!!!!! Pr Credits To [Peter1765
Who Help With SR chapters, Please take the time to rep them for their work :)
This chapter was pred by peter alone i simply gave it a gloss over, so go easy on the guy as well as me :( that being said any mistakes that ruin the story please pm/comment below.
i'm incredibly tired right now and its only 11:00pm the joys of a sleep schedule. regarding people Pming me i will take a look when i'm not so tired.
Off to bed p.s i'l have 156/157 ready by the end of the weekend to finally clear the queue .
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“If you’re here to cause trouble I will have to ask you to leave quietly…” Calomia didn't want to make things worse or cause trouble for Avrin so she spoke in a not so friendly yet not offensive tone. Meutin glanced at her carefully and gave a rigid hmph! Galum's eyes narrowed somewhat as he softly laughed before shrugging and replying; “Trouble? No trouble we were just stating the truth, we of the Artificer Consortium have been affected by your business’s cheap imitations... is it fine for us who are in the right, who put our heart and soul into a product, to simply sit by and let those people who create fakes and worthless pieces of trash ruin our line of work?”
Calomia's heart stirred with anger, her wrinkled face narrowed as her right hand tightening on the head of the cane Avrin had given her. When it came to this she didn't have much knowledge about the subject but than again she also wasn't dumb, she glanced around to notice the sceptical worried looks from the new customers that had come in and had been waiting for quite awhile, the customers who had been with them for several months knew that their products were the real deal but no one dared to speak out and make an enemy of the Artificer Consortium, especially considering Galum and he's mentor were present.
“Do you have proof that our products are cheap imitations and worthless?” Calomia thought of a simple method, though she never expected that Meutin would softly laugh he's beard shaking slightly as he pulled out the dagger Avrin had given him, it was broken in two pieces with cracks that looked like it had been smashed against a tougher blade, the broken blade head was emitting a weak glow of the same metallic lustre as well as the bottom half of the remaining blade portion and the hilt giving the same weakened glow.
“I myself was quite fascinated with your store's products and decided to test it against one of my own. As you can see the result was not so good....but I'm sure everyone here may have some doubts, so lord Malvin if you will...”
Malvin the man who was Galum's teacher gave no expression as he reached out and pulled out a second dark sigil ring they had managed to coerce someone into selling, he then spoke. “Trigger short sword.” With that, the ring emitted a faint pulse before reforming into a short sword identical to the others that people purchase, everyone wasn't sure what was going on but they knew it was the Artificer Consortium's way of ruining the reputation of a small-time rival.
Malvin then reached into his side and unsheathed a blade no smaller than the dark matter short sword, while holding it up he spoke out. “Ladies and gentlemen as you can see this product is one of our specialities the Zircon silver blade, an uncommon level weapon matched with another uncommon weapon that comes from this store, of course, it would be impossible to mimic this stores methods of creating a sigil weapon by the looks of it, meaning that creating a fake would also be impossible!”
Calomia shook with anger as she glanced at them silently. “-these bastards...they are using Avrin's unique method against him...they must have planned well...such snakes..-”
Malvin then grinned before his arms tensed, with a quick motion he skillfully crisscrossed slashed the two blades against each other both colliding the collision causing the air to split and crack before the sound of metal shattering echoed across the hall. Shards of dark matter spread out across the room some even hitting people, though Malvin was quick to speak. “Please remain calm! As you can see this weapon from shaded moon is quite volatile and unsafe...it seems once it's broken which can be done so easily it will explode into shards that can damage your allies around you....if you want to be mad at someone well you are in the culprits home base...they are selling you a product that is very dangerous....”
Meutin gave a grin as he listened to Malvin speak, of course they couldn't fault the dark frost mine enough to make it bad for The Shaded Moon, but they could do their best at to ruin their reputation when it came to sigil weapons, he had felt it would be enough to get them away from that business and even ruin their reputation, it may even possibly lead Meutin to a good chance to force the method of creation from Avrin or incite violence.
Calomia backed away as she gave an aged shout from pain, several of the shards had hit her face and she tumbled back weakly and fell to the floor. When she managed to stand up again feeling her entire body was sore she could see the looks of The Shaded Moon's so-called customers, of course, what she didn't expect was that some of these people were planted by the consortium.
