Hero of Darkness

Kahn already pitched in his idea and now even bragged about himself to reel in the old dwarf who previously screwed them over.

"You think I can't do that myself?" retorted the saint dwarf.

"Oh really? Do you think anyone will risk their lives for you?

Look around, liar master.

Your company is doomed. You have no supporters and you certainly don't have a single person who would fight for your sake if you were to be found dead tomorrow." spoke Kahn.

BANG!

He banged his fist on the table in between them and continued in an intimidating tone.

"I'm your only hope now. Otherwise, you're so done.

Soon, you won't even have a place to stay in the entire Vulcan empire.

Do you want to die a death of a beggar or agree to my new terms and reclaim everything you lost?" provoked Kahn.

"So you're going to teach me and you're going to make all of our armors. And you're going to help me create a perfect background in this empire." he said.

At the same time, Kahn made a query to the system.

[Can it be done?]

[Yes.] replied the system.

"In my case… you're going to make all kinds of weapons with the dragon's body parts. All for free!" he spoke in a tyrannical tone.

Because sword was one thing… he needed to learn different weapons and fighting techniques as well. And he clearly didn't have time to waste on making them one by one or going through an arc progression of some novel to get them made one by one or look for some ancient ruins to find a godly weapon by luck.

That sort of stuff didn't work in real life. So Kahn wanted to max out his gains at the same time during this negotiation.

"What for?! Aren't you just a swordsman?

Hell, even teaching you blacksmithing skills is already like climbing a mountain. If not for me being a saint rank dwarf and knowing the secret technique of our trade… I wouldn't have even taken you as my disciple." retorted the dwarf.

"That's none of your business. You do your part and I do mine." said Kahn as he gave an overbearing look to the old dwarf.

"If you refuse, I can just watch from the sidelines and act like a victim as well. Many people saw how you forcefully pulled me into signing that duel of blacksmiths thing.

With those witnesses, you'll lose whatever reputation you built in all those decades.

And also, no one will ever believe that I'm a saint even if you try to tell someone else.

You simply have no choices at this point." one after another, Kahn hit him with threats and facts.

"In return, we will protect you. From local enemies as well as those sent by the imperial prince.

We will help you run your company since you have lost all your suppliers and distributors.

In other words, This isn't a master and disciple relationship. Rather that of partners." said Kahn as he was done with finally relaying his new terms.

"Now think carefully and make a wise choice.

Or there's no coming back from this." he said and soon, all of them left the office.

For the next couple of hours, Throk Oakenshield kept thinking about Kahn's plans.

And one thing he came to see was that although he was a saint… he couldn't even achieve the first phase of the plans on his own since he was only a blacksmith and not a fighter class individual.

And the way things stood… he didn't have a single person on his side. So like Kahn said… whatever decision he made…

Would be the turning point of his life.

As for Kahn himself… Although it looked like he was going to get entangled in unnecessary trouble as he did with the three noble factions in the Rakos empire… there were still too many things to gain from taking this risk.

Because at the end of the day… there wasn't any other saint blacksmith dwarf in the whole Vulcan empire who was going through the same ordeal. And forget making a deal or teaching him the blacksmithing skills… no one would even welcome him through their front door.

Him being a human was a great issue as well. Because in the end, he always used his weapons and armors in his human form. Even if he were to change his species and go to some other blacksmith… they'd still have to make his weapons and armors based on the form of the species he took.

Hence he visited this place instead of going to others before things turned the way they were now.

But with Rathnaar's ingenious plan… he was still going to get everything he wanted.

And this time… he wasn't even going to enter the battlefield but use someone else as his weapon.

2 hours later, they all returned to the old blacksmith's office and sat on the seats across the table.

"So what's your decision?" asked Kahn.

To his question, the old blacksmith asked a question in return.

"Can you guarantee it will work? How are you going to do it without revealing your identity?

We can not have anything leading back to us." spoke Throk.

"Leave that to us. Even if we were to fail the first phase, nothing could be tracked and lead to us." replied Ronin who sat behind Kahn.

Sigh!

Throk then let out a sigh and then pulled something out of his drawer.

Tear!

He tore off all the contracts that they previously made.

And given how both parties needed each other… There were no more contracts signed but only a verbal pact was made.

Kahn then went over some of the details of the first phase of the plan and spoke.

"All right boys… we're not going to waste any time on this.

Instead of making enemies… We will be making some friends instead." he declared.

"After all, an enemy of an enemy is a friend." he said with a wicked smile.

"And the people we will be befriending will be…" spoke Kahn and revealed the names of the biggest enemies of the second prince and the very people who were going to become both their swords and shields.

"The First prince & the Third princess."