A day after Lux finished upgrading his Soul Book, he went to visit the Blacksmith in Leaf Village.
His goal was to purchase cheap weapons that had skills imbued in them, so he could transfer the skills to make his own equipment stronger.
"Sir Randolph, good morning!" Lux greeted the Blacksmith who was taking a break from his smithing.
"Oh, it's you, Lux," Randolph greeted the Half-Elf who had become his regular supplier of Beast Parts that hailed from the Figaro Garden. "Are you going to sell me some materials today?"
Lux shook his head. "No. This time, I am here to buy weapons and armor."
Randolph chuckled as he gestured to the weapons and armors that were on display in his shop.
Lux held the Elysium Compendium in his hand and the detailed information of the items in front of him materialized in his sight.
The Elysium Compendium could also work as an appraising tool. After all, its main feature was access to detailed information about almost anything in Elysium.
The Half-Elf looked at the War Axe in front of him and immediately saw the information he was looking for.
—-
Axe of Onslaught
Weapon Type: Axe
Rarity: Rare
Damage: 40 - 75
Durability: 300/300
Required Strength: 30
Skill: Critical Strike
– Each attack has a 10% chance to do critical damage.
Price: 20 Gold
—--
Lux scratched his head as he looked at the price of the Axe of Onslaught, and the coins he had in his possession.
—--
Elysium Copper Coins: 200
Elysium Silver Coins: 50
Elysium Gold Coins: 12
—--
Even after selling all of those valuable monster parts to Randolph, his current funds still weren't enough to buy the Axe in front of him. With a heavy heart, Lux could only force himself to look at the other weapons beside the Axe and wondered if they would fit his budget.
—--
Sting
Weapon Type: One-handed Sword
Rarity: Rare
Damage: 20 - 32
Durability: 200/200
Required Strength: 15
Required Dexterity: 15
Skill: Envenom
Mana: 10
– Has a low chance to poison your target.
Price: 10 Gold
—-
Fanged Kris
Weapon Type: Dagger
Rarity: Rare
Damage: 15 - 25
Strength Requirement: 10
Dexterity Requirement: 20
Durability: 200/200
Skill: Thorn
– has a 5% chance to apply the Bleeding effect to your target with every strike.
– Bleeding effect reduces your target's Health Points by 1% of its Maximum Health Points every 2 seconds.
– Bleed Effect Duration: 10 seconds.
Price: 15 Gold
—---
Lux checked all the items in Randolph's shop. In conclusion, all of them were pretty expensive. Some of them had skills imbued to them, while others didn't have any. But the thing that made him depressed the most was how pretty darn expensive they all were.
The normal weapons were obviously cheaper, but since they didn't possess any Skills whatsoever, it was useless to buy them.
Only superior weapons and sets of armor in Randolph's shop had skills, but aside from being expensive, there was only a limited number of them. It was at that moment when Lux understood how much of a money burning skill the Item Transmutation [EX] was.
Without any item in hand, he wouldn't be able to maximize the skill that he had gained after his upgrade.
While Lux was having a dilemma, a sudden idea popped inside his head.
"Um, Sir Randolph, do you have any defective products for sale?" Lux asked. "Even scrapped weapons will do."
Randolph frowned as he looked at the Half-Elf who had just asked him something unreasonable.
"Boy, I don't sell defective products in my shop," Raymond replied with a snort. "No Dwarf Blacksmith that cares about their name and reputation would do such a thing. If you ask me something like this again in the future, I'll hit you with my Smithing Hammer to knock some senses into you!"
Lux hurriedly apologized to the fuming Dwarf and explained that it wasn't his intention to belittle him or anything.
He made an excuse that he was very interested in Blacksmithing and he wanted to see what defective products looked like, so when he forged his own weapons and sets of armor, he would have an idea on what was defective or not.
"You want to learn Blacksmithing?" Randolph sized up the Half-Elf half and down. "Well, I guess anyone can learn it as long as they are passionate about the craft. Do you want to become my apprentice then?"
Beads of sweat formed in Lux's forehead because he couldn't believe that Randolph had taken his excuse seriously.
He didn't plan to learn Blacksmithing at the moment because he was still planning to monopolize the loots in the Figaro Gardens and collect as many monster parts and Beast Cores as possible while the mosquitoes were still at large.
However, before he could politely reject Randolph's offer, a notification materialized in front of him.
—-
< Special Quest: The Art of Blacksmithing >
– Randolph is currently looking for an apprentice to pass his craft on to. If you decide to accept this quest, you will gain the Blacksmith Subclass as a reward.
– This is an optional quest. You can choose to decline his offer if you don't want it.
< Rewards >
– Blacksmith Sub Class
– Title: Apprentice Blacksmith
< Would you like to accept this Subclass Quest? >
< Yes / No >
—--
Lux's body stiffened because he didn't expect that he would gain a special quest out of the blue. He was not new to the Subclass option in games because most games had this feature.
According to his understanding, his Main Class was Necromancer, allowing him to summon the Undead, use curses, and other abilities connected to his profession.
A Subclass, however, would allow him to use the abilities of other Job Classes without any conflict with his Main Class. Meaning, Lux could become a Necromancer and an Apprentice Blacksmith at the same time.
Lux weighed the pros and cons of accepting Randolph's offer inside his head.
'If I became an Apprentice Blacksmith, I will be able to learn how to create weapons and armor,' Lux thought. 'If in the process of Blacksmithing, I happen to make an exceptional weapon with an attached skill, I can transfer it to my weapon without any problem.
'The only downside is that I will need to constantly craft weapons in order to raise the rank of my Blacksmithing Skills.'
The Elysium Compendium in Lux's hand had supplied him with information about the Artisan Classes in the world of Elysium. These craftsmen who pursued different fields couldn't raise their Skill Proficiencies by using Beast Cores.
They needed to pursue their passion devotedly in order to gain a higher understanding of their craft.
In Elysium, people could have up to a maximum of three Subclasses. If they were to exceed that number, they would have to acquire special tokens from the Adventurer's Guild to increase the number of Subclasses up to five.
However, earning these tokens would require them to achieve an unbelievable feat that would be recognized by the ruler of the territory that they were staying in.
'There are no coincidences in the world,' Lux thought. 'Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. All I need to do is take a leap of faith and see where this road will take me.'
After finalizing his decision, Lux faced the Dwarf who was looking at him with a serious expression.
"If you're really fine with me then I gladly accept your offer to become your apprentice," Lux replied. "However, I can't always be with you, Sir Randolph, because I am an adventurer."
"That's fine," Randolph replied. "I was also an adventurer like you in the past but I took an arrow to the knee and decided to retire and become a Blacksmith."
"We can focus on your training on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I don't care what you do on the other days, but you have to be here on the days I mentioned."
Lux nodded his head in agreement. "Understood, Master."
"Master…," Randolph played with his beard as he looked at the Half-Elf with a satisfied expression. "I like the sound of that."
The Dwarf then extended his hand for a handshake, and Lux accepted it with a smile.
When their two hands clasped each other, Lux immediately felt the hidden strength in Randolph's grip.
The calluses on the Dwarf's hand made the Half-Elf realize that he couldn't take this apprenticeship half-heartedly. Doing so would be the same as ridiculing Randolph's passion for his profession, and this was something that was against Lux's principles.
After the two shook hands, Randolph happily closed his shop and took Lux to the tavern to celebrate his apprenticeship.
Although he didn't know if he would become a successful Apprentice Blacksmith in the future, he was sure that he would definitely do his best, not only for Randolph's sake, but for his own sake as well.