Birth Of The Crafts-God

In what felt like the blink of an eye, fifteen days of peace and quiet soon went by for Lucas.

During the last two weeks, Lucas was able to achieve a lot thanks to having a significant amount of free time on his hands. He no longer had to be running around to complete any mission. As such, Lucas spent the time doing what he loved best which was vestige-smithing. He didn't just make new vestiges, but delved into researching various methods to do the same thing.

Being located in Eretre's capital for vestige-smiths, Trundel City had a large pool of knowledge on vestige-smithing. There was even a public library constructed by the city's EVL branch and sponsored by the city government. There was also a lot of free knowledge and information in this field, available on the net. Lucas browsed through all of them as he made the public library his second home.

Occasionally, Lucas would head over to the Versoa Team Co's building to perform his duties as a department head. Initially, he was in charge of the Energy and Designs department. But with the absence of department heads and a majority of their staff, Lucas also handed the tasks of the Material Manufacturing, and Simulations and testing, albeit temporarily. Due to this, he had to follow-up on the races, make repairs to the Viper version 3, and also study the performance data.

At the same time, the Versoa Team Co was on the lookout for replacements and new hands.

The Nadire Underground League was also coming to an end whereas the third tier leagues, like the K1 league had already ended. So, it was easier to sign new vestige-smiths and drivers. From what Helnord briefed him, Lucas would soon be relinquished of the temporary titles soon. Although it would cut his pay, Lucas didn't mind and was even more relieved by this announcement.

There were other good news for Lucas during this period as well. The sales of the Heavenly Demonic Shop had increased as well.

With the performance of the Versoa team steadily increasing, the team's sponsor also got some attention. Supporters of the team, drift racing and racing shuttle enthusiasts, and also some regular citizens became patrons of the store. Even Pioneers could occasionally be seen there.

Over three months ago, Lucas' first customer in the Heavenly Demonic Shop, a pioneer, had arrived to have an appraisal and a restoration done on an artefact. The entire process, albeit costly, was successful and had gained the approval of the pioneer named Ronny, who became a dedicated customer.

However, Ronny was only one person, so even if he spoke good about the Heavenly Demonic Shop, it still wasn't enough. This was because, other pioneers had vestige-smiths they worked with or trusted. Also, pioneers could stay anywhere from a week to three months away from civilisation while they explored ruins and relics. This made them the worst group to help advertise a store by word of mouth.

Lucas had aimed to take up the sponsorship slot for a successful drift racing team. To ensure that Versoa team got that achievement, he didn't mind using the simulation room as a training area for Mason.

Now, it was all paying off. Every week, the store generates at least four thousand federal coins in revenue. Melissa was even able to take on a supporting role in the store as well, giving her the opportunity to build more experience

Over five months since he departed Baylands City of Baylands city-state, Lucas had now set a firm foundation in Trundel City of Belfargos territory.

"Feels just like yesterday." Lucas sighed whole staring out of the window of the store.

"What does, big brother?" Melissa curiously asked.

However, Lucas simply smiled and ruffled her hair.

At the moment, there were no customers, but that didn't mean that the store wasn't doing well. Instead, Lucas had hung a "Closed" sign outside, as he wanted to take a break from the continuous orders from the last three days.

Suddenly, Lucas had a knock on the door. He was quite surprised by this as the sign alone was enough to inform those outside he was unavailable. Although there has been some individuals who thought too highly of themselves and too lowly of Lucas —as he was a human— they had learned the hard way not to mess with him.

Thinking the person outside was one such individual, Lucas responded with a cold voice.

"We're closed."

"Come on. Is that how you treat a friend?"

The individual on the other side responded, clearly from a man.

Lucas felt the voice to be familiar and opened up the security footage of the outside camera to see who it was. And indeed, the newcomer was familiar.

The door was unlocked and the individual walked in to reveal himself. It was Frolov's son, Damian.

After the dinner fifteen days ago, Damian would regularly make out time to meet up with Lucas for one reason or the other. He would always time it when Lucas was free, so as to not affect his schedule. This led to the two sides getting to know each other better and closing up the relationship gap between them. It was to the point that they could be called friends. Although Lucas didn't trust Damian as a bestfriend, he still considered the other to be close, albeit he kept his guard up thanks to his experiences.

Even so, this didn't stop Damian from proving his worth and being helpful.

Some of the clients Lucas received in his store were even recommended by Damian. Some outsourced corporate deals, from small to medium-sized companies who needed the help of a vestige-smith, found their way into Lucas' hands thanks to Damian. One could say that Lucas owed Damian, but he didn't take it seriously, after all, he wasn't in dire need of those deals neither did he ask for them. But Lucas still considered it a favour, and wasn't so cold with Damian as he was with others.

"Don't tell me you're here to try and drag me to go clubbing with you." Lucas said.

This was something Damian had tried doing in the past but Lucas promptly rejected. Clubbing? He'd rather use that time to go to the library and read about ancient runes.

"Haha. Not today." Damian laughed.

Despite his appearance that should suggest he was married, Damian was a single Pringle. What's more, he had a notable vice; he was a club freak. While he had his mature side, Damian frequented the club a lot more than an average individual should. He was also involved with quite a few women, but he knew to keep that life separate, which was why one wouldn't see him as a playboy based on his appearance and behaviour.

"I came here because I just got hold of the shocking news that you might be interested in, and it would leave you speechless."

Damian's expression suddenly turned serious after he took a seat opposite Lucas in the store.

"What exactly could that be?" Lucas was intrigued and also confused.

As far as he understood, there wasn't much that could surprise him, although there were a couple of things that could pique his interest.

"Baylands city-state's city lord was attacked recently, and seriously injured. There's news that a council meeting would be held to impeach him as he is now deemed unfit to rule."

Lucas didn't ask Damian what that had to do with him. He had already guessed that the latter and his father had investigated him. While Lucas might be able to hide from Baylands city-state's forces by moving to a different continent, it didn't mean that the top forces on the Bernin continent would be unable to dig up his background; after all, some of them were the equivalent of continental powers. Meanwhile, Damian's family was the only one capable of owning an estate roughly on par with the Cardaso family within Trundel City; that said a lot about their influence and power.

The fact that Damian knew that Lucas had a relationship with Baylands city-state wasn't surprising to Lucas; rather, it was the fact that the former had brought it up.

"It's all in the past. What does that have to do with me now?" Lucas asked.

Damian inwardly nodded, approving of Lucas' calm reaction. The latter didn't deny any his connection to the city-state, but instead questioned what the current development has to do with him.

"The ones leading the charge to have him impeached are the Ross family and their allies, the Mertens family."

Lucas' eyes flickered at those words.

The top four families of Baylands City didn't have anything good to do with Lucas, except for the Mertens family. During the entire saga that forced Lucas to relocate, although the Ross family gave the best condition, Russell Mertens of the Mertens family had tried to protect him unlike the others. And in the end, Russell has clashed with the city lord over custody of Lucas.

Since the man who has forced him to give up his foundations was currently about to be usurped by the one who wanted to support him, Lucas felt this was pleasant need rather than being bothered by it.

"It would have been simple if it were all that. But the situation is more complicated than it sounds."