The sun was slowly descending, falling from grace as it departed from the mortal realm. It quietly hid behind the distant skyscrapers as the unseen moon started rising, replacing the omnipresent sun. An eerie quiet penetrated the sidewalks of the backstreets only for the stable footsteps of Kezner.

“I knew my ability was special but it’s not like how that brat described it. Most people aren’t able to control their ability when triggered, but I’m able to be just fine, and I can communicate with it, why is it stranger than described?” In his hands, Kezner fiddled with the benign gray flames as he was lost in thought. Though the walk back to the old forge took a minute at most, he felt like the walk had been stretched out for several miles. Ideas were swirling around in his brain, conjuring the most lucrative thoughts as to why he was even more unique than those considered different.

Reaching the old forge, Kezner was met with a keyring that held a few keys hurdling at his face, causing him to quickly react and barely catch them, “Kiddo, you’re gonna run the shop while I’m gone.” The now steady Rankev proclaimed, as he was dressed in formal attire. Formal clothing had barely evolved from the suit and tie, as through the years, the evolution of clothing was only accessible by the wealthy, as the array of materials expanded from the usual silk, cotton and polyester, using expensive elastic material. While the design for formal clothing was left untouched as it couldn’t be simplified any further.

Rankev touched his graying beard as he looked at himself with a mirror app on his holo-watch and could only sigh, he had finally realized that his age was catching up. Though cultivation was able to slow the appearance of aging, based on your cultivation, there’s a certain point in your increased lifespan where your age catches up exponentially, so you could look like you were in your mid-twenties one day and by next week you could look middle aged, Rankev was starting to hit that pivotal point.

“Wait, what, I don’t know how to run this place…” Kezner was still inexperienced in managing a business and didn’t want to ruin anything that Rankev had going.

“Don’t worry about anything, the instructions are on the table. The monthly bills and supplies are already paid for online, you just have to take orders and clean the place up, your pay gets sent to you weekly as well, I doubt you wouldn’t show up to your job while I’m gone. There’s also another set of instructions in an envelope in the forge, good luck kiddo.” For some reason, Rankev’s naturally stern expression was even more solemn than usual, Kezner didn’t know what was going on, but it wasn’t his place to pry open a reason.

“Alright, see ya.” Kezner said his simple farewell, as the front door bell chimed when Rankev halfway past the door. Little did Kezner know, this was one of the last times he got to see him.

---In the Scout Cruiser---

“Justone, answer you asshole! Aren’t you my fucking advisor?! Do your job and answer my calls!” Luna kept texting Justone after he hung up on her, she got pissed beyond belief, but she didn’t understand the position Justone was in. She didn’t understand the frustration and sleepless nights she had brought him, he had given her a solid position through numerous connections, bribes, and an extensive amount of effort, yet she was never once thankful. He never wanted a thanks from her, he just wanted some understanding, he just wanted her to grow some common sense. Justone knew that Luna was going to be the death of him no matter which route he took, so he chose the most painless way.

Luna’s ability to text was damn near supernatural, as she had sent around two hundred messages in five minutes, the scary part was each text was around seven words. She was exasperated and realized that she goofed real bad, so bad that it cut off ties with her only pillar of support. Falling into her chair in resignation, she glanced at the two reports in front of her, Kezner’s was the only one she read, she simply ignored Rankev’s report earlier.

Since she had nothing better to do, she might as well read Rankev’s report, it could possibly lead her to how he got his forging skills, as they could prove useful in the future. It was only then that she realized that his report was even less than Kezner’s, only a page long, which didn’t add up as he was a lot older. On top of that, the page only had the bare minimum information, his birthdate, name, sex etc., there was literally a 40 year gap between opening his shop and his last job. When digging even further, his last job went out of business five years after he was allegedly hired.

Luna accidentally stumbled upon a person more mysterious than Kezner. Running out of her cabin, she dashed to question the Chief Officer, “Hey, what’s the meaning of this man’s report? Why is there only this much information, and what’s with the gaps?” Governor Vanya interrogated the Chief Officer like he was some criminal.

