CH 49

“Heave-a-ho! Heave-a-ho!”

I am again in the tunnels around Nexia mining ores.

At any rate, my consumption of Light Metal has intensified to the point where if I don’t come to mine it won’t be enough.

The improvement of the Blade Shoes … and it’s going to a large overhaul, will use even more, so that’s why I’ve come here to dig it out, but.

“Ho ho…”

“So this is the form he gave it …”

“So you kick with this … quite harsh ne.”

“But it’s quite good for reference zo…”

Those are, well, most likely my fellow Blacksmiths, but they keep looking this way en masse, and I can totally hear their voices …

“Is there something you need…?”

With a purposefully annoyed voice, I call out to the watching masses.

Anyhow, on top of them looking this way, being able to hear their jabbering voices makes it impossible to be able to concentrate…

The voice that had said something about kicking came again.

“Nono, please don’t mind us.”

Is what it said …

“Your voices are reaching me, you know; it’s honestly really hard to concentrate and mine for ores this way …”

With a bitter look, I replied.

――――――――――――――――――――

Ever since that one battle with the Fairy Queen, the amount of players who would keep looking at my equipment greatly increased.

Some of them are probably looking because the equipment designs are pretty weird, but it seems that somehow I’m being considered the top Bow user, so there are many people who are hoping to use it as reference.

They say that rumors about people might last 75 days, but especially for about the first 10 days they’re things that will prosper.

This point is one of the reasons my sighs have increased.

――――――――――――――――――――

Anyway, since I’m done mining ores I turn towards the forge; continuously being exposed to people’s gazes is really tough; people like TV celebrities who go out are really amazing.

“Aa, let me look a little longer~!”

Since that voice also told me not to mind them, I ignore it.

No matter how long I let you look, you won’t be able to do work to this degree.

Even though I had to do all sorts of experiments and research to produce them …

Do they not know about the problems it took me to make this recipe? Have they forgotten?

And along with that, could it be that people who use Kick have increased? Having received requests, are they trying to figure out how they should make it by using mine as a reference for the direction they should take it in?

Maa, whichever they’re working hard for is fine with me.

The fact that my login time is related to the time I get a bunch of crafting requests is a reality I can’t get away from naa…

I finally arrive at Faust’s forge.

I greet Boss who’s here as usual.

Let’s get to the task of turning ores into ingots right away.

Today as well, there are a lot of small Fire Fairies flying around.

It makes me feel like I’ll be able to make something good.

When there are a lot of Fairies floating about around you while you’re crafting, it’s easier for a good product to come out; I am envious of the people who can bring their own Fairy aren’t limited by having to rely on them…

That’s beside the point, anyway I thrust the ores into the furnace in or to eliminate the impurities so I can heartily continue on to make ingots.

Since I need to use Light Metal and Steel, for now I’ll just mass produce for numbers.

It took some time to make the ingots.

After a while the amount of ingots is enough, and finally I can … well, this should be the point where I can start producing the Blade Shoes, but …

“Um … and why would you be surrounding me so closely …?”

It’s not just Boss, there are a lot of other Blacksmith players peering in.

If anyone from outside is looking in, this must look incredibly ridiculous.

“Maa it can’t be helped, ‘cause right now you, good sir,1 are the player to keep an eye on na!”

For Boss to say that, uummu, it means that in the end I just have to accept this situation … it’s not like I wanted to be famous!

It can’t be helped, so with a “Stand back a little further please, na,” warning, I got started on the Blade Shoes’ 2 stage production.

I’ve already gone through all the hardships with making the shape of the shoe portion last time, so that is largely averted.

It’s just, instead of the iron, by making it mainly out of the light-weight Light Metal, I will be able to increase the amount of overall armor part that covers the shoes.

The result is an increase in stability in the security from before; just as planned.

The spikes made for the bottoms of the shoes … no, honestly they’re more like stakes, I will make out of Steel.

On top of that I will twist them like a screw, in the manner I had developed when I was making Twist Arrowheads.

With this it should put out more attack power than regular stakes.

It’s become even crueler, but in this circumstance it’s fine, so let’s do it.

And finally it’s the Blade, the cutting part, but here I’m going to make a huge change.

Last time I put them on the sides of the shoes, but this time I’m going to cut that part.

No matter how I used it before, my kicking form was contorted and it was by no means adaptable.

Now then how should I do this … in the front and back the shoe will be 4 blades total extended and shaped like fangs, and then on top of the foot, about where you would kick a ball, are 3 twisted stakes, attached in a somewhat even fashion.

