Chapter 127 - 127. Needing More Time In Forging To Upgrade.

I entered the Realm of Mind soon after and went to the Blacksmithing zone to produce some Level 3 iron for the orders that had just been received. At least those three guys didn't have to meet the Ruler of Aermagh and just dealt with the military advisors instead.

Depending on the sizes of armour and weapons that I would have to fuse, it would either be two pieces of iron ingots to four pieces and I set down to work after I place two iron ores into the furnace and began to pump the bellows.

After the iron ores were hot enough, I picked the two pieces and placed them on the anvil and started hammering.

*Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! *

Sparks flew in all directions as I hammered the iron ores that were dancing on the anvil as it hammered to remove its impurities.

50 strikes...

100 strikes later...

I stopped and looked at the piece I've created and threw it into the bucket of water as it sizzled and spluttered. When it was cool, I picked it up from the bucket and inspected. Ceres the system updated me that it was a Level 3 iron before I began to produce those iron ores soon into Level 3 iron ingots.

*Ding* Host has upgraded Base Level 14,868/100,000. Advanced Blacksmith 848/1000. Acquired 18 pieces Level 3 iron ingots.

"Great, I would really love to upgrade to Professional Blacksmith since its the only one lagging behind besides my culinary one. I wonder it won't be long if I keep on hammering on these Iron ores. If I don't use the so-called hack, I would be making at least 27k pieces of iron ingots and that would definitely keep me here for months...!!! Haish... I don't have the time to be here that long... "I sighed and I swiped the scene and came to the Fusion Chamber.

I started with two iron ingots and fused the weapons first. After successfully fusing the weapons, I moved on next to the armours. Once I had completed the process, I slotted all the 18 pieces into 3 Fusion Chambers and I ran the counter to 1500 times, queued the items accordingly and pushed the slider to DUPLICATE/MULTIPLE and cranked the lever.

"Well, at least level 3 iron would be a slightly faster in their duplication and before I logged off I checked with Ceres, the system on the progress level after everything is completed.

*Ding* you will earn Base Level 17,568/100,000. Master Crafter 6019/100,000 right after the whole process. You will also earn a grand total of 113k points.

"Ceres, if I were to use the Smelting zone, would I upgrade my Blacksmithing levels as well?"

*Ding* Negative. Smelting is a one-time complete process, you would likely end up with Level 1 iron ingots after the process.

"Any other ways that I could upgrade my forging in order to get the results faster? I mean to say I will use lesser hammering to produce the desired level of iron?"

*Ding* Upgrade your current skills to Professional Blacksmith and you will require only 40 strikes and Master Blacksmith 30 strikes for each level of iron quality.

"Haiyoo... Acquiring lesser hammering to produce the iron pieces but then I would also earn lesser progress. I guess there are Pros and Cons to levelling up, right?"

*Ding* Affirmative. You could spend 3 hours here to produce multiple iron ingots so that your Blacksmith level would gradually upgrade. Your crafting and blacksmithing are unbalanced so far.

"Aahh... Alright then. I see what else I could do. Maybe you're right, I will produce tons of Level 3 iron ingots for every 100 strikes and when I need to make them into Level 5, I could reheat them and strike another 100 times, would that be the case, then?"

*Ding* Affirmative, smart boy. Now go back to your wife. She is waiting and it won't be good to talk to an imaginary system with a woman's name. Now go...

"Eh... This system is now telling what to do, already? I wonder what else it would do after another upgrade."

*Ding* Next upgrade 30% on a base level. With your current progress, give or take another 3 months before you would hit the next upgrade.

"Hmm, a system with emotions. Weird... Ah well, don't want to keep Trish waiting. Furthermore, these pieces are now being processed and would be ready in the next day I guess."

*Ding* To be exact 8 hours, 3 minutes and 15 seconds.

"Alright, thanks again. I'm out of here. Have to teach those internships how to prepare dishes." and I logged off and went back to the real world.

....

"Hi, honey... Guess what, those pieces would be ready by 8 hours. Once they are ready I could hand them over to Blake and Bruce by tomorrow or the day after. By the 6th day, they should be able to deliver the items to them and receive the balance 10% or they could just ignore it as a sign of goodwill."

I sat down beside Patricia as she was waiting for me as she minds the apprentices. Even as they were called interns but they do get some compensation in helping out in the kitchen too even though it may not be as much as a normal cookhouse cook but it's still a considerable amount.

"How was your levelling up?" Patricia asked and I was surprised that she was able to 'know' using her Insight, maybe? "How did you know about my levelling up?" I asked as I raised my eyebrows at her. "Does anyone else can see me like this?" I was feeling something would be off especially if I'm walking around and feeling naked as if people can see through me like an x-ray vision.

