Raid: The Blacksmith-Chapter 58: New Artillery: Part One

"Okay, so he said to tap it once, right?"

...

A holographic screen pops up from the so called watch Uncle Chadwick gave me. It shows me the user’s manual. I look through it.

"So it’s called a HiWatch, latest version too. It’s only exclusive to Warriors Association employees, and even among them, only workers with the highest of positions can get the latest versions. I can link it with my laptop same way I did my phone, that’s nice... And it’s got a call function. This thing really isn’t any different from a phone except it’s insanely high tech. It even has voice control, let’s see...seems I can call anyone I want from the Association. Call Chadwick Sukala." I order. The screen then shows Uncle Chadwick a few seconds later.

"Took you long enough-"

"Raid? Is that you? C’mon kid... Don’t tell me you’re in deep-shit already." He says through the screen as multiple explosions go off behind him.

"Jeez old man, have you no faith...? Well... I guess you aren’t exactly wrong, but uhh...not in the way that you think. You see, I ended up killing the top three strongest member of the Twelve Guardian Shadows, only problem is, we weren’t fighting in a Dungeon, so we ended up making a mess of the place we fought on, the Greenwave Park near the Phoenix Hotel. I was wondering if you could handle all of that out for me, you know, so that things don’t go out of hand and conspiracies start t-"

"Hold on... What did he say?" Peyton shows up next to Uncle Chadwick.

"He says he killed Sonoran."

"What?"

"Is that his codename?"

"Okay, Raid look. We’re a little busy right now, so you need to understand that even for a prank call, this is-"

"I’m not joking, you goof." I shut down Peyton.

"Mean." She replies.

I laugh a bit. "Listen, it’s quarter-passed eleven right now. That gives you guys six hours-plus to figure out how to handle this mess. I’ll be counting on you. Bye!"

"Wait, wait, wait!-"

"Isn’t it actually your mess you jerk-"

I hang up, cutting both Uncle Chadwick and Peyton off.

"That went well... Were they in a Dungeon? It looked like they were fighting someone back there so I ended the call quick so as to not disturb them. I really am the nicest."

"I’m heading to a D-rank Dungeon tomorrow. I should get some rest. Enter Item Space."

My body then disappears completely and reappears in my planet, Kairon.

I’m met with quite the sight upon arrival.

It’s beautiful, the wind blows calmly, whistling through the leaves. The trees stand firm, strong and fruitful. The grasslands dance at the whims of the wind in an almost rhythmic pattern. The sunlight shines elegantly on everything, most of all, the ocean, the sound of its waves singing as it washes over the sand of the beach. The beach I buried Hayzar at. His green Mana remnants still surround the air, painting the sand with a beautiful emerald glow.

"That’s it!" I shout. "I should name this beach in tribute to my late Goblin friend. Hm... ’The Emerald Beach’ sounds nice. Yeah, the Emerald Beach. The hotel isn’t safe no more, Sonoran proved that, so I’ll rest here in my Emerald Beach to avoid getting killed or kidnapped by assassins in my sleep."

I get some wood, make a small fire place then go straight to sleep.

*******

In the Shadow Space of the Twelve Guardian Shadows.

Thirty minutes after Sonoran died at the hands of Raid.

The ten remaining Shadows discuss.

"It seems number three has also been eliminated." Says Sidewinder. "Which means that this ’’F-rank’’ known as Raid could very well be as strong as either me or number one..." She adds.

"That or..." Says number one himself, Taipan. "There’s someone helping him."

All the other Shadows moll it over.

"It seems we need to beef up our information gathering skills. After all, we truly know nothing about this ’Raid’ aside from the basics. A no name Warrior who appeared recently out of basically nowhere and started to make a name for himself. Clearing two Dungeons deemed above his Rank on his own. Either he’s not truly F-Rank and somehow falsified his Rank, fooling even the Warriors Association, or he is in fact an F-Rank and has someone backing him. Someone powerful. Maybe even an S-Rank." Says Pygmy.

"Rank Falsification seems highly unlikely though... Even the Six Emperors can’t fool the Warriors Association’s Rank Measures, no other Warrior in the entire world should be able to in that regard." Says Rattler.

"Which would mean that he is in fact an F-Rank." Says Viper.

"Or that he could be working alongside the Association, which would easily allow him to falsify his Rank." Rattler replies.

"But if that were the case, then that would mean that not only would it be Rank Falsification, it would also be Class Falsification, since it’s an unchangeable fact that the Blacksmith Class is solely F-Rank." Says Krait.

"Making it impossible for someone to falsify their Class to that of the Blacksmith." Says Sidewinder.

