Despite the contract being favorable to him in any reason, Hammer was still not convinced. He was a college student who was a law student and from his experience and studies, if anything was too good to believe, it probably wasn't. So, he was still uncertain about it. The only thing, he could see was that Shadow could fire him at any time, if his work was unsatisfactory. But that was an extremely common thing.
"Still not satisfied?" asked Shadow. "I am only offering this to you as you seem like a good kid who has a decent character and my own personal problems due to which I wouldn't be able to spend much time in the game."
"How about I add another thing into the contract for you?" said Shadow as he took the contract and wrote something new in it and passed it over.
"I can void the contract if you can't create a new original equipment in half hour after me signing it?" said Hammer as he looked at what Shadow wrote. "And you will personally help me create my own original weapon design? Are you for real?"
"If I wasn't confident enough, I wouldn't put it in the contract with my name signed down there. would I?" answered Shadow pointing at his agreement to the contract at the bottom of it.
It was then that Hammer noticed that Shadow had already stamped in his agreement to the contract. "If not anything else, at least the original equipment would be worth a lot of money," thought Hammer. "Just selling the designs would be me an advantage over any others," he thought as he accepted the contract.
"Well, now that you have signed that we can proceed further," said Shadow as he forwarded the contract to Rudra and took out a pair of iron ores and a pair of refined iron ore. He started with making the buckler shield again from the iron ores. He made it into the exact same shape as before.
Following that he took a pair of antelope horns from Hammer and used a machine to remove the ridges off it. He then sharpened the tip of the horns to a sharp edge and top half of the horn was also tapered to create sharp edges on two sides of the top half. The bottom half was left as it was and even the ridges of the horns weren't removed. Even in making the dagger or spearhead, he left only enough space for one's hand, but this time he left about double the amount unprocessed on each horn.
Then, he took the refined ore and melted it. He coated the horns with the metal and then put them aside. "You understand what I am trying to do righ?" he asked looking at Hamacmer.
"You are just changing the material used for the claws of the buckler. Would that really end up being an original equipment?" asked Hammer.
"Of course. When you change the materials, the attributes and properties would also change. It will definitely lead to a new original which you be allowed to make as many designs as you want," said Shadow.
"Take the Antelope horn spear. I made it from merging a halberd design and a dagger. It ended up as a new spear. We just need to make that they are fused properly and not have any defects. If you observe the materials, you will notice that the antelope horns provide more durability and are better at blocking than iron blades," he continued as took the coated horns and began to buff their edges.
"You can do this beforehand for horns but not metal blades. When we attach the blades, the heat from welding will blunt the edges, but horns are insulator materials and in the small time used to weld it will have a minimalistic to no effect on the edges," said Shadow.
Once, satisfied with the sharpness, he took some of the remaining melted refined iron ore to create a handle like he did before and after that joined them all. Checking that pieces were all thoroughly welded and joined, he put up for inspection.
"Make sure that all parts are properly welded. Else, the system will fail the inspection," added Shadow as a notification sounded out indicating a new original equipment.
[_________________](BlackIron shield)
Level 15;
Requirement: Strength x 25; Vitality x 20;
Endurance +10; Defence +20;
Attack Power +12;
Special effect: Induces a stun effect for 1 second on a perfect stab.
Durability: 35/35;
"+ 350 experience points; +4 Forging proficiency;"
System: Congratulations on creating an entirely new piece of equipment in vita-nova. Obtained an additional 1000 experience points. The crimson blade stamp will be imprinted on it. Please name it.
The crimson blade stamp was also imprinted at the centre of the shield. The mark along with the shape of the shield made it look a bit a barbaric, but Balthazar was sure that the design would still appeal to a lot of players.
"Wow, the stats are better than that of the original," said Shadow looking at the statistics of the new buckler. "Maybe the horns have a shock absorbing effect."
"Any suggestions for the name?" he asked Hammer. "Antelope horn buckler seems a bit too common and someone might recognize the similarities."
"With that print, most would start to think that this is probably an original equipment if you sell it. I doubt the naming would make much of a difference," said Hammer as he looked at the buckler. "You shouldn't have marked it."
"I didn't. Your personal creations would get marked by the system automatically," said Shadow. "You will be asked to choose a personal mark to distinguish your creations from the one's in the system. It wouldn't appear on the ones created by others. Now, please suggest a name."
