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While Arlo was stunned in his confusion, Julian spoke:

"Hey, Khan! Look at who I brought with me."

Julian's usual indifferent look was now replaced with a playful smile.

"Keep quiet, don't you dare interrupt me!"

The man Khan grumbled in annoyance without even looking at Julian.

Since they entered the smithy, he had his entire attention fixed on his work.

He hammered the two short daggers on the anvil before him.

Julian didn't seem to be affected by the heat from the furnace, but Arlo was beginning to sweat.

Noticing Arlo's confusion, Julian smiled:

"You are surprised why a human is here, right?"

"Yes."

"What made you think we are enemies with humans in the first place?"

"Excuse me?"

Arlo was once again surprised by the ridiculous question.

How could humans not be hostile towards vampires? Vampires were their natural predators.

Julian spoke with a serious look:

"Don't you know we vampires were originally humans?"

Arlo nodded, "I do."

"While I can't tell you how we came to existence, I can tell you that we were never hostile to humans. In fact, we could be considered allies. Humans occupied the northern territory with vampires, and while we needed their blood to grow, we were able to come to an equal agreement. The newly created vampires agreed to be the human's shield and protectors while the humans would provide us with a steady supply of blood. Of course, it wasn't easy to come to such an agreement, and there was initially discrimination and conflict between both races. But everything worked out when an unrivaled otherworlder visited our world. She was able to bring a conflict between two races to an end with just her power and charisma." Julian looked at Arlo with a strange expression.

"But that peace also didn't last for long..." Julian suddenly paused as he looked as if he was recollecting some memories, "...Less than a decade ago, something bad happened. The event threw our Liege into a state of turmoil and caused her to wreak havoc around the world. She killed countless humans in her anger, and we the vampires as her creations were naturally affected by her state of mind. The humans in this world were almost pushed to the point of annihilation. Thankfully, Lady Rebecca, Queen of the werewolves was able to put a stop to the situation. She brought our liege back to her state of mind and allowed the humans to survive extinction.

Immediately after that, all the humans disappeared. Of course, there are still humans in this world, it's just that no one knows where they are. No sighting of humans has been seen on any of the continents since that event. It was rumored this was the work of Lady Rebecca."

Arlo finally understood.

He understood why when he saw Joe for the first time, he and the slave traders were so surprised to find out he was human.

There was such a history in this world?

But Arlo suddenly thought of something.

"Why is he here then?" he threw a question as he looked at Khan, who had his entire attention on hammering the daggers before him.

"As I said, there are still humans in this world. But only our liege and a select few know where they are hiding."

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He looked at Khan before he continued:

"While the humans are still angry about the massacre of their race, they have no choice but to continue dealing with us. After all, we depend on them for artifact and pill making. Not to mention we still need their blood."

"I see."

Arlo turned toward Julian and bowed with a sincere look on his face.

"Thank you for telling me all these."

He had gone to the library but didn't find any information on what Julian just told him.

Perhaps he could find them on the final floor, but the fact that Julian told him filled his heart with gratitude.

"It's nothing!" Julian simply waved his hand.

After that the duo watched Khan work in silence.

Ttang! Ttang!

Arlo admired Khan's concentration.

It was almost as if the only thing in his world were the two daggers.

Like this, almost thirty minutes passed.

Julian suddenly spoke:

"I can't wait any longer. I have matters to attend to. I have already informed him about you, so wait till he finishes."

After saying that, he left.

Arlo was alone with Khan in the smithy.

But he wasn't bored by the silence and instead studied Khan.

After another hour.

Khan finally stopped.

He wiped the sweat off his face and frowned at his finished work.

"Just a peak mortal grade? Trash!"

He flung the two daggers to the side as if he had not been working on them for several hours.

Arlo took the daggers and placed them before him.

"Eh!?" Khan looked at him in surprise.

"Who are you? Wait, a human?"

