Grainrock Chips — NPC buy rate: 9 Copper Coins per stack. Kaito offered 10.
Flintsteel Core — NPC buy rate: 19 Copper Coins per stack. Kaito offered 20.
Ironroot Shards — NPC buy rate: 7 Copper Coins per stack. Kaito offered 8.
Kaito just increased his purchasing price by 1 copper coin for each.
Ironroot Shards — cheap, low-tier junk in most players' eyes. But for him? A precious source. These would be refined using the Whisper Flame to eventually form the alloy material—one that he needed for the legendary blacksmith quest.
Grainrock Chips — refined forms of mineral splinters that players had begun dumping into the market without much thought. But these chips were vital for him. When refined with whisper flame, they could extract Copper Ore and Bronze Ore, which were required to fulfill the Echocore Emberplate.
Flintsteel Cores — his eyes narrowed as he placed a few in his vault. These, too, were unappreciated for now. But once the majority of players began to swarm level 15 areas, the real problem would begin: weapon durability. The monsters inside were a little special they did more than deal damage—they degraded equipment rapidly. Once a weapon hit zero durability, it became unusable until repaired or reforged.
Players would eventually realize the need of Whetstones which can be forged using Flintsteel Cores, each one restoring 5–10 points of weapon durability. But for now, guilds were too focused on boss fights and loot efficiency and rarely bought them.
"I remember getting scammed over this once…" Kaito murmured.
In Kaito's previous life, these cores were sold with extreme popularity. The price of Whetstones increased with even greater speed, allowing many forgers to make a hefty profit. To quickly increase their levels and gain an advantage, Kaito had also been butchered by those sharks. He could only grit their teeth as they bought the Whetstones
That's why Kaito bought Flintsteel Cores now, stockpiling them while the price remained laughably low. Forging Whetstones wasn't complex either. He already where he could get their forging designs.
Before long, a few players approached, curious. "Big Brother, I've got six stacks of Ironroot Shards—will you take them?"
"I have a stack of Flintsteel Cores! Can you buy these too?"
Another young player ran up, out of breath. "Three stacks of Grainrock Chips! All yours if you want 'em!"
Kaito nodded without much expression, quietly approving the trades and moving swiftly through the offers.
One player handed over three neatly wrapped stacks of Grainrock Chips, while another sold him six stacks of Ironroot Shards with a confident grin. A third player, less talkative, dropped off a single stack of Flintsteel Cores and simply nodded.
Within moments, He had acquired a decent haul: 85 stacks of Ironroot Shards, 100 stacks of Grainrock Chips, and 10 stacks of Flintsteel Cores
Kaito's storage window flashed red.
[Inventory: Full]
He glanced up at the crowd now gathering. "Sorry," he said, raising a hand. "My storage is full for now."
He began packing up his stall swiftly, slipping the materials into his inventory.
"Big Brother!" one of the players called out. "Will you still be buying these later?"
Kaito turned slightly, offering a calm nod. "I will. But it'll be a short while before I start again. Save up as much as you can until then."
After that he made his way to the Bank Vault to retrieve the whisper Flame and then straight to the SouthGlade's artisan quarter.
A Blue insignia gleamed on the nearby building.
[Life Guild – Forging Division]
He stepped in.
The air smelled of metal, oil, and glowing coals. NPC clerks and craftsmen lined the chamber, offering rentals, commissions, and guild tasks. A young apprentice greeted him from behind the main desk.
"Looking to register as a Forging Apprentice?"
Kaito nodded. "Yes."
[System Prompt – Forging Registration]
Fee: 80 Silver
Status: Accepted
Title: Forging Apprentice Acquired
[New Life Skill Slot opened: Forging]
With the system's confirmation, Kaito was now officially allowed to use the forging stations — including higher-tier refining rooms.
The clerk gestured. "Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced forging rooms are available. Each increases success rates slightly."
