Swish!
Slash!
Grizel swings her twin daggers to slash the air, it was the quietest yet deadliest attack. She spins the daggers in her hands as if toying with drumsticks.
She is trying to adjust her new weapons because she found the dual tattoo on her wrist is very convenient, the daggers will appear on her palm directly anytime she wishes for weapons without any command, it's perfect for a surprise attack.
"I am done playing with my new toys, now let me taste the main dish"
Grizel grinned happily, she takes out a white crystal-like stone from her storage, it was the Stone of God placed with the twin daggers.
'Master, please wait'
It was Athena's voice who tried to stop Grizel from absorbing the Stone of God.
'What is it?'
'Stone of God contains a powerful blessing, thus, a person can not absorb more than 1 stone because the blessings will clash with each other within the body and...'
'...and?'
Grizel tilted her head in confusion, this is her first Stone of God but why is Athena explaining the risk of absorbing more than one stone.
'the body will blow up and kaboom'
Grizel startled by the kaboom sound, it's good that Athena has explained it in advance, therefore, she can prevent such a dangerous kaboom situation.
'Oh, one more thing that I forgot to tell you, Master'
Athena added casually as if she was forgotten something trivial.
'I forgot to say that my original name is Stone of Athena, and my blessing is knowledge, hehe'
'HUH?!! What the...'
Grizel is trying to quell her boiling rage, because of the stupid Athena, she was almost kaboom, yes, kaboom, for some reason, that kaboom sound said by Athena earlier is repeating like a broken record in her head and won't go away.
If only Athena has a physical body, the thought of a gore scene is unavoidable.
'I don't remember absorbing you, tell me more about this'
Grizel said inwardly, her annoyance with the kaboom sound is not fully erased, but she needs to interrogate this Athena.
'Of course, you have no memory of me, because instead of absorbed, I was planted in you to be your guide since the beginning'
'And who was it? The one who planted you into me'
Grizel asked in suspicion, her tone changed to a sharp intimidating voice.
'I don't know, Master. The moment I gain my consciousness, I've been fully planted in you with a purpose to be your guide and provide you with knowledge of this world'
Grizel lost in her train of thoughts, a lot of new questions suddenly pop into her head, but Athena keeps on talking.
'Oh yeah, besides the goal to be your guide and your source of knowledge, some kind of message also left to me in case you have found out my original name'
'Message?'
'Find the Stone of Osiris'
'Stone of Osiris? If I'm not mistaken, despite having an extremely beneficial blessing, this stone has the most ridiculous first appearance in the novel, in a few years later, this stone will be mistaken as a mere gemstone by a miner and appraised carelessly in the third-rated auction house then sold cheaply to a noble called... Hhmm?!'
Grizel tried to recall the information about the blessing of this stone in the novel before abruptly come to a realization.
'Oh! I got it, that stone surely have a way to answer all my questions'
Sigh...
'All of this is driving me nuts'
'It's okay, Master. You have me'
'Whose fault do you think it is?'
Grizel scoffed inwardly at the annoying system, no, blessings that been planted into her body, talking about blessing, she glances at the white stone in her right hand.
'Speaking of which, do the other blessings talk like you?'
'Nope, basically, Athena is the goddess of knowledge and intelligence, my consciousness is due to my high level of intelligence'
Grizel has read ancient records about the Stones of God, in ancient times, the blessings can not be classified due to the unique abilities, each of the stones has a different specialty, there is no strong or weak blessing, and not every blessing can be used in fighting, it all depends on the one who wields the power and their luck.
'It's such a pity that I can't absorb this Stone of God'
'You can, but the method is different'
'Hooo, without kaboom nor any other side effects, right dear Athena?'
Grizel emphasis the word kaboom to ensure her safety, she can not move on from that kaboom sound.
'Yes, Master. The clash of blessings within the human body was the law of nature to prevent greed, but you have a godlike artifact which can break the law of nature'
'This Artifact of Famine?'
'Yes, this artifact is more dangerous and mysterious than what you think, Master. Anyway, you just have to feed the Stone of God to this artifact and the blessings are all yours'
'You mean instead of absorbing the stone directly, if I utilize this artifact as the new vessel to collect the stones, I can use the blessings either?'
'As expected of Master, you grasped things easily'
'How about the limit?'
'Master, you know it better than me, this artifact made of boundless greed and has no limit'
Grizel let out a small smirk on her cute face while feeding the white stone in her hand to the artifact of famine, then suddenly a glow of white enveloped the black artifact.
'Stone of Solomon? And the blessing is... Charisma?'
In the novel, the Stone of Solomon was only mentioned as the stone left beneath the tomb along with the twin daggers because the temple missed it, hence, she has no idea what kind of blessing contained in the stone.
Knock knock!
"My Lady, may I come in?"
it was Lucy's voice from behind the door, while Grizel toying with her twin daggers, Lucy was busy preparing for their departure to the Capital city in the pretense of sightseeing, this time they were not going stealthily like before.
"Yes, come in"
Lucy come into the chamber and kneel in front of Grizel, she is acting like a normal maid and call Grizel 'My Lady' in front of the others, and when only both of them are present, she went back to her original behavior as Grizel's shadow.
"My Liege, the preparation is completed"
"Good. Lucy, I just obtained a new unique power, I think it's something like an aura, I want to hear your thoughts about it"
"As you wish, My liege"
After receiving the blessing of Solomon, Grizel can feel several auras in different colors around her body, but for the first trial, she wanted to choose the biggest silver aura envelopes her.
"It's Alright, I will only release about a tiny portion of my charisma"
Lucy who is still in a kneeling position is about to say something but suddenly a chilling atmosphere creeps throughout the chamber, it was cold as winter and hard to breathe, her body is freezing like a statue can not move even an inch only to lift her head, she is shivering badly as if an ant in front of the giant, crawling in despair.
"Alright, enough. How was it?"
Grizel stopped her charisma because Lucy is trembling with a pale face, it was only about 5 seconds she activated her charisma yet Lucy's face looks as if she was suffering for the whole year.
"I was d-drowned in t-the presence of f-fear, My liege y-you have b-become the fear itself"
Lucy answered while stuttering in fright, it was scarier than when she is facing death with the suicide attempt the first time she met with Grizel.
"Fear? I don't even touch you yet you got that pale because of a mere feeling?"
The charisma she emitted from her body wasn't directed to her, theoretically speaking, Grizel didn't feel the fear Lucy talking about because it's impossible for someone to know their own charisma, only the surrounding people who can feel it.
"It's different from Physical attack or Magic attack, this kind of thing is more like... Mental attack"
"Hooo, this is perfect!"
Grizel chirped happily, her eyes are sparkling like a child who got a new toy.
Charisma is a non-physical attribute to affect one's mental stability even without lifting a finger.
'What a frightening ability'
Lucy gulped, sweating in anxiety thinking about what kind of a disastrous combination consists of her evil lord and unstoppable mental assault.
To be continued...