With the introduction done, Shadow decided to work on the buckler first. The buckler was a clawed buckler which made it much harder to make as it a combination of a weapon and a shield. It needed to be both defensive and sharp edges to be used for attacks.
He first started the mystic fire. It was also a tier 1 mystic fire but not the blue glitter fire that he had at the Blackrock Town. It was grey in color and had a silvery white streaks flowing through it. It was named Nightlight fire as most couldn't even see it in the darkness of night except for the white streaks which made it look like a beautiful bed light.
[Nightlight fire] (Tier 1 Mystic fire)
A weird fire that can provide high temperatures as well as cool the materials based on the will of its wielder. The temperature control makes it an ideal fire for forging and alchemy professions.
"Nightlight fire. It is very useful in forging. It can heat or cool down materials. One doesn't need separate quenching utilities if one has this fire. But it isn't best option for creating equipment with mana using skills. There are better ones available. Suggest you to go to the Blaackrock Town for that purpose. The fire there improves magic conductance of the equipment," explained Shadow as he played with the fire.
"You can increase and decrease the temperature by adjusting the flames with these knobs as you check gauge of the forge," he said pointing to the temperature gauge while he moved other knobs on the forge which allowed him to manipulate the fire.
"Trying out a new kind of equipment. It is a combination of shield and claw. Frankly speaking it mostly a claw with a large disk protecting it," said Shadow as he went through the design of the clawed buckler.
He took three refined iron ores and began to melt it in the forge as he set to making of the casts. He required just to make three strips of metals. Two of them were to be made into the two blades of the claw while the third was to be made into the handle which holds the blades and the buckler. Two thirds of the molten metal was used for the blade strip and the remaining for forming the handle.
He took the pair of blade strips and heated them to make them soft and began to beat them into shape with his basic forging hammer. Hammer also found a similar forging hammer from a quest. "He also has a forging hammer? I thought not many would be able to get them," he thought.
Once, the strips formed the proper shape of a blade, he started with the handle. The middle of the handle strip was to be made a bit cylindrical so that it would be easier to hold. The remaining part was beat into flat ribbon shape. The ends were to be folded and attacked to the shield.
He took the two iron ores and softened them down for the shield. The buckler shield was mostly a thick clump of metal and it didn't need to be refined metal as it is mostly used for block. The softened pieces were joined beaten into the shape of an oddly shaped shield. It was like an egg shape. He cut a small portion of the thicker part of the shield and used it to weld the handle that he had previously made. At the end it formed a teardrop like structure with a handle an opening to attach the blades. He followed up with attaching the blades and then began to sharpen the blades and the edges of the shield with a sharpening machine. This entire process took him less than ten minutes in game.
Hammer who was observing all this from the side was surprised at the speed at which he made the entire equipment. The ease with which Shadow had worked the metal and his movements and control of the forge had him astounded. Even the sharpening which was a very dangerous operation as an imprecise or inaccurate movement would ruin the blade had been done with calm and quick movements. "It is like he had worked on the damn thing for years," thought Hammer.
"Are you a smith in your real-life?" he asked unable to contain his doubts.
"No. But I have experience in making and maintaining weapons," answered Balthazar. He had maintained his daggers and armor for about two years in his real-life as an assassin. It was one of the reasons, he was able to grasp the forging techniques with relative ease compared to others in his past life.
"Oh!," said Hammer as he pondered over it. "Are you a mercenary?"
"Militia," replied Balthazar.
Hearing that Hammer decided to keep the rest of his questions to himself. He knew that men of the armed forces couldn't reveal much about their life. If he persisted, he would probably bring unnecessary trouble to himself, especially when the men were a very capable fighter along with being capable of maintaining and making bladed weapons. He understood that such skills would usually be only learned by special forces who would be trained to make blades and the like to protect themselves.
Once, the buckler was done, he put it up for inspection. A couple of seconds later, a notification sounded out.
System: You have successfully created a Clawed buckler.
"+350 experience points, +4 forging proficiency"
"The experience is not bad, but still need about 250 for upgrading to intermediate forging apprentice," he muttered aloud to himself. He had 244 forging proficiency and for one to become an intermediate forging apprentice, he required at least 500 forging proficiency.
"Have about 2 months to complete Kade's quest. Still have a lot of time," he thought comforting himself.
On the other hand, Hammer who was heard him was shocked. "This man already has close to 250 forging points! How did get it in two days!" he thought. "No wonder, the guild leader chose him for the position of head forger."
Shadow picked up the buckler and checked its attributes. "Not bad. It is a satisfactory product," said Shadow and gave it to hammer. "What do you think of it?" asked Shadow.
"It has very good attributes, but I am not sure if it would be popular," said Hammer as he took the buckler and equipped it. He waved it around for a few moments. "It is too light for tanks and it doesn't provide much defense either."
"Yes. It is not meant for tanks," replied Shadow. "Consider it as a secondary weapon for mages. Good for blocking and attacking. Is it not?"
"Hmm. That is true. But most players aren't yet focused on secondary weapons," replied Hammer.
"Yeah. Give it time. They will understand the need for it by the time, they attempt to kill level 15 monsters," said Shadow. "It would also be quite useful for close combat classes like assassins, swordsman when they find the need to block"
"You have attempted to kill level 15 monsters already?!" asked Hammer surprised. Most were still concentrating on the Bungar's keep normal mode which still didn't have level 15 monsters. "It makes sense. Else, how could he have a level 15 design," thought Hammer. He didn't know about the option of buying designs from the Forging association.
