Birth Of The Crafts-God

The group left the station and relocated to an uptown hotel which also doubled as a popular restaurant.

After lodging arrangements were made for Havos, they gathered at the dining area to discuss their plans.

While all these took place, Callus and his colleague were fuming inside as they felt that they were wasting so much time here. But they kept their cool and waited to see what would become of everything.

For most of the meal, Luka chatted with Havos and asked him about his experiences outside Belfargos city-state with the latter responding and describing some of the events he had been through. Baylands city-state wasn't the only place Havos went to, as to complete his master's trial, he had to challenge himself in a total of five city-states.

The trial was for Havos to participate in the Exceptional Basis Examination with the other candidates and get into the top ten. Since he was long qualified to be a vestige-smith, having him compete with 'newborns' was unfair. So, Havos was restricted to using only ten percent of his real abilities.

Havos began the trial over five months ago and Baylands city-state was his first start, which was why he had performed 'poorly'. However, later on, he got the hang of the trial and was able to work on his mistakes and improve his skills.

In the following four city-states, Havos easily entered the top ten and even made an appearance in the top four in his last two exams. And this was while utilising only ten percent of his true abilities.

Despite that, he didn't mention this part of Luka and the others, but simply spoke a bit about his experiences.

Finally, Luka brought up the main topic at hand.

"Recently, I've formed a drift racing team for the K1 league, but I'm lacking someone to take on the head designer and vestige-smith role. How about it?"

Havos didn't reply right away as he first took a bite from the desolate beast meat he had sliced apart. He then glanced at Luka with a mysterious smile on his face.

"Be straight with me. You aren't aiming for my skill, but my master."

"You jest. Even if your master is interested, I can't afford his services." Luka conveyed his thoughts with a chuckle.

He was being honest with his words. Although it sounded like a good thing to have a Tier 1 Grandmaster vestige-smith work for him, it was too good to be true. The cost of a grandmaster's services wasn't something Luka could take on.

Luka wasn't like the third generation princess of the Verantino family —the fourth strongest family in Trundel City— who started Yoko-bunny. He was from a more 'common' family line and couldn't afford such expenses.

Luka's grandfather had once worked in the City Lord Manor in Trundel City and built a lot of connections from there. Using those connections, he managed to own a few stocks in some top companies right before they became reputed. As for his father, he was currently the CEO of an Olympus 1000 company. This was the source of Luka's confidence to relate in the upper class circle of the younger generation, but he still knew his place.

Olympus 1000 was a list of the top one thousand companies on Eretre, which each had a net worth of at least two hundred million federal coins.

"I'm sincerely just aiming for yourself. State your terms and we can negotiate something that works for us both." Luka spread his hands out.

Just as Havos was considering the offer, Callus became tired of waiting. Hiring Havos as a new staff wouldn't have caused him to lose his patience, but Luka planned to have the youngster become their head designer. There was no way Callus would sit down and slide with the decision. So, he decided to test the other party.

"Oh, you didn't discuss that with me." Callus suddenly said.

As the second largest shareholder of the team, he has the right to have an opinion on such a major decision so it was appropriate for Luka to have brought it up with him earlier. But the latter failed to do so since he thought Callus wouldn't have a problem with it.

Luka suddenly frowned as he could guess what the latter was doing. Before he could say anything however, Callus continued.

"Since he's to be the head, we should offer him some sort of test to confirm his skills, right? He should also report his skill level as well." Callus said.

There was nothing wrong with his words, but the timing of them had a subtle meaning. He was clearly trying to embarrass Havos.

Havos smiled as he watched this happen, but he didn't take it to heart. Even though he was quite young, he had matured mentally after his training with his master.

"How do you intend to do so?" Havos asked, ignoring the last statement about his skill level.

"Simple. You could make something for us to see, or answer a few simple questions."

Callus didn't want to make things unnecessarily difficult for Havos as he simply wanted to test the latter's abilities. Even if they were subpar to take the role of head of design and development, as long as he was talented enough, Callus wouldn't mind letting Havos come onboard.

"I'll take the second option since the situation isn't suitable for the first." Havos replied.

They were in a restaurant and it was basically impossible to display his skills here. Hence, the best option was to answer Callus' questions. Discover exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire

Seeing Havos agree to it, Luka didn't say anything but inwardly shook his head at Callus.

Callus proceeded to ask a few questions related to vestige-smithing, starting off with the basics then going deeper into the branch for hover vehicles. However, he was stunned by Havos' responses.

Not only did the young man answer his questions correctly, his responses were advanced and even had Callus thinking deeply or amazed. Even though Havos looked like an eighteen year old youngster, his answers made him sound like a vestige-smith in his late thirties with a boatload of experience.

Naturally, when pitted against Callus who was only in his early twenties, there was no space for comparison.

"My apologies." Callus bowed.

Although he appeared like a headstrong individual at times, he wasn't a man of bad character and knew when to take a step back. If he didn't, then there was no way he would have agreed to Luka's deal.

"No problem. It's inevitable you'll doubt me after seeing how old I look." Havos clearly didn't sound bothered by it.

Callus felt embarrassed seeing as Havos had seen through him, but he was still a bit thick-skinned and he flung the feeling away.

"Well, now that's settled. How about it? Do you agree with my proposal?" Luka's voice sounded once again.

Havos nodded.

"No problem. But before we get down to things, I need to go to the trade area and restock on materials."

"Okay then. We leave right after this."