Dark King

The blue robed old man put his hand over his shoulder as he stood in ceremony of a standard knight in front of the scultpure. There was a table below the sculpute. The old man took out a roll of paper and turned back to Dudian: “Fill out this form. It’s the first part of the official knight assessment.”

Dudian slightly nodded. The Knight’s Hall had developed a systematic assessment after a long time. It was much more accurate and rigorous assessment in comparison to medieval era he was aware of. The evaluation wasn’t only restricted to public support and meritorious service but the conduct of the knight was checked stringently. This was one of the reasons why the Knight’s Hall was one of the most respected and loved institutions.

Moreover passing the paper test wasn’t enough to qualify as a knight.

Dudian grabbed the papers and turned to sit by a desk on the edge.

Blue robed old man came to stop by his side as he used the hourglass on the desk to time Dudian’s test.

Dudian finished when the one-third of the sand had flowed.

There was a trace of surprise in old man’s eyes as he saw the speed of Dudian. He picked up the papers and checked them after Dudian submitted his finished work. After a few minutes, the old man slowly put down the papers and calmly said: “Almost full marks. You have qualities of the spirit of the knight in your character. Moreover you are aware of knight’s etiquette and can be qualified to become a knight in the future. Therefore we can go to the next assessment.”

“First of all, you have to get love of thousand poor, one hundred civilians, ten nobles and recommendation of two regular knights! Do know that you can’t falsify this by using money or bribe. It will lead to cancel your qualification to become a knight for lifetime!”

Dudian replied: “It’s a matter oh honor so blasphemy is unacceptable.”

The old man slowly nodded: “Good. As you are aware there is a foreign invasion in the border. The Knight’s Hall would remove all other procedures for anyone if they could accumulate enough meritorious service at the war and become an official regular knight! You have to comply the will of Lord and follow the way of sword!”

The man paused for a moment: “However the battlefield is extremely dangerous as you are an architect from the Temple. I suggest you to go through the normal procedures which is low risk.”

“I know.” Dudian nodded.

“You are a trainee knight as of this moment. The next assessment period is limited to three months. Don’t forget that you can’t do anything against the spirit of knighthood! Otherwise your assessment will be canceled!” The old man deeply looked at Dudian.

“I would never dare to violate the code of knighthood!”

…

…

The castle used for identification. The Temple of Elements.

Eivissa and other masters from the eight different factions had come together. They were chatting with each other as they were ready to carry out the identification and evaluation of the next invention. He was feeling a bit different. There was no doubt that he appreciated the skills of the youth. Especially the lightning rod had deeply shocked him. Moreover the more he thought about the product the more he thought that the concept was extremely simply but a core concept to lightning faction. It was more like a ‘guide’.

It was enough to protect all the building from the lightning trouble.

But on personal level he didn’t like Dudian. From the first glance he could see that the teenager was totally different from an average person. The kid was ambitious, arrogant and his presence made Eivissa feel discomfort or even fear. Intuition told him that he should stay away from Dudian as far as possible.

Although many people in Temple didn’t believe that the promising teenager had colluded with the barbarians but felt that the military took the opportunity to attack the Temple. However Eivissa thought that perhaps it was the truth.

In addition he was aware that this time all the masters were invited to evaluate the invention because if the product was good enough then there was a possibility that military and civilians perspective would change. But after reading the newspapers for the last few days he didn’t have much of a hope.

“It’s the first time I see nine masters coming together to identify an invention… Hmpf!” A brown haired short old man said in an impatient tone.

“Pete there is nothing that is impossible. You are stuck with your old ideas and havent made an inch of progress.” Another white haired old man spoke up. There was a medal of master on his chest.

The brown haired master snorted: “I heard that the genius architect from the wood faction has invented a product which belongs to lightning faction. It seems that the kid is too ambitious…I’m afraid he won’t be sticking to wood faction for long!”

The white haired old man smiled: “It’s a proof that wood faction is the king of nine faction and closest to understand the mysteries of the God. A wood faction architect could produce a top grade four star product from another faction. I won’t ever see an architect from your wind faction to be able to do such a thing!”

Eivissa frowned but he didn’t say anything.

The brown haired short man’s face turned gloomy and he didn’t stare back at the other old man but turned away.

At the same time a door was pushed open from the corner of the hall. A middle-aged man wearing senior architect’s robes came out. He respectully said: “Masters, everything is ready for inspection. Who would like to come first?”

“I will.” The brown haired old man spoke up: “I would like to go early back to reading some books. I don’t want to delay anymore time! Hmpf!”

White haired old man said: “I will check too.” He stood up to join the room.

Another master laughed and followed behind the two.

“This is the drawing of architect Dean’s invention.” The previous senior architect smiled: “Masters, please identify.”

The brown haired old man was the first to step and stand in front of the table. He saw finely drawn design on the white papers. His eyes narrowed as he stared a bit. Suddenly, he was attracted by a pattern. He carefully looked at it and read the small note next to it. He began to murmur as he concentrated more.

The white haired and the other old man leaned to check because of curiousity.

It was the first time both of them had seen such cumbersome design.

“Water … … burn … … heat … …”

“Steam? kinetic energy”

The white haired and the other old man muttered. The expression on their faces changed as they were surprised. Their mouth were slightly open because of the shock.

“Vapor…Steam… Under high pressure to generate kinetic energy…” The previous brown haired short man murmured. He recovered after a long time as he shot his palm onto table: “This…It’s not water faction… Neither the wood faction nor the fire faction… However it contains water, fire, pressured wind… I have never seen such a thing! This ‘steam’ has never appeared before..”

White haired old man stared at the design: “This is not just an invention if its as said above! It’s a vast new world!”

The other old man looked at the drawing in surprise: “I get it! It’s what we have seen in the new textile machine. It’s the future! If its fully utilized then its not just a product but the basic energy flow of each faction!”

The man was excited as his voice was trembling. The white haired and brown haired old men recovered their eyes and glanced at each other in deep shock. As the masters they understood what the new kinetic energy meant!

It was creating a new faction!

Eivissa and the other five masters were sitting in the hall drinking tea and chatting. The door opened after an hour. Eivissa looked to see the emotion filled faces of the trio coming out of the room.

“Is it a good?” Eivissa asked.

“Pete what do you think about the invention?” Another old man looked at the brown haired short old man.

The brown haired old man sighed and slightly shooked his head: “You check out yourself! I give up!”

All the masters, including Eivissa, were surprised.

What kind of invention could make a master admire it?

Was it a five star item?