CHAPTER 370: HE NEEDED TO STOP THIS AT ALL COSTS!

The master smith’s eyes reddened. The fucking bastard was spouting nonsense. He was simply going too far!

Everyone had already witnessed how Leonel’s blade was superior to his. Now, how did it matter who said what? In which delusional world would this be his win? The result of the duel was already crystal clear to every fucking moron in the room! He had lost, and Leonel had won!

And yet this guy dared to joke in this manner.

"Shut up! You switched the materials! Admit it!" He shouted again. This time, Damon did not have to respond. The crowd started murmuring loudly, several students speaking out.

"Switched the materials?" one apprentice muttered under his breath. "But we all saw him use the same ingots we did..."

"Yeah," another whispered, voice trembling. "He never touched anything different. I... I brought him the iron myself."

The master smith’s eyes darted wildly, searching for some foothold, some thread of control to pull on, but the more he shouted, the more the apprentices seemed to recoil, not from Damon, but from him.

Under the fiery glow of Leonel’s blade, his perfect sword suddenly looked cold, lifeless, and hollow, and he had nowhere to hide from this truth.

The apprentices shifted uneasily, glancing at one another, at the master’s twisted face, and then back to the glowing sword that defied every rule they had been taught. Finally, one of the bolder apprentices swallowed hard and stepped forward.

"Master, why don’t we test what ore has been used?"

The master smith’s head snapped toward him, eyes bulging. "You dare question me?! Why do you need a test? My words are proof enough!"

His roar echoed off the forge walls, but the boy did not back down. Others, emboldened, began to murmur in agreement.

"He’s right... We should test it."

"Yes, that will end the doubts once and for all."

"If the master is right, then what’s there to fear?"

The master smith’s face turned further unsightly. If they tested it, then he would no longer be able to explain this. He was about to open his mouth and shut all this down when Damon laughed loudly and overtook him. "There is no need. Like I said before, we admit. We have lost."

Damon was simply short on time. He could give two shits about this win. What he wanted was already achieved, and now it was time to wrap things up.

He no longer paid attention to the crowd or the enraged master smith standing next to him and shouting. His complete focus was on Leonel. He opened up his system interface and sent an official recruitment contract to the guy.

A translucent contract window flickered into existence, its crimson border glowing ominously as he slid it across toward Leonel. It was a simple contract, stating a contract of 5 years and a generous salary of 100 gold coins per month.

A normal smith would only earn about ten to fifteen gold coins a month, even after years of experience and steady work under a recognized guild. For apprentices like Leonel, dropouts branded as failures, five gold coins would have been considered generous, charity even.

But to simply give 100 gold coins? That was just ridiculous!

Leonel, still trembling, his face pale and eyes downcast, blinked at the projection that appeared before him. His lips parted, but no sound came out.

He had expected more ridicule, more punishment. Instead, what stood before him was something he had never once imagined, an official recruitment contract. That too something that he wouldn’t even dare imagine in his dreams!

He swallowed hard, glancing at Damon. The man hadn’t said a word aloud, even after tossing out something like this casually.

A system contract like this was not simple. There was no way this could be a lie. In fact, the system would have already detected the gold coins required for the entire term from him. How many gold coins was that even?

Leonel’s mind went blank.

Seeing him stare like a deer at headlights, Damon finally decided to say something.

"I believe in you. I think this is just the beginning of what you can actually accomplish. This is just a standard system contract. Don’t think too much about it. Whenever you feel like you don’t want to continue working for me anymore, you can always quit. If you need more compensation, just tell me. We can work something out."

More compensation? Leonel gasped. His whole body trembled as if he were standing on the edge of a cliff.

The apprentices stared in stunned silence. "He’s recruiting him? That dropout?"

The master smith’s face twisted into something ugly. He started panicking more. Losing or winning in this stupid duel was one thing. He could even somehow make it so that no one ever spreads a word of this, but if he actually allowed someone to recruit the guy?!!

The consequences would be dire! He needed to stop this at all costs!

"Don’t you dare, Leonel! You worthless rat! Do you think you can just walk away after all the years I wasted trying to hammer talent into you? You will never belong anywhere but under my boot! Only then would you have the smallest chance of becoming something. Don’t ever forget that!"

But Leonel wasn’t looking at him anymore. For the first time, his gaze lifted from the ground and locked onto Damon. Slowly, haltingly, Leonel raised his shaking hand toward the contract window. He gulped and then accepted it.

Damon grinned. His work here was done. He had actually managed to bag one of the three prodigies the entire continent was going to celebrate in the future. Now about the rest...

He chuckled as he turned around to face the audience. Thanks to the fame of the fraud, quite a bit of crowd had gathered in the huge lecture hall.

Damon’s eyes swept past all of them as he boldly declared.

"Leonel has accepted my offer. I am going to give this same opportunity to every single one of you labelled by this man as failures. This is your second chance. Don’t let this slip through your fingers. Second chances do not come around often." He smiled.

***

Mass release sponsored by Syphatrol