The Chief Officer, without any hesitation, saluted and responded, “Ma’am, this was all the information we could find using the Star Cluster #37’s database. Though the information is contradictory, this was inputted by a higher up, so we couldn’t dig any further. Our prediction is that this is probably a retired official using cosmetics to hide his appearance.” Right as he was about to finish speaking, Governor Vanya dashed out of the Scout Cruiser and ran towards the old forge, even if she failed roping Kezner to her side, she could try to gain the recommendation or the connections of the old mysterious fogey.

---The Old Forge---

Kezner’s hand was about to reach for the instructions in the forge, when suddenly the front door’s bell chimed in a hurried fashion. Kezner went out to greet the new customer, but quickly regretted it when seeing who it was.

“Hey, you! Where’s the old guy that worked here?” Luna barely even remembered Kezner’s name after meeting him.

Kezner’s face dropped, “Why do you want to know where the boss went? It’s none of your damn business.” And with that, Kezner went back into the forge, making sure to lock the door behind him with one of the keys given to him by Rankev. That was the right decision as she tried to open the door right when it locked, leaving her to only bang the door.

“Don’t think I won’t break this fucking door, open it now or else I’m gonna have this place fucking shut down.” Luna’s arrogant and entitled side didn’t take long to show itself.

“Oh really? This entire fucking store is full of cameras, I’d like to see how the internet reacts to the governor having a meltdown in such a small planet. Your reputation would look wonderful afterwards, wouldn’t it?” Kezner had some threats of his own, as the only other employee he had access to the basic security systems in case Rankev wasn’t there. He knew how these politicians loved their face and reputation, if it was tarnished then they could not only receive public backlash, but get impeached as well.

The threat caused Luna to pause, she didn’t want the persona of Kathra Vanya to be tarnished because of one shortsighted tantrum, if she did, it would be game over. She would just be a political piece used to appease the other houses by her father, this happened to her mother, so she didn’t doubt it would happen to her.

The internet had been the only form of anonymity in humanity left, as the government had information about everyone, this was a public secret. Being the last safe haven of true freedom, the internet couldn’t be surveillanced by interstellar governments, or else you would simply be poking an enraged and deranged bear. As such, a video of a politician would spread like wildfire within the star system and the government couldn’t interfere to stop it.

Taking a deep breath, Luna decided to change her strategy, putting on her best smile and most stunning smile, “Alright, I think we can talk this out peacefully, we don’t have to resort to extreme measures that could harm us both, I just want to know where your boss is and when he’d come back, is that too much?”

“Damn this manipulative bitch, if she acted like this earlier, I could’ve actually been played like a fiddle, thank God I dodged a bullet!”, Kezner was happy that he escaped the claws of this beast in a woman’s clothing, so he decided to be honest to get her off his back, “To be honest, he never said where he was going or when he was coming back, so goodbye and never come back, thank you.”

Luna knew that Kezner had no reason to lie about this, and even if he did tell her, she would still try to figure out where he went on her own, so she regretted having to humble herself when she could have looked for him instead of asking.

“Are you still adamant about working for me?” Luna asked to test Kezner’s resolve one last time.

“Leave!” Kezner had enough of this.

“Sheesh, you don’t even know how to treat a lady nicely, you brute!” The front door bell chimed as Luna made her way out.

Kezner, still locked inside of the forge, was almost shaking in anger, “I’m the fucking brute?! You just fucking threatened to break down the fucking door!” He just let it go after a few deep breaths, he needed to learn to control his anger or it would get the better of him one day.

Looking at the clock, Kezner realized that it was almost 7 pm, he had to prepare everything for the next day within half an hour, he also had to catch the bus twenty minutes prior to his curfew. The buses ran express at night, making his commute faster than the morning. Right when he was about to leave at 7:30 pm, he remembered to grab the instructions in the forge before heading out. After locking all doors in the forge, he ran to his bus stop so as to not miss it.

By 8 pm he had barely made it through the door on time. He wanted to keep his clean record, it would look better overall in the future. Changing into his home clothes, he decided to glance at the special instructions left behind by his teacher. There was only two books, both of them were excessively thick, and a piece of paper taped to it that read;

“Kezner, I know this is sudden, but I believe I should advise you to take precaution against an incoming war predicted to take place in about half a year. Zeklon will be attacked by a foreign race, the Delaka, whether you take this warning to heart is up to you. But if I were you, I would prepare to be drafted after a month or two.

