Legend of the Empyrean Blacksmith

READINESS

Lino silently observed from the side as Jack and Edward worked together to craft an armor set made from [Refined Titanium Steel] . As he rarely had the opportunity to witness those better than himself craft, Lino tried to embed each and every movement and strike into his mind to study it later . Though he had no idea as to why they were putting so much into crafting a single item, that didn’t mean he would stupidly interrupt them midway through the session and endanger the entire process .

He sat in the corner and drank in silence, his eyes working beyond their capacity to imprint every movement they could follow . As the material was different from what Lino usually worked with, Jack and Edward used additional set of tools often referred to as ’carvers’; as the [Refined Titanium Steel] was difficult to work with even when heated, a special set of tools was required that was also built out of the same material, most-often consisting of curved knives, spiked hammers and hinged chisels .

As it was the entire set, Lino watched the two work for three days without a second of rest . He came to realize that he lacked profusely when it came to endurance and stamina compared to the truly amazing sort . After the whole three days, the set was finally completed, consisting of a chest plate, pauldrons, leggings, arm-guards, a helmet and boots . Each piece exuded a particular, silver sheen and appeared rather majestic with golden linings running through their edges .

Both Jack and Edward collapsed into the chairs, panting and sweating profusely, as Lino approached slowly and inspected the pieces . He didn’t take a look at the stats as it was considered extremely rude to do so without the crafter’s explicit permission . However, even without looking directly at the stats, he could still gauge approximately the value of the armor set -- and it was definitely priceless . There was most-likely nobody who could afford it on the auction save for perhaps the true top masters of the entire Continent, which included the Emperor himself and those Sect Masters .

"What do you think?" Jack was the first to recover, walking over toward Lino and asking with a proud grin .

"It’s amazing . . . " Lino mumbled . "So precise . . . smooth . . . fitting . . . and all done so quickly . I’ve still much to learn . "

"Ha ha ha," Jack laughed with a slight flush, patting Lino’s back . "You’ve got good eyes on you, Lino . However, even for us this is extremely difficult . Just one part of it all was to abstain from crafting for at least two months prior to this one . "

"Eh? You do this often?" Lino glanced at him, slightly confused .

"Hm," Jack nodded . "Annually, actually . "

"For the festival?" Lino guessed .

"No," Jack shook his head . "The festival is reserved solely for the young and up-and-coming smiths . What would the two old farts like Ed and I be doing there?"

"Then what’s it for?" Lino asked .

"It’s a gift . Annual gift to the Emperor . "

" . . . " Lino’s heart suddenly stirred as a massive feeling of jealousy overwhelmed him . Just for a second there, he wanted to overthrow the Emperor and take the throne himself . "Lucky bastard . " he mumbled faintly though just loud enough for Jack to hear him . The latter, however, sternly decided to ignore what he heard; people were hanged for far less . . . should someone learn that this youth called the Emperor Himself a bastard . . . Jack couldn’t imagine the consequences . "Ah, does that mean you’ll be going to the Capital for the festival?" Lino inquired .

"Of course . " Jack nodded . "Both Ed and I will go . Usually it’s just one of us, but as we finally have an item to present during the festival, we figured we may as well go and not be embarrassed anymore . "

" . . . right . " Lino said, smiling faintly . "Want an advice?"

"An advice?"

"While there," Lino said . "Look for a plot of land -- any, anywhere -- and buy it regardless of cost with smithy residing there in mind . "

"Eh?" Jack exclaimed, looking at Lino with clear confusion in his eyes .

"Trust me on this, alright?"

" . . . I’ll see what I can do . " seeing Lino’s seriousness, Jack nodded heavily . As the youth was mostly a carefree type -- and as Jack had never seen him as serious before -- he realized the reason behind it all must involve something much greater than what he imagined .

"Good . " Lino nodded, smiling lightly . "Anyway, when will you two start traveling?"

"Tomorrow morning," Jack said . "As this little town doesn’t have the Teleportation Array to the Capital, we’ll have to go to the nearest, border-city further east before using the array there to arrive at the Capital . "

"Is it okay if a couple of my Disciples and I join you?" Lino asked .

"W-what? You have Disciples? No, right . I mean, you are quite skillful--"

"They’re not blacksmiths . " Lino rolled his eyes at Jack who grew even more confused . "What are you looking at me like that for? I’m quite strong, actually . Strong enough to accept a couple of Disciples of my own . "

" . . . "

"So it’s cool, then?"

" . . . it is . "

"Great! I’ll meet you in front of the smithy before dawn?"

"Yeah . "

"See ya’ then!"

Lino strolled out briskly, leaving the confused Jack behind to brood over what Lino meant . The latter, however, didn’t put much thought into it . He first intended to use the hippogryph to travel around as he did so far, but if there was quicker and better alternative, he wouldn’t reject it .