He was so immersed in his work that he didn't notice Arlo until now.

"My name is Arlo. It's nice to meet you." He bowed his head slightly.

"Oh! You must be the boy Julian told me about."

"But your hair, it's golden. Are you from the Goldsborn family?"

Arlo tilted his head in confusion.

Seeing the confused look on Arlo's face, Khan waved the matter away.

He walked towards the back of the smithy and rummaged through some stuff as he spoke.

"I heard you need some ingredients to temper your body. You must be a Ki cultivator. Aside from the Asuras, I have never seen any human cultivator."

"The Asura?" This wasn't the first time he had heard this name. Scarlett and Rebecca also mentioned them the last they met.

"Yes! The Asuras are the strongest nation in this universe. They rule the dark universe."

Arlo could hear the tone of admiration in Khan's voice as he spoke about the Asuras.

Khan took a space pouch and walked back to Arlo

"Well, this is all you will need. At least for the initial part of the cultivation."

He opened the pouch and brought out several materials.

"This is the poison sac of a black steel spider."

'A black steel spider? Isn't that the beast that almost killed us last night?'

While Arlo was lost in thought, Khan continued:

"A green herb, corpse mushroom, moldy bark of a Beda tree."

"All you need to do is mix and boil these with the black steel poison."

After explaining each ingredient, he put them back into the space pouch and handed them to Arlo.

"The only thing you can find in the northern continent is the black steel spider poison sac. In fact, you can get that from the mountain forest outside the academy. As for the others, they don't grow here. But if you need more just come and meet me."

Khan smiled as he spoke.

Arlo's heart was warmed by Khan's generosity. Even though he merited all the ingredients as a reward from the academy, Khan's treatment still made him feel warm inside.

After all, it had been a long he associated with a human.

Arlo smiled sheepishly and spoke:

"So what do I do after mixing them?"

Khan's smiling face stiffened and slowly turned into a frown.

"You...what are you doing staying with vampires?"

"This..." Arlo hesitated. He didn't know what to tell him.

Seeing Arlo's hesitation, Khan sighed.

"I don't know what a child is during in this place. In fact, I am the only one willing to be an intermediary between the humans and vampires for seven years."

Khan shook his head in lamentation.

'Even though the vampires have been at peace with us for years now, the humans still don't trust them. In fact, our relationship now could be said to be purely based on benefit.'

Khan looked at Arlo and spoke:

"I don't also know the specifics. As I said before, you are the first Ki cultivator I have met before. But I have heard that to temper your bones, all you have to do is dilute the mixtures in water and then place the part you want to temper in it. After that, you need to keep damaging that part until it is tempered...huh! What a torturous method!"

Khan looked at Arlo and spoke in worry:

"Are you sure you can handle this?"

Arlo was still a child, one that looked younger than ten. Khan doubted if he could handle such pain.

Arlo smiled with confidence, "I can!"

"O-Okay."

Arlo was excited after collecting all the materials he needed.

It had been a long time since he cultivated.

'I can finally grow stronger!'

In his excitement, he answered Khan's next question impassively.

"So what is your law affinity? Is it time?"

Khan judged appropriately from seeing Arlo's hair. But Arlo's reply rendered him speechless.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Khan asked with a raised voice pulling Arlo out of his excitement.

"I really don't know!"

Looking at Arlo, he frowned and spoke carefully:

"Don't you know that when you temper your bones, you need to use not only Ki but the essence of your law?"

Arlo widened his eyes in stupefaction.

Something suddenly clicked within his head.

He had been wondering why Old Bro never told him that he was yet to become a one-star warrior. If it wasn't for Scarlett and Rebecca, he wouldn't have known about bone tempering in the first place.

But now he understood.

Scarlett and Rebecca didn't know he had yet to connect with his laws.

Nobody except Old Bro knew.

'No, no, no, no!' Arlo clenched his fists in anger.

'I still can't cultivate?'