MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Chapter 1531: The Empireʼs Request

”Ah. The two guests from afar have arrived.”

Hearing footsteps echo from the entrance of his workshop, Byron placed his hammer to the side as he turned to look at Valyr and Ataraxia with a wide smile. ”I suppose Julian didnʼt give you a hard time while you were there?”

”He didnʼt.” Valyr shook his head. ”He persuaded me to stay there instead.”

”I presume itʼs about your new forging style?” asked Byron in response, to which the young man nodded.

Nodding in return, the man swept his gaze between the two for a bit before asking, ”Mind if I get a glimpse as to what your new forging style is like?”

”Sure.” Not minding the request whatsoever, Valyr went ahead and borrowed a spare anvil and a forging hammer from Byron before placing it near one of the extra furnaces in the workshop.

Familiarizing himself with the layout of the workshop, as well as the mechanics on how the furnace worked, the young man went ahead and conjured a copy through [Ephemeral Bodies], placing it in front of the anvil he borrowed.

Whoosh!

Seeing that Byron was highly intrigued by the sight of the copy that looked like him, Valyr could not help but inwardly smirk as he went ahead and sent the usual set of instructions to it, giving it the role of an assistant blacksmith.

After that, he asked to borrow a few materials from Byron, who readily gave it in response.

Swoosh!

Feeling like going all out would intimidate the man rather than satiate his curiosity, Valyr went ahead and got to work, manning the furnace as he chucked most of the materials into it.

Maintaining a constant temperature within the furnace through his energy, the young man soon took out the materials one by one, placing them directly on the anvil in front of the copy.

Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!

Sensing that there was an item on its anvil, the copy began to whir to life, grabbing the hammer on its side before beginning to process the material into a component needed to forge simple equipment.

”…” Watching the copy work the material as if it were a blacksmith with years of experience, Byronʼs expression gradually became solemn as the gears in his mind slowly began to turn.

In the meantime, Valyr kept an eye on what the copy was doing, taking away the finished components before putting yet another material on its anvil for it to process.

One by one, he used the copy to slowly process the materials that would be needed for the equipment he had in mind, letting them pile up on Byronʼs anvil one by one.

Then, by the time the copy was finished processing all of the materials into their respective components, Valyr took charge of the forging process as he swiftly combined the components into a simple yet sturdy chestplate.

”…And thatʼs pretty much it,” said Valyr, giving the final product for Byron to check.

Receiving the chestplate with both hands, the man began to scrutinize each portion of the armor piece, noticing that the final make was of decently high quality.

Considering that heʼd watched the process from beginning to end, a few questions eventually surfaced on top of Byronʼs mind. ”Are you actively controlling your uh… clone while it was processing the material?”

Valyr shook his head. ”Iʼve given it a set of actions it needs to follow.”

”Can it do anything else besides process material?” asked the man after that.

”So far, I can only tell it to process material, deliver items, and control the furnaceʼs temperature,” replied Valyr after giving it a bit of thought.

”All related to forging.” Byron nodded in understanding. ”Can you only make one of them? Or can you make more?”

”I can make more,” answered the young man, swiftly conjuring another copy to stand beside the first one. ”However, there is a limit.”

”It wouldʼve been an absurd skill otherwise.” The man nodded at that, his expression slightly pensive. ”I now see why Julian told me that youʼll take charge of one of the empireʼs requests instead.”

”It seems it was partly for this reason.”

”Partly?” Valyr glanced at Ataraxia before looking at Byron with slight confusion.

Hearing those words, the man looked back at him with curiosity. ”Did Julian not tell you?”

”Tell me what?”

”…” Briefly falling silent at those words, Byron frowned for a bit as the gears in his mind began to turn once more. ”Do you still remember what Julian told you about being invited to work for the empire?”

”Yeah.” The young man nodded, swiftly recounting the two instances he talked with Julian about the matter.

Listening to the words that came out of Valyrʼs mouth, the solemn expression on Byronʼs face gradually turned into confusion, which eventually turned into puzzlement the moment the young man was done.

”So, he told you I was recruiting an assistant for the empireʼs request at first.” Taking a brief moment to collect his thoughts, the man let out a low exhale as he began to speak. ”Then, when you showed him your new forging style, he told you that youʼd take charge of a task on your own?”

Valyr nodded. ”More or less.”

”How in the…” Feeling a slight headache coming on, Byron closed his eyes for a bit before letting out a low sigh.

”Where did Julian get the idea that I was trying to recruit you as an assistant?”

”Hmm?” Hearing those words, the young man looked back at the man with questioning intent. ”Was that not the case from the start?”

”I donʼt know about him, but I definitely didnʼt invite you to come here to act as my assistant.” Byron shook his head. ”If thereʼs one thing Julian got right, then itʼs the fact that one of the empireʼs requests involves forging a masterwork weapon based off your arquebus blueprint.”

”However, when I sent him a message asking if he could invite you to work on this request, I didnʼt mention anything about you working on it under me whatsoever.”

”If anything, I was inviting you with the thought of you taking lead of that request from the start.”