Hero of Darkness

The next evening, Legolas came to visit a particular building with intrinsic architecture full of light brown and green, giving it a sense of calmness and a classic forest-like feel as the massive 10 story building spread across 2 kilometers came into his sight. 

Trismegistus Alchemy Enterprise. 

This was the name of this company which was owned by Edmund Thandruil aka the Saint Rank Alchemist and also the official business partner of the Misthios guild. 

Legolas was escorted by official attendees and then came to visit the human alchemist. However, the place he met them was not an office but an Alchemy Laboratory. 

Various equipment such as beakers, flasks, boilers, tripods and many different forms of machinery that operated on magic cores as a source of energy was revealed to him. 

It hadn't been even a month yet the entire company was set up in the best way possible. This showed Kahn that Edmund wasn't a newcomer to running an operation of this scale and a company this big where more than 3 thousand employees worked to produce quality products. 

The section Legolas was led to being the place where the main boss himself along with Darwin aka Armin's alternate persona worked on different and extremely difficult recipes themselves. 

"Greetings, Mr. Ragnarsson." spoke Edmund in a hasty voice without even sparing Legolas a glance as he was partially submerged in the process of extracting medicinal properties of a few delicate materials while using both the equipment and infusing his world energy inside the material at hand. 

Legolas then looked around the fully ventilated wide room and after seeing hundreds of small but varying pieces of equipment as he asked in a curious tone. 

"It's very different from how I imagined. 

I thought you guys used a cauldron and some sort of mystical flame that burned the raw material and revealed the medicinal extracts to create pills or something." 

However, the following second… both Edmund and Darwin stood rooted on the spot and looked at Legolas. 

Darwin had his jaw wide open and facepalmed himself, averting his gaze from this ignorant and stupid master of his. 

"To be honest… We're not that close. I don't even like the guy." spoke Darwin as he refused to acknowledge Legolas as his acquaintance. 

Edmund on the other end had his eyes turning red as he questioned… 

"What the hell did you just say?!" clamored the alchemist, his voice being overbearing. 

"You know… like burn raw material, extract the useful stuff and then mix them to form medicine and stuff… that's how it works, right?" spoke Legolas with a visible confusion on his countenance. 

"Which! Fucking! Idiot! Told you that?!" exclaimed Edmund in rage as if he was greatly offended at this moment. 

"Wait… that's not how it works?" asked Legolas, slightly retracting his footsteps. 

This time… Edmund let out a deep breath and tried to calm himself. 

"If that's how it worked… all of the ingredients will burn. 

Most of the materials are vulnerable to fire or any kind of heat and will get destroyed on the spot. 

And on top of it, all ingredients require different methods, temperature as well as procedure to extract their efficacies. 

And even while mixing them, we have to measure the proportions and perfectly balance them for the desired effect. 

Otherwise, it would turn into a poison instead of a cure." explained Edmund with great control on his face. 

[Master, if it was someone else instead of you… my mentor would've kicked you out of this building already. And let's not even mention the beating you would've received during the meantime.] warned Armin through their mind link. 

"Even if there were to be such ingredients… the majority will lose the medical efficacies during the procedure. 

Next time someone tells you this nonsense… punch them in the face for me." spoke Edmund as he contained his rage. 

[Ah… So those fucking Chinese Cultivation novels lied to me. 

That whole using spiritual qi and random divine fire to refine pills was nothing but bullshit.] thought Kahn, ashamed of his prior assumption. 

"Why are you here?" asked Darwin. 

"Actually… I was here to negotiate the terms of our contract with you, sir Edmund." spoke Legolas in an apologetic tone. 

"What alterations do you want?" asked Edmund with a slightly hostile expression. 

I hope you can include him in this deal." said Legolas and pointed towards the exit door. 

Step!

Step! 

In the following moments, a young man in his teenage years who had slightly long and wavy black hair walked in. 

This young man with blue eyes was donning a very high-quality white and blue robe of alchemists. 

His height was short and his overall figure was lithe. But the impression he gave off was that of an intellectual scholar. 

"Who is he?" asked Saint. 

"His name is Merlin Kimiya." introduced Legolas. 

"It's an honor to make your acquaintance, sir Edmund." spoke Merlin, the young alchemist. 

"I hope you can accept him as your disciple as well." requested Legolas. 

In reality, this was another one of Kahn's new doppelgangers he gained after the rank up to 3rd stage saint. 

Just from the earlier exchange, it was apparent that Kahn was nothing but an oblivious fool to the Alchemy Profession. 

And since Kahn was busy leading Misthios as Legolas and most of the other doppelgangers were already busy with their respective tasks… he decided to use one of the new 5 doppelgangers to learn Alchemy. 

Mind connection, skills and memories were shared between him and his doppelgangers in real-time. Thus whatever he acquired through knowledge and skills would go to the original body as long as the doppelganger was within 100 kilometers radius of the original body. 

So this morning, he created a new persona of a youth who aspired to be an alchemist. 

He changed his appearance using the metamorphosis bloodline, he looked like a young and thin and short stature man. But his enema was that of a scholar. 

As for why Kahn was asking to learn from the Saint Alchemist? 

It was because he had already seen the tremendous benefits of learning from the best in the profession. 

What he learned and gained from Throk as his disciple was something he could never accomplish on his own. 

And he didn't have time to acquire knowledge bit by bit like the others. 

Given his blessings from War Deity and his Eidetic Memory… it was going to be a much rapid growth if he learned from a Saint Alchemist himself. 

Even if he only worked as an assistant and started from the basics… He would avoid too many mistakes and improve really quickly. 

So why would Kahn let go of such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?

This was also something he planned back a while ago. 

First, he let Armin in his Darwin persona become a backbone for the saint Alchemist to rely on in the past month. 

And after seeing the results and help he was getting for free… 

Edmund was not only impressed but also subconsciously reliant on the latter. 

Now… having Merlin as his new assistant was going to be like gaining another helping hand. 

Once Merlin learned the basic skills and gained experience… Edmund would also become certain that this new guy Legolas recommended would turn out to be another great pawn. 

Little did he know… 

Although Kahn was doing the work for free… in the future; he was developing himself to excel in this profession too. 

Not only Kahn was gaining a lot of wealth by partnering up with the Alchemist's company… 

He was getting the best of both worlds.