[Dalmagna Blacksmith]

The next morning, at 09.20...

Dalmagna looked at the pile of swords and shields in front of him with an astonished expression. Those swords and shields were naturally items that the Holy Order had commissioned him to create.

He then glanced at the loli at the side and asked her curiously.

“Is this all... You craft all of them in such a short time?” (Dalmagna)

"Yes." (Hecate)

Dalmagna's surprise was understandable.

Yesterday afternoon, when Dalmagna was about to call it the day, Hecate asked to borrow some of Dalmagna's steel alloy supplies. At that time, she reasoned that she wanted to continue the work independently at night in her private workshop.

Dalmagna didn't think too much and agreed to her request, thinking that she was just taking them to practice her crafting skills, and at the very least make an additional one or more swords and shields.

But unexpectedly, she actually completed so many swords and shields in just one night.

"Of course, I have some workers to help me." (Hecate)

"Ah, I see..." (Dalmagna)

After hearing Hecate's words, Dalmagna expressed his understanding.

Similar to Shuna, Hecate was basically supported by the Genesis Guild as she had a high position there, so it was understandable that she would have one or more subordinates to help her with her tasks. With their help, of course it would be very easy to make this many swords and shields in a short time.

Unfortunately, the students' subordinates ≠ Dalmagna's subordinates.

Unlike Shuna or Hecate who were his students, they didn't have any relationship with him so he couldn't ask for their help directly. If Dalmagna still wanted their help, then he would have to "employ" them and that wouldn't be cheap. Dalmagna was satisfied with cheap labor wages, so he had no intention of employing anyone.

Or rather, because of his bad past, he didn't want to hang out with too many people anymore.

"Having lots of people can certainly get the job done quickly. But unfortunately, this is your assigned task so I won't pay for their work." (Dalmagna)

"Umm, yeah... That's not a problem." (Hecate)

What Dalmagna didn't know was that he misunderstood what Hecate said.

The workers Hecate just referred to here are her mana clones, not subordinates. In the first place, although Hecate had a high position in the Genesis Guild, she had absolutely no subordinates. Hecate's duties in the Genesis Guild are only superficial and her position in the guild is purely as a mascot.

But of course, Hecate had no intention of correcting this misunderstanding nor did she need to.

Last night after Hecate reactivated the innermost city barrier in her territory, she spent about an hour crafting a prototype of a "press machine", which was based on the blueprint of a pneumatic press machine, but with a few modifications.

The most notable difference between this machine and the original pneumatic press machine is that, instead of using "compressed air" to create force, this one uses "compressed mana" instead.

With this machine, Hecate was able to perfect her Mana Metalcasting method, crafting many objects of comparable quality to those made by the old method of striking metal alloys with a forging hammer.

And after that, Hecate and her clones spent the remaining of the login time to craft as many Broadswords and Round Shields as possible, until the entire material supplies she borrowed from Dalmagna was used up. And when all the material supplies had been used up, she had made about 50 Broadswords and 50 Cross Shields.

"Unfortunately, the Glyph engraving process cannot be mass produced so it has to be done manually by me." (Hecate)

Hecate remembered what happened at last night's experiment.

It was possible to engrave Glyph symbols into an object by including them into the mold. It was just that, the symbols always deformed when the object was pressed in the press machine, causing it to become a junk and had to be remelted. After several tries, Hecate simply gave up and decided to focus on making as many empty swords and shields as possible.

"Well, you have made the right choice. I also don't want my knowledge to spread too widely." (Dalmagna)

Meanwhile, Dalmagna just assumed Hecate wasn't sharing her skills with the workers, which he literally agreed with. As the slogan Dalmagna and the other Dwarves believe, "Knowledge is power, wealth, and splendor."

Knowledge and crafting skills have provided many advantages to the Dwarves over the centuries. They can make legendary weapons and armors, which are said to be able to destroy mountains and seas. The equipment made by the Dwarves are an important factor in monster subjugation and warfare, and many people commission them at fantastic prices.

To maintain this advantage, the Dwarves essentially monopolized the knowledge of their craft and only passed it on to their heirs and students. Therefore, they attach great importance to the relationship and trust between teachers and students seriously.

But unfortunately, the Gemmerio Kingdom greatly betrayed this trust.

“Okay then, since you've made so many, let's start the engraving process first.” (Dalmagna)

"Yes." (Hecate)

Both of them stopped talking and started the process of engraving Glyphs on all the swords and shields there.

The process of engraving Glyph symbols could be said to be a delicate process, but with more practice, this process becomes easier each time, and eventually becomes a simple work routine.

Hecate patiently practiced her hands and familiarized herself with engraving Glyph symbols. She even turned off notification messages so her concentration wouldn't be disturbed.

A few hours later...

“And this is the last one. Let's rest for a bit before we continue with the armor.” (Dalmagna)

"Okay..." (Hecate)

It was after they finished engraving all the stuff, she checked her notification message.

