The teacher and student discussion continued for a while.

During that time, Dalmagna obtained the information about the unknown skill Magicallurgy from Hecate's mouth. It turned out this skill was obtained from her Archwitch Jobclass. In that case, it was normal that he didn't know about this.

The skill that can only be learned by people with Archwizard and Archwitch Jobclass.

It was something that Dalmagna has no chance of intersecting in his lifetime.

"And that's the gist of it."

"Such a pity! To think it was an exclusive Jobclass skill! I am a Fighter so I can't learn the skill!"

He could only nod with understanding.

Although it was a shame that he couldn't learn the skill, Dalmagna didn't feel sad. After all, he knows what the limitation of the Spellcaster classes. For Blacksmith Subclass that mainly relied on strength, mage's weak limbs wouldn't be able to do much. They cannot do heavy work and can only do research and complete administrative work.

Such boring routine life, Dalmagna was certain he won't be able to endure.

'Sure enough you can't have all the nice things to yourself. Nobody is perfect!'

However, suddenly Dalmagna noticed something.

For a moment, he thought he had remembered wrong so he asked Hecate once more.

"Wait, what was your Metallurgy's level again?"

"Level 7, is there something wrong?"

Dalmagna was shocked by Hecate's honest reply. It took him a while to digest every information in his mind.

'Oh... Gnome's beard...!!! Level 7 Metallurgy!?'

Hecate's words seemed so ridiculous and inconceivable by common sense. But, she was not lying, nor was there any reason to lie. The skill window description also clearly confirmed the fact.

A Blacksmith with Metallurgy Level 6 is considered as an Advanced Blacksmith. Later on, one level higher than that, Level 7 is considered as an Expert Blacksmith. Of course, the capability gap between those two level was high.

Dalmagna looked at the loli in front of him with complicated expression.

It took him about 20 years to reach the Advanced level, then another 120 years to reach the Expert level, and another 300 years to reach the Master level.

This was considered fast by native standards, but in front of this loli that speed was slow like a turtle.

How could it not?

Dalmagna's achievement for 140 years, Hecate accomplished it in just 2 years!

Even Shuna, although her progress was lower, her progress was also breathtaking. In just around 1 year she was able to reach Advanced Blacksmith whereas it took Dalmagna a full 20 years!

Compared to the talent of his students, Dalmagna felt very inferior.

He couldn't help but feel that he was living the life of a dog and wasting centuries of his life. But, suddenly Dalmagna remembered the words of his friend, Frederick.

♠♠♠

 

His friend once said to him during a drink,

-- "Players are monsters, more than the real monsters!"

At that time, Dalmagna did not take his words seriously and simply took it as drunken nonsense. But now he could understand very much what his friend meant back then.

A person only had one life. If a person died, that's a game over no matter which the race they are.

Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Beastkin, or Draconid... all are equal in front of Death!

This was why people care about their safety. People lived inside the city to avoid the threat of monsters outside. No one would deliberately risk their life fighting monsters if there was no need.

But the existence of Player completely defy this common sense.

It was 2 years ago that the existence called Player started to come from another world. This also the time when the term Native also spread and widely used, a word with the meaning of the original resident in the world.

These Players seems did not know the concept of Death. They recklessly charged to the monsters without caring about their life. If they are killed, they simply become light and then reappeared the next day, intact without the slightest injury. Their growth greatly exceeds the Natives with a huge margin.

They also did not excrete, anything they consumed will be digested completely. They also seem to have mysterious ways of communicating with each other, something called "Inthaarneyt" that nobody managed to crack.

He remembered how Players often come to him, took out Fang of Garm, Dragon Scale, Armor of Dullahan, or many parts of some monster carcasses to make custom weapons and armors. Those items are something taken from beings on the army subjugation list.

But after the arrival of Players, those things gradually become a common sight.

♠♠♠

 

In short, in Dalmagna's eyes, the Players were existences that defied the laws of nature.

'If these Players starts attacking and invade our world...'

Dalmagna didn't dare to think further.

Become enemies to a bunch of immortals who can't die?

Just mentioning about it sent a chill to his spine.

"Teacher? Is there something wrong?"

"Ah, no... It's nothing."

Hecate's voice instantly wake Dalmagna from his thought. He quickly calmed his mind.

'Fortunately the Players cannot oppose the Great Law established by the Goddess Norn.
Under her rule, the Players won't be able to go rampant!'

The Goddess Norn has placed many heavenly laws that everyone had to obey. No matter who they are, Natives, Players, or even the monsters were no exception under her rule.

Although her heavenly laws did not completely forbids evil, but at least she had given the means to counter it.

• Karma System that calculate good and evil deeds.
• Judgement-type Skills that can suppress evil and chaotic aligned beings, especially someone with a negative karma.
• Anti-Pedo System that protects the under-ages from uncouth behavior.
• And many more.

With these systems placed in the field, the safety of Natives can be assured!

♠♠♠

 

Meanwhile in the side.

Hecate was currently stupefied with the system notification in front of her.

Dalmagna's favorability suddenly drop by 10 points. Moreover, the relationship had changed from Friendly to Cautious.

'What happened? Did I do something wrong?'

Looking at the sudden turnaround in the notification, Hecate panicked. This was 10 points of favorability drop, definitely not a small number. Something must be went wrong and requires a solution to mend the situation.

Dalmagna was a Master Blacksmith, one of the important Native in the city. Got hated by such figure was not a good development she want to experience. Besides, he also her teacher in Blacksmithing.

