Birth Of The Crafts-God

The Blood Energy circulation, Materialization Technique, Blood Plundering Technique, and the Soul Dismantling Spell were the names of the four forbidden techniques.

The Blood Energy Circulation dealt with utilising the blood energy of the user.

The Materialization Technique enabled powerless humans to be able to draw the mystical energy within unique materials for their own use.

The Blood Plundering Technique was a modified version of the Blood Energy circulation, but it relied on alternative sources of blood energy apart from the user.

As for the Soul Dismantling Spell, it was a forbidden spell that could be used to absorb and decompose souls to form soul energy, an artificial mystical energy.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Of the four forbidden techniques, Lucas had only been using the Blood Energy Circulation and the Materialization Technique. Usually, he used either one, but for more powerful vestiges, Lucas would have to rely on both methods to cover up for his lack of stellar energy.

For instance, during the forging process of the gauntlets, Lucas had used the two forbidden techniques in tandem to create the vestige.

Looking at the blueprint on the work bench, Lucas sighed. Since he wanted to defeat everyone with one item, it had to be very powerful; at least on par with the gauntlets. But even making those was too difficult for Lucas.

When making vestiges, the importance of stellar energy was not to be underestimated. For some unique materials, they couldn't simply be melted or shaped by exposure to high heat. Stellar energy was also used in the quenching process, making the final product more durable.

In summary, stellar energy was used in a whole bunch of places during the vestige-smithing process. The more stellar energy one had, the easier the process and better the final product would be. This was because some of the processes in vestige-smithing couldn't be paused, so the vestige-smith wouldn't have the time to recover their stellar energy.

The higher the intended grade of the vestige, the more one would encounter such processes.

If the vestige-smith was forcefully stopped or used an inadequate amount of stellar energy in the process, probably due to being drained out, the quality of the vestige would be affected and it might even turn out to be a failure.

To avoid a failure during the forging process for the gauntlets, Lucas had spent eight hours just to melt the metals and twenty hours to create the form. That was the most intensive task he had ever taken ever since his death in his first life.

However, Lucas was currently lacking time. He had less than sixteen hours to work with, and this was with pulling an all-nighter. The only way Lucas could conclude before the deadline was if he used a different forbidden technique apart from those two.

'Should I pay some underground gangs a visit?' Lucas thought.

'Forget it. Security has been tight recently. I should have kept those corpses intact if I had known I would be doing this.'

Sighing, Lucas opened his communicator. After scouting the net for a while, he visited a certain site, and made an order.

"System, do you believe that there's such a thing as an evil technique?" Lucas suddenly asked.

After four seconds, the system responded,

"The system doesn't concern itself with such remarks. What matters in the end is the end goal."

"Hmm, I guess we're the same, but not at the same time." Lucas said.

"How so?" The system asked; a situation that rarely ever occurred.

Albeit slightly surprised, Lucas answered,

"I don't believe in evil techniques. A technique can only be called good or evil depending on what it is used for. Even good can be done for evil reasons."

"Isn't that the same?"

"No, my ideology differs from yours. You believe in the end goal, but not the principle. If I were to sacrifice innocent lives to forge the greatest vestige ever in order to save the world, the end goal would be achieved, but the act would still remain evil.

However, if I were to sacrifice criminals, or individuals who willingly give up their life for the cause, to achieve the same result, then the act would be more justified." Lucas answered.

"Isn't that hypocrisy? Isn't all life being equal a common belief of humanity?"

"All life should be equal, but unfortunately, all life is not equal. It's the same way a mother would value the life of her child over that of a stranger. In her heart, her child's life is of more value than the stranger's, and even hers." Lucas said with a strange tone, staring out in the air.

Less than an hour later, a hovercar appeared in front of the building. As it landed, a humanoid robot walked out with a form.

It glanced at Lucas and scanned his face at the same time to confirm his identity.

"Good evening, esteemed customer. Please sign here."

Lucas took the form and signed where necessary. After the robot confirmed the signatures, it went into the hovercar and carried out a few cages. There were four in total and inside them were desolate beasts.

West Wing district had the nickname of Freelancer city and this was due to the many businesses that catered to and supported by the freelancer community. The trade of desolate beasts was one such.

Desolate beasts had different physical and anatomical structures compared to hyumans, with some of them having bones as strong as metals and fireproof skin. Due to this, it was only natural that people would want to acquire their body parts, which was how most freelancers made their money. However, some enthusiasts wanted desolate beasts as pets, or might just want to have a taste of their meat.

As a result, a new career in freelancing was born, which was capturing young desolate beasts.

Young ones were targeted because once they matured, they would be at the Apertures Opening stage, and capturing a matured desolate beast, although not impossible, was quite difficult.

Two of the desolate beasts brought out looked like rabbits, but their appearance was more wild and ferocious. They had a pair of fangs with ears as long as a child's arm. On their feet were sharp talons that could year apart their earthly counterparts.

One of the remaining two desolate beasts looked like a crossbreed between a wolf and a lion. While standing on all fours, it surpassed the waist level of an average human adult. On the two hind legs, it could easily tower an adult. The lion-wolf desolate beast didn't only have a set of vicious fangs for teeth, but it exuded a bloodthirsty aura even in captivity.

Its crimson eyes stared at Lucas like a beast eyeing a prey. There was no doubt that once the cage was opened, it would pounce on him right away.

The final desolate beast was a viper-like monster, and unlike the other three, it looked docile. However, Lucas knew better than to treat it as harmless. Of the three types of desolate beasts, the snake was the most dangerous.

This was because while the other two were termed desolate beasts, they were younglings and below the Apertures Opening stage. However, the snake was closely approaching that level. One could even say that it was equivalent to a peak Body Strengthening stage practitioner who just needed a slight push.

Thanks to his sensitive soul, Lucas could 'see' that the snake had already accumulated almost enough stellar energy to break through. It was a suitable offering for the forbidden techniques.

'Good thing there's no such thing as animal cruelty for desolate beasts, otherwise I would have my store shut down.'

Lucas thought as recalled his past life on Earth where a certain animal-lovers organisation constantly hampered down on people. Although their goal was a respectable one, they tend to take things too far, even at the cost of harming other humans.

With the purchase of four desolate beasts, Lucas' newly acquired wealth had dwindled considerably. Desolate beasts, even if they were young and of the lowest grade species, cost a lot. However, these expenses were necessary for what he wanted to do.