As usual, the Autonika Workshop’s Smithy of Advancement was busy researching and developing powerful artifacts.
An artifact from them would always be considered a piece of art that was the combined product of magic, alchemy, crafting, mineral handling, designing, and other technical skills.
Constant research, testing, and development were required to create the perfect artifact.
Of course, the laboratory was filled with sounds of explosions more often than not, as most experiments would end up in failure, but the researchers had long gotten used to those noises.
And today was no exception…
Boom!
Crrackk…!
The walls of Laboratory 431 crumbled with a deafening explosion as thick black smoke filled the corridor.
“Cough! Cough! Kek! Kek!”
Boothroyd emerged from Laboratory 431. He looked like a lump of charcoal and was in agony.
He was regarded as the youngest head blacksmith-cum-alchemist in the history of the Autonika Workshop, and he had long become famous for spending at least twenty hours out of twenty-four hours a day at the laboratory researching new artifacts.
Why?
It was all because the Autonika Workshop would never be able to close the gap that had for centuries between the three major workshops otherwise.
“Cough! Cough! Ugh… Maybe I should have put more dragon blood?”
Boothroyd had almost lost his life in the explosion just now, but his mind was filled with nothing but his research.
Of course, Boothroyd wasn’t actually being reckless. He wasn’t afraid of dying because he had an advanced artifact that protected its wearer from damage.
“Hmm… I think this research is going to be a long one…”
All of a sudden, one of the researchers rushed toward him and shouted, “Boothroyd-nim! The King of Proatine, King Siegfried van Proa, wishes to see you!”
“King Siegfried?”
“He brought an Entropy Stone with him!”
“What?!” Boothroyd was shocked.
‘He really managed to bring one back? How did he get through the blockade?’ Boothroyd knew very well that the Adunyadet Kingdom’s blockade wasn’t something that the king of a small and weak kingdom could break through.
So how did he get his hands on an Entropy Stone…?
‘Hmm… It seems that he truly is an extraordinary person. I’m sure those fools from the Bavarian Workshop knew something about him, so they made him their VVIP customer…’ Boothroyd thought.
He then told the researcher, “Tell him that I’ll be there right away!”
A VVIP customer had completed an impossible quest, so there was no reason for him to dilly-dally.
***
“Welcome, Your Majesty. I heard that you have procured an Entropy Stone?” Boothroyd greeted Siegfried.
“Yes,” Siegfried replied, and a quest clear message popped up in front of his eyes.
“How did you manage to get your hands on one? Did you really go to Stone Island or…”
“I went to Stone Island.”
“How did you manage to get there? The Adunyadet Kingdom is small and weak, but they have naval superiority over Stone Island…”
“Well…” Siegfried trailed off. Then, he explained how he managed to reach Stone Island.
“I see… so that was how you managed to procure that stone. I wasn’t aware that Your Majesty has ties with the Nordic Tribe.”
“The mine collapsed, and I did run into some troubles, but I managed to get an Entropy Stone in the end.”
“The mine collapsed…?”
“One of the Adunyadet Kingdom’s battleships misfired and…” Siegfried explained what happened next.
“What?!” Boothroyd shouted in surprise.
‘What in the world am I hearing right now?!’ he exclaimed inwardly.
The stories that Siegfried was telling him right now were so hard to believe that Boothroyd started doubting his ears.
“S-So… you destroyed the Adunyadet Kingdom because you were upset?”
“No way, how can I do that? I just helped them out a bit, that’s all.” Siegfried shook his head in response before explaining, “I was pissed off after what happened, so I just killed anyone from the Adunyadet Kingdom. Then, Lord Angele gave a tempting proposal that was too good to pass up on, so I somehow ended up becoming allies with Stone Island.”
“D-Does that mean that the Adunyadet Kingdom has fallen and Stone Island emerged victorious from the war?”
“Yes.”
“Haha… Hahaha…”
Boothroyd couldn’t believe Siegfried’s words at all. All he could do was laugh awkwardly in disbelief. He surreptitiously signaled the researcher, who was serving them tea.
‘Go and find out…’ he gestured with his eyes.
‘Yes, sir.’ The researcher nodded before walking out of the door.
