Kutuck Hammer

As we continued our watch, the sounds of bells suddenly rang throughout the hallway. Orion turned to the butler, questioning, "What is that, butler? An enemy attack?" Evangelion remained considerably calm, stating, "Don't worry, the mouse has taken the bait."

We hurried back to find a drunk, bulky man with a long white beard asleep after drinking the whole gourd of wine. "Looks like you've caught a huge rat, Orion, hahahah," Evangelion chuckled. "Yes, sister, hehehe," I joined in, our maniacal laughter echoing through the room.

The next morning, Kutuck Hammer opened his eyes to find himself in a dark room. "Ah, my head hurts. Where am I? Who has the audacity to lock me up, Kutuck Hammer?" Amidst the darkness, two figures appeared in front of Kutuck.

"Greetings. My brother and I are the heirs of the Nightshades family. We organized the banquet to have a talk with you, Sir Hammer."

"Don't spout nonsense. I know why you are here. I can't believe Adam would send his children to persuade me to make his weapons. Tell him I am no longer interested in making any sorts of weapons."

The situation took an awkward turn. "Actually, I believe father isn't involved in this. In fact, I wanted you to make a weapon for my brother."

"Oh, then it's okay. What? You want one of the two grandmasters of the world to make a weapon for this brat?"

"Yup," my sister said bluntly, without a care in the world.

"Sigh, you and your family of crazy lunatics, one surpassing the other in arrogance. Anyways, as I've said, if I say no, then it's a no."

As the temperature in the room rapidly increased, I interrupted the conversation. "Sister, why don't we give him some space so he can explore his options?" As soon as those words came out of my mouth, boom, he released intense killing intent directed towards me.

But before it could hit me, the butler released his own killing intent, neutralizing the effect. The sheer impact shook the whole room.

"Do you want to die, Kutuck? Mind it, you are in the land of the vampires. One more mistake and this sword will pass through your neck."

"Ooh, an S-rank bodyguard. Looks like your father cares about you. But don't think that you could do whatever you want with me, 'cause it would mean war. And believe me, my brother isn't as friendly as he looks when you hurt someone close to him."

I interrupted before the matter could get any worse, "Sister, can I talk to Mr. Hammer in private?"

"Fine," she said, and left, followed by the butler.

"Well, what is your purpose for doing this, brat?" I asked.

"Could you erect a sound barrier around us?" Understanding the meaning behind my words, Kutuck raised a mana barrier covering the whole room.

"Don't worry, anyone under the SS rank won't be able to hear us. Now that the formalities are over, why don't you tell me? How did you know?" he started releasing bits of his aura as he said those words, bringing me to my knees.

"Kutuck Hammer and Arid Hammer, two brothers born on Borealis, deemed to achieve immense prosperity for the dwarves with SS Rank potential, but as fate would have it, one of these brothers was exiled away from the continent for some unknown reasons."

"This might make one wonder why they would outcast a dwarf prince with the highest potential. Unless he has dabbled himself into forbidden research or is a part of a Demon cult, I tend to believe the former than the latter."

Orion continued by asking, "Maybe Kutuck Hammer is a wielder of the space element, aren't I right?"

"Hush, I don't know how you figured it out, but yes, it is true I am a Space element user, and unlike Your clan's Progenitor, I am a Solo elemental holder, resulting in a decrease in my lifespan, and I just wanted to spend my rest days in peace."

"You don't fool me, Senor. I know you've noticed the abnormal ratios of dungeon appearances over the years, and I know your greed for innovation. Isn't it your dream for space exploration?"

"HAHAAHHAHAH Ahhh All my years of ambitions are analyzed by a what a five-year-old, and you want me to believe this nonsense."

"Believe it or not, it doesn't matter. Let's get into business. I have what you want. How about it?"

"No, even if you have a plan for that, I have taken a mana oath from my brother to never produce any sort of weapon in my life."

"You don't get it, do you? Do you think I'm unaware of that, Kutuck? Equal exchange of information. Give me all the knowledge you have of blacksmithing, condense it down into a book, details about every single weapon you've ever made, all its intricate details, everything right from your first work till your last work."

"Fine, what are you offering me instead?"

Orion took several books out of his space ring labeled with titles such as Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, Ignition!, Rocket Propulsion Elements, Elements of Propulsion, and so on and so forth.

The world up until now was overly dependent on using mana as the sole energy for all inventions. Amongst this, bringing together theories of Rocket propulsion and dynamics is an achievement in itself.

"Marvellous, I've never seen anything like this. Who would've thought that all my years of research would be exceeded by a genius like yours? Do you have the same dream as me to explore the unknown?"

'Well if the world is saved then it's well and done, otherwise, it's not bad to escape the planet.'

"Old man, I estimate that about 10-15 years from now, Earth cannot sustain the existence of life due to the invasion of multiple dungeons, so it's not bad to have a backup plan."

"Well, looks like our ideals match. Fine, I will try to build it within that time and about my experiences and fundamentals, I don't have any prewritten version of it. It will take a year or two to compile such work, so until then why don't you focus on learning the basics of blacksmithing from these books?" He handed out dozens of books to me.

"Then I'll see you later, Jr. Nightshade. I have a lot of work to do in the lab." And he vanished from thin air as he said those words.

As the barrier vanished, my sister and butler entered the room.

"Orion, where is that old man? Did he harm you?"

"No, don't worry. I've made reconciliation with the old man; he agreed to provide his knowledge of blacksmithing."

"What? You wanted him to teach you blacksmithing? You've gone crazy. And how did you even achieve this reconciliation with that stingy old guy?"

"Not a teacher; we're fellow researchers sharing information about our discoveries. I exchanged my knowledge with him, and we found common ground."

"--Sigh-- Recently, you've been hiding a lot, my dear brother.

 You haven't answered me yet, where is he?"

"Dunno, anyways let's get back, shall we?" I whistled my way back to the carriage.

The butler, whose face was stunned by all these revelations, said, "Madam, I feel your brother doesn't show much to the outside world as you've said."

"Sometimes, I wonder where he takes his cunning personality from."