Between the lie I was about to say or the truth, Occam's Razor would fail for lack of data and select the lie. But I couldn't blatantly lie. A kernel of truth, then. I drew one of the elven daggers and handed it to Karina.
"Here, you can take a look. Just a look!"
She squealed and held the dagger as if it was her firstborn. At my relieved face, she raised an eyebrow, "You're not off the hook, okay?"
I giggled nervously. Marta joined her in examining the blade. "That's a superb weapon. Balanced, light, sharp. Okay, where did you get it?"
I had the pair custom forged for me by a two thousand years old blacksmith. At least I left the Aiur crown home when I left for the expedition. Couldn't say that.
"Rosewise had them since Rosewise was little. I knew people would try to take it away from me if they knew I had them, so I never told anyone."
"Uh. There's the smith's name here and a dedicatory," Karina said. "'For my Queen, may these weapons help her throughout her lives,' I'm sorry, my elvish is not so good. The end might mean 'through many lifetimes'. But I'm sure about the Queen part. These are the weapons of the Elf Queen. Probably the one that died fighting dragons in Pekothas all these centuries ago. They don't die too often."
Damn, she was smart. Sariandi was still the ruler of Fulgen from the rumors I've heard.
"You are correct."
Marta joined in the excitement, "Then these daggers are worth... I don't know! Thousands of gold pieces. You could sell them and live in luxury for the rest of your life."
"I think it's about time you gave it back to me, please," I took the dagger back. Karina didn't resist. "Now, you are also right elven magic was used to fix this house."
"Elven wood magic can only be used by the elves," Marta said. "Where did you find an elven tree-singer? I don't know of any in town, and their services are expensive. Is it because of the daggers?"
I am one though. And all elves can do it, if they know {Elven Spellsong} and have enough MP. A lot of MP. There's a perk to make it faster and cheaper but I didn't feel the need to pick it.
"Part of the package, yes."
Karina playfully pushed me, "C'mon. Spill the bens."
"With the daggers in my hand, I can use some magic, okay? It took me a lot of time to fix this house."
At the mention of foreign magic, Marta psychs and her geeky side comes to fore, "Show us!" She squeals like an overexcited teenager, which she basically is.
"Okay."
After putting a block of wood on the table, I use {Partial Transformation} to get the extra sets of elven vocal cords in my lungs. Making a show of drawing the daggers out of my back, I start to sing, focusing on the block. I shape a rabbit.
"Now, let me tell you one thing," I said seriously. "I'm going to make grooves in the walls to make them look like planks. What happened here can't be told to anyone. You'll be in danger if you do. Not from me! I'd rather die than hurt my friends."
And if you cause trouble, you won't get any more of this," I took a bottle of lube from my pocket. Karina snatched it.
"We have a deal," She grinned.
Marta sighed, "Rosie, we are delving next week. Will you come with us?"
"No," I pointed at the crate of metal ingots. "I'm staying home training my skills. You guys make sure to stay safe. I won't be there to save your butts."
I wanted to make full use of my 83.6% faster learning rate. Make new things.
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With the girls out, I had time to spend on myself. And someone else. "Nenandil!"
The fairy came out from its hiding spot inside my soul. "Finally. Some time for ourselves!"
"So, let's make our home in the attic," I said as I shifted into Silverstreak and donned a fae silk dress. It was brown with gold accents as if nuggets of the precious metal were half-buried on the ground. I spun, my silver hair spinning around me like a comet's tail. The fae mentality took over and I giggled like a little girl. Nenandil swirled around me and we climbed to the attic.
It was too small for humans. They would have to crawl. It was the right height for Eleons. But for fairies as tall as three large apples, it might as well be a mansion. I'd gathered good wood in the days I was waiting for the deed to be notarized. I would put it to good use. Now that the partial shift proved effective, I could use the spell-song in fairy form.
I spent four days making our fairy home. Not as much because of my building speed but for the detail and effort I put to make each piece of furniture flawless. And to incorporate Nenandil increasingly demanding requests. I didn't mind a bit. Time spent with my familiar was bliss. And barring some bizarre accident, I would keep this furniture in storage. In fact, I was tempted to just do the whole house. I had two Boeing-sized dragon corpses already. Limitless meant limitless.
Fae silk went everywhere. Carpets, curtains, tapestries, a mattress, and bedsheets, I found that I could make fuzzballs with loose loops of fae silk and they were soft, fluffy when well-packed, and absorbed a hellish amount of liquids. These sponges became our mattresses and pillows.
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With that done, I started to craft in the ground level's main room.
I used stone I had in the storage to change the hearth into a small kiln. Then I worked on the human-sized first floor and the outside of the house to make it look like cut planks. I would first work with my jeweler Skills.
> Jewelry design (rare): Increase the quality, aesthetics, durability, and value of the products.
>
> Evaluate [Gemstone] (rare): Reveals flaws and estimates the value of gemstones.
>
> Gem Cutting (rare): Increase shine, reveal patterns, quality, and value of the products.
>
> Evaluate [Jewelry] (rare): Reveals statistics and estimates the value of a piece of jewelry.
>
> Craft Casting Mold (uncommon): Create mockups and prepare molds for casting molten metals.
>
> Engrave [metal] (uncommon): Etch inscriptions and designs on metal.
>
> Wire Pulling (uncommon): Pull metallic wires using dies.
>
> Craft Fine Chains (rare): Assemble small chains from links.
>
> Goldbeating (rare): You can beat and press soft metals into thin sheets.
>
> Lathe Operator (rare): Mold spherical and cylindrical forms on a lathe. Increase precision and quality.
>
> Welding (rare): Spend MP to weld two metallic surfaces.
>
> Mounting (rare): Carve settings and clasps for gemstones.
