As Hecate walked, she realized something important.

The cityscape looked different from what he remembered yesterday. But that doesn't mean the city changed overnight during her absence. What really changed was the scene reflected in her view.

There were objects giving off noticeable sparkles everywhere.

Items sold at roadside stalls, coins dropped on the road, even some shop billboards gave off that striking flash. These items have one thing in common, namely that they are rare and valuable items.

'The shop's billboard was plated with silver and gold… The tattered armor had one or more Soul Essences within it…
That box, there's something valuable inside.'

Hecate could guess the reason behind this phenomenon, it was the effect of her new enhanced skill.

Thanks to this skill, valuable items that Hecate has determined will be displayed on her Minimap.

But now that this skill had been enhanced, the marks were also visible directly in her sight. She didn't need to open her Minimap to use this skill again.

Well, since she noticed it, it would be a waste if she didn't take it. She approached the merchant and inspected the armor.

The armor itself wasn't in great condition. Almost half of the armor was slightly melted and deformed. One stab of the knife could definitely penetrate the armor and make a hole in it.

But with her Blacksmithing skills, she should be able to recycle them.

As for the box...

These boxes are sometimes dropped from golem or machine type monsters. No one knows exactly what's inside the box and the description doesn't say anything useful. In the market it is sold intact as is and the contents inside depend on the luck of the buyer.

Hecate began negotiating with the merchant.

"Mister, I want this armor. How much is it?"

“It's 400,000, dear little lady.”

“That's too expensive for a piece of junk.”

"Lady, this is not junk. You can see for yourself. This armor is fused with 2 Soul Essences."

"Mister, do you really think I'm stupid? The durability of this armor has already reached 1 digits. This armor was sprayed with corrosive acid and is already on the verge of breaking. To hire a skilled Blacksmith and repair this thing would cost around 5 million.
I'll take this trash for 40,000 or forget it!"

STAB!

"Huuk...! But... but... It has the Orc Pirate General and the Fiertooth Wolf Essence...
It can double your Max HP and increase your STR by a huge amount! At least... 350,000?”

“What good is those Soul Essences if the armor can't be used? They will break during the repair anyway.”

Hecate paused for a moment, before continuing.

"Come to think of it, 40,000 is still too expensive! 35,000!"

STAB! STAB!!

"Huuk...!! Huuk...!!"

For some reason, the merchant looked like he was suffering from constipation.

"Are you okay Mister? You should go to the doctor if you sick. Should I press the emergency button for you?"

"...No need! ...I understand, 35.000 it is... (*cries*)
Damn spiders destroying my precious armor... I wouldn't sell this if not because I urgently need golds...!! (*cries*)"

"Thank you. Oh, I also want this, this, and this... 3 boxes in total."

"That would be 12,000." (*dead eyes*)

Hecate completes the negotiations and purchases the goods. The merchant cried while handing over tattered armor and 3 small boxes. He looked like he had lost his beloved wife to another man loli.

She received the item with a satisfied face.

Even though this armor was badly damaged, it still felt heavy with her 1 STR stat. Without further ado, she immediately put it into her inventory.

As for the boxes, Hecate requires a special instrument included in the Mage Association to open them. She had no choice but to keep them for now. But since these boxes triggered her Treasure Sensor, their contents were definitely not something worthless.

Hecate didn't stop there, she approached another stall.

"Uncle, can I buy that crate? I just want that crate."

"Huh? Do you really want to buy the crate instead of the fruit?"

"Yeah. I'll buy it for 10... Ah, forget it. I'll buy this crate and all the fruit in it."

"Sure! Sure!! There are thirty apples here and you can buy them all for 3, and with the crate..."

"Okay then, here's the gold."

While saying that, Hecate handed the gold coins to the seller.

The fruit seller looked very happy when he received the gold because he suddenly made a big profit. Who would have thought someone would buy a wooden crate with gold coins?

'That uncle is a native. He doesn't understand how valuable this crate is in the real world.'

Hecate said nothing more and left the place as soon as she put everything into her inventory.

Sandalwood or better known in Japan as Byakudan (白檀) is a type of wood that produces a distinctive fragrance that can last for decades. It was very difficult to cultivate and currently the global price of sandalwood has reached more than $3200/lb.

No wonder that this wood was ranked as the second most expensive wood in the world.

'If I use this wood in my crafts, I can raise the price even further.'

Hecate couldn't help but smile. To think she found this good thing so easily...

It felt like she really was a treasure radar.

♠♠♠

 

[Hecate's Private Workshop]

A few minutes later, Hecate arrived in front of a small house.

She took a key from her inventory and opened the door.

This house was her personal property and she used it as her workshop. The front room was decorated similar to a normal house. A living room with stairs leading to a bedroom on the second floor, a kitchen with a bathroom that had never been used even once, and finally, the Blacksmith's workshop area in the back room.

Entering the house, Hecate locked the door once more before walking into her workshop room.

"Now, time to work!"

Then, she turned the furnace on.

