Chapter 49 - Forging 2

System: You have successfully forged a light bow.

"+100 experience points, +4 Forging Proficiency"

As expected, he got four forging proficiency points from making one piece of equipment. If this continued, he would become an intermediate apprentice in no time. The successful creation of equipment also gave him 100 experience points.

This is equal to the amount of experience provided by a single quest. He knew that he only managed to make an equipment at his first try due to his previous life experiences. It wasn't an easy thing to create equipment in vita-nova especially structures like bows. One had to have at least a little talent of forging in real-life to emulate it in the game.

He also realized that forging and other trade professions could always improve his level above others whenever he required as he had a good understanding of most of them and this would provide him a lot of advantage in the game. He then remembered to check the bow he had crafted.

Light Bow (Black Iron Bow)

Level 3:

Effects: Agility +2, Perception +6;

Causes 25% more damage against members of the worgen and warg families.

It was a satisfactory result. In fact, it was more than what was expected. The damage value against the warg and worgen families increased by 5% over the specification in the design. It might be due to the use of Blue Glitter Fire.

All that was left to do with the bow was tie as string and use it. He immediately took a picture of the bow and its attributes and sent it to Blue Dart. "How much do you think this is worth?" he asked Blue Dart.

"What is with you and good equipment? Do they just fall into your lap? You are gaining a reputation as bad as Merlin," replied Blue Dart surprised at the new message he received. "Though it provides a bit less attributes than the Vultarc's bow, but for you, I will offer the same amount," he continued in good faith. He wanted to establish a good relationship with Shadow and decided to not hassle with him.

"Don't talk like it is a bad investment. It has the special property against Worgen and Warg families. That includes wolves too. It will be great in exploring the blackrock hills. The chance of the wolf packs ambushing you reduces by a lot. It will be much more useful at the special dungeon 'Cave of Wargs'."

"You have access to that dungeon?"

"No but I know that the public will get access once my quest is completed. In fact, my quest it to create a teleportation portal at the cave."

"Why are you wasting your time forging instead of getting on with it?"

"I don't have the proper level to be able to successfully complete the quest. And before you suggest it, numbers wouldn't make a difference. It is best, I do it alone. So, what do you offer for the bow?"

"I told you. The same as before."

"How about you provide me with some coins instead of credits? Or at least cover a bit of it with coins. Else I will not be able to forge more equipment."

"Wait! Are you saying that you are the one that forged the bow?"

"Yes, I can produce more than one too. Think of its value to the guild."

"You are the guy that used the intermediate forging room, aren't you? How did you hide your data from the other players?"

"Oh, yeah. That was a skill that allows me to disguise myself. Though it is a rare skill, similar ones probably could be seen in future."

"It is truly rare. I heard of disguise skill that can fool NPCs, but a disguise that can change the ID of a player and fool other players to such an extent is truly rare."

"Enough with the flattering. How many coins do you think that you can provide?"

"I don't have enough coins, but I could provide you materials and credits upon the materials for your services like I suggested for your shield. Remember you also asked coins for purchase of equipment too. By the way, how is it going on that end?" asked Blue Dart.

He was extremely anxious to know if there was a way to get armor with vita-nova coins. Though he didn't mind co-operating with Shadow, this case was depending on him for equipment and it wasn't very acceptable for a person in charge of a guild in an area to be dependent on an independent player for such resources.

"I got the items. You just need to collect enough coins to purchase them. So, about the bow. Do you intend to get it along with the rest? Let us conclude this, every minute I talk with you is costing me. I am in the intermediate forging room you know."

"I am willing the to buy it for one silver. Let us meet after the hour. We can also exchange for the bows for raw materials of the same. Though the credit to coin conversion ration might not be that high. I can't help you any more than that. We will need to hold on to the coins as they are not easy to farm."

"OK," said Shadow as he also understood the situation. It was indeed very hard to farm coins in vita-nova compared to other games. Shadow already thought Blue Dart was being generous to him already.

He immediately started on the next bow. It already took him about 15 minutes to craft one bow. A quarter of his time was over. He realized that making structures such as bows in a forge took a lot more time than plate armors and bladed weapons.