“D..damn you Shaded Moon bastards... are you trying to sell us weapons or tickets to hell!...” one of the Consortium's agents spoke while another frowned and replied. “I agree!! And to think I was going to buy a few weapons from you using my hard earned lucent crystals...how can you lot have the heart to treat us hard working adventurers so badly!”
With a few more speaking the entire lobby was in a slight uproar, people began to stand up and prepare to leave. Of course, the smarter customers simply did nothing but enjoy the show or inwardly curse at the Consortium for trying to ruin their chances at being big. After all, it wasn't a secret anymore that they picked The Shaded Moon over the Consortium. If The Shaded Moon did badly, then when they went out of business it would make transitioning to the Consortium much more difficult and they would probably have to pay much more.
“Y..you!!...” Calomia was shaking with anger her body hurt and her heart was filled with fury, her face was bleeding from the shards that had hit her they didn't even bother to warn her, of course for Galum and Meutin the shards were not a big deal at their level.
“Grandma you're bleeding!!” Ilisia came running back up the steps and rushed over worryingly to Calomia glancing at her with a heavy look of worry. “Who hurt you!!” her eyes were filled with tears as her anger grew; She glanced around before looking at the three in front of the desk. “Was it you three?... I'll kill you!!!”
Ilisia truly felt an attachment to her grandma that had raised her since she was a baby; She didn't have anyone but her even more then Avrin who she hadn't known as long, she pulled out one of the sigil rings and roared out. “Trigger dagger!!” while the dagger formed in her hand she rushed towards Malvin who was now 2 meters away and stabbed forward. Of Course, to Malvin her movements were quite slow, so he quickly spoke out.
“You all see this I am just defending myself!” he said as he raised his right hand and punched towards her with no intention of holding back, she was his Consortium's enemy and therefore his enemy, mercy wouldn't be given.
“Stupid child get back!!” Calomia screamed out in fear as she saw Malvin about to punch forward. Ilisia trembled as she had a terrible feeling she stopped a meter away but Malvin simply grinned before punching forward like a mini rocket causing the air to tremble.
The onlookers were truly stunned the child clearly stopped but he intended to still punch forward they all felt this was a disgusting act for someone on his level. “Defending yourself is fine, but trying to kill a child who simply acted on instinct with no mercy given...your quite shameful”
A thump sounded out as Malvin's fist collided against the stomach of a figure, the figure didn't budge an inch as if he were an immovable object, though the sound of bones cracking could be heard between the three as well as Ilisia and the figure that appeared, Malvin suddenly roared out in pain as he pulled his fist back and stumbled backwards, his entire right fist was broken, the situation would be a normal human punching a rock the outcome would not be good.
The figure he had punched was, of course, Avrin. Although Avrin wanted nothing more than to kill these three but he knew it would do more harm than good. So he deciding to control himself, he remained calm. Y..you... how dare you attack me!!” Malvin spoke as he glanced at Avrin with eyes full of rage.
Avrin simply shrugged with his hands somewhat extended, one couldn't see his expression behind the mask he wore. “Attack you?... I simply stood here and your fist hit me, I didn't do anything, it isn't my fault you’re so damn weak, who exactly is attacking who?”
The commotion that occurred made those who were about to leave suddenly stay and look with shock and awe at the situation going down. Meutin seeing Avrin furrowed his brows. “Are you trying to pick a fight with our Consortium... who are you?...”
Avrin turned to glance at Meutin then at Galum who was currently pale with fright and trembling with fear. He ignored Meutin and pointed to Galum. “I'm quite sure you told me that I was not going to see you again. Maybe I was to lenient... as for who I am, I'm the owner of Shaded Moon the business you three are slandering with false evidence!.”
Meutin was stunned as he was ignored so easily by Avrin, though when he looked at Galum and saw his frightful look and how casually Avrin was speaking to him, Meutin felt things weren't as they seemed, he had a bad feeling about this, though he couldn't give up. Since the boss of Shaded Moon was here he needed to make the best out of the situation. “False evidence... how dare you!... in front of everyone we showed how flimsy your product is and how volatile it is!!”
“Flimsy?...” Avrin grinned and looked at Avrin with a soft chuckled before walking away from the small group ignoring Malvin who held his fist and was exercising control with a deep hatred for Avrin and caution. “Ladies and gentlemen. “ Avrin spoke just like Malvin had before. “Since the first sale of my sigil weapon until now, not one has been returned for repairs... that is evidence towards its durability... secondly this allows me the chance to show you all a feature...