Without further ado, she opened her inventory and took out all the weapons and armors she hadn't put up for auction.

Excluding those combined with Soul Essences, she dropped them all into the furnace.

The Blacksmith Furnace in this game does not comply with the rules in the real world. It was system assisted, very easy to use, and just anywhere to operate. As long as the Player, or Native had the Forging skill, they could use the furnace.

Yes, basically this is a gaming world.

If the Blacksmithing process was too complicated, it would deter Players from playing this job.

♦♦♦

 

While waiting for the furnace to finish melting the items, Hecate decided to do something else.

She took out the 10 Slot Enchant Cores she bought earlier and placed them on the table. She also took out her +8 Eldritch Bone Wand, +7 Mask of Serenity, and +7 Cloak of the Fallen.

At that time, an interesting phenomenon occurred.

In her vision, some of the Enchant Core Slots she bought emitted a blue aura that slowly expanded to 3 pieces of equipment.

Hecate grinned as she knew of a similar phenomenon that had occurred not long ago.

'Fortune Instinct!'

It was a skill obtained from combining "Sense Crisis" and "Sense Fortune".

This blue aura must have come from the Fortune Instinct skill and tells Hecate indirectly that the slot enchantment process will be successful if she matches the items according to the blue aura. Mismatched pairs will most likely fail and destroy both items.

With a wave of her hand, Hecate unequipped her necklace.

"Let's test it further by using this on my necklace."

She tested her hypothesis further by using one of the Cores that had a blue aura connected to her Saintess Necklace. It was stolen equipment so it didn't matter to her if it was broken.

As soon as Hecate clicked the Yes button, the essence suddenly turned into a ball of light and flew into the necklace. The light lasted for a few seconds before the light faded.

And then, the system window appeared.

Hecate smiled in satisfaction when she saw the success notification.

This proved her hypothesis was correct. Fortune Instinct can help her detect the possibility of success in advance. This was the same as gaining the ability of clairvoyance that allowed her to see the future.

While other players have to gamble because they risk failure when upgrading or equipping equipment, Hecate only needs to see whether the blue aura is on the item or not. If there is, then success is guaranteed.

It was truly a broken skill.

'Since it's proven to be true, then I don't need to hold back.'

She continued to enchant some of her equipment.

A total of six more times, success messages continuously appeared one after another.

Unfortunately, the last 3 cores are just ordinary cores, they don't emit any aura. If she used this core to infuse her equipment, she would most likely fail.

"Oh well, getting a 7 out of 10 is already good."

With no other choice, she stored the items back into her inventory.

♦♦♦

 

More than thirty minutes had passed without realizing it.

The furnace had finished melting the scraps and the inside had turned into hot liquid metal. The hot molten metal was magically separated from the other elements and each contained in a different container.

If this happened in the real world, it would take more than 10 hours to melt iron into liquid metal.

“Now that the metal is molten, it is time to cast the metal.”

Hecate carefully poured the hot molten iron into the sand mold.

This method is called the Sand Casting method. This was one of the most popular and simplest types of metal casting, because it is cheap, only uses sand bound with clay or resin as a mold. Sand can be recycled many times in most operations and requires little maintenance.

She used this metal casting method for two years and was convinced that it was the simplest and easiest.

...until today.

One of the passive skills she had just acquired, Mysticallurgy suddenly became active.

The game interface was spammed with lots of new tutorial windows she had never seen before. These tutorial windows contains information about basic utilization of mana controls, such as shaping and condensation.

"Oh, what is this?"

Hecate read the tutorial carefully with a bright mood.

This passive skill likely allows her to control her mana for more complex operations. Now, she could use her thought to condense the mana in the air to create temporary objects out of thin air. Of course, they basically appeared out of nowhere and required her concentration to maintain their condensation. But that's more than enough.

"Wait, it seems I can use this to make my metal casting mold!"

Metal casting now became easier after that, the crafting speed became faster.

And that was not the end of it.

Not only that, his blacksmith skills also seem to have spread to other professions.

"Now that's amazing!"

Carving Glyphs and Runes onto equipment should have in the field of the Artificer and Runemaster Subclasses. Glyphs can provide equipment with limited functionality, making it a pseudo-artifact. Meanwhile, Runes can add bonus stats to equipment.

This was the same as having 3 production Subclasses in one Subclass slot!

'If I use this properly, I can create some ultimate equipment myself!
Not only that... If this can be applied to my skills...'

She can create magic items that use black technology in the real world!

However, that was only if she had mastered the knowledge completely. Currently, she had no information whatsoever regarding Artificer or Runemaster.

What could she carve if she didn't know anything about Glyphs?

Hecate opened her browser and looked at the Artificer guide. There are tons of guides created by various Artificers about this Subclass, as well as the shapes of Glyphs to carve and their effects.

“This is definitely not information that can be summarized in one night.”

Hecate sighed and closed all notification windows.

She decided to postpone reading for now and practice this new metal casting method.

There were only a few hours left before the guild meeting.