Mikella marveled at the amount inside. There were armor pieces and weapons literally scattered everywhere; on the floor, the shelves that lined up the walls, on the display cases that were shown outside through the window pane and some that hung at the walls themselves, as though displaying how greater they were compared to the rest.
If this was an armory, she can understand. But this was a store, meant to showcase the wares to potential buyers. She can’t even fathom how this store owner can even sell a single thing in this cluttered mess.
Still, her eyes managed to pick up a few pieces that caught her interest. They showed extreme detail in the weapon, though not its outside appearance.
The shape of the blades, the steel that consisted of its making, the heft of it, it called to her unlike anything before. Thanks to all of her weapon masteries being at Rare rarity, it wasn’t just the swords that caught her eyes. It was all the weapons she could lay her eyes on, and even the armor pieces were impressive on their own.
“Name’s Cruach, but you can just call me Cru. Here, this is where I sell my babies to the world!”
The young boasting woman named Cru spread out her arms, showcasing all the wares in her store. The heavy scent of steel and smoke was still wrought in the air, nearly curling her nose in response.
Still, she stood unopposed to it all. Her store was a mess, which was already putting a damper to her mood. Still, she couldn’t help but marvel at some of the merchandise. Mikella can already tell that this Cru was the sort of blacksmith that didn’t care much about marketing, but letting her products speak for themselves.
“Are these… enchanted? All of them?” Zeke said. Mikella was so taken in by the weapon’s makeup that she forgot to check their magical nature. Once her Mana Manipulation set in, she was shocked at how magically dense they were.
“Huh, how’d you figured? Considering the damage you’ve done to my hammer, I figured you were thickheaded,” Cru said, her brows widening in surprise. That easily caught Mikella’s ire again, but she explained further with an impressed smile. “Yep! They’re all enchanted by yours truly.”
“Wait, you’re the one that enchanted them all?” Zeke asked in shock.
“Damn skippy! My Enchantment skill is high up the wazoo–Epic Rarity! Sure, I’m not all that impressive compared to any other run-of-the-mill Enchanter, but my Blacksmith class skills can easily support you in battle and beyond as my enchantments make it easier on everyone in general, not just mages.”
Mikella had to give credit to her humbleness. It wasn’t a good idea to compare yourself lower than other Enchanters, but she made it so that her qualities as a Blacksmith would shine further. She could tell that Cru fancies herself as a smith rather than an enchanter, and instead took on the Enchantment General Skill for the sake of appealing to the magical masses.
Her Identify proved as well that she wasn’t kidding about her abilities as a smith.
Blacksmith, Level 84
Considering that crafting classes had a harder time leveling up than combat classes, her being at such a high level proved how dedicated to the craft she was.
“But isn’t it difficult to handle two conflicting skills and Class?” Zeke asked, surprising Mikella at the audacity of the man who took on a magical Class and trained a physical skill all on his own.
“Eh, sure the attribute build is hard to figure out, but as long as you know what you’re doing, that kind of thing isn’t a problem,” Cru waved off Zeke’s curiosity. “But that doesn't matter as much as long as I can feed myself.”
“Oh… that, that does make sense,” Zeke tilted his head.
Mikella also felt that she had to agree, considering her words. The only reason that this would be a problem if one planned on taking their single crafted profession farther up. But in Cru’s case, that might not be a good plan.
You can create the best weapon in the world, but in this country of mages, would that even matter? So for a salesperson who needs to have people buy their wares, they need to sell products that people might actually need rather than the best of what they don’t want.
It’s a sad kind of realization for the two otherworlders who aimed to be the best in practically everything just to survive.
“Now, you wanna buy something, or are you gonna ask more questions?” Cru said, her hands on her surprisingly curvy hips. The woman had a lot of muscle and a well-toned figure, so that was a unexpected. “Cuz’ the more I talk to you, the more time I spend away from the forge. Unless you plan on paying me for my personal life story?”
“Uhh…” Zeke raised his hands up. He wasn’t very well suited for this kind of thing. If Mikella let Cru have her way, she might actually get Zeke to give up all their gold.
“We’re here to buy a weapon,” Mikella stepped up. “For me, actually.”
“Really? You?” Cru pointed at her, actually looking surprised. Mikella was taken aback by that comment, not really knowing the undertone she was using.
