Blacksmithing is a tough work. I had to say this myself. The realism in the game is similar to the real world. The way of blacksmithing in the game is similar to the Blacksmiths who forges real tools and swords. Since only a few people have the knowledge in Blacksmithing, many failed to become one. In Alternate World, Blacksmithing takes time, expertise, patience and eagerness to learn. According to the real Blacksmiths who thought blacksmithing here is similar to automatic blacksmithing system in many games, praised the gameplay and the amount of realism that the game has. Many practitioners who have trouble on learning on Blacksmithing in real world decided to train their skills in the game which allowed them to focus more than in real world. Also, the fatigue is not that excessive than how in reality, forging a single sword or a knife can make someone so tired.
Time passed by in the forging room. Almira taught me the basics in Blacksmithing and although some of her points are all not a new knowledge to me, some of the techniques she showed to me allowed me to applaud to the talent of Almira. Her techniques allowed me to comprehend and smoothly made one long sword. Though it is not that perfect and its quality is close to scrap, according to Almira, its not easy to make similar a longsword with only a few mistakes like how I did. Failure is always there in blacksmithing. You can't keep on relying on the system to do the job, you also need to do it yourself to see the world is a new experience, only with gaming elements.
It cost me 12 hours before I managed to make the 10 pieces of weapons. Almira applauded me for becoming an Apprentice Blacksmith. I am already a level 7 Apprentice Blacksmith. Reaching level 50 will allow me to be come Expert Blacksmith and reaching Level 80 will allow me to become Master and beyond that is considered as a Grandmaster.
She said that I have a knack on making weapons and she is quite sure that I can make superior goods in no time. Well, its also thanks to my existing knowledge that I managed to do so. If it was some newbie player, they would usually need to digest the techniques and methods in proper blacksmithing for a few days before they can reach to the level I already have attained today.
I showed Almira the Pearlite helm and she said that she can fix it but she has no materials to use to fix the helm. She said that it will take me sometime before I can do find and able to take its ingredients to her. I nodded as I agreed on what she just said. Equipments from other continents are still a bit hard for me to do for now and from my guess, the materials should be procured from the monsters with level range of 100 to 150 which is still beyond for me yet.
With that, I left Almira's shop and wandered near the Lesser Purgatory. There is a wide forest nearby with a small cave that is considered empty by players who have already explored the place. But nobody knows that once the Lesser Purgatory is cleared, an NPC will appear there. Only the players who managed to clear the Lesser Purgatory Hard Mode and above can take a quest with this guy. It is one of his perquisites because I also took a few quests from him, gaining a few SP before chasing me away which ended my SP farming. According to those people who also gained SP from him, he will assign you to some quests and after accumulating enough SP, he will chase you away and will not face or talk to you again. That ends your quests for him which made many players think that not all free is forever. Of course, I am one of those players.
It took me a few minutes to find the cave. There are some monsters blocking the way causing my search to be delayed, but its just a minor matter and now that I arrived, I look around to see if there are players. After sensing that no player is around, I proceeded to enter the cave.
It didn't take me long to find the person that I am looking for. It was a man around 30-35 years old of age, has a thick white beard which you can might mistake him as a hermit sage, trying to find the meaning of life inside the cave. He has various of things for living in this place. Utensils, water bottles, some dried fishes and meat and a few bags of clothes. This place didn't change at all I see.
Looks like he sensed me approaching as he holds his knife and brandish it in front of me. This is not a. surprising behavior for him because I keep on seeing it in my past timeline. Nothing have changed.
"Who are you?!" he looks like he is so disturbed by my presence.
"I should be asking that to you, who are you and why are here? This place is crawling with monsters! You are not safe here!" I said to him in a stern voice.
"I see, an Adventurer huh, he said before returning his knife to his side and look at me with a bored look.
"You don't understand, after hearing that the Lesser Purgatory is cleared, I decided to camp out here and strengthen myself to enter the dungeon. I need to take revenge for my daughter!" he gritted his teeth before falling back into despair.
According to the Lore, this guy is named PS, and his daughter died when the Undying Purgatory Giant escaped the dungeon and it was also the time where his daughter is gathering herbs around the dungeon entrance. After hearing that the dungeon is already open, he is planning his own assault to the dungeon by asking players for a few errands and if he reach the time to do it, he will raid the dungeon.
