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"..."
'This is getting annoying…'
Dale looked around, but everywhere he looked, he could see players, their numbers seemingly growing each day…
To a point where he felt stuffy as he started to miss the peace and quiet from the first and second days…
Even here, somewhere rather 'off road' he could see crowds of people in line to get inside a small house…
This was Barme's house, and also the sole Smithy of the Village, right now, he was also the sole NPC merchant that could fix and sell new gear and items…
Not like the players needed his services right now, after all, they weren't hunting, right?
It would be naive to think like that... Even here, players were constantly battling each other to see who was the top dog...
It was risky to fight inside the Village, but they had to fight somewhere, those that were caught were punished heavily... But those that didn't profited from their demise.
One day, these conflicts of power would be transferred outside...
But even then, they would need Barme's pricy services to fix their gear and sell out their excess loot...
It wasn't his fault they were pricy, but Barme simply had too little to work with, so with high demand, comes high prices...
Thankfully, the players had a lot of money since even the miscellaneous quests gave quite a sizable amount…
"Excuse me…" Dale asked a player on the line
"Eh? Wait for your turn man… You?!" The player said flabbergasted
He took a step to the side, and his little commotion also attracted the attention of the other players, who also stepped aside for him.
"Thanks." Dale said with a small nod
He stepped inside while the players wondered if this was a special event…
In a sense, it was, as Dale was about to give Barme a massive repertoire of items to work with…
…
/Creak!/
The door to the shop opened, and the first thing Dale noticed was that it was rather empty, but even so, it had little space inside as a lot of old wood and other miscellaneous materials seemed to be scattered around the place.
There were only 4 players inside, and they all frowned when they saw Dale, but they soon changed when they realized who it was…
"What? Who is it?! I say… NO MORE THAN 4 AT A TIME!... Oh?! Dale! Apologies, I didn't know it was you." Barme said with a smile
He was holding a box filled with cleaned weapons and armors, surely a new batch of things he had just repaired.
"How are you doing?" Dale asked, ignoring the players
"Tired, very tired… Things are getting quite rushed and I'm now suddenly filled with work, yet I have no materials to work with…"
"It's been a ride to try and accomplish all of the commissions I've been getting, sometimes I have to straight out refuse some customers, simply due to my inability to work due to a lack of materials…"
Dale nodded, saying:
"I'm working on it, soon enough, I'll have those mines in working condition, or so's the plan."
Barme smiled.
"I know, if there's someone that can do it, it's you, but remember, Rest is a wealthy man, make sure you take some time off from time to time."
"Don't worry, I do so every night." He said with a wide smile
Dale didn't worry about the players, and in a sense, he thought this was good.
From their perspective, this was an 'Event', one that was hinting at a possible future…
Like a cutscene, they were lucky to be part of…
This would cement his position as a Villager even further, and perhaps even prepare the players for the future…
Yes, Dale had plans to make even more use of this never-ending workforce that was the players… Someone had to mine the ores in the Mines, right?
But of course, first, he had to go there…
Of course, there is a certain risk factor… The players may get overly excited that somewhere out there, a hidden Dungeon may be waiting to be discovered…
Some may try to seek it out, but unless they want to risk meeting the same fate as the others trapped in the Jail cells, they'll remain put until they reach a +10 favorability.
And taking Rodi as a base, Dale calculated that it would take at least 3 full days for even some of the quicker players to reach that requirement.
"Besides… I imagine you're here for 'that', right?" Barme asked with a serious expression
Dale nodded, unwilling to say anything further in the presence of these players.
"Okay… Go inside, I'll close the shop for now…" Barme said as he turned to the players
Dale opened the door and got inside the room, and it didn't take long for him to hear Barme's screams…
"GET OUT! I'LL BE TAKING A REST FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!"
"..."
'So that's how he is with people with low Reputation…'
Dale shook his head, focusing his attention on the room.
It was mildly hot, a normal person would be sweating already, but Dale simply felt warm… Comfortably warm.
He soon saw the reason for this, it was the blazing hot furnace burning in the corner of the room.
An Anvil, tools, buckets filled with water and other strange substances, and even some finished and half-finished products laying all around.
