Nitish carefully examined each item as he pulled them out of his bag, making sure everything was in order. After all, he didn't want anything to go wrong during his very first forging session. Once he had laid out all the materials, he took out the blueprint for a throwing knife and began preparing to forge the weapon, eyes focused on every detail.
"Mmm..." That was the only sound echoing in his mind. He already had all the necessary materials—now all that remained was to melt them properly. Acting swiftly, Nitish melted down two iron ores along with a few other components, forming a glowing red mold.
"Is that... an Eternal Flame?" he muttered, visibly surprised. He hadn't expected to be granted access to an Eternal Flame in this intermediate room, especially not alongside such advanced tools.
Eternal Flames were a unique type of pure fire, used specifically in the forging of high-grade weapons and rare items. These flames were classified into ten tiers, though historically, even the most skilled everyday forgers had only ever managed to utilize a Tier 6 flame at best.
For a moment, Nitish was tempted to claim the Eternal Flame for himself.
"But that would be stealing... The people here would beat me to a pulp," he scolded himself, feeling a twinge of guilt for even entertaining the idea.
Shaking off the thought, Nitish poured the molten metal into the mold according to the blueprint's specifications. After nearly thirty minutes of focused work, he finally completed the forging of the knife.
Just as he finished, a notification appeared on his character screen:
Congratulations! You have successfully forged a Slin Knife (Bronze Rank)!You have gained 800 forging experience points!You have also gained 300 general experience points!
Nitish inspected the Slin Knife closely. It was a golden-colored blade, gleaming with an unmistakable sharpness. In fact, when he first received this knife from the Golden Fox Elite, he hadn't even been able to read its description. But now that he had finally forged it himself, he could study its details thoroughly.
[Slin Knife (Bronze Rank)]Element: Wind
Attack Power: 12
Attack Speed: 25
Passive Ability: This knife releases a wind-based explosion upon contact with an enemy.
As Nitish read through the weapon's description, his eyes widened in surprise. While the weapon itself was relatively weak for a bronze-ranked item, what made it truly unusual was the presence of an elemental attribute.
Yes—within Celestial Domain, only certain special weapons possessed elemental powers. Not every weapon had them, and typically, only higher-ranked weapons came with such abilities.
Nitish spun the knife around in his hand for a moment. He already knew this was a throwing knife—a one-time-use weapon. Once used, it would become useless to him.
After completing the first knife, Nitish immediately began forging more. With each new knife he created, his forging speed steadily increased. The same blade that once took him 30 minutes now only took about 15. By the time he had finished crafting 15 knives, he found himself completely out of materials.
"I can't believe it... I had supplies for 20 knives, but five of them failed," Nitish muttered, slightly disappointed. Still, he knew his forging speed was far above average. Where a normal person might take much longer, Nitish was well ahead—thanks in part to the forging book he had received through a quest. It had greatly boosted his efficiency. And with access to the Eternal Flame for melting materials, his success rate had remained impressively high.
"Alright... time to forge the breastplate," he said, pulling out the blueprint and beginning to melt the necessary materials.
After about 45 minutes, Nitish managed to construct the base of the breastplate. Now came the final step: inscribing the magical alphabets to complete it. As soon as he finished carving the runes onto the armor, a radiant glow enveloped the breastplate.
Unfortunately! You have failed the forging process.You have gained 100 general experience points and 100 forging experience points.
Nitish had failed on his very first attempt at forging a breastplate. But instead of dwelling on the failure, he chose to learn from his mistakes. The issue, he suspected, likely lay in the rune formation process.
Determined to fix the problem, he decided to practice drawing the runes on plain paper before attempting the real thing again.
"Focus..." Nitish muttered to himself, fully concentrated. He didn't have enough materials to afford another failure.
This time, he spent almost a full hour constructing the breastplate before carefully starting the rune inscription process once again.
As soon as Nitish completed the rune formation, another notification appeared on his screen. This time, the message brought a wide smile to his face.
Congratulations! You have successfully forged the Golden Breastplate (Bronze Rank)!You have gained 1,500 forging experience points!You have also gained 1,000 experience points!