[Forging Room Rental Rates]
Basic Room – No success rate bonus – 50 Copper / hour
Intermediate Room – 3% success rate bonus – 1 Silver / hour
Advanced Room – 5% success rate bonus – 5 Silver / hour
"I'll take Intermediate."
He was escorted into a forging chamber carved with minor enchantments. It was sealed and isolated.
Kaito stepped into the Intermediate Forging Room , the heavy door sealing shut behind him with a mechanical hiss. The air inside was warm and silent, lit only by the faint emberlight of the forging altar. He approached the center pedestal,
"Let's see if you're truly worth the legends," Kaito murmured as he reached into his inventory—and drew forth the flickering ember of the Whisper Flame.
It pulsed with an inner glow, flickering like a heartbeat made of molten memory. With a practiced motion, he unlocked its containment and placed it atop the flame pedestal. Instantly, the atmosphere shifted. The chamber dimmed slightly as the flame awakened, humming softly with the ancient energy of elemental refinement.
From his inventory, Kaito drew ten full stacks of Ironroot Shards—two hundred fragments of brittle, dark-red ore barely worth anything on the open market. He poured them onto the glowing tray in front of the Whisper Flame. The system registered the materials, and the flame reacted—flaring upward with a sharp hiss and swallowing the shards whole in a blast of heated pressure.
He waited.
A moment passed… then another.
But the result came in a disappointing wave of notifications:
[Refinement Failed – All materials reduced to dust.]
The entire batch had disintegrated. Every single shard—gone. Nothing left but soot and ash.
Kaito's gaze didn't falter. "So… a one percent chance really does mean pain," he muttered under his breath. But this was no surprise. He had already braced himself for this. The odds were punishing, and Ignistal Alloy, the crimson-forged miracle of the Age of Embers, was never meant to come easy. Especially not when it was the key—the hidden core material needed for the legendary blacksmith questline
Without pausing, he drew out another ten stacks—two hundred more shards—and set them into the tray.
The Whisper Flame consumed them just as hungrily as the first batch.
Another wave of failures.
Dust. Ash. Nothing.
Kaito didn't sigh. Didn't curse. He simply pulled another ten stacks from his inventory and continued the process. Again. And again.
Until, on the fourth attempt—just as the last few particles disintegrated—something flickered in the middle of the tray.
A dull ember at first. Then it brightened, pulsing like smoldering coals pressed together by the weight of centuries. Slowly, the heat crystallized into a gleaming, jagged nugget of metal unlike anything else he'd ever seen.
[Refinement Successful – Ignistal Alloy ×1]
Kaito stepped forward slowly, the flame reflecting in his eyes. He picked it up carefully.
It was warm—but not burning. The alloy glimmered in deep crimson with veins of silver-light threading across its core, like living circuitry sealed in ancient fire. Despite its compact size, it felt dense, as though it carried the weight of forgotten wars and mythical flames. Even without a tooltip, he could tell—this was no ordinary material.
"Ignistal Alloy," he whispered. "At last."
But one wasn't enough.
He had come here not for one. He needed ten—at least—to trigger the quest that would change everything.
So he returned to the tray.
Batch after batch, ten stacks at a time. Again and again. Sometimes the tray hissed and cracked with steam, leaving only dust. Sometimes the flame surged so violently it seemed like the forge itself would collapse—only to cool and leave him empty-handed.
But Kaito never stopped.
He repeated the ritual until the final run—the very last set of five stacks, just a hundred shards remaining. When it was over, he stood silently, gazing down at the final result.
The display lit up again, for the second time.
[Refinement Successful – Ignistal Alloy ×1]
He had burned through all 1,700 Ironroot Shards.
The result?
Two Ignistal Alloys.
No more. No less.
Each one earned through a storm of loss and patience.
Even if he got only two , it was worth it as the price of a single Ignistal alloy was more than a gold coin in his previous life and right now it wasn't even available.