All things considered, it would be better to start putting his plan into action sooner rather than later . Time is the greatest hole-buster in the planning; the more of it passes, the greater chances of various variables rising in place of still facts . For instance, if a single more Legion of the Hell’s forces appeared, Lino would have to scrap majority of his general plans and start from scratch, which is something he desperately wanted to avoid .

For the most part of his life, whether before he met Ella and Eggor or after, he remained mostly alone when it came to planning itself, only ever becoming a part of small groups . He had never planned even a small-scale skirmish involving a couple of hundred folk, let alone anything on a much, much grander scale .

His first plan of action was actually to meet with the Emperor of the Titan Empire which is why he wanted to speed to the Capital . Regardless of everything else, the Titan Empire was the geographically largest power on the entire continent, subordinating the most people comparatively speaking to the other powers . Establishing the contact with the Emperor would also allow him to use communication channels of the Empire which would be far quicker than establishing his own .

In addition, he wagered he could also supplement his current knowledge with more up-to-date one as shifts tend to occur daily, and the information he currently possessed would only serve him properly so long as he’d mainly use it as a reference more so than a de facto source of everything .

Returning to the ranch just outside the town, he saw both Felix and Lucky practicing atop a makeshift platform . Lucky had already managed to reach Soul Realm, while Felix was merely a slight push away from reaching Illumine Realm . While their progress was quite staggering, Lino mused, he then recalled Ella and her monstrous rise from being at Mythic Realm all the way to being a Level 899 Ineffable . Every time he thought back to it he couldn’t help but shudder; he ever secretly suspected at times that she was also a Bearer, but realizing it made no sense, his sanity-saving excuses would quickly crumble .

Displacing the depressing thoughts, Lino recalled something and reached for the Dimensional Pouch currently holding two beasts -- the hippogryph Grim and the dog with the name Non being settled on . Calling out the latter, Lino’s mood immediately soured when he saw the tongue-lashing, drooling monstrosity of perversion that appeared before his eyes .

"Woof~woof!!" the silver-eyed husky barked immediately, bearing his teeth at Lino, clearly displeased with being kept inside the pouch for so long .

"Shut up, you goddamned piece of shit," Lino trounced the dog with a swift kick which lifted his mood up somewhat . "I have a job for you . "

"Woof woof!"

"What do you mean why do you have to listen to me? ’Cause if you don’t I’ll crush your regressive brain into mush and make me a nice soup of it . "

" . . . woof~"

"That’s more like it," Lino grinned . "I want you go south," Lino continued as he tied a piece of parchment around the husky’s neck . "Find the Skies of the Wayfarers Sect somewhere over there and Lady Ava in it and then hand her the parchment . If you do well I might feed you something good . "

"Woof, woof!!"

"Yeah, yeah, you can do whatever you want on your way over there, just don’t delay too much . She’s probably already pissed at me . . . again . . . "

"Woof, woof wooooof!" the silver husky wiggled his tail for a moment and nodded before bolting off into the distance . Neither Lucky nor Felix noticed him, and Lino began to feel truly strange over the whole ordeal . After all, even Valkyria failed to notice the dog .

"Are you curious as to why he can hide so well?"

"And look who comes out of the woodworks like a fattened troll . . . "

" . . . what does that mean?"

"Nothing," Lino shook his head . "So, why?"

"It’s for the same reason he can’t hide from you . " the Writ replied .

" . . . oh, wow . That explains so much . Geez, thanks old man . Whatever in the god-fucking-hell would I ever do without you?!"

" . . . he has a sliver of Prime Qi . " the Writ had already gotten used to Lino’s explosions, making it easy to ignore them .

" . . . "

"It’s a distilled version of Chaotic Qi . "

"Eh?!"

"I’ve no idea where down the line of evolution did he pick it up," the Writ continued . "But even that sliver is enough for him to evade almost everyone’s Divine Sense . The reason you can easily find him is because . . . well . . . you get it . "

" . . . hmm--no, wait a second!" Lino exclaimed as he felt a sudden headache besiege him, forcing him to rub his temple . "You’re saying he has a sliver of Prime Qi?"

"Hm . "

"And that the Prime Qi is like a child-like version of Chaotic Qi?"

"Hm, something like that . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . "

"What?" the Writ asked, seeing Lino’s rather ugly expression .

"D-don’t tell me . . . that . . . that dog is technically your descendant?"

" . . . "

" . . . "

" . . . n-no . . . " for the first time since Lino had gotten the Writ, he felt a brief fluctuation of a strong emotion and a considerable crack in that robotic voice . On one end, he was proud of his accomplishment; on another, he realized he won’t be having any sleep for a little while longer . . .