Hero of Darkness

Kahn sneered inwardly in contempt as he looked at over a hundred abysmithium cores that sized that of a grown man's fist. At this moment, he was barely controlling his anger and tried to maintain his calm. Because this act of messing with the forging materials wasn't as easy as it seemed. 

If Kahn chose to retaliate… there would be too many questions raised regarding the duel but as an effect, he won't be able to pinpoint the main culprit either. 

Someone wanted him to lose even if everyone was under the impression that he'd lose regardless because he was a duck facing a crocodile inside a pond. And the only merit he had in this fight was that he could choose to fly away in order to flee. Which would eventually declare his loss. 

But still… It was a better choice to probe the situation first than making a scene and blatantly point fingers at people when he didn't even know who was the real guilty party that orchestrated this ploy. 

Also, if he said the duel was rigged from the get-go, many people would use that against him, saying that he was just making an excuse to justify his incompetence as a blacksmith. 

The only proof he had was the ores he received but if he said it was intentional, the responsibility could be easily shirked away by saying that it happened by mistake or some other bullshit excuse. 

Kahn couldn't even use his subordinates to find out the truth because every single one of them was hiding inside his shadow at the moment just to be safe. 

Because the highest authorities of the church, including the Pope himself were present among the audience along with over a dozen or so people who were above 5th stage saint rank. 

His situation now was different from when he participated in the emperor's chosen competition where all the eyes were focused on different participants and no one was looking for monster auras. 

Back in Rakos, nobody cared who was among the audience and there were no people from the church who excelled in detecting anomalies like his subordinates among the crowd. 

Naturally, the Pope, Cardinals and Archbishops would be able to detect the auras and nature of his subordinates if his gang was exposed and sat in the open. Thus, he had already prepared beforehand and everyone was doing their best to perfectly mask their aura in Kahn's shadow. 

Nevertheless, Kahn understood that making any sort of move at this point would turn futile given the circumstances. Hence, probing the situation first seemed like the smart thing to do. 

So regardless of the outcome… Kahn decided to play along in this first round. 

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Soon, Kahn decided to carry on with the forging and first, he put all the ores in a big crucible and later put it in a big furnace to start heating the metal ores. 

He patiently waited till the ores started melting and all the slag started accumulating above the hot liquid with time. 

"Tch! Look at the galls of that human. Acting as if he knows how to make a shield. 

Since when can humans even come close to standing in the same room as skilled dwarven blacksmiths in our empire?" said a dwarf on the 5th layer of the audience seats. 

Many who heard it nodded in agreement because they too shared the same opinion. To them, Kahn was only putting on some airs to not look like he didn't know a single thing. 

"He's just putting on a facade. Just accept your loss and spare us the most obvious result!" shouted a gray tigerkin among the crowd. 

These words were loud and thousands of people could hear them, but how could a true blacksmith just get wavered from simple provocative attempts? So Kahn only focused on the job at hand, his mind and body not responding to these petty slanders. 

Once the metal was liquified properly, Kahn used a 4x5 cast and poured the molten liquid. He then used a machine that used mana ores to start crystallizing the abysmithium metal. A crucial step while dealing with this metal because the longer it took to cool down, the weaker it will become. 

In the following minutes, he started framing and marking the design of the shield and then cut apart the metallic sheet that was 5 centimeters in thickness, very big and heavy based on earth standards. But in Vantrea, it was very easy to lift by anyone who was a Beginner Rank individual. 

After the shape was cut, he started hammering it down to create a bulge at the center which he would later use to expand into a hyperbole shape that was good to face enemies in a battle. 

Afterward, Kahn used a grinding tool similar to ones on earth and smoothened the edges which would give it a decent look. Later, he started hammering to perfect the remaining edges and reformed the entire shield matching that of a Knight. Compared to Tanks, their shields were medium-sized and could be used by anyone as long as they had the strength. 

Kahn then started finishing as he refurbished the whole shield and added handles in the back to properly hold it while bearing the brunt of a spell or a physical attack. 

And finally… the part that would ensure the quality of the end product… The Runes. 

He took out a glowing yellow Chisel. This wasn't a normal chisel tool but Artificing equipment that was the equivalent of runebrushes in the Vulcan empire. But these runes won't be painted like how he practiced during his training when he was performing something akin to Calligraphy. 

Rather, the blacksmith had to engrave the rune markings on the shield using the chisel while infusing a bit of their mana into each of their strikes. 

Like how an artisan would perform their work, Kahn engraved the runes effortlessly, Kahn went layer by layer without messing up and finally finished the last job as an artificer as he drew basic level runes but was very efficient. 

The end product was supposed to be a silver rank shield so there was no need to expose his skills too early in the game. 

Two hours passed and finally, both sides presented their finished works and the three judges walked towards their presentations. 

Kahn didn't know how much time it would take on earth to make these kinds of shields but here, only 2 hours were more than enough. 

He and Helsi stood proudly as they placed their shields on a wide marble table in front of the judges. Their eyes filled with confidence as both the challengers did their best. And finally, it was the time… 

To decide the victor of this round.