Steel Skinning Knife (Rare)
Enchantment Slots: Blood Coat - This enchantment allows a weapon to more efficiently handle the skinning process. It causes the blood to avoid the blade, preventing it from sticking during the process, thus speeding up the work.
Sharpness Enchantment - It focuses on enhancing the blade’s cutting ability, allowing for quicker and cleaner cuts. The edge of the blade stays razor-sharp, requiring fewer strokes to make cuts, allowing the user to slice through tough hides, scales, or other protective layers with ease. Over time, the tool retains its sharpness, requiring less maintenance.
Durability: 50/50
I didn’t know either of them; I thought that I could make it using earth enchantment to make my bone knife last longer, and wind enchantment to cut with more ease, but the theory failed me. It made my knife last for a while, but not enough to skin dozens of fire wolves.
I headed back to the old lady’s house, and she welcomed me with a frown. I just hoped that she didn’t waste food, thinking that I would return sooner. She said that she always makes a lot, but even so…
“Well, you are still alive, I see.”
“I am the cautious type, ma’am.”
I headed to my room and the old lady didn’t stop me since I looked tired. Considering the last three days together, I probably didn’t sleep even ten hours, after all. Still, I waited for dinner to be served before I went to sleep.
When I woke up, it was still night, so I decided to work on my next projects while my parameters were still at the top of my game. Using Arcana Transference with items with two effects was tough, since both effects had to be transferred to a single target. Those effects were a bit different from the ones I was used to, so it took a lot of my mind to get used to them.
Still, they weren’t as complicated as the Magic Bag enchantments, so I wasn’t left with a head-splitting headache when I was done with them. After using Arcane Transference a few times, I eventually learned how they worked.
The skill Arcana Transference leveled up. You received 1000 experience points.
I had forgotten about that, but the skill reached level ten… I was expecting something to happen, but nothing happened. Maybe I could only learn new skills when the basic ones reached level ten or something. The knowledge about that was still obscure.
I had to test that information… I enchanted a bunch of bone arrows with frost and sharpness enchantments to gain experience and that made the skill level up once. It worked somehow… I imagined that they could only have the piercing effect, but it looked like I was mistaken. Hopefully, that still will grant them extra piercing power.
The skill Enchanting Touch leveled up. You received 1500 experience points.
‘I guess it can’t be helped… I am not using these skills that much inside the dungeon, so I should try to use camouflage as much as possible instead to make good use of my mana regeneration. The scrolls are also a good option, since I can make a bunch of them and keep them stored.’
It was time for breakfast, so I left those thoughts aside and then left my room. The old lady kept asking me how dungeon exploration had been given that I had returned without wounds, but I didn’t answer that much since I ate in a hurry and soon left for the guild. The lady who analyzes the mana cores frowned when she saw me again so soon and she frowned even more when the mana cores that I brought this time were different from the ones found in the dungeon. The ones here were round, while the ones I had were pointy. In any case, I sold enough to get one and a half Aqua coins and increase my guild rank.
“Thank you for working for the Guild. Do you wish to know the benefits that you have now?”
“Yes.”
The guild lady gave me a gold guild card… My name was the same, but the requirements to become a platinum ranked adventurer were three hundred thousand mana core points. That would be worth thirty Aqua coins if sold at the normal rate… Still, it was fine, I wasn’t in a hurry.
“As a gold rank adventurer, you can buy supplies and weapons at the shops that work with us at a ten percent discount. Here is the list and the location of the shops. You can also receive direct requests from the guild if you become famous for a certain type of job. You can also find a job in one of those shops for a determined salary if you wish to use your crafting skills.”
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It wasn’t that impressive, but it was better than nothing. Perhaps I could make more profit by buying non-enchanted weapons from them. I checked the map of the guild with those locations and they had pretty much everything. While they didn’t have many shops working with them, they were Apothecaries, Blacksmiths, Tailors, and even mages for hire.
In any case, that had to wait… it was time for training. I left Frostkeep heading in the same direction I came from. It would be better if I headed north or west since there were more trees in that direction, but the dungeon and the border with Aeloria Dominion were in those directions.
After walking for half an hour, I reached a deserted place with plenty of trees around and soon I equipped my bow and grabbed some arrows. I threw four arrows above me and then grabbed them and nocked them before firing them to different trees. Three of them hit the targets, another one missed, and I probably would have one hell of a hard time finding it.
