Since Lenora was about to get busy at the reception desk, Rei accompanied a different Guild Staff Member to the Guild warehouse. After confirming no one else was around, he retrieved the hammer the Cyclops had been using from the Misty Ring.
The hammer appeared soundlessly beside him. Naturally, given his current size, he couldn't hold it—the handle toppled over and slammed against the floor.
（……Huh? Wait. If this thing had come out with the handle pointing down... wouldn't that have been a life-threatening crisis?）
Staring at the hammer's handle clattering against the ground, that sudden doubt crossed Rei's mind.
Having survived what might have been a life-threatening situation, Rei kept that thought to himself and turned his gaze toward the Guild Staff Member—the man before him who possessed considerable skill in the Appraisal of Magic Items.
"So, this is the hammer the red Cyclops was using."
"……So this is it, huh. Hmm, looking at it up close, it's certainly quite a fine piece."
A man in his fifties with a white beard extending to his chest murmured in admiration.
"May I touch it?"
"Ah-……I'm not sure. Hold on a second."
Replying to the Guild Staff Member, Rei extended his index finger and touched the hammer himself.
The Guild Staff Member watched with a puzzled gaze, clearly wondering what Rei was doing. But unlike the first time he had touched it, the handle showed no sign of the will-overwriting behavior.
（Did the consciousness inside this hammer really vanish during that incident? If so, that's great……but no, overconfidence is a bad idea.）
Gently pulling his hand away, Rei turned to the Guild Staff Member.
"Actually, the red Cyclops using this hammer ended up getting taken over by the hammer's consciousness. It was like its mind went blank, and root-like tendrils spread through its body so the hammer could puppet it around."
"What!?"
At Rei's words, the Guild Staff Member—who had been watching with keen interest from near the hammer—leapt backward.
That movement was by no means the reaction of someone unfamiliar with real combat. It was proof that he had some genuine skill.
（A Frontier Guild staff member……and one with deep knowledge of Magic Items, at that. I suppose that's not so strange.）
Slightly surprised by the man's agility, Rei touched the head of the hammer as if to demonstrate it was safe.
"Don't worry. If the ability to control its user were still active, I'd be under the hammer's control right now too. And before that, I wouldn't have even been able to store it in my Item Box."
"……I see. If it controls anyone who touches it, that would make sense."
He seemed somewhat relieved by Rei's words, but he still didn't dare approach the hammer carelessly.
It wasn't that he didn't believe Rei. Rather, his deep knowledge of Magic Items made it impossible for him not to be cautious.
The man had heard from acquaintances several times about Magic Items that possessed a will of their own.
This was his first time seeing one in person, but from what he'd heard, nearly all such items had brought their owners to tragic ends—enough to be called cursed.
Of course, not every case ended that way.
Among the stories the man had heard, a cooperative relationship between a Magic Item's will and its bearer was considered one of the best possible outcomes.
But those were a tiny minority. Most wills residing in Magic Items brought nothing but tragedy to their owners.
That was precisely why the man couldn't help but remain relentlessly wary, unwilling to trust that the hammer before him was truly safe.
"I don't think you need to worry that much. When this hammer tried to take me over, my magic power overwrote its will in return. That's what it felt like, so there's no consciousness left in it anymore."
"I'm sorry, but having not seen it with my own eyes, I simply can't be completely at ease."
The Guild Staff Member bowed apologetically, and Rei simply nodded without pressing the matter further.
（If a professional is being this cautious, then probably……no, there's no doubt about it. This Magic Item is dangerous.）
With that in mind, Rei watched as the Guild Staff Member pulled bracelets and a necklace from inside his coat and put them on.
Judging from the conversation, they were probably Magic Items designed to prevent his consciousness from being hijacked.
At the same time, Rei could also guess that they likely didn't block the effect entirely, but rather raised the wearer's resistance.
Before Rei's eyes, the man extended his index finger, touched the hammer, and immediately pulled back.
He repeated this several times until he was finally satisfied that Rei's words were true. Next he used his palm instead of a finger, then gripped the handle—his touches growing steadily bolder.
"I see. It appears to be a Magic Item created through a rather complex process. From what I've heard, it possesses two abilities: the ability to discharge lightning and the ability to grant powerful Regeneration Ability to the user. Even one of those would be impossible to create without a highly skilled Alchemist, but both of them together…"
He touched the handle, then the head, gently stroking both as if to confirm each one.
What kind of Magic Metal had been used, what process had gone into forging this hammer, whether any traces of the Alchemist's personal habits remained—every detail.
The Guild Staff Member examined it thoroughly, determined not to miss even the slightest clue, while Rei watched from a short distance away.
Then, unexpectedly, the man looked up at Rei.
"Excuse me, Rei-san. I'd like to check the part of this hammer that was resting on the ground. Could you flip it over for me?"
"This thing? ……Well, alright. Just flipping it over should be doable as is."
Nodding, Rei placed his hand on the handle of the hammer lying on the ground and lifted.
Rather than lifting the whole hammer, he kept the head on the floor and raised only the handle.
Tilting it to the opposite side from before, the portion that had been buried in soil was now exposed to the air.
