[Divine Blacksmith]

These two words were simple by themselves but together they seemed to contain a mysterious power and these weren't just Lowen's thoughts either, the book seemed to be emanating a low undulating force of some kind.

Lowen's hand carefully slid against the cover before he gave Sid a knowing look. Sid nodded his head with a gleeful smile.

"Go ahead, take a look, hehehe."

Lowen slowly turned open the cover, looking at the title, he read the words in his mind.

[The Beginning]

Lowen had to admit he was slightly disappointed with the naming of the first page, or rather, he felt it was a little anti-climatic given the cover's title but as he continued to read on, this first paragraph caught his interest.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[The Beginning]

An ancient power awakened within and a terror consumed me. For centuries chaos reigned within my mind and for those 723 years, I slaughtered uncontrollably. I slaughtered the Mages and the Demons, I slaughtered the Dragons, Elves, and Dwarves. Whether they were the weak Humans or the ancient and powerful Titans, I cleaved my way through them by the millions. Below me, an ocean of blood had formed and behind me, a sky of black death followed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Lowen wanted to read more of the chapter but the rest of it was left completely blank. Lowen's brows scrunched together as he curiously began flipping over page after page. He was now interested in this person's story but surprisingly, every page he flipped open was left completely blank. Lowen looked up at Sid but Sid just gave him a nod to continue so Lowen did. Lowen began to flip the pages faster and faster until finally, after 40 or 50 pages, some more words finally appeared.

[Chapter #1 Basic Metals]

Scanning the chapter below, it was filled with all kinds of different information on metals and recipes. It talked about where to find these basic metals as well as their weight, melting point, smelting time and so on and so forth but there was no more mention of the person from the beginning.

(What is this?)

*Thud*

A small cloud of dust flew into the air before it slowly fell back down onto the book.

This action almost caused Lowen to jump, he had been completely engrossed trying to see everything he could, only to have it suddenly slam shut. He looked at Sid with annoyance.

"How can I judge this books worth if you don't allow me to see it?"

Sid, however, felt as though he were wronged.

"Hmph, so I should just show you every single page, doesn't this book become worthless after that?"

Lowen couldn't be bothered to argue with the man, instead, he wondered about that person from the book.

"Anyway, who was that person from the beginning of this book?"

Right after he asked that, even though Sid still wore the blindfold, Lowen could tell he had a confused expression on his face.

"What?"

"The book, who was the person that slaughtered so many an ocean of blood formed. Was it a man or a woman and what happened afterward?"

Once more Sid was unsure of what Lowen was talking about.

"What the hell are you saying? man, woman, an ocean of blood, you're not making any sense."

Lowen was starting to become heated with this stupid old man's games, he opened the book and as he pointed angrily at that first page, he shouted.

"This right here, what happened afterward? Why was..."

But before he could finish his sentence, he was immediately left dumbfounded. The words, as well as that short paragraph, had vanished. Flipping the page back and forth, Lowen couldn't find the missing paragraph no matter what. Seeing this, it was Sid's turn to become upset. He immediately shoved Lowen aside and screamed at him.

"Stop messing with it, you'll ruin it, you little cretin."

Sid quickly began to inspect this old book looking for any signs of damage, fortunately, there were none.

Lowen didn't become upset after he was shoved away, he was only left with question after question. He had clearly seen what was written, so how could it just be gone and how has this Sid never seen it, how long has he had this book and where did it come from, nothing made any sense. Lowen looked back at Nia and Ben to see if they had witnessed what he read but they were still crouched down behind him. They were no longer under the influence of Sid's eyes but when that book came out, neither of them had any interest. For people like them who couldn't read or write, a book was simply useless to them. Maybe if they were cold, they could use it for a fire but beyond that, they had no reason to see scribbles which neither of them could understand.

*Sigh*

"Nevermind what I said, I was simply confused about something else. Tell me, where did you get this book?"

Sid stopped inspecting his book and stood straight with his chin up and his chest out, his body emanated with pride as he laughingly said.

"Hehehe, this is a family heirloom, its been in my family for centuries."

"Oh so then who wrote it?"

Lowen's question put Sid in an awkward situation, he began to think and ponder for a while but in the end, he really had no clue. Shrugging his shoulders he said.

"Hehe, I don't actually know, when I got it I was only a child no bigger than you are now. At the time I was only told it's been in the family for hundreds of years, beyond that, hehe, I'm unsure."

(So nothing has been answered, why did I even bother to ask. Does this man actually have any useful information for me? Wait a second.)

"Wait, you said you were given this book as a child right?"

"Yea so."

"So then how the hell did you carry this thing around with you? Don't tell me you could actually control statues even when you were that young."

Sid began to laugh loudly again, once more he felt good knowing something some else didn't. He pointed at the excessively large book and in a clear loud voice, he said.

"Shrink."

Following that, the title on the book, the two words [Divine Blacksmith] began to glow with a golden luster, as it did, the book astonishingly began to shrink. It's size immediately halved before it once more shrunk down by half. After only a few seconds, the two words on the front of the book stopped glowing and the book shrunk no more. It was now no longer its former behemoth self but instead a small petite book. It was even slightly smaller than your average sized book, perfect for a child's hands.

Lowen went to pick it up only for Sid to immediately snatch it away. He shook his finger at Lowen mischievously.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you want my book, then its time for that wager. So is it a bet or not? Hehe."

Lowen pretty much knew exactly what game they would play, at this point he was only curious about one more thing.

"I'll gladly take that wager but how can you be so willing to bet a family heirloom, does it mean nothing to you?"

