Birth Of The Crafts-God-Chapter 298: The Genius Melissa

The next day came around and Lucas was greeted with a message from Vienna. The message was a request from Vienna asking whether Lucas was available to take on the position of the department head of the Designs and Energy department, while also handling the roles of the Material manufacturing and, Simulation and Testing departments as well.

In the message, Vienna stated that she was aware that Lucas ran a store of his own, as such, he wouldn't be required to respond to the Versoa team every day and could even work from home. During this period, he would be compensated with the salary of the roles of three departments, with the latter two —which he took on temporarily— being at sixty percent. This was because the two departments wouldn't necessarily be functioning during this period, and Lucas was simply to take on the role as an emergency operative. And the pay was extraordinarily good. It was enough for Lucas to live a lavish lifestyle every week, after all, it was the salary from three different leading roles.

"With this, I can buy the Visten 178 Steel." Lucas' eyes brightened as he rubbed his hands with a lecherous grin on his face.

That was a material Lucas had lusted after for so long, but it was too costly. The metal was an imported element from the neighbouring planet, Doma. It was produced by the Vara species of the winged anthropoid race, and it was known for its flexibility and ductility.

Although he has more on his plate now, Lucas was unaffected by this. Apart from appearing once or twice a week at the team's headquarters and making a few slight adjustments to the Viper, there wasn't really much for him to do.

"Hmm? What's this?"

Getting to the latter half of the message, Lucas noticed that Vienna talked a bit about the Versoa Team Co's situation, including their current lack of a driver. The next race was in two days, and if they still couldn't find a new driver, they would have to abandon the rally.

Lucas glanced briefly at it but didn't think too much. For one, he was a vestige-smith and not a racer.

Drift racing wasn't something just anyone could pick up simply because they wanted to.

There was a ton of training and preparation and practice put into it. Also, every drift racer needed to be a stellar practitioner. This requirement was necessary as stellar engines required the aid of a stellar practitioner to reach their true full potential. Being a stellar practitioner also makes controlling the vehicle easier as every practitioner had better reflexes and response times than an average hyuman.

Instead of worrying about something that was beyond his reach, Lucas set his sights on the mission he received the previous day. It was a daunting mission that could potentially be filled with risks. There was no mission given to Lucas the system, with the requirement of leaving the house, that ended peacefully. It was almost as if the system's missions were all purposely reeked with havoc and dangers. As an experienced host, there was no way Lucas would presume that this mission was an easy ride. Hence, the need to make proper preparation for it.

"Big brother, take a look."

Melissa brought a sheath to Lucas who sat behind the checkout counter.

The sheath was aquamarine blue and had a metallic sheen. While the craftsmanship of the dagger was slightly lacking, it was compensated by the adequate adornment skill of the craftsmanship. By using unique materials that gave off an impressive glow, the craftsmanship had created an excellent piece of work that was not only attractive to the eyes, but could be termed as a true work of art. At the length of thirty centimetres, it was quite obvious that this was a sheath meant for a dagger.

"It's nice." Lucas replied as he ruffled Melissa's head with a smile.

Recently, Lucas had decided to give Melissa more practical training in vestige-smithing. Even though she was only eleven years old, Melissa was very intelligent and mature for her age. What took a grown-up vestige-smith apprentice months to learn, she managed to get it down within two months.

Even though there was still a lot in theory for her to learn, it would be difficult for Melissa to understand those concepts without a bit of hands-on experience when it came to vestige-smithing. As a result, Lucas decided it was time for her to get that experience. However, he only started out by making her craft simpler and less dangerous crafts; vestiges were out of the discussion as Melissa needed to start out with blacksmithing and leather smithing first. Even so, Melissa was very happy to be doing so. She didn't find it tiring or stressful, but was in love with the task especially since it was taught to her by her big brother.

At first, Lucas didn't think much about the scabbard, but when he took a closer look at it, he was surprised. It was Melissa's third work, but it didn't look like something made by a total amateur. Even though he already knew Melissa was a genius, the level of skill displayed in this scabbard was just incredible. For a moment, it could almost be confused as the work of a professional blacksmith.

'At this rate, it would only take her a few more weeks and practice to begin vestige-smithing.' Lucas said while staring at Melissa with his emotions all over the place. He was both happy for her but also a bit, envious.

Even though Lucas was called a genius back in his first world, hard work played a considerable part of his life. He wasn't a genius in the sense that he had the perfect talent, best control over mana or anything like this. Lucas just had the incredible ability to understand things easier and faster than others. On the other hand, Melissa didn't just understand things faster, but she also had the innate ability to manipulate stellar energy better than most, could grow stronger without even consciously practicing, and also had the passion for the craft. She was much better than Lucas in many aspects.

"Take heart, host. I won't leave you." The system comforted him with a seemingly sarcastic tone.

"I wasn't even thinking of that." Lucas snorted at the system's words.

He wasn't the type to get jealous and want to ruin someone's potential. Lucas simply just felt that life was somewhat unfair, but he didn't let it get to him. Even in his first life, he had encountered people more talented than him, but in the end, Lucas was the only one to become a Grandmaster.

. . .

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Two weeks might seem like a lot of time but before he knew it, the thirteen days were gone and it was time for Lucas to 'harvest' the Heart of Silver.

During the past thirteen days, the Versoa team managed to get a temporary driver for the team, but because he arrived relatively late, their performance took a dive and their ranking dropped from eleventh place to fifteenth place. The only reason it didn't fall off worse was because Lucas made adjustments to the Viper.

The Nadire Underground League's rules were quite similar to other drift racing leagues. Unless it was an emergency, major changes couldn't be made to a team's staff or vehicles. The Versoa team was exempted from this as their staff was fired entirely and their driver was dead while the substitute had quit. However, they still weren't allowed to make major changes to the Viper, for instance, switching its engine.

The engine, L2.13o, couldn't be swapped out for the Destroyer since that was against the rules. Hence, Lucas' only option was making some slight adjustments to it to boost its performance. Luckily, this wasn't a problem for Lucas and he was able to improve the Viper's performance by ten percent. This allowed the new driver to take seventeenth place in his first race, and fifteenth in the second. As time went by and the new driver was to get experienced with the vehicle, they could potentially charge for the top ten again.

But that wasn't Lucas' focus now. His goal was the mission, which would most likely be a dangerous one for him.

"So, where am I heading to, system?"

There was only a mission description and no map, so it was next to impossible for Lucas to find the location of the Heart of Silver.

"The aim of the mission is resource collection. As such, the system would not be offering help to the host."

"Huh?"