Gideon arrived at the office intended for him. This was Deborah's office previously. It was arranged now to better suit the taste of a man.
"I see. This is my office. Time to review everything." He entered, sat behind the desk and went for the stack of reports prepared on his desk.
Using his divine sense, Gideon had a grasp on everything instantly. "The company basically procures monster materials from the Squirt's hunts, she sends in a team to load it to the warehouses, and then delegates producers to process them and make something out of them. Not specialized items but general mass-produced ones. This cannot be continued. It's not ideal for such a money-making machine as Debbie to manage it like this."
Gideon felt the pinch. If he continued it like this, it would be better if he didn't take over the business!
As soon as the thought appeared, it took root. Gideon was determined to make the company a specialty manufacturer. To do this…
"Shit. Why is it that everything I learned from my master is being dug up even here on Earth?" Gideon complained to no one. He was taught the Six Arts by his master. These arts included: Cooking, Alchemy, Forging, Enchanting, Arrays, and Calligraphy.
"I'll start with the Dragon bones. Although they are inferior materials, I'll have to make do as they are the highest level and rarest material available on Earth currently. Why is it that I feel that the evil god is somehow useful in this aspect? Send more champions, will you?" Gideon muttered in a whisper.
He grabbed a phone and asked for someone to come to his office.
The one who came was naturally, Rebecca.
"Oh, I thought a secretary would come. Why is it you?"
"I will serve as secretary to you until we find someone suitable to handle the matter, sir."
"Hm. Okay. Becca, help me get someone to drive me to the warehouse where they've taken the dragon bones, please. I have something to check out."
"Is that all, sir? I will call someone now." She then came to Gideon's phone, pressed a button on it and said, "Prepare to leave in 2 minutes." They then heard a reply, "Yes, miss President."
"There. Done. Oh, and I'm coming with."
"Chuckle. Okay." Gideon couldn't help but chuckle at Rebecca's antics.
They left the building and got on their car before being driven to their destination.
While on the way, "So, what do you have planned for dinner?" Asked Rebecca.
"See, you're feisty even without those aggressive dress you're wearing. I don't have any plans. Want to come with and have dinner with us at home?"
"Shut up! Is Debbie going to be there?"
"Of course, she will be."
"Then I'll go."
"Okay."
Rebecca was already thinking of the things that'll happen and she lost herself in thought. Gideon enjoyed watching her like that. However, before they arrived at their destination, trouble came knocking.
A group of sedans suddenly surrounded their car and stressed the driver out. He said, "Sir, ma'am. It seems we are being surrounded. What should I do?"
"Do what you do best! Drive." Rebecca yelled at him. This woke him up as well and ignored anything else. He focused on driving."
"What could these people want? Our company's always been clean. Who would dare to do this to us?"
"They're not here for you. They came for me." Gideon deduced. "Driver, just drive straight. Don't mind them at all."
The driver looked at Gideon through the rearview mirror and had an expression that says, "What the fuck? You high?" But he still answered affirmatively.
"Y-Yes, sir."
Gideon spread his Divine Authority. That was the only thing he did. Of course, this was only to protect the car and the two innocent people, Rebecca and the driver.
The pursuers wouldn't necessarily ram them or anything.
"Most probably, they'll stop in front of us to force us to stop. Don't stop no matter what."
"Y-Yes, sir. I won't."
"Good." Gideon closed his eyes looking all relaxed. And in fact, he was. With just this thin covering of Divine Authority, no matter would be able to affect their vehicle.
The pursuers indeed dis not appear to ram them but to intimidate them. They thought Gideon must be new to the scene and wanted to scare him off of destroying dungeons wantonly.
These pursuers were from different companies and organizations. They exercised their networks to find the person responsible for the news all over the world about dungeons being conquered and permanently disappearing.
Soon, seeing as the car he was on just calmly drove in a steady speed, the pursuers thought they'd achieve their goal. This was only a show of force not a show of who's more violent. So the next thing they did was to disperse.
When they arrived at their destination, the driver released a huge sigh while Rebecca immediately called the police to report what happened. She was stopped by Gideon.
