「You can add Skills to equipment.」
「Yes.」
「Can you add more than one Skill into an empty Skill Slot?」
「I'm sorry, but I do not know. All I know is that nothing will happen if there are no Skills infused with the equipment.」
So apparently it doesn't work like that. To begin with, the Weapons Merchant was not even aware that something like Skill Slots even existed, so I can probably assume that the availability of the Skills is not a part of the public knowledge.
「And how exactly do you add Skills to equipment?」
「Well, normally you just buy weapons and armor that are already infused with them.」
「Okay, but what if I wanted to do that myself rather than buying them every time?」
I grabbed the Leather Armor from the Item Box. I wanted to hand it over to Roxanne, but I cannot see her well because of how dark it still is. For all I know, she might be changing right now.
「Only a Blacksmith can combine Skill Crystals with Equipment.」
Okay, so it seems like I would have to obtain a Blacksmith's Job if I wanted to do it myself. Not much, but that's a start.
「What is a Skill Crystal?」
「Supposedly it is a crystalized accumulation of monster's abilities that can be found withing the Labyrinths on rare occasions. When it is being added into a piece of equipment, the wearer will be able to use that Skill as if it was their own.」
For now it's all pretty much just as I imagined. With that said, let's confirm one more thing.
「So if there are no empty Skill Slots on the equipment, then it cannot be infused with Skill Crystals, right?」
「Exactly. Also, it is said that the strength of the Skill's effect once it is infused into a weapon or armor depends on the quality and condition of the Skill Crystal that was used, as well as the skill and luck of the Blacksmith who performs the infusion.」
「Luck? So it is possible to fail the infusion process?」
「Most certainly. Moreover, the percentage of failures seems to be much higher then the number of successes.」
So it's kinda RNG based. If you won't try it you will never know whether you will succeed or not, but if you do end up failing, you will probably lose the Skill Crystal you wanted to infuse. But if that is really the case, then I am going to have a natural advantage with it since I can use Identify. As long as I'll be using it, no Skill Infusion will ever fail for me.
「Do you know what the are requirements for becoming a Blacksmith?」
「I am sorry, but I do not know. The only thing that I am aware of is that it is a race-specific Job available primarily for Dwarves.」
*Depression Intensifies*
Does that mean that I cannot become a Blacksmith myself?! And more importantly, there are Dwarves here in this world as well? But I haven't met a single one so far.
Is there really no way for me to become a Blacksmith? Well, Roxanne did say that it is a race-specific Job, but I wonder what does that mean, exactly? Maybe that the specifications or requirements of this Job can only be satisfied by Dwarves alone, making it impossible for the members of the other races to obtain it? Well, that sucks.
「I see. So I guess we have no choice but to leave it to a professional to create the equipment with Skills for us. Not an ideal solution, but what else can we do?」
「There's one thing you need to know though: most Blacksmiths dislike Skill Infusion requests. By any chance, do you happen to have a Blacksmith who is willing to do them among your acquaintances, master?」
「Would it be a big problem if I said that I do not?」
「That depends. When an infusion fails, you lose the Skill Crystals. That is why most of the Blacksmiths usually do not offer Skill Infusions in their services, and even if you find the one that does offer it, there's no telling if he can be trusted.」
That particular tidbit got me curious, so I asked her why that is. But when I heard the answer, it all made sense to me.
When the Skill Infusion fails, you lose your Skill Crystals. But the thing is: when you lose them, you have no way of knowing if you lost them due to a failed infusion, or maybe because the Blacksmith whom you ordered the fusion from decided to screw you over and steal your Skill Crystals. After you make the request, there is always a possibility that the Blacksmith might not even attempt the infusion and pretend that it was unsuccessful in order to get your items for himself with literally no cost from his side at all. As much as I don't want to admit it, that does sound like a pretty neat strategy: you tell the client that you failed the infusion, but in reality you sell the Skill Crystals you appropriated for yourself, or even better, you fuse the client's Skill Crystals with your own equipment, which will in turn allow you to sell that equipment for a pretty hefty sum.
「Let me get it straight then: infusion of Skill Crystals is nothing but a source of trouble?」
「That's right.」
「But if that is the case, then wouldn't witnessing the infusion process with your own eyes solve those problems?」
「Of course it would, but nowadays it's just not worth it. You see, master, in the past there were many Dwarves who made their fortunes by charging their clients with an additional fee if they wanted to be present to witness the entire infusion process. To say that those fees were outrageous would be an understatement.」
「No shit, really?」
Well, that is certainly one way of committing fraud. Similarly, if a magician tried to cheat at a card game, I guess very few people would actually be able to call him out.
「Precisely. Ever since then, people only asked Blacksmiths to perform Skill Infusions in very rare cases, and Blacksmiths started to turn down such transactions. When you get the Skill Crystal, you sell it, and if you want equipment with Skills in it, you buy it from the weapon or armor shop.」
Certainly, if dealing with them resulted only in distrust and suspicion, avoiding such troublesome work was the most obvious solution to the problem.
However, that poses a huge problem for me. If I can't become a Blacksmith myself because it is a race-specific Job and if no Blacksmith will accept a request for Skill Infusions, then it means that finding a way out of this particular pickle is going to be that much more troublesome. Even if I use Identify to reveal if the equipment has empty Skill Slots or not, it won't do me any good. And here I thought it's going to help me gain some advantage over the rest of the world. Then again, maybe I shouldn't dismiss it so soon, because it did allow me to see the Jobs of other people as well as the locations of monsters and that is something that I have really come to appreciate. The question now is: if I cannot obtain a race-specific Job myself and I don't have any connections with the Blacksmiths at all, then what can I do to remedy that?
As it turns out, there is one more possibility available for me: get myself a Blacksmith as a Party member. But I fear that just getting him as a simple Party member might not be enough to eliminate the possibility of him trying to scam us. Unless…
「Getting myself a Blacksmith, huh?」
「Hmm?」
「No no, it's nothing.」
At first I wanted to ask her about her opinion on getting myself a Blacksmith as another slave, but at the last moment I decided against it. Since I just got her as my first slave yesterday, mentioning getting another one so fast after purchasing a first one might have been a full-blown display of extremely bad taste and a lack of tact. I should go straight to the Slave Merchant with that particular matter. Another one will be how much money he's going to charge for it this time.
Feeding Roxanne with an excuse for me to go out, I made my way towards the door, relying on my intuition throughout most of the way.
「Can I open the door?」
「Yes, I'm done changing, so it's fine.」
I waited for her reply and opened the door leading to the corridor.