The moment Rei stepped away, the Guild Staff Member moved back in and began examining it again.
"I see. So the two sides are deliberately asymmetrical. Someone with the skill to craft a Magic Item of this caliber wouldn't normally be unable to make it symmetrical. If that's the case, then why deliberately disrupt the magic conductivity…? Is that why the two effects worked even for a Cyclops? Hmm? The characteristic traces left from converting this into a Magic Item are…no, but…"
He would find something and mutter to himself, then develop his theories from those mutterings.
Rei watched this go on, but after about twenty minutes, he was getting genuinely bored.
If he were an Alchemist or a Blacksmith, he might have found it fascinating. But Rei was neither.
Standing here with nothing to do but watch was nothing short of tedious.
The only reason he hadn't interrupted the Guild Staff Member was that he wanted to know where this hammer had come from.
A weapon suited for a Cyclops to wield wouldn't just be lying around somewhere.
If that was the case, it was only natural to assume someone had deliberately made it. And yet…
（Even so, giving a Magic Item to a Cyclops is something nobody would normally do.）
While turning this over in his mind, Rei suddenly noticed that the Guild Staff Member had stopped muttering and was thinking in silence.
Judging that the man had moved from muttering to deeper contemplation, Rei waited. Eventually, the man began tilting his head in puzzlement.
"What is it?"
Rei finally spoke up, and the man scratched his head before answering.
"Well, you see. There's no doubt this hammer was made recently. And with quite advanced techniques, at that. But…I simply cannot fathom why anyone would go to the trouble of crafting such a valuable Magic Item and then give it to a Cyclops."
"……Are you sure it was really made recently? Could it have been picked up by chance somewhere—in some ruins or the like?"
"I don't think that's likely."
Rei was surprised by how flatly the man dismissed the idea, but the man continued his explanation.
"To put it in rough terms—the technical details get rather involved—some of the techniques used in creating this Magic Item were only established in recent years. A few years ago, at most. Not everything about it is new, but it was almost certainly made within the last few years. Possibly even within the past few months."
"……Who on earth would go to such lengths?"
Giving a Magic Item to a Cyclops was easy to say, but far harder to actually pull off.
Cyclops saw humans as nothing but prey. Anyone who carelessly approached one—or tried dragging a massive hammer like the one before Rei toward it—would simply end up eaten.
Why go to all that trouble just to hand a Magic Item to a Cyclops? And more importantly…
"The Cyclops I took down was a Rare Species or High-ranking Species, different from a normal one. But even so, that doesn't necessarily mean it could use a Magic Item, right?"
"That's true. But even normal Cyclops can release magic from their single eye as a shockwave. If it's a Rare Species or High-ranking Species, it wouldn't be strange to think they're naturally more proficient at handling magic, would it?"
"It's possible. But that's all it is—a possibility. If you were going to give a Magic Item to a monster anyway, it wouldn't have to be one like a Cyclops that's hardly skilled at handling magic, would it? If that were the case, there'd have been no need to make a hammer this enormous."
"……That's a bit beyond what I can determine here. But it is certainly a concern. I'll advise the Guild Master to look into it. …Well then, you can go ahead and put the hammer away now."
Rei's expression flickered with surprise at those words.
The man had appeared deeply fascinated by the hammer, so Rei had expected him to cling to it a while longer.
Noticing Rei's expression, the man spoke with a slightly sheepish look.
"Ahaha. Honestly, I'd love to examine this hammer more closely. But if I did that, I'd probably end up staring at it forever, so I'd better call it quits here."
"……Got it. So, from a professional's perspective—is there any danger in this hammer?"
"Honestly, I'd say it's probably fine. I have to qualify that with 'probably' because of my own lack of skill, but. If what you've told me is true, Rei-san, then the hammer's ability to control its owner has most likely already vanished. As with any Magic Item, for better or worse, magic power plays a role in many cases."
"I see. ……Hmm? Then does that mean, in my case, if I tried to use a cursed—or rather, a mind-controlling—Magic Item, my magic power would destroy its consciousness?"
Rei asked the question as if it had just dawned on him, and the Guild Staff Member's eyes went wide, clearly caught off guard.
He hadn't considered that possibility at all—Rei could read that much from his face.
But the surprise quickly gave way to a furrowed brow.
"Well…yes. It's entirely possible. But personally, I wouldn't recommend it. We lump them all together under the term 'Magic Item,' but some were made quite recently, while others are incredibly old—relics from the Ancient Magic Civilization, for instance. Magic Items that possess a will and take over their users—especially those dating back to the Ancient Magic Civilization—require particular caution."
The words he spoke while meeting Rei's eyes carried genuine concern.
Part of his goodwill stemmed from Rei showing him something as unusual as a hammer wielded by a Cyclops. But more than anything, what truly fueled the man's sense of crisis was the thought of what would happen if Rei's consciousness were ever seized by a Magic Item.
Given that Rei specialized in wide-area annihilation magic, it wouldn't be inconceivable for all of Gilm to be burned to ashes if things went wrong.
Suppressing that spine-chilling thought as best he could, the Guild Staff Member urged Rei to never carelessly lay hands on a cursed Magic Item.