"Don't, Becca. They're trying to put the fear of god in me, don't indulge their fearmongering." Gideon said seriously. His handsome face when he was serious gave her quite the pressure. She put the phone down and nodded.
"Anyhow, I'll take care of those later. Let's see the dragon bones for now." Gideon followed Rebecca towards the warehouse.
In the warehouse, the dragon bones were neatly arranged based on length. With a flick of his hand, Gideon reproduced the dragon's skeletal structure to check its integrity.
"Good. Everything's there. Help me get the forehead, the femur, and the tailbone to the one of the workshops, Becca. Have one of your most trusted producers to prepare himself/herself. We're going over as well."
"Yes, boss."
"Hm." Gideon then started thinking what to reveal to the producer.
"I need to have the producer learn a specialty. I plan on teaching them enchantment. This way, the products created in the same workshop would be the brand of the company. The only brand that produces high-quality products that always has the same enchantment on the items with more enchantments being introduced in the future as the producer's skills in enchantment increases.
"If they succeed with this, they can continue to create items that are produced less, but with so high a demand, they'd be like luxury goods comparable to LV products, or Gucci." Gideon thought deep as he went to the car with Rebecca to go to the workshops.
"Deon?"
"Hm? What is it, Becca?"
"Do you somehow know how to produce items as well? You're a herald too, right? Judging from your posture and overall presence. Are you a production herald, that's why you got assigned to manage the family business?"
"Haha! Would you believe me if I told you that I am not?"
"Of course, I would. Why would you need to lie to me? So, are you?"
"Nope. I'm a fighter. It's just that before I became a fighter, I learned some production methods from my former master before he died."
"Is that so? That sounds sad. You had a master?"
"Yeah. He was a great one. In the end, he died to the monsters from the dungeons."
"I see. Is that why you went around destroying those dungeons earlier?"
"…" Gideon was surprised she already knew.
"Don't be surprised. While you were mulling over something there, I called some of my connections and asked why would someone try to intimidate my newly appointed boss, and they asked who my boss was, so I told them your name and they flipped.
"So, yeah. I know. You're quite a powerful fighter aren't you? How many dungeons in the span of just hours before going home to manage business?"
"Don't joke around too much. I'm just average. I'm just not comfortable with dungeons laying there without being destroyed all these years is all."
"I understand now why. I guess you're taking it out on the dungeons, your anger for your master's death?"
"… you could say that." Gideon shut his mouth. Rebecca really was too smart. Just from the few minutes he'd been inattentive, she figured out what he did and made a connection from that to his master.
It wasn't totally wrong as well. He was angry at the evil god's monsters that came from the dungeons that claimed the life of his master because it was left too long without being destroyed just like what the Earth's organizations are doing.
"Anyhow, from now on, I'm assigning more security details to protect you and your family 24/7."
"Thanks, Becca. You're the best."
"Hmph! Just cook for me a meal later, and we're even!"
"Eh? Aren't you doing this because it's your boss is being targeted?"
"Bastard! I'll fight you!" her fake anger got Gideon to smile and chuckle. She was too cute.
"Okay, okay. I'll cook later. Join us for dinner. Let me call home first then."
"Okay."
Gideon did as he said and called home. "Hello, mom. It seems you expressly left out that Becca was working in the company, didn't you? You know she's been aiming for me for a long time now right? Okay, okay. I was joking. Anyway, she's coming for dinner. Prepare the kitchen for me, I'll cook for us tonight. Thanks, mom. Love you."
Click.
"Okay, okay. I was joking as well, stop pinching my sides now, okay?"
"This is your punishment! How dare you tell your mom, I've been aiming for you! It's you who's aiming for me! Humph!"
"Okay, okay. You're right. You win."
"Humph!"
The journey this time was relatively peaceful. The driver also had to isolate his thoughts or he'd be fed dog food by the sweetness of the couple at the back.
"We've arrived. Sir, ma'am."
Click. Click.
They both alighted and was greeted by someone that recognized Rebecca immediately.
"President! Hello!"
"Jane! How's your workshop been doing lately?"
