The Ancient Genes

"I missed you Grandmaster…"

The old man looked at Max standing near the destroyed counter with a huge grin on his face.

He obviously had heard from Stark that Max had made it out alive and hence wasn't that surprised.

On the other hand, he had come here expecting to meet him. He had just received a call from Stark and came to know that Stark had given Max the address of the smithy. The smithy was usually operated by Edward on Sunday, hence Max had found the smithy locked up until now.

But today, the Grandmaster had asked Edward to open the shop before he arrived.

"What happened here?" The grandmaster finally asked as he walked further into the shop.

"Uh...I slipped…" Max replied with an awkward laugh.

The old man looked at Max with wide eyes not being able to imagine the situation which had transpired here.

Max could see lines appearing on the old man's face. It wasn't going to be good if it continued. Max was already worried if the old man still remembered him emptying his storage room in Arcane. If he did, it would be troublesome to get his spear fixed.

"Grandmaster, this is what Master sent me here for…" Max immediately took out the storage pouch deciding to change the attention from him to the space crystal.

The old man glared at Max before taking the pouch. He had heard of it and knew that the matter was of utmost importance.

"Pick them up and clear the mess before coming upstairs…" the old man ordered as he observed Kevin and Edward. They didn't have any serious injuries.

Max nodded his head and finally sighed in relief seeing the old man disappear.

He then cleared the mess and shifted Edward to one corner of the hall. The fellow had his eyes rolling backwards. The shock from the impact must have been the cause of his passing out.

Kevin was in a better position, he sat beside Edwards in the floor rubbing his back.

"Sorry Kevin, I will pay for your food…" Max said as he swatted his hands, begging forgiveness.

"Really?" Kevin asked as his eyes shined with expectation.

Max nodded his head with a serious look.

"Look at him for a while and if anyone comes, tell them the shop is closed…." Max said before walking upstairs.

….

When Max went upstairs, he saw the old man looking at the crystal holding it close to his face.

"Did you find anything Grandmaster?" Max asked as he walked up to him and took a seat beside him.

"It's the real thing…." The Grandmaster said with a sigh, "Where did you find it? Tell me the details…"

Max nodded before filling him over all the details. How he came across the group of thugs and did the world a favor by taking it from them, definitely not stealing.

"I see…." The Grandmaster mumbled, his face didn't look good at all.

"But…."

The next moment, Max felt hand on his ear and then a sharp pain followed behind.

"Ah!...what are you doing?!" Max groaned in pain, but not daring to pull away afraid of tearing his ear apart.

"You ill brat!! Now I remember, you stole everything from my store room as well…." The grandmaster screamed as his eyes turned red remembering the event from before.

"I didn't steal anything….didn't you say, I can take anything I want? Are you going back on your words…" Max retorted.

"No, I don't remember that...." The old man replied, refusing to let his ear go.

"Y-You!!" Max really felt that this man was not worth respecting. He was going back on his word and was cheating just because he had suffered a loss.

"Uhm...still being an elder, I have to be warm hearted, I will take this pouch and let you go for all your past misdeeds…" the old man said as he let go off of Max's ear and picked the pouch before putting the crystal back in.

"You have to be kidding me old man!! You think those sh*ty things were as valuable as this crystal? Have you finally lost it?" Max tried to snatch the pouch back but the old man grabbed Max by his face and held him back.

"This is what you get for cheating people…" the old man said as the pouch disappeared from his hands.

"You are the one cheating here!!!" Max shouted with a dark face, there was no way to get the pouch back now.

"Well, if you don't have anything else, I am pretty busy." The old man said as he got up from his seat.

"Wait!! I need to fix this." Max said as he took out his spear.

"Oh, you can use one of the work desks…" the old man said as he turned around to leave.

But before he could do so, he felt a grip on his leg and saw Max clinging onto him.

"You better not think of walking out of this old man...I want that thing upgraded to the best you can…." Max said with a frown, he wasn't going to walk out with a defeat in his hands.

"Look kid, I am very busy….I don't have time…" the old man said as he tried to shake Max off.

"Hell no!!" Max desperately clung onto him.

"Do you think I am that easy to deal with? I want that thing done today, if not, don't blame me if things go missing again…." Max threatened him.

"Y-You!! You dare to blackmail me….where are you manners? Is this what your Master taught you?" The grandmaster said with a frown.

"No, I learned this from my grandmaster…" Max replied.

