Birth Of The Crafts-God

"That bastard!"

*Bam*

A hole was torn on the roundtable as splinters flew all over the place. The man who was the cause of this was fuming as he stared at the screen in front.

The location was the conference room of Baylands city-state's Eretrean Vestige-smith League branch. Once again, the vice-branch-head, chief examiner Hugo, as well as the other five executives had gathered for the meeting.

"This isn't how things should go." One of the men sighed.

Lucas' interview had already made headlines, but it was a headache to the EVL. The situation was going out of control and not as they had expected, even though they had yet to make a move after Lucas had ignored them.

"I told you guys yesterday, he's been looking down on us." One of the men chuckled harshly.

"Now's not the time to determine who is right or wrong. Instead, we should discuss how to fix this issue at hand." A man with green hair and a grey suit said.

"What do you even suggest? How exactly can we fix this? Nothing he said was wrong, and retaliating would make us seem petty. It might even cause a drop in trust from our members." said a man with yellow hair.

"Are you joking with me?" The man who had chuckled earlier glared at the yellow-haired middle-aged man.

"What? Do you have a better solution? The EVL was founded to support vestige-smiths. Whether we intend to use it for our own benefits or whatever, we can't outright deny its purpose. Don't forget; this is just a branch. All it would take is a word to the head office and every single one of us would be switched out!" The yellow-haired middle-aged man roared.

Hugo took a look at the faces of everyone and couldn't help but sweat even more. The entire incident could be attributed to his fault, and the board could even cut him off as a scapegoat for the incident.

'No, actually, they would do so.' Hugo was very much sure of this.

What he had to do now was to be of use to them so even if he was let off, it wouldn't be entirely. Rather than being sacked, losing his licence and being banned from the industry, a suspension alongside a fine was what Hugo was targeting now. Even a demotion didn't look bad to him at the moment.

"H, how about..."

Everyone turned to stare at Hugo.

"How about, we kill him?"

"..."

Seeing no one say anything yet, Hugo continued. Stay updated through empire

"Think about it. He's a human, so his death wouldn't matter much. Also, once his dead, we just need to remain silent for a while or even follow and mourn him, naming him the 'Pioneer of Modern Technology' or something. With him dead, everyone would eventually forget about the entire issue, and he wouldn't stand to become a threat to us in the future."

*Siithh*

Suddenly, Hugo felt a slight breeze sweep past his cheek. He froze for a second, then extended a finger to rub his cheek. That was when he noticed a wet sensation on it; he was bleeding.

'Stellar energy.' Hugo thought.

After the first level of the Apertures Opening stage, it became possible for stellar practitioners to control stellar energy externally. However, this wasn't common since everyone depended on vestiges, which were more powerful.

"Are you stupid?" The vice-branch-head's voice sounded.

"Have you not caused us enough harm already? Kill him and then everything would be all over? Do you take everyone to be an idiot like yourself?!" The man roared.

Hugo immediately went mute and bowed his head low.

The vice-branch-head sighed, then glanced at everyone in the room.

"No one does anything. On this matter, we remain silent, at least until the head is back. This is our loss."

Admitting a loss in this battle came as a surprise to the other six, but the majority of them felt it was the best course of action. There was no move they could make on Lucas at the moment, and it was best not to do so. The latter had done no wrong despite their well-timed notice which was obvious to the majority as a targeted attack.

If the EVL were still to act out, it would ruin their image and go contrary to their motto, which was something they had to avoid no matter the cost.

As for the branch-head, he was a mysterious figure that was barely around, leaving the vice-branch-head to be in-charge most of the time. Despite that, everyone on the board had immense respect from him, deriving both from the latter's authority and also his strength.

The branch-head was a Tier 1 Grandmaster vestige-smith, which meant that he was at the ninth level of the Apertures Opening stage. One more level and he would be able to unlock his superpower. As such, the man was highly respected, even by family heads of the top families in Baylands city-state; which was understandable since these individuals were also at a similar level in strength. Also, being a Tier 1 Grandmaster meant that he could make Grade 5 vestiges, which was something these family heads lusted after. The reason mostly being that the branch-head was the only one on Baylands city-state capable of doing such.

. . .

While the EVL were having a headache thanks to Lucas' speech the previous day, the latter decided to close early for the day. Recently, he had received quite a lot of vestige orders, so much so that even the ones previously on display on the other side of the store were all sold out. As such, all new orders had to be crafted.

The orders weren't just limited to weapons again, but they also included the communicator and boots he had made. As such, Lucas had to reduce the hours he had the store open, and he also put a hold on vestige orders so as to meet up.

"Aigoo~ My back hurts from working so long. I really need a break." Kelvin said as he stretched.

"Uncle~"

Melissa ran down the stairs and jumped into Lucas' arms.

"Aww. Did you miss me?" Lucas smiled warmly at her.

"Hmm." Melissa nodded.

"Staying up alone is boring."

Lucas chuckled as he patted the head of the little girl.

Due to the fact that she was still very young —only eleven years of age based on her appearance— Lucas decided to have her stay upstairs while he ran the store. Although she was registered as an employee in the system records and was safe from any harassment, Lucas felt it was wrong to actually put an eleven year old girl to work.

When he saved her, it wasn't for child labour purposes after all.

*Knock* *Knock*

Just then, the sound of a knock came from the door which surprised the trio. There was already a "closed" sign hung on the door, so for someone to still knock despite that, would either mean they were close —which Lucas thought to be impossible—, or it was something or even someone important.