Birth Of The Crafts-God

Going back a while ago...

"So what about the men that came into the store a while back? Are they gone?" Nafir asked Lucas as he stared at him.

Lucas already knew that Nafir was using his special lie detection technique, but he wasn't worried about it. The Host Protection Mechanism of the store automatically blocked out all mental arts from affecting him. The issue however, was in the HPM.

The Host Protection Mechanism didn't block out attacks but absorbed them, just like a sponge would absorb water. This led to a situation where the attacker wouldn't feel any feedback from their attack. In the case of Nafir and his mental spell, receiving no feedback, even if it was a rebound, would give rise to suspicions and this wouldn't bode well for Lucas.

As Lucas was unable to create a false impression for the technique to perceive, he had to figure something out quickly. Otherwise, once Nafir noticed something strange, he would have a suspicious inkling that Lucas could avoid his technique. This would then lead to him presuming that the results of the interrogation at the Red Fangs base station, might have all been tweaked to Lucas' advantage.

'I hope this works. Deactivate HPM's active state.' Lucas gave the command.

He usually had the active mode turned on all the time, but Lucas decided to switch it off for now. The passive mode was still there to protect him though.

"Hmm. They did arrive at the store, but they're gone now." Lucas responded with a calm demeanour.

By switching off the HPM's active mode, Lucas could reduce the obstruction of the technique. Through mixing the truth with lies, he wagered that he could deceive Nafir. As for whether it would be successful or not, only Nafir could say.

After a short second, Nafir nodded at Lucas. His face was still the same, preventing Lucas from knowing the results.

"By the way, I shouldn't be telling you this but a problem recently cropped up. Normally, we have some guards stationed close to you, but we had to call them back for an emergency, which led to this." Barry, who stood on the side said.

"And, what's that about?" Lucas asked nonchalantly. He truly wasn't interested in the conversation, as he wanted nothing more than for them to leave the store.

Barry ignored Lucas' attitude and continued, "Terrorists have been spotted close to the city, with their target being the Bayena Plain. According to our info, this happens to also be the test venue of a group of high school students. If I'm correct, they should students of Greendale Highschool, an impressive institution with good standards.

There's also been a weird space break there and the monsters are going out of control. To prevent more lives from being lost, the Red Fangs had to call up everyone nearby including the men who watched you in secret."

Lucas froze and couldn't respond at all. His face was still the same bland look, but deep inside, Lucas' mind was in turmoil.

Terrorists. Greendale Highschool.

'Wasn't that the name of Wally's school?' Lucas was stunned and couldn't believe what was happening.

"Why are you telling me this?" Lucas stared at Barry.

"From the information we've got, it seems you had some dealings with a student from the academy. This happens to be his final year in campus, so he's one of the test-takers at the moment. His life could potentially be at risk any moment from now, so we decided to give you a heads up just in case he doesn't make it out alive." Barry explained.

"I guess that makes sense, but I'm not like his parents or anything. I also can't exactly do anything about it. Civilian security is meant to be provided by you guys. Since the opponent is a terrorist, they will be an Apertures Opening stage practitioner and as you may already know, I'm only at the Body Strengthening stage.

I feel this information may be a little needless to me." Lucas expressed as he just shrugged his shoulders.

"True. You do have a point there. Well then, sorry for disturbing you. We'll be on our way." Nafir said before leaving the store with Barry.

After they left, Lucas still remained seated. He took out his tablet and calmly scrolled through it for a few minutes.

'System?'

"Clear." The system's voice resounded in his head.

Lucas sighed before his face suddenly contorted.

"Why didn't you tell me about Wally?" Lucas grimaced.

In Lucas' opinion, the system was an existence that bordered the term 'all-knowing and all-seeing'. It was nigh omniscient and omnipotent as it was able to spot him out of billions of living beings and have him transmigrated not once, but twice.

That wasn't something even the Dragon King could pull off; and this was a creature who exceeded many of the strongest Grand Archmages in terms of both power, knowledge and spells.

Lucas firmly believed that the system knew about Wally's current situation as the latter was an important customer, yet failed to notify him.

"The system is created to train the host to become the next Crafts-God. As such, matters deemed unnecessary to this will be automatically sidelined by the system." The system's emotionless voice sounded, a bit cold to Lucas' ears.

"Even if it's related to a customer?" Lucas' response came, even colder than the system's tone.

Truthfully, to Lucas, Wally wasn't just a customer. In Wally, Lucas could see an old friend of his, one of the few people he had met during his lowest times in his first life.

Back when he lived the life of Yohan, Lucas was an orphan who lived more than seven years on the streets and the mountains. To survive, he would beg, go through trash, or even steal from merchants. On one such occasion, Yohan had tried stealing from a baker's stall, but was caught by the baker's son, a young kid of the same age as the young Yohan.

The kid looked a bit pale, but was slightly healthier than Yohan, which was strange as the latter was an orphaned beggar while the former was the son of a baker.

At first, the young boy chased after Yohan for the bread, barely catching up to him and engaging in a fight. But in the midst of their tussle, he lost to Yohan before he ended up crying. However, Yohan didn't get away entirely as the bread was broken and covered in gravel. Nonetheless, being literally dirt-poor, he still picked it up and ate.

The young boy was slightly astonished by this, and holding back his tears, he questioned Yohan why he ate it, to which Yohan replied, "I don't have a choice like you do".

That intriguing encounter became the start of a friendship between these two young boys.