Darius Supreme

"I need capital in order to fulfill my wants, but I also need time to do so as well. Safemoon perfectly provides me a platform to acquire both. Well, until these two troublemakers came along." Maximo said as he gestured at Kiran and Darla.

Kiran looked betrayed, as he had never pestered Maximo once, while Darla softly harrumphed and looked away.

"I want to invent. I want to create. I want to do all this for others on my own, how I want and when I want. That's about it." Maximo concluded with a shrug.

"As for your question of what I fight for'¦"

Maximo paused again, hesitating for a bit, then firming his expression.

"Lord, you must've been raised properly, by a good family and with the right methods, right? Unfortunately, not all of us can get such a luxury, even if we deserve it."

"At the age of three, just after being weaned off milk, I was found by a human merchant caravan, abandoned in a forest. The only thing they could make out was that my abandonment wasn't accidental or unplanned, but rather intentional."

Maximo's voice became slightly colder. "Either the ones who brought me into this world or the ones put in charge of taking care of me felt that I was no longer worth raising, so left me to fate. My only outcomes then were to be picked up by a passing group, or eventually, my infantile cries would bring predators for a free meal."

Hearing this, Darla and Kiran couldn't help but gulp, while Darius' eyes flashed, but he said nothing. They allowed Maximo to continue speaking.

"This merchant group raised me well, and as a dwarf, I was quickly able to pull my weight in the family thanks to our racial ability at being born already Sparked, but only for crafting. We have no combat abilities, but when it comes to mining or working a forge, none other are as godly as us." Maximo said nonchalantly.

The three humans couldn't help but nod their heads again as they agreed with this simple truth. Dwarfs were the kings of crafting, period. The only other races who were special like them were intelligent goblins and gnomes.

Howe, Darius distinctly noted that no pride came from Maximo's voice when he discussed the superiority of the dwarves, and this was soon explained to him but Maximo himself.

"The specialties of the dwarves have nothing to do with, I, Maximo. I researched and found that the dwarven method of raising is very strict, and every house must account for the child they birth, as they would be talent tested at the age of 3."

Darla gasped, and Maximo nodded. "That's right, infants who pass get to stay in the stronghold and became future pillars of the clan. Those who don't? They are cast out to the wilds, sent to fend for themselves."

"Because to the dwarves, if you lack a level of talent in their specialty, they see no use in you. You will only become a burden that would set a bad example to the clan, so you the rotten apple is gotten rid of, per se."

Darius was aware of this, as only Northern Dwarves of Fallon did this. Southern Dwarves didn't need to because the resources at their side were plentiful and their numbers were bustling.

They even had one of two top 30 empires to themselves, so why would they need to cast out anyone? It was northern dwarves who lived in mountains or underground, separated by clan/stronghold, who need only the elite to work for the clan in order to trade for resources.

They could not occupy dungeons on their own because they did not have fighting strength typically. Oh yes, dwarves were free to Spark or Awaken both naturally and artificially, but their passion was crafting, not fighting.

One would think that the more dwarves at hand, the more the clan could make, right? Well, not really. The issue is that dwarves do not grow in seconds. They take days of teaching, nurturing, and testing to learn their craft and become competent in it.

All of this required materials and resources, something which the clan already lacks and is the cause of all this trouble. So they cherrypick which descendants to raise based on whatever talent metric, invest what they can, and hope for the best.

As for those without talent, you would have to go outside and pray your luck was stronger than your talent, otherwise, you perish.

Yet, here Maximo was, a living testament to the flaw of their system. Darius' eyes narrowed as Maximo sighed and gestured calmly.

"And eventually, I left the family after crafting them some great products to sell and journeyed the world, as I said before. Eventually, I landed here and have been working towards my goal in peace."

"And what is your goal?" Darius asked with a soft smile.

Maximo gazed at the ceiling before eyeing Darius silently. "My goal is to become better than those idiots who cast me out, to prove that their shitty fucking metric for judging helpers infants is backward and vile!"

He roared this as he banged his counter, denting it a little. Darius simply felt a wave of excitement rush into his heart as he wanted to laugh with joy.

What he feared most was that the fellow would say something along the lines of crafting was his only passion and he had nothing more to gain. It would then be an uphill task to truly recruit such a prodigy.

But no, if Maximo had been raised with dwarves, he might have the passion only, but being raised among scheming and conniving humans had given him some human traits, and the chief among them was ambition!

Maximo had ambition, to become the best dwarven crafter and to prove himself to all Northern Dwarves that even without their teaching and nurturing, even though he was rated as talentless, he had still surpassed those they deemed talented and carefully nurtured.

At this point, Darius had Maximo in his pocket already, it was just left to discuss the matter in which their goals would be aligned.

Why did Darius think this?

Well, it was simple.

Look at Maximo now. He had long passed the threshold of proving that he was superior to other trained dwarves, because he had achieved Grandmaster level in both dwarven crafting and even goblin crafting.

The only thing he didn't learn was alchemy and the like, because dwarves were terrible with plants and reagents, but godly with minerals and ores. He could easily run around the north of Fallon, showing off his skill and faceslapping all the dwarves.

But he didn't.

Why was that?

Simply because Maximo was frighteningly astute and clever.

Likely a result of being raised by humans, he was far from naive. He understood the darkness of society and sapient species, and how far they could go when challenged.

An outlier like Maximo would not be allowed to live. He was proof that their entire system of the Northern Dwarves was a failure and needed to be changed.

To those who have relied on that system to control power in their clans, expelling babies from their rivals and secretly raising those on their side to consolidate power, this would pull the rug right out from under them.

What would you do if you had such power and such a 'threat' appeared before you?

The answer was obvious, wasn't it? Dwarves may not like fighting, but they didn't need to. Just put out a bounty on Maximo's head in exchange for some goods from each clan, and whole kingdoms would pursue him, not just individuals.

At that point, he would only die in a ditch, his talent wasted and his message lost, not even becoming a martyr.

So, Maximo had laid low and searched for a way to achieve his goal all the while, and likely chose Safemoon because the city dared to kill a demon. If they could do that, then what was a mere dwarven race?

What was a mere Fallon?

What firmed his decision to sign up was not just the quality of resources, but the most important reason why Safemoon had gone untouched for so long, even when the likes of Gravitas would love nothing more than to fire a hundred nukes at it.

The Demons of Armadon who were wicked, cruel, and vengeful, didn't dare complain when one of their own was killed in public.

This was an extremely crucial detail.

And so, he planned to work out of Safemoon, spreading his message while relying on the city for protection. If they eventually came and forced him to sign under them, he would accept it as long as his goal was achieved.

That was why Darius firmly believed that Maximo was in the bag. But as he thought, it was a matter of deciding how things would roll between them and Darius made a split-second decision to not recruit a salve, servant, or subordinate, but a partner.

"Miranda, inform Maximo of who I am, what I can do, and what it means to stand before me," Darius stated calmly, folding his arms behind his back.

Maximo was initially confused, but his eyes glazed over as he was receiving information from Miranda that would shake the entirety of Faust. It was not the truth of Faust, but only the truth of Darius.

Even just that much was enough to make Faust shiver and shake. Darius then turned to the two idle spectators by the side with a strange smile, and their necks couldn't help but shrink.

"Now, what to do with you'¦"

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Author's Note: Thank you Tunder, Ghost, Hamm, Arkon, Aratajun, and Misery for the donations over the past week!

People like you need to Awaken and assist me in ruling the world, sigh.