Avrin walked over and picked up one of the shards of dark matter as he glanced at it, he smirked and spoke. “Trigger re-forge.” with that the shard pulsed, this pulse caused every other shard that had broken apart to tremble and turn to ash before shooting towards that one shard.
This scene was remarkable in the way that no one knew what was going on, once a weapon was broken it was useless for anything but scrap metal, but right now something astounding was happening, Meutin who was glancing at this was not sure what to think of the situation but he had a bad feeling.
After a few moments, a mass of dark matter was condensing in Avrin's hand formed from the shards that had been broken and spread from Malvin breaking the weapon. The mass of dark matter soon condensed into the shape of a ring, of course within the centre was the haze crystal, lucent crystals themselves were incredibly tough and durable nearly impossible to break. Only someone at the mythical level and higher could break lucent crystals.
With the ring reforged in front of everyone who gazed dumbfoundedly, Avrin spoke. “Trigger short sword.” the ring reshaped into the same weapon that Malvin had broken before it looked as if it were in perfect shape, of course, the repair would need quite a bit of dark matter which in turn needed mana.
“Reforging a broken dark sigil weapon requires a bit of patience and mana, of course because of my level I can feed it my own to speed up the process, though for others it may take a few hours or a day at most, it surely beats spending more on repairs and sending it off when you need it most...as for the durability...it seems that earlier this weapon was tampered with... it was on the verge of breaking. Most likely it underwent harsh treatment before a final blow broke it...the only thing that could do this would be a weapon of a higher level.”
People began to speak again, they truly were confused as to what to think of the situation, on one side Meutin said Avrin's products were flimsy on the other Avrin clearly showed the weapon could reforge itself after being broken which meant flimsy or not it didn't make a difference.
“You....are you saying that we did something to your weapon?...in front of everyone's eyes we used a weapon of equal rarity against it and your cheap product lost out...how can you even have the guts to speak out after this!!” Meutin shouted out and pointed at Avrin.
“Equal rarity?....very well since you tested your product against yours... wouldn't it be fair that in front of everyone I test my product against yours this time? Surely you wouldn't find this any issue. In fact, if the same situation repeats itself I will refund everyone's lucent crystals and shut down The Shaded Moon, I will bet everything on this.”
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Meutin frowned and was about to speak but when he looked at everyone glancing at him he knew he needed to be careful, there were many people here who had connections if he said no it meant he would have done something to it and they wouldn't believe him. He clenched his aged teeth, he tried to think of a way out of this. “Such nerve! You still doubt our Artificer Consortium's reputation!! We have existed for many years and built up a high standard, do you think we enjoy seeing others try and steal our work with fakes?”
Avrin smirked before glancing at everyone present. “Clearly, they are worried about being proven wrong surely the mighty consortium will humour me. After all, I am gambling my life while they think they have the right to come here and slander me before leaving...”
Some of the tougher mercenaries couldn't take it anymore one short haired muscular one resembling a barbarian stood up and shouted out. “Just go with the damn test!!! Can't you see the man is risking his life's work on this!! And you Consortium bastards won't do this small task?!!”
Another mercenary an average looking female with a few scars on her face and a band around her head shouted out as well. “We are the customers and we demand to see both sides given a fair view! Let the man do his test!! We deserve the best prices and treatment I would die before going to the Artificer Consortium's branch again without seeing all the evidence first!!”
She roared out, she herself was gambling on this. Many more started to rise up and shout out in agreement. In the end, Malvin's face twisted as his aura surged out, he was much stronger than the rest and when they all felt it they trembled and remained quiet. “All of you watch....” Malvin spoke as he used his uninjured hand to pull out the zircon silver short sword. “Our Artificer Consortium boasts quality and assurance...how can a fake withstand our products!!”
Galum nervously looked at Malvin and spoke. “Lord mentor...please reconsider this....it's a bad idea...that man is dangerous his the...” Galum was interrupted by Meutin who spoke without a hushed tone. “Very well...you want to have a test very well....lord Malvin will attack you...and you will attack him...the superior product will always make its wielder the superior warrior...” Meutin's sense of view in regards to combat surely was twisted it made Avrin cringe somewhat but he did not decline.