>
> Repoussé and Chasing (rare): Engrave a pattern on a metallic surface by using punches.
I had more [Jeweler] Skills, but I wouldn't use them yet. Even more of them in the Profession shop to buy. The System was designed to allow people to specialize. A normal person would take too long or spend too many Skill Points to become good in all of them. But a team of highly specialized jewelers would be able to make wonders.
I took a copper ingot. It was expensive, but when the metal is used as raw currency by weight, that's a given. The most basic jewelry design I could think of was copper rings. I placed it in the kiln and heated it up using fire magic. There was no reason to use fuel. And I couldn't be burned so I handled it without tongs.
Cutting a chunk of the red hot bar, I placed it in a crucible and cranked up the heat to melt it. Then I poured it in a groove mold to make a thin bar. Once it cooled enough to have some rigidity, I started to pull the bar through a series of dies to thin the wire. When I thought I had enough, I bent the copper wire using a sizing cone in the shape of the ring and cut the pieces. I hammered the edges and applied MP using {Welding} to seal it. I then used a file to smooth the metal and finally, gave it some polish using my silkie Skill.
> For crafting a shoddy copper ring, you gained 305 Exp. (base 10 x 30.5 multipliers).
Thanks, system. I kept making more copper rings until the ingot was no longer. I scooped the filings back in the crucible and melted it again. Then I melted the rings and started the process all over. I had a huge advantage because I could use my [Alchemist] Skills to remove the impurities the copper picked up during the manufacturing process. My materials were infinitely recyclable.
I could make a batch of ten rings in an hour from start to finish. They were worth the copper in them, no more, no less. Potential for enchanting: zero. But the point wasn't that. The Skills kept raising, and at the end of the first day, their average was already level 3.
At this rate, I could farm twenty-four thousand Exp in an eight-hour workday without any real effort. Surely it was a drop in the ocean now but what I was doing was work a level one could do. And if I was level one, a day of work would catapult me to level seventeen. These multipliers were insane.
On the second day of crafting, My hundred-and-ten Luck score decided to wake up and I got two critical successes crafting.
> For crafting a perfect copper ring, you gained 1220 Exp (base 10 x 122 multipliers).
>
> For crafting a flawless copper ring, you gained 2440 Exp (base 10 x 244 multipliers).
When I used {Evaluate} on them, I found that they could hold minor enchantments. Just one and two points worth of enchantments, though. It wasn't much but anything would help me level up these skills. I couldn't recycle enchanted materials and usually, they required gemstones - even if for the lesser ones just a small shard was enough - to hold any amount of magic. I engraved my jeweler's mark on the inside of the rings, Dorothy's slippers clicking their heels together.
With that in mind, I set those two rings apart and kept making more. Yes, it was a crafting grind, just like good old times playing on Warsong. Lok'tar ogar!
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I was busy making rings late at night when a knock on the door drew my attention. I looked through my surveillance system - the ghosts of the thugs were on permanent guard duty - and found out it was the girls and Cedric.
"Coming!" I threw the door open.
Josie almost fell forward. She was going to knock harder.
"Please come inside. It's dark already," I ushered them in. Marta had an oil lantern, the only source of light in the street beside the moons and stars.
"You shouldn't open the door like that!" Josie protested as she walked past me.
"She's right," Cedric added. "What if we were terrible bandits?"
I snorted a laugh, "Then I'd have earned some Exp and would have some corpses to clean from my porch."
Karina laughed with me. Actually, hunting thieves, rogues, thugs, and assassins wouldn't be a bad way to get some money and Exp on the side. I was worried about how Enchanting would treat me.
"Don't underestimate them. You're going to be in trouble if you act like that," Marta warned.
I heard someone sniffle. "Rosie," Marta called. "I have a pressing question."
"Shoot!" I approached her.
"I can feel your kiln is hot. But I don't smell ashes or smoke."
"This place has good ventilation," I lied.
"Right," the [Magician] said, oozing sarcasm. "And the truth?"
I answered with the straightest face, "Fire magic, but the house does have good ventilation."
"Rosie--" Marta was cut off by a sharp squeal. Before the squeal, there was the sound of metal clinking like someone was rummaging through my stuff or counting coins. By the position of the people in the house, it was the former.
"Oh, can I get some rings? I'll pay," Josie said.
"I'll enchant them for you, later. Don't touch them."
"I'm not touching," she lied.
"Two copper each," I said as I reached for the box of finished rings for recycling - the high-quality ones were in the dimensional storage - and poured the contents in a pouch. Then I put the pouch in my pocket and stored it. That gave me a count of the rings inside the pouch. "That'll be two silver."
She took twenty rings.
"What?" She gasped.
"You took twenty rings," I told her. "I can measure how many are in the bag using a perk." Not a lie.
I heard the rings hitting the wood. She counted them. Then she put two coins on the table. I touched one and put it in my pocket. She'd tested me by paying with gold coins instead of silver. Then I removed twenty-three silver coins and put on the table. "Your change, milady."
She got close to my face. "How... Are you really blind?"
I pinched her nose, "Stop making funny faces. I can tell because your breathing is irregular. But where are my manners? I'm going to get you some tea. Don't touch anything."
"Rosie, we still need to talk!" Marta shouted as I scampered to the counter at the back of the main room that served as the kitchen.
While I brewed the tea using fire magic to heat the copper kettle, I asked, "You're delving tomorrow morning, right?"
"Yes, right at sunrise," Cedric asked.
I chuckled, "And you came to buy a stock of my products, right? I have them ready for you," I crouched and opened the cabinet under the counter to hide that I took a leather flask bag from the storage. "This one will be four gold coins."
Cedric paid and they went on their way after drinking tea. I cleaned my workspace and went to the attic to rest.