The search for a good armour was quite tedious. Most of the blacksmiths were either too low tier or belonged to a guild. Peter tried to get in touch with Alex reluctantly.

"Hey, what stats are you looking for? We can have someone make it for you. " Alex was more than helpful. This attitude was a bit worrisome.

"I just need as high defence as I could get. Anything else would be just a bonus." Peter was in desperate need of an upgrade. He was still wearing the soldier armour. It still was relatively good but Peter had poor attack skills compared to the other classes. Apart from a few lucky encounters he had never earned anything by himself. Thinking back even his previous quest was a success only due to Alder carrying him through the whole thing.

After a few minutes with his crafting managers, Alex returned to the call. "We can get you a 3600 defence armour. It's the best defence armour we can get so far. But it gives a negative agility debuff." 'I guess they don't have any better blacksmiths. Sicily wasn't lying.' "That's ok. I guess I will just have to postpone." "Sorry. Hey, I heard you were planning to make a crafting guild."

'Of course, you know.' "Yeah, I was going to ask you if we could be allies. We kind of need a strong backer to make sure no one messes with us." "Yeah, I was planning to suggest the same thing considering you are already working for our guild. We will need a few armours and weapons from you. Will that be alright?" "Don't you have good crafters already established?" Peter was truly reluctant to join up with any super guilds. So far Alex had been good to him but this could all be another trick.

"Yeah, we do have a lot of crafters but not one as good as you. We have a few that's in the fame leaderboard but the equipment they make is still sub-par to yours. I wonder why you are not on the fame boards yet." "Probably because I don't make a lot like them." The fame in the game is highly tilted towards quantity over quality. With Vision being a common class blacksmith, it was impossible to receive the same quality products like a unique or rare blacksmith class. Adding the bonuses these rare classes get, their fame would overshadow what little fame Peter got.

'Am I going to end up making my armour again? This sucks.' Peter wanted to avoid armour crafting as much as possible. It wasn't worth the time nor the effort. After one more run through the auction markets, Peter decided to let go of it and make one himself. After a few hours of consideration, peter chose to go with a vitality boost armour set. There were plenty of blueprints for them in the market. Bulk plated steel armour(C). This common ranking armour was the highest level that he could find in the market suitable for him.

Steel bars, leather straps, cloth lining. The base ingredients were simple but Peter had to buy leather and cloth items from the market. Mentally adding a leatherworker and a tailor to his must-have guild members list, Peter bought 100 pieces of each and headed back to his private place.

After an hour of exertion, Peter finally finished his completed set item.

Bulk Plated Steel Armour Set

Upgradeable: Yes

Item level: 30

Rarity: Uncommon

Creator: Blackbeak

STR: 20

VIT: 40

AGI: 5

DEF: 4200

Ability: Nil

'Not enough.' It wasn't possible to use this armour to hit level 2 of the dungeon. With a base attack of the boss already as high as 5000, Peter would be asking to get killed wandering in there wearing this. Either way, Peter chose to wear it temporarily till he could craft something better.

Passive Quests

1. Crafter of legends (L)

Meet divine smith Flemil in Summerbrook.

World blacksmith fame (50/5000)

World fame (110/200)

Craft rares (23/500)

Craft uniques (3/50)

Craft legends (0/5)

2. Breaking the chains(2)

Reach level 40 in a combat class to receive Breaking the chains Part 2.

'I do need to level up fast.' Most players had already surpassed Peter in terms of levels. The common classes were no longer profitable to Peter. Being a crafter it was necessary to hunt for new recipes constantly. Most of the rare and unique recipes were locked behind dungeons or record runs. The need to raise the levels as well as increasing the fame was stressing Peter out.

"Hey, are you busy? I just got to the town." Eric called Peter to let him know of his arrival. After a few hours of playing the game, Eric had revived a unique peddler class. There were multiple people in the area but no one knew were peters office building was. "I just finished making my new armour. I will meet you outside the tavern." Peter rushed out to meet Eric. The rest of the day was going to be extremely busy.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Peter met Eric outside the tavern. He had a cloth armour and daggers attached to his waist. Seeing peters character approaching him, Eric lifted his hands and waved. "Eric? How original." "Well, I didn't plan on playing the game a lot. I didn't know I can't change the name." "Eric is a very common name. It shouldn't cause any problems." It was indeed a common name and there was no way to target the person behind him just with the name.

"So, take me to the office first. We need to first establish the guild before anything else ." Peter led Eric to the town office. The friendly receptionist led both of them inside. "Sir Vision, what can we do for you today?" After a short explanation and handing over 5000 gold, Eric successfully established the new guild. Peter joined the guild under the name 'Blackbeak'.

You have joined the guild, Black Flame. Have a pleasant time together.

Eric transferred the ownership of Black Flame to Vision.

"The place I bought is close by." Peter took Eric to the warehouse. It was close to the office, but a lot further from the business district. "The place was all that I could afford at the time." "We shouldn't use those stuff for the guild. I was wondering if we could purchase a small house plot as a guild office. It should work temporarily." "A house plot should be dirt cheap. Do you want it built closer to the business district?"

