Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1542: From one Craftsman to Another

<=Okay...at this point, our lord is literally playing with fire...=>

...

"Okay, I’m confused as all hell," Antonio confessed. "I’ve used [Chaos] before, and it feels like pushing electrified syrup flowing through my veins. How are you doing it so...smoothly? Wait, why did I make that analogy for using [Chaos]?"

Zhen Liu wanted to shrug at this question, feeling it was appropriate to be aloof in the face of scrutiny, but he decided to give an actual answer since Antonio had been shaping up to be a surprisingly good disciple of [Chaos].

"The thing about [Chaos] is that it’s...random, but not completely random. It’s just always present in little interactions, little changes. I focus on one of those changes for this, and I get the desired overall effect. In this case I want something to explode, and—bam!"

Zhen Liu fired off the [Chaos] fireball towards the wall; he had fired the one powered by aether.

The effect was more or less the same.

"See?"

"Uh..."

"Oh, come the fuck on..."

For about the first thirty seconds.

A little bit after the fireball made of [Chaos] impacted the wall, several parts of it began to glow with a weird light and in a pattern that Zhen Liu recognized as being the type of runework that Logos and Pathos would use for their weird array shit back at the library.

Moments later, a doorway that had been undetectable with aether had suddenly appeared in the back of a room that was originally used to hold aether art scrolls.

Zhen Liu couldn’t help but to think that there was some time of irony in this revelation, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure it the fuck out.

Hell, he was too busy inwardly grimacing at his karmic void luck kicking in again...and the questions that were about to follow in the next ten seconds.

"What the—did you—"

"No."

"So it was just—"

"A complete coincidence, yes."

"And you had no idea that—"

"The Redoxas had somehow built their base of operations over this hidden cache? Not in the slightest."

"I...what is your life?"

"Fucked if I know," Zhen Liu sighed before turning towards the original doorway. "Let’s just call the others over and be done with whatever bullshit the universe has in store for me now. Again, going on vacation once this is done."

...Kaijin Talk Time...

[Huh...okay, y’all are right. Betting against our lord finding weird stuff is a surefire way to lose a bet,] Hurricroak admitted as she watched Zhen Liu open up the secret passageway that screamed "Kaijin Lord Inheritance." [At this point, we should just take bets about whether or not he finds something useful or...what’s the term? Foreshadowy as fuck?]

[I don’t think that’s a term,] Nepherage retorted.

[Whatever...it...is...we...should...try...and...mitigate this...next...time.] Frosttusk rumbled.

[How the fuck do you mitigate the universe being a dick?] Screamira asked.

...Now back to the mortals...

It didn’t take too long for the others to gather in the aether arts storage room once Zhen Liu had put out the call that he had discovered something weird.

It did, however, take a bit of time for Zhen Liu to answer everyone’s questions. Well, it took time for Zhen Liu to relay the answers that Logos and Pathos fed him through their connection.

"So...this is what the Rainbowsmith left behind?" Jinju Ren asked.

"Maybe," Zhen Liu answered. "Logos and Pathos said that the Rainbowsmith actually had multiple little caches like these filled with all sorts of weird crap. Something about wanting to leave the right items to the right people via the power of luck and fate. Either way, this could be a major inheritance or absolutely nothing."

"...do you really think it’s going to be a case of the latter?" Zhen Xing asked while narrowing his eyes at Zhen Liu.

Out of everyone in the room, he was the only one who knew the more intimate details of Zhen Liu’s "karmic void."

"No," Zhen Liu answered in a curt manner, as if he was simply attempting to reply with a bit of humor. In reality, he was masking his own weariness of it all. "But hey, it’ll probably be something interesting."

...One short walk later...

As luck would have it, the secret door in the aether scroll room didn’t lead to an unnecessarily long hallway. Rather, it was just a singular secret chamber with exactly one item in it.

An item that resembled a coffin was covered in several layers of curse-sealing papers and placed upon a pedestal that gave Zhen Liu a massive sense of deja vu. However, unlike that time with Corpse Doll, he could tell that this particular coffin-looking item was definitely empty.