“Very well... make your move child beater..” Avrin taunted with a smug grin on his face, his provocation of Malvin was simple and effective, Malvin had been building up the silent anger in his heart for his fist breaking against Avrin, he felt it was a trick or method and he wanted a chance to redeem this stain he felt was made, unable to control himself anymore he dashed forward causing the tile he was under to crack and smash apart as he dashed forward like a taunted lion towards Avrin with the same zircon silver blade he had used to break the dark matter sigil weapon. “Look carefully everyone....see for yourself if this is fake.” Avrin gripped the dark matter sigil weapon in his hand, and as Malvin slashed down towards Avrin not even bothering to go for the weapon he had but for Avrin himself with intent to kill Avrin's sword hand flickered for an instant.
There was no sound of shattering or anything of the like, only a moment went by before the sound of metal clanging against the floor as if it were drop could be heard, a perfectly cut blade head was flat on the surface of the tiles with the end bit cut perfectly.
Malvin's hand was holding the hilt of his weapon as his motion showed his hand and the blade pointed towards the ground after his slash motion, of course when he glanced at his weapon he saw it was missing half of the blade, he was stunned and glanced at the blade for a moment. The entire lobby area was quiet no one was sure what had happened, they simply just saw Malvin slash down towards Avrin and the blade suddenly losing half of its length.
Malvin glanced at Avrin on instinct and saw the glowing blue eyes behind the mask glance back at him, not filled with disdain but the desire to simply kill him, Malvin felt this intent to kill it made him tremble, it was as if he was caught in an ocean's current during a storm and was unable to surface, he dropped to his knees as he began to sweat.
Of Course, Avrin who expected this was the calmest. “Well... we were planning to test weapons... but it seems the consortium's weapons themselves are so flimsy they can't even take a swing hahahaha...” Avrin's words set off a reaction, the mercenary leaders who had went all in with him also quickly went in on this. “Look at you Consortium freaks... how can you say that shaded moons weapons are of bad quality when it's as Mr. Avrin said... your weapons can't handle a simple swing!” the large barbarian like mercenary called out.
Many others began to speak out while the ones hired by the consortium tried to quickly think of a way to refute this. “You... we aren't done yet... you used a trick... our weapons are of the highest quality! Lord Malvin stop messing about if you please!” Meutin shouted out his old vocal cords sounding broken.
Malvin who felt Avrin's intent vanish trembled with anger, he had never been so humiliated before in his life. “You... think you're superior to us...!! ...than me?!!” he shouted out before he quickly unsheathed another weapon, this weapon was of higher quality it was a rare weapon the Consortium specially designed for high paying buyers, the blade was curved slightly and was a misty green colour, on the back of the blade it had a leather sort of covering, the materials used for this were a special nature attuned metal that started off as an acorn within a special rare tree from their headquarters the acorn would then be placed inside another tree to which it would absorb the nature energy until the tree died, from there it would be moved from tree to tree until the centre of the acorn formed a clump of metal from the accumulated energy. The leathery part was made from the hide of a bull creature that appeared like a lizard a grandmaster creature the woodland impaler.
Avrin knew this level of weapon was the only legitimate way it could cause trouble for his uncommon level sigil weapons, he knew that before they had weakened his blade through by cheap methods before bringing it to The Shaded Moon to break, he simply frowned he didn't want to go too far and repeat the same method before, this time as Malvin glanced at him with red eyes of hatred and moved forward with no intention of holding back, as he clearly wanted to butcher Avrin. Avrin's hand moved again. But this time, it was visible enough for everyone to see so no doubts would be given.
The blades collided with several sparks shooting out, Avrin wanted everyone to clearly see his weapon was capable. “Incredible...if I recall correctly Malvin's weapon is one of the Consortium's rare products a nature scimitar... such a bizarre scene, that the dark sigil weapon that Mr. Avrin reforged is able to hold it off... lord Malvin is a grand master... surely his strength with a rare quality weapon would break a weapon of lower quality... but it seems as if the weapon quality of lord Avrin's is no less....”
One of the mercenary leaders who was quiet before finally spoke out, he wanted to take a neutral stance until now that is, as he glanced at the scene he was dumbfounded yet excited because Meutin's claims about Shaded Moon were put to rest.
