376 The wait is over...

After two weeks of playing the game in his free time and going out acting as a vigilante, Quinn had managed to gain a large amount of exp. But it was still only around one fifth of what he needed to level up. It had been two weeks, and there were only two more weeks left until the planned day of their departure. Still, even if he didn't reach his goal by the deadline, he would still go. Being as close as possible to levelling up would also help him, and perhaps there were some unknown beasts he had never faced before there.

However, during lunch period Quinn had a different place to go to, rather than sticking to his normal routine of going to the VR centre. For two weeks had passed, and this meant that he could now go and collect his specially prepared Gauntlets. The excitement could be felt in his footsteps as he went to leave the school and headed on towards the forging area. On his way, Quinn couldn't help but hear the kids talking about something he had an interest in.

"Did you hear the Night demon struck again yesterday?" A student said.

"Yeah, and this time it's target was a level six student."

"Doesn't that mean it has to be one of the level eights who is behind it, most likely a second year as well?"

"Well, that's the thing right, people are trying to guess his ability but they have no clue. Because he hasn't even used it once during a fight."

"But I heard it was super strength."

"I heard it was super speed."

"Well, it can't be both, can it? The theory is that the armour he's wearing significantly improves his stats, so it might perhaps just be a normal student. They say it's a weak student who used to be bullied, but perhaps came across a treasure. At the demon tier armoured level."

"Is that where the name comes from?"

"Well, I think it was based more on his appearance, but more and more people are thinking of this theory. After all, if they were this strong all along, why act now?"

Of course, the person the students were talking about was none other than the infamous Night Demon. Quinn was amazed at how quick it had spread and was pleased with the results. Less bullying was happening around the school and it was all because of him. When he first found out he had gained so much power, this was what he wanted to accomplish. The problem was that many things kept popping up and getting in his way. And there was always the chance he would meet someone stronger.

But right now, he felt a little invincible, when comparing himself to the students.

Finally, Quinn had arrived at the forging house. There were a few times he had come by before, just to check if it was done any earlier, but Alex would always give the same reply, telling him to bugger off and wait the initial two weeks.

"Can you count?" Alex would say. "Then stop bothering me or it will only take longer."

Now when Quinn arrived at the forger he would always wait for his reply before entering. There were a few things he noticed, Alex always used the same forging room. Apparently, the other forgers knew of this as well. Alex wasn't exactly popular with the others. He was known to be quite crazy, things always had to be done a certain way and always needed to be put in a certain place. There weren't many who were willing to work with him.

Based on their first meeting as well, Quinn kind of understood why. A few loud knocks were placed on the door, and Alex told him to come in, as he was already expecting him. The furnace wasn't burning like last time, and on the table, Quinn could see a few items. There were a couple of gauntlets that looked identical to his old pair. The only difference was they weren't all scratched up like the last time he had seen them, and then there were also the duel swords. Rather than just one, though, there were four blades kept out on the table.

"Are these them?" Quinn asked while looking at the gauntlets, a bit disappointed that they looked exactly the same as his old ones.

"No, you dingus," Alex replied. "There was another reason why your gauntlets took longer than the usual time frame. After seeing the weapons you gave me, I wanted to know what made them so special. After melting it down, I was even more struck back. As there was a material mixed in that I had never seen or heard of before. I tried searching on the marketplace for it but still couldn't find anything like it. I thought you had cheated me and I was nearly going to sell your advanced crystals on the marketplace to make up for your lies."

"You were going to do what!" Quinn shouted.

"Calm down," Alex replied. "I didn't okay. After melting down the swords you gave me, I noticed that they used the same material in them as well. It started to make me think, maybe you didn't know about this afterall. In the end, I tried searching for a replacement that could come out with something of similar quality and the only thing that worked finally, was Glathrium. The reason I did this was that I wanted to replicate the techniques and materials used in the creation of your advanced tier weapon. As you can see the results were great."

Using his inspect skill, Quinn could indeed see that the gauntlets had the same exact stats as the ones from the shop. This made him believe he had made the right choice in choosing Alex for the job. His gut feeling was right.

"Unfortunately, Glathrium is extremely expensive, and I only had enough material to create two pairs of short swords, a pair of gauntlets and your advanced tier ones. So, unfortunately, I won't be able to make any more of these until I sell the gauntlets and swords. So the plan might just take a little longer." Alex explained.

This was good for Quinn. Right now he was in no rush to get money in the first place, but was happy that Alex had managed to find a replacement for the unknown material. It was most likely something that was only found on the vampire's planet. However, this might turn out to be for the better. If a vampire was to get a hold of Alex's weapons, perhaps they would be able to see the difference and just claim it as a coincidence. After all, there were slight differences here and there, but the overall shape was similar.

"Take one." Alex said.

Quinn was surprised by this. When he first met Alex, he thought he was a greedy person, one who would do anything for money, and now he was telling him to take one.

"Don't look at me like that." Alex said. "I'm confident in the work I've put into these, I know once a few of these sell on the market place, we can start upping the price as word gets around. You were right. I never wanted to work for one of those crummy families in the first place, being my own boss sounds much nicer, and you gave me this opportunity. Now pick one before I change my mind."

Quinn looked at the weapons, he wasn't going to pick the gauntlets since he would be getting a new pair anyway, so instead, he used his inspect skill on the two pairs of swords to see if there was a difference on either pair. It turned out there was.

"I'll take these two then," Quinn said.

Alex was now looking at Quinn carefully, seeing if he could figure him out or not, and Quinn was wondering if he had done something wrong. Out of the two, only one of them had an active skill, so he decided to go for them, and later he would give the weapons to Vorden.

During the creation process, Alex could tell only one of these had an Active skill.

"I don't know if you're extremely lucky, or you actually know a thing or two about forging," Alex said but didn't care to go further. "Oh well, I did say you could have one."

When forging, even at Alex's level, there wasn't always a guarantee that the final product would have an active skill. The more skilful a forger was and the better the quality of crystals was, the higher chance there was, but still it was never a hundred percent. This fact made Quinn worry a bit as he wanted to see his advanced tier gauntlets.

Putting the swords away in his Dimensional space, Quinn was ready. Alex cleared the table of the other weapons and then, from underneath his work bench, he had brought out the new advanced gauntlets.

Looking at them, one could tell that they were a thing of beauty.

"I tried to keep to a similar design as your last pair. I used a red dye with the metal to keep the base of the color of the same. Around the scale like patterns, there is a small silver finish on each end and finally as if a volcano ready to erupt, you have blue lines of energy flowing through it at the fingertips down to the forearm." Alex explained. "Those crystals you gave me, I don't know if you got them or someone else did, but it's clear they knew what they were doing. Each of the crystals came from a beast with a lightning element. At the same time, they all must have had different attributes that allowed them to create the ideal gauntlets. Strong skin, sharp tips.

"This is a complete Way Original created by me. This is another reason why I let you have one of the weapons. I want to thank you for how much fun it was to work on such a thing of beauty."

Looking at the new gauntlets, Quinn couldn't wait to use his inspect skill. It had to have an active skill from the way Alex was describing things.

'Leo, wherever you are, thank you for your help.' He prayed.

Opening his eyes, this was the moment Quinn had been waiting for.

[Inspect]

[…]

*****

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