"You sent him back to the Dark Forest?" Morgana asked in confusion. "Why?"
"I gave him a collection quest," Leo answered. "I told him to gather twenty dire wolf pelts and ten doom bear claws for him to complete the mission."
"He'd be lucky if one in twenty normal-type shadow beasts drop any spoils," Morgana explained. "Do doom bears or dire wolves even drop such items?"
Leo pointed a thumb at Masamune who was rifling through his forge and looking for the ingredients he needed to begin the job he'd been tasked with.
"Masamune said they do," Leo answered.
"Masamune's an eccentric loon," Morgana frowned. "He's the most difficult to work with among the seven."
"Hear you, I can," Masamune interrupted.
"Well I'm only stating the truth, silly," Morgana countered.
Masamune walked over to Leo and Morgana with a box stuffed with the materials Black Howler had agreed to pay for.
"Seeing you, Morgana, always a pleasure," he chuckled softly as he made his way to his anvil. "Staying, will you? If so, help me you will."
"Why would we bother—"
"—We'll help," Leo cut Morgana off. And when she turned narrowed eyes at him, he asked, "You've never seen this done before have you?"
"Of course not, silly," she answered, sounding miffed. "I'm a reaper. I don't do manual labor. That's a lesser's job."
"But how will you help me build the crafting feature into the SRS if you don't know how it works?" Leo asked.
Morgana's brow furrowed. "You want to build another feature, Leo? Don't you know that's going to cost us even more soul stones!"
"Hear me out, partner," Leo said, raising his hands in a show of peace. "The best games out there are the ones where players get to do all sorts of everyday things that'll help make themselves stronger… Even stuff like skinning the hide of a shadow beast is something they'll look forward to. Now, imagine if they could learn to craft their own items, wouldn't they have a blast?"
"I see the benefit for the game but I don't see a benefit for our goals," she countered.
Leo raised a finger up. "If players can craft their own items, wouldn't they need materials? Where would they get that if, like you just said, it's insanely difficult to gather raw materials?"
Morgana's eyes grew wide. "They would need to buy it from the merchants, and with the sales tax you put in place…"
"More currency flowing into Adventour means more soul stones for you and me," Leo grinned. "And that's not all…"
"Th-there's more?" Morgana asked.
"Players who can make their own items will eventually want to sell these items," Leo explained. "For that to happen, they'll need a market place which we'll build for them too so they can pay us rent and add we'll also a sales tax to their item prices."
If she was a cartoon character, Leo thought Morgana's eyes would be showing off huge dollar signs by now.
"So I want us to see how forging is done here in the Abyss in order to make our own system as authentic as possible," I reasoned. "You agree?"
"It seems like it'll be a good long-term investment," Morgana nodded enthusiastically. Then she glanced over to the anvil. "Fine… I'll help for the investment."
Leo face showed off a very satisfied smug for he'd won this round rather easily.
"Alright, Masamune, what do you need us to do?" Leo asked.
It turned out that there wasn't much for Leo to do at the beginning but stoke the flames of the forge in order to keep it burning at the right temperature.
Morgana, on the other hand, was asked to bless the fel iron ingots Masamune planned to use.
"Powerful, a reaper's blessing is," Masamune explained. "Make the iron strong, it will."
The four ingots were placed on the workbench for her, and as Morgana passed her hands over them while whispering words in a language Leo did not understand, to Leo, it seemed like the interior of the smithy had momentarily grown darker and much, much colder. This foreboding feeling lasted until Morgana finished her chant — and only then did light and warmth return to the forge.
Later, when he was alone with his thoughts, Leo would remember this moment and feel an excruciating headache pierce into his mind just from the memory of Morgana's chant.
After the ingots had been blessed, Masamune took two and tossed them into the burning vat inside the forge. Then he picked up the two goat horns Black Howler had left him and added them into the mix. As an added ingredient, Masamune cut his forearm with the sharp nail of his forefinger and then let a few drops of blood drip into the fire as well.
"Secret of mine, this is," Masamune chuckled. "A vampyre's blood, strong reagent it is."
"So, what's next?" Morgana asked, sounding interested now.
"In high-temperature, it must be kept for metal and bone to bond perfectly," Masamune explained. "Very hard and very strong, it will become."
Leo was asked to keep the fire hot and cooking just right which he did so by pulling on a lever that caused the bellows to blow air continuously into the forge. It was a grueling task that made him sweat, and by the time he was finished many hours later, the sweat clung to his clothes.
Feeling pity for him, Morgana snapped her fingers, and after a puff of white smoke, a can of ice-cold cola appeared in Leo's free hand.
"You did want the full experience, silly," she laughed her tinkling laugh.
Leo was too spent to even think of a retort. Instead, he popped open the soda can and tipped its contents into his parched mouth.
After the first process was finally finished, Masamune extracted the molten metal from the vat and into a small basin where it was allowed to cool off for a time. Once the new ingot had cooled, Masamune broke off the brittle pieces with his own fist in order to extract only the tougher parts. He then showed these extracted pieces to Leo and Morgana.
