Time passed slowly.
Two hours passed unknowingly as Shuna was busy forging her weapon. Hecate watched the entire forging procedure until the cooling process with a tranquil heart.
There was another similar blades with the one Shuna just forged in the cooling basin. Then, Shuna connected the two hiltless blade into one. It turned out that those two items weren't meant to be blades at all, but two parts of a bow!
After Shuna installed the bow strings to the bow, a message appeared in front of her eyes.
DING!
| Forging process completed! Please decide a name to your newly forged weapon! Tips: You can use the virtual keyboard to type the name. Improper and banned words are not allowed to use. |
Shuna quietly said.
"Sagittarius MK II"
Sagittarius was the name of her original bow that got plundered by Black Phantom, and MK II means this is the 2nd version of the bow. She decided to use this name as a reminder so that she won't forget.
Reminder about the humiliation bought by Black Phantom!
| Scanning the name... Name can be used! Are you sure you want to use Sagittarius MK II as the weapon's name? The name can't be changed afterwards! ▶ Yes No |
She unhesitatingly pressed [Yes] as she gritted her teeth, desperately suppressing her hatred. In any case, there was no way she would let herself show unsightly face in the presence of others, especially right in front of everyone's mascot, Hecate-chan!
Immediately afterwards, a new window popped out.
| You have crafted Sagittarius MK II - Exp +1200 Item Crafting Proficiency +50 (332.686/24.000.000) Metallurgy Proficiency +50 (9.000.003/9.000.000) |
| Item Name: | Sagittarius MK II |
| Requirement: | 3rd-tier Archer Class, Lv40, DEX 80 |
| Type: | Weapon |
| Rarity: | ★★★★★ |
| Durability: | 300/300 |
| Crafter: | Shuna |
| Effect: | ATK +90, Range 25 STR +10, AGI +20, DEX +30 Empower skill Quick Shot by 25% Burns 3 MP to enemies per hit. Hit rate 100% against slow enemies. Crafter Privilege: - You can use this equip regardless of the Equip requirements. - Penalty: Effects of this Equip is halved. |
| Details: | A bow that can pick off Crows of misfortune. The string is made from the hair of a High-Elf. It brings good luck and reduces enemy morale. |
Shuna was excited.
"Oh yes! Thank you God! This stat is a good start!"
She looked at the attribute of the bow and she satisfied with the result. At least, the initial stats was better than the original bow that she crafted long time ago.
Since Shuna's stat fulfilled the bow's requirement, she did not need the Crafter Privilege and can unleash 100% of its power.
Now all that left was to collect all the materials required to upgrade her bow. It probably takes an enormous amount of Iron, Silver, Mithril and other materials to upgrade until it reach +7. And with the power of Genesis Guild, it shouldn't take too long to collect all of it.
But the message was not over yet.
| Metallurgy has reached Lv6! Now you can process metals, minerals, and ores with rarity < 6★. Time required to melt the material in the furnace has been reduced. |
Shuna's Metallurgy has reached Lv6!
"Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! My Metallurgy has reached Lv6!
Thank you very much, God! A year worth of my suffering has finally paid off!"
She jumped with excitement. How could she not happy?
There are huge gap in every skill upgrade after Lv5 and above. The proficiency required to upgrade Metallurgy from lv5 to lv6 is far exceeding the total proficiency required from the previous levels. If from Lv1 to Lv5 requires around 500.000 proficiency, then from Lv5 to Lv6 required 9.000.000 proficiency!
To reach this level, she took more than one and half a year worth of time. It was also the reason why she desperately took so many orders from her guild members to create their equipment.
All of that effort was to raise her Metallurgy skill proficiency to Lv6!
Don't underestimate this one level difference. This level is also the threshold that separates between Intermediate and Advanced Blacksmith. There are many metals, grouped into Super Metal that can only be processed by Advanced Blacksmiths.
For example, the hard and indestructible Adamantium, or the metal that can absorb sound waves, vibrations, and kinetic energy, Vibranium. Those metals have the rarity of 5★ or higher and can't be processed with Metallurgy below Lv6.
♦♦♦
Dalmagna's laugh roared in the workshop. He took a sip of one of the beer bottles Hecate had given him.
