Chapter 320 - 314 : Xue Yan Comes Out

As he currently had nothing to do and with the others out levelling up, Sato decided to improve on his blacksmithing skills while he still could.

While players could take on different jobs and lifestyle classes in IR, quite a number of them didn't. This was because not only were these subclasses time-consuming but they were also expensive to improve on.

Taking the blacksmith subclass as an example, one would need to purchase a large assortment of materials to produce several kinds of equipment. A true blacksmith has to be capable of forging more than one type of equipment or weapon with each creation having a passable quality. Just the material cost for a Mid-tier Mortal rank weapon was enough to send a player to the fields for 2 days and since no blacksmith player has an 80% or greater success rate, they would need to purchase 3 sets of the materials; that's 6 days worth of field hunting earnings.

This issue wasn't limited to the Blacksmith subclass as all the other lifestyle classes faced the same problem Because of this, very few players bothered to dabble in lifestyle classes, with only the internal members of a guild or an association as well as solo players with deep pockets who happen to be interested in the class, taking the lifestyle classes seriously.

With the materials he had received from the mission, Sato was now capable of furthering his knowledge and experience in the class. In some ways, one could say that he had a better start than the rich players and guild players. This was because the materials Sato had were all high-quality ones; even the 2-star materials in his inventory were high-quality ones and not the average ones found in NPC stores. They were enough for Sato to increase his blacksmithing experience and try his hand at producing various kinds of equipment.

If Sato was able to raise his success rate as well as forge market-level Mid-tier Mortal rank weapons and equipment with ease, he would be able to open up a commercial channel that could find his goals in IR.

'If Xue Yan could also advance in her Rune-smithing skills and mass-produce more talismans, we won't have to worry about money in the future.'

The dozens of 2-star materials, as well as the library of blueprints, were more than enough for Sato to practice with so he began considering letting Xue Yan have a go too. Even if the materials weren't enough for them both, Sato believed that Xue Yan's reward from the Main Trials would provide her with a few more. If that didn't do, Sato could still head back to town and purchase a few more. Apart from the materials and other rewards he had gotten, there were at least 5 gold coins left inside the ring for Sato to use.

In the eyes of Worrus and Saimon, this was a pitiful amount of money but to Sato, this was enough to gear up the entire team in new armour and still have some left.

Sato had wondered why the game would give him so much money so early but a part of him guessed that once he entered the city, this amount wouldn't be as useful as it is in town. Considering that he was already level 15 and would have to go to the city soon, rewarding him that much money wouldn't affect the balance of the game.

'I can either save it or use it. However, earning money should be a bit easier in town than it is here so investing it on the team would be better.'

Sato went over to the blacksmith area in the Inner sector and spent almost 14 hours trying out new things while testing different theories of his.

*Bang*

An explosion sounded in a room deep in the Hall but surprisingly, apart from the black smoke that diffused around the room, nothing was destroyed.

"Are you alright, young master?" Meson's voice sounded.

*Cough* *Cough*

"Yeah, I'm good. Luckily you activated the protective array just in time." Sato waved off the black smoke in front of him before leaving the room.

"Okay, young master. I will clear the room up."

Meson then went to a table at the edge of the room and activated a bunch of arrays. Suddenly, a large suction force appeared from the ceiling and sucked in the black smoke. Within 3 seconds, the entire room was now clear and the black smoke had disappeared without a trace.

On the working table[1], which was located right at the centre of the room, there was a damaged piece of metal alongside a few blacksmithing tools. A light green barrier covered the scrap metal with minute amounts of black smoke leaking out from it.

Meson stared at the metal within the barrier as he said.

"The combination was odd by a few percentiles and because of this, the remaining processes required stringent conditions. Also, you imbued slightly too much mana into the product and with your rune being tacky, this resulted in an explosion. Luckily, we were dealing with low-rank 2-star metals here. If it were one of the higher-ranked ones, it would have exploded before I could activate the barrier."

"Then I have to sincerely thank you for that." Sato thanked him as he returned to the workshop.

"N, n, no worries, sire. It's, it's my pleasure to be of help to you." Meson began stuttering with his words as a slight blush crept on his cheeks.

While Meson had the appearance of a 14-year-old on the younger side, he was actually 347 years old. But because he was born in isolation and didn't have much experience with the outside world, he had an innocent personality. Nonetheless, a 300+ years person was still an old folk and a lot could be done in that time.

Having access to such an amazing facility, Meson was able to master a few subclasses, with his comprehension of the art of blacksmithing being the highest. It was to the point that Meson was made one of the head blacksmiths of the Great Hall of Grey Chaplains, being second only to two others.

After knowing this, Sato asked for his assistance and tutelage. While he could practice blacksmithing and fumble about on his own, Sato would be able to make better progress having the support and teachings of a 300 years old dwarf. You could even say that in the entire 3 towns, Sato currently had one of the best blacksmiths ever, teaching him.

Thanks to Meson's help, Sato had made massive improvements in these 13+ hours. It was to the point that his success rate as forging Mid-tier Mortal rank weapons was at 53%, higher than any player in IR.

After realising that, Sato decided to look at another path in blacksmithing and was trying to produce one-time equipment and supplies with very high attack power. Compared to weapons and equipment, they used fewer materials but had certain intricacies in their production method. Since he had no experience whatsoever in producing consumables, even with the direction of a Grandmaster Blacksmith, failure was inevitable for Sato.

"I knew it would be hard but I never thought it would be this hard." Sato sighed.

This was the 4th explosion that had occurred. The first two were due to inconsistency in the material combination while the last two, including this one, were mostly a result of the poor design of his rune as well as a few minor problems.

"Don't be worried, young master. It's already impressive enough for you to have achieved this much in 5 hours so you should be proud of yourself." Meson comforted.

"You're right." Sato sighed as he began cleaning the table.

"Also, didn't I tell you to stop calling me 'young master'? I don't like that address."

"I'm, I'm sorry but it was what Lord Saimon told me to address you by." Meson hurriedly apologized.

"Who should be superior in ranking, your Lord Saimon or me, your young master?" Sato glanced at him.

"Uh...it should be...you?" Meson hesitantly replied.

Sato nodded.

"In that case, follow my words. Don't call me young master or young lord or young anything that sounds so praiseworthy. Just call me Sky Blade."

"No, no. That can't do. At least, let me call your young sky. No, young master." Meson said, forgetting Sato's words already.

"...just forget it." Sato shook his head.

Just as he was about to resume cleaning the entire place up, Meson spoke up again.

"Young master, the lady you inquired about has finally appeared."

"Snow Bird?" Sato asked.

Meson nodded.

"Alright then. Once I'm done with this we can go see her."

"Let me help you too." Meson enthusiastically walked over.

"Okay.." Sato accepted his help.