Chapter 225 - 219 : Mainstream Fear

[[ System notification :

Rigged Steel Long-sword completed.

Analysing product...

Product has reached the required rank ]]

[[ System notification : 

Rigged Steel Long-sword completed. 

+5 Proficiency point

Please assign a name to the product. ]]

'Finally.' Sato sighed with relief as he put down the hammer as he glanced at the long-sword in front of him. 

"Congratulations. You're now officially a blacksmith." Miss Trevale applauded softly.

This was the second long-sword Sato had produced and with it, he had successfully completed his test, becoming an official blacksmith. Unlike the first one, this one took less time as Sato had already gotten used to the process with the first try. He still had 30 minutes on the clock and one more try but Sato wasn't bothered about that. Instead, his focus went to his system interface.

[[ System notification : 

You have completed Master Owen's trial.

Rewarding player… ]]

'Good.'

"What's wrong?" Miss Trevale asked Sato. She noticed that he was just staring at his sword without noticing her so she felt both surprised and a bit irritated. After all, even if Sato had passed the test and officially become a blacksmith just like her, she had a much higher ranking than him and was also a senior in the business.

"Oh, nothing. I just felt that I could have done better with this sword." Sato lied as he swung the sword around to feel its weight.

"You don't need to worry about that. At least it reached the Middle tier of the Mortal rank and is suitable for lower ranks of the beginner level. You should be proud of yourself." Miss Trevale comforted.

While players had a much detailed measurement of their abilities with the game's level categorization, NPCs used the basic ranking method[1] to sort out their strength level. For better accuracy, they divided each rank into sub-levels of low, intermediate, high and peak.

"Since you have completed the test, you will receive your reward as well. Sadly, apart from the basic remunerations, I'm not authorized to give any additional rewards. You will have to find the Master Owen for that. Luckily for you, he had already thought of this and would be meeting with the winners tomorrow. Oh wait, that should be later today." Miss Trevale said.

"Here."

Opening her hand up, she revealed what was held within. It was a rectangular token, similar to the Miss Trevale had. Compared to hers though, there were less inscriptions and carvings. 

'Those probably signified our rankings.' Sato thought. Even if he had passed the test and proven himself as an official blacksmith, there was no way Sato would be able to contest against someone who had been beside the forge for more than 10 years.

[[ System notification :

Congratulations on completing Master Owen's trial.

Title 'Blacksmith' rewarded.

Subclass 'Blacksmith' rewarded.

100 ounces(2.8 KG) of 2 star material White Sand rewarded.

3 bars of Timber Crystal rewarded.

10 ingots of Black-Dawn steel ]]

"This is your official blacksmith token. With it, you can gain discounts and rewards from the guild while also having the guild vouch for your creations, to a certain extent of course. It can also help you around in town a bit. Keep it safe and close to you at all times." 

Sato nodded as he heard Miss Trevale's explanation but his mind was elsewhere.

"The test is over. Does that mean I have to return the left over materials?" Sato asked.

Miss Trevale shook her head. "No. You've already paid for them so there's no need. Unless you want a refund, no one's taking the leftover materials from you." 

"Is the facility also included in this?" Sato pointed a finger up.

"Since you have a bit of time left, then yes."

"Okay. I would like to go on with forging and also buy 3 more hours." Sato said.

"Do I look like a receptionist?" Miss Trevale asked with an irritated tone.

'Oh, I forgot. IR is more realistic. I need to look for the exact personnel.' Sato almost face-palmed himself.

"By the side of the wall, over there," Miss Trevale pointed at a spot a bit far from the work bench. "You can request additional time and make the payments before you leave."

"Okay." Sato nodded.

"The material reward would be sent here in a while."

Following that, Miss Trevale walked out of the room as there was no reason for her to remain anymore.

'She's gone…'

Sato walked over to the long-sword he had recently made and checked its stats. Compared to the first one, it was a bit lacking but it was still okay for a below-level 5 player.

"Since you're pretty much the same as the other one, I will just name you 'Second'." Sato decided on a lackluster name just as he did the first one.

Having settled almost everything in regards to the blacksmith test and not having a breakthrough plan on how to defeat the world class boss, Sato decided to focus on forging. With the few materials he had plus the ones coming in from the reward, Sato decided to breakthrough his limits and forge a weapon that would be suitable for himself, or at the very least, Yato.

'Worse comes to worse, it should be suitable for mainstream players.'

As the thought passed through his head, Sato heard a knock on the door. Opening it, he saw a young girl of a bit above 18 years of age in an apprentice uniform with a space bag held with both hands.

"Teacher said I should give this to you." The young girl handed the space bag to Sato as a small blush crept on her cheeks. It couldn't be helped though. Sato was a much older guy plus he had successfully passed his test, the hardest of them at that, and qualified as an official blacksmith. For any young girl in a town such as this, a figure like Sato was the prince charming of their dreams.

"Thank you." Sato plainly said as he received the bag before closing the door. 