"How about a simple Horned buckler. It is similar to the name 'Clawed Buckler' and wouldn't draw much attention to the fact about the materials used, unless someone has the clawed buckler design. At that time, a capable player would recognize it, even if we don't do anything. But most of such capable forgers have the common sense to keep their ideas to themselves. At the most, we will he helping an isolated competitor," said Hammer.
"He has a valid argument and I knew that with my works, someone would sooner or later realize it," thought Balthazar.
"Then, Horned Buckler, it is," said Shadow as he decided on that name. He put it down for his new shield design and it was immediately registered by the system.
"So, you want to try and create a new original equipment too?" Shadow asked Hammer.
"I would definitely want to try," said Hammer enthusiastically. If he didn't think of making an original equipment after watching the creation of a new one, it would be a black mark on his pride as an exception forger player.
"Well. It is best to try and combine equipment you already have made. However, hard you try, I doubt that any original equipment you create could always be considered as combination of two or more equipment already designed by the system," said Shadow. "So, it is best to simple merge a couple or more of the equipments that you already made. You can introduce new materials, but you better have a good understanding of them before you try. Else, you would just end up wasting them."
Shadow's words were extremely weird to Hammer. As a player who played as a forger in War God's Tempest when he was in school, Hammer had experimented with multiple materials to create new stuff, but never in the way that Shadow suggested.
Most forgers understood the materials through multiple experiments and then worked on new equipment, but Shadow had a much simpler suggestion that was to use material that he had already worked on as it would provide him a moderate understanding of them. It was a reasonable suggestion, but most players believed that it would only result in sub-par equipment.
Shadow also guessed Hammer's thoughts based on his expression. "You think that it will only lead to inferior products, don't you?" he asked Hammer to which Hammer simply nodded in agreement.
"I am not asking you to always do it that way. I am suggesting you acquaint yourself to them in this manner, but it might not always lead to inferior products. The horned buckler is actually better than the original. Just try out the first attempt in the way I suggested. If you feel that it is not good, just don't make more of them. You can just abandon that armament," said Shadow. "But you can't deny that a new original equipment would increase your proficiency and your original equipment has a higher chance of success in your hands."
"My original equipment would have a higher chance of success, if I create it?" asked Hammer.
"Of course, just try it out. List out the equipments that you have already done," said Shadow.
Hammer sent him a list of 17 names. Balthazar was surprised on looking at the list. Even though, he had previous memories and knowledge, he didn't manage to make more than 10. "Being a completely secondary profession player, this amount is a reasonable thing," thought Balthazar.
"Do you not attempt normal quest and spend most of the time forging?" asked Shadow.
"Of course, my specialty is forging. Why would waste time on the other trivial things," said Hammer immediately in a proud manner. But he realized that Shadow was in fact a person who did both at the same time and thought that his words might be perceived as an insult.
"That is true, but this game offers a lot more. Try it out some time. I am sure that you would enjoy it," said Shadow as he went through the equipment list. Most of them were armor and they had similar materials used in them. "Combining wouldn't bring much of an effect, but it could be done," thought Balthazar.
"You have a dagger and glove armor that you could probably combine to form a clawed glove or you can make a glaive by combining the sword and spear designs," said Shadow as he went through the others.
"I personally wouldn't prefer gloves. They are a special kind of armor with moving parts. So, mostly it will metal plates attached to leather. Attaching a pair of blades to it isn't the best option. You can try to create a simple claw, if you want," he further suggested.
"Hmm. I will try them out. I had the same ideas when I saw you make the horned buckler," said Hammer agreeing with Shadow's idea. "I was concentrating on creating a new shield since I heard that you already have made an original equipment. Now, I am getting better ideas to merge the materials. Can I also have buckler design to work with?" he asked Shadow.
"Sure," said Shadow as he quickly sat on the table and wrote down the design for the Horned buckler giving it to Hammer and Tongs.
Hammer took with glee and immediately learned it. "I am sure that I will be able to create a few original equipment. I will inform you and give you the details as soon as they are done," he said. At the moment, he was very glad that he accepted Shadow's contract. "With a better start in the game, I will surely earn more money and reputation," he thought in delight at the sudden gifts that landed in his hands.
"Cool, get an intermediate workshop and start working. Crimson Power will provide you with the coins and the materials you need. Just need you to work with him and create new products," said Shadow sending Hammer off the room.