Facing the oncoming Minotaurs, Raul gripped his greatsword tightly and swiftly cut one clean in half. With a backhanded swing, he split the second charging Minotaur just as effortlessly. In a matter of seconds, both were cleaved in two.
Next, Daphne rushed at a Minotaur with her longsword, making no attempt to defend against its axe. But just at the critical moment, a shield composed of dozens of hexagonal plates appeared in front of her, effortlessly blocking the attack.
Seizing the opportunity, Daphne sliced off the Minotaur's arm, staggering it. She then thrust her blade forward, piercing the magic stone embedded in its body and reducing it to white ash.
"Get down!"
Hearing the urgent shout from the screen, Daphne quickly ducked—just in time for an arrow to streak past, grazing her scalp and striking the head of the Minotaur that had been about to attack her.
The footage cut off abruptly at that point.
The scene hadn't lasted long, but everyone watching was left stunned.
The battle wasn't large-scale—only three people were involved—but the information it revealed was more than enough.
"What sharp weapons," Ais remarked, eyes gleaming as she focused on the footage. Whether it was Raul's greatsword, Daphne's katana, or Cassandra's bow and arrows, all of them looked like fine weapons.
"They're definitely sharp. The key lies in the materials," Finn noted. "Judging by their design, they're not Raul's usual weapons. Besides, he didn't have his weapons with him when he left this morning. He lent them to Bell-kun."
Finn got straight to the point: those weapons were the deciding factor in the battle. He turned to Raul with a slight smile.
"Did Bell-kun make those weapons for you to use temporarily?"
Raul gave a small nod. He knew the captain wouldn't overlook something like that.
"Bell-kun brought us to the 18th floor and temporarily crafted weapons for each of us to test."
After a brief hesitation, Raul took out all the weapons he had stored in his space pouch.
"Actually, Bell-kun made a wide variety of weapons."
Greatswords, spears, battle axes, heavy hammers, and large shields.
Finn curiously picked up a spear. Its design was simple and unadorned, looking almost wooden, yet the tip was razor-sharp.
There were grooves along the shaft, and upon closer inspection, they seemed to be formed from strange characters. Their purpose was unclear.
The shaft's hardness was remarkable, and its weight was moderate—significantly lighter than the spears Finn normally used, though its quality was only slightly inferior to his custom weapon.
"Definitely high quality," Finn muttered in admiration. These weapons looked like they had been crafted by a master artisan, but he knew no smith had made them.
"Riveria, Gareth, come take a look."
The two stepped over to inspect the weapons with him.
Riveria immediately recognized the material upon seeing them.
"They actually used the Spirit Tree to forge these weapons. And…"
She ran her fingers across a set of runes engraved into the handle of one axe. The symbols seemed to imbue the weapon with a sustaining force—utterly astonishing.
"He also engraved those characters onto the weapons, giving them special powers."
"Raul, Bell-kun must have mentioned that, right?"
Raul nodded slightly and began explaining, pointing at the weapons.
"Bell-kun said the characters help the weapons repair themselves. At their core, these weapons are actually made from the Spirit Tree. So technically, calling them weapons isn't quite accurate. Bell-kun said they're still Spirit Trees—just shaped into the form of weapons."
Riveria looked at the weapons in awe, her hand gently brushing over them.
"So that's it… No wonder they felt 'alive' to me. I can't believe Bell-kun actually managed something like this."
It was a truly unique method—shaping each Spirit Tree into a weapon, giving it a hardened exterior and a sharp edge, yet allowing it to continue existing as a living Spirit Tree.
This kind of craftsmanship genuinely impressed Riveria.
"So that's why those characters were inscribed onto them."
Even though she'd studied the markings for a long time without fully grasping their meaning, Riveria now understood their purpose: to preserve the weaponized form of the Spirit Trees.
As long as the seed embedded inside the weapon remained intact, the weapon could self-repair over time. That was something no conventional metal weapon could ever achieve—only living weapons could do that.
And yet, here was a whole pile of them. Weapons of such rarity were laid out right in front of her. Their value was already comparable to top-tier armaments.
"Good kid!"
Loki, who had just been thoroughly beaten up by Riveria, suddenly popped in like nothing had happened.
As a god, she saw even more than Riveria and the others. Each of these weapons had undergone a unique treatment—every one of them carried traces of divine authority. But the power didn't come from blessings imbued afterward—it came naturally from the characters engraved into them.
Of course, Loki knew exactly who had crafted these weapons with his own authority.
Her gaze quickly turned to Raul.
"Raul, that kid just handed all of these over to you?"
"Yeah. Bell-kun said that once testing was done, each of us could keep one. He said they couldn't be circulated, but because of the Vice Captain's status, it'd be fine for us to have one."
Riveria, who had just been mentioned, froze for a moment before giving a wry smile.
"Bell-kun really places a lot of trust in me..."
To create a self-repairing weapon from a living Spirit Tree—she didn't feel worthy of wielding something like that.
Even if she had once been royalty, that was all in the past.
It wasn't really appropriate to use that identity anymore.
Still, these weapons could only be entrusted to their Familia. After all, they weren't something that could be casually circulated.
Each weapon was essentially a Spirit Tree itself—not something you could buy even with tens of millions of Valis. Their value had already surpassed even first-rate gear and shot straight into the stratosphere.