Chapter 48: Forging
They talked about other stuff till they reached the portal. Most of it was Merlin telling Shadow of his exploits in various games before vita-nova. All Shadow did was listen to him ramble on about his achievements.
As they reached the portal, Shadow removed the items he got out of the two black iron treasure chests. He got a pair of black iron hand and leg cloth armor with one having a 10% more magic damage special feature and the other has a special skill which heals about 50 HP of the character.
Merlin immediately equipped them. "Now let us go to the Tailor you talked about. We need to make some purchases."
"You are almost fully equipped already. You have cloth armor covering hands, legs, chest and back. What more do you need?"
"I want the adventurer's cloak that you are wearing."
"Hmm. Come on," said Shadow taking him to Lydia. He asked Lydia to show the clothes she made and the display of clothes appeared in front of Shadow.
"It costs 80 coppers," said Shadow asking Merlin to give the money.
"Can't you get this one for me. I am a little low on cash."
"Don't you think that if I had that much, I would have equipped myself with better gear."
"Oh," said Merlin giving him the 80 coppers. Shadow bought the cloak and gave him 16 coppers back. "I get 20% off on all purchases in the village."
"So, that's how you plan on getting profit from Blue."
Shadow simply nodded his head in agreement. "I have other quests to complete. You can join the team if you want to."
"Yeah. I will go meet up with my cousin," said Merlin as he went out of the village gate.
Now that they have another member with them. Shadow could leave it to Merlin to maintain the teams leveling speed and strength.
He immediately went to Kade to submit refined iron ore for the quest "Kade's Demand". He had more than 6 stacks of refined iron-ore. He immediately started giving refined iron-ores to Kade. After receiving 25 refined iron ores, a notification popped up in front of him.
"Quest Completed: Kade's Demand: Provided 25 refined iron ores.
Refined Iron Ores collected: 25
Performance: Outstanding"
"+200 experience points, +80 coppers."
This burst of experience points along with the ones he gained from the hell mode dungeon of the Corrupted Forest gained him enough to level up again. He was directly put into level 4.
Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human)
Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village
Title: None
Job: Assassin
Level: 4
Exp: 70/1200
HP: 2000/2000; MP: 650/650;
Physical Attack: 70
Defense: 51; Attack Speed: 38; Movement Speed: 40; Willpower: 14; Balance: 22; Focus/Search: 28; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 9; Luck: *; Charm: *;
Attributes: Strength 35, Agility 30, Endurance 18, Intelligence 14, Vitality 28, Perception 13.
No Special Racial Attributes or weakness.
Free Attributes Points: 6
"I am impressed by how resourceful you are adventurer. Do you know what a person requires the most to become a successful blacksmith? It is resources. Once, you have enough resource you can practice. With enough practice and a good eye, anyone can become a good blacksmith."
"Adventurer, I wish to take you as my apprentice. What do you say?"
"It would be my privilege to learn the art of smithing, master Kade."
"It is good that you are enthusiastic about this adventurer. I will take you in as my apprentice," said Kade giving him a silver colored box.
System: Kade has accepted you as his apprentice. Gained Silver ranked blacksmith apprentice kit. Gained the title Blacksmith Kade's in-name apprentice.
"Though I have accepted you as an apprentice, you still need to prove yourself. I am an honorary elder of the Forging association of the White Heart Kingdom. You need to improve your smithing level as soon as possible. You will be my in-name apprentice for now. If I am not satisfied, I will withdraw your apprenticeship."
New quest: Forging talent. Impress Blacksmith Kade by improving your Forging proficiency. Become an Intermediate Forging Apprentice.
Time Limit: 2 months.
Balthazar was very satisfied by the blacksmith kit he received. But he was very shocked by the quest that he got along with the apprenticeship of Kade. He never heard of this from the forum which Mr. Miner told him.
He immediately checked the title that he received from the quest. Title were very useful. They usually provided percentage advantages for various attributes.
Blacksmith Kade's In-name apprentice: The title provides you 10% off on Basic Forging Rooms and Intermediate Forging Rooms. It will also grant you the status of a third-grade citizen in the White Heart KIngdom and 5% discount at trade organizations in White Heart kingdom.
This was the first title he received in the game. He had a few ideas on gaining titles in the game. But none of them were before he left the village to enter the white heart city. Though it looked like the title gave him a lot of advantages. It wasn't actually so. Other than the 10% off in booking forging rooms, he already had all the rest due to his reputation in White Heart Kingdom.
