Undying Warlord

"For someone who focuses on inscribing runes on pieces of equipment, you are pretty strong. But that doesn't mean you can keep up with Ascenders, who focus on fighting monsters. There is still a distinct difference in strength, you know?" Dilan tried to put some sense into the young man as he looked down to the ground.

Huan Iglav's legs had given in after he used all his might in a pitiful attempt to force Dilan's expression to change. This didn't work at all, which was why Dilan ended up squeezing Huan's hand a bit, nearly knocking out the young man.

Dilan didn't really have anything against a challenge but this was just a waste of time.

"At least, I can be reassured that there won't be a problem for you to fight the masses of Vampires…" Huan Iglav said weakly as he tried to get up from the ground. Dilan helped Huan before his gaze turned to Brian, who was trying to avoid attracting anyone's attention.

He smiled lightly at Brian and his attention moved to a smaller hammer that hung down the frail-looking man's belt. It reminded Dilan why he had been looking for Old Jeff.

"How far has Old Jeff's research progressed about the Weaponized Wands?" He thus asked with great interest before he lightly added, "I need a bunch of new equipment. My old boots have burned and the Blazing Serpentine Blade is way too weak against Vampires. It will merely burn them a bit and I may be able to do a few stunts with it, but that's the most I could do with it."

Dilan's eyes glimmered in excitement at the thought of getting new equipment and when both Brian and Huan saw this, a weird smile appeared on their faces.

"We…have a few experiments…if you want to see them…I mean…if you really want to…we could show them to you…" Brian was still a bit shy and he didn't dare to look directly into Dilan's eyes when Dilan looked at him but he was still trying his best to not cower under his gaze.

He seemed a bit excited to show Dilan his experiments and Huan nodded his head as he added,

"Old Jeff, Brian, I, and the other blacksmiths are always trying to improve. This includes using other materials to create some of the weapons we learned about in blueprints. Most of them failed because the properties of the materials we used were not compatible with the weapons we wanted to create but others succeeded. The simplest experiments include a few runes, Brian's additional attributes due to his Occupational Special trait, and Old Jeff's vast knowledge about Wands and his creativity!"

Huan seemed excited and it looked like he had already forgotten about the handshake 'battle' he had had with Dilan and failed miserably. He was not someone who was really bothered about losing a fair battle and Huan was pretty much satisfied with Dilan's strength. It reassured Huan that everything would be fine with Dilan as their leader, irrespective of the fact whether 10,000 Vampires attacked them, a horde of powerful monsters, or other races.

Dilan couldn't dislike Huan, so he followed the young man when he walked in the opposite direction of Old Jeff's small office. He motioned Dilan to follow him multiple times, which was what Dilan did. Even Brian rushed behind Huan, radiating a bit of excitement.

'To think that he is already in his 30s while acting like this,' Dilan shook his head with a faint smile on his lips. It was quite funny how excited men could be when someone was interested in the same topic as them, but Dilan understood this pretty well.

It didn't take them even a minute before they reached a big hall, where a few more blacksmiths were working. However, instead of hammering the steel bars in front of them, most of them were either thinking hard while staring down at the hot steel bar, or they were hesitating to strike it because they weren't 100% certain which angle they required to make use of so as to obtain the best result.

They wanted to become great blacksmiths, which meant that each of their weapons had to be close to perfection. Creating a perfect weapon was impossible but it was possible to improve slowly as long as they were working hard on their form, technique, and their abilities.

Huan ignored the blacksmiths and walked past them. Dilan and Brian followed them as well before they ended up in a small warehouse, or so it seemed. Dozens of shelves stacked with all kinds of forged goods could be seen in the small hall that had been turned into a customized warehouse full of experiential weapons and forged equipment.

"This is getting interesting…but why didn't I know about this?" Dilan asked in a sharp voice as his head flicked to Huan, who flinched upon hearing his question.

"Eh…I don't know. Isn't it Old Jeff's task to report the proceedings of the forging department to you?" Huan asked in an uncertain voice. He didn't want to get Old Jeff into trouble but he thought that Dilan had already heard about the experiments and that he may have simply forgotten about them.

However, from the looks of it, Dilan was oblivious to what happened in the forging department, which was a bit odd, but Dilan's expression eased up quickly. That was a good sign and Huan didn't feel like he was suffocating anymore.

"Well, I knew that Old Jeff is experimenting with various things, otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to create the Blazing Molotov Daggers for Williams but I didn't know that more blacksmiths were experimenting as well. Maybe, I just missed that when I didn't attend the daily meetings," Dilan shrugged.

After he thought about it for a moment, he was actually not that bothered that he wasn't aware of the experiments.

He had looked at a few weapons and could tell that they were not ready to be either mass-produced or used by someone with low mana control.

[Silver Steel Dagger] |Forged| <Bronze Tier-1>

Forged with a Unique technique, the Silver Steel Dagger is an exceptional weapon with which a proficient wielder may be able to injure and even kill a Silver Tier-1 monster!

[+7 Strength], [+5 Agility]]

"The Silver Steel Dagger is quite impressive. The blade is paper-thin and it will break upon colliding with bones of Silver Tier-2 monsters, or monsters with extremely thick hide but it's razor-sharp, nonetheless," Dilan mumbled when he read through the description of the Silver Steel Dagger.

It was clearly a forged good and it was quite easy to wield the weapon.

"Weird…it doesn't need much mana to supply the Silver Steel Dagger. Maybe even a Tierless Ascender can wield the weapon. That would increase his stats manyfold…amazing!" He continued to speak, only to realize something he didn't notice before, "Wait…There are even forged goods that boost stats?"

Dilan was a bit baffled but he recalled something Huan had said when he spoke about Brian a while ago. His head turned in Brian's direction to see the frail man's embarrassed expression.

"Is that your Special trait? To give forged goods stat boosts?" Dilan asked in curiosity but Brian could only shake his head.

"I..unleash the potential…of the weapons...I forged…as long as the compatibility of weapon and material is good enough, I can create even better weapons…for example….please look at this!" Brian had yet to warm up to Dilan but it was easy to tell that he was trying his best to please their leader.

Dilan regarded this highly, which was why his attention turned to the area Brian pointed to before he froze in place.

"....is that still a weapon?"