[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 156 – First Success

Sam lost track of how long he struggled with the [Artisan Orb]. It was part physical, part magical. He dumped mana into it, but that was only part of the problem.

Through the threads of mana connecting Sam to the orb, he was able to enact his Strength and Dexterity upon the orb as if he was using tools on it.

Pressing just so pushed the [Artisan Orb] back into alignment, then adjusting its spin slightly with a dexterous touch allowed him to make sure the contents heated evenly.

The orb itself struggled and bulged awkwardly, as if something was fighting to get out. The hotter the [Artisan Orb] became, the more fragile it became.

At one point, Sam could swear he saw the liquid metal bubbling like an unwatched pot of water, threatening to boil over and ruin the whole thing, but he managed to get to it in time.

Matt returned, though he was kind enough not to interrupt Sam. He simply left more pouches of [Demon Coins] and let Sam get on with things.

Time lost all meaning as Sam tunneled hard, determined against all odds to win. It was a battle, after all, and Sam was going to be the winner. Even if it took all damn day.

In the end, it didn’t take very long at all. An hour or two at most, though it was a very long sweaty hour of constant tweaking and watching, with more tweaking and struggling on top of that.

Several times, the [Artisan Orb] flashed a dangerous red, letting him know the crafting process was growing dangerously unstable. He always managed to get it stable again before it blew up, but there were a few very close calls.

In the end, he was rewarded handsomely for his efforts.

Craft Success!

You create a [Bronze Ingot].

You gain additional Blacksmith Experience for attempting a crafting recipe above your level.

You gain substantial Blacksmith Experience for creating a new crafting recipe for the first time.

Level Up!

Your [Blacksmith] Profession has reached Level 1.

+5 Strength | +5 Vigor | +5 Dexterity

+2 Awareness

Level Up!

Your [Blacksmith] Profession has reached Level 2.

+5 Strength | +5 Vigor | +5 Dexterity

+2 Awareness

Achievement Earned: I Make This Look Easy

Few people are able to create even the most basic recipes their first attempt at crafting, much less an advanced recipe without any experience under their belt. In recognition of this rare prodigious talent, you gain the following:

+3 Smithing Recipe Level Cap

Sam was distracted by the notifications, so he nearly missed the [Bronze Ingot] as it fell with a hearty clank outside of the [Mobile Forge], still steaming with heat.

Despite the temperature, Sam was able to pick it up and handle it pretty easily. It wasn’t too hot, at least not for him, and to his immense satisfaction, the thing was stamped with his name and the date of its creation, just like an ingot made by a proper foundry would.

Of course, the surface was mottled, a bit lumpy, and far from smooth with an almost grainy finish. But it was his [Bronze Ingot] and his alone.

Sam nearly jumped sky high when Matt, right behind him, said, “Congratulations, Sam. Oh, sorry! Didn’t mean to startle you. I just couldn’t turn away from the show. Quite impressive. Have you done this before?”

“No,” Sam choked out. “This is all new to me. Why?”

Matt motioned to the ingot. “I spoke to some of the professors and they told me to expect to fail repeatedly when starting out. It’s normal and a part of the process. You still get Experience for failures, though I haven’t given it a go yet. Finding the ingredients is annoying, much more than finding those useless purses.”

“Not so useless now,” Sam said, hefting the [Bronze Ingot] like a proud father. “I can actually make stuff with this. Granted… it’s probably going to be Primitive rarity stuff, but all the same I think it’ll be useful.”

“May I?” Matt asked, holding his hands out.

Sam felt an unwelcome urge to pull it away from his hands before he let the ingot fall into Matt’s palms. The man’s hands dropped several inches before he compensated for its weight.

“Damn, that’s a lot heavier than I would have thought for such a small thing.” He laughed, shaking his head. “I guess I never handled an actual ingot before. You know, for all the games I played growing up, I don’t think I’ve so much as seen an ingot, and yet I know exactly what it is courtesy of those same games.”

“I know what you mean,” Sam said, looking over the other [Demon Coins]. He was tempted to try the iron ones next, but he knew that it would be disastrous.

Sam looked back over his notifications, frowning. Didn’t his Blacksmith Profession state that he earned 4 points each, not 5?

Right, the Achievement!

[Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law] gave him an extra 25% Smithing stats for each level up as well as the additional Experience gain. And as even Sam with his poor math skills knew, 4 plus 25% was 5.

Apparently, the Shard didn’t feel generous enough to round up the 2.25 Awareness to 3, which was fair. He hadn’t seen any evidence so far that the Shard did that.

Still, that meant instead of the 14 stats he had expected—which was quite frankly insane compared to what First Order Jobs gave—he was now getting 17 stats a level.

That was higher than his Swordsman, and that was not only a rare variant but also a Second Order Job. How many stats would he get with a Second Order Profession?

And then there was that Achievement.

What did “Recipe Level Threshold” mean?

