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"My pickaxe broke though…" I sighed. Showing my pickaxe to the dwarves.
"Hmm, well, this pickaxe is too weak to handle your strength." Baldur said.
"We should make you a new one, yeah? Let's use the strongest ores we got for her." Said Balladur.
"A Demonite Crystal too, she seems to have high affinity with them." Darfu added.
"Thank you guys, and sorry… Can you get it as soon as possible?" I asked.
"Yeah we just started working again so we can get it done by tomorrow morning." Baldur added.
"Leave it to us." Balladur said.
"Lady Maria, it is time for your forging lessons too, so you better stay here for now." Darfu said.
"Ugh, alright…" I sighed.
"For now we'll go back to the Atelier to do some more Alchemy." Emeraldine said.
"We were thinking on making the barrier with some special items I suggested." Said Partner.
"Which one?" I wondered.
"Alchemy Clay!" Partner said. "Isn't it good at conducting Mana?"
"Alchemy… Clay?!"
The three dwarves looked back at Partner.
"Eh?"
"You've got Alchemy Clay?! Why did you never told us about it?!"
"Alchemy Clay is the best material to meld other materials together! Only experienced alchemist can truly make high quality ones…"
"If you can get done as many as you can, we might be able to create what Lady Maria has envisioned even more easily."
After hearing the three dwarves' words, Partner and Emeraldine suddenly felt pumped up.
"Alright! Leave it to us!"
"Time to make some more Alchemy Clay then!"
The two ran away from the furnace and straight back to the castle.
….I could probably mass produce Alchemy Clay by adding it into the slots of [Instant Creation] though, but I think a higher quality one can only be created by their own hands, so it is better to leave them to do that.
Like that, I spent the next few hours learning more forging with Darfu, who was a rather patient teacher. I quickly began creating ingots, and made more daggers, short swords, and even made some metallic wands as well.
"Phew, this was a fruitful day…"
"You're getting better by the day, Lady Maria. I think you might be getting closer-"
Ding!
[You learned the [Smithing: Lv1] Skill]
[You acquired the [Apprentice Blacksmith: Lv1] Title Skill!]
"Ooh! I got Smithing! Is that a good skill? How many skills do you guys use?" I wondered.
"Smithing…? Huh… Wait, WHAT?!" Darfu asked in surprise. "I-It took me years to learn that Skill and you got it in less than a week… Incredible."
"Ah… S-Sorry if that makes you feel bad…" I said.
"No, it's fine… Lady Maria is always very talented at literally everything. I guess you had to just push a bit harder and you got it already!" Said Darfu. "However, you've still gotta get them all. Much like Alchemy has several Skills that work with it such as Brewing and Synthetize, Forging does as well. Smithing is the skill that helps you at smelting ores and form them into different shapes, it also aids at smithing them into shapes. Then there's Forging which enhances our ability to forge items and give them proper shape. There's also Metallurgy that increases your knowledge of ores and how to properly handle every metal you touch and also the most efficient methods. There's also Blacksmith, a special Skill only very experienced Blacksmiths get! I only have Apprentice Blacksmith, took me five years to get it. It really does a lot of help, the old men over there got the Master Blacksmith Skills for sure, and perhaps Magic Smithing too…"
"Oh, I see! I've gotten the Apprentice Blacksmith too!" I said happily.
"I see- EEEH?! You got it?!" He asked in surprise. "N-No way, that's impossible, you require years of experience you can't… possibly… ah, never mind." Darfu sighed. "If it comes to common sense, Lady Maria will always shatter any sense of it."
"I-I'm sorry if it makes you feel bad, I really am not in fault for this I just… I guess I am just lucky." I said with a nod.
In fact, it is because I died in my previous life and wished to have a System, I guess I've gotta have some sort of learning advantage of Skills and all that others don't really have.
Well, I might as well check the Skills to begin with.
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[Smithing: Lv1]
A Skill only acquired by Apprentice Blacksmiths that have learned the ability to smelt ores, fuse them into ingots, shape ingots into different forms, and beautifully shape metals. Enhances the quality of smelted Ores and Created Ingots by +50%, with an additional +10% with each Skill Level. Increases Dexterity and Maneuverability of Ores and Metals, and the ability to shape them to what is within your mind by +100%. Additionally, grants the ability for Ores to be rapidly shaped into Ingots through the usage of MP, but when using traditional methods, their quality doubles.
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[Apprentice Blacksmith: Lv1]
A Title Skill that only specially talented Apprentices can learn after many years of training. It enhances the ability to shape ingots into equipment, to bring out what's within the user's imagination, and to be able to shape and create equipment by +100%, with an additional +20% with each Level. Additionally, the quality of created finished items rises greatly, and new effects can appear more commonly, with a chance of 30%. All Blacksmith-related Skills can be learned and leveled at twice the speed.
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W-What the fuck am I looking at? These Skills are INSANE. I am fairly sure that Darfu doesn't have these versions of these Skills at all! These bonuses are way too INSANE to actually be normal, right? I doubt they're normal at all! I've already confirmed that Skills, despite having similar names, varies within their descriptions and what they can do from person to person…
And no matter how simple is a Skill I learn, it always ends up with some ridiculous, over the top effects…. I guess smithing will not be a problem anymore. I'll be having fun making my own creations!
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