Smith stared at me and raised his thumb, "You are such an outstanding figure that I don't know how I mistook your identity yesterday. My vision was lacking. I am ashamed and embarrassed."
The praise meant that Smith's affinity with me was at the maximum. While it was true that I have raised my affinity with two quests, and earned a reputation in Bairan Village of over 200, Smith's attitude towards me was still overly flattering.
'Even if my title has the attribute of being easily acknowledged…'
Arthur met Smith's eyes, causing him to lower his gaze. This was the attitude of a student in the presence of his master!
'Is this the effect of the dignity stat? It's only at 10 points at the moment, but is it already having an effect?'
It was possible, considering that Smith's level wasn't very high.
'It might be different with high ranking NPCs. However, dignity seems to have an effect on normal NPCs, even with the number of points in it isn't high.'
Arthur never imagined that Smith's attitude would change so much in a day. It was an excitement beyond my current excitement.
'I already have a lot of stats at level 175, so there is absolutely no reason to distribute my stat points hastily.'
I thought about the most important thing to me right now. It was…
"Money!"
'Yes, money. I needed to make enough money in order to cash it out into real money quickly. My family has lots of money and they will give me if I want but I wanted to build something all by myself and I wanted to get the recognition of people. Not just as gamer Arthur, but also as an genius entrepreneur. I cut straight to the point.'
"Didn't I say it when I first visited your smithy? I want to make and sell high-demand items like Jaffa Arrow."
Smith pointed to a place where arrows were displayed.
"This one."
Yes. That's it!
Unlike other equipment, arrows were consumables, so the price of it was naturally cheaper. No matter how profitable it was, if the sale price was low, it meant that he had to sell a lot of volume.
But what if... What if he made Epic grade arrows. If he remembered correctly in the original story, as Pagma's Successor, only Grid can make Epic grade Specal Jaffa Arrows, untill Smith make it with his renewed vigor.
"This isn't an ordinary arrow. It is a special arrow made by mixing a small amount of jaffa with steel, allowing it to ignore some of the enemy's defense and cause damage." Smith started to explain about the arrow.
Ignore defense!
For archers who participated in the Guardian of the Forest raid, these arrows were essential. No, even if it were for players not participating in the raid, the demand would be high considering there were many golems living in the Grey Forest.
"Jaffa…"
Smith saw that I was interested and brought out a light purple mineral from the warehouse.
"Jaffa is a mineral with a low oxygen content, making it easy to smelt, and is remarkably superior to iron. Its weakness is its durability and strength, making it unsuitable to create weapons with jaffa. However, when mixed with steel, the durability increases and the penetration power is maximized. It is normal for cavalry troops to be armed with jaffa-tipped spears." Smith shared the uses of Jaffa.
"It must be expensive." Arthur.
"It is two gold per kilogram. Even top-tier iron ore is just cheap stone in front of jaffa." Smith.
"Then, how can you produce dozens of jaffa arrows?" Arthur.
"No, Only a small amount of jaffa is needed to create the arrow. The production cost of a single jaffa arrow is three silver, but the sales price is fixed at six silver. It is double the profit. In addition, this village has a high demand for jaffa arrows. How about it, do you want to learn how to make Jaffa Arrows?" Smith said.
After receiving a recommendation for a suitable item which he surely need to learn to progress the story so he needed to learn how to make it himself.
"Show me the arrow for a moment."
Smith handed me the arrow and Arthur used the appraisal skill.
[Jaffa Arrow]
Rating: Normal
Attack Power: 20~26
An arrow made by mixing a small amount of jaffa with steel.
Due to the effect of combining jaffa with steel, it has extremely high penetration and ignores some of the enemy's defense.
Weight: 0.1
[A hidden function doesn't exist.]
[You have grasped the Jaffa Arrow's material composition, production method, and intentions of its creator.]
[Your understanding of the Jaffa Arrow is now at 89%. You will be able to use the Jaffa Arrow skillfully.]
"..."
Unfortunately, Arthur couldn't reach 100% understanding after using appraisal on the Jaffa Arrow. Therefore, the production method wasn't added.
'This arrow…'
Smith looked at Arthur staring at the arrow and asked again,
"Do you want to learn how to make the Jaffa Arrow?"
'If I use the item disassembly skill, I might be able to raise the remaining 11%… But one arrow is six silver?'
I would need to pay six silver if I wanted to disassemble it. I couldn't afford that type of luxury.
After Grid suffers in the hands of Eral Ashur, he will surely come to him asking for compensation also for stealing Grid's various chances he felt somewhat guilty so Arthur decided to hand him 1,000 gold coins when he meet Grid later after he become Pagma's Successor.
Also Smith was making it so why should Arthur waste 6 silver for nothing? Besides...
'It isn't too bad to learn how to make it on my own.'
Arthur nodded in agreement. "I will learn how to make it."
Smith was happy. "I thought so. First, shall we learn how to smelt the mineral?"
Smith began with the structure of the old furnace commonly used by all blacksmiths in Satisfy, explaining in detail the elements necessary for the smelting process and the principles behind the process.
Blacksmith jargon and chemical terms sometimes popped up, but Arthur didn't feel confused. While Satisfy pursued realism, it was still a game so the barrier wasn't set high in order to allow more people to enjoy it. The blacksmith knowledge required by Satisfy was very easy to understand.
Arthur smiled as Smith finished the lecture.
"Is it difficult to understand with just words? If so, then I will demonstrate it for you." Smith.
"Thank you Smith." Arthur said sincerely as his understand still stuck at 89%.
Smith poured in a certain ratio of iron, coke, and limestone before starting the blast furnace. (A/N: The fuel Coke, not the cold drink)
As Smith's face and upper body became soaked with sweat, he controlled the hot wind coming from the bottom of the furnace and started burning the coke. At this point, the iron ore was gradually turned into molten iron due to Smith's reduction interactions.
The limestone reacted by separating the iron and into impurities to form slag. Smith alternated between filtering out the slag and maintaining the heat. The black debris gradually disappeared through holes at the bottom of the furnace, while the molten iron became increasingly orange.
When the iron solidified, it would become pig iron. Pig iron was very hard and brittle because it contained a lot of carbon. It wasn't suitable for the crafting of weapons. In order to make it suitable for weaponsmithing, it was necessary to reduce the carbon content through a process called steelmaking.
Smith, who was quietly immersed in his task, asked, "Do you understand what smelting is now?"
Arthur nodded and Smith gave him a satisfied expression.
"Now that you've seen it, jaffa is easy to smelt. The jaffa ores have fewer impurities and a lower melting point, making it easier to refine than iron ore. The ratio of jaffa to coke to limestone is 12:2:4." Smith said.