"It's all the same! We perform the same task every week that it's become boring actually. I've been contracted by the blacksmith god, yet, I can only use my talent on these unsophisticated things. A waste of the god's talent."
"I like your perspective, miss. Hello. I'm Gideon Johnsons, Deborah Johnsons' brother. Are you the producer that we were scheduled to meet?"
"He's our new boss. Debbie gave her position to him."
"Is that so? And Becca, you know him… personally?"
"Ahem… yes. That's not important. Go ahead and answer your boss!"
"Ah! Boss, my name's Jane. I am the producer you've scheduled to meet. Becca trusts me and that's the first and most important requirement for this meeting, am I right?"
"Yes, yes. Nice to meet you. We'll be handling dragon bones, so I want you to learn from me a new production method. Have you handled, dragon bones before?"
"Not to brag, but I've handled precious materials before. This dragon's bones won't be any different."
"I beg to differ, miss Jane. Can I ask someone to bring the dragon's femur here, please? I'll show you something you'll need to learn to become the new face of the company, I mean, your produced item as the face of the company."
"Really?!" When Jane heard Gideon wanted her products to be the face of the company, she was greatly heartened!
"I'm certain. However, how that would happen, would depend on how fast you are at learning from me."
"I will definitely pass your tests and learn a new method!"
"Good. I like your enthusiasm. Well then, let's start."
When the bone arrived at the workshop owned and managed by Jane, Gideon immediately started forging something from it. Dragon bones were not really made of calcium unlike the human bones. Dragon bones are more metal-like than bones.
So processing it needed heat that can melt tungsten alloy into liquid and more. When the heat was at its most optimum, Jane took note and continued to watch without much fuss. Gideon next, melted the dragon femur into a vat of liquefied highly valuable material.
Next, he took a mold and poured the liquefied dragon bones into it and cooled it after. When it was done. He broke the mold to reveal its new shape.
It was a sword. A longsword that was designed to be well-balanced. Gideon took the now molded sword and started heating it again to beat it into the a better shape. The originally thick and wide sword from the mold became thinner and narrower.
In the end, the sword was beaten into a smaller version of the mold. However, the material was even more compact than when it was just bone. The folds on it showed as well after an hour of beating it and folding it and beating it again and again.
In the end, the sword looked so good. It was previously a long sword but now, it looked like Gladius' length and balance, but with the same design as the mold. Then, after beating it into shape, it was cooled and sharpened and tested.
It all passed Gideon's standard so he left that for now and went on to build the hilt. Nothing too fancy. He took a piece of the tailbone and melted it. Then it was turned into the simplest hilt and guard. Attached to the blade and it was done… or so, Jane and Rebecca thought.
"Well then, all I did earlier were normal production techniques, nothing to learn there except the heat level to melt the bones, right, Jane?"
"R-Right!"
"Well then, what I'm going to teach you, must never leak outside of us three or maybe four, with my sister included. Understood? For further security for both you and me and everyone involved, let's sign a contract first, okay?"
"Eh??? Okay, okay!" Jane hurriedly agreed. To learn from someone like Gideon who did not even make mistakes and even improved on some of her knowledge as she watched him, was something even more valuable. So, she agreed without much fuss.
When they finished signing the contracts, Rebecca kept the documents and Jane led them to a more secure inner workshop within.
"This is better. Okay, I'll teach you about enchantment."
Gideon then taught Jane about enchantment and its intricacies before teaching her to draw one particular enchantment on paper first. Once drawn, the paper showed effects that surprised Jane, and even Rebecca who knew nothing about production.
"Wow!"
"Right? That's the kind of brand I want the company to have. Every piece of item that comes out of your workshop must have this engraved beneath the hilt-part of the blade to hide it from plain sight. Once you master this, I will teach you another one to further reinforce the branding of your workshop and so the company in the end."
"I will! I will master it as soon as possible!"
The paper that had one of its corner cut off, started to repair itself after the drawn enchantment shone. This was the scene that had Rebecca and Jane gasping.
"This is called Auto-repair Enchantment. It's the most basic enchantment I can teach you. So you must master it before I teach you another one."
"Yes, yes! I will definitely master it!"
