Hero of Darkness

Legolas outright proposed his idea for a business plan for the Saint Alchemist's future company and tried to reel him on their side.

Although they had Armin as Peak Grandmaster alchemist… Alfheim already had 3 saint alchemists setting their enterprises since decades. Thus, they had to use his skills only for taking care of their own people and creating their own supplies such as potions for health recovery and poison antidotes.

But after Armin introduced Edmund to him, he felt like this was a godsend opportunity for them to venture into a new business sector. Hence, the elf guild leader couldn't help but make this proposition.

Edmund on the other side was too stunned and was absorbing this information. One could feel that he was lost in deep thoughts despite half of his face being covered under a mask.

With each passing second, he racked his brain and went through the pros and cons.

Saints could think at an extremely fast pace than normal inhabitants of the world so it only took him 10 seconds to reply.

"I accept this arrangement. If you hold your end of the deal, I will hold mine." spoke the man in alchemist robes.

Although it seemed it was a quick decision, the human saint had given it a thorough thought.

Because in this setting, there were too many benefits for him no matter how he looked at it.

First, one had to spend a lot of money to buy the ingredients and raw materials for alchemy products at market price. Unless one had billions of itikar or owned a vast territory full of resources… there was no other way around it than purchasing all these resources by themselves.

Second, the operational cost could not be overlooked either. Acquiring and processing these materials, then using storage facilities as well as spending a great amount on transportation costs along with the money spent on the security of their products; the burden on one's wallet was never negligible.

But in this deal proposed by Legolas… the Misthios guild was going to acquire these resources, take care of transportation as well as security and deliver the materials to their company safely. And all of that for free.

Even if Edmund shared 50% of profits, he'd make a ton of money than normal standards because he's saving a lot on manpower, protection, and buying resources on his own.

Three, taking Darwin as his disciple… It wasn't a big deal.

Instead, having a Peak Grandmaster Alchemist working under him would save him a lot of trouble than hiring one to work for his company at a high salary. This would also greatly alleviate pressure from his own shoulders.

In all ways, this was a winning deal for him.

The only downside was that he'd be greatly dependent on the Misthios guild and will have to share his assets and income.

There was no free joyride in the real world. You had to lose something to gain something of higher value.

In the end, overwhelming benefits always won against considerable sacrifices.

Thus, the saint alchemist accepted this business proposal instead of playing hard to get.

Legolas and Edmund then formed a contract between themselves and the former also promised to provide help in establishing the latter's new company in Alfheim.

What he didn't know was that Kahn Salvatore…

Was as devious as they come.

2 Days Later.

The Misthios guild's envoy arrived at a particular region, the group was led by none other than Raiden and Rudra, the two poster boys of the guild who were famed to be 4th stage saints.

And the territory they had come to visit was ruled by one of their oldest clients.

Count Horik, the Exalted Noble and their 2nd client for whom Raiden had killed 4 legendary rank monsters for.

This time, seeing both Raiden and Rudra… the count and his sons were perplexed and felt a lot of pressure on themselves.

Last time, because of the arrangement with cores in the payment and giving them the bodies, their territory and treasury recovered by a lot and their losses were mostly recovered by now.

Raiden was already a very powerful being in their eyes but now after seeing Rudra, another 4th stage saint, the old count with waistlengh gray beard was dumbfounded.

Omega then handed out a letter written by Legolas to count Horik.

The latter was already thankful for the last job they did for his territory. Thus, they wanted to create deep ties with their guild.

With the Misthios guild now becoming really popular even among other noble factions as well as having another powerhouse join them, he was even more eager to do so.

"So he is calling in the 'favor', huh?" said the old man after reading the letter.

The sons also read the letter and frowned. But after discussing a few things between themselves… they resigned to their circumstances.

What Legolas was asking them to do was going to cause them a few losses in earnings.

In the letter, he was "requesting' to give the Misthios guild special treatment for a particular form of a deal. And the trade they were going to deal was…

Natural medicine ingredients that grew in the county's territory. Legolas was proposing to purchase them at a cheap cost.

