Liam listened to Sun's Knights thoughts with a confident grin:
"It is correct that we need to attract players. But this is exactly why this territory is so precious."
Sun's knight nodded slowly, forming his own conclusions:
"Greypine Town is surrounded by regions with monsters from level 45 to level 90, which will allow us to stay relevant for the foreseeable future. On top of that we have some special resources like the revitalization water and a mineral-rich mine, which also attracts players and is great for trade."
"Exactly. But what you don't know is that we have a precious trump card which is almost unique to our territory."
Immediately everyone's eyes lit up. Especially Cyclone and Balm stared intently at Bleary Mirage. But the latter only smiled slily, saying:
"Let me show you guys."
With those words Liam left the tower. The core members stared at his back, contemplating if it was worth beating their friend up to make him spit out the answer. Eventually they rejected the idea, following Liam while feeling their hearts itch.
The group didn't walk for too long until they came to the spacious smithy. It had multiple furnaces and tools were scattered everywhere. Right now, it looked somewhat empty but during the war dozens of blacksmiths were working here simultaneously.
"You're bringing us to the smithy? So, your trump card is a certain material?", asked Watchful Eye while looking around curiously.
"Mhm, not bad."
Liam nodded while entering a door towards the smithy's storage. It was filled with empty crates. Only some iron and other weaker metals were left. However, one of the shelves contained the materials which were too precious to be wasted in a war. They could be used for enchanted weapons, perhaps up to the legendary rank, and were extremely valuable.
Liam approached the shelf and looked through the boxes. Even though none of the materials had been used in the war, the stock was even less than the iron that was left. It took Liam a few seconds until he found what he was searching for.
"Here it is!"
With a grin Liam raised a piece of silvery-white metal. Its surface resembled marble and appeared to be slightly wet.
"What is this?"
"Is this our trump card?"
"What does it do?"
As all the core members moved together, they attracted some attention. Other guild members had followed them, crowding the smithy, craning their necks to get a look at Liam.
The latter didn't answer the curious questions and pushed through the crowd towards an enchanting table.
Standing in the storage Cyclone rolled her eyes, inwardly cursing Liam for acting mysterious. But suddenly a light lit up her mind.
"How didn't I think of this…"
Mumbling to herself Cyclone sneakily backed away from the others, approaching the shelf where Liam just left. She quickly found the box with the white metal. Grinning, she used [Inspect].
[Liquid Quavium
Category: Legendary
Effect: Use it during equipment upgrades to prevent the destruction of the equipment, instead causing it to drop by one rank.
A strange metal which can only be found within areas affected by a magical anomaly. It got its name because of its low smelting point. Even the friction caused by a pickaxe can cause it to melt. After hardening again, it becomes extremely durable for a short time, affecting everything it comes into contact with.]
Reading through the information Cyclone's breath quickened. She froze, trying to guess the implications of what she had read. A moment later she was attracted by the commotion outside as Liam got to work.
The players present watched curiously as Liam took off his chest armor, which was part of his set equipment. He laid it down on an engraving table, grabbing a tool looking like a magical pen.
Next, Liam began to paint a magic circle on the shoulder part of his armor. For a normal intermediate blacksmith this was not an easy task, but Liam's hand moved almost on its own, as easy as writing his own name.
Done with the magic circle Liam approached a furnace. He grabbed a small vessel and placed the piece of Liquid Quavium inside, holding it above the heat. It only took a few seconds for the material to melt. Liam went back to the engraving table and carelessly poured the white liquid over his chest plate.
He waited for a bit until a silver-white protective layer had formed. Meanwhile Liam had a thought, and a long list of items appeared in front of his face. These were the possible rewards he could redeem with challenge points.
When Liam studied the list earlier, he was pleasantly surprised by this mechanic which didn't exist in his previous life. Ever since the tournament ended people kept challenging Liam's clone, delivering free points to him. Now Liam was quite wealthy, able to buy all kinds of treasures. He found the one he was looking for and a red gem appeared in his hand.
The surrounding players looked at Liam and some people recognized the gem.