"Indeed, however, I still find it hard to believe that the weakest Warrior in the world could defeat two A-Ranks so easily, unless the Blacksmith Class was secretly a powerful Class this entire time..." Says Krait.

"Unthinkable. What constitutes a Warrior’s strength isn’t the Class but the Rank of the Class. It’s why all Classes, excluding the Blacksmith Class of course, are divided in Ranks E to S. Not to mention, Warriors’ Ranks and monsters’ Ranks more or less correlate with one another, and it’s long since been shown just how weak F-Rank monsters are, since F-Rank Dungeons were the first to be explored after the First Trial." Taipan explains. "Furthermore, everyone knows that the Blacksmith Class, being the only F-Rank Class in the world, requires but a small Mana Capacity Stat of two-thousand five-hundred. Such an easily attainable Class can’t possibly be anything special."

The other Shadows can only nod in agreement as he speaks. His points are valid. Without knowing the truth, without knowing Raid, and the anomaly he is, anyone would come to the same conclusion.

"There’s no way he could falsify his Rank. And there’s no way he could beat an A-Rank Warrior as an F-Rank. The only thing that’s making sense, is that he has another high Ranked Warrior backing him." Says Mamba.

"What should we do now? We can’t send anyone else unless they’re stronger than number three, which means either number two or one, but then again if whoever’s backing him is in actuality an S-Rank then we might need t-"

"To go all at once. Is that what you were going to say?" Boa interrupts Asp to ask.

"Do you have a better idea?" Asp replies. "We still can’t tell the Great Lord about all of this. Especially now since we just lost our third strongest."

"Still... To release all our man power for one single F-Rank is..."

"Insane. Not to mention we’d draw too much attention to ourselves. The Great Lord chose us Shadows for this mission for a reason." Taipan adds to Cobra’s comment. "So before we resort to such measures, I’ll go after this Raid kid myself."

"What!" All the other Shadows aside from Sidewinder exclaim in unison. They’re perplexed. The thought of the strongest Shadow volunteering of his own accord is...

"Are you sure?" Sidewinder asks.

"Yes." He answers her. "If my Shadow Link to you all is severed, and I don’t return, it’ll mean that he truly does have someone incredibly strong backing him. Maybe as strong as the second Young Master, maybe even stronger. If that turns out to be the case, then you’ll decide among yourselves what to do, either tell the Great Lord, or go after the boy all at once. That is all." He vanishes. Leaving the Shadow Space to go after Raid.

The other Shadows can only stay and wish him all the luck he’ll need as he leaves.

*******

I wake up.

~Yawn~

And yawn.

"Hm?" I notice that it’s night.

"Why is it still night?" I wonder.

Then I remember. "Hold on, was it night when I arrived?" It wasn’t.

When I arrived on Kairon yesterday, the sun was out.

"I see. Time moves the same here as it does outside, on Earth. However, the time-zones aren’t the same. If I want the time-zone here to match with where I live on Earth. I’d have to go straight to the other side of Kairon. No way am I doing that. I own all of Kairon, I can live wherever I want." I say as I get up.

"Open Item Space."

[Report. Command accepted. Now opening Item Space...]

[Report. New items detected. Now processing new items...]

[Renewing Item Space contents...]

[Now opening Item Space....again...]

Item Space A-Rank contents:

• Hammer of Unknown Origin: ......

• Great Pickaxe: ......

• Great Shovel: ......

• Dragon Furnace: ......

• 595 kilograms of iron, approximately......

• Everchanging Anvil: ......

• Various planks of wood.

• Various fabrics: ......

• Twelve Whistling Daggers: ......

• 4.5 kilograms of Viss Wood. ......

• Drakeduke Armour and Drakeduke Longsword/Broken: ......

• 11300+ kilograms of pure Cold Iron. ......

• Great Werehyena’s claws, canine/Broken and spine: ......

• First Dawn: ......

• Spatial Storage Pouch: ......

• Goblin King Hayzar’s skin and spine: ......

• Emerald Armory: ......

•• Firmament -Piercing Emerald Longbow: ......

•• Heaven-Shattering Emerald Spear: ......

•• Sky-Splitting Emerald Longsword: ......

• Thread of Unbridled Severance/Cut: A single thread, strong and sturdy, along with a few fragmented pieces that can slice through metal like a knife through butter. It originally had a length of one kilometer and is made entirely out of Thunderium, the most conductive metal there is. It will emit an electric charge when imbued with Mana. The thread is in the First Stage Hyper-Grade. While it cannot be used by the Subject in battle, it can however be used as material to craft a new weapon/s.

"So it was a single thread the whole time..."

Well, not anymore, since there are multiple pieces of different lengths fragmented from it, courtesy of First Dawn but the majority of what’s left is a single tread. "Okay. Time to get to work."