Hero of Darkness

Everyone was dumbfounded as soon as the three saint blacksmiths directly declared Kahn as the winner of the fourth round without even touching the greatsword he made. 

For the first time, even the Pope himself was surprised and greatly paid attention to the results and so did his fellows from the Church of Hetrax. It was one thing if the Trinity inspected and compared the weapons first but they declared the result as soon as they saw Kahn's forged weapon up close. 

"What nonsense is this?!" many people roared among the audience even if they had no direct connection to either of the challengers. 

"Is this duel rigged? How can they decide the winner even without checking the weapon?" many suspicious queries arose throughout the empire. 

But without heeding these unsatisfied voices, the three judges released their saint auras and picked up the greatsword, making it float in the air as the whole empire watched it. 

"This is why we decided him to be the victor." spoke Druvagar and all three of them mixed their mana in the greatsword. 

BOOM!! 

A loud shockwave burst out of the greatsword that had a gray hilt and three different colored runes on the flattened surface of the blade while the edges from both sides glimmered white. 

The three runes that exuded green, yellow and purple aura flickered on the blade from time to time. And the aura that burst out from the greatsword instantly revealed a great pressure from the blade itself. 

"Impossible!" shouted one of the dwarven blacksmiths. 

"He couldn't have achieved that. Unless…" spoke the head of the Elven Artificing Association with a bewildered expression. 

[What kind of monster is he?! Don't tell me… he's already close to becoming a Saint Blacksmith!] thought Tawerik with an ashen expression. 

The normal and uninformed audience couldn't make sense of this scene apart from the deduction of this weapon being very strong. 

Helsi, the brown bearded dwarf opponent, was frozen on the spot as soon as he sensed the aura. This was a familiar aura to him and he experienced it more than a dozen times when he trained under Throk Oakenshield. 

[Tch! Why is he revealing it so early?] wondered Throk who had both his arms folded and wasn't slightly surprised. 

"Both weapons are of Epic rank and should be equal. 

But the effects of the forged base weapon and the epic rank runes make too big of a difference." spoke master Fili. 

"The greatsword made by challenger Helsi is an Epic Rank one. Worthy of praise and represents his capabilities as a semi-saint blacksmith. 

But what challenger Kahn made is what we call in their trade as…" said master Ivaldi and took a deep breath before revealing. 

"A Quasi-Legendary weapon."

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Minutes passed but many people were still having a hard time digesting the fact that someone like Kahn, a newbie blacksmith who even had his weapon shattered to bits in the 3rd round suddenly made a Quasi-Legendary rank weapon. 

No one needed an extra explanation about what that rank of a weapon meant even if they were not informed about the blacksmithing craft. 

The weapon ranks were already explained to the common populace of the empire before the duel began and hence, there was no doubt about who made the superior weapon.

By making a Quasi-Legendary weapon… Kahn already proved his worth as someone capable to be in the top 20 blacksmiths of the empire. 

If he ever made a Legendary weapon or armor… he would be one of the bonafide top 10 blacksmiths of the Vulcan empire. 

At this moment, Kahn smiled inwardly because this was the first time when he went all out in this duel. 

Previously, he used only two out of three gifts given by the blacksmithing deities.

The 3rd one named Mimir's Eyes had only 3 hours of activation period per day so he had been avoiding using that ability. 

But for this round, Kahn used all three gifts along with the Mineral Transmutation skill. All four of them were his biggest cheat codes when it came to the blacksmithing class and finally, they shone the brightest in this round. 

For the 4th round, he alleviated the quality of the minerals and metals to create a superior and 100% pure version of them. Thus, adding his Artificing skills and mastery over rune inscriptions … the result was finally here… 

A Quasi-Legendary greatsword. 

This weapon was on par with Lucifer back when Albestros forged it for the first time using the Magma Drake's claws. The weapon itself had the confirmed potential to reach a Legendary rank weapon if reforged with higher quality materials in the future. 

This was the best Kahn could do as things stood. 

"Don't tell me… you're already…" spoke Helsi in a broken voice. 

"Yes." 

Kahn nodded in affirmation and walked closer to Helsi. He bent down a bit and spoke on his left ear in a hushed voice, no longer trying to hide the fact at this point. 

"I'm already a Saint Blacksmith." he replied nonchalantly. 

Shock! 

Gasp! 

As if his soul left his body, Helsi was rooted on the spot when Kahn chose to reveal the truth. 

As for his rank… Because Kahn was already a first stage saint… he was already qualified to become a Saint Blacksmith. 

Just one week before the duel… He reached Semi-Saint Rank in both Blacksmithing and Artificing. Meeting the two main conditions of a breakthrough as a Saint Blacksmith. 

But he still needed much more accumulation of years in experience. That was why he couldn't make a legendary weapon. 

People like Throk, Albestros and the Trinity were no joke. Unlike the warrior class, their ranks rose differently and the only restriction was their levels and comprehension. 

Kahn could be titled as a beginner saint blacksmith and had much to learn and improve upon in the future. However, he had already passed the qualifications to surpass Helsi in every way. 

Now, the score was 2-2 for both challengers and the one to win the final round will be the victor of this duel. 

As for the last round… like no exceptions, he still received the trash quality materials. Even more so than before because the duel had reached the main deciding round. 

And as soon as the round officially started, Kahn let out a wide grin and spoke softly… 

"It's time." he said and then looked around the group of people who he deduced to be the main culprits. 

"To give a grand performance."