"Stop trembling brat. I'm not here for you life, it aren't worth much. Even with that Class of yours, it pertains to nothing before us." Six said and scoffed at Adonis.
"You, you're not?" Adonis verified, his heart on the verge of collapsing in fright or in relief. Six stared at him and kept quiet for a moment, not immediately answering.
Adonis felt like he was on a death sentence and his breathing began raggered. He was about to feint, as his vision became blurry as well. The suspense was too much.
But luckily, before then, a cold voice rang out within the shadows, and made Adonis slightly calm down. "We are not. Senior Six, please treat yourself with respect, if you want to be respected."
But that was only for a moment. Seconds later, he trembled in fright as someone was within his room, and he had no idea about it. He now wondered how long these two have been here.
"...You like this guy, little Nine?" Six frowned, and a reply came from within the shadows as fast as lightning, "No." Just a single word, yet had a lot of meanings.
"Well that's better." Six said, and sighed in clear relief, like a father finding out that his teenage daughter was not pregnant. Then he whispered, "Lest I would have killed him."
"..."
"..."
Adonis and the person within the shadows had Hidden Classes, and superior senses, hence they easily heard Six's whisper. Adonis froze, and Ninth kept quiet.
"Enough about this. Kid, the Gray House wants to support you from the shadows. What do you say?" Six crossed his legs within the dark room and inquired.
Adonis frowned and subconsciously questioned, "For what reason would such a high rated organizations choose me?"
He knew about Earth's history stories, and how they were kings who were pawns and the likes. He thought this scenario was one such scenario.
"...In fact, we are not asking you, we are telling you. It's either you take it, or we choose another one of you siblings. Your choice." Six disregarded Adonis' words and responded.
"..."
Adonis also kept quiet and thought about it, and ultimately came to agree that choosing them was better than going against them. 'Plus, with my Hidden Class, in the near future, I might overcome these guys and regain my freedom.'
He thought and agreed to Six's words. Within the shadows, Little Ninth sighed in relief and vanished. Six nodded with a smile and said, "Welcome to the Gray House, kid. You're sure up for... a pleasant surprise."
"..."
~~~
Unknown Region.
Within a small village Hidden within a deep valley, Falsari. A little over a thousand beings were happily moving here and there, enjoying themselves under the blazing hot sun.
They had thin, lean physiques, and were quite tall. Their skin was close to being pale, and their hair was flaming red, with similar colored eyes.
They were a race of forgers, the falsarians, or in laymen terms, the forgemasters.
They were not a lot of them, and were not like the other races. In fact, they easily mixed in with others, and promoted sociability with other races. Unfortunately, within this world, nobody understood them.
In Damien's previous timeline, such mentality was the reason of their downfall.
They easily accepted friendship with the High Elves, and the other top six major races of this world. But at the end, those races forcefully conquered them and shared them amongst each other as slaves.
They worked for their dear lives, and were mostly mistreated unless they could create godly artifacts.
At that time, he and his friend had gone out to explore Hell with the other races, and were not aware of this. Especially as time flowed differently here, and in Hell.
The few days they spent in Hell, was months here. And by the time they returned, their race was almost extinct, and humanity was to follow on the list.
For the humans had 30% of this race within their circle, and they refused to give in. Hence they were attacked. Of course, there were six other reasons why humanity was attacked back then.
Each major race had their own goal and belief when they laid their attack. And future Damien, future Juliette, an the other Heroes of humanity were not there to do a thing about it.
But now... Damien would pave a different road that would lead to a different future for everyone. Even if he had to go against the world all by himself.
"..."
A cloaked man sat within one of the bars of this small village, and casually drank a mug of ale, while listening to the residents of this village talk amongst themselves.
"Little Flint has forged yet another rare treasure. That brat sure is amazing." One of them spoke, and the other followed, "Yeah. He truly is the successor of the Flame Forger."
"I know, right? Their techniques are up there. And if given high ranked resources, they could do miracles and wonders!!" They continued.
"I think you're right."
"Right..."
They continued with their conversation, and the cloaked individual just sat there all the while, drinking his ale without a care in the world.
This went on for a few more minutes until one of the falsarians within the bar moved closer to him and nudged him, "Hey buddy, are you also here for 'that'?"
His voice was not low, and the moment he spoke, every other individual kept quiet and focused on the cloaked individual.
The person in target slowly raised his mug to his lips, and drank the whole mug empty. Then heavily smashed it onto the table. "Yeah. How much would it cost?"
The falsarian was excited, and so were the others. He then rubbed his hands excitedly and asked, "Which range? Mild? Hot? Or spicy?"
The cloaked individual thought about it and answered, "Spicy. Make it extra spicy at that. There'll be a lot of damage."
"Alright, alright big guy." The falsarian continued to rub his hands together and asked once again, "Form of payment, friend? It has to be known, spicy is quite expansive as it affects all of us."
The cloaked individual nodded and casually replied, "I know. And I'll pay you after... but on second thoughts, will this suffice?" He took out a portion of a crystallized heart.
"..."
"..."
That alone shut every other falsarian within the bar, and they stared at the crystallized heart in shock. They were speechless, as something like this was rare.
A dragon's heart!!
Well, a quarter portion of it, but a dragon heart nonetheless. Using this on an artifact, might make it nigh-godly, and also raise the forging proficiency of any forger.
"Friend, friend... are you serious about this?" The falsarian asked once again to verify, but his hands had already held onto the fragmented dragon's heart.
The cloaked individual nodded and said, "It'll be the spiciest deal you've ever made. Believe that." He then stood up and added, "After all, this would be a battle amongst gods."
His last words made the falsarians stern as they gazed up at Damien, who nodded back left. The falsarian then added, "Give us a day. Tomorrow at eight in the morning, you can begin."
"..."
The cloaked individual did not say anything, and just waved his hand in agreement. The falsarians remaining there, then fought over the rare treasure and then the one that striked up the conversation won.
Time moved on, and the next day arrived. Even as the World advanced to a Realm, the time was no different to its residents, as a day here, was still just a day.
24 hours.
The next day, within the central most forge ground, a young man within his forge room was busy at work, hammering down at a piece of red, blazing metal.
The fire around the metal also refined and purified the metal, making it of a higher quality and purer origin, then hammering down on the metal alongside the hammer.
This allowed the metal to undergo absolute refinement, under the hands of four different sources.
"..."
The young man kept banging and banging, and banging without stop. He was sweating buckets, as the flames within this room were towering over a thousand degrees.
At this point, no ordinary mortal could survive this. And it was obvious that the forging technique used here, was not something mere mortals could understand.
It was godly.
It was divine.
And it was... unique.
The young man had no such thoughts though. To him, this was normal. To him, he was not at the required level of being a "Flame Forger" yet.
He was still a newbie.
Kang~
The hammer fell upon the piece of metal once again, the fire also went through its three rounds of refinement, and attacked the metal at the same time.
But he was not aware of that.
Kang~
The hammer fell upon the piece of metal once again, and the flames blazed out in fury, attacking the metal inside out, and trying to change its shape.
But he ignored that.
Kang~