In other words, at the ends of the feet with the 4 fang-like blades equipped evenly spaced out, when kicking an opponent, there’s the possibility that the fangs would be driven in as the stakes gouge out.

With this kind of shape, my kicking form won’t have to be contorted, and compared to the length of the blade that I’ve had until now, the sharp parts that can cut have the possibility to be longer, so the attack power will probably also go up.

In addition, the fang-like blades at the tips of the feet are an inset-styled design to be able to swap the out easily.

With this, the sharp feel of kicking falls, but the flexibility of being able to immediately swap them out is born.

This is also a part that’s different from the previous time’s Blade Shoes.

The previous Blade Shoes had a lot of faults, but I got a lot of good data from them.

They also served meaning as a challenge.

Now then, I’m done figuring out the form, now all that’s left is to make it.

Since I wanted to make the stakes twisted, with some difficulty I steadily began to produce them.

The bottom of the shoes have 7, the tops 3, so with both feet all together there are 20.

Being made out of Steel, that’s another reason these items are so time-consuming, and for that reason I laboriously make them.

All the people surrounding me are being noisy, but if I try to fight them again it will never end, so instead I go full-force ahead with crafting.

Next is the fang-like blades.

The ones pointing forward with be full blades, while the ones pointing backwards will have about the back half of the blades made.

Since they’re shaped like fangs, it’s unavoidable that they become thicker little by little around the part where the force is applied; and just like that it’s easily a fang.

The inset part was inserted from the front of the fangs’ root; like this I’m prepared so that I can make them longer or fix them.

Now I need to make a slot in the front as a spot to attach the fixture in and check the stability of the fixture.

The fangs are about 5 cm long.

To some degree, because the actual blade is curved, the true length is a little longer.

I swing my hammer many times to make everything; if it’s wielded poorly it will bounce.

In the end it took over 1 hour before I finally finished all the parts; after this all that’s left is to attach each and every one to the main shoe part.

Even though the new fang-shaped blades, in particular, had many parts to be uneasy about, I more or less got everything attached safely.

—

Fang LegBlade

Added Atk+29    Added Def+10

An attachment made of Light Metal with a Steel blade, when equipped to Leather or Light Armor shoes, Kick powers are increased; if it’s not a equipped to shoes, it has no effect.

Also, if the Kick Skill is not 30 or above, it is impossible to use.

Quality 6     Reduces damage reflected due to Kick

Deals Bleed to opponents on occasion

Increases weight

—

Somehow or other it took form.

Around me, “Oo~…” and voices like that were raised.

I was a lot more comfortable when they went, “He’s making something weird again,” though naa.

Regardless, these attachments will increase my kick attack strength by quite a bit.

The LegBlade Prototype attack strength added was +12, so this as quite the large increase.

But as expected, it’s still a long ways away from the more popular weapons, so it will still be difficult even though I made this one thing.

It’s time to equip it, and in front of the people watching, I lightly tested out the feel.

The parts that cover the iron has increased, but the increased parts are made of Light Metal, so in actuality the total weight isn’t all that different from the Prototype that I had been using up til now.

If anything it’s become a bit lighter; no matter how many kicks I did, there wasn’t any uncomfortable feeling from the weight.

What’s different from the Prototype is that, since the stakes and fangs are laid out so that they will stab when you kick normally, there’s a good feeling, that is, there’s probably no feeling of hindrance when kicking. From now on, this guy’s going to be my kicking partner.

Now then what should I do, with how to treat the Prototype that I’ve used up until now.

I can’t just leave it here; it’ll be turned into research material.

In the future I’ll turn it back into ingots, so for now let’s put it in the Item Box.

It’s done its best up to now, and now that it’s finished its duties it’s going in the trash; it’s rather sad, so for this guy too I say a word of thanks and parting, like I did with the bow previously.

SKILLS

[Wind-Blown Hunting Bow]Lv1

[Kicking Assault]Lv12

[Farsight]Lv47

[Craftsmanship]Lv47  ↑2UP

[Cooking]Lv50

[Stealth]Lv38

[Physical Ability Reinforcement]Lv17 ↑1UP

[Thief]Lv33

[Whip]Lv34

[Fairy Language]Lv99 (Forced Acquisition) (Unable to be moved to Reserved Skills)

Reserved Skills

[Woodworking]Lv28 

[Blacksmithing]Lv33 ↑3UP

[Alchemy]Lv40

ExP 14

Titles Possessed:  The One who Charmed Even the Fairy Queen, The One who Defeated a Great Foe Alone

A/n:  And so, the second stage of the Blade Shoes I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from has been unveiled.

It was a pretty difficult delivery.