Chapter 417 - Important. Consequential. (Patreon)

I use my remaining time here very smartly by annoying every crafter I meet and trying to get as much free information as I can.

My D-rank Obsidian Black identification emblem is nothing impressive here, but having a damaged arcane axe helps. Some crafters seem to be intrigued by it.

I have on me mana stones with Lissandra’s three mana exercises, improvements on mana cycling, and a Restrictive Training Emblem. I'm sure they are worth a lot.

Like, a lot a lot.

So they stay as hidden as possible. Otherwise, I'm sure there would be an “accident” coming my way. The same goes for the arcane-grade alloy left to me by Nevan.

That's why I use only the axe, and even that seems to be on the edge where if I had more, I would become a newbie with some cool stuff worth enough to break some unspoken rules.

Unspoken rules seem to be the reason why it's not a lawless place. Even though it can change from outpost to outpost, especially in the dungeon. There, you can find better facilities and stuff, but it's also more dangerous, with most rules made by the guilds.

Of course, if you kill an attendee, you risk angering their handler. Handlers often see their “person” as an investment. A talent they might try to grow. There is an entire thing around relationships between handlers, contracts, trading of talent, and much more. It's akin to us being football stars and handlers being managers and the guilds being football teams.

Some of the higher-ranked attendees can even get contracts from guilds with monthly or yearly salaries. Bigger guilds with high ranking can even double the duration of your stay tokens. You can have access to their facilities, contacts, and information.

There is so much, and I just dipped my toes into it all.

Clearing my mind, I turn my attention back to the man who examines my Flamebearer.

“I can't fix it.” He shakes his head.

“Yes, I expected that much.”

“Listen here, you brat, it's not…”

I interrupt him quickly, “Do not misunderstand, I didn't mean it that way. It's just that I know how difficult it is to work with these items, and after months of trying, I didn't expect it to become as simple as finding someone on the entrance floor to help.”

His eyes squint, but in the end, he accepts my explanation.

Damn, dealing with people sure is difficult. Tess, please help.

“Got it, so what do you want?”

“I got curious if it would be possible to change its shape. I prefer a sword or maybe javelin over the current one.”

That makes him laugh, and he returns the axe, the fires of his smithy burning behind him.

“What you are asking for is even more difficult than just fixing the weapon. You would need to redo everything while adapting it to the new shape. In the end, you would only recycle the material the axe is made of, and everything else would be new.”

I tilt my head in surprise, “What if I melted the weapon only enough to change its shape while removing the damaged parts and repositioning the working ones?”

“Do you even realize how crazy something like that would be? With an arcane weapon? You could end up dropping in rarity, you could ruin inscriptions, you could screw up balance. Not to mention how much heat you would need to melt a weapon of this grade while also having enough raw power to work with inscriptions and the skills to do so.”

“So it would be possible?”

“Did you listen to what I just said?”

“Sounds good.”

He sighs but thinks of it, “You would need someone with a fragment of eternal fire, primordial thermal energy of high level, or some higher-tiered fire skill over level 60 most likely. Then someone who could work on the weapon in all that heat or be able to isolate it. A lot of mana just to keep the inscriptions from melting and to be able to work with them; inscribers would be able to tell you more.”

“If you succeed in all that, could it undamage the weapon and turn it back to arcane?”

“Probably? It could end up a weaker arcane than it was before. It's currently low tier but quite close to mid arcane - without damage, of course. Decreasing its size and reforging it could make it a weak low arcane or drop to a strong upper epic.”

I hand him the axe again as he gestures and ask him, “How about adding some additional inscriptions or some other metals to improve on it or add another function?”

“Hmmm,” he flings the blade of the axe with his fingernail and thinks. “That could work, but it would increase the difficulty even further. I'm sure there are people capable of that deep in the dungeon, but they would ask so much money it would be more worth it to buy a new weapon.”

This blacksmith in front of me is one of the locals and probably the best one in the outpost. It's amusing to watch the interest in his eyes and the excitement he shows when he talks about this kind of stuff and thinks.

“Weapons don't matter that much. It's that you often don't get the opportunity to work on an arcane item, and the things you could learn from it would help a lot in the future,” I say.

And I mean it. Even as I am now, I can buy the cheapest arcane item, and if I waited a bit more to save up to around 150 thousand, I could buy an arcane weapon of low grade that could be probably comparable to Flamebearer. A bit more, and at around 200k, you can buy low arcane weapons that would be equal or stronger than Flamebearer when it wasn't damaged.

The prices are just crazy like that.

Even so, I consider this damaged arcane axe as an opportunity to learn and improve. It's a fun side project I could work on and maybe, in the future, use the alloy left to me in combination with Flamebearer and create something of mid arcane rarity. And sell it. If it would be made by me, I would get 50% of its system shop value instead of getting 10-20% like for items I find on floors.

And that would be some cool stuff. Mid arcane weapons in the system move around 300-500 thousand shards, with upper arcane being from 500 thousand up to a million shards.

However, in the end, I still strongly prefer passives, and my current goal is to grow my shards again to buy one. I could even try to make some shards here in Beyond.

