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Episode 07 – Master Blacksmith

Now equipped with brand new Skins and easily distinguishable from the other silver figurines, Letty and I drifted among the many players that crowded the main street of Susanoo.

As we passed a large Golem type airframe, I suggested, “We should enhance our weapons.”

The Golem carried a huge sword on his back that clearly wasn’t from the Basic Series.

“In that case, why don’t we look for a crafter?”

In FrontierPlanet, players who build their characters around crafting skills were called crafters. They could use items dropped by monsters, or materials collected using various gathering skills to create weapons, armors, dishes, and other tools.

“Yeah, the game barely started so we can always buy weapons at an NPC shop, but I was thinking we could maybe interest a crafter in some of materials we collected in the forest.”

“We killed four or five wolves, right? Did we get a lot of materials?” she asked.

Letty was the ace of our little party, so I took it on me to carry the materials and deal with inventory weight.

“We got 5 [Furs] and 13 [Fangs],” I counted. “We still don’t know how many we’d need to craft something, so I’d like to ask a crafter that, too.”

“Got it. There may be information about it on the forums. I’ll see what I can find.”

We moved to a quieter corner of the street and pulled up our [Mirror].

A few minutes passed and we easily found a post stating that there was a dedicated manufacturing square equipped with everything crafters might need.

“Perfect, let’s check it out.”

“Let’s!” Letty closed her [Mirror] and happily jumped back into the crowd. I hurriedly followed her, tracking her two tall bunny ears in the crowd.

***

“I suppose that’s it.”

“Yes, it’s called the <Production Square>,” Letty specified.

The plaza presented every facility necessary one might need to hone one’s craft. Many skeletons—players without skins—were engrossed in their work, and something close to a burning passion floated around the place.

I got the feeling that a lot of these players were what we called “hardcore players”.

“Let’s see… weapons crafting should be <Blacksmithing>, right?”

“Well yes, but the only materials we have come from wolves…”

“Still, it doesn’t hurt to ask.”

PvP was forbidden inside Susanoo, so it wasn’t like we could get beat up for asking the wrong questions.

Here, in the same way a cooking school would have lines upon lines of cooking stations, or a chemistry laboratory would have rows of different flasks, the square was divided into areas, each one corresponding to a crafting skill, and each one displayed dozens of workbenches.

“Looks like the blacksmithing area is over there.”

Letty had spotted a part of the square equipped with sets of furnaces and anvils where huge muscular Golem type airframes were striking hot metal against heavy anvils.

Intimidated, I stared at the muscular craftsmen going about their work and, as one hammer met its anvil, I let out a little squeak.

“Something’s wrong, Ledge?” asked Letty who stood next to me as if to say, “what are you waiting for?”

“Everyone looks so serious, it’s hard to strike up a conversation right now.”

“—you’re supposed to be the old man here…”

“—what does that have to do with anything?!”

And don’t give me that blank look…

What I was trying to say was that I didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot. Walking up to someone when they’re in their own bubble may put them off.

“Say Letty, why don’t you go and talk to them?”

“Eeehh?! Why me?!”

“You thought you could call me an old man and get away with it?”

Now that the tables had turned, the rabbit started to panic.

We were arguing in a remote corner of the square when a voice came from behind.

“What’s happening here? Is something wrong, you two?”

Although the voice was one of a composed woman, I still jumped in surprise. We turned and were greeted by a Golem type woman who rested a hammer on her shoulder.

“So-sorry. We didn’t mean to be so loud,” I apologized.

“Ha ha, no worries,”—she shook her head, not bothered in the slightest —”it’s always loud around here anyway.”

The tall Golem looked me in the eyes and introduced herself.

“I’m Neva. I’m hoping to become a master blacksmith.”

“Ah, sorry, I’m Ledge. I wanna be a traveler.”

“And I’m Letty. I’m in a party with Ledge and I’m an aspiring fighter!”

I wanna be a traveler… What am I even saying…?