Most of it were screws and nails, the normal you would expect a countryside smith to make…
Long was his days when Barme would make swords and spears, now the sharpest thing he makes are the hoes for farm work…
Not even arrowheads… Resko had long lost its sole hunter.
/Creak…/
The door opened behind Dale, it was Barme as expected, holding now an empty box.
"Sorry for the wait, those guys were quite persistent…"
/Thud/
He dropped the box and pushed it aside with his foot before saying:
"What do you have for me?" He said with lingering excitement
"How many boxes do you have?" Dale asked
"Hm…"
Barme looked around, and indeed, there were many empty boxes laying around…
"A LOT!"
Dale smiled.
…
For the next 10 minutes, Dale filled box after box with all sorts of items in an orderly manner, all under the watchful gaze of Barme, who was extremely excited for seeing such a large assortment of items in what seemed to be his entire life at this point…
The last time he remembered the shop being half full was when he was just a small child… And that was long ago.
"Hum…"
He grabbed a box filled with the broken remains of an armor that was once owned by one of the Elite soldiers of the Southern Corps, with a large frown on his forehead…
"Is there something wrong?" Dale asked
"Yes… Quite a big one at that…"
"I can see that the things you gave me are divided into 3 categories…"
"There are pristine items, swords, and shields that had little to no use or were well maintained… Probably the ones you got from those Outsiders, right?"
Dale nodded, those were the last remaining items from the loot he got from the players.
Unfortunately, most of it was left behind in the Wall due to a lack of space…
"The other category are these… I don't even know what to say… Corroded pieces of trash? Even that seems to be much." Barme said harshly
"Unfixable and overall terrible… You got these from the Catacombs right?... No, don't even reply, I'm sure you got it from there since you showed me something similar last time you visited me."
"Like last time, I'll tell you that these are unrepairable, I can at most scrap them for extra materials…"
"After all, despite being good pieces of gear if they were intact, they're mostly ceremonial in nature, because no matter how wealthy the Southern Corps once was, there is no way it would bury every single one of their soldiers with a full set of high-quality heavy armor..."
"Lastly, we have these broken pieces of High-quality gear… I would like to fix them all but..."
"Most of it… 95% of it cannot be repaired." He said, disappointed
"And even the ones that can… I'm heavily considering if I actually should, given how bad they look..."
"The effort may not repay the time spent trying, it may be easier to just do it from scratch."
"Some can be fixed quite easily, like this shield, it simply has a large cut in the upper section… Unfortunately, it wasn't strong enough to protect its wielder against whatever abomination was able to cut through it."
Dale nodded, but said plainly with a smile:
"No need to tell me all of that, I'm giving it all to you, do whatever you wish with it."
'I have no need for these items… As he said, they broke trash.'
'Apart from a selective few, they're better in his hands…'
'Who knows? If he fixes or creates something new from them, the prime target to be their master is actually me!'
'Right now, they're trash, but if they can be repaired, all the better...'
'I win in any case.'
Barme smiled at Dale's words.
"I didn't know it was my birthday haha!"
He looked at the many boxes around him and said:
"This will do for now, but I'm telling ya, it won't last forever…"
"I really need a supply of materials…"
"I can perhaps fix or make a new set of armor by smelting another 2-3 pieces, and fix 3 swords by sacrificing another one… But these materials will eventually all end."
"Not to say how well made they all are… I'm seriously considering if I'm even capable of fixing it all… It has been so long since I actually did my best in the forge that I actually forgot how it felt to make something new from scratch."
"This gear too… It's made from high-class materials, some of which I don't even recognize, they're also imbued with special effects I can't replicate on my own… Although mostly faded, it still carries a faint scent…"
Dale tried sniffing around, but didn't quite get what he meant…
"HAHAHA! Only a proficient blacksmith would be able to discern it."
"I was told you brought quite the assortment of books right? I'll have to read some and see if I can learn the methods used to make these pieces, including more information about their materials, and how to process them, otherwise it'll be a fruitless effort."
"I see..." Dale said
"I left the books with Misgurd on the third floor of the Guild, go check it out once you're free."
"I'll do so, that's a given…"
He then looked at Dale and said:
"Is this all? I don't believe this was all you got."
Dale smiled.
"The main plate is left at the end right?"
Dale opened his inventory and took a new assortment of items…
…
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Notes