There is no system-managed shop I could sell through like during the tournament, but there are shops I could sell to, and interestingly, there are auction houses. The whole economy works down here.

The smith nods to that and even smiles, “Maybe I judged you too harshly, young man. I'm now willing to pay 25 thousand shards for that damaged arcane weapon.”

“No, thank you.”

“What is a few thousand shards among people like us? 26 thousand.”

“I have to go.” I quickly leave and ignore the man behind me already thinking of something else.

I still have a few more hours, and my legs are regrown, so that's good. At this point, I also don't bother looking for shoes and instead find myself a dark alley where I sit on the ground. Lifting my sleeves a bit, I start painting on my skin with mana conductive paint I bought. It might be a good idea to go fully prepared like that. I also already have a small mana orb inside my body that I've been feeding with my mana for the past day.

It is not as good as the crown, but it's the second-best option without bringing attention to me. As of late, I also find some beauty in the way others seem to underestimate me and barely give me a second look.

I prepare my mind. I know I will most likely be forced to kill or use the people who plan to betray me. This time they won't be fakes, shadows of people, destined to die when the floor ends. No, they will be real people. Attendees from their own tutorials with their own goals and hopes for the future.

Even so, it doesn't matter. I have goals and hopes of my own, and for me they are more important than theirs. My sister, my mother on Earth left to endure 5 years of Earth's awakening and preparing for the system with who knows which changes.

Then there is also that group of mine.

I want to live, I want to master my abilities, I want to explore what the system has to offer. I want to see how high I can climb before my pride crumbles and my body turns to dust.

As much as I'm trying to change my personality bit by bit, I won't hesitate if anyone tries to kill or use me.

Out of curiosity and because I don't have much more time left, I head towards where I sense the anchor I left on Duncan.

Locals, descendants of people who got into Beyond. The most talented out of their tutorials - rounds of people chosen from millions, billions of people on the planet. Does something like that show on their descendants? Could locals be more talented than normal people?

So far, most of what I've seen, they don't seem that high-leveled, at least not here. But I know you can hire them when going into the dungeons. As guild attendants mainly, but sometimes to help you.

I don't think it's that simple, and they would probably be highly expensive. But unlike us from the tutorial, the locals could spend tens, hundreds of years in Beyond. The amount of information collected in such time cannot be underestimated, and neither can the value of that.

That's why I'm also curious about them.

Duncan is a year or two younger than me, at least he looks and feels like that, and reaching his anchor, I hide my presence as much as possible.

It's in the poorer-looking part of the outpost, even though it's still nice.

While training with mana inside my body, I watch the timer tick down and observe locals and attendees moving around. This time, I'm trying to count how many races there are while waiting to see if Duncan will leave the house he just entered.

When I count over 20 races, I stop.

There seem to be a lot of humans or races with weird eyes, differently colored skin, or some other small change. Then there are lynthari with pretty decent representation. There are not that many demons, and each of them feels more dangerous than the average attendee. Each has red eyes and horns.

The time of the meeting is close, and I glance at my feet and I move my toes on them. Some time ago, I joked that I probably lost enough body parts for Lily to build a Nathaniel or two. The thought of that is still as amusing as it is scary.

The flesh is weak, embrace the sanctity of the blessed mana, you could say?

I lift my fingers and touch my lips, noticing the corner of my mouth just a tiny bit lifted up.

Lately, I'm really having a lot of fun here, am I not? As dangerous and dirty as this all feels sometimes, it also feels so beautifully real. Important. Consequential. I make mistakes, and I have to deal with them.

I do not regret making these mistakes. Because every time I correct one, there is that clear feeling of progression.

It's hard to explain properly. Well, at least to me. But that's also fun, slowly discovering it all.

The door of the house finally opens, and Duncan steps out, still chewing some food. His huge bag is on his back, and he smiles brightly, turning back to the people inside the room.

There are a boy and a girl, both children probably as old as Isabella and Vega. Both wearing old but clean clothes. There is a clear resemblance in their faces which confirms they are all siblings.

The way they look up to him reminds me of something.

Duncan says something, and with a serious nod, the kids close the door, and Duncan checks if it's locked. Only then does he rush away.

I observe that house for a while and then, with a sigh, create an anchor inside of it, the house not having any protection against it.

Inside, the house is clean but mostly empty. Sending my senses through it, I avoid the children who are upstairs and find the kitchen.

The fridge like appliance is broken, and there is just enough food for a few days. The water tank is also not that full and close to kicking the bucket, together with a stove whose mana stone might explode soon if not handled carefully.

Quickly, within a few seconds, I reach each non-working appliance and fix it, putting into the freezer all of the food I have on me and refilling the water tank with water from my vial.

I know how expensive the food and water are here in Beyond, and Duncan, even though earning shards, seems to need to use them for something. In the entire house, I can't sense the items I bought for him.

Everyone has their problems, I guess, and he even said so. Nevertheless, the children shouldn't go hungry, and it's not like I will need the food or water. Soon I will be sent out of Beyond, and I can last a day or two easily without it. This is better than just letting it all rot on the first floor, yep.

Teleporting away, I head towards the meeting spot.

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