"Hahahaha! Congrats, my disciple! Now you had take a step to the real Blacksmithing!"
Of course as Shuna's mentor, Dalmagna also observed his disciple's progress.
Hecate also give her salutes.
"Congratulations, Shuna! I'll give you a hug to commemorate this event."
"Thank you, teacher... Thank you Hecate-chan!"
Shuna was very touched that she lost her words. One year ago, she almost despaired after she looked at the proficiency required to raise Metallurgy to the next level. But she preserved and continue to strive hard, and now her efforts finally paid off.
Now that Shuna had become Advanced Blacksmith, she hesitated whether to reforge her Sagittarius to Mk III using Adamantium alloy. However, after thinking for a while, she decided to scrap that idea.
One kilogram of Adamantium was priced 
±10.000.000 in the Auction. Super Metal is extremely expensive!
Shuna shakes her head and looked at the bow in her hand.
'Let's just be content with this baby for now. If I use Super Metal alloy, I won't be able to afford the subsequent upgrades!'
Hecate secretly sneered in Shuna's embrace.
What Advanced Blacksmith? She had broken that threshold a long time ago!
After Hecate acquired the sand casting method, her productivity increased hundredfold. Just crafting screws can give her staple proficiency point. And now with her acquired more powerful Mana casting method, her productivity had raised further to a new level.
However, her Metallurgy which has been evolved to Mysticallurgy had reached Lv7. In this level, the trick of crafting screws did not work anymore. Hecate needed to find other methods to increase her proficiency.
♦♦♦
Later on, Shuna placed the bow to her inventory. Her mind has been exhausted after forging non-stop for several hours. What she needed right now is a good rest in the real world.
"See you tomorrow, Teacher! Later on, Hecate-chan!"
"Yeah." | "See ya, Shuna!"
Having done with the job, Shuna says goodbye to Hecate and logged out.
Hecate watched Shuna's body disintegrates into particles of light and turned into her teacher.
Dalmagna seems already get used with the scene of Players disappeared and he didn't say anything about it. He already know anyway that his disciple will appear again later at the same spot she disappeared.
It was then, he noticed his other disciple seems have something to say.
"Teacher, can I have your time? I want to ask something."
"Go ahead, my disciple! What do you want to ask?"
Dalmagna says to Hecate as he took the last beer bottle and opened the plug.
She then continued.
"My Metallurgy evolved to Mysticallurgy. Teacher, do you know anything about this skill?"
"Heh?!"
Dalmagna was about to move the bottle mouth to his lips, but his hand stopped midway.
Mysticallurgy? What's that? Evolution of Metallurgy skill?
He didn't know such thing existed.
"My disciple, Hecate. Can you elaborate what is Mysticallurgy that you speak off?"
"Yes, please wait for a moment."
A picture can describe thousand of words.
Rather than explaining with her mouth, Hecate thinks it would be faster for Dalmagna to see himself what the skill really is.
She manipulated the game interface and clicked the Mysticallurgy skill, then she switched the show option to ON. With a swipe, she rotated the window so Dalmagna can read the skill information.
| Skill Name: | Mysticallurgy (Lv7) |
| Requirements: | Metallurgy + Magicallurgy |
| Type: | Passive |
| Effect: | ▽ Inherits Metallurgy and Magicallurgy effect. ▷ Metallurgy (Lv7) ▷ Magicallurgy (Lv7) Can process any mystical and magical object with rarity < 7★. Can imbue the user's craft with magic. |
'A conjunction skill of Metallurgy and Magicallurgy... But what the heck is Magicallurgy?'
Dalmagna was shocked after looking at Hecate's skill window. He used his finger to click the expand button to view more of the detail of both skills.
He couldn't help but baffled with the unfamiliar skills. This information subverts his view greatly. As far as he know, there was nothing sort of skill named Magicallurgy in the Blacksmith Subclass. And then, fusion of the two skills, what concept was this?
However, he knows... Every Native knows...
'The sacred window granted by the Goddess of Life, Norn... The "Syeistheem" window cannot be faked!'
In other words, although it was unbelievable, Hecate speaks the truth and did not lie.
Curious, Dalmagna asked her with a serious face.
"Hecate... How did you acquire this skill?"
