Chapter 449 - 444 : Cloudsmith

"He's actually here?!!" A player in the audience couldn't help but exclaim with shock.

"Why won't he be here? If the other blacksmiths could make it to the city and participate in this auction, of course that cloud fellow would too." Another player rebuked his partner.

Back in Riverdale town, a few players had managed to spot a certain long-sword with a strange insignia on it. Not only was the long-sword's quality superb but its attributes were amazing and up to market standard. What more, there was more than one copy being put up for sale, meaning that the blacksmith actually had the capability to reproduce the exact work with a high success rate. From then on, the tale of the 'Mysterious Cloudsmith' was born.

There were a lot of other weapons and equipment introduced into the market by the same character, such as a short sword suited for [Assassins] and shields for [Guardians]. All these equipment were always up to market standard at the very least and some of them were even better than what could be found in the market. As a result of this, the popularity of the Cloud sign had blown through the roof and even the surrounding towns were aware of his existence.

"That cloud sign..." The red-haired player tightened his right hand to form a fist.

The cloaked player beside him retained a quiet appearance as he looked in the direction of the stage.

In IR, blacksmiths could brand their products with any design of their choice. This was a hidden feature that wasn't mentioned anywhere and was left for players to discover on their own. Thanks to the ever-curious players in IR, this feature wa discovered early and had been popularized already.

The red-haired player used a "K" which was the initial of his player name, to identify his work. As for the player in the black cloak beside him, he used a weird concentric circle with 3 rings to identify his creation.

Sato, on the other hand, had accidentally left behind a mark during the time he forged Rigged Steel long-swords. After he had noticed that some players had identified him as the 'Mysterious Cloud Blacksmith' or 'Cloud' due to the similarity between the mark on the swords with a cloud, Sato eventually settled on the cloud mark and began using it on all his products to make it easy for them to sell. Having already built a fanbase for his products, he capitalised on that like every businessman would. And the same held true to the items he had brought for today's auction.

"Didn't know your work would be such a hot cake." Fudo smirked from the side.

"Looks like we won't have to worry about funds for the team. Haha." Yato jeered.

"It looks like I'm not putting as much effort as you in this." Xue Yan sighed.

"You will eventually. This is your first sale so don't think much about it." Sato comforted her as he ignored the teasing statements from his friends.

"Without any further ado, let's begin the auction for this grand piece."

As the auctioneer concluded with her statement, the attributes of the chest plate was suddenly displayed above the item for all to see.

[[ Balk Rose Armour : Low-Tier Mortal Rank : Level 10 : Durability 80

Requirements : Level 10 || Metal armour classes

[Physical Defence] +55

[Magical Defence] + 35

[Endurance] +5

[Willpower] +3

Bulk Form : Passive Skill : Movement Speed is reduced by 5% as weight increases. In exchange, defence is strengthened by 30%. 10% chance to absorb 30% of damage.

Rebound : Active Skill : Reflect a close range attack back to the attacker. 30% of the attack's force is rebounded as impact while only 70% makes contact.

Cool-down : 30 seconds.

System comment : While this could be described as a waste when considering the quality of the materials used, it still qualifies to stand side-by-side with top tier equipment at its level.

]]

"!!!"

The crowd was further stunned at he information they saw. A Low-tier rare-Steel rank weapon or even equipment was pretty much rare to the general populace but it was even more unimaginable that such an item was made by a player. This alone had raised the value of the weapon to another level.

"The Cloudsmith, has reached such a level already?!" Blue Flame, the blacksmith who had once had a confrontation with Sato, stood in shock as he voiced out his surprise.

Even the red-haired blacksmith was astonished as he gazed at the attributes of the red chest-plate.

'How is this possible?!'

Everyone in the League of Hammers was stunned to stupor. They were the purported leader of all player blacksmiths in Black Rock City, boasting of reaching the highest achievements regarding the occupation in the region. Some of them were even confident that the work of their leaders had already surpassed, or at least, was on par with what the Cloudsmith could make. This was because the sword put up for auction was a level 10 Upper-tier Mortal rank weapon, something that had astonished the players in the area and sold for a record price of 85 silver coins . 

Yet, the item before them had already surpassed all their achievements. It was a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank equipment; something desired by many players. 

It should be known that compared to forging weapons, forging equipment, especially defensive ones, were a whole lot more difficult. The difficulty in forging an Upper-tier Mortal rank equipment was above that of forging an Upper-tier Mortal rank weapon but just below that of a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank, and kept going so in the same pattern for equipment above the aforementioned rank. This means that if the Cloudsmith was capable of forging a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank equipment, he should be capable of forging a weapon of similar quality. This had already surpassed the current peak of what any player could achieve.

"He's definitely number one, that's for sure."

An unknown player spoke those words, but it wasn't refuted by anyone. All the players in the auction hall at that moment had collectively agreed that the Cloudsmith was the best player blacksmith in the region, and maybe even the entire game.

"You've shocked these people silly." Fudo whispered at Sato.

Sato himself was also surprised as he never thought that things would go this out of hand. While he had intentionally brought a Low-tier Rare-Steel rank weapon to to the auction in order to boost his fame as a blacksmith, Sato never expected the hype to be this much.

"Bogus. This might not be the Cloudsmith's work. Who knows whether he bought the equipment and imprinted his insignia on it just to fool us. Forging a Low-tier Rare-Steel equipment isn't the same as building a sand castle. Even our distinguished leader hasn't achieved such a level yet and he's a blacksmith in real life. Who does the Cloudsmith think he is?" Blue Flame spoke up with a red face.

"That's quite possible."

While it was true that Blue Flame had made a commotion out of envy, his words did make sense. It was possible for a player to imprint his insignia into an already made good and claim that he had forged it. And as the appraisal methods players knew of were limited,there was no way to confirm if it was true or not. 

Even if the auction house had a method to do so, they won't be bothered as their role was just to sell the equipment.. However, if a comment were to affect the end price of the item, the auction house would then have to interfere.