Chapter 21: Back to the forge

Ameanum told them how to get access to a teleportation station that would allow them to teleport to the North Kingdom that Carda was. However, they were currently in the East Kingdom, which was very far. Even the time zone between each was different, and that is why it was late at night at Carda but evening at Picton.

It would take some time to get there, but they would be there in a week, in-game time with his tips.

They continued going through the cave and encountered more parties of goblins, similar to those faced with a slight difference at their level here and there. They were between three to seven in number. Still, only one among them with shortswords was always the highest in level, while the rest had daggers or wooden clubs.

After repeating that for the next two hours, Ameanum decided that enough time passed, and it was time for him to end his SPECTATOR MODE and return to be an NPC.

After giving tips on both of them for their training and level up some skills, they returned to town. Then he went to an alley where no one was and exited SPECTATOR MODE.

After the familiar feeling of changing body, he was this time laying on the bed, and his sister seemed to have woken up and brushed her hair in front of the mirror.

"Good morning, little brother. Father came just a few minutes ago and said that he would wait for you at the shop. He left early to make some preparations and check what you did, he said." [Annoue]

It was pretty early in the morning. Shingi didn't expect Garry to be awake at that point, mainly since he wasn't back when he started his SPECTATOR MODE.

He stood up, and after making sure that Annoue remembered how to use her Enchantment trinket, he started his way toward the shop, but not before having a simple breakfast.

He opened his Status to see if anything had changed since he enabled SPECTATOR MODE on his way there.

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STATUS

NAME: Shingi Maki

CLASS: None

PROFESSION: Scholar Master

RACE: Blessed Human

HP: 50/50

SP: 20/20

MP: 32/32

STR: 10

AGI: 10

END: 10

INT: 16

CHA: 4

MANA POOL: Earth and Light Category

SKILLS

Base Rank: VISUALIZATION, MANA MANIPULATION, MANA SENSE, STEALTH, SMITHING, ACCELERATION, MARTIAL ART

Master Rank: PERCEPTION, IMPROVISED THROW WEAPON

SPELLS

Ungraded: FILTH EATER, MINOR ILLUSION, LIGHT,

Low Grade: MANA HAND, ROCK THROW

BLESSINGS: Blessing of ??????, Blessing of Dlog

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It seemed like his repetitive use of his ACCELERATION skill and throwing rocks with the help of MARTIAL ART to control his damage have made them available to him. His IMPROVISED THROW WEAPON skill ranked up also even if it didn't level up at his Player form, since he couldn't gain levels at his Skills since he was considered a spirit. His STEALTH didn't change at all, but he didn't use it as much as the other Skills. No change at his PERCEPTION that he had active, pretty much all the time.

He could feel the effect of his new skills, and he should train with them cause even if they were available to him, he was used to using them in a different body, so he had to adjust some moves.

He made it in the shop, and getting in it seemed to be pretty much as he left it just Garry was here organizing some different materials on the desk.

"You are finally here. Good work with the shop. It looks better than it was for quite some time. Now let's work on your SMITHING skill." [Garry]

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QUEST COMPLETED: CLEANING BLACKSMITH SHOP

Reward: Local Blacksmith Garry's reputation was greatly increased

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Following that notification, he saw Garry having a metal piece that looked almost like silver in his hand. Shingi knew it wasn't silver.

'How did he find some Mithril? '[Shingi]

Mithril was an expensive piece of metal cause they found it deep in the earth near strong natural mana sources. That would turn the nearby metals in Mithril as they were consuming parts of the mana considered unpure using it to evolve itself. It took decades for the metal exposed to mana to become the lowest quality of Mithril. Those that were for hundreds of years were of high quality. As for those exposed to mana for thousands of years, few could work with it as their natural durability made them that hard that even some Master Blacksmiths couldn't make even a simple item with it as they couldn't meet it.

The one in front of him didn't seem of high quality, as his appearance was almost the same as silver, and he wouldn't be able to tell the difference if one didn't know.

"As a man of crafts, you have to be familiar with working with original materials and know which one is for more fitting for what. Today we will work with silver, which isn't suitable for weapons by itself. Since it is easier to handle enchantments, it is usual to use those types of crafts." [Garry]

Garry surprised Shingi by telling him that the ore he was holding was silver. Even if he didn't have his Eagle Eyes skill, he was sure that Mithril was not silver. Garry even gave it to him to better look at it and saw up and close; he was more and more convinced of it being Mithril.