I might have messed up my introduction, but I took comfort in the fact that we now had a blacksmith to talk to.

“Actually, we were able to gather a few materials in the <Forest of the Beasts> and we were hoping to get someone to craft us weapons.”

“Oh! I see you went quite far already!” she said, excited—She was an expressionless skeleton, so I was just guessing, though.

Still, it seemed the <Forest of the Beasts> was still considered to be an advanced area for players who had a more standard start.

I’m glad to see our unruly beginning had its own benefits in the end.

“Well, the thing is, we chose the [Survivalist’s Pack] as our starter pack.”

“Ah, I see, you two were part of the so-called refugees,” she said, connecting the dots.

She confessed she frequently looked at the forums and happened to read about our circumstances.

“So, do you reckon you could use these materials we got from the Forest Wolves?”

“Of course! Rather, it’ll be my pleasure to do so,” she answered without hesitations, puffing her chest.

Golem type airframes all come with a large build, and Neva was a good head taller than me. On top of that, there was a certain richness in her chest that one wouldn’t expect on a machine, and try as I might, my eyes inexorably found refuge in her bountiful vall—

“—Ouch!” Letty suddenly stepped hard on my foot and I let out a faint whine.

“What are you looking at? Please get back to the business at hand,” she said, obviously irritated.

“What did I do…?” When I enquired about her sullen mood, Letty simply looked away.

I set the issue aside and resumed the conversation. “Am I to understand that items from the forest are still rare?”

“Correct, it’s still the first day and most of the players are going through the tutorial in the <Meadow of the Beginning>.”

Which meant that thanks to our starting pack, we had a lead on most of the players.

“In that case, do you think you could make us something with this? I’ll give you the whole lot.”

“Really? I mean, I can gain quite a lot of experience with your mats so I don’t mind but…”

“Well, we weren’t planning on using the materials anyway,” I explained. “We most likely would have ended up selling them to some NPC.”

“Sweet! Thanks! In that case, I’ll go all out and won’t let them go to waste!” She struck a fist pump pose.

While this was all well and good, our glory would only last until other players would progress to the <Forest of the Beasts>.

Still, seeing our combined hard work rewarded like this brought a smile to my face.

“—Ouch!” Letty struck again and my eyes blurred from the pain.

“Humph.”

“What did I even do now…”

And this how I learned that tear glands were actually implemented in my new Skin. As for Letty, she still looked reasonably angry but, on the bright side, my LP didn’t decrease from the blows.

“Okay then, I’ll get to work right away. Could you invite me in your party, please?”

“Hm? Do you need to be in the party to craft?”

“It’s not a prerequisite but, that way, you can see the information of the items as soon as I craft them. And you can also make sure I don’t run away with it.”

“Oh, I see. Sure, no problem.”

As expected from a future merchant, trust came first.

I proceeded to invite Neva to our party and traded her the materials.

“Ah, my <Trading> skill went up,” I said.

“It’s actually a really useful skill to have,” Neva explained. “You can even open a shop with it. Ah but, I guess combat-oriented players don’t really care about it.”

“That’s not true, I love these types of skills,” I countered.

Neva looked puzzled for a second, then bursted into laughter. I suppose I was a bit of an oddball.

“Well now, [Furs] and [Fangs] was it? What weapons are you both using?”

“Spear for me and hammer for Letty.”

“Got you! Coming right up!”

Like a child who was just gifted a new toy, Neva happily strolled toward the blacksmithing area.

Tips

◇Type: Golem

One of the four autonomous-type mechanical dolls.

This large and heavy airframe is deployed when durability and destructive power are needed. Towering above all the other airframes, female Golems usually hover around 1.80 meters tall while the males easily reach 2 meters.

Golems are outstanding fighters but also shine when heavy lifting is required. They make use of their strength to carry heavy materials necessary for the crafting of high-end items.

They are also extremely easy to spot among a crowd and make ideal candidates for a meetup.

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