Then again, the curse-sealing papers surrounding it could’ve been blocking his senses this entire time.

"Alright, what the fuck am I looking at?" Olstenna asked. "Is that the coffin of the Rainbowsmith himself?"

"I don’t think so," Jinju Ren answered first as she narrowed her gaze at the coffin and papers. "The papers look...weirdly new. In fact, this entire chamber feels new too."

"But how?" Zhen Tai asked. "The rest of this place is older than us, and this appears to be the only entrance in or out."

"Maybe it’s weird spatial power stuff?" Zhen Xing suggested. "Maybe we’re in a pocket dimension or a localized wandering ruin?"

"Maybe..."

"Zhen Liu, what do you want to do?" Riann asked the young Kaijin Lord.

As the guy who had led them to this chamber and the literal successor to the Rainbowsmith, it was ultimately Zhen Liu’s decision to determine what the fuck they were going to do in terms of investigating the place.

Zhen Liu was silent as he gazed upon the strange sealed box on the pedestal before him.

"Fuck it, might as well try and—"

BAM!

"Ah! What the hell?"

The moment Zhen Liu tried to get closer, he found himself getting repelled by a sudden burst of [Chaos] to the face. It didn’t do any lasting damage, but it felt as if someone threw a bouncy ball at his head with the speed of a homerun pitch.

A part of Zhen Liu wanted to walk back in to see if it would happen again, but the smarter parts of him told him that was probably a bad idea. Especially since that jolted to the face bestowed upon him the knowledge about what the fuck had occurred in that exact instant.

’Of fucking course...’Zhen Liu mentally grumbled as he corrected his position. ’Its always got to be like this, huh?’

"Xiao Liu!" Jinju Ren cried out in alarm at Zhen Liu’s sudden jolting. "Stupid little—"

"Wait!" Zhen Liu called out before his fiancée could draw her saber and probably destroy whatever the hell was left here by the Rainbowsmith. "I think I know what’s going on."

"You do?" Zhen Xing asked for the group.

"Yes," Zhen Liu clearly stated. "Back on Roaring Tide, the Storm Queen’s inheritance did something similar. It’s a test from one Kaijin Lord to another."

"Okay...what’s the test?" Zhen Xing followed up.

"This."

With a snap of his fingers, Zhen Liu summoned Nepherage to his side.

The crimson jade kaijin looked rather fierce as she appeared kneeling by Zhen Liu’s side.

"You ready?"

[Always,] Nepherage growled.

"Alright," Zhen Liu exhaled in order to focus his mind for what was to come. "[Taboo], appear."

Under Zhen Liu’s command, Nepherage transformed into a ball of flames before reforming into a drill lance made of crimson jade in Zhen Liu’s hands. Once the weapon was in his hands, Zhen Liu took on a stance like he was getting ready to thrust forward with all of his might.

"The Rainbowsmith was a craftsman, down to the fact that every last one of his kaijin were originally weapons, tools, and pieces of art that he had meticulously made himself," Zhen Liu explained to his allies. "This barrier is basically a challenge to any Kaijin Lord that comes this way to put their ability to create kaijin to the test. To see if their ability to form into the weapons of war that a Kaijin Lord may need in order to conquer their enemies and defend their loved ones."

Maintaining this stance, Zhen Liu began to channel his [Chaos] into Nepherage, while Nepherage undertook the task of controlling and distributing the power to the best of her ability.

"And the prize for being able to break this barrier, to prove that his successors had the power to create kaijin that matched or exceeded his expectations..." Zhen Liu continued to explain until the power in Nepherage’s [Taboo] reached its zenith.

[Volcanic Victory Charge!]

Once it had reached its zenith, Zhen Liu thrust the lance forward and released a force of volcanic might that not only shattered the invisible barrier before them but also burned away the sealing paper around the box on the center pedestal, revealing that this box was actually a mold for a humanoid figure.

"...he would allow the inheritor to receive his penultimate gift: a way to further refine the bodies of completed kaijin."

"Say what?"

As far as the rest of the group knew, the kaijin were already the perfect warriors.

The fuck did Zhen Liu mean by that statement?!