Sighing in relief Kingo that Xol was recovering Kingo walked to the assembly table and grabbed the knife, before he could sheathed it, the blacksmiths asked if they could see the knife that caused the phenomena and were surprised by , the description and the fact it added stats if used with the sheath, which had a belt and can be mounted on it or unmounted from it.
Placing the knife in the assembly table the blacksmiths asked Kingo how he made it, which Kingo kindly explained, he wasn't really sure how the sheath and belt were made as he usually waited for the system to make the final touches on the blade before making a sheath. Discussing in the group what happened they inferred it was to the system and the fur leftovers he left nearby that created it.
*Creak
The forge door opened as they discussed the process and a group of three guys and two girls walked in.
[Emilia Braveheart Magus LVL 26]
Xol could see Emilia had long black hair and a blue mage dress as she passed by but couldn't catch a glimpse at her face.
"Is the knife for lady Emilia's team ready?" One of the guys asked impatiently.
"Yes, it's the one with a the black handle over there." Kingo replied nonchalantly o he person speaking, making visual contact with Emilia he pointed to a table nearby. He already got used to treating with the three guys, as almost every time Emilia came, they follow her trying to woo her. He maintained cordially with her but didn't endure the three guys personalities.
"There must be a mistake, the knife for lady Emilia must have be the cause of the mana drainage phenomena we felt some minutes ago, but this knife shouldn't had caused it." A guy who jumped at the opportunity to hand it personally said scanning it before passing it on. He handed to Emilia for her to see it and glanced toward Kingo.
"Nope that the knife for her team." Kingo replied and sighed at their comment.
"Then what about that knife in the anvil, it must definitely be the one that caused that mana drainage phenomena and be the one you forged for her." The last guy said a he pointed.
"Wrong, as I told you that the knife for Emilia´s team, this one was made for my friend." Kingo said as he gestured Xol. "Also, the persons with a crafting side job like to call that phenomena 'Mana Syphon' please use the correct name from now on."
The group turned and saw Xol sitting in a chair still recovering, the three guys made sneer and turned around, while Emilia blinked surprised seeing him and then turned around.
"You must have made a mistake when placing the knifes, and even if you did, I'm sure you friend wouldn't mind handing over, as lady Emilia team is the strongest and achieved the largest point of the dormitory last competition." The first guy said.
"I didn't and don't put words in his mouth." Kingo shook his head not budging.
"Are you sure you didn't misplace them." Emilia said this time, she was also curious about the other knife since just a simple glance between the knife she had and the one on the assembly table told her the superior quality of the second.
"I didn't." Kingo replied icily. "Beside as you know, hunting knives tend to break as you use them, so it doesn't matter as long as you have one, at most it would boost you drops a little but once I break you need another."
"I know, but as you said a better knife means better loot, also the superior quality means it should last longer before I breaks." Emilia replied with sweet smile.
"As I said I made this one for my friend and he even provided the materials so not handing it in, you already have the one I made." Kingo replied with furrowed face.
"Ha, it doesn't matter the dormitory leader had already instructed you to use the best materials for Emilia's team so we would hand this down to her." The first guy said as he advanced intending to take the knife.
*Swish.
As soon as guy grabbed the knife, Kingo´s unsheathed his katanas, one was touching the guy's throat while the other one the wrist of the hand which he used to grab the knife.
"Drop the knife. As I said it's for my friend, also in this forge I'm the chief and even if Ethan came here it would be the same result beside I assured no one in the dormitory can defeat me, so place the knife slowly in the table." Kingo said icily as he dropped all formalities.
"Don't forget you're not the only level 30 and the other one level 30 from the martial academy already made their class change." Emilia replied.
"Sooo? I already beat them in the Martial Academy, and they fear my strength. Last chance, tell him to place the knife gently or he loses a hand and I stop making equipment for you." Kingo glared at Emilia.
"I see, then I'll leave and take this knife you made." Emilia said turning around while showing the black handle knife
Hearing this, the guy placed the knife and then caught up to the groups as they started leaving
"You think a fancy knife is going to erase that fear?" Emilia said to Xol as she shot a meaningful glance with her amber eyes and slight smirk as she exited the forge.