He quickly began to make another bow. Before his rental time at the forge was done, he managed to craft three more bows with each taking shorted time than the one before as he got used to it. He had 5 more minutes left, but he decided it was time to take sell the bows and other equipment.

He directly went to Lydia's shop after going into stealth and checked that no one was following him. He checked the display provided by Lydia and sent the images of various equipment to Blue Dart. "These are the ones that are available right now. Tell me which ones you would like, and I will purchase them. I can only get 10 more from the NPC. Choose well."

He left the remaining 6 slots to by equipment for himself and his team. He wouldn't sell everything that was provided by Lydia to Sirius Imperials as that would be an instance of biting his own hand.

"Give me a minute. I need to cross check with the others."

"Of course, I will be at the forging association along with four light bows. You can meet me there," said Shadow. He obviously understood the need to cross check. If Blue Dart ended up buying an equipment when someone already had a similar one or if it covers the same part of the body, then the newly bought equipment wouldn't be of much use.

He quickly made his way back to the forging association and waited there for over ten minutes. Just when he was getting tired and felt like calling Blue Dart. He saw Blue Dart come to the forging association with Raging Blade and few others. On the other end, Raging Blade and Blue Dart were having a fierce discussion.

"He is Merlin's contact who is selling the equipment for coins?" asked Raging Blade to Blue Dart pointing his sword at Shadow.

"Yes, he has access to some good equipment. You just had a look at the info he sent. Tell me do you really want to go against both him and Merlin. I just brought you down here because you tend to be closer to the village or cities at all times. I want you to handle further transactions with him."

"That's ridiculous. Why do you want me to do the exchange? Can't you handle it yourself?"

"I can. But I usually am asked to spearhead exploration of new places. You are not. You are a part of the club and are a part of the team in the competitions. So, you should learn to negotiate with these kinds of players. Just try it. You can always consult me."

"You always used to do it before right? Why not continue that."

"Blood is considering exploration of new places a high priority. We want to gather reputation and possibly get decent property in the game. The value of properties in the game would be a lot more than other games."

"What is so special about the game. It has a kind of realistic feel to it. People would soon get tired of it. Games are meant to be enjoyable."

"That is what you are mistaken about. The purpose of vita-nova isn't to just be a simple game. As the name suggests, it is meant to be a second reality. Soon, the physics of the game will converge more with reality than diverge. Just do this for me."

"But you know what happened between me and Shadow. How can I bargain from him when he is a lot more stronger than me?"

"You represent the guild, Raging. You have an easier access to coins and workforce than independent players. That is why he is selling the equipment to us. It will be fine. I will talk to him about it, for now. After that, you will be the liaison with independent forces in the village till we leave to city."

Shadow who started walking towards them once he saw Blue Dart was already beside them. "So, you will be my point of contact for Sirius Imperials then. Hope we have many successful trades," said Shadow who had heard what they were talking.

Shadow Tyrant immediately pulled out the four bows he had crafted and held them to Blue Dart. "You have the money and materials?" he asked.

Blue Dart immediately opened a trade window to have an exchange with Shadow. He put in the money for the bows, the equipment and the materials. But only received four bows. "Where are the equipment you showed," asked Blue Dart.

"Give me a minute, I will get them," said Shadow as he went into stealth. He quickly purchased them from Lydia and gave the equipment to Blue Dart.

"You still haven't told anything about the materials, you require. I am sure we can provide almost any material found near the Blackrock village," said Raging Blade taking initiative.

Balthazar felt a bit relaxed when he heard Raging Blade. He was glad that Raging Blade could reign in his anger when necessary. "I need iron ore and blackrock crystal pieces for the bow. The shield requires refined Iron ore. Can you really provide them?" asked Shadow.

"Iron ore, a few of the members managed to get it," said Raging Blade but he heard nothing about the other two materials that Shadow told him. He looked at Blue Dart who was just as confused as him. Though Blue Dart initially went towards the blackrock hills, he spent a lot of time at the river, after he heard the announcement of the special quest, he decided that it is better to focus on the Arwild forest and pioneer it. He also had no idea how to get refined ore or blackrock crystals.

"I will call you again if required," said Shadow as he went into the forging association and booked the intermediate forging room again leaving behind a Blue Dart who was now sure of the fact that there is a way to cross the river after he heard Shadow talk about Blackrock crystals.