"Yes. I did manage to kill," said Shadow. "I heard that you wanted to become the head forger in the guild?" asked Shadow suddenly coming to the point.
"I thought of it previously, but not sure right now," said Hammer. He had previously thought that he deserved that position because he was the best option that the guild had, but now he didn't think so. He was a shameless character that he wouldn't agree that he wasn't as skilled as Shadow for now.
"You don't want to be the head forger? Why the sudden disinterest?" asked Shadow.
"I can't compete with you right now, but I will become better than you soon," said Hammer in an irritated voice. He felt that Shadow was humiliating him unnecessarily and decided to walk out of the room.
"What are you talking about. I can't be the head forger," said Shadow. His words caused Hammer to stop. Hammer wasn't sure what Shadow was talking about. He was partly angry and partly confused.
"I don't understand. You are obviously quite capable and have higher proficiency than me. So, explain," said Hammer in a strained tone.
"I asked Crimson Power to send you here to evaluate you. I am the boss of the guild. So, I wanted to check if my head forger was capable," said Shadow. Though he didn't know if Hammer being in the guild until a few minutes ago, he decided to lie in order to tie Hammer to the guild.
"You are the boss?! Isn't Crimson Power the guild leader?" asked Hammer.
"He is the guild leader, but he is my employee. You can confirm it with him," said Shadow.
A few moments later Hammer's expression changed as he learned that Shadow was really the boss of the guild. "Why can't you be the head forger? Even if you are the boss, what is stopping you from being the head forger of the guild?" asked Hammer.
"The same thing that is stopping me from being the guild leader. I have a job that wouldn't allow me to spend much time in the game," said Shadow calmly.
"Oh!" said Hammer as he remembered about their conversation where Shadow told him that he works in the military.
"So, I guess you are interested?" asked Shadow.
"Yes."
"Good. Let me test you. Can you make the Antelope horn spear?" asked Shadow.
"Yes."
"Well, I will evaluate you on that, then," said Shadow walking away from the forge and indicating Hammer to start working on it.
Hammer immediately pulled out the materials from his bag and started working on it. As he started using the forge, he realized how easy it was to handle ore with the Mystic Fire. "Now, I understand why the intermediate forging room was so expensive," thought Hammer.
Shadow took an antelope horn in the meantime and began to process it in the lathe machine. He made it into the proper shape and handed it over to Hammer by the time, he was done with the handle.
Most players hated it when multiple players worked on different parts of a weapon simultaneously as one's work might disturb the other. Most don't even let the others work in the same forging room as it might affect their concentration. Balthazar wasn't one of them, he had worked as an engineer too and believed that working together can help make items much faster.
"Thanks. So, you were the one who created the antelope horn spear, right?" asked Hammer as he took the processed horn from Shadow.
"Yes. I want to try and develop a few more," said Shadow. "I discovered an easy way to create new original equipment. I can help you make one if you want."
Hammer almost lost his concentration and screwed up the attachment of the head of the spear to the pole. "Is making a new original equipment that easy? Even if you wanted to brag, you could have waited for some time and not while I was working on equipment," thought Hammer in irritation as his concentration was broken.
Shadow also noticed that Hammer's situation and didn't continue. Hammer also didn't respond any further and waited till he finished making the spear. He checked the product and put it up for system inspection which reported a successful creation of the spear.
"I hope this is up to your satisfaction," said Hammer handing over the spear to Shadow. "You told something about making original equipment?" he asked Shadow.
"Yes. I know a trick to make new original equipment. I teach you but only after we have decided on the matter of head forger," said Shadow as he took out a contract for the head forger of the guild. "Take a look at it, we can discuss anything that you want," said Shadow.
Hammer was a bit surprised that Shadow proposed a contract at this time. He expected this to be done by Crimson Power. But he still took it to read it over. It stipulated his salary to be at least 10% of the amount for which his creations would be sold. That was fine as it was a new game with different criteria and one couldn't easily decide a fixed income at present. The other parts were also the common things that most guilds asked like keeping their secrets and so on until he came to part about the duration.
"A period of five years?" he asked looking at Shadow. "Are you kidding?"
Shadow knew that he might have an issue with it. At the early stages of the game, neither guilds nor players would be willing to sign contracts for such long times as they don't know how capable the other party is. But Balthazar knew that later, the successful forgers would ask for longer durations.
"Yes. Moreover, the contract is with me personally, not the guild. If I am unable to contact you for a month, you can assume the contract nullified. I added that as a clause," said Shadow pointing to a clause in the contract.
"I will employ you as head forger of the guild and you will work under Crimson Power," said Shadow. "You will have no lack of resource compared to any first rate guild. You can move around and explore the game world. I will place no restriction on that but will suggest you take some protection with you if you want to do that and not go to highly dangerous quests. I will leave those considerations to Crimson Power and if you feel that he is not being rational you can always contact me. That is why the remuneration is based on the amount your creations would be sold for," he elaborated.
"This is completely different from my contract in the previous game. Why all these changes?" asked Hammer. Most guilds wouldn't give free reign and option to move around. They wouldn't allow them to get out of the contract if they are unable to communicate for a month either.
"This game is different compared to the other by a number of different things. That is why, I had to make such a contract. As you can see, I didn't add any clause that would be unfair to you. I doubt you can get a better one than this," said Shadow. Balthazar was quite confident of it as most guilds would probably only recruit for a small duration and the only thing in common with this contract would be remuneration based on the amount for which the items would be sold.