“Oh, that’s easy,” Matt said.

Sam looked over, trying to keep his face blank. He hadn’t realized he asked that last bit out loud.

“Do tell,” Sam prompted. It was too bad his Profession didn’t give any bonus points. He would have been happy to drop them into Mind. Especially considering that just crafting the single [Bronze Ingot] had dropped his MP by 300 points.

If you needed a substantial amount of MP to craft, he was going to have to find a way to enhance his, and fast.

He almost got up to go look for Raiko. [Glyph: Refresh] would be handy right about now.

Matt handed the [Bronze Ingot] back and blew on his hands a little. “Hotter than I expected, heh. Ahem, Recipe Level Thresholds you said?” Sam could see Matt wanted to chide him about not talking to the professors, but he held his peace and instead launched into the explanation. “As I understand them, they’re a way to lock people out of trying complex recipes.”

“How so?” Sam asked. “I mean, if I wanted to try making a [Steel Ingot], there’s nothing to stop me, right? I can add coal and iron ore and… whatever else is needed, and just try it.”

“That’s what I thought too! Turns out, no, you can’t. I mean, you could try it, but it’ll fail every single time. The way it was explained to me is that each recipe has a level that you need to be at in order to try it. That’s the Level Recipe Threshold. Some call it the Level Recipe Cap, same difference.

“Let’s give an example. You said [Steel Ingot] right? Say you’re level 1 and a [Steel Ingot] is level 10. Normally, you can try most recipes from 3 to 5 levels under its level. In this case, you could try making a [Steel Ingot] at level 5 at the absolute earliest. Most likely it’ll be level 7.”

“What happens if I try it earlier at like level 2?” Sam asked, intrigued by the achievement.

“You’d fail it. And I mean, like, instantly fail it. Your level isn’t high enough and your skill isn’t anywhere near where it needs to be in order to control the crafting process, so it’d just fail. The professors did say that as you get higher levels, the threshold expands a little, allowing up to 7 levels between you and the recipe’s level.

“When that was, they wouldn’t say because, and this is straight from their spectral lips, ‘worrying about what you can do in 10 levels is a waste of time when you should be practicing basic recipes now’.” Matt gave Sam a little helpless shrug.

“So, raising the threshold means that you’d be able to try a new recipe earlier,” Sam mused aloud.

“Yeah, but what’s the point of that?” Matt asked, chewing on something crunchy he pulled out from his Inventory. It looked like a pointed chiclet.

Surprisingly, Sam felt he could answer this one. “It’d be like fighting a higher-level monster, wouldn’t it? The stronger it is, the more Experience you gain if you beat it, so if you can raise your Recipe Level Threshold, you can try that difficult recipe sooner and get even more Experience.”

Though Sam had only attempted—and completed—one recipe so far, the notification was more than enough for him to feel confident that he was right. It had expressly stated that he gained extra Experience for trying something higher than his level, and it made sense if the system worked similarly to the one used for battle.

You didn’t get much Experience for fighting something as strong as you and definitely didn’t get much for fighting weaker things. Not only was that lazy, but it didn’t teach you anything, you weren’t struggling. In order to grow, you needed to strive, and you can’t strive against something that you can smack around with one hand tied behind your back.

Likewise, you can’t learn and grow as a crafter if you’re always taking the easiest recipe and doing it over and over again. Sam was willing to bet that if he did the [Bronze Ingot] recipe again, he’d not only be better at it—apart from the levels—but he’d gain less Experience as well.

Repeating the same recipe was a good way of getting better at that specific recipe, but it was only valuable up to a point. Further crafting the same thing over and over was like learning steps to a dance. Once you memorized it, there was nothing more to learn.

All of this, Sam mentioned to Matt.

There was a moment of silence as Matt watched Sam through suspicious eyes. “I am sorry,” he said finally.

“For what?”

Matt looked away into the flames. “For a lot, really, but most of all, for presuming I knew you. I mean… I know everybody has hidden depths and you certainly have more than your fair share. But I just realized how much I had always misjudged you.”

“You probably misjudged a lot of people,” Sam told him, hefting a handful of coins thoughtfully. “As have I. This is a new world Matt, what we did, who we were, they aren’t us now. At least, they don’t have to be. I’m not saying to forget the past or anything, but this is a golden opportunity to remake yourself. And I know I’m taking every advantage I can to do that. You should too.”

“That’s a good way of looking at it.” Matt stood up and dusted his hands on his pants. “I’ll take that advice and thank you for it later. You don’t mind if I come back and do some of my crafting here?”

“Not at all.” Sam weighed out the coins by hand, having a much better idea how many he would need for the next attempt. While he was tempted to try an [Iron Ingot], since he felt it was just barely within the realm of possibility to do, he wanted a bit more practice first.

Besides, he had a lot more bronze coins than he had iron.

As Matt left to presumably gather some materials, Sam went back to work.