"It's black…" Leo noted. "Did we burn it too much?"
Masamune shook his head. "Metal of deepest black, fel iron becomes if molded wisely. Absorbed the properties of the horns, it has."
The bladesmith then trapped the metal in his tongs and placed it over the fire one more time to make it more malleable. Afterward, he placed the metal on the anvil and with his obsidian hammer in his other hand; he began hammering it into shape.
"Helps to remove the remaining impurities, this will," Masamune said.
Leo watched the molten sparks fly each time the hammer struck the metal, and from the depths of his sea of creativity, a new idea began to surface.
"I've got it… we'll create apprenticeships too," Leo said. "For a price, players will be able to apprentice with the merchants and crafters in order to learn their trade."
"Oo~~oh, I like the sound of that," Morgana said.
Leo rolled his eyes at her. Of course, she'd be interested if it meant earning more soul stones for them.
"The price of apprenticeship will also depend on the skill of the crafter so a guy like Masamune will be worth way more than the standard smith," I explained.
"And we'll take a percentage from the fee," Morgana added in a happy tone.
"Only the most promising, will I allow to study under me," Masamune interjected.
Morgana waved away his concern. "Don't worry, Masamune. Leo will take care of the little details."
She snapped her fingers and called for her quill and scroll so that she could jot down all the ideas she and Leo had just finished brainstorming. However, she'd barely started dictating to her quill when Morgana stopped abruptly.
"All of these new features in the game will demand a great chunk of our soul stone reserves," she frowned.
Leo knew she would have second thoughts eventually, and so he prepared a counter for this exact scenario.
He pulled up the administrator window and tapped on the [INCOME] option. Then, with a flick of his fingers, he sent the window flying toward Morgana.
"That's how much soul stones we've earned in this one day, kid," he said.
The amount listed on the window made Morgana's eyes widen with delight. Her perky smile appeared on her lips.
"I knew I could count on you, Leo," Morgana pumped a fist in the air, "Alright, we'll go through with this investment."
Another point to Leo, he thought, chuckling to himself as he did. Finally, he'd perfected a way to manage Morgana's complaints. He just needed to show her the positive results of their endeavors.
Of course, Leo omitted the fact that while they earned a nice sum of soul stones from the new players buying products from Adventour's merchant shops, they'd actually lost a higher number of soul stones thanks to the resurrection system they'd set up earlier. But Morgana didn't to know that — yet.
Much, much later, after Masamune had pounded flat the metal and then folded it again and again right before pounding on it some more, Black Howler's new weapon finally took shape. However, there were quite a few more processes required before the weapon would be completed, processes that would take a full day and night to complete.
Leo and Morgana didn't mind, though, as they'd become invested in the making of the work. They hung out at Masamune's forge while reading the periodic reports McCloud sent them through the administrator notifications as well as continuing their discussion on how to squeeze out more soul stones from the players.
When it was finally finished, the weapon appeared as a shiny obsidian razor-sharp, single-edged blade that curved toward the end like a katana, although it was much too thick and wide to be called one. The blade's length was about forty-seven inches with an eight-inch wooden handle done in the Japanese-style of leather and silk wrapping. It had retained the cross hilt characteristic of a claymore but didn't look like any claymore Leo had ever seen in-game or in real life before.
Still, Leo thought the weapon was beautiful, and he assumed its stats would be equally amazing. However, he decided not to check it himself, believing that right belonged to the player who had it made — and when Black Howler came for it, Leo intended to be there so he could sneak a peek.
"It's certainly a weapon worthy to be called a Masamune relic," Morgana said, nodding approvingly at the finished product.
Masamune bowed his head toward her. "Indeed."
Leo frowned, suddenly realizing that such a powerful relic in a beginner's hands might make him too strong. He remembered that this was exactly something he'd warned Morgana against. Now, he was second-guessing his choice to peak at the weapon's status.
Seeming to read Leo's doubts, Masamune waved his worries away with a few assurances. "Scaled to the level of the player I met, this relic has been."
"But doesn't that defeat the purpose of making a unique item? Leo asked.
Masamune shook his head. "Grow with its wielder, all relics do… even a rusty iron spear, if given proper care can become strong."
"Interesting," Leo folded his arms over his chest. "This means players will want to stick to weapons they're used to rather than trade up… which means we have to make the cost of repairs, maintenance, and improvements higher than we planned."
"I'm all for a higher price, Leo," Morgana interrupted, "But can we discuss this somewhere else? I'm bored of this place."
She turned an apologetic smile on Masamune.
"No offense, Mune," she said.
"Offense taken, I have not," he returned her smile right before he stretched his arms upward. "Rest myself, I'll do, before the armor, I'll continue."
The thought of a break was music to all their ears. But just as they were about to say their goodbyes, the sound of the front door opening reached their ears. They all turned to face the shop entrance.
Just outside its threshold stood a pretty woman whose hair was as white as falling snow and whose skin was so pale it was almost translucent.
"Excuse me," Ath3na said. "I understand this is the forge to visit if I wanted to buy a quality weapon?"