“Yeah? Is that a problem?”
“No, not really, I’m just surprised,” Cru said, her tone sounding genuine as she took a closer look. Mikella felt her eyes drawn mostly down around her waist, where the dress held taut against her, revealing her muscle tone and curve.
Then Cru started walking around her, spinning like a satellite as she kept gawking, almost like a scientist taking a closer look at a lab rat. This quickly got under her skin as she snapped.
“Excuse me? What are you doing?”
“Sorry, I’m just taking a closer look at you. I don’t see many lizard folk around here, but now that I can see better, you’re actually a dragon, not just any lizard folk, ain’tcha?”
“Yeah, I’m a Draconian,” Mikella said, still feeling a little weirded out by her steady stare.
“A Draconian?” Cru stopped spinning, her eyes widened. “Huh, so there are dragon folks then. That would explain the wings. I thought you were some kind of winged lizard race or something.”
Mikella scoffed at that, but then paused. She wasn’t exactly an expert on sub-races either. So to someone who doesn’t really dwell on the specifics of sub-races, especially after knowing that there were perhaps hundreds of different variants when she advanced to Journeyman, it’s not surprising that they just gave up on learning more.
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So to Cru, thinking that there was some specific lizard race with wings isn’t that far off from being part of a dragonic race. This would normally tick people off, but Mikella can’t help but sympathize with her lack of knowledge, so she let that go.
“You’re also pretty damn good with weapons, aren't you? How many weapon mastery skills have you got?”
“Whoa, how did you figure that out?” Mikella asked, looking at Cru with widened eyes.
“Your stance, your muscle tone, the way you breathe–it’s all in the body. For a smith that focuses on making weapons and armor, figuring out how the client moves and breathes is part of a way to figure out the best gear for them. At least that’s how I see it. By the way, my guess is usually never wrong. So–am I wrong?”
Cru made a delighted grin at Mikella, getting her to roll her eyes.
“No, you’re not. I actually got a few. I got the sword, spear, hammer, axe, and bow. I also got Lightning Mastery if that helps.”
“What?!”
Cru shouted, surprising both the otherworlders. They looked at her in surprise as she kept screaming.
“That’s a shit ton of masteries–and didja say you got a Lightning Mastery of all things? Ain’t that a magical type of skill? You got that too?”
“Yeah,” Mikella nodded. “That’s not weird, is it? I mean, we’re all Journeymen here.”
“Yeah I get that. I got myself the Enchantment skill for a reason. But I didn’t think I found anyone else that’s willing to pick up so many weapon types and then add a magic skill on top of that. That’s just borderline crazy.”
Cru said that, which got Mikella to think why she was guessing instead of using Identify. Then she remembered that using Identify on someone feels like someone brushing against your person with an invisible brush. It was noticeable, and in some cultures, it’s considered rude to Identify without a valid reason.
Cru didn’t mention anything since she was expecting someone to Identify her to see if she was capable as a blacksmith, but for a store owner to do that would risk the chance of losing said customer thanks to their rude gesture. Then again, Cru was dangerously close after that hammer thing.
“Huh… if that’s the case,” Cru eventually said, her gloved hands rubbing her chin hard as she kept studying Mikella. “Then maybe one of my Natural series might be a good fit for you.”
“Natural series?” Zeke asked after staying silent for a while. “Is that something famous?”
“Nah, it’s one of my creations. I call them like that because they rely heavily on one’s body rather than adding in extra enchantments. You know, stuff like flaming swords and shields that electrocute anything that hits it.”
“Oh,” Zeke widened his eyes. “How does that work?”
“Here, let me show you. It’s better that way.”
Cru went further into the store, eventually finding what looked like a counter at the very back. They had to wade through perhaps dozens of crates filled with weapons and different types of metal armor just to get here. When they did, Cru jumped over the metal counter, a practiced maneuver if Mikella ever saw one, and rummaged around the back where there was another room behind the counter.
After a couple of minutes rummaging around, Zeke went off to view at the other crates and sections where the armor was while Mikella tapped the floor impatiently. Finally, before Mikella could get a word of complaint out, Cru appeared from the room, holding up a simple sword like it was the holy grail of weapons.
“Behold!” Cru shouted, actually sounding proud that she found it. “My masterpiece!”
