Hero of Darkness

While Kahn used his hack of using the doppelgangers to advance and perfect his fighting skills, magic, space law and blacksmithing skills at the same time. He had to pay greatly for it. 

Since the original body, mind and soul was the main factor that linked all the doppelgangers… it was the one actually bearing the pressure of everything since the original Kahn was the anchor that connected them through the soul connection. 

So in simple words… There were 16 Kahn existing at the same time. Each one doing their part and sharing the experience, knowledge, mastery, proficiency, physical movements and thought process. 

And the original body was the one enduring all of it at the same time through sheer willpower alone. 

Just imagine yourself hearing the thoughts, forcefully splitting your mind and focusing on different things at once while experiencing everything they were going through via a mind and body that wasn't your own. 

And then imagine having 15 of such bodies and consciousness while you are the one enduring all of it at once… 

This was the price Kahn had to pay for using this hack. A price that would drive other people completely mad if they were forced to experience it themselves. 

But even so… Kahn knew that there was no perfect shortcut or an absolute hack without something to sacrifice. 

In his case… he was sacrificing his sanity while suffering constant mental and physical pressure just to cover everything than leaving it for later. 

All of that… to overcome his weaknesses and survive in a world that would kill him as soon as his existence became known to everyone. 

Kahn was aware that other than his Eidetic Memory… he wasn't someone truly gifted with talent. 

He wasn't a true sword prodigy like Rathnaar who could create Saint Rank skills while being a semi-saint. Someone who killed even Heroes of the Gods with Divine Abilities and that too when they were a rank or two higher than him

Neither did he achieve heaven-defying skills or an Ancient Rank job like Kassandra through her own talent and hard work alone. 

He wasn't committed like Solomon who sacrificed a century of his life and strength just to study Space Law which decreased his mana and world energy, making him stay as a weak and low leveled semi-saint just so he could get Rathnaar's core and then ascend later. 

In the case of the old man Albestros… he was someone who excelled in blacksmithing and artificing, both jobs that were extremely hard to achieve while having the disadvantage of being a human. 

Even Throk was someone who rose to become one of the top 5 blacksmiths of the Vulcan empire while having no background, wealth, authority and connections. Even the master of his had to spend a century to achieve his current skills and reputation. 

And lastly, he didn't have any innate abilities such as bloodlines or species advantage like Venessa who was already capable of fighting above 2 ranks. 

All the 6 people he used as a benchmark were the prime example of true geniuses while he was someone who reached this point in this cruel world where power ruled everything only because of the Divine Abilities and Blessings given by God of Darkness and the War Deity respectively. 

However… he wasn't ignorant to think that all six of these people achieved their success only because there were gifted. No… in the real world, even geniuses had to work hard to succeed. 

Their latent talent and abilities only made the ride a bit smoother but the path had to be walked with their strength and endless hard work. 

Although Kahn's cunning nature, wits and past life experiences played a part in his rise to strength… none of it would've become possible if not for his divine abilities and blessings. 

And if Kahn wanted to surpass them and sit at the top even among these geniuses… he had to work many times harder than everybody, be smarter than them, and consume knowledge at a pace that surpassed everyone else. 

Hence, he was trying his best to endure all of the hardship and burden that could break a person in a short time. To achieve his goals and aspirations because being a chosen Hero of a God wasn't going to be enough to help him ascend to the top. At this moment, Kahn was trying to find his place… 

Among the True Geniuses. 

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Weeks passed as Kahn kept carrying the routine of vigorous training and noticed a considerable rise in his skills and understanding. 

As he thought before, it was more about the experience than just hammering it down. The more he practiced forming different shapes and parts of armors and weapons… the more his understanding regarding the metal or alloy at hand rose and he could almost predict the optimal temperature for forging just by looking at the material at hand and feeling the heat through his skin. 

Blackwall on the other hand was increasing his knowledge and proficiency even more than Kahn. Just that he didn't have a shortcut to directly learn these skills or increase his mastery through blessings unless Kahn gave them to him. 

But his innate connection to metals and minerals was far better than Kahn and he could easily use the best way to forge the shapes, use a hammer or the punch on the piece at hand perfectly while maintaining the thickness and quality of the finished product. 

Both Kahn and Blackwall were aware that once they perfected the tools and learned their way around all the tools, metals and could make any type of set… Throk would start the next step of their training. 

Till now, they were only working on base-level armor and weapons. Their highest grade of work was a common rank armor set made from pure steel. They hadn't even touched the rare materials like Mythril, Adamantite or Orichalcum. 

Just like this… Two months passed by ever since the Dwarven Council meeting. 

But something changed in both of them. 

Kahn and Blackwall no longer had the expression of someone forced to study something they didn't want to or doing it for the sake of it. And even now… all of this was just the beginning stage of their training. 

A blissful smile appeared on their faces as they looked at the forge the next morning. Because finally… 

They had truly accepted the Blacksmithing Craft.