Birth Of The Crafts-God

"What if what I want is their heads?"

Lucas stared into the eyes of Lucy.

Lucy was speechless, not knowing how to reply that question.

But her worries were for naught as Lucas spoke again.

"Unfortunately, their heads aren't worth my interest. Also, take a seat."

Lucy felt relieved by that sentence and sat down right away.

"Since these are gifts for an apology, I'll accept them. Except for the stocks. I don't need those. Instead, help me liquidate it for cash. The store and apartments are also not useful to me. I'm comfortable where I am at. I'd rather have more materials and resources, or in the worst case scenario, more money."

"I'll inform them of this." Lucy replied.

Seeing that Lucas didn't say anything else, she decided to move the discussion into the second phase.

"The higher-ups heard that you're working on a brand new stellar processor. I'd like to confirm if that's true." Lucy asked tentatively.

"Indeed. You should already know that the Seven Sparks Forge has the ability to do this, so it's only natural."

Although Lucas' response was said without much thought, it revealed a lot of information to Lucy.

At Novanio Tech, a rumour went around amongst the senior executives that the reason the Seven Sparks Forge partnered up with the Silverine Factory through the Seven Stars Springs Dealership was because the Forge wanted to begin manufacturing stellar processors. Albeit absurd, this was a logical reason as to why the deal was made considering the ability of the the Silverine Factory when it came to stellar processors. If the Seven Sparks Forge simply wanted to modify stellar processors, it only made sense to purchase from the best. But if they were making from scratch, all that mattered was that the equipment and production lines were up to standard.

While this rumour seemed to have some substance to it, it was disproved by many and not taken seriously. Designing a stellar processor from scratch was an entirely more complicated and difficult procedure than modifying an existing one. It was like the difference between upgrading a car and building one from scratch with the engine as well.

As such, this rumour wasn't taken seriously amongst the upper management who were aware of it.

Lucy had heard of this rumour and decided to try her luck now she was before the person at the centre of it. Her question wasn't on whether there were plans to modify the Silverine Factory's flagship stellar processor —Garland— but whether Lucas was making an entirely new product.

Seeing the latter not deny it, Lucy was stumped.

'Maybe he misunderstood my question.' Lucy explained to herself. Yet for some reason, she wasn't confident in her statement.

Shoving off her distracting thoughts, Lucy focused back on her mission.

"I'd like to know whether it's possible for us to collaborate on a project."

"Oh? In what way?" Lucas, amused, smiled at Lucy.

"As with in the past, but the structure of the deal would be changed. We will provide you with as many Orion Cores as needed. In exchange, excluding the production cost, we would only take 40% from the profits. Also, Novanio Tech would open up its trading channels for you, even all the way to Landale at zero additional cost. If there's anything else you need, let us know and we can discuss it."

Lucas didn't say anything as he considered the situation.

Although Novanio Tech had stabbed him at the back, they didn't do much as compared to the top powered of Baylands city-state who had forced him into a state of distress. Since the company was willing to apologize with materials Lucas couldn't easily get his hands on, he accepted the apology. But the apology was one thing while the cooperation was another.

The terms of the deal were quite tempting to be honest. Unlike before, the control of the sale of the chips would be in Lucas' hands or more aptly, the Seven Stars Springs Dealership. This was vastly different as compared to before where Lucas made the SS V1 chips and other vestiges then sold directly to the Legacy Crafts Dealership.

In this new deal, Lucas had the final say regarding the sales. All he needed to do was to compensate Novanio Tech for the Orion Cores and hand over 40% of the profits to them in exchange for the other perks of the deal.

This was quite a tempting offer, unfortunately Lucas wasn't interested.

"You can return now." Lucas said.

Lucy was stunned, but it only took her a second to react.

"I understand."

Nothing else needed to be said between them. There was no way Lucas would forget about the past so easily and move on. Although Novanio Tech didn't do much to him as the other top four families, it didn't mean that he would just forget about it and sign a new deal with a smile.

'But at least, we got off easily.' Lucy prepared to take the certificates of ownership for the company's stocks, the new store and the apartment.

"You can leave those here." Lucas interrupted her.

Lucy lifted her eyes to look at him. A confused expression with a look of doubt plastered on her face as she did so.

Lucas had already rejected them and requested for the items to be exchanged for materials or cash of equivalent value. Lucy couldn't understand why he suddenly changed his mind.