Not only were some of her skills leveled up, she also got three new skills.

It seems that these three new skills learning requirements have been fulfilled accidentally while she was concentrating on the work just now.

One of them was the passive skill Dexterous Hands, which is a skill that has a big influence not only on Blacksmiths but also on all production subclasses. This skill gives those who possess it an increased assistance system correction when creating handicraft items, that is, items made with their own hands.

A few examples: Tailor's hand-woven clothing, Sculptor's hand-carved statues, Chef's dishes, and so on.

Apart from that, this skill also increases the DEX stat, which is one of the main stats and has a big influence on gameplay. Aiming system assist, spell-casting speed, and many other things, including the previously mentioned production system assist depend on the DEX stat. With this skill leveled up to Lv3, she has gained an additional +3 DEX.

Even though this number cannot be said to be much, the slight difference can still be felt.

'Nice! This skill learning condition is very difficult to trigger, I didn't expect to get it today.'

Hecate was very fortunate to get this skill, as many people try to get this skill, but only a few are able to get it.

The main reason was because the requirements to get the skill were unknown, people could only guess and keep making items until they got the skill. In the end, those who couldn't get this skill just gave up one by one and this skill became considered a rare skill.

Then, regarding the Remove Glyph skill.

As the name suggests, this skill allows Hecate to remove Glyph symbols on her items. With this skill, even if engraving Glyph symbols on an object fails and produces a defective item, she only needs to erase the symbols and no longer needs to melt the object.

This skill seems useful, but unfortunately it has a probability of success which at level 1 doesn't seem to be much.

'Perhaps after leveling up this skill once or a few times, I can make good use of this skill.'

And the last skill, Glyph Rampage.

Basically, this skill can change objects that have Glyph symbols into something like a bomb. By infusing mana, she can make Glyph symbols on an object go berserk. She didn't know what would happen if the Glyph symbols went berserk, but most likely the object would simply explode.

This was a skill that was very difficult to find benefits from, because it required her to sacrifice the item just for an explosion. Even if she wanted something to explode, she didn't lack explosion skills, so there was no reason to use this skill.

'Most likely this skill would be a skill I would never use.'

Without much thought, Hecate closed the notification window.

♠♠♠

 

[Rizen City]

At the same time in another place.

After a few days of traveling overland, Touya's party who rode with Georg's merchant group arrived in Rizen City, which was a fairly large city in the Gemmerio Empire.

Rizen City was a very busy city with lots of people passing by, no less than the big cities they had visited so far.

If this were a normal day, they would feel excited and enjoy the atmosphere of a foreign city they were visiting for the first time. But this time, they were very nervous and didn't have the mood to enjoy the atmosphere. The reason was of course because they did something risky, like pulling the mustache of a sleeping tiger.

Of all the anxious people in Touya's party, only Kaire acted calmly.

"Looks like they still haven't realized..." (Touya)

"Of course they are, my PI (Plagiarize Item) skill is maxed." (Kaire)

Touya's party who got a shared quest from Hisui, had to retrieve a certain item stolen by Georg.

Two days ago, this important task was finally planned and carried out by Kaire. With some distraction from the others, Kaire managed to infiltrate the carriage where the quest item was stored.

It wasn't so difficult to find out which item was stolen, because the item had been marked as a quest target by the game system. The object referred to here was a sealed box that seemed to be made of marble decorated with incomprehensible carvings but looked luxurious. 

If Hecate were there, she would definitely recognize that the carvings were stylized Glyph symbols and could quickly guess that their function was to seal the object in the box. There was no way to take out or even see any information about the contents of the box without a key or something that could decipher the Glyph symbols.

The box used to seal the quest item ironically made Kaire's job much easier. All he had to do was use the Plagiarize Item skill to create a fake box and secretly exchange it for a real one.

However, there was an unexpected problem, the box could not be stored in inventory.

Most likely this happened because of the effects of the quest item in the box. And because this box cannot be stored in inventory, this means that this box cannot be carried by teleporting using the Town Scroll.

So, Kaire could only disguise the box into a clay statue and carry it all the way in his backpack. At that time, he ran out of time so he just shaped the clay statue into something like a decorative egg.

But it was enough to pass the inspection at the city gate.

"Is there a chance that your fake box will be discovered by them? I mean, you finished making that box so quickly. Maybe they will realize something is off... " (Hisui)

"You don't have to worry about that, I'm pretty confident in my work." (Kaire)

"Yeah, you don't need to worry about Kaire's skills. He is already a master at this. I guarantee that." (Minami)

Hisui couldn't shake off his worry.

All this time he couldn't help but think that maybe the fake box Kaire made had something that didn't match the original and Georg's people would recognize it.

Regarding this, Kaire only acted calm and confident.