Emptying the contents on the central table, Sato organized himself before grabbing a hammer.

'Time to begin.'

.  .  .

.  .  .

.  .  .

During the time Sato and Xue Yan were stuck in Black Grill's Cave, a lot had happened in the outside world. More teams and guilds had made their way to the 10th floor of the Middle floor. The Elite rank Guard Golems, despite being level 9, weren't all that tough.With enough player-count, good skills and coordination and the right strategy, beating them wasn't difficult. It just so happened that all the guilds and teams who did so all possessed these qualities.

Still angered and irritated with having Sato's team murder its father and get away scot-free and also Azure Dragon and Chesces' lucky escape, the kobold king had put the entire 10th floor on lockdown. Because of that, the influx of kobolds into the lower floors wasn't as much as it used making it such that players only encountered either Ground Rats or Earth puppets, reducing the difficulty of progressing through the lower floors.

With the decreased difficulty of progression and the bridge known as the Guardian Golems being crossed, there was nothing that prevented these teams from getting to the 10th floor. However, upon arrival, they all went through the same event which they wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon.

If the goblin event at Gnorka was a bloodbath with blood being shed everywhere, the 10th would be a place that ended up labelled as a 'No return' zone. With each passing minute, players died either in a direct confrontation with the kobold king and its forces or under ambush. Yes, ambush.

In order to prevent players from ever escaping its grasp again, the kobold king became more proactive. It sent a bunch of kobolds to lock-down all possible escape points for players and began searching for players on the 10th floor. With each hour that went by, at least 2 player teams would have suffered an assault and experienced a team-wipe. 

When a guild fell, they would hold back the information in order to bait more to die. This was because they didn't want to suffer a loss, or as they would say, experience 'such a good event' alone. However, as more teams and guilds fell plus with each passing second where no official announcement was made by the guilds, especially those speculated to have reached there first(like Emperor's Might), rumors and suspicions began flying about. 

As time went by and more teams reached the 10th floor, the truth was later revealed. The world class boss was a beast, and not the literal word. No one could exchange more than 3 moves with it as at the fourth move, most would be too slow to react. When it fought with space magic things became worse as no one stood a chance no matter how small. If Sato and the others happened to witness one of its battles, they would have realised that it actually went easy on them but the truth was far from that. It wasn't that it purposely went easy on them but it was jut recovering from having exited the 'training' process and so, couldn't exhibit its full power. But with the time between Azure and Soran's teams dying, and the next team of players arriving, the kobold king managed to recover.

The event where players died on the 10th floor became known worldwide on the IR servers and was termed as Black Grill's Demolition. A whooping 16 different guilds and teams had fallen at the spot and with the estimate of each team having at least 12 players, this was at least 192 players reported dead. These weren't average players, but Experts! People that could easily have a comfortable life as a gamer by just signing up for a guild. Riverdale was a Primary town like Black Mountain town. Each Primary town could hold at least 350,000 people(NPCs and players combined). Player population usually varied from a sixth(1/6) to 2/3rd of the total population. By conservative estimate - considering that IR just began - 1/6 of the total population, which was a 19,444 or so, were players. Of that number, a reported 300-400 of them were Experts. This was just barely above 2% of the entire player population! And almost half of that number had died in one raid! This was a big hit to the player structure of Riverdale town.

With so many experts in one location reported dead, Black Grills' Demolition began trending on the forums. This wasn't a surprise as once the details that lead to it were revealed - the main one being the discovery of a world class boss - a lot of people paid attention to the news. While IR might have similar features with past VR games, in the end, it was still a different game. The discovery and battles of a world class boss was valuable information that would help other players gauge the strength of monsters so them paying attention to this was very much understandable. While some paid attention for information gathering reason, others just laughed at the result.

It should be recalled that a few towns had experienced certain events that lead to the rise in levels of mainstream players. These towns were nicknamed '4-leaf clover towns' and these towns had attracted the hostility of other players in different locations. Some had even gone far as to hold the game developers responsible but the developers denied ever planning that; claiming it was the System that was in control and not them. Now that one of those clover towns had experienced a massive setback, a lot of players began to rejoice but not all. 

The guilds and more intelligent players knew that the setback didn't affect all the players and also, this setback wouldn't be forever. Eventually, one guild would take down the kobold king and reap its rewards, widening the gap between them and others even more. To this, they were quite right. Because currently, the top guilds of Riverdale and Black Mountain had conveyed a meeting on how to defeat the kobold king as soon as possible. They were forced to do so because of a news they had recently received.

With the reveal of the kobold king's strength, players began avoiding the 10th floor but the kobold king didn't want that. It wanted to kill more. It wanted to see blood. So, the monster left the 10th floor for the lower floors. As a result, players began avoiding Black Grill's Cave as a levelling zone and this in turn, would affect the various guild's development because there were very few levelling spots for players above level 5. Also, who could say that the kobold king wouldn't leave the cave system.. And so, the guilds had to begin making preparations, for the next greatest raid in IR history.