As if seeing through her confusion, Lucas said

"I'll hand them back when I get the replacements."

'You have to be kidding me. Since I've refused to cooperate with you guys, who's to say you wouldn't decide to delay my request because of that?'

"Alright."

Lucy was a smart woman and she was able to guess why Lucas made such a decision. Truthfully, she didn't think the company wouldn't compensate him later on as that would worsen the relationship they had barely mended. But she couldn't be so sure.

. . .

Three days went by almost like a breeze with the Seven Sparks Forge still operating at peak popularity.

Apart from handling the daily 46 orders, Lucas also spent some time improving his skill and learning more about vestige-smithing.

Unlike magic forging, vestige-smithing was a much broader path as it encompassed both engineering, forging, and inscriptions. It didn't just stop at making weapons but extended to large structures such as hover cars and even spaceships, to miniature ones like stellar processors. It was due to the comprehensive nature of vestige-smithing that there were so many different types and schools of vestige-smithing.

According to the hints of the system, to achieve the title of Crafts-God, Lucas would eventually need to master them all. Hence, it was only reasonable for him to take as much time as possible to familiarise himself with the basics.

Apart from expanding his knowledge and working on some personal projects, Lucas also spent the remainder of his time training both Melissa and Vergil.

Teaching Melissa was self-explanatory as she was his sister; on the other hand, Lucas decided to train Vergil because the latter's current skills weren't enough to assist him. It was also because this was his intention from the very beginning when he hired Vergil as a staff.

Vergil was a true talent in vestige-smithing. This was obvious from the fact that he tied first place with Maximillus Oder, the pride of the Oder family —a family of vestige-smiths— during the EVL Exceptional Basis Exam. In truth, Vergil only tied because his fundamentals in theory were behind that of Maximillus. However, in terms of the practical aspect, he was actually much better than the latter.

Vergil's talent was so amazing that it gave the Mertens family the confidence to aspire to enter the vestige-smithing industry. As long as he could nature, the family would welcome its first Tier 1 Master. As for which exact rank he would be —whether low, mid, high or peak— that would depend on Vergil's teacher. Hence why Russell was very careful in making the decision.

In the end, the role fell on to Lucas due to the belief that he had a Tier 1 Grandmaster backing him. If this 'Grandmaster' was to be interested in a talent like Vergil, the Mertens family wouldn't only build a connection to such an influential existence, but Vergil's ceiling would be higher as well. He might even be able to become a Tier 1 Grandmaster as well.

That was just how incredibly talented Vergil was taken to be.

Nonetheless, in front of Lucas, this 'talent' was barely average. However, considering his current starting point, Lucas didn't go too hard on him.

'He's still a Novice rank, but his talent is barely into the Exponent rank's mid stage [1]. He's indeed a talent here.' Lucas thought as he oversaw Vergil fulfilling his tasks.

Glancing at the displayed timer on his wrist, Lucas interrupted him.

"That's enough for today."

Vergil, who has been hammering down on a metal plate, finally sighed with relief as he let go of the hammer and plopped to the ground.

"Damn, that was stressful."

Lucas' training routine for him didn't just consist of reading books and watching Lucas at work. It covered both theoretical, mental and physical exercises.

For the physical exercise, Vergil had to enter the simulation room and make a vestige using only a hammer. While it was quite absurd to make a vestige with a hammer alone, it wasn't impossible. The problem however was that the gravity in the room was increased by three times.

Also, the base material Vergil worked on was incredibly durable and had great strength. However, its toughness wasn't as impressive. This meant that if a certain amount of force was applied to it, the material would easily fracture.

Such a hellish physical training tested Vergil's ability to control his strength and also pushed himself to the limits while still maintaining perfect control.

With a three times gravity, if Vergil exerted even a bit above the necessary force, the material would easily shatter thanks to the added force of gravity. If he exerted too little, it would merely be a tap and nothing would change. Vergil needed to find the perfect balance of force exertion under this new gravitational field. Naturally, this was very difficult and tiring.

The duo exited the simulation room with Vergil still panting like a man after ten rounds of bedroom warfare. With Lucas who seemed refreshed with zero signs of exhaustion, this painted a weird image. Luckily, no one was present to have such weird thoughts, and Melissa was too young to be aware of that.

"A new mail, big brother."

Melissa said to Lucas after he appeared at the main area of the store.

"From?" Lucas curiously asked.

"It says, from the Silverine Factory's Maessen."