“That isn't all... look at Mr. Avrin!... he isn't breaking a sweat at all he hasn't budged a bit since clashing against lord Malvin... his strength must truly be something... it's as if he is treating lord Malvin like a child!” the female mercenary leader spoke up again with fascination.
Meutin's wooden stave like cane was clutched tightly within his wrinkled right hand to the point where the hand was pale from him clutching it too tightly. “This is impossible...” Meutin was stunned as he glanced at Malvin slash away towards Avrin like an angered infant having a tantrum, it didn't matter what skill or ability he used to try and attack Avrin's open guard, every time his blade neared it would be deflected or blocked by Avrin's dark matter sigil weapon with no effort at all.
“Why won't you die!!” Malvin roared out to Avrin, who loved these situations the most because it meant he could take control. “While this young man runs out of steam... I hope you all can see that my weapons ability is no less than that of the Consortium's. In fact, it seems they are going as far as to use a rare weapon against my weapon of uncommon quality and I am still able to easily hold out... this is evidence that they must have used some dirty method to weaken my product beforehand... how would I dare sell cheap products to everyone... wouldn't that mean that all my effort in establishing a name for myself in the future would be in vain?”
Avrin did his best to speak in a clear concise manner with words that made sense. Of course, that he was fighting while speaking in a casual manner stunned many spectators; Because, wasn't he fighting an individual who was a renown lord and grandmaster that wanted to kill him? Yet he could easily block and parry as well as think carefully on his words.
“Amazing!” one mercenary laughed out, and another, of course, followed suit. “I knew Mr. Avrin's products were of high quality... I have to thank these Consortium fellows if it wasn't for today I wouldn't have known that with a simple word we could reforge our broken dark sigil weapons as well as see with our own eyes that Mr. Avrin's weapons can match up against a rare quality weapon of theirs!”
Everyone speaking were those leaders of the groups who either took a neutral stance or who sided with Avrin and would lose a lot if the Consortium gained this victory. Eventually, Malvin jumped back as he panted for breath glancing at Avrin with no more anger but a worrying fear, he felt Avrin could kill him whenever yet he treated him as such.
Meutin glanced at Malvin and then at Avrin. “This... you dare to make a mockery out of our Consortium!.” Meutin seemed to be quite angry himself, his plans that he carefully plotted had gone down the drain and now Avrin had so effortlessly turned them into the villains.
“If you three are done, you can leave now. Also never return....you are not welcome in this store as well as my land anymore...” Avrin's words were like hot steel being smacked against Malvin and Meutin's faces, red with anger and being made a show of Meutin was going to speak but Galum walked closer to him and whispered.
“Senior Meutin... I ... I believe we should be careful... this Avrin fellow can surely kill us... not even my master could hold up to him... maybe its best if we leave...” Galum who experienced Avrin's ferocity before didn't want to take a chance especially since he told Avrin they wouldn't meet again.
“Are you siding with him now?... hmph... though... this matter seems larger than I thought... hmph!... Malvin... let's... return..” Meutin spoke his sentence reluctantly as he was grinding his teeth together.
Malvin of course who was exhausted and experiencing many dangerous emotions as well as had a broken hand was trembling with anger and fear as he looked at Avrin glance casually at him. “This isn't over...” he mumbled before sheathing his weapon he turned and walked over towards Meutin who glanced around at everyone here it seemed he had one more plan install.
“Those of you who follow me now regardless if you had joined this Shaded Moon or not in the past, follow me now and not only will you be forgiven....you will be given a permanent 40% off all purchases otherwise those who don't will be banned permanently from any Consortium branch and affiliated stores!”
Avrin's eyes narrowed as he smirked. “-sly old dog-” he thought. He could see Meutin wanted to salvage the situation, and as he saw the three walk out he spotted several reluctant and happy mercenaries who were definitely hired by him follow Meutin, Malvin and Galum out, a total of 16 people left leaving Avrin with this situation.
“-you made me your public enemy, I no longer need to hold back...watch me run you out of this region-” Avrin was concocting up a scheme to ruin the Consortium's branch within this region, to him they only did harm with no good.
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Avrin's Inner Workings Status
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Dark Stage Control ParticlesType 12100%Dark Stage ParticlesType 12100%God Essence WeaponsAstaroth-ScytheLimos-VajraGod Essence EquipmentSarcanus-Armor