25 Strengthening Equipment (Part 1)

"How do you plan to give him trouble?"

Cecilia asked a good question, but Sean was just casually speaking.

He had no intention of actually giving the person trouble unless he decided not to take on the task. He knew very well how peculiar the method of obtaining this task was.

The previous conversation was just to familiarize himself with the person. His actions from now on would determine if he could receive the task.

However, there was something more important that Sean needed to attend to.

He opened his personal panel and selected the skills section, skipping the combat skills and focusing on the life skills category.

In the game, Sean had chosen the profession of a blacksmith for his life occupation.

Most warrior-class players would choose this profession since the repair costs for equipment were not cheap after intense battles.

As a blacksmith, he could repair his own equipment by consuming some raw materials. The benefits of being a blacksmith went beyond that.

With proficient skill levels, he could not only enchant equipment but even craft legendary equipment.

Although it would only be limited to the lowest-tier legendary equipment.

In the game, there were more detailed differentiations between equipment categories such as forging, enchanting, and legendary equipment, apart from artifacts.

For example, the forging category had common, fine, superior, and the enchanting category had bronze, silver, gold. The legendary category had even more detailed differentiations: legendary, epic, and mythic.

However, starting from the epic level, players couldn't create such equipment, and even crafting legendary-level equipment wasn't that simple.

Under normal circumstances, gold-tier equipment was considered the pinnacle that players could achieve.

As the former leader of a guild, Sean naturally had many privileges, and he didn't neglect the blacksmith life occupation.

Now, he opened the skill panel for life occupations to activate the skills associated with it.

Life occupation skills were not as extensive as combat occupation skills, but they had their own set of skill systems.

It wasn't as simple as smelting ore and pounding it on an anvil. Even for a basic step like that, there were five steps involved: smelting, refining, pounding, quenching, and cooling.

Of course, you could choose not to learn these basic steps, but then you would have to rely on your instincts when forging, without any system prompts or assistance.

However, if you learned these five skills, a spectrum bar would appear during forging, allowing players to follow it and achieve a perfect forge.

These were just the basic skills, there were many more related skills.

After a brief consideration, Sean consumed five proficiency points to activate all five skills.

Previously, after transitioning to the warrior class in the Fallen Star Forest and killing the undead creatures, he had raised his warrior level to level 5, earning ten proficiency points.

Together with the three remaining from the first tier, he had a total of thirteen proficiency points. After consuming five, he was left with eight.

But these were only the basic steps.

Sean quickly invested his proficiency points into the life skills again, activating the four necessary skills for forging and enchanting equipment: "Bronze Enchantment Knowledge," "Bronze Enchantment Casting," "Equipment Enchantment (Bronze)," and "Composite Magic Knowledge (Bronze)." This exhausted all his proficiency points.

Bronze Enchantment Knowledge: Relevant knowledge required for casting enchanted equipment (bronze). Blacksmith/Forging, Level 3/5, Proficiency 0%.

Bronze Enchantment Casting: Can forge weak enchanted equipment (bronze). Blacksmith/Forging, Level 2/5, Proficiency 0%. Prerequisite: Must learn Level 1 "Bronze Enchantment Knowledge." Skill level upgrade requires Level 3 "Bronze Enchantment Knowledge." Next level can forge medium-grade enchanted equipment (bronze).

Equipment Enchantment (Bronze): Can infuse magic into enchanted equipment (bronze), enhancing it up to weak enchanted level (bronze). Blacksmith/Forging, Level 2/5, Proficiency 0%. Prerequisite: Must learn Level 2 "Bronze Enchantment Knowledge." Skill level upgrade requires Level 3 "Bronze Enchantment Casting."

Composite Magic Knowledge (Bronze): Allows infusion of two elemental powers into enchanted equipment (bronze). Blacksmith/Forging, Level 1/5, Proficiency 0%. Prerequisite: Must learn Level 3 "Bronze Enchantment Knowledge." Skill level upgrade requires Level 2 "Equipment Enchantment (Bronze)."

After activating these skills, Sean tidied up the materials he needed from the table and instructed Cecilia not to wander around. He then left the inn.

Although Charles' sword was already an enchanted weapon, it was only a weak enchantment and didn't meet Sean's requirements. He had collected various materials in the Fallen Star Forest and purchased additional ones in Arthur City to upgrade Charles' sword to a weak enchanted level. If it weren't for the limited proficiency points, Sean even considered allocating all his life skill points to directly enhance the weapon to a medium-grade enchantment.

