Birth Of The Crafts-God

Three days later...

After the meeting with Luka, Joker and his teammates had decided to cooperate with the former and create a new drift racing team. They were aware of their shortcomings and knew that without the aid of a sponsor, they wouldn't be going far in the sport.

Joker was the main vestige-smith in the team, but even he had no ideas on how to improve their racing shuttle. The team also lacked funds to be able to hire more experienced vestige-smiths, so it was safe to say that their racing shuttle wouldn't see any further improvements during the season. This would then mean that their ranking would continuously drop after each race. Hence, their best bet was to work with Luka.

Since Joker had already registered for the K1 drift racing league and registrations were closed, the only option was a merger or a takeover.

In the case of a merger, an existing team in the league would combine with a different team from elsewhere, enabling them to utilise the foreign team's resources and crew in the race.

As long as this occurred before the two weeks permissible time, the K1 drift racing league would tolerate any changes to the registered team.

As for an acquisition, this was when a third-party bought an existing team within the league. The acquisition process had to be rounded up before three days the allotted two weeks period for major changes was over. Otherwise, the acquisition won't be recognised by the K1 drift racing league in that season.

Once successful, due to the fact that a new owner has taken charge, the K1 drift racing league would grant the team a three day window to make changes to the team as the new owner desired. Whether it was the crew, driver, or even the racing shuttle, all could be swapped out.

Joker wanted to still retain control over the drift racing team to protect his and his crew's interest, so even though it was an acquisition, he still retained thirty five percent (35%) of the stocks of the team.

The remaining sixty five percent (65%) was split into two, with fifty five percent (55%) going to Luka, while the remaining ten percent was left open. According to Luka, he planned to sell the leftovers to any interested party that would be suitable for them to cooperate with.

Due to the tight schedule, the deal was rushed and finalised two days ago, which was two days after the first race. The next two days was then spent discussing the changes to be made to the team.

Naturally, as the new owner, Luka was more confident in assembling an even better crew than Joker's current team, but the latter was against it. While Joker didn't mind new hires, he refused to abandon his friends who had quit their jobs to support him.

Although he was the majority shareholder and could easily veto Joker's opinion, Luka decided to respect it after much arguing. There was no reason other than the fact that they had less than three days to wrap up their changes and report to the K1 drift racing league. As such, spending time arguing was a pointless and meaningless endeavour.

Today, Luka had stepped out with Joker, and a crew member to recruit some new members for the team and to welcome a friend of his.

Standing at the waiting area in the Doza light-rail train station, Luka, Joker and the member of the crew waited for someone.

"So, who is the new guy?" Joker couldn't help but ask.

A couple of minutes ago, Luka had contacted him and asked to meet up to settle some issues for the team. Joker had proceeded to abandon his plans for the day and meet up with Luka. He also called a member of his crew to tag along, so they'd have a stronger say against Luka, who held a larger share of the team.

However on the way, despite how much he had asked, Luka failed to offer much of an explanation to Joker. Instead, he explained that it was a surprise.

"He's someone from abroad." Luka replied with a smile. Your next read is at My Virtual Library Empire

He paused for a minute and seemed to consider something before explaining,

"He travelled far away to explore other regions and polish his skills as a vestige-smith. His skills will be much needed if we want to do better."

Joker and his teammate were surprised as they began to look at Luka in a new light. It had only been two days since the deal was signed yet he had already attracted such a magnificent vestige-smith to the team.

After a short while, a new batch of newcomers had arrived and exited the train.

"Over here." Luka smiled while staring ahead and waving his hand.

A few seconds later, a figure made his way over.

Joker and his teammate stared surprised at the person. For a second, they began to wonder whether Luka was playing a prank on them. This was because of the appearance of the newcomer.

The newcomer was a young teen with brown hair and amber eyes with a smile on his face. Based on how old he looked, he could barely be called an adult.

Although hyumans typically appeared to be younger than humans, they had already gotten used to it hundreds of years ago and could tell how old one looked based on appearance. The newcomer looked like he was just shy of eighteen years of age.

At such a young age, Joker began to doubt Luka's claims that this was a talented vestige-smith who had travelled abroad to polish his skills. What skills in vestige-smithing could an eighteen year old have? At that age, Joker was still handling car parts and common parts in hover vehicles.

"Brother, it's been a while." Luka Walker towards the figure and opened his arms wide.

"Indeed." The brown haired young man said as he hugged him back.

"How was your trip abroad?" Luka asked as he signalled for the driver who came with them to help with the luggage.

"It was alright but a bit difficult since I had to do master's assignments." The young man sighed. Recalling some of the tasks his master had handed to him, he couldn't help but shiver at the thought.

"Haha. To be able to return means you passed. That shows how talented you are, after all , your master's assignments aren't some easy tasks." Luka flattered the young man.

The young man's master wasn't an ordinary vestige-smith but a Tier 1 Grandmaster vestige-smith. In other words, the young man was learning under the very few people who could make Grade 5 vestiges.

Being able to study under such a figure was a testament of one's talents since it wasn't an easy role to get. To be able to even be qualified to do so, one had to be very talented and fulfil a whole bunch of criteria before passing specific tests set by the Grandmaster.

However, facing all those difficulties, the road ahead was one destined for success.

"That's true, but you don't need to compliment me like this." The young man smiled.

Seeing the young man glance at Joker and his teammate, Luka introduced them,

"These are my co-workers. They're part of the reason why I called you over. We will be discussing that in detail later. In the meantime, he's Joker."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Havos." The young man smiled and stretched out his hand.

The name didn't generate any reaction from Joker or his colleague, but if Lucas were here, he would have found the young man familiar.

Havos was one of the examinees during the Exceptional Basis Examination at the Baylands city-state's EVL regional headquarters. He had befriended Lucas during the exam, and managed to take twelfth place.

Such a score seemed lacking when compared to the other geniuses back then like Vergil Mertens or Maximillus Oder, but Havos had achieved this score with a handicap. That's right; he had purposely held back his skills and made it more difficult for him while undergoing the exam. This was one of the tasks his master had given him to carry out, otherwise with his true skills, Havos would have easily taken first place.

This was because when compared to Vergil and Maximillus, Havos had already began creating vestiges way before he took the exam. He was also learning under a Tier 1 Grandmaster vestige-smith which was a testament of his innate talent and potential. With such a teacher, it would be a disappointment if he couldn't surpass the talents in a city-state without a Tier 1 Grandmaster vestige-smith.

Although Joker was confused about the latter's identity and how he could help them, he still remained polite and shook the young man's hand.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Callus, but you can call me Joker." Joker said.

Joker wasn't his real name, but a nickname he was more known by. His real name was Callus, but he preferred to answer Joker.

"We will do better introductions later. For now, let's go have a meal." Luka said before leading the way.

Joker was a bit irritated that the special guest was a young man even younger than himself. In his opinion, he couldn't think of the value Havos was to the team. But seeing as how Luka treated the other party like a saviour, he remained quiet and tagged along. He wanted to know who exactly the newcomer was and how he could help them.