Sid scoffed at Lowen's statement.

"What would you know, of course, it's precious to me. It's just that when it comes to this book I've already read through it cover to cover. I've memorized it all and there's absolutely nothing in here that I don't already know. So if I already know it, why then should I keep it lying around collecting dust?

Although Sid said this, he didn't actually wish to lose it, it was just that he was so confident he felt there was no way he could possibly lose. Lowen, on the other hand, could only laugh in his mind.

(He claims he knows everything about this book yet he's never seen or heard of that person's story. Hmm, it seems this book has an affinity with me, it revealed itself to me and not to him even though it's his family heirloom, why?)

Lowen thought about the book, besides that mysterious person and the disappearing words it did have an incredible amount of detailed information. Just from some quick exploratory scanning, Lowen could see the potential within. He had noticed several chapters on forging tools, weapons and even armor solely for Mages. If he could make such creations then who knew what his future possibilities were. Strength, wealth, power, at that point what could the world deny him, at that point, who in the world could stop him.

"Ok then it's a bet, I have the perfect game in mind."

"Tell me."

Lowen had been thinking it over for a while now and he came up with a simple guessing game. He would use Sid's most powerful attribute against him and by allowing Sid to use his best talent, then when Sid lost, there would be no denying it.

"It's actually rather simple, you will close your eyes while I go outside and gather a single object. While I'm outside you can't use your earth energy to see what it is. If you do, I'll sense it and you'll be disqualified and lose immediately. After I bring this object in, I'll then hold it in my hand and close it, you can then use your earth sensing abilities. You get one guess, If you can guess the object in my hand then it's your win and my loss but if you don't, then the match is mine, so what do you say?"

Sid's body was trembling with joy, he had no clue what game this child wanted to play and yet, in the end, it was a game using his best ability. With every fiber of his being, Sid held his laughter inside. With a slight grin on his face, he could barely nod his head in agreement.

Lowen wasted no time and darted outside like an arrow released from a bow. Grabbing an object from the ground, he suddenly heard loud humorous laughter filling the mountain, it seemed Sid could no longer contain himself and was laughing hysterically. Rolling his eyes, Lowen had already run back inside. Looking at Sid's uproarious laughter, Lowen no longer cared, instead, he just waited patiently.

Sid continued to laugh, it was several minutes before he could finally maintain some amount of a calm demeanor. Wiping away a few joyous tears, he looked at Lowen with pity.

"Are you ready old man?"

"Yes yes yes, let's start already, what's taking you so long? hehehe."

Lowen didn't even bother responding, instead, he held a closed right hand in front of Sid and calmly said.

"I have a single object within my hand. With your ability, it should be quite easy for you to tell what it is, right? If you can guess correctly then this game is yours, however, if you guess wrong...."

Lowen didn't finish his sentence, instead, he was watching Sid's face but just as he was looking at Sid, Sid's mood did a complete 180. He was concentrating intently at Lowen's right hand, now Sid's demeanor had completely changed, something wasn't right. The room grew quiet for several minutes. After every minute Sid seemed to have inched himself closer and closer until his face was literally right next to Lowen's hand. But still, there was no answer, finally, Sid grew impatient.

"You, what trick is this, what did you do?"

Lowen tilted his head quizzically.

"What do you mean?"

"Your hand, it's like a void, it's almost like its completely vanished."

"I assure you my hand and the object inside is still there. If you don't believe me then take off your blind and look."

Sid tore off his blindfold and stared sharply at Lowen's hand, sure enough, it was still there but still, Sid couldn't see inside at all no matter how much he used his earth sensing ability. It was as though there was nothing in Lowen's hand at all. This is something that should be impossible. Sid had just got done boasting about how he can see without sight and how dirt was everywhere and he could, therefore, sense and see it but looking at Lowen's hand, he was completely stumped.

"I...I don't understand."

Lowen wanted to smile so badly and put this guy down for once but if he enraged him, the impending fight would be difficult to overcome, instead, he would just win the bet modestly and then quickly leave.

"Are you going to guess or do you give up?"

"No I don't give up, I'm going to guess, just, just give me a minute to think."

But even after a minute, nothing happened. Sid just continued to stare at Lowen's hand whilst mumbling to himself. His expression grew worse and worse as time ticked by. Finally, 30 minutes passed and Sid could no longer take it.

"You, you, I."

"Hmm, do you give up now?"

Sid looked at Lowen with bitterness, he knew he had lost, finally, he sighed and said.

"I...I lose."

Nia and Ben quickly hugged Lowen in warm embraces and shouted in joy.

"Yay, big bros the best, I knew you'd defeat this stinky old man."

Lowen and Nia's eyes darted to Sid after Ben's comments expecting to see anger but instead they were surprised, on Sid's face, what they saw was sadness and bitter confusion. Even now he was still trying to figure out what was in Lowen's hand. Before he could ask Lowen, Ben had already jumped ahead of him.

"Big bro big bro, so what is it, what do you got in your hand that even this smelly old fart can't see?"

This time Sid was getting angry, to him, Ben just wouldn't shut up. It seemed that every other word out of Ben's mouth was, a stinky old man this or smelly old man that. As his brows twitched in anger, he was about to slap this little kid named Ben. Lowen seeing this stood in front of Sid and with a wave of his hand gestured Sid to take a look. As Lowen slowly opened his hand, he revealed to Sid what seemed like the impossible.

Resting on Lowen's palm was a small pile of red dirt. Sid seeing this of course shouted in disbelief.

"WHAT!!!!!!!!"