Personally, I wasn’t sure what was so bad about the weapons on display in the blacksmith. From what I could tell, they seemed reasonably priced. Sure, they were customizable to a degree, but at least it’s not like you could buy a gun or something like that. That had been what I was really worried about.
Still, I knew that Wesley was much more familiar with the weapons of this world than I was, given that he was basically a walking armory himself. He probably had more experience shopping for weapons than most A-rank or higher adventurers. If he said that there was something wrong with the selection, there probably was.
Once the initial shock was out of the way, though, Wesley went to inform Leonard that a new job had opened up for him, before leading him to the workshop. When Leonard saw that there was a proper forge in the settlement, his eyes lit up and he accepted the job without a second thought.
Of course, in the forge itself, there were no true materials, just as in the tavern. But for Leonard, he saw large baskets of ore, racks of molds, as well as shelves filled with material like wood or leather straps.
Eager to get to work, Leonard pulled some iron ore from the baskets and began the process of smelting it down. He seemed delighted with the quality of the ore, saying how it was better than what he used to work with in the city. Using a ladle, he carefully scraped out the impurities as the ore melted, then poured the liquid metal into a basic ingot mold.
At this stage, a prompt appeared in front of Leonard, asking if he wanted to register an iron ingot with a purity rating of C with the system. Seeming disappointed with that rating, he melted it back down to start over from scratch. The second time, he managed to get a rating of B, and then tried yet again.
However, despite his repeated attempts, it didn’t seem like he was able to get any higher than a B. In fact, most of his attempts didn’t get higher than a C rating. Disgruntled, he reluctantly accepted the B, at which point a shelf of identical iron ingots appeared along the wall, a number displayed above them to indicate that there were one hundred such ingots.
With his material prepared, he started simply, heating one of the ingots enough to cut off a small piece from the end, which he carefully hammered into a long, straight shape with a flat base. In other words, he made a nail.
Once he was done, he received another prompt, this one asking if he wanted to create a mold or register the item in the shop. Naturally, he chose to make a mold, as it was too laborious to hammer out each individual nail. So, a large mold with ten rows of ten holes appeared on its own tray.
In exchange, the nail that he first created was deleted, but he was able to make many more by simply pouring some liquid iron carefully into the new mold. Like this, he created hundreds of nails, before moving on to creating a hammer.
Although the shop did sell hammers, they were warhammers, not construction hammers. Through this process, I was able to receive a better understanding on how this shop worked. Every time he created a new piece, he would be asked if he wanted to make a mold, whether it was for a finished product or a small piece. Once he had a finished product, he would also be asked if he wanted to register it with the shop.
Unfortunately, items that he registered with the shop were only able to be purchased once per time he crafted it. For instance, when he made one hammer, that hammer did not become a permanent addition to the shop. Instead, it was listed with the note of having only one available.
In addition, there were no ‘fast crafting’ options. The closest equivalent would be the molds themselves, which did save time, but still required a fair deal of work from Leonard to work the metal once it was done.
With all that said, I had no doubts that Leonard would be able to make whatever he wanted with the materials provided. His main priority seemed to be on items for everyday use, though, given how the shop already sold weapons and armor.
Wesley sat on a handcrafted bench near the tavern with a thoughtful expression, looking out towards the blacksmith shop.
“Something on your mind?” Prim asked, walking over to stand near him. “You seem a bit distracted, ever since Leonard began working in the forge.”
Wesley blinked, looking up at Prim with a weary smile. “Have I? I suppose… I think I’ve stumbled on what could be a critical weakness of the Land. Though, personally, I’m hoping that I’m overthinking it.”
Prim arched a brow, looking down at the elf with curious eyes. “A critical weakness?” You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“That’s right… we’ll know in another week or so if an option to fix it appears. Given the progression, it just might, but I’m also not sure if I’d bet on it. The Land doesn’t seem to have many security features. Ways to protect its own territory, I mean. Normally, I would have expected a barracks to appear at the one hundred point mark to recruit a regular militia, but there were just more shops.”
“Again, it’s possible that the blacksmith is required before the militia option appears, but I am starting to doubt that will happen.”
Prim moved to sit down next to Wesley, tilting her head. “Why not?” she asked in confusion. “It should be fine to wait and see what appears, is it not?”
“The reason… well, honestly, it’s you,” Wesley confessed, pointing a finger towards a confused Prim. “There is an option to create people. Logically, this could be used to create a militia, one soldier at a time. And there were options to create people like you with more skills, right? I think that is how that option was meant to be used, but doing so is… expensive, to say the least.”
Prim hesitated, but ultimately nodded in agreement. “I can see why you would think that. The Land experimented with prices over the last week. To create someone with just two attunement slots, and slightly enhanced speed or strength would cost seventy points. Creating someone equivalent to even a normal C-ranked adventurer would likely cost hundreds of points.”
