The Faber conference began three days after Seong-Hwi passed out. It was held at the banquet hall inside the Golden Iron Palace. Silver plates were lined up like soldiers along a golden rectangular table, holding various foods. There were a hundred and one steel chairs and tin alcohol cups, but only fifty-one seats were occupied.

“I see Blue Anvil and Green Hand aren’t even attending the conference!”

“What do they think they’re doing?”

“Are they refusing to attend because Hadafu was demoted to a B-rank artisan and thus can’t attend?”

“How childish of them!”

The A-rank artisans slammed their fists on the table in rage. Some artisans chugged their grape wine in one gulp in disgust.

Bafor, sitting at the highest seat, said, “Let us commence the Faber conference. Since the majority have attended, I deem this conference official.”

“Keh, idiots! The policy won’t change, whether they attend or not.”

“They must’ve been shocked. After all, their leader, Hadafu, was defeated by Muka, who came out of nowhere...”

The A-rank artisans stared at Muka, cycling between eating meat with his left hand and drinking wine with his right.

“What are you all looking at?” Muka said as he chewed.

Rika, sitting beside him, smacked him on the back of his head. He had a coughing fit once the food went down the wrong pipe.

“People would think I’m starving you at home,” she remarked.

“What?! The food is here to eat, isn’t it?!” Muka shouted.

“I’m telling you to eat slowly. You choke on your food because you’re eating so quickly.”

“That was because you hit me while I was eating...”

The A-rank artisans of Red Hammer smiled as they watched the grandmother and her grandson.

“It appears House Haswell has yet to be abandoned by the Great Ustrina.”

“That’s not all! He created a metal in his name at such a young age!”

“He has a bright future ahead of him.”

Muka, who had appeared like a superstar in this year’s artisan exam, was naturally the focus of attention throughout Ferrum. Although he was a member of House Haswell, he was endlessly showered with offers from other workshops to work with them. However, Muka refused them all.

Bafor hit the tin alcohol cup with a spoon to draw attention to himself and announce, “Let us begin the conference, starting with Padashu, who is in charge of managing the Ferrum Auction House.”

“Yes, my Lord! First, this year’s Ferrum Festival was the most successful yet, reflected by the number of items sold through the auction house. The total sum was...”

The conference began with the Ferrum Festival’s results, which was why the Faber conference was always held after the festival.

“If there were one issue, it would be your abrupt cancellation of the Steel Blade Hawk’s exhibition, Lord Bafor...” Padashu said cautiously.

The Steel Blade Hawk’s bid had risen to 2.5 billion Coins, a new record in the Ferrum Auction House. However, Bafor’s sudden cancellation of the exhibition was met with immense backlash.

Padashu continued, “But of course, aside from the examinees of the artisan exam, an artisan is free to sell the items they’ve exhibited or not.”

“People must be saying I exhibited an item I wasn’t even willing to sell for attention,” Bafor said.

“That’s correct.”

“I’m sorry, but I thought of an idea that will further improve the Steel Blade Hawk.”

The artisans expressed amazement.

“Wow! In that case, it can’t be helped.”

“Why improve an item that already has S-rank potential?”

“Don’t you know that items with the same potential can have astronomical differences in performance? Items in the same rank can also be ranked.”

Everyone attending the conference could understand Bafor because they were all A-rank artisans. After all, an artisan would naturally want to improve any parts of their work they found lacking. The artisans discussed many other subjects. Matters that were ambiguous in success were decided with a majority vote.

As the conference was about to reach its end, Bafor raised his hand and said, “Allow me to propose an idea.”

“Wow! From you, Lord Bafor?!”

“What policy will it be this time?”

Many artisans gazed at Bafor, their eyes filled with anticipation. Bafor’s words were nearly absolute because no one was willing to oppose him. He rarely stepped up because he knew this, but once he decided to push something, he charged like a bull to make it happen.

The last proposition Bafor had made was the holding of the Ferrum Festival, which had resulted in immense success and led the dwarves toward a life of abundance. Every A-rank artisan stared at Bafor’s mouth in anticipation of what he was about to propose.

Bafor said, “I propose... a strategic alliance between Faber and the human race.”

The banquet hall grew deathly silent.

***

Over thirty dwarf warriors stood guard outside one of the rooms of the Golden Iron Palace where Seong-Hwi resided.

“What in the world... is inside the room?”

“A monster that eats metal?”

“We’re protecting this room because Lord Bafor mentioned his benefactor is inside, but... could the man inside be the iron thief?”

