, how do people in those fantasy novels of yours usually access their inventory?" Han asked.
"Inventory? We weren't given an inventory," Chul replied, before whispering his own system screen into existence. "Or at least I didn't see anything like that when I was browsing through it."
'Than perhaps just whispering it...'
"Inventory."
A pulse of heat spread throughout Han's body, and an instant later, his eyes pulsed with honey-gold light; exactly like when he used Queen's Gaze.
Chul stumbled back in surprise.
When the light finally died down, a silver blade rested in the palm of Han's hands.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━┓
『࿈ Palin Dagger࿈ 』
─Enhancements─
〖None〗
─Enchantments─
〖F-Rank: None〗
〖E-Rank: None〗
〖D-Rank: None〗
〖C-Rank[Max]: Return〗
┗━━━━━━━━━━━┛
"You got a weapon?" Chul asked, excited. He scrambled over, inspecting the blade as if it were a newly discovered species. "... It has writing on it," he whispered, eyes locked on the blue gem in its hilt. "And that looks like an enchantment stone," he added, before trying to grab the blade.
Han pulled it back.
"I was just looking," Chul said, raising his hands in defeat.
Han flipped the blade in his hand, getting a feel for its weight. It was about the length of his forearm, too long to be called a true dagger, but too short to be called a sword.
"Enchantment? So like... magic?"
Chul nodded in response.
"Hmm... it says it has a return enchanment on the system scre..."
The moment Han uttered 'return', the blade burst into particles of blue light, startling both of them.
"What the hell was that?" Chul asked, having already taken cover behind the coach.
'He moves quickly for someone so chubby,' Han thought to himself, before something cold touched his hand.
He looked down, and there it was, the blade reappeared.
『Cooldown countdown... 10』
『9...』
"When did you even get that?" Chul asked, still hiding behind the coach.
"Right after we exited the metallic room," Han whispered, touching the tip of the blade with his finger. Just a touch was enough to draw blood.
'It's incredibly sharp,' he thought to himself, sucking on his finger to stop the blood dripping to the floor.
Once the countdown completed, he flipped the blade once more before hurling it at the wall. It dug into concrete with a thud, a quarter of its blade sliding in smooth like butter.
"Return."
With that, the blade burst into blue particles once again before reappearing in his hands.
"That's insane..." Chul whispered in awe, staring at the hole in the wall.
Just then, Han's stomach grumbled, but this time, there was a biting sensation, as if he were digesting himself. It felt like he hadn't eaten in days.
"I say we go test this weapon out," he announced.
"I say we don't," Chul responded. "It's safer if we wait for sunrise. No offence, but just having an ability doesn't suddenly make you... I mean us, knive experts," he continued. "Plus, close combat weapons are inferior."
Han nodded. He could understand Chul's caution about walking around at night, but Han wasn't certain he'd be able to survive several hours on an empty stomach; it felt... unnatural almost.
Besides.
Han flicked the knife in the air, grabbing mid-descent, before slashing at the air a few times.
"I'm no knife expert, but I've helped my father skin goats since I was a child," he said.
Chul merely side-glanced Han's performance. "Woopty doo. I've helped my father hunt game animals with a sniper since I was a kid. 210-meter personal record. But even then, I'm still not confident in my aim."
'Ah, so that's how he was able to make the shot on the warrior goblin when everyone else can't.'
"That settles it then. With your aim and fireballs, and my dagger, let's scope out the area. Maybe we can find some food."
Chul sighed at that. "You're still going on about that?" he asked.
Han just shrugged.
"You're serious?" Chul sighed.
"You know what. Fine. So long as I get to stand in the back. Don't come crying to me when you get bit or something," he added, before dusting his clothes off.
However, Han wasn't too worried. With Queen's Gaze, close combat wasn't too risky for him. Granted of course he wasn't fighting anything as fast as the goblin warrior.
"Hmm, I do remember seeing a sign while I was dragging you here. A convenience store or something... should be somewhere close by," he added. "Though I don't know if it'll still have food... or if it'll even be edible."
"Good, so we have somewhere to start."
*
After searching the house for supplies, the two began their exploration.
They'd equipped themselves with backpacks, torches, and a few rags they had found lying around the house.
"You sure you want to go ahead with this?" Chul whispered behind Han, as they snuck through the backyard, using the cover of shrubs to avoid detection from anyone... or anything that might be watching.
Han nodded. "There's no guarantee that we won't be sucked into another metallic room. I'd like to have at least eaten before that happens again," he replied.
Han looked down the road. It was completely empty, with no sounds whatsoever. No birds, no dogs, not even crickets.
He looked down the other end of the road, and he could just barely see something sticking out towards the far end.
"Queen's Gaze," he whispered.
Time slowed, and that honey-gold tint filled his vision.
He focused on the object, and his vision zoomed in.
'What is that?' he thought to himself.
Above a rundown convenience floated a massive exclamation mark, emitting a yellow fog. It was slightly transparent, so Han assumed it might be a trick of light.
'Still. The convenience store is in that direction. Might as well go check things out.'
He returned time to its normal pace.
"This way," he whispered, before rushing for the fence over to the next house.
Chul grumbled in response. "I don't like this," he whispered, before reluctantly following along.
Han scaled the fence in two quick movements... the fruits of years of soccer and athletics.
While Chul. just stood there, looking down at his belly before sighing.
"I don't like this one bit."