Hero of Darkness

Chapter 260: New Format

For the next upcoming days, the way of conducting business for the Bloodborne company changed a little bit and many rumors started spreading in the business world. 

News had leaked by some of the employees of the weapon manufacturing company that their owner, the peak grandmaster blacksmith Albestros Winston found a young and talented swordsman recently who is a prodigy of this generation. 

And the young man is participating in the Emperor’s Chosen competition as well. The peak grandmaster was so surprised and taken aback by his strength and skills that he decided to back up this young man for the ongoing competition and with his own hands, he made a rare set of Armor and Sword that could easily rival the best armors and swords in the whole empire. 

Albestros Winston himself called it the best work of his life so far. And if the occasion came, the young swordsman might use them during the fights of the upcoming rounds. 

As for the identity of the prodigy, no one knows about it but one thing is sure.. That the peak grandmaster greatly favors this young talent and wholeheartedly supports him. 

And if a situation arose, he wouldn’t even mind making an enemy of a powerful clan if they made things difficult for him. 

And unexpectedly, the news was spreading quickly not only to their circle of people but hundreds of clans and big enterprises. And many found the source of this information to be the people doing the shipments to organizations and clans who bought their weapons and armors from the Bloodborne company. 

With the employees who directly worked in the company and their different branches, the validity of this rumor was accounted for. 

Soon, this news also reached the ears of the influencing clans and even the saints who had been trying to commission this grandmaster blacksmith. This news also spread across the three factions because at the end of the day, someone like Albestros Winston personally doing his best to make a set of armor and sword was unheard of. 

Because even now, only a few top rank saints that were above 4th stage had been able to have their customized weapons and armors made by him and all of them had nothing but praise. 

And according to them, his work even excelled one of the other two grandmaster blacksmiths who was a dwarf and worked in this industry for 3 decades now. Thus, rising his popularity and demand drastically in just the past 3 months. 

Many other clans and organizations tried to persuade him to join their ranks but none of them succeeded despite trying every method. 

One clan’s saint warrior tried to forcefully make him accept his commission but he was later dealt with by nearly a dozen clans from the Pureblood Faction. 

These were the same people Kahn made deals with after they personally made a visit to their headquarters. And hence, no one dared to force their way on the old blacksmith. 

So whoever this prodigy was.. He already garnered the attention of some of the most powerful people of the empire and they all were interested to know how would the best work of this renowned blacksmith would look like. 

This gave them another reason to look forward to the Emperor’s Chosen competition that was halfway through its run. 

In a way.. This would also reflect on the popularity of this grandmaster as the other two grandmasters had already sided with particular clans and factions and made the armors and weapons for the chosen representatives by them. 

This would also be a fight to decide who was the best blacksmith in the entire Rakos Empire. 

—————-

As for Kahn himself… he had been preparing himself for the next round that would happen 4 days later and as per his plans that were carried out by the Bloodborne company that was spreading these rumors through official channels and the Seven Deadly Sins that was spreading this news among common folks throughout the Rukon district and nearby sections of the capital. 

Let it be a bar, a restaurant or some clothing shop.. They were using their established networks and chain of organizations that worked for them to spread this news rapidly so that soon, many people in the capital would know of this rumor. 

With time, it would be a known fact among the masses and when the right time came.. Kahn would reveal himself as someone with the backing from the grandmaster blacksmith himself. 

To the public, he would appear as one of the three horses chosen by the grandmasters running in a race. The one to win would also signify which grandmaster was better in terms of skills. 

And this move was useful to him because Kahn would be able to openly use the sword and the armor in the competition in the later rounds when the time came. 

And people won’t be foolish to directly target him as the news would already reach their inner circle. 

This was also a way for Kahn to let people marvel at the old man’s work, increasing Albestros’s popularity even more. 

For himself, this was a better alternative than appearing as a nameless nobody who was easy to pick on by the random street thugs. 

And Kahn was going to use it to the best of benefits. 

All that remained was the right time to reveal it when he was truly cornered. Like an ace up your sleeves. 

After three days, Kahn had to depart for a new city in a different district where the next round would be conducted. And this time.. 

There was going to be a new format and the scale of the competition as well as the people involved in it would be leagues above compared to how things had been faring before. 

As for the new format itself… Even Kahn had no choice but to start revealing his strength to everybody from here on. 

As the next round would cully the pretenders and reveal the real diamonds soon. 

Because the new format of the next round was… 

THE BATTLE ROYALE.