Birth Of The Crafts-God

*Dum* *Dum*

"Mr Lucas Saunters? Are you up?"

Lucas stared at the direction of the store.

The store had been closed with a sign hung up in front, so it was impossible for anyone to get inside without Lucas' permission. There was no doorbell installed either as Lucas didn't want to be disturbed after opening time. Hence, the only option for the person on the other side was to knock on the door.

"Come in." Lucas calmly said, granting the person permission to step in.

After a second, the visitor pushed the door and this time, it opened. He wasn't surprised by this as a similar locking technology was in place in almost every household.

"Sorry for coming to your place at such a time." The newcomer smiled.

Although he said that, the sun was still up so it wasn't an inconvenient time. However, as Lucas had locked the door and gone on a break from work, it could be said to be an unsuitable time for visits.

Lucas glanced at the newcomer and scanned them.

It was a middle-aged man with a grey beard. He wore a black suit with a watch on his wrist. With his experienced eyes, Lucas could tell that they were all vestiges. The suit was a defensive piece of clothing that could take on attacks up to the fourth level of the Apertures Opening stage. In other words, it was a Grade 2 vestige. The watch on his hand probably doubled as a communicator as well. But the most astonishing fact about the wrist watch was that it was actually made using one of Lucas' modified stellar processors.

After the two main SS vestiges, the Blue Spear and Dark Dagger, Lucas produced three new sets of vestiges as a response to the harassment he got from the alliance of vestige-smith companies who stood against him. Two of the three vestiges relied on a special type of stellar processor that only Lucas could make.

In truth, the stellar processor was just a modified version of an existing stellar processor provided to Lucas by Novanio Tech. However, it was far more powerful than regular stellar processors and had exceeded many of them in benchmark tests.

Getting access to this new processor wasn't something just anyone could do since Lucas was the only one capable of producing the modified processors. The only way one could get them was by buying the wrist-type communicator he had made, then disassembling the product and extracting the stellar processor from it. That was the only explanation as to how the man had a wristwatch made with the stellar processor.

'That's not all.'

Lucas stared at the watch a bit more.

At first, he had thought that it was a simple wristwatch made using his modified stellar processor, but he turned out to be wrong. It was actually a customised version of his wrist-type communicator's third model.

The wrist-type communicator was called Claudia 9, and there were three models to it, all powered using the modified stellar processors nicknamed SS processors.

All Claudia 9, irrespective of the model, has a special software called 'Beginner's Guide for Freelancers'. It contained part of Lucas' knowledge on desolate beasts and their behaviours, strengths, weaknesses and appearances as well as information on some special materials; all of which were knowledge he got from the system.

The SS processors were fitted with 'cores' which helped store stellar energy absorbed passively by the processors. This stellar energy could then be used for multiple functions such as powering the magic runes or stellar circuits on the communicator, or speeding up the processor's processing ability.

The Claudia 9 mainstream model could transform into a dagger. The Claudia 9 Devon 2 model could transform into a vambrace with defensive capabilities.

Finally was the third model, Claudia 9 S, which unlike the other two, couldn't transform into anything. But what it could do was to use the stored up stellar energy to recover the wearer's stellar energy, or help in their stellar refinement. Because of this ability, the S model became the hottest product amongst all three models.

As he studied the man's wristwatch, Lucas realised that it was actually a customised version of the Claudia 9 S model, and this surprised him. Lucas never made customised editions for his products, so the only explanation was that the man had gotten it from elsewhere.

Although the changes made weren't much, it wasn't easy to make custom changes to the Claudia 9 model without a vast wealth of knowledge and experience in vestige-smithing. Even then, one could only make small changes. One would then need to be familiar with the Claudia 9 vestige.
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Being familiar didn't mean knowing how to make one as that was impossible for anyone except Lucas. They only needed to understand the logic of how it worked and the common components within it. But even this was a difficult task, even for experts.

'The terrorists who used those vestiges also seemed to have gotten them from someone who could copy my products really well.' Lucas narrowed his eyes before staring at the man.

"Oh, this?" The man smiled as he glanced at his watch. It was obvious that he knew that it had caught Lucas' attention.

"It's nothing special. I got it over a week ago from Legacy Crafts dealership. It took a bit of effort on my side to have them sell it to me through the back." The man chuckled.

"To what do I owe this visit, and who are you?" Lucas calmly asked.

Whether the man had his product or not didn't matter; Lucas had already been paid for it by the Legacy Crafts dealership. What mattered was his purpose of coming here.

"I am Calhner Bergs, of the Bergs family. I work as the family's aide for external affairs." Calhner smiled before handing Lucas a card.

Lucas accepted the card and glanced at it. The material of the card was of high quality. It wasn't paper, but a gemstone. Yes; an entire business card carved out from a single gemstone. What's more, the gemstone was one of high-quality and could easily reach the monthly salary of an average worker in one of the fifteen districts.

"Business hasn't been doing well lately, huh?" Calhner said as he took a look at the place.

"A bit, yeah. But I don't mind. It's been such a long time since I've had a break." Lucas responded.

Calhner chuckled before facing Lucas again.

"I'll get straight to the point since you seem like a man who's straightforward. The Bergs family is interested in a collaboration with you. In exchange, we would use our influence to get rid of the rumours and ensure you take your place back in the industry."