Boothroyd was actually more interested to know if the Adunyadet Kingdom had really fallen rather than knowing if Siegfried’s heroic tales were true.
“Hmm… I understand what you mean, Your Majesty. As promised, I will craft the Quad-Turbo Set for you because you managed to procure an Entropy Stone.”
“Thank you very much.”
“I will have to enhance the other set pieces, too, so can you please give them to me?”
“As you wish,” Siegfried replied. He opened his Inventory and handed over the two set pieces in his possession.
“It will take approximately three days for me to complete the set items.”
“I can wait for as long as it is needed,” Siegfried coolly replied. Then, he seemed to have fallen into deep thought as if he was hesitating about something.
He seemed hesitant as he spoke, “By any chance…”
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
“Do you… purchase artifacts?” Siegfried asked as nonchalantly as possible.
***
Siegfried immediately headed for the Warp Gate to the Bavarian Workshop after leaving the Autonika Workshop.
“W-Welcome, Your Majesty, Siegfried van Proa!” the staffer at the entrance exclaimed.
The workshop was obviously giving him preferential treatment. It wasn’t really strange because Siegfried was the workshop’s only hope of completing the Universal Tier artifact that the legendary blacksmith Herbert had left behind.
Therefore, the Bavarian Workshop made sure to treat Siegfried as friendly as possible and to do that, they even drew his face and sent copies of his face to all of their shops throughout the continent.
This way, everyone would recognize him, and they would avoid making a mistake.
Siegfried’s portrait was sent to even the smallest shops of the Bavarian Workshop in the most remote areas.
It was the reason the staffer manning the door instantly recognized him.
“W-What was that?”
“He person must be famous…”
“Is he a VIP? He doesn’t look like one, though…”
Siegfried attracted everyone’s eyes before he could even step foot into the workshop.
‘This is embarrassing, so let’s hurry up and go in…’
Siegfried rushed into the workshop and ran all the way to the Hometown of Death.
“What?! His Majesty, Siegfried van Proa is here?!”
“Yes, Head Blacksmith-nim.”
“I should go there at once! Tell him I’m on my way!”
“B-But you have an appointment with the Crown Prince of the Leopolt Kingdom…”
“That is not important right now! King Siegfried is here, but what?! But who?! Cancel that appointment this instant!”
Upon hearing about Siegfried’s visit, the Head Blacksmith of the Bavarian Workshop, Quandt, had no qualms about one-sidedly canceling his appointment with the Crown Prince of the Leopolt Kingdom, which was a powerful nation among many others.
Why?
It was all because Siegfried could be the destined one who would complete the Universal Tier artifact of the Bavarian Workshop. The workshop had always been dreaming about crafting a Universal Tier artifact, after all.
“Welcome, Your Majesty! You look great!” Quandt greeted Siegfried.
“It is nice to see you, Quandt-nim.”
“So, why did you come? Don’t tell me…” Quandt looked around before whispering, “Have you already gathered all the necessary materials to complete Herbert-nim’s artifact?”
“I guess you can say that? Although, I only got one,” Siegfried replied with a shrug.
“I-Is that true?!” Quandt exclaimed in surprise.
He nonchalantly asked half-jokingly since there was no way that there would be any progress in such a short period of time, so he was astounded to hear Siegfried respond positively to his joke.
“Here’s one of them…” Siegfried muttered and retrieved the Omnipotent Mechanical Gear from his Inventory and showed it to the head blacksmith.
“I have no idea what it can be used for, but—”
“T-The Omnipotent Mechanical Gear!”
It seemed that Quandt knew the material very well because he instantly recognized it.
“That is a treasure from a once-thriving ancient civilization, right?”
“Oh? You know it?”
“How did you manage to find that? That thing should have disappeared centuries ago! That is not something that can be found no matter how much time and money you spend!”
“Was it the Mecha Lord? Anyway, he used to be the Emperor of the Clockwork Empire. I somehow ended up getting into a fight with him, so…”
“Oh… Oh my god…!”
Quandt couldn’t compose himself after hearing Siegfried’s story.
‘I knew that he was extraordinary! He definitely got lucky, but how can someone who’s not even a Master go around the continent so easily like that?!’
