Bab 15: Infusion
Still, his exhaustion couldn't stop him from carefully observing the process of infusion.
The pill seemed to liquefy and then slowly seep into the iron blade. It wasn't anything spectacular, yet still seemed interesting to him. He could barely control himself while waiting for the process to end. He knew that touching the liquid may mess up the process and could even be dangerous for him. But he truly wanted to touch the liquid to find out how it felt.
Soon the last bit of liquid had vanished inside the blade, indicating that the process had finished. Now it was time to check out the result.
[[ Weapon: Basic Knife
Grade: 1F
Materials: [ Blade: Iron ], [ Hilt: Goblin Leather ]
Infused: [ Material: Iron Essence | 1/5 | Effect: Increases blade durability and sharpness by 10% ]
Description: A Basic Knife made with simple materials. Nothing special but still extremely useful for beginners.
]]
He instantly spotted the additional line describing the infusion. "This looks like I can do it four more times and maybe even with different exotics.", he speculated while reading it. The "1/5" was a relatively clear indicator that he had done the infusion one out of five times. And the formating made it seem probable that it was possible to have multiple infusion materials on the same weapon.
Now the big question was how large the effect was. Sure it stated that the durability and sharpness of the blade had been increased by 10%, but what did this mean in practice?
Sadly, he didn't have any reliable way to test it. After all, even the not-infused knife had been able to easily cut through the hardest material he had at home.
He also wanted to try a second infusion to check out his theory on the "1/5" part as well as check if the increase would be 10% again, but he was currently too exhausted to do so.
Instead, his stomach reminded him to eat again. It seemed like the best way to replenish his energy currently was to eat. Of course, he could also eat the goblin steak he had gotten in the dungeon, but he thought it better to keep it for the dungeon itself. After all, it not only refilled his energy but also gave him a small buff. It was much more suited for emergency situations than any energy bar.
He made his way to the kitchen only to find out that there was no food left. He had already eaten all the stuff he had bought before. Food that was supposed to last him for the week.
"Have I eaten this much?", he wondered, while looking at his empty cabinet. "This isn't good.", he didn't have any money left for the week. Originally he had planned to use the money from his job, which he would get this Friday for groceries. And for the rest of the week, he would eat just rice with some canned food.
But now this seemed impossible. He had to find a way to make some money fast. At least enough to buy some food. But that had to wait until tomorrow. For now, it was more important to find something to eat.
Luckily this wasn't an unusual situation in his dorm. Everyone here came from low-income families, and they did side jobs for their living costs. So it sometimes happened that one of them didn't have enough money for food one week if anything happened with their job.
As per the agreement, Ivan wrote a note and then took out a packet of noodles as well as a glass of sauce from one of the cabinets. He also made a note on his phone that he had to buy these things and put them back as soon as he had the money for them.
After eating his simple meal he went to bed, after all, he had to get up early tomorrow.
The next day he went to university class as usual. Even now, nothing much had changed because of the advent of the experiment. Everyone was still going to school or university. They still had their regular work and the restaurants and shops were still open as usual.
Seeing all this, made Ivan wonder how it would change in the future, or maybe it wouldn't change at all? He looked forward to seeing the change and maybe even be part of it. Not that he wanted to be a public figure. No, what he wanted was freedom, which came with strength. A strength that now seemed possible.
But for now, the cold hard reality was, that he was a university student with mediocre grades attending an elite university while having not even a single penny to his name.
After sitting down on his spot in the lecture hall he thought about how to get some money fast. The best way would be to make money from the dungeon but currently, there was no store where he could sell his crafted knives. And he didn't have any contacts to sell it directly either. Combined that basically meant that this option was out for now, which only left his usual option.
As a poor student, this wasn't the first time he had run out of money. Although he was usually very capable of managing his money, unforeseen things tend to happen. Luckily the agency which he used for his part-time jobs always had a list of jobs that would pay directly.
Seeing that there was still some time until class he called the familiar number.
"Hello, Mr. Lorenz.", he greeted when the other person accepted the call. Mr. Lorenz was the agent responsible for him at the agency. Of course. he wasn't just responsible for him. No, he was responsible for a whole host of part-time workers.
"Hello, Mr. King. Are you calling for a short notice job?", a lively male voice came over the phone.
"You guessed it.", Ivan wasn't surprised by it anymore. Somehow Mr. Lorenz always managed to remember the people working for him as well as their situation and their job history. Ivan usually finished his work on Friday and would thus only call on any other day if there was something important.
Hearing his confirmation, Mr. Lorenz directly told him, "That's great, I just got the perfect request for you. Although the request is for Saturday, there is a five hundred dollar deposit you can get directly as long as you agree."
"That's quite a lot.", Ivan exclaimed in astonishment. Usually, the jobs which could be taken on short notice would pay around minimum wage. So even if it was for the whole Saturday it should be around 240 dollars for the whole day. So a 500 dollar deposit, which meant that the whole payment was at least 5000 dollars was a lot.
"Yeah. I checked it and the reason for the payment are the requirements as well as the nondisclosure agreement. The person also seems to be rich."
"Then since you checked, it shouldn't be anything dangerous or illegal.", Ivan said, laying his last worries to rest. He trusted Mr. Lorenz not to give him any dangerous or illegal jobs.
"Of course not. Otherwise, our agency would never have taken that job. So do you want it?"
"Of course. Will you send the information over as usual?"
"I'm sorry but because of the NDA, you will have to meet the client directly without any information beforehand. But don't worry, we have checked everything, so it will be safe and above board."
This process was quite unusual but Ivan trusted the agency so he agreed.
"Great. The client wants to meet you at the cafe Lucky Clover. Just tell the server that you are meeting someone in private room 1."
Ivan told him that he understood and then ended the call.
Initially, he had thought that he would just get a boring job but now it seemed to be somehow exciting. After all, a normal job wouldn't require all this cloak and dagger stuff. This made him somehow look forward to the job.
Since it was already time for class, he put away his phone and concentrated on the lesson. Mrs. Pyth was one of the rare lectures that were able to make the lessons interesting as well as informative. Something that was especially good, since she was extremely strict. She didn't tolerate even the slightest disturbance during class and her tests were feared.
At the same time, she was also one of the most popular lecturers, making it extremely unusual. Normally a strict lecturer would be unpopular but with her beauty and capability, she managed to win over the students without even visibly trying.
After university had ended for the day, Ivan took out his phone and saw a notification from the bank. The 500 dollar deposit had been paid, making him feel elated. Now he could go buy some food before diving into the dungeon once again.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone