His first crafted item.
Arthur was excited to see what kind of stats it would have. The better the item, the higher the price. Everyone knew that.
Arthur had chosen the crafting path precisely because he wanted to make as much money as possible and turn his in-game items into real-life income. There were simply too many rich players willing to pay thousands of dollars for powerful equipment.
The best items in the game were almost always crafted.
A skilled blacksmith needed to find the right materials, possess the necessary crafting skills, and sometimes even obtain the blueprint for the item they wanted to create.
Nearly all legendary items required blueprints that crafters had to discover and produce themselves. The game clearly wanted professions to remain useful and have a real impact on the world.
However, most players preferred doing quests, fighting monsters, and exploring.
Not many of them had the patience to spend countless hours improving a crafting profession until it became useful — much less profitable.
At the beginning of the game, when most players hadn’t even unlocked professions yet, the best items came from quests and monster drops.
In fact, that remained true for quite some time.
Crafting only became truly powerful at higher levels, when obtaining decent equipment from ordinary quests or monsters became fucking rare.
Dungeons were the most reliable source of good drops, but players usually had to clear them in groups. That meant dividing the loot, and the distribution was not always fair.
Things became even worse once the large guilds started controlling the best dungeons.
When that happened, average players had an incredibly difficult time obtaining decent equipment.
That was when people finally realized how important crafting professions were.
The problem was that there weren’t enough skilled crafters to supply everyone.
Arthur intended to focus on crafting from the very beginning and become the person everyone sought out whenever they needed a good item, even during the early stages of the game.
With all that in mind, the notification that appeared the moment he finished his sword made him want to cry, scream, and punch something just to release his anger.
[A fragment of your soul has been bound to the crafted item.]
[This item cannot be sold to NPCs or players.]
Arthur took a deep breath and tried to calm himself.
After everything he had done to obtain that class, after dying and returning to the past with the same class, he had decided to dedicate himself to crafting and earn enough money to help his family.
Yet despite all its obvious benefits, his class had one enormous downside.
He couldn’t sell his items.
What the hell was the point of that?
What was he supposed to do with everything he crafted if he couldn’t sell any of it?
"A fine weapon, kid," Bram said. "Decent quality for your first crafted item."
Arthur then noticed that several other system notifications were still waiting for him.
The first one had made him so angry that he hadn’t even felt like reading the rest.
Oh, how wrong he was.
[Soul-Bound items possess higher attributes than ordinary crafted items.]
[You may create contracts and lend these items to other players in exchange for rewards.]
[Read your class skills and passives for more information.]
[You may also gift crafted items to NPCs or players with whom you share a sufficiently strong relationship.]
[Building the required relationship may take time.]
[Gifting an item will grant permanent and powerful rewards.]
Arthur still wasn’t particularly excited after reading the notifications.
The fact that he couldn’t sell anything remained stuck in his mind.
’For this to be worth it, the rewards from these contracts better be good.’
Before checking his passives, Arthur inspected the sword itself.
He was impressed.
No, the weapon was damn fucking impressive.
[Iron Sword]
[Grade: Uncommon]
[Type: One-Handed Sword]
[Level Requirement: 1]
[Damage: 20–20]
[Attribute Requirement: None]
[Bonuses: +8 Strength, +5 Agility]
[Soul Augment: Heal on Hit]
[Heal on Hit: 5% of all damage dealt is recovered as HP.]
The sword was incredibly powerful.
Most players started the game with basic iron weapons, and those usually had four or five points of damage.
Arthur’s sword was also a Level 1 iron weapon, yet it had twenty damage, two attribute bonuses, and even a special passive effect normally reserved for Rare-grade items or better.
It was an absurdly good weapon.
Arthur opened his class information to understand how he had created something like that.
There had been nothing there before, but now that he had completed his first item, the abilities related to his class were finally beginning to appear.
[Soul Crafting]
[Type: Passive]
[Tier: Divine]
[Level: 1]
[Description: Every item you create is imbued with a fragment of your soul, binding the item to you and preventing it from being sold.]
[All crafted items receive increased base attributes and one random Soul Augment.]
[Increasing the level of this passive will further improve item attributes and allow multiple Soul Augments to appear on the same item.]
’A random augment every time I craft!’
To Arthur, that was like receiving a lottery ticket with every item.
And the final part was even more unbelievable.
Multiple augments.
Items with more than one powerful augment were usually limited to legendary equipment, and even then, there was a limit to how many they could possess.
How far could Arthur take this?
Could he eventually create items with more augments than legendary equipment?
Could he surpass the limits he had once believed were absolute?
His passive was also Divine Tier.
’I’ve never seen anything with a Divine Tier before...’
His anger over being unable to sell the items gradually began to fade.
At the very least, he could use these powerful weapons and equipment to become stronger far more quickly. With greater strength, he could still find other ways to make money.
Then he read his second ability.
This one was active.
[Soul Contract]
[Type: Active Skill]
[Tier: Divine]
[Level: 1]
[Description: Create a contract with another player and temporarily lend them one of your Soul-Bound items.]
[Contracts must follow one of the available system templates.]
[Current Active Contracts: 0/2]
[Contract Rewards:]
[Receive 20% of the contracted player’s highest base attribute.]
[Choose 3 skills from the contracted player’s class.]
[Receive 5% of all EXP earned by the contracted player.]
[Increasing the level of this skill will improve its bonuses.]
[Item Gifting remains locked.]
[Learn more about the Soul Artisan class to unlock this function.]
[Tip: System rewards are fixed and cannot be negotiated. They will improve as Soul Contract levels up.]
[However, additional conditions may be added to the contract with the agreement of both parties.]
[These conditions may include payment, loot, protection, services, or anything else the contracted player is willing to provide in exchange for using the item.]
Arthur carefully read the description and the system’s tip.
Perhaps this contract ability was even better than simply selling the items.
The increase in attributes, access to other class skills, and bonus EXP were all incredibly powerful.
They would help Arthur explore the world, complete quests, clear dungeons, and grow far more quickly than before.
More importantly, Soul Contract opened countless possibilities.
Arthur slowly smiled.
’Perhaps this time, I won’t be a pawn of the major guilds...’
’They’ll be my pawns.’