Quandt was technically a Master if he were a combatant, and he had seen many Adventurers as a Master blacksmith, so it would be dumb to ask if Quandt had seen a truly powerful Adventurer.
Siegfried was much weaker than those Adventurers, but he had something that those Adventurers didn’t possess. However, it was something indescribable.
This novel is available on bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
‘Hmm… They say that you can tell if a tree is going to be fruitful or not by looking at its leaves… I’m sure that he’s going to be an important figure later on. He seemed to have gotten stronger compared to the first time I met him, which means that his rate of growth is extremely quick…’ Quandt thought. ‘It should only be a matter of time before the continent witnesses the birth of a Master for the first time in a while…’
Quandt couldn’t help but look forward to Siegfried’s growth.
“Thank you! Thank you very much! You only collected one of the necessary materials, but that is already a huge thing for us! I sincerely thank you on behalf of the Bavarian Workshop. Thank you!”
“Don’t mention it.”
“But what is the purpose of your visit this time? I don’t think you came just to tell me you found one of the necessary materials, right? Do you need a new weapon or armor by any chance?”
“Ah… that’s…” Siegfried muttered with an awkward smile before he asked, “Do you… purchase artifacts, too, by any chance?”
He used the exact same words he had used against Boothroyd.
***
Two days later, Boothroyd and the high-ranking officials of the Autonika Workshop gathered at a theater to purchase a bunch of artifacts being sold by some Adventurer.
The artifacts were second-hand artifacts that wouldn’t have normally piqued the interest of these high-ranking officials, but they all came today because of the seller.
The Adventurer who was selling the artifacts today was a super rookie, who had a dazzling future ahead of him, and the Autonika Workshop wanted to build strong ties with him no matter what.
The Proatine Kingdom was a weak and small kingdom that was the size of a booger on the map, but their king, King Siegfried van Proa, was a VVIP customer of the Bavarian Workshop, which was the archrival of the Autonika Workshop.
Of course, the high-ranking officials of one of the top three workshops on the continent wouldn’t gather simply because of that.
However, the fact that King Siegfried van Proa had caused the demise of the Adunyadet Kingdom was more than enough to make all of them get off their seats and run over here.
“Boothroyd-nim.”
“Have you looked into it?”
“Yes…”
“Is what he said true?”
“Yes, it was all true.”
“T-Then…!”
‘Stone Island won the war, and the main reason they won was all thanks to King Siegfried.”
“Main reason? Explain it to me in detail.”
“I looked into what happened and…”
“Oh my god!”
Boothroyd could still remember being shocked by the researcher’s report.
Siegfried hadn’t bluffed, nor had he exaggerated anything. In fact, he had actually toned his story down so that he wouldn’t sound like he was boasting.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he had single-handedly destroyed the entire Adunyadet Kingdom.
‘We must report this to the higher-ups! We can’t estimate his limits, but I’m certain that he’s a customer who can bring great profit to our brand’s image!’ Boothroyd thought.
He had called for a meeting to inform the officials of the super rookie’s appearance, and they had all agreed that their next top commercial model would be the king of the small and weak kingdom. Of course, Siegfried had no idea about all this.
However, that wasn’t the end of it. The Autonika Workshop also ended up benefiting greatly when the war between Stone Island and the Adunyadet Kingdom.
Their supply chain had been interrupted, so they were having trouble keeping their shelves stocked. It wasn’t actually just the Entropy Stone. They had also been having trouble procuring other raw materials from Stone Island.
When the war ended, they could finally resume the production of most of their artifacts.
Therefore, they were able to continue the production of artifacts that they had to discontinue for a while. The Autonika Workshop was immensely grateful to Siegfried for ending the war.
That was the primary reason why the high-ranking officials of the Autonika Workshop neither grumbled nor complained about having to come all the way to the theater.
“Hmm… Why do we have to come here personally? We could have just sent our bids from our office, right?” asked Arfal. He was one of the elders of the Autonika Workshop.
“I’m confused as well,” Boothroyd replied, but he added, “But I am certain that there is a reason behind it. I have received a report that King Siegfried is quite the strategist himself, so I’m certain that he has a plan—Ah!”
Boothroyd gasped before he could even finish his sentence. He looked like he had seen something he shouldn’t have seen as he stood there in stupefaction.