"So you should read this blueprint of a dagger. You should have more than enough to make the blade, so don't waste it. There is some more iron, so try to mix them. I suggest an 80/20 or iron/silver." [Garry]

Saying nothing else and giving him a piece of paper with a simple dagger blueprint, he went to his desk to take another nap. This time, he didn't allow Shingi to use his Master Hammer. This time, though, Shingi could tell that he didn't fall asleep, but it seemed like he was spying on him.

Well, Shingi cared little as he had decided to either way not to use any spells today. So he didn't worry about him learning about his arcane abilities. Instead, he was happy that he got lucky today cause even if the Mithril was of inferior quality, it could still create a high-quality item.

But he would not use any iron as they did not need it for this material, as purely Mithril-made items were of higher quality. He could use it not only as a weapon but also as a focus for his spell casting. Since Mithril's nature, he would move his or environment's mana in it and cast his spell through it. The Mithril would purify the mana since it absorbed any 'bad mana,' and he could use the 'good mana,' which would strengthen the spell. Also, he could manipulate the mana in the rod instead of himself right away. After it got purified, he could absorb it, which would give him more benefits.

Of course, he was planning to make the dagger with some adjustments to the blueprint. First, he would change its blade by making the left side look like a saw while keeping the top part as usual and making the right side flatter. That way, he could focus, slashing with the left leg, piercing with the front part, and mostly bludgeoning with the handle and the right side of the blade.

Of course, this weapon would be weird-looking and be unusable on that small size for someone else, but Shingi could use it at full effect with enough training and his MARTIAL ART skill.

He used the forge, and this time he used the lever to handle the fire, but he was pretty proficient with it already. He heated it up, and it took more time than it was for the iron he worked with the other day. He could see Garry's smile of looking down at him on making the mistake of letting it in the forge for too long, but he wanted to speak with his actions and ignore him.

He used the tongs to pull it out and used one hammer that Garry had left near him started shaping the blade first as a normal one and then flattening the right side. Next, he used a chisel that Garry had left out to shape the saw side. Fortunately, some files were to pick and sharpened the saw and the blade.

He secretly used some Earth mana to manipulate the metal to make it easier to handle. However, it wasn't that easy since the nature of Mithril, but it was still making things faster.

Close to 4 hours of nonstop work, his dagger was finally ready. Even if it didn't seem quiet, balanced cause of its blade shape, he wasn't planning on throwing it, and cause of Mithril, it was light as a feather but also way more durable than if made by iron. He just had to make a handle, and his weapon would be ready, but Garry' woke up' and came to check what he had done.

Shingi could tell that Garry was ready to say to him everything that he did wrong. Still, after picking the blade and investigating once more, his eyes went wide with the wonder of what he was currently holding.

"How did you do that? This isn't what it was in the blueprint." [Garry]

"How can someone be a true craftsman if he just follows a blueprint?" [Shingi]

Garry turned towards Shingi, and for a second, he thought he was talking with a Master of the craft and not his young son. And so he started laughing hard on it and stopped after a minute of continuous laughing as he had heard the greatest joke ever.

"Well, you seem to have better talent than I thought, but you still have to learn a few things." [Garry]

After saying that, Garry took the blade and started heating it a little and hammering it. It made its front point a little longer and then sharpened the saw blade some more. Then he opened a box and brought out a wooden handle that seemed to have been prepared beforehand and connected it with the dagger, and after some adjustments, it was complete and ready to be used.

He even made some attacks, trying to attack with each of its three different parts to test it out. Finally, after making sure that everything was ok, he brought the dagger to Ameanum.

'His skills in the craft seemed to be closer to Master than I presumed, but he was still in Base Rank. I wonder how good he truly used to be.' [Shingi]

Garry had made some minor improvements in the blade. However, since it was something that Shingi had designed, making improvements to it wasn't easy for someone else without skill or familiarity with the design.

"You seemed you are better at noticing things than I presumed. You understood the true nature of the material in front of you and used it at its full potential." [Garry]

Someone would assume that this was his plan all along after hearing that. Still, Shingi could tell that Garry didn't know the material's true nature, and he honestly thought it was silver. But at least Shingi knew he seemed to have understood his mistake, but didn't want to say anything to reveal it.

"You seemed like you are familiar at working with the forge, so we should be ok to open the shop once again and start the orders." [Garry]

Then Garry brought out a pack of paper as each seemed to be orders of different crafts. None seemed to be weapons, but nails, chains, buckets, and other general metal items.

"Start working on them and put them aside. In the afternoon, you will deliver them to the address that is written behind its order. You have a week to finish them all."

Noticing almost 100 orders, Shingi was primarily mad at Garry, who once more headed to get his nap, and he seemed to get one this time.