Congratulations! You have been promoted from a Beginner Forging Apprentice to an Intermediate Forging Apprentice.You have been rewarded with 10 Gufna Ores!
"What? Gufna Ores?! I actually received Gufna Ores?! Damn! Weapons forged using Gufna Ores have insanely high quality!" Nitish was practically bursting with excitement.
Without wasting a moment, he began forging another breastplate—this time, incorporating one of the precious Gufna Ores. Incredibly, he managed to finish crafting the base breastplate in just 45 minutes, though the rune inscription would still take as long as before.
But as soon as he completed the final touches and finished forging the new breastplate, another notification popped up—one that completely stunned him.
Congratulations! You have successfully forged the Goruden Breastplate (Iron Rank)!You have gained 3,000 forging experience points!You have also gained 2,000 experience points!
Nitish couldn't believe it—he had just forged an Iron Rank Golden Breastplate. He was practically on the verge of jumping with joy. Overcome with excitement, he quickly opened the item information screen to read all about his new creation.
[GORUDEN BREASTPLATE (IRON RANK)]
Level Requirement: 3
Defense: 78
Vitality: 50
Active Skill – Goruden Healing:Grants a temporary defense boost and rapidly heals the user—restores 30 HP per second for 15 seconds.Cooldown: 90 seconds
Passive Skill – Flexible Skin:Increases base defense and enhances both natural health regeneration and stamina recovery.
Durability: 130/130
Reading through the description of the breastplate left Nitish completely stunned. In his mind, it was nearly impossible for an ordinary breastplate to be this powerful! But before he could process everything, another notification appeared—and this time, it almost knocked the wind out of him.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have successfully crafted an Individual Item!You must now choose a name for the item, or retain the current one. You may also imprint a custom forger's mark on it.
You have been awarded 30,000 forging experience points and 5 Gufna Ores!
Nitish felt like he was floating on cloud nine. He never imagined that while simply forging, he would end up creating an entirely unique piece of armor.
Yes, in Celestial Domain, players could follow existing blueprints to forge weapons—but with enough skill, they could also modify those blueprints or even forge entirely new creations. These were called Individual Items. Ownership of such items rested entirely with their creator, who could then produce unlimited copies of the blueprint and sell them for a massive profit.
"I just found the perfect money-printing idea!" Nitish exclaimed to himself.
Originally, he had only planned to sell the breastplates themselves to earn a few coins—but he hadn't expected luck to favor him this much. Now, he could profit not just by selling the armor, but by selling the blueprints too.
Without hesitation, he imprinted a personal symbol onto the Goruden Breastplate—a sleek black dragon insignia, one that Nitish had personally designed. His eyes sparkled with excitement as he quickly drafted a few copies of the blueprint. He chose not to change the name of the armor either; to him, Goruden sounded perfectly fine.
After forging a few more breastplates—about two in total—Nitish finally stepped out of the room. He had completely run out of materials. All the additional Goruden Breastplates he had forged were of Bronze Rank, not Iron Rank, since he hadn't used Gufna Ores for each one.
He kept the Iron-Rank breastplate for himself and decided to sell the rest. His forging level had also increased—Nitish was now officially a Pro Forging Apprentice.
As a bonus reward, he even received 5 pieces of Aesir Gold—an incredibly rare material, even more valuable than Gufna Ores. Aesir Gold had a 100% success rate of upgrading an item's rank. But Nitish wasn't foolish enough to waste such precious materials on basic breastplates.
Without delay, he made his way to the Auction Hall.
The Auction Hall in Pink Blossom Town was the best place for players to sell their items. It allowed players to trade anonymously and discreetly, often resulting in higher profits. In some cases, bidding wars could even double the price of an item.
Nitish submitted all his extra breastplates to the auction and also listed 10 of the 15 throwing knives he had forged. He set time intervals between each item's listing to create a sense of rarity and exclusivity in the minds of potential buyers.
He had just begun heading toward the market area when a group of guards suddenly blocked his path.
"Halt!" shouted the guard captain.
Nitish came to an immediate stop. The commanding voice drew the attention of nearby players and NPCs, and soon, all eyes were on him.