I will take this opportunity to warn you that if you don’t advance in your cultivation, your Rank-Z ability will start to slowly consume you. I bet that Luna girl already told you about your ability’s rank, but she doesn’t know that your ability is only stable due to it not being fully developed. The higher your cultivation, the more skills your ability unlocks in the Foundational Stage, the more unstable it will become unless you are able to reign it in yourself. If you stagnate then you’re simply a ticking time bomb.

Finally, I have left for you the two books. The first is not the techniques but the insights of my master’s experience in forging. The techniques must be figured out and recreated by you, if I simply give them to you, then you will never be able to master them, it’s a delicate art where only enlightenment can further you, as no two artists dance with a paintbrush the same. Next is the Weapons Art I’ve recovered from another timeline, it didn’t come with a name, but I believe it is proper to refer to it as 'The Overlord', you’ll understand when you start comprehending it. I’ve never practiced it due to my lack in talent in these weapons, but I believe you have a lot more potential than me.

Before I say my goodbye, though this is your decision, I hope that you can now refer to me as your master rather than your boss, but at the end of the day, you could just ignore everything, ignore your job, ignore my warning, ignore the art of forging, and ignore me, and I would never know. With this, I bid you farewell, don’t miss me too much, kiddo.

P.S. If the old forge gets destroyed during the invasion, don’t worry, I’ve had it insured by the Galactic Bank for the past few decades, those bastards are gonna have hell to pay if anything happens to it.”

Towards the end Kezner had tears in his eyes and it was about to fall out, but when he read the last sentence, it all turned into chuckling. His master knew that the letter would probably cause a surge of emotions in Kezner so he decided to lighten the contents, but it also answered one of the questions he had.

Kezner was a lot more interested in this ambiguous weapons art from another timeline, than anything else right now. Due to Kezner’s peasant status, he didn’t know anything about the interaction between timelines, so to him, Rankev was simply exaggerating. He barely even knew what a weapons art was, so he spent some time searching around the internet until he figured it out.

Weapons Arts were ancient Martial Arts pertaining to weaponry. They used to be called martial arts on Earth, but after the forceful adaptation to cultivation, they were considered separate from Martial Arts. The mastery of cold weapons was seen as a disadvantage compared to modern weapons, a bow couldn’t compare to a sniper rifle. Plus, bows would cost more to manufacture on as large of a scale as sniper rifles because the material needed would have to endure the force of a cultivator. These materials were considered rare, as they were usually heavily monopolized by the interstellar governments.

Martial Arts were still practiced but usually for sport and honor rather than real battles and war. To even be qualified as a family, it required the passing of a trademark ability, Foundational Technique, and Martial Arts. Any familial structure that didn’t have these were considered illegitimate. Let’s take Arlean from the Ocano family, her lightning ability was hereditary and seen as a dominant gene, so it was able to be passed down, but the rank depended on the parents or a mutation. The Ocano family also had a Foundational Technique and Martial Arts for this ability, so they were considered legitimate.

Most Martial Arts required some form of requirements, they first were split between Soul Cultivation and Body Cultivation. Soul Energy had a farther reach than Body Energy but it had less density, so a lot of Martial Arts that centered around Soul Energy that were based on a battle of attrition and speed rather than brute force, while Martials Arts that centered around Body Cultivation were the other way around, they focused on short and decisive attacks that dealt lethal damage.

Another requirement was Cultivation Data. There was basically a machine that would insert nanobots into your body that read all the information about your cultivation and strengths, and put them in a point system. Cultivation Data Machines were expensive to privately buy but were available for public use, with the catch that the government collected that data and put it in their database.

Modern day Martial Arts were dependent on Cultivation Data, and the form of cultivation. But even Martial Arts still had their limitations, as they were also separated by tiers, the higher the tier, the higher the Martial Art was still viable for that stage. For example, if you were practicing a Tier 2 Martial Art, it wasn’t viable after the Avatar Stage, as it would be too weak, but it was viable for the Foundational and Avatar Stages.

It had to be stated that there were Martial Arts that didn’t have a tier, primarily due to the fact that they weren’t viable enough in the Foundational Stage and were only seen as simple forms and stances than anything too complex. There were many simple Martial Arts handed out by the government for self-defense reasons, but Kezner hadn’t been able to practice any of them, not because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t.