Nothing happened initially, but they soon heard agonizing groans and the individual mumbling things like Stop! or Come back! That was when the incident occurred: the warriors’ weapons suddenly shook intensely and flew into the room as if they were attracted to a magnet.

The monster inside the room did not stop at their weapons and was also eating the Golden Iron Palace itself. The ceiling, floor, and pillars broke like cookies and flew into the room. The warriors were certain the iron-eating monster was inside the room, and they thought it was similar to the iron thief incidents that sent waves throughout Ferrum for the past few weeks.

Just then, even the brass door was ripped out of the door frame and absorbed by something. The dwarves could observe what was happening inside because of the vanished door.

“Urgh... Huff! Huff! Huff!”

The metal bed frame was gone, leaving only the mattress, and a human man was sitting up, panting heavily. A silver-grey almond-like object was stuck on his forehead, which was sucking in all the metal around it.

“W-wha...”

“Send word to the Steel King right away!”

***

“Huff! Huff!”

Seong-Hwi reached for his back as soon as he regained consciousness. He couldn’t feel his dagger.

I’m defenseless! I have to protect myself!

Seong-Hwi was out of sorts. He felt like he had a horrifying nightmare while he was unconscious. However, he did not remember anything once he woke up, as if he had never had the dream in the first place. All he could see were around thirty dwarves, and he could only think about defending himself.

Just then, something shocking happened. The metals in the surroundings suddenly floated and piled up, creating a giant metal wall around him.

What just happened?

Someone was trying to protect him. In the meantime, he quickly examined his condition.

I have no injuries, and I have sufficient mana. But... where is all my equipment?

His Zanaka Karambit, Silver Bracelets of Queen Consort Muryeong, Gold Necklace of Queen Consort Muryeong, First-Class Murder License Ring, and the Steel Tortoise Heart Guard Muka had made for him were gone.

What’s going on?

As Seong-Hwi was in confusion, the Steel Rice Grain on his forehead flinched in surprise and spat out all his items.

“What the hell?”

Seong-Hwi wondered if he were still dreaming when he witnessed his items falling out of his forehead. He touched his forehead and felt the Steel Rice Grain.

He removed it and mumbled, “The Steel Rice Grain? Why is this... on my forehead?”

Seong-Hwi examined the Akasha Messages to understand what had happened while he was unconscious, but they only widened his eyes in shock.

[Ajingya of the race Chaos, defeated.]

[You defeated an enemy of unfathomably higher caliber.]

[The result is deemed impossible with your current stats, caliber, and skills.]

[218,952,246 Karma obtained.]

...

[Eternally recording this feat in the Akasha.]

[Drastically heightening the caliber of all stats.]

[Drastically heightening the caliber of all stats.]

...

[Condition of Trait Quest: Rebellion of the Weak III, fulfilled.]

[Converting Trait Giant Killing to Mystery Killing.]

...

[World Hidden Quest: Defeat the Devourer of the Mirror World, complete.]

[300,000,000 Karma obtained.]

...

[Gene of the race Chaos absorbed.]

[The Wings of Evolution have evolved.]

[Converting Nine Wings to Ten Wings.]

[Available Stats: Battle Force, Sorcery Force, Harmony Force, Dragon Mana, Demon Force, Wraith Force, Kinetic Force, Holy Force, Chaos Mana.]

...

Seong-Hwi couldn’t even scream. He couldn’t understand what had happened to him while he was unconscious.

“Seong-Hwi! Seong-Hwi!” shouted Muka, who had run to Seong-Hwi as soon as the Faber conference was over. Bafor was behind him.

The metal wall turned into scrap metal once those familiar with Seong-Hwi arrived and scattered on the ground again.

“You’re up, Seong-Hwi!” Muka, who had been worried about Seong-Hwi, smiled once he saw Seong-Hwi was okay. However, Seong-Hwi remained standing with a blank expression as if he couldn’t see Muka. “Seong-Hwi? Hey! Cheon Seong-Hwi!”

Muka, noticing something was off with Seong-Hwi, grabbed his shoulders and shook him, but Seong-Hwi just shook lifelessly.

Ajingya? World hidden quest? Five hundred million Karma at once? Ten Wings?

Seong-Hwi surmised, “I’m dreaming. What a shitty dream. All this time with no side effects must be coming back with a vengeance.”

“W-what’s wrong with you? You’ve gone insane! This isn’t a dream!” Muka said.

“It’s not? Then prove it.”

“W-what?”