"No. As far away from it. Preferably near the residential areas. We can buy a shop in the district instead. I wanted to build an office building for the guild first. We could also include a few training grounds and crafting areas. There is no need to spend too much money and buying closer to the business district." Erics plans were logical. Inventory can be transferred through the banking system from two own structures at a very low cost. Considering the cost of plots near the business district it wouldn't be affordable to Peter.

"Well, I'll transfer the money to you. If you need more just let me know." Peter gave Eric the rest 6000 gold he had and introducing him to Annie. Eric went through the inventory and confirmed that everything was in order. "Looks the NPCs are reliable in the game," Eric said Peter as he was walking out. "Yeah, but the hiring cost is high."

After giving access to the warehouse to Eric, they went into peters office to check out the guild functions. At the lowest level, only the basics were available. This also restricted ownership of building outside the affiliated maps. So far Black Flame could own building anywhere in Alder river forest map. One medium and five smaller building can be purchased outside the map as well. The level one guilds couldn't specialize so there were no guild benefits yet. Also, it was possible to contribute blueprints and recipes to the guild encyclopedia and shared among guildmates. All the advancements were earned through achievements related to the guild playstyle. It was possible to level the guild by just paying taxes or fulfilling orders the affiliated towns issued.

"Ok then. Let me deal with the guild stuff. There is enough time for you to go and level up your combat class. Why aren't you doing anything?" Eric reminded him of his predicament as Peter replied, "I don't have any good armour. The level two of the dungeon needs me to have at least 5000 armour. My current one is at 4200." "You have 4200 armour? Why don't you just go and kill normal mobs in the forest? It should be easy enough to kill at least a few hundred by the scheduled meeting time." "Do they give good exp?" "How do you think everyone else levels? Just make sure to check mysteries for your profession." "Fine. I will try doing it."

Killing normal monsters were too easy for Peter and they didn't give as much exp as the dungeon mob. Due to him focusing more on the crafting rather than the fighting, he preferred the faster levelling speed of the dungeons. After confronted by Eric, he left to the alder forest looking for mobs to kill. There were multiple parties in the fields so Peter chose to head deeper into the forest.

Soon he reached an unexplored part of the map and the growth was considerably thick. There were monsters at level 20 to 30 in the immigrate area suitable for Peter to grind at in peace.

Juvenile flame sparrow LVL 25

HP: 10,000

AP: 1600-1800

DEF: 2000

There is a small chance to cause a burn.

There were at least 30 sparrows in the immediate area. The creatures were aggressive making it a lot easier for Peter to handle them. If it was one of the passive monsters, it would have been impossible to kill it with the prey constantly running away.

The moment Peter entered its peripheral view, it flew straight at him with a screeching sound.

You are affected by screech. Your defence is lowered by 200 points.

Peter swung his blade parallel to the bird hitting it squarely on its wings. The blunt weapon caused its wing to get fractured.

You have fractured the juvenile flame sparrows wings.

Without waiting for it to limb away, Peter slid the sharper end of the sword across its neck. The bird quickly quieted down dying.

You killed x1 juvenile flame sparrow. You gained 100 exp.

At the current rate, Peter needed at least 42 more sparrows to reach the next level. He slowly moved towards the other sparrows. Instead of trying to take just one at a time, Peter provoked four other ones around to speed up the process. Due to the higher armour, Peter had an easier time killing the sparrows.

You killed x5 juvenile flame sparrows. You gained 500 exp.

This went on and soon the sparrows were wiped out. 'Just needed a few more to level up.' As Peter chose to move deeper into the forest, a loud shriek assaulted him.

You are affected by rage. You cannot leave battle until you kill the attacker.

A much larger sparrow appeared from behind the bush. The immediate area around it claws suddenly lit up in flames.

Elder Flame Sparrow ELITE LVL 30

HP: 80,000

AP: 100 - 3600

DEF: 3000

25% chance to inflict burning damage on hit.

The elder Sparrow rushes towards Peter with a flip of its wings. The area around the beast warmed up heating the ground below. Peter could feel the heat radiating off its body.

Quickly ducking to the left Peter hit the sparrow with the blunt side of the weapon. The bird shook it off as if nothing serious happened and succeeded to throw a quick jab at him.

You were hit by Elder Flame Sparrow. You are inflicted with burned(-100 damage/ 5 seconds). Your armour reduced the damage received.(-10 damage/ 5 seconds)

'Dodge' there was only one thought raising through his mind. Don't get hit. He became a lot more cautious as started to feel the pattern slowly. The fight patterns of the bird were linear. As long as one could dodge the initial attack, the bird left a large opening for the opponent to make use of. Slowly the elite monsters health reached rock bottom.

You killed Elder Flame Sparrow. Burnt damage debuff destroyed.

*****

Profile

Name: Vision

Title: Creative Artisan(R), Knight

LVL: 24

Gold: 295

Credit: 48,723,990

Available points: 0

STR: 25

VIT: 29

AGI: 10

AP: 1260-4250

HP: 690

SPD: 30

DEF: 4200

Swordsman (C): T2 L14 (2855/7000)

Miner: T1 L10

Blacksmith: T2 L18 (2294/14,250)

Alchemist: T1 L10

Herbalist: T1 L1

World fame: 110

Blacksmith fame: 50

Swordsman fame: 10