"Master Kade, can I know where I could get hold of a proper forging room with a furnace?" asked Shadow.
"There is a forging room behind my shop. It is just a basic one, but you can use it at the same price as the ones in the Forging Association if they are full."
"Thank You, Master," said Shadow and left the market street and went towards the Forging association. It was just the beginning of the game and the only a few independent members and the members of the guild invested in developing their forging skills.
Being just a village, the forging association had only a few 30 Basic Forging rooms and 5 intermediate ones. "I better get around to the forging room fast if I want to avail the discount on the forging rooms," thought Balthazar.
He had only two designs with him now. One was the light bow and the other the Goblin shield. He had enough Iron ore and blackrock crystals to make them. But that alone wasn't enough he also needed magic essence and stones which were usually found from the Arwild forest.
He only had 3 hours left and he had no intentions to spend it killing monsters in the Arwild Forest. He realized that he needed to plan ahead to avoid such situations. He no longer had a guild where he could easily get the required materials. He immediately called for Merlin. "He had spent time doing a special quest there, he definitely would have some of the materials," thought Balthazar.
"I have a few materials that you want. But I am quite far away from the village now. Ask Blue about the materials. He will provide them. I will talk to him," replied Merlin.
A few seconds later he got a call from Blue Dart. "How many do you need?" asked Blue Dart directly.
"I need about 50 stones and 30 magic essenses."
"Only those? What are you making magic stones?"
"No. Of course, not. I got the remaining materials. I got a design for level 3 shield."
"Black Iron shield? I could use some of those. Are you sure you can make them."
"Yes. But lack the materials from Arwild Forest. Didn't go to the forest. So, lack the magic essenses and stones."
"Oh, so you got the design from the dungeon?"
"No. If you are satisfied with the information I provided, can we discuss about the materials."
"I will get someone to deliver you the materials in a few minutes costing a silver. That should be enough to create a few equipment. I hope you can sell us a few."
"Yes, I can provide a black iron bow also. Let me make a few attempts then I can give you a proper value depending on the amount of resources and attempts I needed to make the equipment."
"OK. I will have my guys deliver you some materials. Where are you?"
"I will be at the Forging association. Send them in twenty minutes or so. I will be working on equipment with the materials that I have," said Shadow cutting the call.
The forging association was a two-storey building. The first floor had about 20 basic forging rooms and the second had the remaining forging rooms. There were already few guild members at the reception waiting in line for the forging rooms.
There are only 30 basic forging rooms at the forging association which could hardly support the growing population of the game. One of the silliest things done by the Metis Technologies was to underestimate the growth of the players joining the game. There was an exponential growth overnight.
This caused a crisis of space, especially for the trade profession players. The players waiting in front of the forging association were grumbling about the same.
"The damn price of these forging rooms are outrageous. 5 coppers an hour! I hardly have any left for materials."
"Yes, it looks like the independent players can hardly prosper, if it continues to be like this."
"It isn't easy for us guild members either. We were given only 30 to 40 coppers. The farming teams aren't able to successfully adapt to the game. It is much worse for us. Forging here is far too realistic with a high failure rate."
"How come the basic forging rooms are all full. Instead of the 5 intermediate forging rooms, they could have put in more basic ones which we would use."
"Stupid system why waste resources on an intermediate forge which no one would use."
As they were bickering about the unfairness of the system, Shadow was calmly walking towards the attendant at the reception of the forging association.
"Oy! What do you think we have been standing in line for. We are all in waiting for the forging rooms," ridiculed someone from behind.
"Ya, do we look like idiots to you?"
Shadow didn't pay any attention to them as he reached the attendant NPC. "I would like to rent an intermediate forging room for one hour please," he requested the attendant.
The NPC which looked bored from telling the players that basic forging rooms are not available, suddenly got an elated expression on its face. Finally, someone who wants to have an intermediate forging room. Now, it actually got a chance to get some decent amount from a bigwig.
"That will be 50 coppers an hour," it said looking at Shadow. Noticing his title it immediately added, "Esteemed sir would get a discount of 5 coppers."
Shadow immediately paid 45 coppers to the attendant and obtained the key to the intermediate forging room. The players around who were ridiculing him stood aghast in shock.
"It is these kind of nouveau riche that waste their money on coin so early in the game," said an independent player.
