Mike swung his hammer, mindlessly slamming the weapon into the body of an earth elemental. He was beginning to get quite bored with the fight, and he was running out of time before he would need to leave and attend an event he had partially sponsored. The tough elemental reached the familiar phase of cocooning itself in a ball of stone and dirt, but Mike had no trouble smashing through that before tearing the core out of his enemy, rendering the walking stone monster inert.
*Earth Elemental slain! (level 68)*
*Class level up! Mighty feller of Giants (level 55)*
*Race level up! Human (level 54)*
Mike had made quite a bit of progress in the last couple weeks. He had pushed aside some of his other responsibilities in order to get more time to catch up to the highest leveled people in the village. It had been a productive time, with him bringing his class up by 5 levels and his profession up by 3. Sadly it had also been an expensive time, with the cost of grinding his profession seeming to be higher than ever.
He sighed as he thought of his bank balance, which had dwindled to a mere 10 gold coins after he had spent most of it on materials and various other things. Speaking of other things, he would thankfully be making his money back tonight with his most recent stock of items ready to be sold. All told, the haul included 2 heroic rarity items and nearly a hundred epic rarity weapons. He had been able to more easily make items of such value after the upgrade he had gotten to one of his skills after he had reached level 50.
Refining Arcane Fusion (Heroic)
Refine and Combine materials. Effects scale with quantity and quality of mana used in the process of combining materials.
The skill had been a direct upgrade from what it had been before, with just a single difference in what it actually did. He no longer needed the materials he was combining to be the same thing. Granted, it was far less efficient of a process when the materials were not the same, though he had been able to make a few interesting alloys out of various metals he had bought.
The other skill upgrade he had picked when he reached level 50 was an upgrade to what was probably one of his most useful class skills. It had been an upgrade to man versus mighty, though the name hadn't changed. Now though it gave a very slight increase to his stats depending on how big the enemy was instead of just how high its level was. It was definitely a useful upgrade, as Mike often found himself dwarfed by large monsters.
He began his run back to Thudfall, hoping he would make it in time for the big event. It was close, and he’d barely had enough time to change into a formal suit before the event began. He sat in a booth high above most of the crowd, and looked down at the stage in front of him. He was in the same building where Mateo's auction had been held a while back, and he was glad that it was finally getting some more use tonight.
The red curtains that hung in front of the stage pulled back, revealing a dozen people all holding various instruments. Vladimir stood at the very front of the group, with what looked like a microphone in front of him and a violin in hand. Mike could see the faint lines of an enchantment on the microphone, and a similar one on the instrument.
“Tonight we celebrate the ages of music, and the history we lost when the system came around.” The man said, lightly playing a few long, drawn out notes on his instrument. “Tonight isn’t just about music, but to keep us from forgetting where we came from.”
When he finished speaking, the rest of the ensemble joined in and began playing music. Mike vaguely recognized the classical song as something his grandparents had played in the background of some family gatherings, but he couldn't quite place his finger on the name of the song. It didn't take long for the song to end, and the next one to begin playing. It didn't sound too much different to Mike’s ears, but he did see two of the musicians swap out their instruments for new ones.
As the songs went on, Mike began to recognize a few of them, and could even remember the name of one of them as “Ode to Joy”. The people around him had seemed to recognize more of them than he had, but that was to be expected since Mike really hadn't been super into classical music.
More and more instruments were changed out, slowly looking more and more modern. A piano had been rolled out a while ago, but it was replaced with a church organ for a few songs before a different piano, this time one with a more crisp sound, was rolled out. After an hour or so, the show reached the halfway point, and it was time for Mike to start making the big bucks.
“I just want to thank our village leader, Mike, for sponsoring our event tonight. During this intermission there will be weapons and armors of epic rarity sold in the lobby, and two heroic weapons being sold tonight after the show.” Vladimir said, before the curtains once more pulled back closed.
Mike simply sat and waited for intermission to end, not having much else to do. He heard some soft footsteps behind him, and looked back to see Lucas walking into his booth, wearing the same glittering gold robe he had worn in the fight against Roots a few weeks prior.
“Damn man, I haven’t seen you in a bit.” Mike said. “Good to see you finally tore yourself away from your project to come and have some fun.”
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“I didn't tear myself away, I finished it.” The rogue said, plopping into a seat next to Mike.
Mike perked up a bit. “Oh really? When will it be ready to be officially made part of the village? It’s still the last thing we need to rank up into a town.”
“It should be ready in two days, right now I am letting the finish I put on it soak in, since it takes a long ass time for a 50 foot statue to fully dry.”
“Did you really have to make it so big?”
“Originally it wasn't going to be nearly that size, but after seeing your whole display of explosions and bright lights back at Gratsden, I felt I needed to up my dazzle game.”