If possible, she did not want to lose this relationship.

'Calm down, let's analyze first and think about the countermeasures fast.'

Her brain quickly accelerate to analyze the situation, thinking about many possible causes.

- Does he did not like the cheap beer she gave him?
'I already checked the beer and there was no problem with the items.
I gave the same beer in the past and it was fine until now...'

Hecate shakes her head. If there was something he dislikes, she would be informed right away.

Dalmagna's likes and dislikes has been deeply researched. He was one of the important Natives that worthy to have their own wiki page. His information was constantly updated by the Player base.

She created an account in that wiki just to follow every important Native page. Each time Dalmagna's page got edited, Hecate would receive a notification email about the change.

In the eyes of the Players, there was no privacy for the Natives!

- Did she say something wrong that made him angry?
'Except hiding about Skill Assimilation Orb, all I did was answering his question honestly...
Was there something wrong with what I said?'

Perhaps this was the most suspicious cause. It was after she said about her Metallurgy reached level 7 that she got favorability drop notification. But she couldn't understand how there was a problem with the information she provided.

Was there any problem with having Level 7 Metallurgy?

'Every Blacksmith has this skill, right? Raising it to Level 7 is just a matter of time.
Shuna raised her Metallurgy to Level 6 and Teacher congratulates her, but why when it was me...'

...Why is the treatment greatly differs?

Her Metallurgy clearly was one level higher than Shuna. But not only there was no congratulation word, his favorability to her also drop. Hecate couldn't help but feel that Dalmagna was very partial about treating his disciples. She felt very wronged.

'Probably it's because they share the same race. Shuna was okay because she is a Dwarf. However, I am a Human.
Although we share the same teacher, but maybe a Human better than a Dwarf in Blacksmith is not amusing in his eyes.'

Hecate secretly sneered.

From the beginning, she did not have any longing for affection, as people are just hypocritical and selfish creatures. They can easily lie and hurt others, just for the sake of their benefit.

'Should I use a Sleep Bomb and act like everything that happened the last few hours a mere dream?
I heard this trick was successful against a low level Native, but I can't be sure if it works on Teacher.'

She opened her inventory and looked at one of the items in it.

Sleep Bomb was an item that originally used for crowd control. It can't directly deal the damage to the opponent, but anyone without Sleep Resistance in its area of effect will be sleeping soundly for 1 to 3 minutes. But these few minutes are enough to change the outcome of the battle.

This was a must-have item for Genesis Guild members. Don't head outside without one or two in your inventory!

'But using this item to a Native will deduct a lot of karma. It's the same as attacking them.
Moreover, this is too risky! If Teacher finds out about this...'

Hecate sighed.

If she dared to do that and failed, the relationship would surely change. However, it won't be Friendly, but Hostile!

But thankfully, she didn't have to resort to such means ... Because she suddenly received another notification.

'Huh? What? Was that just a false alarm?'

Hecate was completely baffled with the sudden two changes.

Dalmagna's sudden favorability drop, and then sudden favorability increase. How come this old Dwarf is so fickle?

Suddenly she couldn't understand what her teacher thinks anymore. But since the end result give her 10 surplus favorability point, enough to step the relationship level to Respect, then all is well.

♠♠♠

 

Meanwhile, on the other's side.

'Oh, Gnome's booger! I shouldn't have compared myself to a monster standard!'

Dalmagna tried to convince himself. Natives and Players aren't the same species anyway. Competing with them will only make one feel depressed.

Comparing to their standard was like comparing jade and shit!

'In any case, they are both my disciples.
Gahaha!! Having such talented disciple is a glory to the teacher!'

If he knows that the talented disciple he was proud of had considered using a Sleep Bomb to him, perhaps he would puke blood and retract his previous valuation on her.

But fortunately... or unfortunately, he did not have that kind of ability.

"Hmm, this is interesting... But, oh well... Yes, let's do that then..."

Dalmagna suddenly fell silent and muttered to himself, apparently considering something.

He walked to a desk and took a letter and a quill pen. Then he said to Hecate as he writes the letter.

"I have some task for you, can you give this letter to my friend, Frederick?"

With a swift movement, Dalmagna folded the letter and sealed it inside an envelope.

Hecate instantly accepted the quest without much thought.

"I understand. I will deliver the letter."

In any case, there was no reason to refuse, as it was an easy quest without time limit. 

Having accepting the letter, Hecate says her goodbye and left the workshop. Her login limit was about to run out of time and she need 4 hours of rest. She intended to go back to her own workshop and logout there.

It was then, she received an email notification.

The notification was unrelated to the game and was sent to her email address in the real world. But since this game was still a VRMMO game connected to the internet, it was no problem for her to directly read her own email inbox.

It turned out that the email was a notification of the successful transaction of the capstan table that she sold yesterday.

'Oh... This Ouma person really is very kind.
It was just yesterday I sent the table to Mercury, and the next day this person bought it!'

Calculating the time, it took about a day to finish Mercury quality checker process after the product was sent to their warehouse. This means once the table passed the quality check and appeared in the item list, this person immediately purchase her table.

This Ouma was one of her frequent customers and one of her biggest cash cow.

"This is just right in time as I need funds to buy gems. Thank you for the money, Ouma!"

Hecate let out a smile.

Seeing his attitude of buying a table of 4 million as soon as an item appeared on the list meant that Ouma had a huge wealth. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Ouma was her patron.