'Given the existing Curse of the Purple Umbala, it won't be easy for the Inquisitor's punitive force to exterminate the remnant members of the Assembly of Silent Night in the Red Goblin Mountains. The Inquisitor will ask Lord Helia for help.'
Although Vaan wasn't sure what abilities the Assembly of Silent Night had, if their members could take out a Rank 3 Dark Hellhound with just a group tasked to assassinate a True Witch, then they should have quite capable members in their dark organization.
'Lord Helia wouldn't just use her troops; she'll most likely recruit witches and aura users from the city when the Inquisitor intends to attack the mountain. Given my special status, Lord Helia wouldn't let me join even if I wanted to,' Vaan mused.
In that case, Vaan only had one option: use a different identity to join the punitive expedition force to Red Goblin Mountains.
Shortly after, Vaan shut the blinds and sprinkled his scent-erasing powder around the edges of the room to keep the smell of his following preparation from escaping.
Afterward, Vaan checked his inventory. Seeing he had the available materials, he started to make a silicon human face mask.
Vaan's dexterous hands worked quickly.
Fifteen minutes later, Vaan produced the face mask of a middle-aged man with some battle scars, not too many and not too little, and neither too handsome nor too ugly.
It was a very ordinary face, one that wouldn't leave an impression and attract attention.
After completing his face mask, Vaan put it on and examined his disguise. It was like adding on a second layer of skin; it couldn't be seen as fake at all.
Once Vaan confirmed the realistic quality of his face mask, he took it off and stored it away in his Heaven-Swallowing Space for future use.
'Kyu Kyu Kyuu!'
Topaz materialized out of Vaan's body with a complaint right after he started using Earth Manipulation Magic to work on new weapons.
'I know, I know. You also want to come out to play sometime. I'll let you out more often in the future when I can, Topaz. Will you forgive?' Vaan tried to appease the unhappy earth spirit.
However, Topaz folded her arms with a pout, telling Vaan it wasn't that easy to earn her forgiveness.
'Kyu Kyuu!' Topaz harrumphed.
Seeing that, Vaan resorted to his ultimate trick; tickling.
Coupled with his godly hands and mastery of the Heavenly Massage, even a spiritual being like Topaz couldn't maintain her grumpy look.
'Kyu Kyu!' Topaz burst into laughter.
She flapped her wings and tried to escape Vaan's menacing fingers. But wherever she went, Vaan's fingers followed.
They quickly entered a game of cat and mouse. Too busy to flee Vaan's ticklish fingers, Topaz's previous unhappiness was quickly forgotten.
A short while later, Vaan suddenly stopped and said, 'Alright, did you have enough fun?'
'Kyuu!'
Topaz was startled before she wiped the smile off her face and looked in the other direction, denying that she wasn't having any fun to begin with.
'I see. So you weren't having fun.' ,c,om
'Kyu.'
Topaz nodded.
'I guess it can't be helped then. Since it wasn't fun and you don't want to forgive me, we'll just end it here,' Vaan teased, knowing the earth spirit actually wanted to continue.
Without surprise, Topaz's expression froze after hearing Vaan's words.
A few moments later, she flew over to Vaan's cheeks and rubbed her face against them, expressing her apology for not being honest. She actually wanted to keep playing and had already forgiven him.
'Kyuu Kyuu…' Topaz cried despondently.
Vaan slightly smiled at her cute apology before tickling under her chin, quickly making her giggle with laughter again.
Nevertheless, Vaan didn't continue for long before stopping again.
'Alright, that should be enough. I have something to do now,' Vaan said to Topaz before resuming his work.
Although Topaz was a bit reluctant, it couldn't be helped. She flapped onto Vaan's head, where she could rest and look down at what he was doing.
At that moment, Vaan was thinking about the goblin's weakness.
'Most goblin species naturally fear white beasts, especially ones with light attributes. The blood of light-attribute beasts are like poison to them,' Vaan mused.
Vaan didn't have any blood of such beasts, but he did find the broken horn of a Rank 2 White Unicorn in his Heaven-Swallowing Space.
'This horn is too small to be reforged into a sword or dagger… Given the tight terrains of the mountain, a small knife would work. However, it's not exactly good against large numbers..' Vaan thought.
While looking at the broken unicorn horn and numerous smaller fragments of it, Vaan gradually came to a decision.
'I'll use the big piece of the horn for a white spear and turn the smaller fragments into sharp projectile weapons like needles.'
Since Vaan had Earth Manipulation and Earth Acceleration, having both short and long weapons would make him versatile in battle.
Shortly after using Earth Manipulation to create a white steel spear shaft, Vaan fused it with the broke unicorn horn to complete his white spear.
Afterward, Vaan took out his trusty piece of Dusk Drake's rough leather to sand the horn fragments into sharp throwing needles. Then, he fused them with metal ends to give them weight and power.
Following the completion of the spear and needles, Vaan made additional ammunition and modified his gunblade, giving it the feature to switch between gun and blade modes.
However, the gunblade's normal state was set to blade mode while its switch button was hidden inside.
As such, the gun mode could only be activated with Earth Manipulation by someone familiar with the gunblade's internal structure like Vaan.
The overall process took two hours, but it didn't bore Topaz in the least. She was fascinated with Vaan's craftsmanship which made use of the earth in interesting ways.
'Time to go back inside, Topaz,' Vaan informed his earth spirit after packing up his weapons.
'Kyuu.'
Topaz obediently flew inside Vaan's chest, seemingly and sufficiently entertained for the day. Vaan's usage of her mana had also made her slightly tired.
Shortly after cleaning up and erasing the lingering smell of his metalworks, Vaan left the room to grab some quick feed downstairs.
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