Chapter 29 - Tiers, Legends & Contraptions!

Coughing dryly, Forgesteel began to explain while dusting off his body from the wreckages of the blacksmith shop that he just blew.

"Well, the classification of weapons and armors in this world are divided into 3 categories, low, middle and high tier."

"For the low tier, weapons and armors are ranked by stars, from one stars through seven! The more stars it has, the stronger it is!"

"Although there are numerous forger around the empire who could smith weapons and armors of this level, typically five stars through seven is quite rare especially the latter! Only those with powerful background and good fortunes would be able to have them!"

Theo nodded to this explanation as he made a mental note about them in his mind.

"Next, is the middle tier weapons and armors! In the whole empire, there are only about 10 people or so who had the capabilities! All of them are respected figures anywhere they go!" continued Forgesteel.

"This is because the middle tier grade weapons and armors required immense resources and strength! To create a weapon and armor of this caliber, the forger must be able to meld more than 10 exotic metals into the frame!"

"There are three levels under middle grade tier, from the lowest, Earth has more than 10 molds, Sky has more than 50 molds and the highest and most strongest, Heaven has a perfect 100 molds! The epitome peak of any weapon and armor!" said Forgesteel with glittering eyes, before turning solemn and serious.

"However.. the next tier which is of the high grade.. in the entire Kalderan Empire at least, no one has been able to forge a weapon and armor of this caliber yet.."

"The two levels under this tier are Ancient class and Legendary class.. all weapons and armors under this tier are sentient in nature and have a deep history behind them. They possesses boundless might and could change the course of battlefield or an empire if they were to be used to its full potential!"

Stopping his gaze by the sword on Theo's right hand who seemed to be lifting the sword casually, Forgesteel shook his head as he continued:.

"That sword of yours should belong to the high tier categories, either in the Ancient Class or Legendary... or maybe even in a class of its own.." he furrowed his brows as he couldn't help but to think how mysterious the sword was.

Forgesteel once had the chance to observe an Ancient class greatsword firsthand before, when his grandfather were tasked to create a powerful treasure chest to store and suppress the aura of the sword.

Apparently, that greatsword was unearthed in old ruins and anyone who were corrupted by the aura would be crazed by the thought to behead people randomly.

Theo pondered for a moment while his fingers rubbing his chin continuously before asking Forgesteel.

"Then uncle, what tier of weapons and armors can you make?" with a curious tone.

"HAHA! This uncle of yours can forge weapons up to the Sky grade! But due to the immense resources it needs to make one, I usually just forge up until the seven stars!" he replied with a proud laugh.

"I see! That's great! Uncle is so capable!"

Theo couldn't help but to admire his uncle more when he heard of this. In his mind, he made a conjecture based on what his uncle had said; that middle grade weapons and armor should be quite rare no matter if there was a hundred or so who were actually capable. The resources to acquire exotic metals alone would require tremendous wealth! Whatnot added with competitions from other forgers. Things might get deadly even!

....

After exchanging some few more talks with Forgesteel, Theo bid him farewell and promised to deliver iron ores tomorrow for his first batch of weapons to equip the village folks with.

On their way back, his butler was the first one to talk after remaining mute the whole time before.

"My Lord, that man called Forgesteel is dangerous.. you must be careful.. although he appeared to bear no hostilities towards you, should he chose to do so.. I'm afraid that it is outside of my capabilities to protect you.." said Sebastian concerned.

"That is true, the bloodline release he just did before... I had a fair share of witnessing many notable existences within the empire to release their bloodline powers before.. but none had such a savage and brutal aura like that man did! It seemed too fiendish!" continued the Village Head, a trace of both reverence and fear could be heard from his voice.

Hearing this, Theo found an opportunity to act wise. He smiled and shook his head gently and said:

"Behemoth Bloodline, nothing too wild, just a rare mutation within the human bodies."

His voice casual, seeming to appear that he had witnessed even more bizarre things happened before.

Although he didn't analyze his uncle, he was able to deduce that much from Jerald, his uncle's son who had similar bloodline abilities. Not that he can't, its just that he was afraid of getting caught before such an expert. Furthermore, based on his experience analyzing strong people like his butler, the analyze result would just be filled with many question marks anyway.

But the two old fellas behind him suddenly stop in their tracks and their mouths opened agaped. Their minds was thrown into chaos as they immediately recall what the name 'Behemoth' entails!

Its a creature of legend far to the North of the continent, located on a place of what is known as the 'World's Gate'! No empire had dared to venture into that place since the incident that happened a hundred years ago, where battalions of allied armies made up from three empires surmounting close to three million soldiers were wiped out in a single day!

Although they are not the most elite of soldiers, their sheer numbers alone would be enough make any empire to put up all their cards on the table if attacked and still lose the battle. They were tasked to set up expansion camps after marching through the World's Gate.

Scholars have long theorized before that the continent everyone is living in currently is only but a part of the Regalia world as a whole! There exist plenty more continents beyond the World's Gate!

Yet all those soldiers were massacred in cold blood! The recon team who witnessed such brutal slaughter from afar returned with pale faces and shivers as they uttered the sentence:

"Behemoth.. the Behemoth monster killed them all!"

...

The two old fellas shuddered temporarily as they recall the stories, but soon composed themselves and started to follow Theo again. They couldn't help but to think that the name must have been a coincidence.

...

Arriving at the village square, Theo saw Gosu, the burly man before doing rounds in the village interviewing people with pen and paper on hand while jotting down something. He saw the approaching Theo and both the Village Head and Sebastian following him from behind like two loyal retinues. He giggled in his heart.

"Lord Theo! " He greeted Theo with a wide smile and a slight bow before asking anxiously.

"I've heard of the transformation that happened on the farm and the mines this morning! What are those things my Lord?!" he asked with glittering eyes.

"Ohh those things? In my world back then, we called them 'machines'. I summoned them to accelerate the growth of our village." replied Theo with a slight chuckle.

"Machines?! What an otherworldly name! I ran to look at them the moment I heard the villagers talking about it. How can such efficient contraptions exist! Those rings of metals lined up underneath that heavy plate armors against each other are so perfectly aligned!" he exclaimed while marvelling the image of both the machines and its structures in his head.

"Ohh its nothing." dismissed Theo while waving his right hand in a gesture before continuing:

"In the future, I'll bring more stuff... As well as the method to make one."

Hearing this, Gosu immediately felt elated and jumped up and down in excitement!

"How to make one? That would be cool Lord Theo! You are the greatest! The most genius there is in this world!" he exclaimed with an a*s-licking sentence. Theo's nose pointed up to the sky with a wide smile as he heard this praise.

"These machines are even better than the inventions of the numerous contraptions by the empire inventor's guild!" remarked Gosu in his attempt to a*s-lick Theo once more.

Theo's ears prickled the moment he heard this. He was drawn into the curiousness of what level this world's technology are currently in. Thus, he couldn't help but to ask:

"Contraptions? Inventor's Guild? Explain."

....