As for the enhancement path for the weapon, he had planned it in advance.

Walking through the streets of Arthur City, Sean carried a backpack filled with various materials. He wasn't wandering aimlessly but heading towards a blacksmith shop located in the southern part of the city.

This blacksmith shop had a long history and was somewhat renowned throughout the Kingdom of Portoroa. Its main products were fine-grade equipment, occasionally offering superior-grade equipment. It was the highest-level blacksmith shop that early players in the Kingdom of Portoroa could access in the game.

Durun's fine-grade equipment was obtained from this blacksmith shop.

Sean visited this blacksmith shop because it was the only one that offered facilities like a forge for rent.

Additionally, the shop's owner had a habit of accepting apprentice workers and conducting craftsmanship processes, so there was a private room behind the blacksmith shop. That was Sean's purpose for this visit.

After more than a month in this world, Sean had gradually gained an understanding of certain aspects of this world.

In a game, it wouldn't be a big deal for players to know how to craft enchanted equipment since NPCs in the game couldn't do much about it.

However, in the real world, the situation would be different. Sean only possessed a weak enchanted bronze-level equipment, and no one would suspect anything since such items could be bought at auctions held by some merchant guilds, given enough money.

However, if people were to find out that Sean knew how to craft enchanted equipment, even if it was just a weak enchanted bronze-level item, he would quickly be targeted.

That's why Sean didn't dare to enhance his equipment openly in front of others.

By paying a silver coin to the shop owner, Sean obtained the right to use the owner's private room for the next day. As part of the deal, the owner also gave Sean a leather scabbard.

A weak enchanted bronze weapon wasn't enough to pique the owner's interest, and the cost for room usage wasn't too high.

The owner simply regarded Sean as a noble's offspring trying to learn blacksmithing skills.

Inside the room, there were all the necessary equipment, from the forge and anvil to the grinding stone and water basin. The room even had various types of hammers and molds.

The presence of these tools indicated that this blacksmith shop was indeed a reputable and well-established establishment.

Without any hesitation or awkwardness, Sean quickly emptied the materials from his package. His movements were confident and deliberate as he carefully organized all the materials.

Then, he took out several black stones, each about the size of an adult's fist. These stones were smooth and evenly sized, and only someone familiar with the craft would recognize them as ore.

These were Magic Infused Iron Ore.

It was a common and inexpensive special ore with a high melting point. Typically, it required intense heat and several hours of smelting to melt, and once cooled, it became extremely hard.

Most equipment incorporated some Magic Infused Iron Ore to enhance its defensive capabilities.

However, what Sean needed from this ore was its other characteristic: magical affinity.

Sean dumped all the ore into an iron barrel and casually poured a bottle of accelerant into it. He then added a small piece of flint, and in an instant, flames erupted from the barrel. Sean mechanically moved the barrel onto the furnace and began the smelting process.

One of the distinctive traits of players is their inclination to optimize. If Sean were to follow the normal procedure, it would take several days to enhance Charles' sword, but with his approach, he could melt the Magic Infused Iron Ore into liquid in just an hour.

Sean didn't waste the next hour either.

First, he took the Wind Whisper flowers he had collected from the Stardust Forest and ground them into a powder. Then, he extracted juice from a green fruit and mixed it with the powder until the pale green liquid became thick and viscous.

A refreshing coolness emanated from the sticky liquid, accompanied by a subtle sweetness that seemed to be the original flavor of the fruit.

If Cecilia were present, she would undoubtedly sense the strong presence of wind elemental energy in it.

After completing this step, Sean evenly applied the sticky liquid onto the blade of Charles' sword. Instantly, the faint blue glow emitted by the blade grew stronger, with tiny sparks shimmering within it.

However, this wasn't the end. Sean quickly retrieved a bottle containing a pale yellow liquid. It was an alchemical potion known as Rockskin Elixir.

Rockskin Elixir was a special potion that could petrify the skin and enhance physical resistance. It was quite expensive.

In the elemental realm, wind element was known to counter earth element. However, elemental counters were not absolute, and many composite types of magic possessed elements that countered each other completely.

Only mages who possessed knowledge of composite magic could unleash such counter-combination spells. What Sean was about to do was pour the potion onto Charles' sword.

This was why Sean activated the skill "Composite Magic Knowledge (Bronze)." Without activating this skill, such an action would destroy the weapon outright, but even with the skill activated, success was not guaranteed.

This step was one of the two biggest risks involved in enhancing enchanted equipment!