"The guest of honor, Dark Viscount Faceless Ancient, has arrived!"
When the announcement was made, everyone's attention was drawn to Jacob. There were around fifteen guests present except Jacob, and they were all probably personal members of Dark Earl Rank of Dark City because Heath was also present. With his soul elevated, Jacob could sense their hidden prowess, at least a tier-8 unique rank.
At this moment, a tall, handsome, middle-aged man with short green hair, adored in white formal attire, walked towards Jacob with a broad smile and a wine glass in his hand.
"Haha, Dark Viscount, welcome, and thank you for accepting this Marquis's invitation. I'm honored by your presence!" Fulwood greeted with a hearted smile.
Although Fulwood was around 2.4 meters tall, he still fell short in front of 20-meter Jacob; he was the tallest person present in this place.
"It should be me saying this. Thank you for putting such effort into me, Your Highness; I'm humbled to be here." Jacob nodded and smilingly stated.
"Hahaha, you are making me embarrassed, Sir Faceless Ancient. You are the hero of our Dark City. Come, let me introduce you to others. They are excited to meet me and gather here, especially for you. Even I don't have such a face." Fulwood replied with a content smile before he led Jacob to meet with the other guests.
Just as Jacob expected, they were all Dark Earls of the Dark City, and they belonged to the Fulwood faction or at least had some relationship with him.
However, with Jacob's current senses, he felt hidden hostility from four dark earls despite their warm smiles. Jacob secretly noted their appearances and names while greeting them with a smile.
After the introduction, Fulwood led everyone to the huge dining table, which was filled with scrumptious delicacies and rare wine.
Fulwood took the main set at the table, and with him was another chair for the guest of honor, Jacob.
Suddenly, a yellowish hobgoblin with tiger-like black strips on his skin spoke. He was Dark Earl Tigerstrip. "Sir Faceless Ancient, I've heard you are an ascender. Is that true?"
This drew everyone's attention as they looked at Jacob, waiting for his response, and some of them were even startled since they clearly didn't know about this fact.
'This guy is using others to get information out of me?' Jacob easily saw through Fulwood's tactics.
He knew this information was only available to someone like Fulwood, and from Zoe, he had already gotten an idea of what kind of shrewd person Fulwood was, so he wasn't surprised by this question.
Jacob nodded before coolly replying, "Indeed, I'm from the Epic Plains, and because I was fortunate enough to become the sole champion of the Epic Plains trial, I was able to break past my limit. So, I would ask everyone not to laugh at my humble background."
"What? You even cleared the Epic Plains Trial all by yourself? I only thought it was just a myth." Heath exclaimed, who was sitting on the first chair on the right side of the table. His eyes shimmered with respect.
"Haha, I can back Sir Faceless Ancient's claim here. That's why he's so special. Let me offer you a toss for your peerless achievement, Dark Viscount!" Fulwood raised his glass to Jacob.
"Thank you, and please call me Jack, I insist." Jacob also raised his glass with everyone.
"Sir Jack, I deeply admire your strength and how you took the trash of the Star Hackers. But I'm quite curious about why they would attack you so fiercely. Just what kind of grudge do you have against them?" A sharp-faced dark elf suddenly spoke with a smile. He was one of the four with deep hostility; he was Dark Earl Yisrael.
"Yeah, I also wanted to know this, Jack. It is unheard of that those sly bastards dare to expose themselves like this. But if you don't want to answer, we can fully understand since everyone has their own secrets." Fulwood also chimed in.
This was the only thing that no one could put their fingers on it.
Jacob took a large bit out of a peak unique rank roosted beast and answered, "No, it wasn't a secret, actually, and I think you guys have the right to know since this also disrupted the peace of the Dark City, so I feel obliged for what happened.
"The truth is, in Epic Plains, I unknowingly sold a powerful weapon to a Star Hacker, and then later, that weapon was used in a terrorist attack on the Star Network. Since they were able to succeed in that attack, I fell under the scrutiny of the SAAI.
"So, after that, I never sold my weapons again, but they have been hunting me for my weapon technology ever since. But I never expected not only they didn't give up in the Unique Plains, but they would be even bold enough to attack me in the Dark City directly.
"Now that I've taken care of them, they will be even more adamant about getting my technology, so I would like to ask everything to please forgive me if something like this happens again."
Jacob has guessed that all the information related to him in the epic plains is already in the hands of the Dark Duke. So, he decided to use this information to create a lie that would describe the enmity between him and the star hackers.
It was a very believable lie. Now, everyone would think that Jacob was a weapon smith, and their focus would also turn to his weapons instead of his ridiculous rate of growth.
Still, it wasn't easy to completely fool these high-level figures who were living far longer than him, even if he combined both of his life's worth of years.
"Oh, I didn't think you were an alchemist, and by your words, it seemed you are at least at the level of a Great Elder." Fulwood's eyes shone sharply as he looked at Jacob.
"You're giving me too much credit, your highness. I'm still a little bit away from crossing this boundary. In fact, I came here to practice my alchemy skills with the help of Dark City resources. Believe it or not, I didn't have the knowledge to raise my skills until I joined the Dark City. So, I'm quite grateful," Jacob smilingly replied.
"Sir Jack, you're too humble. Since even the Star Hackers crave your weapons, this means you are not just a typical alchemist. How about you show us your creation? If they can really meet such standards, we might even be willing to buy them with Dark Credits!" Another giant in the gathering spoke with a sharp smile. He was another one who had hidden hostility for Jacob. He was Dark Earl Ramiro, and his status was just slightly lower than Heath's.
Jacob glanced at Ramiro before shaking his head, "Even if I want to, I can't sell my weapons to anyone anymore. As I've told you, because of the attack on Star Network involving my weapon, I fell under Star Network scrutiny and was even detained for investigation.
"Although I managed to prove my innocence, I was banned from intentionally revealing my weapons to others, much less selling any weapon for 100 years to anyone. So, I'll apologize; I can't go through with Dark Earl's request."
When the Star Network was involved, everyone shut their mouths and stopped talking about Jacob's weapons. Jacob had already decided to create a false protection net by using the Star Network for himself and not revealing anything about his weapons.
He no longer needs ZC or DC, so he was not going to expose his trump cards easily—especially if there was a chance that someone might connect his atomic weapons with that explosion in the Dead Faction Territory!
The banquet lasted for three hours, and everyone asked Jacob something, and he replied almost everything without hesitation. Even someone like Fulwood started wondering if their conjecture about Jacob was precise!