"Umm, I also didn't too understand... Skill Resonation? Or perhaps that what it was called?"
Hecate lied without blinking.
She would like to share the information about Skill Assimilation Orb to Dalmagna. But since Shuna was one of his disciple, if she told Dalmagna about that item's existence, there was a chance that it would enter Leon's ears.
'If Leon-sama finds out that I got the Skill Assimilation Orb, he might notice that I am the Black Phantom that everyone is looking for. I'm sorry, teacher... I don't want to take such a big risk!'
Hence, disclosing the information here would only brings her disadvantage.
'Since teacher didn't seem to know about this skill, then there is no need to inquire further.'
Meanwhile, Dalmagna fell into a deep thought from Hecate's answer.
Skill Resonation... This also another new term that he never heard about, but from the name itself already clear enough for Dalmagna to understand the meaning.
'I see... there is something like that too. When someone learn a new skill that have great compatibility with any of their learned skills, those skills will unavoidably empower each other. Skill Resonation... so this what it was called?'
Originally this was something that Hecate made up to give Dalmagna some vague answer, but it turned out to become a new term that will soon acknowledged and become widely known.
However, that was for another matter.
I can't help but laugh. She tricked a npc into thinking that skills can fuse together if they go well together. Then that npc tells his apprentices and they think its a real thing as well... Makes me wonder if other than the assimilation orb if there are ways of fusing skills.
Thank you for the chapter!
I think this term wouldn't settle if there is no proof of it happening. (outside of Hecate) So i guess this can indeed happen.
@skiterz It does feel like assimilation could happen regularly to some extent if they are used in a certain fashion...
nice.
Thanks for the chapter, cat-san
Somehow it's weird that only hecate who think of sand casting method. Isn't it normal if some modern people trying to revolutioning(?) smithing method so it became more easier?
And what about similar cases in others job type? It will be jaw-dropping to see fantasy version of industry revolution
Well, for most people in this story, the game was just another fantasy VR game and they didn't think further, especially for immigrant from other similar MMO. Most players are just muscle headed who wants to act cool with swords and magic.
They already got very nice and convenient template named SKILL by the system.
While Skill is really convenient, but at the same time it also restrict people mindset and make them dependent on it.
The restriction of Subclass also plays a part on this. Think about Log Horizon.
Like it was said before, without skill Cooking, player can't cook food. The same happens in Blacksmith and its Metallurgy. The game phenomenon successfully prevented the players to think outside the box.
@FlyingPirateCat well...i am almost convinced. But what about the F2P that jealous of P2W players, who could rise their lvl with money(eg:leon)? Don't they(F2P) normally find something to get around the system like hecate? Or they simply keep it to themselves and their community?
Well, this is based from what i know from news and internet, but ones doesn't look down on gamer's anger after it's snapping. So i think it's weird that players doesn't make a breakthrough even after several years of this 'multi-flexible' game launch.
And doesn't LH's bland food incident resolved only a few months after massive isekai transport? Though i don't really know since i am not a gamer nor LH novel reader
@Evolto Those who can afford a Gaming Pod to play a VR game shouldn't lack funds in the first place.
To begin with, from the perspective of the F2P players, those who want to make profit shouldn't choose Blacksmith (or Alchemist) as their primary job.
Because the subclass really requires the players to procure ample materials to pump their proficiency first before they could make the ends meet. Instead, they would prefer more to choose to become a Merchant, or just simply did a part time job like become a waiter in a restaurant to secure funds.
Those who started Blacksmith/Alchemist without guild support mostly will quit soon due to its difficulty. The one who persevered is either rich P2W players or just plain stupid with grim prospect.
And then, the sand casting method also not that simple. Players can't just pour metal liquid to random sand as it is. The process also require some research about what kind of sand that can be used, and which monster that produces the resin that can be used as a bonding agent.
Not many people can do both combat and production like Hecate do. She procures the materials herself, visiting many places and then got the idea by chance. Other Blacksmith who holed themselves in front of their furnace won't be able to think about this idea to begin with.
But breakthrough will eventually do happen, though not that fast, perhaps in 3-5 years. It's just that Hecate is more shrewd than other players.
@FlyingPirateCat i see, so i suppose 'it simply not the time yet' does it...
Thanks for the answer