"You kidding?! It is impossible to exchange money for coins at this stage. It must be some kind of expert to get this kind of funding for forging," said another guy shutting them all up.
Shadow paid no heed to any of their comments. He quickly reached the floor and got into the nearest intermediate forging room. He wanted to open and see what he would get from the silver blacksmith kit.
Once inside the room, he quickly opened to check the kit. There were three items inside.
[Basic Forging Manual] (Tool)
Written by Human GrandMaster Whitney of the White Heart Kingdom in her youth.
Provides an explanation of the basic Forging Techniques. Provides an increase in the success rate of Bronze equipment by 20%, Black Iron equipment by 30% and 50% for common equipment.
[Basic Forging Hammer] (Bronze Forging Hammer)
Gives 5% more experience points on successful forging of equipment and weapons.
[Kade's Insignia] (Bronze Badge)
Forged by Kade to help aspiring and resourceful blacksmith to improve their talent quickly.
Provides a fixed increase of 3 proficiency points for every successful forging of armor or weapon.
This was the most valuable of all the three rewards from the quest, Kade's demand. The badge is the one that allowed Mr. Miner to improve his forging proficiency quickly. In general, every successful forging has only about 50% chance to gain a point in forging proficiency. This chance increases as higher ranked equipment are created. But this could hardly match the proficiency gained from the badge till one becomes an advanced apprentice.
Shadow immediately equipped the badge. He went over the manual to check if it had the same information that he heard of in his past life. It was more or less the same stuff he knew about handling various metals and other resources and small tips.
But it only covered the resources which were available in the starting areas of the game and not the ultra rare resources either. But still it included some useful stuff like the list of optimum temperature to heat for removal of the impurities from resources or the list of optimum temperature at which to temper or shape the metals.
Still it allowed him a lot of advantage over the other trade profession players. He checked the design for the light bow and realized that it was a lot easier than he had expected. It didn't even require the iron ore to be purified/refined.
In the intermediate forging room, he had a few advantages over the basic forging room. The first was better and greater set of lathe machines and forging tools for various purposes like various kinds of tongs, chisels, fullers, flatters, swage blocks, blower/cooler and casts of various basic shapes. The other was that the temperature of the forge can be manually checked with a sensory device. This is very useful.
The third and the most important is the tier 1 mystic fire that is provided as the forge fire. The mystic fire can be controlled at the forge to the proper shape and intensity required for the product. The fourth was that it also provided a proper magic stylus to carve runes and magic pathways on the equipment. But for the black Iron equipment he wouldn't need the stylus at all.
He had quickly placed the iron ore in the melting pot and started up the forge fire. The mystic fire was deep blue in color with small sparks jumping out of it occasionally. Balthazar immediately recognized the fire to be the tier 1 mystic fire, the Blue glitter fire.
[Blue Glitter Fire] (Tier 1 Mystic Flame):
Can provide very high temperatures. It can also be used for forging. Items, tools or equipment treated with it tend to have improved magic conductance.
This fire was considered to be among the top three of the tier 1 flames for the purpose of forging. It was especially sought after to create magic orientated tools and equipment.
The iron ore placed in the pot began to melt within the minute under the heat of the Blue glitter fire. He added the Blackrock crystal pieces to the molten metal which quickly dissolved in it.
He slowly reduced the temperature and poured the metal in a cast in shape of a thin rod. After the temperature reduced a bit, he pulled out the metal on shape of rod from the cast. He then took it towards a filing and tapering machine and slowly removed required amount of metal from the rod to produce rod like tapered structure with pointed ends.
He took this to the anvil and again used the Blue glitter fire to soften it. He finally got to use his forging hammer along with other to bend it into the appropriate shape of a recurve bow and then he let it slowly cool down to the room temperature.
Though Balthazar had worked on smithing in his previous life, it was for a small time and he never made a bow. He was very satisfied by the result of his efforts. Even if it didn't have the perfect shape, once the system analyses it, the proper corrections to the shape and balance would be made automatically.
He immediately placed it on the anvil and selected the option for inspection. A green colored loading bar appeared beside it as the system was analyzing it. After a few seconds a notification sounded out.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Shanmukha
Shanmukha Hi All,
I have just started writing recently. This is my first attempt at a light novel. Please, take a few moments to write comment or review it. Both criticism and encouragements are welcome.
Sorry for the delay in the chapters. I am currently in travel.
-Thanks for reading.
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