Once, in the forging room, Balthazar checked the design of the Goblin Shield. It was a black iron shield and would definitely have more demand. It could also be used by his teammates. The Goblin Shield was relatively easier than the bow. All it needed was to have molten poured around a base made of stones bound by the magic essences.

Magic essence was a liquid that could be used to create magical pathways or carve runes in equipment. The essence required for the goblin shield was the normal/low-grade essence obtained from the minor elementals in Arwild Forest.

Shadow put the stones in a small crucible and poured a magic essence on the stones. He wrote a rune for binding on the stones using the stylus. The stones were held together by the essence as depicted in the design. He then melted a refined iron ore using the Blue Glitter Fire in a cast the shape of a half-sphere and put the bound stones into the molten iron. As the iron ore cooled down, it formed a tough hemispherical centre part of the shield.

The remaining two refined iron-ores were also melted, and Shadow quickly poured it into the hemispherical cast. He cooled it to a semisolid state using the blower and then began to beat the semisolid metal in to a circular sheet with a diameter of about 2 feet.

He put it in a metal pressing machine to even out the thickness of the plate. Now, he had to fix the base into the centre of the plate. He directly melted the centre of the plate with Blue Glitter Fire and welded the central part of the shield into it. He slowly beat the heated-up plate and central part with his hammer till they completely fused, and he got a good-looking shield. Fusing the plate with the centre of the shield was the most time-consuming part of making the entire shield. It took more than a hundred shots to fused them. All that was left to engrave runes for toughness on the shield using a magic essence and carve a groove at the centre of the shield to hold it.

A minute later the runes were done, the shield was ready, and Shadow selected the option for identification. Once, the loading bar was done loading, notification sounded showing that the shield was successfully forged.

System: You have successfully forged a goblin shield.

"+100 experience points. +4 Forging proficiency"

[Goblin Shield] (black iron shield)

Level 3:

Materials Required: Refined Iron Ore x 3; Stones x 5; Magic esscense x 2;

Requirement: Endurance: 8;

Defence +15; Vitality: +10; Endurance +5;

Durability 25/25;

This was a decent shield for level 3. The only lacking quality of it was that it had no extra skills or special effects like most black iron equipment. But it still provided a good increase in attributes. Better than similar black iron shields of level 3.

Shadow sent the image of the shield and its description to Blue Dart and continued with making another shield. Once, he was done with the second shield, he checked his messages and saw that Raging Blade contacted him about the shield. They were willing to buy one of the shields for 2 silvers.

Though, it could be considered a smaller price for a shield. It was still acceptable at the beginning of the game. Shadow responded that he would be willing to sell it only if he got at least another 50 coppers on the 2 silvers.

After a bit of haggling, the settled the price for a shield to be 2 silvers and 20 coppers. Moreover, they were willing to buy as many shields as he could provide. With a buyer available, Shadow decided to continue forging the shields till he finished all the refined iron ore that he had.

With his experience in forging and the equipment he had in the intermediate forging room, he had a high theoretical success rate of at least 70%. It was a considered very advantageous. When he was forging his eighth shield, he received an alert from the system that he had set to wake up. He only had five real-life minutes before he had to wake up.

He had already successfully forged 6 shields. With two for his teammates, he had four more to sell. He continued to forge the eighth shield which due to his hurry failed to be a black-iron shield and instead ended up being a white trash shield.

He quickly contacted Raging Blade and asked him to meet outside the forging association and that he had to leave in 5 minutes. He also asked his team to teleport back to the village in 5 minutes, so that he could buy add on further equipment to them.

In the next few minutes, Shadow quickly sold the four shields and went to Lydia's shop to buy more equipment. By the time, he reached the shop, he saw that someone else was already at the shop, browsing black-iron equipment from Lydia. He was shocked that someone else already completed the quest. The new guy was named, White blaze and was a priest.

With no time to waste, he quickly bought four equipment from Lydia when she told that she had sold all that she could today and that she could only sell equipment tomorrow. It looked like the priest had already bought two equipment from Lydia. Though he lost the chance to get two more equipment from Lydia, it was still a decent harvest.

He quickly went to the teleportation point to meet Merlin and his team and provided the equipment to them before he logged off.