Time quickly passed for Daniel. His routine consisted of going to his shop and working on the items for his quests 11 to 12 hours a day then heading home and repeating the cycle. His body felt lighter and seemed to get exhausted more slowly allowing him to stay awake and work for long periods of time and he also seemed to require less sleep as well. With this new work schedule Daniel began to see some clear improvements in his blacksmithing over the long hours he was doing.
By the end of day three Daniel had completed the second quest in the chain. He was also able to craft all three of the items that the quest required as Well-crafted, one stage above what the decent quality the quest required. This once again increased the experience reward from the quest doubling the 300 experience he would have gained to 600. With the 100 experience he gained for each of the crafted items for a total of 300. He was just 50 profession experience away from advancing his blacksmithing to level 2.
Quest For the Forge 3: Crafting 5 items of Well-crafted quality or better and 1 item of fine or better quality out of Widespread Rarity materials.
Reward(s): Profession Experience based on quest completion, Quest For the Forge 4
His head began to throb again after he completed the quest. It was just a dull ache, but it lasted for long enough that Daniel was sure it had something to do with the completion of the quests. The dull ache again quickly went away, so Daniel decided that for now it wasn't a problem. After the pain went away it seemed as if his blacksmithing improved, so it was probably a good thing.
Excited to reach level 2 in his blacksmithing Daniel worked through the night and into the morning to finish. He was making a short sword. He hoped with the improved blacksmithing skills would be able to make fine quality weapons. With the requirements for the quest getting higher and higher he hoped with the crafters' legacy, s help he would be able to continue to exceed what the quest wanted.
In the early hours of the morning he finally finished the final touches on the blade, and he received the prompt he was waiting for.
Congratulations, you have crafted a Well-crafted quality steel shortsword, and have 100 profession experience (50 experience directed to main class: Juggernaut)
Item: Steel Shortsword
Item Type(s): Weapon, One-Handed, piercing, slashing
Quality: Well-crafted
Rarity: Widespread
Suspected worth: 256 coins
Features: A steel shortsword crafted by a skilled, but mundane crafter.
Appearance: A double edged sword measuring 24 inches in length with the blade being 18 inches long. It has a wood handle wrapped in leather and a pummel.
Congratulations, you have reached level 2 (1 -> 2) in your blacksmithing profession, and have received +1 Strength, +1 Endurance, and +1 profession point.
Daniel quickly opened up his profession skill tree and put his free point into ‘Hammer Strength.’ Doing so also confirmed Daniel's idea that ‘Hammer Speed’ and ‘Hammer Strength’ would follow the same leveling path.
Hammer Strength ( 1/5 ): The strength of the blows of your hammer shake the ground as you work. Cost to increase 2 Profession Point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): increase the strength of your hammer strikes by 5%
Level 2 (Passive): increase the strength of your hammer strikes by an additional 10%
After he was done putting in his new profession point he also looked at the two new general profession skills he had gained while forging the items he needed for the ‘For the Forge' quest.
Hammer Technique ( 1/5 ): Your swings are perfection– every blow is performed with flawless technique. Cost to increase 2 Profession Point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): Increases your efficiency and technique while wielding a hammer by 5%
Level 2 (Passive): Increases your efficiency and technique while wielding a hammer by an additional 10%
Shaping ( 1/5 ): Metal is effortlessly shaped by your hands. Every blow of your hammer moves metal with only the slightest bit of effort. Cost to increase 2 Profession Point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): Increases the amount of metal moved while fording by 5%
Level 2 (Passive): Increases the amount of metal moved while fording by an additional 10%
He had gained the skill on the second day of working on the quest. He didn't exactly know how he had gained the skills, but he could make a guess. The last thing he did was to look at his Blacksmithing lore skill.
Blacksmithing Lore: Lv. 2 -> 3
This increase in his lore skill confirmed that his random headaches happened when he completed the quest. Other than the headache nothing else negative seemed to happen and they always quickly faded away so Daniel decided that it wasn't a problem at least for now. He would need to keep an eye on it going forward just to be safe. Daniel had found himself in a truly new and strange world and it seemed like a sensible thing to be cautious of any odd changes.
With everything finally taken care of Daniel went home for the day. Even after working through the night he wasn't really tired, but he also wanted to make sure Kota was alright since he hadn't gone home to check on his pup.
He should probably start bringing Kota to the shop if he kept pulling these long hours. He honestly did dislike leaving him also for such long periods of time. I was definitely something to consider.
~~~~~~
Daniel continued to work upwards of 14 hours a day then he would go home to sleep. His dreams were weird. Many nights he would wake with his fist clenched around an imaginary hammer swinging at something that wasn't there. The dreams would quickly fade, but the ones that didn't left him dazed. Once he even woke up calling out a name in a language he didn't know. How he knew it was a name he wasn't sure, but he felt an alien sense of loss as the dream began to slip away from his mind.
Putting the dream out of his mind he got ready for the day. In his notification he had another message that Kota had killed some squirrel and had increased his evolution progress and he gained just a single exp each time.
Days continued to pass as Daniel worked more and more and as his skills continued to improve he ended up taking more and more time on each of his weapons to try and boot their quality as high as possible. He ended up taking about 18 to 20 hours per item, and even then he wasn't guaranteed to make an item of fine quality. His chances were about 50-50.
It took him another 7 days to finish the For the Forge 3 quest. During this time he also managed to increase both ‘Shaping’ and Hammer technique to level 2. It seemed to him that the general skills were different from the class or profession skills because no matter how much he used ‘Hammer Speed’ and ‘Hammer Strength’ they never leveled up. Though his crafting speed per item was steadily increasing as he gained and leveled up more skills.
During those seven days while he worked on his quest he never made the same item twice. All in all for the completed quest he ended up making a Halberd, long-sword, short-sword, a maul, spear and glaive. Half of them ended up as Well-crafted and the other half Fine in quality. He gained a total of 900 experience for the crafts (including the shortsword) 200 for each of the fine quality items and 100 for each of the Well-crafted ones.
Completing the quest netted him 1300 experience, 3 more levels in ‘Blacksmithing Lore,’ and another throbbing headache for his troubles. However, this once lasted for much longer than any of the previous ones. He also looked at his lore skill and confirmed that it had risen another level. Another interesting development was that the skill had risen twice on its own. During the second time he was able to confirm that it happened every 7 day. He had no idea why it had increased on its own instead of only when he completed a quest. It was just another oddity in a long list of them.
Looking back at the screen he noticed that the quest experience had pushed him over the edge to level 3 in his blacksmithing profession, and to level 2 in his main class.
Congratulations, you have reached level 3 (2 -> 3) in your blacksmithing profession, and have received +1 Strength, +1 Endurance, and +1 profession point.
Your class juggernaut has reached level 2 (1 -> 2) you gain +4 points to strength, +4 points to constitution, +1 free attribute point and +4 Skill points.
With the experience he earned from that quest Daniel also started to realize how the quest experience was calculated for his profession quests. He would receive an amount of experience for the quest equal to how much experience he got for each of the crafted items. Then he would receive some kind of multiplier based on the items that he made that exceeded what the quest asked for. For the quest he made 3 Well-crafted items and 3 Fine quality items. The quest had asked for 5 items of well crafted or better and 1 of Fine quality or better. He received double the experience for 2 of his fine crafted items, but not the third because the quest had required one of the items to be of fine quality and he had only met that requirement and not exceeded it like with two of the Well-crafted items.
Knowing this took some of the pressure off of trying to exceed every quest, but with the quest line continuing to get more difficult and requiring him to craft more items he may no longer be able to make items better than what the quest asked for. Daniel pulled up the next quest in the chain to see what his new requirements were.
Quest For the Forge 4: Crafting 7 items of Fine quality or better and 3 items of superb quality or better out of Widespread Rarity materials.
Reward(s): Profession Experience based on quest completion, Quest For the Forge 5
Crafting three items of Superb quality would be quite the challenge for him. He had yet to make any items of that quality yet, and he had no idea how he would manage it. He could start implementing techniques like forging the weapons out of damascus or he could even do some engraving or inlays in the weapons. That would however drastically increase the amount of time needed for each weapon if he wanted to make it at that quality.
This was all strange to Daniel. He knew that he was rapidly improving as a blacksmith with the system. He was crafting items at a level he had never achieved before the system, but as the days passed and some of his dreams were continuing to get more vivid and even more strange. He had the feeling that many of these dreams weren't his. It felt like every time he slept something he couldn't explain was happening to him. He dismissed his thoughts, and focused on his notifications.