Being surprised by the comment Xol and seeing the glance he understood what she meant.
"I don't know what you mean but I'll take your advice to heart." Xol said closing his eyes and smiling.
*Hmph
"Suit yourself." Emilia shook her head and continued her exit.
"Chief you're awesome I don think I would have been able to endure that pressure but wouldn't acting like this bring problems down the line." A blacksmith commented seeing the turns of events.
"Maybe but let me tell you this, always take pride in your work and remember to always honor what your customer asks for. If I had given Xol knife when he provided the materials my reputations may be tarnished, and other customers may consider other blacksmith to order their equipment." Kingo explained turning to see the blacksmith
"Build an honorable reputation and you will thrive, try…" Kingo lectured the blacksmith and explained when it was a good idea to give in and when they must be immovable.
Once Kingo finished lecturing them they resumed the knife discussion, once finished they returned to their workstations. Nodding at their potential, Kingo sheathed the knife and placed it over the table, after that he examined his forging materials in the inventory. Taking some out he started working on a katana, starting by the handle this time he waited for Xol to recover.
"Feeling better." Kingo said seeing Xol stood up.
"Un, thank you for your concern."
"Here" Kingo said as he took the hunting knife from the assembly table.
[Blue Flame Winged Lioness Hunting Knife (Tool, Cyan)
A hunting knife made from a fierce beast. This knife greatly increases the quality of the loot recovered from monsters and the size of it. Added drops: monster's meat.
Passive Skills: Monstrous loot, Scale peeling.
Monstrous loot: Size of the monster drop when using the knife increased by 20%.
Scale peeling: Scale quality of a monsters is increased an extra 10%. Skill applied after monstrous loot.
When sheathed and mounted on a belt:
+ 5 AGI.
+ 10 DEX.]
"Wow didn't know hunting knifes could get skills nor color grade, now I understand why the mana syphon was stronger than the previous ones." Xol eyes widened seeing the description.
"Yeah." Kingo replied awkwardly as he glanced toward the side, seeing everyone was immersed in the craft he gestured Xol to get closer.
"This knife has an extra secret. if the other blacksmith had seen it or the guy had seen it would had generated a huge uproar in the dormitory. When you go to the dungeons grab the ring without a feather and do the following…" Kingo explained how to remove the ring.
"Un I understand I will take good care of it, many thanks for crafting it again." Xol bowed his head slightly and exited the forge.
*Sigh
'I really hope that no one discover the disguise ring and see the knife potential.' Kingo sighed seeing Xol leave. Interacting with the system he called back the notifications he got previously and read them properly.
[Presence of mystical creature blood detected: Sapphire Phoenix, crafted item grade can potentially increase.
Do the high Mana purity and high density of mana in the area craft of item was successful.
Do the small presence of the Sapphire Phoenix bloodline item stopped at yellow grade.]
[Congratulations on your first-time crafting:
yellow grade item.
Received 40 DEX points.]
[You have learned ways to evoke skills from the materials as you forge.
Acquired 'Material Evocation Skill'.]
[Material Evocation Skill
Using inscriptions, you can resonate you forging with the material and give them skills from the original monster or an ancestor of it as you smith.
Success rate is affected by the following factors.
Mana purity and density in the vicinity.
Usage of at least one beast core.
Amount of materials used from the same monsters as the beast core(s).
INT and DEX from the user.
Blacksmith level and rank.]
'Glad I had seen the Scale peeling skill pop in another Hunting knife or couldn't use it to hide one of the skills. Seriously the materials were really good and would have loved using them to craft a weapon instead of a hunting knife, though now that think those skills I hided greatly improve the usefulness of the knife and I cannot say the materials were wasted on it.' Kingo thought tilting his head.
As Kingo meditated about the knife, Xol got into trouble with the three guys demanding to hand the knife as he went to the dungeon, thankfully Ethan heard the situation and diffused it, he still owed Xol for the hunting knife plan and Jun for the tips. Thanking Ethan Xol went on his way not knowing that the three guys cursed Ethan in their mind and still intended to get the knife from him.