“You didn't make the whole thing out of glitter did you?”
“Nah, I couldn't find anyone who was making glitter. Can’t believe the village is failing so badly that we don't have a glitter factory yet.”
“You could always pay for one to be made yourself Mr. Richy Rich.” Mike said, nudging Lucas with an elbow. The Rogue had struck it rich when he began selling his creations, as the material cost was low and the price he was selling them for was quite high. Mike was a bit jealous of the markup the man could put on his sculptures, but he still would never consider switching professions over a little money.
“I’ll think about it. Say, aren’t you going to be starting your little project soon?”
“Don't remind me.” Mike grimaced. “I’m going to be spending most of the money I make tonight just to finance that, and It still might not even achieve what I want it to.”
“You could always ask your good pal Lucas for some money.”
“I’m not going to do that.”
“Come on, every man could use a good sugar daddy.”
Mike nudged the man again with his elbow, though this time it was more of a jab. When he heard the pained yelp of the rogue, he knew the conversation was over. The next half of the concert started, and Mike was pretty surprised at what he saw when the red curtains pulled back this time. Vladimir and his ensemble were dressed in a lot more denim and color than they had been before, and the lead man held a guitar instead of his previous violin.
“For this next half, we are going to be launching it off with some more modern music. Emphasis on launching.” Vladimir said, before playing the first song that Mike truly felt some nostalgia from. It was a song his parents often played in the car, as they had burned onto a CD along with many of their other favorite songs. “Rocket Man” by Elton John started playing, and several voices in the crowd sang along when it reached the chorus. Mike didn't join in even though he knew the words by heart. He wasn't much of a singer, and he certainly wasn't one who could shamelessly sing in public.
At least he had thought that, right up until another song began playing 20 minutes later. This time, it was one that he had never once in his life resisted the urge to sing it. “I’m sorry Ms. Jackson. I am for real.” He said under his breath, though he got a bit louder when he realized nobody would hear him over the flood of voices also singing along.
The concert ended about 30 minutes later, and Mike had a smile on his face that he was struggling to suppress. He’d had a good time, and he knew 99% of the people who had attended felt the same way he did. It had been a while since they had heard music from before the system, and it had sent waves of nostalgia and long forgotten memories through many of the people who had attended.
Mike knew he would be attending the next concert, whenever one was held. Sure the time could also be used to do some crafting or fighting some monsters, but this was something he truly didn't know he had needed until now. His thoughts of joy and memories were pushed to the side as he remembered what was happening after the show. He saw a crowd forming around a booth that was surrounded by several guards, and bids being placed on the two items. Mike was quite happy to see that each of them sold for about 30 gold, and he picked up the money from that and his other sales before heading to the shopping district.
He spent half of his total profit on materials for his special project, and his soul hurt seeing so much money being essentially flushed down the drain. He knew it would be put to use, but it still hurt knowing this wasn't something he would be making up the losses on. He walked back home, carrying several bars of Nonmium, the metal his hammer was made of.
He wanted to try improving his hammer, potentially even raising it to legendary rarity. His new upgrade to his arcane fusion spell was what had given him the idea, as he wanted to try and merge some other high value materials into it. He only hoped that his experiments wouldn’t result in making the hammer worse. He doubted that could happen, but he was worried nonetheless.
He made it home, placing his hammer on the floor and the extra Nonmium bars he had bought in a circle around it. He fused the bars into the hammer, making it denser than it had been before. He then placed 5 earth elemental cores on the ground around the hammer. He was hoping that maybe he could get the ability to control the earth to some degree from fusing the cores in, but he knew it was a long shot due to how little effect fusing non similar materials tended to produce. When the cores were fused, he identified his hammer.
Mighty Fellers War Maul (Heroic) (Classbound) (Soulbound)
A maul made from enhanced and refined Nonmium. This hammer has been infused with fragments of a mighty feller. All who are mighty wield this hammer as if it were just a third of its true weight. An enchantment has been inscribed upon this hammer that brings fear to all whose gaze falls upon it. This effect scales with the level and power of the wielder. Cores of Earth elementals have been fused into the hammer, increasing its durability by a moderate degree.
It was disappointing, though not entirely unexpected to see that he hadn't gotten the effect he had been hoping for. He did get an increase to the durability of his hammer, though it really didn't mean much when he had yet to ever see so much as a scratch on the surface of the weapon. It was heavy and dense, but a side effect of it being constantly infused with mana was that it was tougher than any other material he had encountered.
He sucked his hammer into his soul, lying down in his bed. It had been a long few weeks, and he needed some rest. As he slowly fell into a deep slumber, the words to “I'm sorry Ms. Jackson” played on repeat in his head.