"Okay. I will put this enchantment of the sword I made. Sell this at an auction at a sky high price, Becca. It doesn't matter if it gets sold or not. Just demonstrate its uniqueness. You know what to do."
"I know, boss."
"Alright. We're done here. And Jane, are you close with Debbie as well?"
"Yes, sir! We are sort of best friends!"
"I see. Becca, shall we invite her over for dinner as well then?"
"I see no problem with that." Rebecca smiled.
"Okay. Jane, come with us for dinner. Study the enchantment more later." Gideon then burned the paper with his thought before leaving. The sword had been handed to a secured transporting subsidiary company of theirs. That same night, the world yet again stirred because of Gideon's actions, albeit, one was direct and the other was indirect.
Everything was going smoothly. At the Johnsons' residence, Gideon had brought two women. One was the President of the company, and the other, an S-Class Producer that contracted with the company. They both were by Gideon's side.
Deborah who saw them, initially had a big smile, however, when she realized that they were two beautiful and illegible bachelorettes, her expression turned grim.
"Ahem. Becca, Jane. Welcome. Brother, I didn't know you'd go with them?" She asked in an almost interrogatory tone.
"Squirt, stop frowning. You'll scare your guests away. Their not my guest they're yours. Now take care of them as I cook our dinner."
"B-Bu-But!"
"No buts! Besides, what if both of then become your sister-in-laws in the future, you'll really frown all the day long forever?" Gideon laughed as he said that joke that he knew would put the two ladies on the spot with his sister. He was evil like this.
"Gideon Johnson!" Rebecca yelled at him as he walked away understanding his intention.
"Eh?" Jane was more of the innocent type who wasn't really an innocent woman. "Could I have charmed the boss with my looks?"
"You wish, Jane!" Deborah yelled at her as she came and grabbed her face to stretch it.
"I'm not going to let my brother be deceived by you gals! You'll have to undergo my tests if you want to get together with my brother!" She declared. When she yelled this as well, was when their parents came down as the commotion was deafening in this all too tranquil mansion.
"Deborah Johnsons! Watch your manners when they are guests! Come now ladies, let's go to the parlor and have some refreshments. And Debbie, dear, are you still on about that test or whatever you prepared for when your brother gets a girlfriend, hasn't it been more than 10 years already?"
"Mom!" Deborah called out.
Their father just laughed on the side as he left the ladies to do what they wanted. He went to the kitchen to support his son.
"Hey, son. What are you preparing for us tonight?"
"Hey, dad. I'm just going for simple dishes tonight. I've prepared the wine as well, look forward to it."
"Oh, really? I will look forward to that."
"I'll be cooking now, so go relax or something, dad."
"I will. I will." Gideon's father left the kitchen and did one of his hobbies, taking care of the garden.
Gideon poured everything he had into cooking and the smell of the food wafted over the parlor, the garden, the servant's quarters and the neighborhood. Being a grandmaster of the art of cooking and of alchemy, Gideon could very well be the best in the universe when it came to cooking. Unless of course, there were others who excelled more.
"What is this smell? This is heavenly!" Father was attracted to it but was still able to control himself. The others though, lost it.
"Brother is cooking, does this smell come from the kitchen?! Brother's cooking is the best!"
"What is this unbelievably appetizing smell! Deon's cooking up a storm! Literally!"
"Son, don't do too well or your future wives would not feel good about themselves later." Mother was whispering to herself as she wiped the imaginary sweat on her forehead.
Everything was peaceful at the Johnsons residence. However, the world was fighting over one item that showed incredible abilities. This was the first time that a sword, or any object in the world for that matter, show such an ability!
"This is Johnsons Enterprise's Johnsons Forging Technologies' debut product that they want to show the world. They tasked this humble auctioneer to convey their words to the world: 'Johnsons Forging Technologies will be selling this brand from today forth. Orders will be limited per production and only 1 item per organization is allowed. There will be no bargaining. The price will remain to be negotiable unless you provide the materials for the item you wish to produce.' That is all, ladies and gentlemen!