Entering the Elemental Salamanders dungeon Xol scanned the immediate area and once he made sure there wasn't a salamander close by, he took the bluish ring Kingo said and started inserting his mana in a specific way. Soon the ring changed color to silver and some inscription appeared as an opening was made on the ring for easy removal.
[Equipment Disguise Ring (Tool, cyan)
A ring that can be added to equipment to disguise their description. Amount of information that can be hidden is dependent on ring equipment color grade. The ring cannot fully hide all the information of higher grade items, information available to change is dependent on ring grade.]
[Sapphire Phoenix Hunting Knife (Tool, Yellow)
Grade Evolution Criteria: Unknow.
A hunting knife made from a fierce beast with sapphire phoenix's bloodline. This knife greatly increases the quality of the loot recovered from monsters and the size of it. Added drops: monster's meat.
The knife blade is made from the flame of the Sapphire Phoenix and cannot be fully broken through loot collecting. If damaged/broken by other means knife can be permanently broken depending on the damage.
Passive Skills: Monstrous improvement, Flame mending.
Active skill: Flame Blade Shape Shift.
Monstrous loot: Size of the monster drop when using the knife increased by 30%.
Flame mending: Knife blade durability can be recovered through magical flames; mending rate is dependent on the quality of the flame.
Flame Blade Shape Shift: User can use his mana to manipulate the knife blade shape. Due the low quality of the blood of the sapphire phoenix found in the crafting materials blade cannot surpass 30 cm length and 5 cm width. Final shape must be a knife.
When sheathed and mounted on a belt:
+ 15 AGI.
+ 20 DEX.
+ 10 INT.]
Seeing the true description and the skills of the knife Xol was bewildered and understood he underestimated the result of triggering such a big mana syphon as Kingo called it.
Xol tried using the Flame Blade Shift Skill and visualized the knife Ena had used against him, seeing the change in description Xol felt excited, but soon dropped the idea of using the knife as a weapon seeing the blue grade spears he had gave him better attacking stats by a huge margin. He had to wait for his mana to recover to use the skill again. Returning the knife to its prior appearance, Xol waited for his mana to recover and then proceeded along the mountain pass.
Feeling thrilled at finally having a hunting knife Xol started hunting the salamanders intending to get the Beast Hunter side job. As he hunted, he how much lighter as he fought due the increase in AGI and DEX. To many the difference wouldn't be noticeable but since the knife doubled this stats for him, Xol felt a big difference. He also noted monster meat wouldn't always drop once he hunted various salamanders
Having hunted 7 different salamanders Xol searched a safe spot to recover himself and checked how much the loot had improved. The skin had effectively increased its dimension and Xol didn't found the holes some of the skin had when he delivered it to Izuriel previously, also the cuts on the ends were cleaner and weren't chips on them. The bones and fangs weren't as fractured as he had saw when exchanging them for contributions.
Once he recovered enough, Xol continued hunting, as he did this he reviewed what Teacher Izuriel had explained in his public lecture, trying to multitask as he fought and visualizing more his skills as he did.
Trying to be efficient with his potions he first tried to found a safe place to recover naturally and if there wasn't he drink some.
After hunting around 10 more salamanders he saw some chips were being made on the edge of the knife and decide to try something. Locating a pair of Fire Elemental Salamanders, Xol killed one and then stored the jumonji yari in his inventory, taking the knife out of sheath he tried to 'parry' the Fireball skill that the salamander shot. Seeing the knife absorbing the fireball, Xol had perfectly countered the fire salamander, he to slowly take way its HP
Having hunted more salamanders than his first run, Xol felt his fighting prowess had greatly increased and searched for a specific salamander breed, nature elemental ones.
Finding a lone salamander Xol advanced to hunt it. Having hunted it successfully Xol felt the fight easier mainly do the increase in his mana sensibility had allowed to detect them quicker when they camouflaged. Xol then proceed to hunt more of that type and was surprised when one dropped an armor piece, making this the third piece that dropped in this dungeon run.
After the fifth nature salamander he hunted for a fire salamander to repair his knife and then advanced to the huge central tree.