“See? You can’t, so this must be a dream. Say Bafor is a motherfucker, Muka. Since this is a dream, you can say it, too.”

Muka turned deathly pale and looked behind him.

Bafor chuckled as he looked around the Golden Iron Palace with bits and pieces ripped off everywhere and said, “It appears the benefactor needs... some time.”

“Are you sure it’s not a beating he needs?” Muka replied in confusion as the representative for the dwarves around them.

***

It took Seong-Hwi much time to realize this was not a dream.

“You’re saying... this isn’t a dream?” he mumbled.

“Yeah! What’s going on with you? Were you hit with a mind-control skill?” Muka shouted.

Seong-Hwi opened and closed his fists repeatedly and thought, If those Akasha Messages are correct, it means I defeated a Chaos known as Ajingya and earned two hundred million Karma as a result, and cleared a world hidden quest worth three hundred million Karma.

In other words, he had earned five hundred million Karma. He had never earned this much Karma at once, even in his past life.

On top of that, my caliber.

[Cheon Seong-Hwi

Health: C(13) Strength: C(20)

Dexterity: C(5) Sense: C(9)

Magic: B(88) Destiny Force: A(5)

Karma: 526,507,953

Coins: 570,034,225

Destiny Weapon: Tarot Deck of Destiny A(5)

Skills (6) Traits (6) Items (9) Cubes (2)]

His Health, Strength, Dexterity, and Sense stats were lowered to C-rank, his Magic stat was lowered to B-rank, and his Destiny Force stat was lowered to low-A.

My caliber has skyrocketed. All my stats are now of superior caliber!

His caliber, which had been heightening rapidly thanks to the Wings of Evolution, had reached the superior caliber that the superior races were born with. He had at last reached the starting point of superior races like the dragons, angels, and demons.

My Karma and Coins are both at five hundred million! Hah, what a day.

As Seong-Hwi grinned without realizing it, Bafor said from behind Muka, “It seems you have come to your senses.”

“Oh, yes. Ahem, about what I said earlier...” Seong-hwi trailed off.

“Ahaha! Don’t worry about it. You must have been out of sorts,” he replied. He stared at the awkwardly smiling Seong-Hwi and bowed. “Thank you.”

“That means...”

“Yes. Lilar is back to normal, thanks to you. There is nothing to worry about now. That is nowhere in sight now.”

Bafor was referring to the Bachtasha-rank Chaos that had been clinging to Lilar like a parasite.

Ajingya must be the Bachtasha-rank Chaos, and I annihilated him, Seong-Hwi thought.

All he remembered about the Chaos was that it had transferred hosts from Lilar to him and tried to corrupt him.

It didn’t look like it, but was the Chaos already at its limit?

Seong-Hwi did not know how, but the Chaos died inside him, and the Wings of Evolution absorbed its genes, creating the tenth wing.

I didn’t even think about... absorbing a Chaos monster’s genes.

The Chaos was also one of the Mirror World’s races, so it was not outside the realm of possibility.

Chaos Mana, huh? I should refrain from using it. It would only make people think I’m a Chaos Human.

As Seong-Hwi was thinking, Bafor said, “Since you kept your promise, I will also keep mine. As proof, Faber sent our alliance proposal to the Union.”

“Hah! So, that’s what it was, Bafor. It was a deal, huh?” Rika remarked as if she had an inkling.

She thought Bafor’s attitude during the Faber conference was strange.

“Faber will sell items to the Union at an affordable price. You call them lambs, correct? Making items for humans at their level isn’t difficult.” Bafor continued, “On top of that, our mining contract with the goblins is expiring soon. We will remake that contract with the humans.”

Seong-Hwi thought, Item support from Faber will increase the lambs’ chances of survival severalfold. And a mining contract, huh? It will act as a workplace for lambs with no talent for combat.

As a result, more lambs would survive compared to his past life, which would amplify humanity’s power as a whole.

“Also, a screening will take place for artisans who wish to take human apprentices—”

Sounds of the earth quaking rang from afar as Bafor explained the results of the Faber conference to Seong-Hwi.

“What is this noise?” Muka wondered.

A dwarf immediately barged into the room and reported, “Lord Bafor! We are being attacked!”

Bafor, his steel-like eyes filled with rage, shouted, “Is it Hadafu? The son of a bitch has done it at last!”

“W-well...” The dwarf’s lips quivered, then he answered, “Orbis is accompanying him! Tens of thousands of angels were witnessed in the sky! It is on the level of a legion!”

The expressions of everyone in the room hardened.