Soon, the elder and guards lift the barrier and go outside the hall. During this moment, "Bardur… you stay here." [Barbas]
After saying that, he keeps himself silent while waiting for others to get out from the hall.
Few moments later, the hall became silent with only three people inside of it. The atmosphere is full of tension especially with how Barbas look at Josep. As for Bardur, He don't even know what to do and keeps silent to hide his presence.
"Kid, everyone is already gone so now can you tell me how did you know about that?" [Barbas] as he breaks the chilling atmosphere.
Then, Josep opened his eyes with a gentle smile, "About what exactly?" [Josep]
"Stop playing around, that is my production rune!!" [Barbas]
"Are you sure that is yours??" [Josep] as he replied calmly. Then, he waved his hand and the doodle began to move into a rune diagram.
Looking at the rune diagram which is very complicated, Barbas become more astonished. "That's…." [Barbas]
Looking at his father's reaction, Bardur cannot hold his curiosity any longer, "Father.. I mean leader, what is that rune?"
*Sigh* "Bardur, as my successor you need to know that I created that 'tool' to increase our productivity. Actually, the secret is not lay on that 'tool' but it is laying on the production rune that I created inside that 'tool'."
"I don't know how, but this kid manages to know about the hidden rune which should be only me that knows about it. Since I am the one that created it.
No… Actually, after looking carefully this kid rune is far more sophisticated and complex than mine. If my guess is right it should be 10 times better than mine." [Barbas]
Hearing Barbas's explanation of his early behaviour, Bardur become speechless. Since this is his first time hearing about the secret of that 'tool'.
"Ahh… I see, so that's why your behavior is like that. It is truly dangerous if other dwarf communities know about this rune. Especially, looking at the nature of dwarf race I bet I can get a higher price if I sold it to another community. [Josep] as he smiles evilly.
"Tch… What do you want, kid??" [Barbas]
"Well, like I said before MONEY. " [Josep] as he spelled the money letter by letter.
"I see… so you want to extortion us. How much?" [Barbas] his expression turns to ugly.
Rather than reply to Barbas question, Josep threw parchments toward Barbas. Barbas immediately picks it up and his ugly expression turns into anger.
"Kid, this is nothing more than slavery!!" [Barbas]
"But, you will get this." [Josep] as he pointed at his complicated diagram in the air.
Cannot follow their conversation, Bardur trying to but in "Father… what is this about?" [Bardur]
*Sigh* "Look at this by yourself." [Barbas] he gives the parchments toward Bardur.
A moment later, Bardur's expression turns ugly. "This is…." [Bardur]
"Yes, that's the demand of this kid or he will sell it to others communities like the parchment stated." [Barbas]
The hall becomes oddly silent without sound again. One side is the black haired kid who keeps his calm, while the others is father-son dwarf that can't decide anything.
After looking at the parchments once more, "Father… Let's sign it." [Bardur]
"Are you sure?! This condition is no better than becoming a slave." [Barbas]
"Yes I am sure. Although Josep is still young, his smiting ability is beyond comparison. As a dwarf who follows the path of smith, I only follow who is better at smith than me." [Bardur]
Hearing this, Josep became surprised. Josep begin to thought, "It seems this 'Border'ing person is quite smart and useful." [Josep]
Actually, he doesn't even know that Barbas will agree with his demand or not. It is because like Barbas said his demand is almost the same as making Silvanbor's dwarf residence become his slave. The parchments are actually a soul contract that stated many things.
However, because it is a soul contract Josep itself needs to give something to gain something. There are some kind of rules to make the soul contract work.
One of them is some kind of price to pay between the two parties to work. The price must not be very far in value according to the parties.
First, Josep will give and create the 'tool' far better than they currently have by 20 times better. It is 2 times more than the runes he draws right now. In exchange, Josep can ask for gold as much as he wants from the Silvanbor's dwarf anytime.
