Undying Warlord

The flame that was around the size of a teenager's fist flickered brightly. It swirled around the blacksmith's hand. Old Jeff smiled with a childlike glee while he kept his gaze fixated on the Source flame.

The flame was the biggest treasure he received from advancing to Tier-1 and by revealing it to Dilan, Old Jeff wanted to express his gratitude.

Dilan didn't know about that but he felt that the flame was special. It was different to the highly destructive flame of the Pyroman, Pyro.

In no way did it mean that the Source flame of the Dawn was a gentle flame but that Old Jeff was able to control its wild nature freely.

"You seem happy. What is so special about this flame, except that you can control it?" Dilan was definitely intrigued.

For blacksmiths, it was already a huge gain to be able to control the temperature and intensity of their flame.

However, that was not enough to explain Old Jeff's gaze and behavior.

"I cannot use the Source flame for combat because I will never be able to manifest it again after it gets destroyed once. But I never intended to start fighting in the front rows, either way. I would rather support you and the others with my blacksmithing skills."

The old man replied before thinking for a moment. Old Jeff was not sure what to reveal and what to hide from Dilan.

But after giving it a thought, the blacksmith could only shrug his shoulders before he continued to speak,

"As long as I use the Source flame in the forging process, I will be able to forge far more accurately than without it. At the same time, the impurities within all ores and forging materials can be expelled to a certain degree.

Because I'm only a Tier-1 blacksmith, this is highly restricted but as I get more familiar with the Source flame of the Dawn, I can easily forge everything you want. It is even possible that the quality of the forged goods will exceed the raw materials usual restrictions!"

Dilan, who had expected the Source flame to be special, nodded his head in agreement. He was still astonished about the great capabilities the Source flame had.

However, he didn't want to show Old Jeff all of his emotions as he had already been way too excited about the Serpentine Blade.

Dilan didn't want to step out of his character and destroy the image he had carefully built during the last two weeks.

That was also why his seemingly unimpressed expression caused Old Jeff initial excitement to evaporate.

'Did he expect the Source flame to be out of this world, or is he simply oblivious to its value?'

Old Jeff was not sure about the correct answer, but rather than complaining he sported a devilish smile before he said,

"Now that I introduced you to my flame, how about you fetch me some raw materials so I can start producing all the weapons and other goods you want from me?"

While other Ascenders were afraid of Dilan, the same was not the case for Old Jeff.

In fact, he felt that Dilan was quite a simple character. First of all, Dilan was rational and rather fair. He never forced anyone to do something.

But the consequences of not doing anything were that the lazy survivors and freeloaders would get less food and no priority over meat and other high-protein stuff.

Dilan's rules were also quite simple- don't cause trouble, don't do anything stupid, and don't do things to others you don't wish to happen to yourself.

That was how Old Jeff summarized the rules. They were simple, which meant that if one broke them it was highly likely to be intentional.

In return for breaking his rules, Dilan would punish ruthlessly, and make an example out of the perpetrators.

Old Jeff kind of like this but the most important for him to feel rather comfortable around Dilan was that he worked hard to achieve his goals and that Dilan didn't seem to hide his opinion, whether it was frowned upon or readily accepted.

He did whatever he believed to be correct and accepted the suggestions of his people as well.

Thus, it was not astonishing that Dilan nodded his head with a faint smile on his face when Old Jeff asked him to fetch some materials.

"I'm already on my way! If you need anything just tell Williams or his people. And if you feel like telling me more about your occupation, I'll always be willing to listen!"

Dilan made a second attempt to get to know more information about Old Jeff's occupation.

But instead of waiting to receive an answer right now he turned around and left him alone.

Walking outside the workshop, he catapulted his body to the main street a moment later, disappearing from Old Jeff's sight in an instant.

"This brat…just what is he actually planning?"

His gaze averted from the empty doorframe as he looked at the Orb of Pyromancy, which Dilan had left behind for Old Jeff to study.

The blacksmith was sure that Dilan didn't reveal every single plan he had in mind. There was too much they didn't know and Dilan was not a fool to trust the people he had been familiar with only for a few weeks.

Maybe he trusted some to a certain extent but nobody had managed to gain his full trust yet.

As such, there were many things he kept a secret, such as the information about the Sun temple.

Sun temple was the name Dilan gave the temple that had emerged on the Shikan plains.

And the reason for Dilan to keep its emergence a secret was quite simple.

For the time being, they had more than enough trouble with other things.

Surviving was already a daily struggle for many survivors, and they were still learning to fight against weak monsters such as low-leveled zombies.

If Dilan were to throw fragments of this newly acquired information at them, it would crush their already weak confidence.

After all, he had no idea whether the Sun temple was something dangerous or an opportunity to grow stronger!

That was something Dilan would have to figure out soon. But before that, he wanted to get his hands on a modified Serpentine Blade.

Thus, his next stop was the Krendel's Underground Valley where he would meet up with Kathrine and her group of miners!