As Jade came out of the room he used, with only about four minutes passing in the real world, he lamented to himself at his inability to craft accessory items for the siblings. If they could even use them… he thought to himself, walking over to Yondol and Amy, who gave him quizzical looks. Their looks dropped as he sent along a mental trade request, showing off the armors he’d made for them along with the tokens, the two accepting exceptionally fast.
“This feels…” Amy whispered, before looking around to make sure they didn’t grab too much attention. She obviously equipped the items, though they did not show up on her body due to the invisibility tokens. “What effects do these have? It feels like I can move faster and… throw harder?” Jade nodded at that, Yondol giving a small smile to his sister as he most likely mentally put the armor on as well.
“Any news on the local dungeons?” Jade asked, hoping to distract them before any more questions popped out in excitement.
Yondol nodded, taking Jade’s hint and giving Amy a look. “There are several right on the coastline. Usually there’s a waiting list, but apparently they also had a slime rain yesterday, so the local adventurers are taking it easy today. Good chance to get some crafting materials.” Jade nodded at that, his anxiety trying to break free at the mention of materials. Maybe the non-craftable items don’t exist…
“We good to head out now?” Jade asked, Amy downing her ale in one swig before giving him a nod. Yondol gave Jade an indulgent look however, waving for Amy to sit back down.
“Guild members only. That was one restriction we can’t get around.” Jade frowned at that, looking over to the similar looking receptionist counter that he’d seen in multiple forms across the towns.
“Fine. What were the requirements again?” Jade asked, drawing a blank on what the last receptionist had said.
“You just prove you can handle yourself in single combat,” Yondol explained, his face calming back to the almost blank look Jade’d remembered from when they’d first met. “It’s good to have a specialty, but the guild does not like sending adventurers out with no combat experience. First, you’d have to fight a single, and then a group of monsters, showing you can either last the ten minutes of the trial or defeat all of the monsters. Next they have you prove you can spend a night out in the wilderness.” Jade frowned at that, realizing it would take longer than he had thought. “Third is they measure your magic power, making sure it’s above the baseline for your role. Me and Amy had a lower threshold due to us having melee magic, but yours is going to be more extensive due to you being a magic fighter.”
Yondol paused at that, giving Jade a smile. “You could try and go in with some crafted weapons to try and get the melee badge, but if you’re not familiar with the weapon, you may not pass the first test.” Jade frowned at that, glancing at his inventory for a moment.
“Would it probably be the best, then, if I made backup weapons? In case I lose my wand?” he muttered, Amy glancing over at that and giving Jade an odd look.
“Can’t you just make another wand?”
“Nope. All out of the material for it, so unless there happens to be a crashed meteorite nearby…” He trailed off, smiling at Amy’s shocked look. “I have enough leftover gold to make a bow and a hammer, plus I can make a bunch of arrows. I just need a bit of practice so I’m not complete trash, and they’ll help me run around long enough to pick back up my wand.” Yondol gave a raised eyebrow at that, Jade looking away in embarrassment.
“You can’t pick up using a bow in a short time. It takes time unless your magic is designed for it.” Jade gave a shrug at that, getting up off the stool to head back towards the private rooms. “We’ll see if we can rent a training yard then,” Yondol called out to Jade’s back, giving a frustrated sigh.
#
Once the bow, hammer and arrows were done being crafted, Jade left the store room, the arrows especially having taken many hours of work due to him combining the torches to make flaming arrows. They wouldn’t do much more damage, but it would be better than just plain wooden arrows, he knew. The bow and hammer came out nice, though he forwent the custom option to save on time and went with the process option. They looked a bit… plain. But they’d keep him alive in an emergency. He set them into his hot-bar so we could easily pull them out if needed like his wand, moving over to Amy who waved at him from the receptionist’s desk.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Yondol renting a place?” Jade asked, Amy giving him a sour look at that. “Oh come on. They’re backup weapons. Meant to be used only if I have to. Otherwise I can just use my wand.” She huffed at that, ignoring him as Yondol came out from one of the side doors.