"Tonight's main event! The 'Nameless Sword' of Johnsons Forging Technologies! Base price of 100 million, bidding increments of 1 million only. The bid's winner is given the privilege of naming the first sword of many in a series.
"The series has been named already, but the name of the item has yet been registered! The name of the Series is Dragon Champion's Doom Series.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, let us open the bidding for this item at 100 million!"
The moment the auctioneer opened the right of bidding, the whole auction house turned into a wet market-like ruckus! The bigwigs and bigshots fought with their money and pride on the line. This sword was too good to pass up on. One after the other, the lacking bowed their head in shame as they stopped bidding after reaching their limits.
To the overflowing though, the game was just starting. When the lacking stopped bidding, the bid was already at 3 billion. The overflowing with wealth considered this pocket change as well, so they continued bidding until the last one was standing.
The last one who bid 50 billion for the sword was none other than the swordsman family famously called the Musashi Clan.
Just from the luster of the blade on it, the master swordsman of the clan decided to spend their every dime to purchase the sword. Then they succeeded and paid for the sword after the auction was over.
The moment they did, something happened on the other side of the city.
{Gained 50 billion dollars from auctioning the Dragon Champion's Doom Series': Heaven Splitting Dragon Fang of Earth.}
{Ten Orders of Magnitude in Gains activating.}
{Gained 500 quintillion dollars in the Johnsons Enterprise's Bank Account ending in 5327 on XX-XX-2022. New Account balance is 500,000,000,000,594,060,641.00}
Then a text message came to all related people. Rebecca received the text, Mother and Father received it, Deborah received and Gideon received it as well. However, they were all too immersed into the world of food because of Gideon's cooking that they ignored their phones.
It was only after the world had turned silent did, they all scream one after another because of the money that came in. Because of this, Gideon also learned his lesson and applied for an account with a bank the very next day.
The money transferred to him and gained via the passive ability had the added effect of making the whole universe believe everything was in order. Documents for it, and records also appeared out of thin air and it was all proof that Gideon received it legally.
"Damn. It's too dangerous to have this continue!" And so that was decided. Without anyone else knowing about this matter, the fact that the Johnsons could buy the whole world with their wealth was only known to 5 people altogether.
However, the night was still young when the auction finished. The fight for the sword was yet over. And the battle for profit with the dungeons was unresolved. Gideon knew he had to do something about it. Competition was still good for the world, however, Gideon decided to clean up those dungeons that were being kept for a decade already to avoid a catastrophe.
Regarding the sword, the Musashi Clan scion had been ambushed by at least 20 groups that hears of their winning the sword. However, with the scion's skills with the sword and the sword itself, he was able to fend for himself.
Now that their family had the sword in their possession, the position of strongest sword in the world has been cemented. With their cunning as well, they began to draft plans to bring their clan and the Johnsons together through an alliance or a merger of both families. Carrying the title of strongest sword practitioners in the world and the S-Class Fighter Comet Shot, the Musashi and Johnsons would become the most powerful allied families in the world!
So, they sent a marriage proposal to the Johnsons which was immediately rejected by Deborah without any deliberation from the family.
Seeing as this failed, they sent a letter of cooperation with Johnsons Enterprise's CEO Gideon Johnsons who took over recently and proposed an outrageous yet genius idea that had made Gideon think properly on it.
Their proposal was like such: "We the Musashi Clan, would like to keep the title of Strongest Sword Practitioners of the world. And because of this, the clan badly requests that any Katana made by the Johnsons Forging Technologies be sent to the Musashi Clan exclusively.
"Through this, the Musashi Clan is highly willing to become a vassal family for the Johnsons. Acting as bodyguards for the most powerful people in he world, the Johnsons.
"This alliance will be sacred for all generations to come until 100 generations pass on the Musashi Clan. This is the sincerity of the clan towards a cooperative relationship with the Johnsons!"
The document was read well, by the end of it, Gideon felt that it would not be too bad to have extra security around his family.
"I will think some more about it. Let's let the reply simmer for a while."
Gideon put the letter down and set it on the desk.
"Jane's production of the enchantment should be coming along now. I guess it's time to teach her another one. This time, I'll add a simple formation to the Auto-repair enchantment.