Second, they need to hide Josep's identity even toward other dwarf communities, council and their king. In addition, they also need to become very loyal towards Josep himself and never betray him..
In exchange, he will not outspread the runes or something similar towards other dwarf communities.
Third, they will provide him with any kind of help to Josep as long as it is not betraying their kings and race as dwarves. In exchange, Josep needs to supply them with at least one grade 3 equipment per month.
Although, the contract seems like balance but according to one interpretation it can feel to weight on the other side. This is one of Josep's exclusive soul contracts which can force the one that signed it unconsciously.
Josep doesn't intend to explain this part and let them think that this is a normal parchment contract without any harsh penalty if they break it. However, the moment they sign it they will never break it.
After contemplating for a moment and the enticement of grade 3 equipment every month, "Alright, I will sign it." [Barbas]
Then, they begin to discuss the details of the contract. At this moment, Barbas still thought that even if he didn't do anything according to the contract, he would only get hard punishment from breaking the contract.
He didn't know the contract that he signs will force them to follow according to the contract. Actually, this soul contract is a little bit special among Envy's contract.
It is a partial contract that binds both sides. Although, he has a way to escape from the contract binding but he will only do it at the last moment.
Since the moment he escapes from the contract binding, the contract itself will break and release the binding of the other party. That's why choose this contract since he only needed this gold mine temporarily.
After finalizing the contract, both of them sign the contract using their blood. At first Barbas, a little hesitation to use his blood to sign it. Looking at Josep who easily uses his blood to sign it without any hesitation, he strengthens himself to sign it using his blood.
The moment his blood touches the contract parchment, the contract begins to shine brightly. All the residents of Silvanbor become absentminded for a moment, before they return to their normal activity a few minutes later.
As for the contract parchment who turns into a golden sheet, Josep stores it in his space storage before Barbas and Bardur become normal from their absence.
"Now…. Since this matter is done, let's call the elder back to discuss how to deal with the crown prince and the other dwarf community." [Josep]
Unlike Barbas who has extensive knowledge of dwarf society, Josep still doesn't know about their rivalry with Melbor.
As Silvanbor already becomes his gold mine, he will not let it waste in the hand of another dwarf community. He will try to make it 'produce' more gold for him.
After Barbas called the other elders back, they began their discussion in long hours. During this meeting, all the elders look at Josep as their own without having remorse, feeling or underestimating him like before.
It is as all the elders are bewitched by something. Fortunately, there is no other human or race that reside in Silvanbor at the moment. Or they will notice their sudden difference in action toward the youngster.
After long hours of discussion and serious debate, Josep finally came out from the hall.
"Well, I hope everything proceeds according to the plan. Now, I just need to focus on the main plan. Before that, I need to create a more advanced production rune to maintain the contract with Silvanbor's dwarf.
A few moments later, Barbas guides Josep to the most hidden place in Silvanbor with his son, Bardur. They go through a series of long tunnels along a secret path to avoid dangerous traps.
The path is cleverly hidden. Even for a high level infiltrator, that specialist at infiltration will find it hard to determine the right path.
They arrive at a huge cave with a hot temperature. The cave seems naturally made by nature with hot bubbling lava around. Since a dwarf has high resistance toward fire, they can easily adapt to high temperatures nearby.
As for humans, it is already a miracle if they are not dying because of dehydration or burned alive because of it.
However, the black haired teen seems doesn't notice this. This also surprised both father-son dwarves. Actually, they prepared special armor for him but Josep looks fine without even a single sweat on his body.
Josep himself doesn't care about their reaction. He completely focuses on the gigantic orb in the middle of the room.
The gigantic orb is above the lava pool with many strange tubes attached to it. Some tubes connected to the lava pool below it and others penetrate the cave walls to the outside.
Looking at the boy focusing on his work, the white haired dwarf feels pride from his creation. "It's called [Earth core]." said Barbas proudly.