Previously, when Legolas came to this Exalted Noble's territory… he saw how it was filled with natural resources, more than what people could harvest from dungeons.

The territory's main commerce came from these very things as they were one of the biggest trade points for alchemy resources found in the nearby 500 kilometers.

Thus, Legolas decided to use the favor they owed him after he gave a very big discount when they killed all the 4 legendary rank creatures.

To Edmund, it would seem like Misthios guild bearing the operational cost to get the materials that obviously would not come cheap.

But in reality, Legolas was spending 20 to earn 50. His profit being 30, one and a half times more than what he invested.

1 Week Later.

A group of tall humanoid beings visited the guild headquarters. And the guests being their 3rd clients.

Orion Grayborne of the Grayborne tribe, composed of Lukion species, showed up with the tribe council members.

In this meeting, Legolas made an agreement with them. That they will provide security for the clan every year for free from now on during the monster tide.

But in return, they had to sell them natural minerals, ores and metals that were mined in their territory at a big discount to the Misthios guild.

Sigurd aka Blackwall was specifically present in the meeting.

Feeling his presence, the envoy of the Grayborne tribe was instantly reminded of his skills and how he single-handedly saved their tribe without causing any bloodshed.

He was the only person in Misthios guild they honestly respected.

Thus, they didn't show much reluctance and made a deal with Legolas.

However, none knew that this was a crucial part of the elf's plans he made the very day they came to him as clients.

2 Weeks Later.

Legolas met with their first ever clients, the 3 Qebika merchants.

In the end, using a quick and effective route was a really important factor. The Misthios guild needed a traveling network to easily roam across various regions close to Alfheim.

So who better a choice than a corporation that had widespread channels of trading routes and multiple flying ships.

Legolas made a similar deal with the the three Qebikas namely Ruben, Hariv and Zipon.

He proposed to lower the payment in return for having easy access to their caravans, flying ships and space to store the raw materials that they were transporting.

This way, they also saved a lot of money and could traverse to various regions for other jobs and clients easily as well.

1 MONTH LATER.

The Misthios Weapon Forging Company officially made its debut.

And the enticing, as well as selling point of this company was that it was led by a Saint Blacksmith.

The person whose name was on the banner was a newly ascended old human who was also Saint Blacksmith.

And that was none other than… Zeus.

Zeus was a persona Kahn used in the Rakos Empire as the main leader of Seven Deadly Sins. Even there, other than the core members, no one had seen him.

So using this identity here was no problem at all.

One of the doppelgangers Kahn had allocated for Blacksmithing practice took Zeus' identity. In reality, all 5 of them were going to work for this company and make top-grade weapons and armors.

This was also a way for Kahn to make use of his skills and knowledge he learned from Throk in this empire.

A Human blacksmith saint… this was more than enough to gain instant fame in Alfheim.

There were a few Saint Blacksmiths in the city. But given Misthios guild's reputation and big guns… even if they started a company of their own; who in the hell would dare to create adversities for them?

So the new business avenue got settled real quick and they offered their services to a lot of their high-profile clients as well.

Kahn and his subordinates already had great experience in running a business in both the Rakos and Vulcan empire at this point. So it came in really handy to stabilize their new businesses and assets.

This way, the situation was turning favorable to the guild in many ways.

Now, they mainly dealt in the mercenary business, had a reputable Alchemy Company as their partner and owned a renowned Blacksmith company as a subsidiary corporation.

One after another, Kahn was expanding at a rapid pace and also creating his business empires with all his knowledge from both lives.

As for now, the total number of employees in the guild and the blacksmithing had risen to 18 thousand people and the headquarters was furthermore evolving as new buildings and sections were being built.

With these factors in their favor… Misthios guild had gained way too much attention, fame and created connections in top places of Alfheim let alone be it the business world, nobles or the military.

And because of the rising fame and being the leader of all of this skyrocketing enterprise… Legolas Ragnarsson gained a new moniker given by the people of Alfheim.

The Mercenary King.