‘I could get closer, but seeing the monsters from fifty meters away is the usual inside the dungeon… let’s train a bit and then see the results.’
In the end, I spent the whole day practicing with the bow… it has been a while since I did something like that. Regardless, while my dexterity was high, it looked like I still had to follow the proper rules when it comes to training. I was making progress with that weird technique of mine, but it was painfully slow. It was probably something that I wouldn’t have a hard time with one hundred points in dexterity or more.
Still, things got quite easy when I shot the first arrow normally and then used Rapid Fire soon afterwards. As long as the targets were close to each other, I could use the technique like that. I wanted to do it without using the skill, but it was a good way to practice as well.
‘Hopefully, this will level up fast too… With my current stamina regeneration, I can use this skill once in every battle, but… let’s see what happens when I try with five arrows.’
It got a bit harder, but I still could pull it off. That much was fine, since we would only fight six monsters at a time in the first section. As long as I could hurt them that much, things would be fine.
When the sun was about to set, I decided to head home… my fingers were stinging thanks to numerous cuts on them and my shoulders and back were quite sore as well. Despite that, I did the same type of training for this day offs that I had. That would be enough to deal with the first section targets. If we find more problems like that in the second section, I guess I will have to train again, but that could wait.
In the end, I paid for two more weeks to rent the room for the old lady, and she couldn’t help but frown since I never stayed that much time in the room and I was going to stay away for several days more once again. Still, that much investment was fine to make sure that my room wouldn’t be rented, not like anyone tried to rent the other rooms until now.
‘While I increased my strength, it looks like I can’t make good use of it without a strong enough body… Putting that aside, I keep not training with the short swords. I keep thinking that I eventually will need them in a bind, but I also keep thinking that training to avoid that with the bow is the best option. Quite the weird situation.’
The soreness in my body weakened a bit, but since I didn’t take a proper break during those days, I never fully recovered. Perhaps things would become a bit better if I unlocked the Endurance parameter, but it seemed a lot more convenient to just not push myself too hard. Work smart, not hard, you know.
Still, it would be fine since I wouldn’t use my skills that much for a while during the day. While massaging my sore shoulders, I headed to the guild. We still had three hours until the appointed time, but I was that kind of guy who prefers to arrive a lot earlier than barely on time.
A lot of adventurers were there as well, preparing to leave or trading the things they bought for money on the guild. I couldn’t help but wonder how much the guild masters would gain in terms of experience if they had the Merchant class.
“Why not? Don’t you want to have a cute girl at your party?”
I tried to check if my ears were clean enough… I couldn’t believe that I had heard such a thing coming from the guild. It felt like the kind of the line a person would hear when they headed to the red-light district.
I tried to pretend that I didn’t hear anything, but soon I began to hear some whispers and then people leaving the guild in a hurry. It was weird to see the battle-hardened adventurers running away from a fellow person like that, avoiding them like they were the plague.
“I am sure you guys can understand how advantageous it is for you all to have someone as skilled and beautiful as someone like me in your party.”
It was the voice of a girl, one that apparently couldn’t accept a no for an answer. I looked over my shoulder for a bit and, much to my surprise, I saw an elf girl… the weird thing was that she was talking with the people in the guild and begging them to let her enter their party.
I saw some of the elves inside the dungeon. Only a few parties, though. Whenever we looked at each other, they would snort or look in disgust… I was used to that, but not when they didn’t know that I was a half-vampire. If they learnt that, they would probably treat me like a cockroach…
In any case, the elf girl was around my height, so 170 centimeters tall. She looked pretty slender and not like someone who had fought a lot in her life. Still, she had a short knife at her waist and a long bow on her back that emitted a glow as well. Her defensive gear was only some joint protectors made of leather. She had long, blond hair that was a bit wavy as well. I couldn’t see anything else thanks to her green cloak.
When I tried to check her status with observation, I found that the letters were all messed up… she was using a misinformation relic as well. I thought that she could be a half-elf, even with her pointy ears, but maybe I was wrong.
‘Crap…’
The moment I used Identification, the girl turned around and looked in my direction. I wanted to believe that I reacted in time to look away, but I wasn’t certain. Regardless, to think that she would notice me using Observation… even though I definitely wasn’t the only one with that skill around.
In any case, my luck was bad… the girl began to head in my direction.