The old man felt his face darkening.

…

"What's going on?" Kevin looked towards the stairs hearing the commotion.

A second later, he saw the old man from before walking down the stairs while dragging one of his feet which Max was clinging onto.

'Damn this stubborn old man…' Max cursed, he knew it wasn't going to be easy to get him to work but this was way more difficult than he imagined. He knew that he needed a strong weapon after the fight with Eida and even more so after he fought with the lion face.

"Kevin! Grab the other feet!!" Max screamed as he saw Kevin seating in the hall.

Kevin hesitated as he looked at the old man's face who was giving him a threatening gaze.

"Just do it, I will double the food on your plate." Max further said.

The next second, the old man had two people sticking to him. One was so gigantic that he didn't even know how to define it.

"Fine, I will do it!!!"

"Now get off of me!!"

The old man finally gave up. Even though it wouldn't take much effort for him to go out with both of them clinging to him, he was a well-respected figure here. He just couldn't spoil his image.

"No, don't let go Kevin!!" Max stopped Kevin who seemed to be easing his grip.

"You already cheated me once, like hell I am believing you...we won't let you go until you give me the finished product…"

….

Hours passed…

Max and Kevin finally left the Smithy with the old man grumbling inside. They had arrived at noon and now, the sun was close to setting.

Max was satisfied with what he had received. The old man didn't have any high-grade flexible ore in the store. In the end, Max had to take out his Iron clay. This had restricted the weapons-grade as Iron clay was a 3★ ore. But Max didn't want to lose the flexibility of his weapon.

But still, in the end it turned to be a successful 6★ Weapon and along with the horn of Nightmare Wolf, a peak grade Savage Beast.

Max wanted a low grade Mystic Beast's horn but a 3★ ore wouldn't pair well with it.

The old man had to use everything with a bleeding heart. Those things indeed cost a fortune although not as much as the Space stone.

After a few minutes if walking, Max pulled out his phone as Kevin led the way towards the best street food corner around the place.

"Yes Master, I gave one space stone as a sample to the grandmaster just as you asked me to." Max said as a smile leaked on his face.

Right, there was no way this guy wouldn't be prepared. He wouldn't be accepting a loss that easily.

The storage pouch only contained a single space crystal which Stark had asked Max to pass onto the Grandmaster in case they needed it for further discussion and analysis.

It seems the grandmaster wasn't aware of this fact, nor was he aware that there were more than a single space stone founded by Max and even more so of the fact that he didn't only lost his resources and sweat on upgrading Max's spear but also his Razel wood door which must have costed him a fortune.

…

"Hmmm?" The old man suddenly stopped as he looked around.

"Wait, where did the broken door go? He didn't throw it as well right?"

The old man rushed out of the store and finally took a breath of relief seeing the pile of planks and woods near the dumpster.

But after a minute, he frowned on failing to find the wood of his door. That wood was expensive and even said to bring good fortune. He just couldn't imagine losing it.

The old man began to vigorously search around and even dived into the dumpster when his phone rang.

It was from Stark.

"Tsk...What do you want?" The old man picked up the phone and said. He was really irritated because of Max.

"What's with tone, Master? Did someone irritate you again?" Stark asked with a laugh.

"Who is it if not your disciple?!"

"Huh? I thought you would be happy. I even asked him to give you one of the space stones that he got. We can use it in the council meeting to get attention of every family heads and after that, it is all yours to research for…"

"..."

"Hello...Hello...master….you there…"

The voice continued to come through the other end of the phone as blood trickled down the corner of the old man's mouth who was trembling in anger.

"That damn brat..fooled me again…"

...

The old man went inside the smithy calming his anger down and losing a bottle of blood.

"Grandpa....what happened.. ahh!!" Edward asked looking at the blood around old man's lips but in the process, he forget about his injury.

"Just take rest...." The old man said as he went towards the stairs.

"Did you by chance see where the door go? I can't find it...I don't think anyone would recognise the value of that wood that easily....so it isn't possible that someone had stolen it...." the old man suddenly stopped and asked Edward.

"Umn...I told that guy about the wood earlier....he wouldn't have stolen it right, Grandpa?" Edward asked with a worried look.

"Drip!"

"Drip!"

Blood again began to spill out of the old man's mouth as he looked at Edward, "He was the last person to have been told about that...."

"Thud!"

"Grandpa!!!!"