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He not only leveled up his profession, but his main class as well. It didn't matter that he had leveled up his profession since he would need a minimum of 2 profession points to level up either of his skills, but with his main class leveling up he had gained 4 more skill points. This meant that he now had 5 skill points he could use to gain more skills. Daniel opened up his character sheet and consulted his skill trees.
One skill that he knew he wanted for sure was ‘Heavy Blow’ he may be able to use it in his forging. He didn't know if it would work or not, but he was willing to try. He put one point into the skill and looked at what the next skill in the tree was.
Heavy Blow ( 1/5 ): None can stand against the strength of your blows. 60-second cooldown. Cost to increase 2 Skill Point(s).
Level 1 (Active): Expend a moderate amount of stamina to double the strength of your next attack. 60 second cooldown.
Level 2 (Active): 50 second cooldown
Quickened Blow ( 0/5 ): The speed of your attacks if whispered in legends. Cost to increase 1 Skill Point(s).
Level 1 (Active): Expend stamina to double the speed of your next attack. 60 second cooldown
The second skill was also interesting, but he decided to hold off on purchasing it for now. The next skill he knew he wanted to get was ‘Enhanced Muscles.’ By putting one more point into the reinforcement skill tree it would reveal the third skill in the tree.
Enhanced Muscles ( 1/5 ): By strength of arm you are able to do anything; no obstacle is enough to stand in your way. Cost to increase 2 Skill Point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): Increases the density of your muscle fibers increasing your explosive movements and has a minor effect on your strength attribute.
Level 2 (Passive): Further the density of your muscle fibers. Has a small effect on your strength attribute.
Powerful Organs ( 0/5 ): The power, strength and toughness of your organs is unmatched in your world. Cost to increase 1 Skill point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): Increase the Efficiency, power and toughness of your organs.
Daniel decided to put one of his skill points into ‘Powerful Organs,’ but when he read the level 2 description of the skill the information hadn't really changed, so he moved on to look at other skill trees. He was done with the reinforcement tree for now.
Daniel also decided to pick up ‘Death Blows.’ Daniel imagined that he would one day get into a fight with some monsters again like the goblins, so having another way to recover wouldn't be a bad thing.
Death Blows ( 1/5 ): All who stand against you on the battlefield will only become fuel for your and others survival. Cost to increase 2 Skill Point(s).
Level 1 (Passive/Active): when you or an ally deals fatal damage to an enemy, recover a portion of your damage dealt to that enemy. You may also actively redirect this Recovered health to an ally. Note that Healing received is still proportional to your damage done even when directed to an ally.
Level 2 (Passive/Active): increased effectiveness of healing received based on damage.
Death's Embrace ( 0/5 ): It is your fate to one day embrace the tender touch of death, but while you are alive it is your destiny to deliver it. Cost to increase 1 Skill point(s).
Level 1 (Active): You can choose to receive the damage dealt to an ally within 30 feet of you within 5 seconds if it occurring. Damage absorbed in this way is reduced by 20%. 5 minute cooldown.
Daniel decided to forgo using his last skill point on ‘Death’s Embrace;’ it seemed like a good skill he just did currently see any use for it. In the end Daniel decided to use his last skill point on ‘Quickened Blow’ with the same idea in mind that he might be able to use it with forging, and if not it looked like a strong skill in its own right. He was also unsurprised to see that ‘Quickened Blow’ followed the same progression path with ‘Heavy Blow’ with its level 2 upgrade. Daniel pulled up his character sheet and looked at all of the changes that had happened in the last two weeks.
Much had changed with the system, and Daniel grew pensive at the thought. He thought back to all of the professions he had seen in his ‘Crafters Legacy’ tab. He had been shocked at all of the options he had witnessed. There had been hundreds of what he now knew were skill trees for hundreds of different crafting professions. Many of which he had only ever heard of in video games. There were of course many different professions from Earth's history that he recognized from blacksmithing, leatherworking, Tailoring, woodworking, lumberjack, herbalist, miner, skinning, tanning, jeweler, cooking, and many others of which he didn't even know the name or their significance.
Then there were what he was calling the more magical ones like Alchemy, Talisman's Crafting, Runework, and Enchanting. There were of course even more, but many of them were a higher tier than he could access for now. Currently, he only had a single Profession, and he had no idea how or when he would be able to gain more of those professions he had seen, but he did know that the prompt had said it was possible which was enough for him. Blacksmithing would continue to be his main focus, but he couldn't help but be excited for the future, but he didn't know if he would be the one to make that choice or if it would be made for him. Something was happening to earth, and basically all of the skills he had just gained were meant for combat.