"Is that an upgrade gem?"
"Oh, so Bleary Mirage is trying to upgrade his armor? But what's all the fuzz about then?"
"I don't get it as well. Since the first few people reached the rank of intermediate blacksmith, we know that they can upgrade equipment."
"Yes, but not many care about it. The materials are rare, the upgrade is weak, and the risks are high. I heard that even the best blacksmiths only guarantee a chance of 10%."
"You're right. But what was the white liquid Bleary Mirage used? I've never seen that before."
Liam ignored the surrounding discussions. As the Quavium hardened, he carefully lowered the red gem towards the magic circle. As soon as it made contact, a bright light came from the magic circle. The red gem shrank and got firmly attached to the armor. The chest plate trembled throughout the process, obviously under great strain. Light ran up and down the Quavium.
But after a few seconds everything calmed down. Liam grinned and raised his chest plate. Shaking it a bit the Quavium fell off as a white powder and his pristine chest plate remained, now having a small red gem embedded into its shoulder. A notification appeared in front of Liam.
[Congratulations, the upgrade of >Wisdom of the early nephilim< was successful.
>Wisdom of the early nephilim< has reached rank 1
Reward: 100 EXP; 250 EXP for profession blacksmith]
The surrounding players didn't seem greatly impressed, clapping half-heartedly. Even Liam's friends were somewhat confused.
[Silver Blade: So, what did your super special trump card do?]
[Silent Acacia: Perhaps it strengthened the armor further?]
[Radiant Shield: Don't you think it is time to enlighten us, my friend?]
Liam nodded. As an answer he sent the armour's new information into the group chat.
[Wisdom of the early nephilim +1
Category: Rare, Set
Level requirement: 37 → 39
Physical Defence: 24 → 30
Magical Defence: 21 → 27
Dexterity: +8 → +12
Attack speed: +0,2
(New) Constitution: +6
Effect 1: Every time you dodge an enemy's attack you have a chance of 15% → 18% to unleash [Blessed Spear]. [Blessed Spear] deals 20% → 24% (PDMG) holy damage and heals you for half the amount dealt.
Effect 2: Every time you dodge an enemy's attack you have a chance of 15% → 18% to unleash [Cursed Spear]. [Cursed Spear] deals 20% → 24% (PDMG) dark damage and weakens the target's attacks by 5% → 8% for 3 → 4 seconds.
Two-piece Set effect: After dealing holy damage, empower your next dark damage by 10%. (cooldown 10 seconds)
Three-piece Set effect: Dealing dark damage afflicts you with a stack of devil's curse. Devil's Curse reduces all your defence by 3%. After gathering 3 stacks of Devil's Curse, you can share your stacks with enemies of your choosing. After gathering five stacks, everyone afflicted with Devil's Curse will be attacked by the curse and all stacks will be used up. (stack duration: 10 seconds) (cooldown: 20 seconds)
Four-piece Set effect: After receiving void damage, you will get 5% void resistance every time you deal holy or dark damage for the next 10 seconds. The resistance lasts for 30 seconds. Non-stackable.
Restriction: Bound upon wearing, AGI above 60 points, INT above 60 points
After the original nephilim came into being...]
The friends carefully read through the information. They naturally detected all the improvements but still didn't understand what Liam wanted to show them.
[Quickstep: Is it about the added constitution? That's not a bad effect…]
[Silent Acacia: No, I don't think so. This should be the effect of the upgrade gem Mirage has chosen.]
[Quickstep: Ok then I really don't get it. The set effects didn't even improve.]
[Bleary Mirage: Set effects only improve if you upgrade the relevant amount of set pieces. So, two upgraded pieces cause the two-piece set effect to rise.]
[Balm: Perhaps that white metal increases the success rate. I heard from Grandpa's Hammer, our intermediate blacksmith, that upgrading items is incredibly difficult. And the same seems to be true for alchemists upgrading potions.]
[Final Fend: Oh, I think that makes a lot of sense.
[Silver Blade: Is that it? If not, please finally do the grand reveal.]