“You better show that ‘masterpiece’ quickly before I start reconsidering my life choices,” Mikella said dryly, Zeke eventually meeting up with her to see the sword.
To her shock, Zeke gasped as he stared at the sword. She looked back to see his eyes were glowing a bright blue and green hue, proving that he was using his Restoration feature of scanning the item.
“Wow… this looks incredible,” Zeke said in a low voice. Cru actually looked taken aback by the shift of his eye colors glowing, but hearing the words got Cru to put on a smug smile.
“I know, right?” Cru said, grinning widely. “This baby gave me some trouble, but eventually I managed to tame it to fit my needs.”
“Mikky, you gotta check this out. This sword is awesome,” Zeke said, turning back to her. “The mana constructing the enchantments is weaved together so well, it boggles my mind. This ain’t a normal enchanted sword.”
Hearing Zeke’s sudden praise instantly got Mikella to Identify it. He wasn’t wrong–it was incredible.
Natural Series-Iron Sword of Might (Rare)
Created under the guise of genius and drunken wonder, the talented blacksmith created the Natural Series. There is nothing fancy nor whimsical–just a sword that cuts good and deep.
Enchantments:
Interchangeable Sharpness (Skill Dependent)
Interchangeable Durability (Skill Dependent)
Energy Conductivity (Skill Dependent)
It was incredibly confusing, to say the least, but Mikella had to give more credit to this ditsy blacksmith. The sword was designed to look like your average iron sword, something that beginning blacksmiths would make on their first try.
But small filigrees of glowing lines ran along the blade and the double edges all the way up to its diamond tip. The handguard was shaped like a flat square facing up the blade with the same line design, and the handle was covered with smooth leather that looked rough to the eyes but easy to grasp.
Mikella couldn’t help but marvel at it the more time she spent looking at it. Her mana sense was telling her that this sword was decked with magic, but just by seeing the design was enough to tell her that it was made with extreme detail.
“...It says here that it was made in ‘drunken wonder’,” Mikella had to point out, narrowing her eyes at the clearly flustered Cru.
“What can I say? Genius comes out when I hit the bottle. Anyways, anything about the sword itself?”
Cru quickly deflected it to make it about the sword, so at least it told Mikella that Cru was honest about her work. Looking at the sword, Mikella pointed out the obvious.
“It says here ‘Skill dependent’. What does that mean?”
“Now, see, that’s where the genius comes in,” Cru said, probably wanting to point out the part that Mikella purposely avoided from the description. “I started thinking one night about how everyone is focusing on getting the number of skills necessary to jump into Journeyman. But there’s gotta be someone out there who had to pick up a skill or two to make a living, and sometimes that doesn't equate to their Journeyman advancement.”
Mikella became deeply interested, Cru’s words hitting hard on a lot of folks who struggled to become Journeyman while taking care of their responsibilities at the same time. Some don't have the time, energy, or even finances to kill monsters long enough to level to 60.
As for the comment about the skills necessary, Cru probably meant that the majority of people who needed to advance to Journeyman had to advance or evolve 5 General Skills. There was also the Class skills and titles, but the two together would make it possible.
During their off time, Mikella found out that people can cheat just by using Skill Books and get Rare skills that way, but it turns out you need to be super influential and rich. It required that you pay a heavy price to skip one of the major requirements to be a Journeymen by using skill books, and that wouldn’t even force you to be a half-Journeymen. But nobody has that kind of cash on hand.
But for Mikella and Zeke, they proved over and over that having several General Skills that compliment each other is a lot better than just the minimum required. Hell, Mikella gained some decent boons after filling out her General Skill List to get herself an Extra Class Skill, a rarity for Classes and something she heavily relies on to this day.
“So you’re making equipment that benefits the people having no choice but to pick up extra skills for daily living?” Zeke added, his fingers rubbing his chin in fascination. “That’s really generous.”
“I know, right?” Cru said with a grin. She even put her hands over her hips, pride oozing off of her. “And seeing how you just told me you got a whole bunch of General Skills, I’d say this beauty…”
Cru put the sword over onto the counter, staring directly at Mikella with a wide grin. Not like a merchant making a deal, but as a blacksmith proving that her craft was truly a masterpiece.
“...is perfect for someone like you.”