Transmigrating as an Extra Third-Rate Villain

* (Back to First-Person)

Chuckling, Ruby sighed before adding another magical artifact to the pile we had formed beside the shelf.

Glancing to the right, I spotted Raven and Astrid awkwardly taking artifacts from the shelves in pure silence.

"..."

Just pure silence.

Occasionally, I could spot Astrid stealing glances at Raven's figure, showing that she was affected by the awkwardness.

On the other hand, Raven seemed to just not care as he kept his gaze locked on the shelf from him with a normal expression.

However, as I continued staring at them, Raven suddenly turned to face Ruby and me, making eye contact with me.

Finally changing his expression, Raven gave me a thumbs-up before flashing a smirk and going back to work.

Ruby, who had also seen the entire thing, confusedly stared at me.

"..."

Pausing for a moment, I immediately turned around and stared at Ruby.

"Please...can you tell me what his desire is!?"

"..."

Caught off my guard by the sudden question, Ruby hesitated for a moment before answering.

"I could, but do you want to know?"

"...? Why would I not want to know?"

Was his desire something terrible?

Was it something comical!?

Unable to contain my curiosity, I stared at Ruby, who, after a few moments, responded.

"Every time you look at him from now on, you'll be thinking of his desire. And the trust formed between you and him as teammates will start to crumble."

Confused, I scratched my hair before realizing what she was saying.

It was true. If I had found out without him knowing, it would have been a complete break in trust.

And even if he didn't know I had broken his trust, every time I looked at Raven, I would subconsciously think of the trust I had broken.

And... considering my plentiful secrets, such as hailing from Earth and not actually being "Ren," I didn't need to add another.

It wasn't like I cared or was going to treat Raven differently based on his desire, so besides my curiosity, I didn't really care all that much.

Sighing, I nodded my head before taking a quick survey of the entire room to make sure that the intruder hadn't made his move yet.

And besides the main cast and two recruiters, the vault contained no one else, as far as my eyes could see.

Ruby, seeing me glance around anxiously, tipped her head in confusion before asking.

"Find something?"

Shaking my head, I returned my gaze to the shelf before asking.

"No...can you see any desires that you don't recognize in the room?"

If I perhaps couldn't see the intruder, then maybe Ruby would be able to see the desire of the intruder somehow, confirming his presence.

But, to my disappointment, Ruby shook her head before replying. Discover hidden tales at empire

"Nothing..."

As the shelves around the room started to empty and countless piles of magical artifacts accumulated on the ground, Kazuki finally stepped forward.

Pointing at the hole that led to the underground space outside, Kazuki glanced around before asking.

"Is anyone done with their shelves yet?"

Glancing at Ruby and I's shelf, which was still half-full, I hesitated before glancing at Raven.

Since there wasn't anything here in the vault that I could see with my eyes, I wanted to explore the underground space to see if anything popped up.

It was unfortunate, though...magical artifacts had to be handled with the utmost care.

I couldn't just manifest ten corrupted tentacles and start gathering them at light speed.

They would inevitably break, weakening the seal that contained the mystical beast and giving the intruder an easier time.

There was also the fact that magic interfered with other forms of magic.

For example, my corruption would be able to corrupt the magical artifacts, giving me more power over them but at the same time weakening their magical output and, therefore, making the seal weaker.

And, for the others, it was the same case as Ruby and Irene's fire magic, Lily's water magic, and Alya's ice magic all would weaken the output of the magical artifacts if they made contact.

Of course, the users of the weapon Zach, Liam, Kazuki, Kaneki, and Kevin couldn't speed up the progress as their weapons and movement abilities would shatter the magical artifacts.

That was why, despite the over ten of us all being magical wizards and swordsmen, we were simply gathering tools like mundane humans.

None of us were using our powers or abilities to speed up the progress.

Simply pick an object off the shelf and place it on the ground.

Then, repeat until your shelf is empty.

It was like an assembly line.

Nudging Ruby, who was holding a magical artifact, I asked with a smile.

"Wanna get out of here?"

Smiling, Ruby placed the artifacts on the ground before responding.

"And leave everyone else here to deal with whatever powerhouse is behind that seal?"

Giving her a thumbs up, I replied in my most sarcastic voice.

"You know me so well!"

Coughing, Ruby alternated glances between our shelf and Kazuki's figure before asking.

"And how do you suggest we leave?"

Ruby continued, pointing at the other groups' shelves, specifically Liam and Kevin's.

"We're way behind those guys. If we volunteer to leave, we're just going to get yelled out and told to get back to work."

Grinning, I glanced around for a second before taking a deep breath.

Gesturing for Ruby to get behind me, I created a piece of physical corruption in my hands before molding it to take the shape of a human.

Starting from the ground, I carefully worked my work with the physical corruption until the head and hair were finally done.

After a couple of seconds, I had made two human-like sculptures, which barely reassembled me as I didn't have enough corruption to add the fine details.

Seeing Ruby not say anything, I put one hand on each of the corrupted figures, letting out a deep groan as I began to imbue as much corruption as I could into them.