You can add Skills to equipment.

Yes.

Can you add more than one Skill into an empty Skill Slot?

Im sorry, but I do not know. All I know is that nothing will happen if there are no Skills infused with the equipment.

So apparently it doesnt work like that. To begin with, the Weapons Merchant was not even aware that something like Skill Slots even existed, so I can probably assume that the availability of the Skills is not a part of the public knowledge.

And how exactly do you add Skills to equipment?

Well, normally you just buy weapons and armor that are already infused with them.

Okay, but what if I wanted to do that myself rather than buying them every time?

I grabbed the Leather Armor from the Item Box. I wanted to hand it over to Roxanne, but I cannot see her well because of how dark it still is. For all I know, she might be changing right now.

Only a Blacksmith can combine Skill Crystals with Equipment.

Okay, so it seems like I would have to obtain a Blacksmiths Job if I wanted to do it myself. Not much, but thats a start.

What is a Skill Crystal?

Supposedly it is a crystalized accumulation of monsters abilities that can be found withing the Labyrinths on rare occasions. When it is being added into a piece of equipment, the wearer will be able to use that Skill as if it was their own.

For now its all pretty much just as I imagined. With that said, lets confirm one more thing.

So if there are no empty Skill Slots on the equipment, then it cannot be infused with Skill Crystals, right?

Exactly. Also, it is said that the strength of the Skills effect once it is infused into a weapon or armor depends on the quality and condition of the Skill Crystal that was used, as well as the skill and luck of the Blacksmith who performs the infusion.

But if that is the case, then wouldnt witnessing the infusion process with your own eyes solve those problems?

Of course it would, but nowadays its just not worth it. You see, master, in the past there were many Dwarves who made their fortunes by charging their clients with an additional fee if they wanted to be present to witness the entire infusion process. To say that those fees were outrageous would be an understatement.

No shit, really?

Well, that is certainly one way of committing fraud. Similarly, if a magician tried to cheat at a card game, I guess very few people would actually be able to call him out.

Precisely. Ever since then, people only asked Blacksmiths to perform Skill Infusions in very rare cases, and Blacksmiths started to turn down such transactions. When you get the Skill Crystal, you sell it, and if you want equipment with Skills in it, you buy it from the weapon or armor shop.

Certainly, if dealing with them resulted only in distrust and suspicion, avoiding such troublesome work was the most obvious solution to the problem.

However, that poses a huge problem for me. If I cant become a Blacksmith myself because it is a race-specific Job and if no Blacksmith will accept a request for Skill Infusions, then it means that finding a way out of this particular pickle is going to be that much more troublesome. Even if I use Identify to reveal if the equipment has empty Skill Slots or not, it wont do me any good. And here I thought its going to help me gain some advantage over the rest of the world. Then again, maybe I shouldnt dismiss it so soon, because it did allow me to see the Jobs of other people as well as the locations of monsters and that is something that I have really come to appreciate. The question now is: if I cannot obtain a race-specific Job myself and I dont have any connections with the Blacksmiths at all, then what can I do to remedy that?

As it turns out, there is one more possibility available for me: get myself a Blacksmith as a Party member. But I fear that just getting him as a simple Party member might not be enough to eliminate the possibility of him trying to scam us. Unless

Getting myself a Blacksmith, huh?

Hmm?

No no, its nothing.

At first I wanted to ask her about her opinion on getting myself a Blacksmith as another slave, but at the last moment I decided against it. Since I just got her as my first slave yesterday, mentioning getting another one so fast after purchasing a first one might have been a full-blown display of extremely bad taste and a lack of tact. I should go straight to the Slave Merchant with that particular matter. Another one will be how much money hes going to charge for it this time.

Feeding Roxanne with an excuse for me to go out, I made my way towards the door, relying on my intuition throughout most of the way.

Can I open the door?

Yes, Im done changing, so its fine.

I waited for her reply and opened the door leading to the corridor.