"What would be a good formation? Offensive, defensive, illusion, movement, or just plain old enhancement formations?"
"Now that I think about it, isn't this fun, what I'm doing?"
Gideon had such a sudden thought. After all, he'd been fighting non-stop in the other world. All his breaks were converted to training or even cultivating, and he'd never felt so relaxed and laid back like now.
"If it's like this, I should just help them grow to be reliable enough for my little sister. The squirt is also improving. My daily training with her has shown incredible results as well. She's like a sponge. At this rate, she'll need at most 5 years to fully surpass my level of expertise in combat. I look forward to it."
On the other hand, Jane who was learning the enchantment Gideon left her was still studying when a loud knock, no, more of a smashing noise disrupted her learning process.
"What's with the security today? They can't even handle these noisy neighbors." Jane complained. She got up and opened the door intending to scold the security and the neighbors. Don't they know how important my studies are? She thought righteously.
However, as soon as she opened the door without restraint, her face was blocked by a shadow. If one did not look properly they would think it was a wall.
"W-What the…?" Jane stammered as she stepped back to see what's wrong and saw the wall become a person.
"Who are you?! What do you want?" Jane raised her voice like this while she hurriedly burnt all the enchantment practice papers and tools. She was a rather cautious person. It didn't matter what they did to her, as long as the knowledge wasn't stolen, Gideon wouldn't blame her. Is what she thought.
The giant behind the door did not see this but he heard the panic and fear in Jane's voice and felt good about himself. He was sent here by his boss to kidnap the producer who manufactured the Heaven Splitting Dragon Fang of Earth. And they suspected that it came from here judging from the timing of Gideon's visit to this workshop and the auction. It didn't take a mathematician to figure this out.
With the producer, they would have monopoly and the brand itself would become theirs instead of the puny Johnsons Enterprise!
Tap, tap, tap.
"Are you trying to call someone? Your boss? Even if Ms. Debbie is an S-Class Fighter she'd need at least 60 minutes to make it here in a rush. In fact, it would be good too. Since that way, we can negotiate with her as fast." The giant mocked.
The giant did not even care that Jane would call his boss, that would be better. They were planning on calling her anyway. If she broke down after hearing Jane being tortured, surely, she would give in.
"Bastards!" Jane said, even until now, the giant was still underestimating her. She wasn't calling her 'former' boss, but the desk mate of her 'current' boss, Rebecca. In fact, Rebecca had already rushed to Gideon's office to let him hear what was being said on the other end.
"You want to kidnap me for the sword that was auctioned, is that it?!"
"Yes. Once we have you, the brand will be ours."
"Heh, a brainless giant like you would not even know… I—" When Jane was about to tell them that she was not the one who owned that enchantment, a grave voice sounded by her side, it was from the phone.
"Don't…" Gideon's voice resounded. It was heard by the giant and immediately, he felt like he should move now, fast. His instinct told him that if he stayed longer, he would not live to see another day.
And he was right. Gideon was seething. It was good that he managed to stop Jane from divulging such important piece of information. If she told them that she was not the original owner of the enchantment, she'd die right there. That was not what Gideon wanted for her.
Boom!
The giant tore through the wall and charged towards Jane to take her now and run. Jane was so scared that she fell on her butt and started shivering. When his arm was within Jane's arm reach, the voice over the phone sounded again, "Hey, giant ass wipe. Call your men off and disappear from this city never to come back again. If you don't within the next minute, I will personally come and you will have nothing but your own stupidity to blame for what happens."
It was not a threatening voice full of yelling. It was cool, collected, and as smooth as some playboy flirting with women all day long, yet this, to the giant, was as if a flirting by the embodiment of death itself.
No one would flirt with death unless they are daredevils! The giant's hand froze mid-air and it was retracted even faster than when he went to grab Jane. His running back and the thudding ground left Jane feeling like she just had been a victim of an episode in Scare Tactics.
"What… happened?"
"Jane, clean up and immediately come to the HQ, I want to speak to you in person."
"Y-Yes, boss…" Jane was in a daze. What just happened? What did I just hear and witness?