The Exalted Prince Lives Again
Chapter 63: Artifacts

Chapter 63: Artifacts

"Woah!" A collective gasp rang throughout the classroom.

"You would be taught how to make basic artifacts in the second semester, so don’t worry. There’s only the basic theory for everyone here."

Some people, including Lucien and Vivy were quite bummed out by this, but most of them secretly celebrated.

There was already enough on their plates in the first place, and creating artifacts could not be an easy task at all.

"Moving on," He continued with his explanation, "The second types are called Reactive Artifacts."

"These," He put down the small sphere, and another item hovered over towards him, "are dangerous."

It was a single glove, made up of tiny, black metallic chains, with a faint red light pulsing through.

The glove kept hovering in front of Lucas, him not touching it at all.

"Reactive artifacts, as their names suggest, react. To blood, to emotions, to commands. But they are not alive."

He finally touched the gloves, and the cadets were surprised.

The artifact opened itself like a hound, as if trying to bite his hand.

But it wasn’t able to.

Lucas was just that fast.

"These are like trained hounds, working only under some conditions."

Lucas’s smile got shorter, and his tone more serious, "Remember, everyone, Reactive artifacts choose when to work."

A hush fell over the class, "A sword that gets heavier the more you kill, A mask that shows illusions when you are scared, or a ring that heats up when you lie.

"These artifacts use you, as much as you use them."

He turned around, looking at everyone, "Who here wants to try this glove?"

Silence.

No one raised their hands.

But then, one did.

"Excellent, Mr. Lucien," Lucas clapped once, "Please come up the dais."

Lucien stood up, noticing the concerned yet curious gazes of William and Vivy.

The other cadets also had similar expressions.

He walked ahead without any fear or hesitation, just simple curiosity.

"Here," Lucas made the glove float towards him, while Lucien stepped up.

Lucien raised his hand, guiding it towards the glove, and,

Chomp!

The glove bit his palm as soon as he touched it.

The class flinched.

But Lucien didn’t.

’It’s not as bad as it looks.’ Lucien thought, but he was wrong.

It was as painful as it looked.

He just had a higher tolerance.

’It tickles.’

The glove sucked a bit of his blood and then got back to normal.

"What a brave lad you are," Lucas commented, closing in on Lucien.

"Can you show your hand to everybody?"

Lucien agreed and lifted his hands to show it to everybody.

"This, ladies and gentlemen, is a rare-grade Reactive artifact, called Siphon glove." He wrote the name on the chalkboard and continued.

"It drinks your blood to bond with you temporarily, and if you drop a single drop of blood over this, the wearer can ’hear’ the last echo of their intense emotional imprint on it."

Lucien raised his brows, and the other cadets gasped.

It wasn’t bad.

But Lucas spoke again, "Don’t worry, it’s really not much. You can, at best, hear a sentence or two from them."

They sighed, but it could still be useful in certain situations.

"Let’s test this glove, shall we?"

He said, and pulled out a needle from nowhere.

Walking in front of Lucien, he said coolly, "Raise your hand."

Lucien did.

Lucas raised his index finger over the glove and punched a small on it.

He squeezed it, and a tiny droplet fell over the glove.

Urgh!

Lucien’s eyes twitched ever so slightly, as a sharp pain assaulted his brain and left just as fast.

—"Congratulations, Mr. Reinhardt, your work on sentient artifacts has been approved to be presented in the Annual Aegis Symposium."

Those words echoed directly in his brain, and the voice seemed distorted.

"What did you hear?" Waking him up from the daze, he heard Lucas’s voice.

"That your work has been approved for the Aegis Symposium?"

Lucien repeated what he had just heard, and Lucien patted his shoulders. "That’s right, class, my work has been approved for the Aegis Symposium."

Woah!

They all gasped in amazement.

Even Lucien was aware of this.

The most prestigious gathering of the world’s most brilliant minds.

Even getting invited to this was an honor for anyone in the theoretical field, and their works getting approved was something even more impressive.

"That was my latest emotionally intense moment, and I thought that this might be a good way to announce this."

Lucas sounded happy and rightfully so.

"You can go back to your seat, Cadet Lucien."

Lucien nodded, reaching out to take out his glove, but Lucas stopped him.

"Take it."

"What?" Lucien was confused.

"I tend to give away invaluable stuff to students who make an impression on me."

The other Cadets felt betrayed.

The pain didn’t look like much, and he got such an item for nothing?

But they couldn’t voice their opinions.

"Go back to your seat."

Lucien nodded, walking back to his seat, his neighbors amazed.

"Now, let’s move on to the final and most dangerous type of artifact." Lucas turned around towards the wall and pointed towards a paper, "Sentient Artifact.

"These types of artifacts are not only rare and powerful, but also very dangerous, since these are real, alive spirits morphed into artifacts after their bodies get destroyed, and only the cores are left."

A wave of fear crawled up everyone’s skin.

A real, living spirit.

Nobody had seen one in person, but all of them knew how dangerous those were.

"Just for context, much like normal spirit and beast cores, which aren’t morphed into spirits, these can be used to awaken as well."

Lucien’s ears perked up.

This was exactly the case with him and Arenox.

This was the reason why he chose this class.

He wanted to know more about them.

"These artifacts carry their egos, memories, powers, emotions and so much more. They are not just tools, but companions of sorts. The hostile kind.

"But the rewards are equally worth it. High risk, high reward.

"They are rare, so much so that even the Academy have a single digit amount of Sentient artifacts.

"They also bond with a single person until their death, which makes it quite hard for someone to get their hands on, but luckily," He pointed his index finger towards the paper in the glass case, "We have an unbonded one for presentation purposes here."

Everyone got curious, their attention solely on the paper that he pointed towards.

"Nobody knows what it does, since it is not bonded, but," He paused, scanning his eyes over everyone, and said, "I can open it up, and let everyone be in direct line of vision with this."