Chapter 50 - 48. Rare Equipment

"RARE rank equipment? How many grades are there for equipment?" Alice cuts in as she is excited when she heard the word rare.'

"As far as I know, An equipment can be grade into 5 different levels. An ungraded level which most people called it as common equipment; Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. A lot of people in Eden believe that there is even higher grade than Legendary rank equipment but I never even saw a piece of Legendary grade equipment before."

"You could forge a rare grade equipment piece? What is the material you're talking about? Dark Steel and Aetheryte Shard? Where can I find them? What is their characteristic?" Albert ask the blacksmith

"Dark Metal usually could be found near a rich mineral metal vein along with other rare metal. It was one of the more sturdy metals it was often forged into shield and armor headpieces. I could try to make fingerless gloves that cover your entire arm and add a bunch of studded spikes made from dark metal. It would be easier to maintain but it would sacrifice a lot of defense as the armguard base would be made out of leather."

"Why can't you make it out of iron so it would be sturdier?" Albert suggests

"Using normal iron as a base would destroy the structural integrity of the iron and it would create more problems than it solves. You could try to find more rare material such as Feather Iron or Quicksilver and use it as the base material but it would be such a waste and as far as I know you, there aren't any near this village."

"The other option would be forging the armguard using Aetheryte Shard as its base. Aetheryte Shard is a strong metal that contains a lot of fire energy which is perfect for offensive options. It's one of more difficult metal to handle due to how easy it was to combust the said metal. A weapon which is made from Aetheryte can have an explosive effect attach to it which would satisfy the offensive options you guys seek."

"Explosive effect?! Wouldn't that be dangerous as the user would basically in close proximity when the explosion happen? Also what about its durability and defensive capability?" Albert ask for more details

"The metal itself has a lot of resistance to fire and really durable so it can protect you from the explosion backlash: The explosion itself is not that dangerous as the area of effect wouldn't be that big and it would only create a double attack effect."

"I like that one! Can you make one for me if I found the Aet something shard?" Alice show her interest

"Well the Aetheryte Shard can be found in a volcanic environment, or a place where there is a lot of fire energy. I don't think you can find one around here but last month the village patrol brought home 3 kg of that Aetheryte Shard. You can either ask to buy it from him or ask where did he found it."

Albert asks where to find the guard and details about him and went ahead to meet back up with Kana. Kana's working speed has been improving tremendously and she also makes fewer mistakes making their loot more valuable.

Kana's already finished 30% of her entire harvesting quest and with the rate of the team hunting, she would finish it during the next week. The group asks around the village looking for the guard who posses Aetheryte Shard but unfortunately for them; The guard no longer has the shard when they met him.

"I already sold it to the Village Hall as I don't have any use for it and worth a lot of money. You can go to the village hall ask them to rebuy it if you want to."

The gear in Albert's brain clicks the moment he heard what the guard says; He opens the item catalog for village tokens exchange and clicks on Material tabs before he looks at it 1 by 1. True to his guess, the Aetheryte Shard is available for exchange at 3 tokens per kilogram.

There's a couple more rare metal listed down in the item catalog but since they don't have any knowledge about this world metal or even metals in general; The group went back to the blacksmith shop to ask how much and what materials are needed for Alice's new armguard.

"Oh, I didn't know that you guys already got so many village tokens to exchange. To craft the armguard that according to your requirement I would need at least 3 kg of the Aetheryte Shard. May I know what else is available in the village tokens item catalog? If I could find a compliment metal to forge it I could guarantee it would reach rare grade equipment with no problem."

"As fas as metal goes, there's the dark steel that you talk about previously; Some common metal like brass, iron, silver, and gold ore are also available at less than 1 tokens per kilogram with the exception of gold. Mithril, Jade, Platinum are more expensive and there are also couples precious stones like ruby, garnet, emerald, etc."

"Oh, garnet! That could be a good fit for this craft. If you're willing to spend a bit more and trade for the garnet and a bit of Jade I could guarantee you could use it at least until you're level 20 or even 30."

'The garnet would cost us another 4 tokens and jade is the price at 2 tokens for half a kilogram. The entire thing would cost us about 15 tokens and that does not include the cost of forging. This better be worthed.'

Albert say in his mind as he looks at the other party member for approval. Alice is beaming with excitement the more she heard about her new armguard and the other also nods as they don't have anything they urgently need at the moment. Increasing Alice's offensive option would also mean increasing the party average fighting capability; It means they can hunt a stronger monster and that would net them more money and or more tokens to exchange for.