The system still felt like a magical thing to Daniel, and everything that had been happening in the last two weeks since he had been chosen as a hero still sometimes felt alien to him, but right now as he looked at his progress and the new items he was making he was happy just being a crafter, and he believed that he had truly found his calling in the strange world he found himself in, but in the back of his mind he knew that it wouldn’t last.
Daniel decided that with the quest finally completed that he had done enough work for the day. He would head home early to cook himself, and Kota a nice steak dinner. He might also make some mash potatoes and broccoli. It would be his treat for himself, and to Kota because of how much time he had been spending away from the house over the last two weeks. Man he could already taste the steak on his tongue.
~~~~~~
Another two weeks passed for Daniel and he just barely managed to make all of the superb quality items. The very sword he made was the last superb he needed to complete the quest. He gained a total of 2,600 exp for crafting the 7 Fine and 3 Superb items. That put him just under the amount of experience needed for his next profession level, but with the additional 2,600 experience rewarded for completing the quest he had more than enough his main class and profession both into the next level. Completing the quest also gave him the next in the chain. Which surprisingly to Daniel was also the last. Well the last of the ‘For the Forge’ quest line.
Quest For the Forge 5: Crafting 9 items of Superb quality or better and 5 items of Exceptional quality or better out of Widespread Rarity materials.
Make at least 1 item of Common Rarity or better out of Widespread Rarity materials.
Reward(s): Profession Experience based on quest completion, a random General Profession Skill, Knowledge, and Quest: In Pursuit of Advancement 1
Pain pierced through his head stronger than ever before after he completed the quest. Daniel bent over 90 degrees and carelessly cast his hammer aside as he held his head in both hands. As the pain continued to increase he began to hear whispers in his mind. They were so quiet that he could hardly make out any of what they were saying. Just like in his dreams he could not understand what the voices were saying even when he did catch bits of words: he only knew they were speaking a different language. However, this time was different and though the pain in his head he could understand some of what they were saying.
He still knew they were speaking an alien language, but his mind was able to translate the words into something he could understand. However the words were gibberish. Some pleaded to be let free, others threatened him, and some babbled incoherently as if they had gone insane. However out of all of the voices that whispered at him, quietly demanding his attention there was one that managed to pierce through the other voices and read his pain filled mind. The words were a whisper in the wind compared to the others. In an alien language spoken in a sorrowful whisper: the voice told him to prepare, and to advance quickly if he didn't he would become just another voice: for the weak willed and the unprepared would not survive what ‘The Crafters Legacy’ brought. Those who did not take the warning seriously would be utterly corrupted by a boon that became their bane.
Then just as suddenly as the voices had come they vanished. His headache still remained, but even it was rapidly fading as his ‘Troll Regeneration’ feat fixed whatever damage had been done to him. Soon enough another system prompt entered his vision.
Congratulations, you have reached level 4 (3 -> 4) in your blacksmithing profession, and have received +1 Strength, +1 Endurance, and +1 profession point.
Your class juggernaut has reached level 3 (2 -> 3) you gain +4 points to strength, +4 points to constitution, +1 free attribute point and +4 Skill points.
Daniel was still dazed and hardly even focused on the message in his vision. He knew that whatever had just taken place had happened because he had completed the ‘For the Forge 4’ quest, and the warning he had received about ‘The Crafters Legacy’ feat.
There were two things that worried him about whatever had just transpired. First was the utter madness and insanity some of the voices had been spouting at him, and the warning the sorrowful voice had given to him. It did not seem malicious like some of the other ranting voices had been, just sad and tired.
It had told him to get stronger and prepare. He did not know what he could possibly do to prepare, but he could get stronger. While he was worried about what might happen when he finished ‘For the Forge 5’ so far, forging was the only way he had found to get stronger so that's what he would continue doing.
Daniel had 2 profession points available he spent them on leveling up hammer speed to level 2 which revealed his third skill in the tree which was also the first branching path he had seen in his skill trees.
Crushing Grip ( 0/5 ): Your grip can crush skulls, and when you grab onto something it cannot escape. Cost to increase 1 Profession Point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): Expend a high amount of stamina to crush whatever is in your hand.
