This heat. It was this heat that he sought after, the heat of fulfillment. He smoldered in the rising smoke, feeling as one with the raging flame inside the forge. What is a flame and what is the smoke? It is life and death. Without smoke, it means that there is no tenacious flame struggling for life, while without fire, there wouldn’t be smoke calling upon heaven’s mercy. But life wouldn’t be precious if there was no end.

Wiping the flooding sweat off his forehead with a towel, Kezner gasped for breath. He had hammered away at the glowing ingots for the past few hours until he finally got them to the perfect size. Even with his strength as a Stage Three - Foundational Stage cultivator, it took a lot of effort. In cultivation, strength grew at an exponential rate but with occasional plateaus, as a normal person wouldn’t stand a chance against a Stage One - Foundational Stage cultivator, while a fight between Stage One and Stage Two - Foundational Realm cultivator would have a smaller gap.

His teacher, Rankev, on the other hand, just kept going on and barely even sweat during the process. Kezner was able to determine that this teacher of his was at Stage Nine - Foundational Stage from the first day they met. There was probably a story why Rankev opened up such a small shop when he could have so many other opportunities on the planet. Everyone had a story behind them, and Kezner was the last person going around and prying open coffins of memories.

Rankev was similar to him in a sense, usually keeping to themselves and wouldn’t go out of their way to interact with others unless they needed to. They didn’t easily trust others unless they were the same type, birds of a feather flock together. The main difference between them was that Rankev had a more optimistic view and had a vibrant personality once you got to know him, Kezner on the other hand was surrounded by a more negative aura, you could go as far as to say that it was uncomfortable being around him in general. You could feel it emitting from Kezner’s voice and gaze, it seemed like there was something missing from him, it was difficult to describe, the best analogy was like almost completing a puzzle but losing the final piece.

Looking at the time, it was a little past 4 P.M. He had to be home by 8 P.M. on weekends or else he would receive his first strike. To obtain these welfare programs, he had to give up some of his freedom in return. In order to keep participants of these programs in check they were basically on parole. After three strikes, all welfare would be revoked and it would sully any chances for working in the public sector. Kezner had a clean record, with no strikes to his name, he just had to keep this up for another year then he would regain his autonomy.

When he was younger, his spirit had always been a wild one, a blazing flame vigorously spreading, but after being tossed around in the adoption system, that flame had diminished to nothing but ash. Maybe it was a phoenix and would rise from its own ashes, but at this point, that ship had long sailed. He hadn’t truly lived since then, he felt like a spectator in his own life, a character only to walk in the rotating backgrounds, hell, even suicide was an option sometimes.

He never wanted to be sulking around like this, he wanted to regain his vigor, but the pain was etched too deep, a chasm he couldn’t jump over. His mentality couldn’t change overnight, he tried seeking help, but funding for institutions that could prove useful had long been cut to deepen the pockets of those in power. For now, he was stuck in this position, trying to make the most of it and then move up in life.

Suddenly, the bell of the front door chimed, meaning a customer had walked in, a young woman in a fitting suit. To be honest she was gorgeous, but in this day and age, anyone could easily be gorgeous from genetic enhancements. Adjusting her glasses as she walked in, she reached the counter, cleared her throat and raised her right hand, pulling out a small card. A crisp and crystal voice rang out, “Excuse me, is anyone available?”

Inside the forge, Kezner looked at Rankev, which Rankev responded with a nod and grunt, as he continued to hammer away at the ingot. Gently walking towards the counter from the forge, Kezner’s naturally stern expression didn’t go away. It wasn’t that he was upset or frustrated, his face just looked… stiff.

Once he stood behind the register, he paused at the woman’s looks then continued waiting, waiting for her to say something. The young woman also waited for Kezner to say something, creating an awkward silence with only the faint sound of a hammer hitting an ingot. The woman’s face blushed and coughed as Kezner continued to give her his average blank stare, anticipating her to speak up first..

“Ahem, I’m here to check on my order for the swords, order number nine.” The young woman placed the card on the glass counter, next to the register. Kezner picked it up, inspected it to make sure it was real, then put it back on the counter, “Two hours.” His monotone voice rang out as he walked back towards the forge, he disliked this type of customer the most. The appointment was in the evening, so why did she come in the afternoon?

“People think these swords grow like cabbages and we just need to pluck and wash them. The art of weapon making takes time and precision. Pfft, these kinds of people just squander wealth that isn’t theirs and strut around like it is.”

Though he was jumping the gun when it came to assumptions, since he knew nothing about the person, there was a sort of lofty and arrogant attitude surrounding the person, he could just feel it. “Hey, where are you going, I’ve got a few questions I wanted to ask!”

Confused, Kezner looked behind him at the young woman, sighed, and went back to see what he could help with. So he stood back to his original position, giving the young woman the same blank stare. “Is that the only face you can make, why do you look so mad?!”

Kezner paused for a second before walking back towards the forge once more, if she was going to just try to critique him, she should at least do it in silence. Honestly, he didn’t care in the slightest about the insult, as long as she didn’t cross his bottom line, anything could slide.

“Wait, wait, wait, that wasn’t what I wanted to ask…” She tried to persist but was met with a shut door behind the counter. With a disbelieving look, the young woman sighed, and took a seat on the one of the waiting chairs. A tired and hoarse voice suddenly rang out in her ear, “Young Lady, you should be humbler, these people don’t care about your position as they can’t see it even if they wanted to.”