What Kaire didn't say was that he had the skill Dexterous Hands Lv9, which gave him quite a powerful system assist. This was what allowed him to create the fake box as detailed as possible in less than 30 seconds. Not only that, he also got the time to disguise the real box into a clay statue due to this skill.

Apart from that, he has the Sculptor Subclass, a class that specializes in the field of sculpture.

It was very unlikely that those people would find out that the box was fake. Unless Dispel Lv10 is used twice, items created with his Plagiarize Item Lv10 will not be discovered.

Another factor that could cause the box to be discovered to be fake is time.

The fake box will deteriorate and fall off little by little, turning into the clay or material used to make it over time. But Kaire wasn't worried about this factor either, at least it wouldn't happen any time soon.

The reason was, he realized that the material used to make the box did not seem to be ordinary material.

"By the way Floire, what is the mud that you gave me yesterday? After mixing the clay with the mud, the rating of the clay suddenly increased to 6★. It can even make the box's life expectancy last more than a month." (Kaire)

"That is a secret. Don't ask any more, Onii-chan... I really can't say.” (Floire)

"I see, okay then..." (Kaire)

Unexpectedly, Floire refused to answer Kaire's question about the "mud" material she had provided.

She just remained silent with a complicated expression, even seeming to show a feeling of rejection towards the egg statue, which was made with the mixture of materials that she gave him. 

Even though Kaire was curious about the reason, he didn't ask any further. It could be that there was an agreement, such as that Floire had taken an oath not to reveal the origin of the clay. And if she violates it, she will have to bear a heavy penalty.

The others also seemed to have come to the same conclusion so they didn't ask either. But still, after listening to Kaire's words, their worries disappeared.

"One month? That's quite a long time!" (Touya)

"For real?! Then we don't have to worry to esca--" (Minami)

"Shhh! You're too loud! Anyway, you don't have to worry about this anymore. All we have to do is go to the Adventurer's Guild to complete our bodyguard quest, then we'll head back... to Nerkia City first." (Kaire)

Hisui, who was the source of the shared quest, also breathed a sigh of relief.

He didn't expect the execution of this quest to be this smooth and easy. At this moment, he was extremely grateful to Touya's party. He felt relieved because his choice to share this quest with them was the right one.

In addition, he couldn't help but think that Kaire was simply a genius. Look at the comparison, Hisui's attempt to complete the mission ended in disaster. Meanwhile, Kaire's strategy was brilliant and the execution was smooth.

Is this still a Rank A quest? Why does it feel like a Rank E instead?

'This Kaire is undoubtedly a master! With results like this, if he couldn't be called a master, then who could?'

About 30 minutes later at the Adventurer's Guild building.

Georg's group went to stock up on supplies for the continuation of their journey. And this time, the Sharp Edge party withdrew from the trip, so as a courtesy, they said goodbye to Captain Anton and every party that would still be joining Georg's entourage.

The five of them came out of the Adventurer Guild building, after completing their bodyguard quest. As Kaire expected, nothing special happened and they were able to leave safely without being suspected.

"Aah, that was very nerve wracking, in many ways. I'm glad we still alive..." (Minami)

"I hope they never realize what we did." (Touya)

Touya and Minami are constantly nervous all this time.

This was their first Rank A mission, which normally only tier-3 classes could undertake. But unexpectedly, the most important part of the quest had just been completed so well.

All that remained was to return to the quest giver in the Croissa Kingdom.

"Now what should we do?" (Floire)

"How about we go to the Teleportation Gate? We can hitch a ride to the portal if someone goes to Nerkia City. Even if there aren't any, that's not a problem. I have enough money to use the gate." (Hisui)

"No, that won't work." (Kaire)

Regarding Floire's question, Hisui only suggested using the Teleportation Gate.

This was understandable, as the distance from this place to the Croissa Kingdom was very far. If they traveled there manually on foot it would definitely take no less than a month, which would be too long.

However, Kaire shook his head and rejected Hisui's suggestion.

"Since the box couldn't be stored in the inventory, I can already guess that it also can't be transported through the Teleportation Gate. The fact that Georg-san delivered the box via land route was strong proof that my guess is most likely correct." (Kaire)

"What? So we have to go back the way we came? Isn't that just your guess? How can you know if you've never tried?" (Minami)

"No, trying it now is very risky. What if an unknown phenomenon occurs and Georg-san notices it? We will be caught and our efforts will be in vain." (Kaire)

Minami was somewhat dejected.

This means they would have to go back to camping and take turns logging in and out, guarding the bodies of the other party members during the journey.

"Well, we have no other choice. Let's buy a horse and wagon before evening comes." (Touya)

No one opposed Touya's suggestion and the five of them went to the market, where wagons were sold.

All this time, Floire felt very guilty.

When she heard Kaire's words about the fake box having an expiration date, she felt sorry for a certain princess. She couldn't help but imagine the look on the princess's face when the box expired and someone read the item information.