That is what the lore says about him, though I have not witnessed this guy to raid the dungeon and he still remained lurking in this cave. I guess he has no plans to raid it yet?
As I was contemplating his own situation, he looks at me from head to toe, though I doubt he can see anything from my cape and mask.
"You seemed to reek the smell of the Lesser Purgatory, I guess you are the one who cleared the dungeon yesterday?" he asked, still full of doubt in his face.
"Yes, I did," I said flatly, I have no intention on being a chatterbox.
He nodded like he understand something that I have no idea.
"I see, just perfect. I have something to get inside the dungeon but I have not the ability to survive there yet. You seemed to be able to get out there without a scathe, I guess you can give this old man a favor?"
A panel appeared in front of me.
"Brewing Revenge"
Difficulty: Normal
Gather : Broken Fangs 0/50
Description: PS asked you to gather 50 pieces of Broken Fangs that can be found by killing Demon Hounds Hard Level and Above.
Accept/Decline
Of course I accept. I already prepared them in advance and have not sold any items that I picked up from the dungeon. I handed out the 50 Broken Fangs to PS and he looked stunned to see me give what e wanted to have just after I received the quest.
"You seemed to save up all of those items I see, just fork out everything then, I will reward you handsomely," He said while scratching his head.
Another panel pops up again.
"Quest Completed!"
Award:
1,000 Exp
20 SP
"Brewing Revenge: (For the last time)"
Difficulty: Hard
Gather:
Broken Fangs:0/50
Imp's Tattered cloth: 0/50
Orthrus' Tail Tip: 0/1
Block of the Grave: 0/5
Cerberus' Fang: 0/3
Description: PS found out that you have all of the ingredients he needed in his revenge, fork out everything and scram!
Accept/Decline
What a rude description! It is much more rude than me! I have no choice but to accept much I like to bash the head of this NPC.
After accepting it, I quickly pour out every items in my inventory that it formed a small mountain on the floor. When every necessary item is already on the floor, a panel appears and shows my progress
"Quest Complete!"
Reward:
4,000 Exp
100 SP
When the panel appeared, I sighed, and look at this guy.
"What? Now that you got your reward, go scram!" he roared.
I groaned before turning back. I also looked back once again before flashing my middle finger.
Even if you are an NPC, there is a limit of being so shameless! Your mannerisms needs improvement! I glared at the entrance of the cave before I cast teleport and fled away from the place.
...
In a few seconds after departing from that place, I quickly reappeared back into the room of the inn. The Teleport skill is really quite convenient! After a few more contemplation on the earlier events, I looked at my Free SP. Since I have not spent the three free SP, I have 123 free SP for the moment. In many players, this could be considered a lot but for me who is a Versatile, Jack of all trades, master of none, this amount is just a minuscule amount that I can spend in a flash.
Looking at the tier 1 skills that I can improve, I quickly move my eyes and scan for useful tier 2 skills. With the task of the Lesser Purgatory done, my next track should be to finish the quest of Almira and the long time goal is to get stronger and stronger. I f my guess is correct, Kazuki Sakatsushi who ordered me to die in my timeline is going to create his own account once the classes started. And as much as I hate him, fate intersects. Returning back to school, I will meet this particular guy. As much as I want take revenge from him here and cripple him, it is not right since he have not made a move against me yet. That is why raising my own strength in the game and in real life is needed to be accelerated so that he won't be able to surpass me, avoiding my death to happen.
I might be getting paranoid due to the time of the school opening is getting closer and closer. I shook my head in resolution. I need to find out his motive and why does he wanted to kill me and Tojiro all of a sudden. Is there any direct impulse or some kind of motive that I bypass? In any case, I am in need to prepare. A few days later after the school reopened, the first patch will be released soon and the first surge of new players will flood the game. That is also the beginning of the rise of Kazuki Sakatsushi as one of the experts in the game.
I also forgot, bullies will start to appear as soon as the classes start. If my strength increased, those guys will be the greatest punching bags for me.
I refocused my eyes again into the skill panels. Lots of tier 2 skills from different classes and lots of different uses too. The only problem is that skills are quite expensive and usually demands lot of SP. If they are easily earned, I would keep on spending them like there is no tomorrow. If not for that stingy old man. The game design of that man is too poor and if I could change it, I will gladly change his attitude. I shook my head as I busy myself on learning the necessary skills.