“Which leads me to think that territory defense isn’t inherently part of the Land’s features,” Will agreed. “Not in the civilized path, at least. If he went down the monster path, maybe he’d be able to create something like a dungeon with various traps and mechanisms. But, when he is setting up his options to deal with people, he is forced into a symbiotic relationship. The Land can’t protect us, he can only give us the tools to protect ourselves.”
“And this is… a problem?” Prim asked uncertainly.
“A big one. Right now, we don’t have the population for that. We have two C-ranked adventurers and one B-rank. If a war broke out, or a noble brought out their army to claim this territory, there would be nothing that we could do. Which has got me thinking of two possible options that we could use.”
“First, we help the Land earn monster points, and see if there is a method to get a military force through that, such as controlling monsters. Secondly, we get a lot more people here, including a permanent militia.”
“Both options will require the Land to purchase more territory, so we’ll have to wait at least a week at our current rate. Otherwise, it’s just a matter of how we want to commit to our plan of action. If we go with the route of recruiting more people, we might be able to break past the current point cap and find new options more quickly. However, it will open the Land up to outside influence.”
“On the other hand, if we take the monster route, the people might grow to fear the Land as the monster population grows. Not to mention the uncertainty of whether or not there will be options to control them.”’
Prim thought about it for a few moments, closing her eyes. “The Land wishes… to go for the first option. He has already made plans for the monster points, but does not want to use it for something like that.”
“Oh? What does he want to use it for, then?” Wesley asked, curious.
“The Land plans to eventually use the ability to spawn monsters as a way to provide work for adventurers, and potentially a source of meat, if a viable monster can be found. Though, the Land also wishes to know why you are going to such lengths to help?” You are reading on novelping(.)com, the official source.
Seeing Prim’s gaze fixed firmly on him, Wesley offered a wry smile. “The Land said that he was from Earth in his past life, right?”
Prim nodded her head, so Wesley continued. “The first recorded incident of awakened items mentioning the name ‘Earth’ appeared ten years ago. Hundreds of them, all over the country. Some were reborn as swords, others as books, and there was even one that was an awakened door.”
“However, they were all scared and confused, unlike normal awakened items that tended to lack such detailed emotions as soon as they awakened. I’m sure other countries have similar stories, but many of those items turned violent when they were treated like tools. There was a sword that turned into a bloodthirsty blade, corrupting any who wielded him.”
“After that, any awakened item that had a developed personality and was suspected of being from Earth was treated with extreme caution. If there was any chance that they would turn against people, they were destroyed on the spot. It was essentially a summary execution.”
“As the years passed, more and more awakened items were discovered to be from Earth. It was found that, as long as you approach them like you would a normal person, you could get along with many of them just fine. There were still a few bad eggs, but the number had gone down considerably.”
“By the tenth wave of discovered items, the guild had taken a stance to investigate the item, assess its personality, and use that to determine its value. They still see these items as simply tools, but they understand that these tools have a far greater potential than normal awakened items, if handled properly.”
“Ever since then, there has been a very delicate balance in the guild’s treatment of these items. There are still many that get destroyed due to being uncooperative, or lashing out against people. But, personally, I believe that they should be given the same treatment as anyone else. Maybe it’s because I’m naturally capable of attuning to more items than others, but to me, this Land doesn’t feel any different from a random person walking down the street.”
Prim nodded her head slightly, before hesitating as part of his explanation registered with her. “You mentioned the tenth wave?”
“Hmm?” Wesley looked over, a brow perked up. “Yeah, after a few months, the items started identifying themselves as from a certain wave, why?”
“...Out of curiosity, how many waves are you aware of?” Prim asked, her voice low.
Wesley thought it over, taking a moment to remember. “There seems to be a new wave appearing every month or so. I think the last one I heard mentioned was… the thirty-fifth wave? That should be the one the Land is from, right?”
“...Not quite.” Prim shook her head, looking down at the ground. “The Land was part of the tenth group of people to be sent to another world, what you would call the tenth wave.”
“Eh?” Wesley hesitated, his eyes going wide. “But that would mean that he had been waiting here for around two years, wouldn’t it?”
This time, it was Prim who was hesitant to answer. “He honestly doesn’t know himself. Before the first group came along to give him the points needed to build a house, he had no real way of keeping track of the days. He knows that it felt like quite a long time, but can’t say how much. Still… it’s not outside the realm of possibility, given what happened before…”
“You mean his wishes?” Wesley suddenly asked, catching Prim by surprise. “There have been a few awakened from Earth mentioning that they were given the chance to make wishes. Though, I can’t imagine how it would end up with him being unseen for two years.”
“...He wanted to be somewhere out of the way, and not attract attention at first. Admittedly, at the time, he was not aware that he would be turned into an object, let alone a plot of land. But yes, that would… line up with current events…” Prim admitted with a sigh.