“I know Justone, but the way he was acting was uncalled for, how do you just stare at a person like that?! I know I’m pretty but there’s no need to just look at me for that long, the least he could do was speak…” This Kathra lady was narcissistic beyond belief.

“Young Lady, you should tone it down a little, if anyone were to recognize you and record you speaking like this, your reputation would plummet…” This Justone guy was pretty reasonable on the other hand, sadly the deaf couldn’t hear the blind.

“You’re taking his side?! I’m telling daddy once I’m done with my term, hmph! I bet you’re pretty scared now, but don’t worry, once I get back I’ll allow you to grovel for forgiveness...” This nagging went on for a solid minute, this Justone guy must have been a buddha in his past life if he was this patient.

With a disappointed sigh, Justone was finally able to get a word in, “Young Lady, His Majesty has sent you and your siblings to test you all for the throne. If you do not start recruiting talented individuals now, your competitors may start picking them up from your star cluster. The worst part is that in about a few days, they may start picking up the traces of Destiny Energy that had surrounded this planet, forcing you to give up a Rank-Z ability!”

“Pfft, what’s so good about a Rank-Z ability?! Couldn’t they suffer backlash at any moment? They are just short-term pawns, they can’t even regulate their own abilities!” This arrogant, narcissistic asshole turned out to be Governor Vanya, the woman feared by the masses within Star Cluster #37.

“Young Lady, you’re mistaken this time, judging from the samples of gray flames you brought us show a very stable ability with the potential of becoming unstable when triggered. This ability is the highest tier of Rank-Z abilities, in other words, you found and discovered an unprecedented gem! Bringing this young man to your side may be the deciding factor of your rise to the throne!” Justone’s passion increased throughout his explanation, if Kathra could rise to the throne, he would be guaranteed a position of Grand Advisor.

“Fine, fine, whatever, I’m gonna hang up now, you’re boring to talk to. Ability this, rank that, it’s so boring!”

“Alright, goodb-” And with that, Kathra hung up on the patient Justone, unbeknownst to her that this poor fellow was on the verge of suffering a heart attack from the spike in blood pressure.

Kathra, a young rich princess, had to find a way to entice an impoverished youth living in the slums, this should be easy. She remembered a trick that Rank-Z users had, where they could push their ability to the max when cornered and detonate themselves, so she realized that she couldn’t push Kezner too far or else she may get harmed, maybe even killed.

Playing on her new and recently released holo-watch, Kathra passed the time with some random games she downloaded a while ago. In the two hours while waiting, it was shown how easily she had forsaken her demeanor as a stern and elegant politician and had become a bratty and pampered child. Her manipulation skills were through the roof.

After the two hours slowly crawled by, the door to the forge slowly opened, revealing two figures walking in. Kezner’s legs were about to give out from being overworked, while Rankev was as still as a mountain. Kezner had only dabbled in accessories, where they were usually small and required more precision than physical labor, weapons on the other hand required both. Both of them, in total, placed down ten sheathed one-handed longswords on the counter.

Kathra walked towards the counter in anticipation, this was one of the first times she witnessed a traditional longsword up close. The last time she saw one was in a museum on Earth, and its quality wasn’t something to write home about. Easily unsheathing the smooth silver blade, Kathra was entranced by its appearance. You have to understand that in this day and age these weapons were rarely ever seen, let alone used, only a few had devoted their life to sword skills.

Snapping out of her daze, she handed the numbered card to Rankev. With a nod and grunt, he took out a scanner that had a slot to insert a G.B. card. Out of her purse, Kathra pulled out a purple crystalline card with “Galactic Banking Card” engraved in gold on it. Both Rankev and Kezner went blank for a solid second before realizing that this customer’s status was probably pretty high, but they snapped out of their blank states and regained their aloof and stern expressions.

“Damn, I thought that, that trick would work, but who knew these two would be so ignorant on the status of a purple card!” She overestimated the knowledge the two in front of her had on affairs above their commoner status. Rankev and Kezner both knew that she probably had a really high status, but honestly, what did that have to do with them? Did they have to fawn over those who had power and money when they simply just wasted it?

Kathra inserted her card, tapped the pay button without even looking at the amount, and then took back her card. “Ah, it seems I forgot to bring my butler, can you please help me bring these swords back to my car?” She gave a charming smile as she looked at Kezner.

Kezner’s expression went blank once again and only had one thought; “Uh oh.”

Kathra carried a few swords, leaving no room for negotiations, forcing Kezner to carry the rest. Picking them up, he followed behind her only to hear a grunt behind him, he saw Rankev stand behind the counter with a stern expression, yet gave a nod and thumbs up, with his eyes basically saying “Good job!”. He had truly thought that this bratty lass actually liked Kezner.

Kezner only raised a brow before deciphering what this teacher of his meant, then grimaced at the possibility, however he still had a job to do and was being paid for. Giving a sigh, Kezner picked up his pace and tried to breeze through this as fast as humanly possible.

Kezner followed Kathra towards her “car”, walking on the sidewalk with a darkening sky and setting sun in the background. Soon when Kathra stopped, a Scout Cruiser appeared out of nowhere in the middle of street, forcing Kezner to take a few step backs to assess the situation. “Yeah… so about this… nice to meet you, I’m the governor of this Star Cluster, Governor Vanya.” The more Governor Vanya went on with her sentence, the weirder his expression became.

“What kind of shit did I just step on?”