“Meow meow?”
“Quiet, quiet.”
Via pushed away the little yellow cat that was trying to rub against her face.
She was sitting in the Magic Workshop, gazing at the armlet floating in front of her, deep in thought.
This was the armlet that activated the Demon King Armament—in a certain sense, it also served as the control system for the Demon King Armament.
“Demon King Armament, activate.” Via tapped the armlet.
[System activated.]
“Demon King Armament, initiate.”
[Demon King Armament, initiating…]
[Verifying user identity…]
[Identity verification complete.]
[Welcome, ID number 001, to the login.]
[Beep! Beep! Beep!]
[Warning! Warning! System energy insufficient. Demon King Armament cannot operate normally!]
So that’s the case. If the energy is insufficient, the Demon King Armament’s system can’t be used. This must require replenishing energy, right?
“Meow meow meow?”
The little yellow cat sprawled out in front of Via, rolling around, seemingly wanting Via to play with it.
“I don’t have time to play with you right now. There’s a bag of dried fish on the table in the living room—go get it yourself.” Via didn’t even glance at the little yellow cat.
“Meow meow.”
The little yellow cat found it boring and left the Magic Workshop, leaving Via alone to continue her research.
“The amplification effect of the Demon King Armament is indeed very strong, but…”
The Demon King Armament was a legendary-tier armament even more powerful than Transcendent-tier.
Rather, it was already a miracle that Via, at Silver-rank, could use it at all.
With the Demon King Armament’s enhancement, she could unleash Transcendent-tier strength and contend with Transcendent-tier powerhouses.
But the biggest problem was—
Mana insufficiency!
How could Silver-rank mana possibly supply such an armament?
“If I can’t supply it internally, then I have to find a way externally.”
In her previous life, Via had been the wielder of the Demon King Armament, but maintenance work like replenishing its energy had always been handed off to her subordinates.
Basically, every time she returned from battle, she tossed it to the equipment logistics department in the royal court. After some time, the energy would be full, and she could use it again.
She really hadn’t looked into the details of how to replenish energy for the Demon King Armament.
“I’ll give it a try first—toss in a magic core and see.”
Via took out the magic core from the four-armed corrupted ape.
She activated the mana-gathering magic array in the Magic Workshop. Next, she placed the magic core infected with abyssal aura at the center of the mana-gathering array, allowing the space to circulate mana efficiently.
She then placed the armlet into the circulation.
“System, activate charging mode. Replenish energy.”
[Beep, charging mode activating. Energy replenishing…]
The Demon King Armament’s armlet not only absorbed the mana but also took in the abyssal aura.
“It worked!”
Via was somewhat delighted.
But soon, she couldn’t stay delighted.
It didn’t take long before the four-armed corrupted ape’s magic core lost its luster and stopped releasing mana and abyssal aura.
The Demon King Armament could absorb energy from a magic core this way, but the conversion efficiency wasn’t high—it drained it dry quickly. This could only be considered an emergency measure.
“It only restored this little?”
Via held her forehead.
She regretted it.
A Gold-rank magic core, and one infected with abyssal aura at that, held high utilization value for her current self—it could be used to enhance her own strength.
Using it like this was truly too wasteful!
It would have been better to absorb it herself.
“No good. In the future, I can’t use magic cores to replenish the Demon King Armament’s energy. Unless it’s an extreme situation, there’s no need to do this. Better to use conventional methods.”
After thinking it over, Via rummaged around in the Magic Workshop and pulled out a few magic stones.
These were raw materials she had prepared for making mana bombs.
Processed magic stones themselves contained a fair amount of mana—perhaps they could be used to replenish the energy.
Similar to before, she restarted the mana-gathering magic array in the Magic Workshop. Then, she used a tool to cut open the magic stones, placed them into a simple processing furnace, injected mana into the furnace, and melted down the magic stones.
She extracted the mana stored in the magic stones and, through the mana circulation, injected it into the Demon King Armament.
[Beep, charging mode activating. Energy replenishing…]
The cold system voice reminded Via.
She discovered that while this time’s energy conversion efficiency wasn’t much higher than the magic core’s, there was one crucial point: cost-effectiveness!
In comparison, magic stones were much cheaper.
Although it still required a large quantity of magic stones and a considerable investment of money to fully replenish the Demon King Armament’s energy, this was already within an acceptable range.
“Hm, I should still use magic stones.”
Via had reached her conclusion—for now, magic stones were the best choice.
She figured that in the past, the royal court’s equipment logistics department must have had more professional procedures, standardized processes, and expensive magic stones to quickly resupply after each battle.
Currently, without those conditions, she could only make do.
“But even if I choose the more cost-effective magic stones, I still don’t have much money.”
Via felt troubled.
Sigh.
In her previous life, she had never needed to worry about money issues like this. After becoming Demon King, she had received plenty of financial support from major forces in the Desolate Fallen Continent.
Now, where would she get sponsors?
She still had to earn money herself.
Working a job was definitely out—too slow for income.
Unless she encountered some exorbitant high-paying adventure commission, but for those, the client would surely prefer an S-rank adventurer over a low-level small fry.
After thinking it over, it had to be the black market after all.
For quick money and high profits, that was the only place.
“Previously, I sold some mana bombs to Goren. He took them first, saying he’d help find buyers. It’s been some time—I can go check if there’s any follow-up.”
Doff City, underground black market.
“Mr. W, is that you?”
Goren saw a familiar figure standing at the entrance of his shop.
“That’s right, it’s me.”
A boy’s voice came from under the black robe.
“Eh, Mr. W, how come your voice has changed?” Goren was somewhat surprised.
“Whether it’s appearance, voice, or build—these aren’t important. You just need to remember my identity.”
Via was using the Demon King Armament’s voice-changing function.
Although, with the Demon King Armament out of energy, most functions couldn’t be used and she couldn’t fight, this extremely low-energy-consumption function could still barely operate.
This could help her disguise her identity—otherwise, when contacting nobles, it would be easy for someone to discover her true identity.
“Oh, oh.”
Goren didn’t delve too deeply; after all, this Mr. W had too many secrets—it wasn’t one more that mattered.
“Right, Mr. W, didn’t I say last time that if any big shots showed interest in you afterward, I’d let you know?”
“Mm, how’s the situation?”
“There is indeed a major family that, after purchasing your mana bombs, expressed interest in further purchases,” Goren paused, “and it’s the locally quite famous Favi family.”