"Only the household of Keating is able to see your system attributes, statistics and wealth. Like I've said before, your system is outdated. If you upgrade now, you would like us and the system would be much cleaner. You don't need to think about your statistics because it would be off the chart. All your allocated stats would be reset to 5 and returned back to unallocated."

"From there, you would be able to rearrange your attributes and your traits once more. Also, there's an option to hide and reveal your stats so you would be like an open book wherever you go." Patricia advised me and I was thinking it would be a great idea.

*Ding* System Upgrade would set you back in a dreamless state. Be forewarned. System upgrade initiated... 5...4...3...

"HEY...HEY...STOP IT... I'M NOT UPGRADING THE SYSTEM NOW CERES..."

*Ding* Hah...hah...fooled you, Silly Boy...

"WHO IS CERES? And who are you screaming at just now?" Patricia was glaring me with the sides of her eyes as her hand was gripping the Mark of Magi until her knuckles turned white. She gashes his teeth and then she smiled at me and places her gentle hand on my shoulder and suddenly held it with a deathly vice-like grip.

"No fooling around as long as I'm around, do you understand Sam... I mean Audemars or whoever you used to be for your past few lives that I've dug out while talking in your sleep, eh?" she warned while squinting her eyes menacingly at me.

"Ceres is the name of my system. It introduced its name when I just hit 15% on my base level. It said it would materialise before me when I hit 30% something like that. Awww... Your fingernails are biting into my skin already, honey." I said finally as I held my hand onto hers and tries to pry it away.

"Heh... Just a bit of intimidation and you give out your information so easily. Tsk...Tsk...Tsk...you should be trained in a torture chamber so that you would not reveal such information that easily.

"Nnggeekk... Actually, I should not be a warrior or any weapon-wielding hero except for a kitchen knife you know. My passion is cooking and watching people eat."

'Also I love to create business opportunities to earn money and to help others be sufficiently employed and able to sustain better living standards. Like what I'm doing right now..."

"Internship, Blake, Bruce, Silas, Matron, the 4 cooks in the cookhouse, the 60 merchants, the 220 employees and thousands of satisfied customers around the 87 towns."

"Yeah...yeah...now get back to the kitchen and do your thing... They've got 2 more menus to dish up, right?" Patricia reminded me as she finally loosened her grip on my shoulders. She may look weak but her fingers and nails were like a falcon's talons.

"How about the children? You are not grinding afterwards?" I asked as I saw her that she already had the Mark of Magi with her right after our lunch just now.

"I'm going to grind because I'm one level behind our children. I want to be Level 5 today. So be good then." she stood up and walked off towards the direction of the Northern Gates as I soon entered the kitchen to observe the rest of the interns' task and prepare for dinner.

"Hello again. Today we are going to make baked turkey pasta with ground black pepper beef or mutton. And we are going to prepare the pork chops that had been soaked with grog, and then would be dipped in a light batter and rolled in bread crumbs before there are fried in a low-medium fire."

"Since the pork chops had been marinated with a bit of grog and some spices, it won't take long before it gets cooked. Remember that pork needs to be 100% cooked while some prefer medium-rare beef, lamb or mutton chops which are fine."

It was the first day and so they prepared the turkey pasta with minced meat and sweet spicy sauce. I mentioned that to have the sauce to be more lasting, avoid using red onions but use shallots instead and plenty of garlic for taste. The sauce would need to simmer and not boiled for at least 2 hours to 'mature' the tomato sauce into a kind of paste.

After making the turkey pasta it was layered in a baking pan alternatively with turkey then pasta then cheese and the process is repeated until we had gotten 3 trays filled and set inside the earthen oven to bake.

Next is the chops which were fairly simple that Kayla could also perform. The sides include potato wedges with its skin after being carefully scrubbed and quartered. Then some sliced cucumber which was fashioned in a way that it was sliced into jagged pieces, some tomatoes, some slices of lime and a mix of mayo, lime juice, jalapeno pickles and salt to make a sour cream dipping.

The coleslaw was made as well just by using basic cabbage and carrots with a pinch of salt pepper and mayonnaise. I told everyone that anyone can cook but the passion for making each meal makes it the most enjoyable part of dining.

I explained that there are 2 kinds of dining, one is fine dining where it's best suited for a small family of 4 or a buffet type of dining with more than 6 to 100 people. I showed them the usage of the steamer that was used to create 5 kg of rice and the measurements would be 1 scoop of uncooked rice for 2 servings.

After the lecture and guidance, I guess these interns understand what I'm trying to reach out.