Yuki slowly stepped towards the statue, her movements nonchnt as if she expected to pass this test with flying colors.


    With each step, she braced herself for the anticipated reaction.


    However, as she stood before the statue, nothing happened. No mysterious glow, no surge of energy—just the silent, imposing figure of the statue.


    ''So it''s not reacting at all,'' I muttered to myself, observing from a distance. I refrained from intervening right away because I wanted to see if she could pass the test without my help.


    Unfortunately, it seemed she was not the chosen one.


    Well, it wasn''t really an issue for me. I could just use my mojo and get this over with. I had yed around enough anyway, so I should finish the mission and be done with it.


    Raising my hands, I used my ability to create illusions.


    A quick light should suffice. Since I didn''t know what color this statue should emit, I decided to make it a rainbow.


    Why a rainbow? Well, they could just interpret it that Yuki was so blessed that all colors shone for her.


    I couldn''t really be bothered to think about which color to use.


    However, something weird happened. My illusion didn''t work at all.


    ''What''s happening?'' I immediately turned to battle mode after realizing that my illusion didn''t activate.


    I tried my telekinesis, and it worked well. So why was my mirage not functioning?


    Was there some kind of interference? Or perhaps the statue had its own protective enchantments?


    Then suddenly, the whole ce turned ck and white. That''s right, everything stopped, as if time itself was frozen.


    But after realizing that I was unaffected by it, I felt like this was just an isted urrence within this ce.


    "What are you?" A voice echoed from the statue, the sound was that of a woman.


    "I should be asking that question," I replied with a nonchnt expression, though deep inside, I was already considering ways to neutralize this entity if I felt threatened.


    "You''re not a human," the statue continued to speak.


    "Well, we''re the same then in that department," I chuckled, trying to act tough. In this kind of scenario, I should always maintain the high ground by projecting strength.


    "So how about you answer my question? What are you, and why did you trap me in this ce?" I asked with a cold tone, my power ready to be unleashed at any time.


    "Trap you? You''re the one who disturbed me," the statue replied with a confused voice.


    "Alright, let''s be civilized here. Can you tell me what you are first?" I asked. I could just destroy this thing with a ck hole, but I wanted to know about its origin.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    I made sure to recharge my three-days subscription from the girls before leaving Korea. It was just a quicky, but I ensured they were very satisfied.


    The statue did not reply immediately, so I thought that maybe it nned to attack me. I tried creating small ck holes to test the waters, and as expected, it worked fine.


    However, its voice echoed again before I could a real threatening attack.


    "I''m not an enemy. I can''t even hurt you," it spoke. "I''m really d that I could talk to someone after all these years," it added with a sweet tone.


    ''I''m so charismatic that even stones want to flirt with me,'' I sighed to myself. Ah, the struggles of being irresistibly handsome.


    "Then talk. I still don''t know what you are," I said, keeping my guard up. I wasn''t about to let my guard down just because it imed it couldn''t hurt me. After all, those were often the words of those who really intended harm.


    "I was once a powerful human in this world; however, my soul was trapped in this pile of stone," the statue answered, its voice filled with frustration.


    "Human ? With an actual body?"


    "Not just me. All the weapons they wield are once humans with abilities. However, we were hunted down and turned into weapons," it exined.


    "How?" I asked, intrigued. I don''t give a shit about how unfortunate they were to be turned into weapons. I was more curious about how they became one in the first ce.


    Who could do that? Not even I could perform such a feat. Maybe if I used shapeshifting, I could transform someone into a sword, but it would still have biological parts to sustain life.


    I couldn''t just transform a human into a car, or vice versa.


    "It was because of one powerful individual. He had the ability to extract the souls of humans and ce them into any object. At first, he used normal human souls to animate objects. However, his hunger for power was insatiable. He began hunting people like me with superpowers,beling us as monsters. Then, he trapped our souls inside weapons, charms, and other objects," the statue exined solemnly.


    ''Soul?'' I muttered to myself.


    When I thought about souls, it could be something rted to astral projections. I had a hunch that there would be a time when I could divide my astral self to my physical one .


    But I didn''t expect that a gifted individual would awaken a power that could trap others'' astral projections without my system help.


    That individual must be incredibly powerful, because I doubted anyone could just block that kind of ability. I didn''t even know if my Shield of Z could block it.


    "Tell me his name," I asked.


    It was better to know about dangerous people like him. Just in case I identally met him, then there would be no need for talk; I would just go all out and kill him.


    I figured that since the shaman''s history spanned thousands of years, that person might already be dead. However, considering that he was a powerful gifted, it wasn''t impossible that he could have cheated death and aging.


    "We call him ''The cksmith,''" the statue replied.


    "Can you give me a more specific answer?"


    "That''s the only thing I know about him. He has no name, only a title, ''The cksmith,''" the statue exined.