Grim Reaper in the Apocalypse: Reaping Immortals

Atlan walked towards the rusted chest plate that was buried under scrap metal.

Lizzie and Custodire both thought that Atlan would be impressed by the Eclipse Bayou, but instead, they saw him walk toward the junk box. Then, he dug through some scrap metal until he saw the dented and rusty chest plate.

"That's completely worn down. Don't you want the Eclipse Bayou? It's the best you'll find here," Lizzie added.

Custodire's eyebrows raised as she realized what Atlan had his eyes on. "I suggest you pick something else, kid. That piece of thing is picky with its owner."

Lizzie was surprised "Wait, that piece of junk is semi-sentient?"

The dwarf nodded, but she didn't elaborate any further. Semi-sentient equipment were weapons that had enough consciousness to choose their own wielders. If a blacksmith had a high enough power realm, then they'd have the power to imbue such intelligence on their work.

As an Operator in the Specialist Realm, Custodire had the power to create semi-sentient equipment–but only with Specialist level weapons with high-class Canzer materials. She couldn't do that to lower-leveled equipment, like that rusted chest plate that Atlan was looking at.

This meant that it was probably created by a blacksmith that was above the Specialist realm, making it extremely rare and high-quality.

This equipment was passed down through her family, and through the generations, many have tried and failed to subdue the armor. Even geniuses hailed as once in a millennia talent couldn't woo the stubborn old chest plate.

It ended up being nothing more than junk in Custodire's smithy.

But now, it seemed that Atlan wanted to try his luck. Custodire considered Atlan as an impressive talent, but she didn't think he'd be enough for the picky old armor.

If Atlan wanted to try his luck, then she wouldn't stop him.

Atlan bent down and reached for the armor. But just as he was about to pick it up, someone suddenly shouted behind him.

"Wait a minute young man. I saw this first!"

A man with a tall, slender build and a bulbous nose rushed in front of Atlan and prevented him from picking up the armor. Judging from the I.D. strapped on his neck detailing his name and original residence, everyone immediately guessed that this man was a tourist.

He was just a window shopper in this smithy when, all of a sudden, he heard from Custodire herself that the junk rusting in the corner was a semi-sentient weapon! He wanted it for himself.

Lizzie frowned and shouted at the man. "Hey!"

But the tourist didn't even spare her a glance. His eyes were only locked into the rusted chestplate in front of him. He frowned for a second, feeling as if the chestplate was nothing more than junk. But, he trusted the dwarf's words more than his eyes. So, he knew that this piece of junk was more valuable than it seemed.

"I'll get this, dwarf."

Custodire didn't respond and simply crossed her arms.

"You can't just take it. Atlan got to it first," Lizzie erupted.

The tourist harrumphed. "Ha! Do you know how much trouble I went through just to enter this forsaken trashy City? Your useless soldiers prevented me from entering for three days!

It was horrifying! I could see the Unclaimed Lands just outside the bubble. Who knows what could have happened to me? And the only thing that your useless City told me was that your 'system' was down due to some solar interruption. Bah! Trash City, I tell you.

I've been to better Cities and even some better Villages."

The tourist couldn't help but spill out his grievances to them. He felt like he deserved compensation for all the suffering he felt from that ordeal. He should at least get a semi-sentient armor from this City before he departed.

But just then, he saw Atlan move to the side and pick up the rusted chest plate.

How dare this kid?!

"Get your dirty hands off that! That's mine!" The foreigner quickly tried to pry the chestplate away from Atlan's hands, but his eyes widened when he felt like he was trying to move a mountain.

What? Is he a statue or something?!

He couldn't even make the chestplate budge. He tried to grab the wall for better leverage, but he still couldn't even make it move an inch. His face contorted hideously as he tried to exert as much force as possible.

Atlan looked to the side and saw the foreigner. Huh? When did he get here?

He was so focused on the chest plate calling to him that he didn't even notice the foreigner at all. Only when he saw the suffering on the guy's face did he finally notice him.

He wants it? Then he can have it.

Atlan let go of his grip, and the foreigner fell to the ground with the chestplate in his hands. At first, he was extremely happy that he finally got the semi-sentient armor in his hands.

But then, he suddenly felt as if a thousand elephants were pushing down in his chest. Kughhh! His lungs deflated from the force making his ribs smaller and smaller until they cracked. He couldn't breathe!

With a horrified face, he looked at them with a plea for help.

"Haa…he…lp…."

Custodire sighed and went over to the foreigner and kicked the rusted armor away from his chest.

The foreigner heaved breath after breath, feeling a sharp pain in his chest with every inhale. He was injured!

Anger welled up. He blamed them for intentionally harming him. He readied his mouth to spit out insult after insult to everyone in this city, but before he could even spit out the words, Custodire grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the smithy. With one smooth movement, she quickly threw the foreigner out into the street and closed the door behind her.

"Hmph. You can't even carry the chestplate. And you think it'll accept you? Darned foreigners…"

She rubbed her hands on her overalls, walked over to Atlan, and saw him trying to pick up the armor. She wanted to warn him. Those that the armor rejected would get injured at the very least.

"I'll tell you what, kid. I'll custom-make an armor for you instead of that…"

Her words trailed off as she saw the rusted chest plate in Atlan's hands suddenly split from the sides and envelope Atlan's whole torso.

It accepted him?!