The meeting had lasted for an hour. Other than the group exercise plan, they also discussed other things.

Astrid reported on the progress of Ornus Village's development.

At first, the sheer number of non-human slaves compared to the original residents made the atmosphere awkward. But, thanks to repeated brainwashing speeches, they begin to get along. She concluded that it would not be long before cross-species marriages would occur.

Grim reported on the situation in the foreign kingdoms.

The skirmish between the Gemmerio Empire and the Croissa Kingdom had ended in a truce. Thanks to the spiders, the Gemmerio Empire, which had the largest area in which most of the inhabitants were Humans, suffered heavy losses. At the same time, the price of wheat soared, while the price of ores and metals dwindled.

Shuna has requested research funding to develop a blueprint for superalloy equipments.

Since she already had the ability to process super metals, it would be a natural event to start producing super weapons and armors. Compared to equipment made of ordinary metal alloys, equipment made of super metal alloys are much stronger, much more durable, and have special properties, depending on the super metal used.

The value of this kind of equipment far exceeds any meta equipment obtained from the Glory Points Exchange.

Other than that, it was just meaningless chatter.

♠♠♠

 

Brynhild Fort was divided by many sectors, such as:

• The Production Sector.
  Various production subclass activity were gathered in this sector. Most of the consumable and equipment used by the guild members were produced in this place. Dedicated workshops for many production subclass was build here.
  Blacksmith, Alchemist, Tailor, etc...
  This place can be said the lifeline of the Genesis Guild.
     
• The Recreation Sector.
  A beautiful garden overgrown with various types of beautiful greenery. There is a gazebo placed in the middle of the garden, with a stream of clean water flowing nearby. These waterways cover the entire garden, and converge at one point in the artificial lake. 
  This place is a popular place for people, both players and natives, to visit when they want to relax.
     
• The Market Sector and Residential Sector.
  This sector is located next to the production sector and the recreation sector. The players and natives can purchase buildings in this sector. They can use the building as a home, or use them as a shop. There also pubs, onsen and brothels in this place.
  Both Gold Coins and ⚜️ GCP can be used as currency.
       
• The Training Sector.
  The place where people, both players and natives, train their combat skills. They trained their swordmanship, archery, or magic here. Duels were often performed in this place, but they requires strict procedure and killing is forbidden.
     
• The Central Sector.
  This place is where the leader of the guild, Leon the Radiant Sun, and the Seven Stars dwells.
     

Hecate did not immediately leave the fort after the meeting was over.

Instead, she went to the production sector and visited the Blacksmith workshop area. She met various guild members who greeted her on the way.

• • ♂ Warrior (Human) : "Hello, Hecate-kun!"
    • Hecate: "Hello, Dell-san."
  • ♀ Beastmaster (Werecat) : "Hecate-chan! Good afternoon-nyan~!"
    • Hecate: "Good afternoon, Pururun...nyan~"
  • ♀ Priestess (Human) : "Good afternoon, Miss Hecate."
    • Hecate: "Good afternoon, Sister Judy."

Hecate took the time to interact with all of these people. Although she didn't bother to remember each of their names, but the glaring text name above their heads was enough to tell her who they were. She even let some people pat her head. This was quite ironic, because just a few days ago, some of them were slaughtered by the same girl they just patted.

It can be seen how popular Hecate was in the guild.

The reason of this popularity of hers was quite simple. Because she was a loli!

To play the dive VR game, players must be at least 16 years old. Citizens under that age are not allowed to use the VR Capsule Pod by the Ministry of Education. Even if the players entered the game as soon as they turned 16, but by then, they had already reached puberty. This causes a shortage of loli (and shota) players in the game.

It was rare for a girl like Ruri whose growth was suppressed by her illness, and later by Elixir, to enter the game. 

"I'm sorry, but I need to go. See you later everyone."

"""Take care!"""

Hecate waved her hand with a smile.

 

After saying goodbye to those people, Hecate entered the Blacksmith Workshop building. She walked to the receptionist and spoke to the man standing there. This person was a Human male player, Colton, a non-combat lifestyle player hired as logistics.