Powerful Grip ( 0/5 ): Your grip is strong but not overbearing. Why use overwhelming strength when all that would be required is a firm hand. Cost to increase 1 Profession Point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): expend a low amount of stamina constantly. While active whatever you are holding will remain in your grip unless extreme force is used.
Daniel did not have enough professional points to purchase either skill at the moment, but he knew which one he would get when he had the points available. ‘Crushing Grip’ seemed strong. Daniel just didn't see any need to crush items while forging. While the skill might be better for combat situations than ‘Powerful Grip’ it just wasn't the choice for him. ‘Powerful Grip’ also reminded him of his father. He had told Daniel many times over the years that it was better to be firm than overbearing, and Daniel agreed with the sentiment.
His goal at the moment was to become better and faster at crafting items, so to that end Daniel also used all 4 of his Skill Points to level up both ‘Powerful Organs’ and ‘Enhanced Muscles’ for 2 points each. This would further enhance his body and Daniel believed that this would further increase the amount of time he could work without rest which would in turn increase how much he was able to craft.
As the required quality of the items he needed to craft continued to increase, so did the amount of time and effort he needed to put into each item. To that end Daniel began to source new materials for his crafting. He purchased the highest quality blade steel he knew of as well as other materials like gold, titanium, some gemstones, and more. He didn't know what would be considered Widespread, but he had a skill that had been in his character sheet since the very first day called ‘Identify.’ Daniel picked up a piece of Steel and with a thought activated the skill directed at the metal.
Item: High Carbon Steel Ingot
Quality: Decent
Rarity: Widespread
Suspected Value: 51 coins
Features: A steel ingot weighing approximately 6 pounds that contains a high amount of carbon
Appearance: A gray metal that is in the shape of a cylinder
Daniel hadn't checked before, but this piece of metal he had been forging with was only at a Decent Quality. He didn't know if that affected the final quality of the item he was crafting, but he had to assume so.
He went around his whole shop and used ‘Identify’ on every single piece of steel that he had on hand and sorted them into piles based on their Quality. Overall most of his metal was of Decent Quality, but he had around 10 pounds or so of metal that was at Well-Crafted. He also had around 30 pounds that was only Okay Quality.
As an experiment he took one of the bars of steel that was at Okay Quality and began to cut it up into about half inch chunks. When that was all done he knew why it was at a lower Quality. There had been an inclusion in the metal which meant that when this ingot had been cast some slag had gotten trapped in the metal.
This also gave Daniel an idea. He took some of his Steel that was lower in quality and began the process of melting it down in a crucible. Once melted he removed the slag that had come to the surface one the metal had liquified. Once he was sure he had removed all of the unwanted slag from the metal and poured it into a mold he had prepared. He continued this process with several more chunks of metal as he let the cast ingots cool.
Once done he used ‘Identify’ on the metal again and this time instead of being only okay it was Well-Crafted in quality. Daniel was giddy at his new discovery. He wondered if he could re-melt the Well-Crafted Quality metal again to try and make it even more pure. He just didn't know what the limit was. He had also gained about 10 blacksmithing experience for making the ingot. It wasn't a lot, but if he started re-forging every single ingot he had into a higher Quality it would start to add up.
He decided to experiment with this process for the rest of the day, and when he lost track of time into the night. By the next morning Daniel had a new prompt that he needed to read.
Smelting ( 1/5 ): You have started on the path of perfecting metal: this is the goal of all who smelt metals to make a flawless ingot free of all imperfections. Cost to increase 2 Profession Point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): Increase the base purity of all metals you smelt and cast by hand by 5%
Level 2 (Passive): Increase the base purity of all metals you smelt and cast by hand by an additional 10%
The skill brought a smile to Daniel's face. He quickly grabbed his Well-Crafted Quality metal and re-smelted it. Once he had gone through the whole process and poured it back into a mold he eagerly awaited the results. Once it solidified enough to be removed from the mold he used ‘Identify’ on it and was overjoyed with the results. It came out as Fine Quality.
He had worked all through the night and his results were amazing. He had managed to get about 50% of the steel he had on hand up to Well-Crafted, and now that he had gained a skill for smelting he could begin to refine his ingots even further. All in all he had also gained 532 experience for his profession through smelting the ingots.
There was still a lot that he needed to get done, but he had been working for over 20 hours straight, and he needed to go home, rest, and take care of Kota. With the new material he had ordered and the improvements in the quality of his steel he just knew that he would be able to make an exceptional quality item. However, that could wait until tomorrow.