Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer

A sword, a pair of round shields, and a bow.

This was what Aria created from the purified remains of the Skydemons just now using an unfamiliar forging technique.

The sword was three feet long. It looked like an ordinary sword save for the red groove in the middle of the blade. It gleamed sharply and looked weighty.

The pair of round shields were small, there was a skull in the middle of each one and they were slightly curved.

As for the bow, its arms looked like it was made out of a spine, which is correct, it is indeed made out of two spines from skydemons, the string was a tendon and it also came with a quiver.

Before handing them to their owners though, Ashton carved a rune into them first. For the sword, the runes he added helped it become more flexible and prevent it from turning dull.

For the shield, he installed a 'couple rune' which will allow Blake to call the shield back to where he is if he dropped it or he threw it somewhere far.

As for the bow, he left a rune that will give Mary assistance when it comes to aiming. The quiver is also blessed to carry more arrows than the displayed amount.

"...here." Ashton handed the items to their new owners, who were inspecting them with a critical gaze. "If you want to give them a spin, there are training rooms around here. Feel free to use them."

None of them refused, they went inside the training rooms and did some simple tests using their new weapons.

Blake threw the round shields like frisbees. With just thought of his, the shields curved and bounced around the room despite them not hitting the wall or anything.

This was Blake's doing though, not the shields. But even if that was the case, the shields were nice.

'The curvature allows them to cut and glide through the air easily and effortlessly. Due to that, I need not to throw them so hard, I can save energy that way too.'

'The shield's toughness is unbelievable, though.' Blake judged, 'I can confidently say that this was built to last and to protect.'

'...what makes it even better is that I can recall it to my hands with just a thought.'

'I can already tell that I'm going to have so much fun with this thing.' Blake mused to himself, 'Still, I wasn't expecting that something valuable can be made out of Demonic Remains! My horizons broadened greatly this day.'

On Mary's side, she's struggling but also shocked.

The bow was unique. Because the arms of the bow were made out of spines, it boasts phenomenal flexibility. Whenever Mary pulls the string to shoot, she is met with resistance that gets stronger the more vertebrae she releases.

And with each vertebra released, the speed and power of the shot she just loaded increases by a lot.

'There are 33 vertebrae on each spine. When I pull, at most I can only release 10 of each spine, but even with that, the shot loaded was already as strong as my fully charged shots before.'

'I want to pull more but I'm not physically strong enough to do that just yet. Still, this is an awesome weapon! I can't believe Aria could make something like this!'

It was obvious that Mary liked her new bow. Just this alone boosts her combat efficiency by a lot. Plus, despite the bow looking bulky, it is light. She did not have any trouble carrying it around.

As for its durability? There's no need to be worried about that. Remember, this weapon is made out of purified remains of demons — creatures that are at least 10 times stronger than humans when it comes to physical parameters.

Alice was also liking her new sword a little too much.

This new sword is shorter compared to what she's used to, but it was perfect for her. Despite its rather bland appearance, it is extremely sharp and it's weighty which Alice really liked about it.

It had to be known at this point that all of these weapons are great conductors of mana, meaning that performing a skill using this weapon would yield twice the result with half the effort.

'...weird, it's clearly made out of Demonic Remains but the corruption was totally harmless! My mana flows in it too smoothly, even my sword intent is humming in delight! What's going on? Are these weapons truly that magical? How in the world did the two of them discover this?'

'No...I shouldn't pry. Everyone has secrets, Ashton and Aria are entitled to theirs as well. What's important is that they made it with us in mind, it was clear that they just want to help.'

"I'll put this to good use." Alice mused to herself.

And just like this, the three of them got a little bit carried away in playing with their new toys that they forgot the passing of time.

"It's been two hours, you three. That's enough testing for now. Come back here." Ashton's voice sounded on the speakers which woke them up from their stupor.

Keeping their new toys away, they exited their training rooms and rode the elevator back up to meet with Ashton. When they arrived, they saw Ashton relaxing on the couch, eating some potato chips while watching a movie.

"Where's Aria?" Mary asked as she plopped down on the other side of the couch.

"Resting." Ashton flatly replied. "She hasn't slept for three days straight. Making those weapons did her in so I tucked her to sleep. Don't worry, she'll be fine. In fact, she'd be sleeping better knowing that you all are armed properly now."

"Thanks for those by the way." Blake said, "I love those cuties a lot. Wish my other shields are like them too."

"You're welcome. And if you want more, just talk to Aria next time. Tell her what you need and she'll tell you the materials you'd be needing for that. Once you have them, bring them to her with a forging fee and she'd make it for you."

"...well, I'll keep that in mind, but let's let her rest for now," Blake stated.

"Right. Is this what you two will be doing from now on? Creating weapons using Demonic Remains?" Mary inquired.

"...it's part of it." Ashton replied, "I plan on doing something much bigger though. Right now, I'm still preparing for it."

"What is it exactly?" Alice curiously asked.

"Well, don't be impatient. You all will know soon." Ashton smiled in a mystified manner. "Anyway, don't spread out Aria's talents just yet. I don't want customers for now."

"Sure. No problem." Blake readily agreed.

"...can you tell me something, Ash? How did the idea of using Demons, of all things, to make weapons, came to you and Aria?" Mary asked, unable to hold her curiosity to herself.

"..."

"If it's a trade secret, I get it. I'm just curious you know. I know you're a studious guy—"

"You mean a nerd?" Ashton interjected with a snort.

"...sure, whatever you say I guess. But yeah, I'm just curious."

Ashton chuckled and dusted his fingers. He peeled his back off the couch and said:

"First of all, how bold of you to assume that we're only using Demons for crafting..."

As he said that, he took out a pair of gloves. It was pure white, yet it couldn't fool the senses of Alice, Mary, and Blake. The corruption is strong in that gloves but it is a controlled and safe corruption. It is stable and contained.

"This is nice pair of gloves she made for me. I don't know if you are aware of this but in the outside world, nights are longer than days. The sun rises yes but by the time the clock hits 1 pm, dusk already begins."

"It's dark and cold out there. Plus, during the night time demons are extremely active. If I hadn't found a place to hide by the time the sun was completely out, I'll be in deep shit."

"On the territory of Angels though, it's the opposite. There, days are longer than nights. However, it's basically the same deal. I need to hide before they become active or else I'd be in danger."

"Our technology won't work. I don't have any offensive spells that are powerful enough to deal with them. There are way too many of them and I'm really getting sick and tired of running away from my problems."

"Well then...what do you think I did next?" Ashton looked at Mary while smiling.

But make no mistake. Despite that seemingly amicable smile of his, all of them could sense the grave danger behind it. His words might sound calm but how can it be that simple?

It must've been maddening.

"...long story short, I ended up with the spine of some demon in my hands. I didn't know what to do with it at first but it did feel good using it to bash the skulls of other demons in."

"That's basically where the idea came from. I was being resourceful I guess."

Ashton shrugged and pointedly ignored the dumbstruck and mildly horrified gazes of his friends.