"I want to rent a room."

"How many hours do you want to rent the room, Hecate-sama?"

Other than the Blacksmith players contracted by the guild, other players can also utilize the workshop by renting a room.

This was not the first time Hecate rent a room in this workshop, nor the first time she met with this receptionist. Besides, as one of the Seven Stars, it was obvious that her name was already well known in the fort.

"Three hours will do. That would be 75 GCP, right?"

Hecate opened her guild interface and sent the GCP to Colton. Although she was one of the Seven Stars, but a transaction is a transaction. There was no special privilege that she can take things without paying.

Colton nodded after confirming the payment. He handed out a key to Hecate.

"All right, this is the key to the room A9. Good luck!"

"Thank you."

Hecate took the key and entered the room A9.

Inside the room, there was a full set of Blacksmithing tools ready to use, including the furnace. Hecate took a deep breath before slapping her own cheek.

"Okay, let's start working!"

She opened her inventory and took out a few items.

A few of broken pieces of Dullahan's armor, 3 blouse of the same kind, and a bunch of Reinforcing Stone.

Yesterday, after she had rested for 4 hours in the real world and re-entered the game, Hecate found out that she had gained so much GCP. Her 800k GCP suddenly became over 2m. Then, she know the reason after she saw her GCP transaction history.

That night, Hecate suddenly had an idea. She immediately exchanged her GCP for 100 Reinforcing Stones, costing around ~10,000 GCP each. Later on, she took the time to go to the market and buy 4 pieces of blouse and skirt of the same type.

Its just that, she ended up wasted too much time that night and only had time today to finish her plan.

Then today, she gained another 1m GCP from Leon and exchanged another 100 Reinforcing Stones.

"Thank you Astrid, thank you Leon-sama... Your tribute has been well received!"

As for the damaged Dullahan's armor, it was part of Hecate's loot while she was partying with Rena-cchi and company. She turned on the furnace and stuffed the broken armor inside. The broken armor would be soon melt under the high temperature. But that would be later.

Then, she held the Reinforcing Stone in her left hand and activated a certain skill.

"Upgrade!"

The stone in her palm began to melt under the effect of the skill. The melted stone dripped onto the cloth, causing it to glow slightly. After a few minutes had passed, the light died down. Even without seeing the system notification, Hecate knows that the upgrade was successful.

Hecate smiled.

The good thing for low-tier armors was that upgrading was easy, and there was no need for any other materials than the Reinforcing Stones. Normally, upgrading cloth-type armors was best if done by Tailor to get more bonus stats. However, for low-tier armors, some stats differences weren't too much of a problem.

"Now, this is the real event."

Then, she continued to upgrade the blouse until it becomes +8, and enchanted it with an elemental nucleus. She repeated the steps with the second one, the third one, and the fourth one that she currently wears with the other type of nucleus.

The upgrade process usually requires many copy of the items, as well as the materials. This was because the upgrade can fail. And if this happens, there are 4 possibilities.

• 45% chance - Nothing will happen.
• 40% chance - Upgrade level decreased by 1.
• 10% chance - Upgrade level reset to 0.
• 5% chance - Item breaks.

Fortunately, Hecate has Fortune Instinct that guided her to avoid the failure. She only need to use the Reinforcing Stone that glows a blue light, and avoid the one that didn't have the light. The reason why she stopped at +8, was simply because there wasn't any stone that has the light after reaching that step.

But Hecate hasn't done yet.

If she only needed spirit-blessed elemental armor, all she had to do was use her +6 Magician Robe, since it was of the same tier as the blouse. However, that was not the only thing she wanted.

The main reason why she switched to a blouse because, the blouse only took the Body part of the Armor Slot in the equipment screen. Unlike the Magician Robe which took both Body and Lower part of the Armor Slot. 

The blouse was meant to be paired with the skirt.

And so, Hecate continued the upgrade.

The blouses and skirts, now contained with elemental power. Though, they did not grant Hecate more damage power, but at least, they grants her more ammunition.

"Yes, this is good."

Hecate satisfied with the result.

Then, her attention turned into the furnace again.