“I paid for the training yard fee,” Yondol huffed, Jade giving him a trade request with a gold coin to assuage the elf’s irritation. Of course, his face just looked blank, but the elf’s anger could be heard in his snide tone. After walking through a few halls, they came out to a walled in courtyard, the ground packed dirt with several training dummies lining the opposite wall from the door.
“First the hammer,” Jade exclaimed happily, noticing a grey skinned man standing off to the side. “Um… hi,” Jade said awkwardly, the golden hammer appearing in his hand and shining brightly in the sun. It was smaller than he thought it would be, the crafting system making more of a sledge hammer, rather than Errant’s massive war-hammers.
“Just here to heal you if you mess up,” the skinny man huffed, wiping off the dirt that blew onto his white robes. Jade nodded at that, grateful for the assistance even if the man stared at the shining hammer. “Or if that thing explodes.” He muttered something about gaudy rich people which Jade ignored, and moved over to one of the dummies and tested the weight of the hammer. The motion felt smooth, Jade giving a nod as he moved back to test hitting it at speed.
As soon as he started running, time slowed as normal, his hands tightening assuredly on the arm of the hammer as a familiar feeling came over him. Just like when he was in his crafting space, Jade felt his body move of its own accord, though with more of his direction than before. Rather than deciding where to swing the hammer like his crafting had done, the magic took care of how to properly swing the hammer and position his body. All he had to do was focus on his target and not run into anything.
He ran back and forth as he took swings, noticing with the first one that the dummy painted blue where the hammer struck. He then focused on just hitting the bullseye every time, moving in more and more erratic paths to practice confusing and dodging an enemy’s strikes as well. He only stopped when he noticed the shocked looks of the three other people in the yard, skidding to a halt at the position he first started at.
“Everything okay?” he asked, Amy shaking her head, a disgusted look on her face as she stormed back through the doors. Yondol didn’t look much better, though he quickly adopted a calm look as he stepped over to Jade.
“Your magic did that?” he asked, even his voice flat, though there was an edge to it. Jade looked at the dummy and saw, besides his first strike, every strike hit the exact same spot on the bullseye, Jade flinching at how perfectly centered the colored marks were.
“I uh…” Jade stammered, flinching at the anger Yondol obviously was holding back. “It never did that before…” he muttered, Yondol’s stare softening at the guilty look. “Not before I started crafting.” He was lying of course, but he still felt bad at how overpowered his magic seemed to be.
“Your magic… you’re so lucky.” Yondol sighed. “Most would kill to be instantly proficient with any weapon they pick up.”
“It probably has to be crafted by me.” Jade shrugged. “How else would gold not flatten at the first strike, right?” Yondol held in most of his chuckle, a smile cracking his icy face.
“Fair point. Without the wealth you have accumulated, even someone with the same magic would probably be no stronger than the rest of us.” Jade nodded, once again having shoved away his guilt at not telling the real truth. They both then looked over to the healer, Jade once again blushing at the astonished stare.
“Can you… can you keep this a secret?” Jade asked, pulling a gold coin from his inventory and tossing it to the healer. The man nearly fumbled the coin, clearly not having fast reflexes, but caught the coin before it could hit the ground.
“Of c-course!” he stammered out, Jade turning back to Yondol and swapping out the hammer for his new bow.
“This… is going to be weird again isn’t it?” Jade asked with a sigh, Yondol raising an eyebrow. “I just want to get to crafting, man…” Yondol finally chuckled at the stress-laden comment, waving his hand towards the next training dummy.
“Try it out.”
#
Golden Hammer
10 Melee Damage
5% Critical Strike Chance
Average Knockback
Average Speed
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Golden Bow
12 Ranged Damage
5% Critical Strike Chance
No Knockback
Average Speed
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Flaming Arrows
10 Ranged Damage
Very Weak Knockback