Next day, I managed to smelt 10 of the ingots prior to breakfast, which got me +1 PER for completing the [Creationist: Ingot Creation] quest. The remaining 10 ingots I put in extra effort to insure maximum quality, as these are the ones that will be mine to use. Thus putting 4 hours into their production.

Overall the result was rather satisfying, after fulfilling my quota, I received my 10 [Iron Ingots] and 3 [Coal Ores] and began to produce 3 [Steel Ingots], taking about half an hour on each ingot. From then I began to produce 1 [Steel Sword] and 1 [Steel Dagger] taking up 5 hours, both came up with a quality score that surpassed 6!

The next 3 hours I decided to make the remaining [Iron Ingots] into weapons to introduce lower cost items for those who can not afford steel. While I do think it is a waste as I could have used it for my equipment and all, at this point I just want some money! I want normal clothes! some good tasting food! A freaking warm bath! So while it may seem like a poor long term decision at first glance, for the sake of my sanity it is a good investment…

With that decided, the 7 [Iron Ingots] were made into 1 [Iron Sword], 1 [Iron Spear], and 2 [Iron Daggers].

Once I was done, I went to the exhibit hall and put out my wares. Setting up my disguise I began my pitch.

“SELLING ABOVE AVERAGE [STEEL SWORD] AND [STEEL DAGGER]! IRON BASED WEAPONS AS WELL AT 25% DISCOUNT!” I yelled.

It seems this time around I am getting more looks… come on someone please buy something! Pretty please!

Half an hour passed… An hour passed… no luck…

I lost myself due to the frustration…

“LIMITED TIME OFFER! 50% DISCOUNT ON ALL GOODS!” I screamed.

From then on I got a lot more interest as people took notice and looked… but that was it… they all looked and no one bought a freaking thing! What in the world is wrong?!?!?

The exhibit came to an end just like that and I drooped my ears and shoulders in utter disappointment… then I felt the presence of someone walking towards me so I looked up to see a human man in his mid 30s, who by the look of his attire was a fellow Disciple.

“Having a hard time selling ha?” asked a human.

I felt a bit uncomfortable... but steeling myself to get over the trauma I responded back.

“O-Only a l-little, I-I’ll do better t-tomorrow!” I insisted, seemingly trying to convince myself.

“Good luck with that, your not going to do any better tomorrow or after tomorrow or any day” replied the human.

Darn human making fun of me!

“A-Are you looking down on me?!?!” I exclaimed.

“Ha ha ha, It’s not that, we all know you are skilled in blacksmithing. It is hard to ignore the results of the competition after all. In my opinion, you are probably more talented than all of us… but at same time that is your downfall” explained the human.

“I-I don’t understand...” I replied, somewhat perplexed.

“I am sure you don’t. See... the items bought by adventurers have a deep profound meaning to them. Unlike many other products, the entrust their lives to their weapons and armors. I mean last thing any adventurer wants is their weapon to snap on them at a critical juncture after all. So adventurers tend to be cautious when buying their equipment.

And there is one stereotype every adventurer knows. That dwarves make the best equipment! Which is why equipment that is not made by dwarves is looked down upon.

Now I know what you are thinking, can’t they just check the quality score and see that they are good equipment? That is a common mistake made by smiths or other non-production professions. Long story short, they can’t! We take our abilities for granted, but very few adventurers have the ability to discern goods they buy. So instead, they go to trusted sources to get the best equipment.

Dwarves who have a reputation for being honest and making the best equipment is a prime choice for adventurers. So the only way to sell our goods when we are not a dwarf is to hit up a dwarf and have them sell our equipment while sharing commission. Once our reputation builds up, those adventurers who purchased our stuff will be more open for a second purchase, especially if we offer a discount from time to time.

But this is where things get complicated for you. Not only are dwarves know for honesty and making good equipment. They are also known for their pride! And even more so the pride in their equipment!

To put it simple, no dwarf is going to sell your equipment on your behalf. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t have anything against you. They just can’t let go off their pride that is all.

But I’ll do you a favor! I’ll help sell your above average equipment, and you give me 100% of your profit. Then when adventurers get used to your gear, you can sell to them directly” offered the human.

Grrr… I have some pride too you know! That is pretty much extortion! And to be honest, I for some strange reason don’t feel very comfortable about selling the equipment I worked so hard to make unless I personally hand it over…

“No way!” I replied.

“Suite yourself, you’ll come back begging” said the human and walked away towards the cafeteria.

Ugh! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

Just when things were finally starting to look up for me, god comes up with new ways to screw me over!

I went and had dinner and fell asleep in a terrible mood. Even when I woke up in the morning I felt horrible.

I contemplated going out and doing some quests or something to get my mind off things, but no luck… I could not muster the will to go anywhere… I just wanted to roll in my bed all day and pretend reality did not exist.

My mood got even worse after the exhibit market, as again nobody bothered to buy anything even at 50% discount. I almost screamed out that I was going to just give them away for free just to shut up that cheeky human… But luckily I resisted. If I give it away for free, it does not count towards my quota and chances are the adventurers will just use it as a throwing weapon or something. Who is going to trust a weapon given away for free after all?

Only the following day did my mood finally improve with the start of a new week, and a new quota. I smelted all 50 [Iron Ingots] on that day which made me really blissful! Oh smelting, you will never betray me! You are my only friend in the whole wide world! The +1 PER for completing yet another [Creationist: Ingot Creation] quest added to the thrill as well!

I didn’t even bother going into the market that day, not wanting to sully my good mood.

Unfortunately, you can only be in denial of reality for so long… So the next day I was forced to finally cope. Despite the futility, I still made 1 [Steel Sword] and 1 [Steel Dagger] out of my [Steel Ingots] and 1 [Iron Sword], 1 [Iron Axe], and 3 [Iron Daggers] from my remaining [Iron ingots], I even made use of my [Sculpting] Level 2 to improve the looks a tad bit making them stand out more. Since my [Sculpting] was somewhat lacking for iron and steel, I did end up losing some quality. Though not too much since my ridiculously high [Blacksmithing] level and high [PER] stat helped make up for some of the deficit. So I was still able to barely retain a quality score of 6 on my wares.

Now normally this would be a stupid thing to do, because once your quality score goes to 6 and above, every fraction of a point is worth stats. So effectively I am throwing stats out into the garbage. But if they can’t see the quality score anyways, does it matter? Might as well make it more visually appealing, thus increasing the probability it catches someone’s eyes.

I don’t want to give up just yet… Just imagining that human’s smug face saying “I told you so” pisses me off!

Congratulations! You have completed the class quest [Creationist: Weapon creation]

+1 PER has been attained

Class quest [Creationist: Weapon creation], has been reset.

I’ll give it at least this week, if I fail to sell anything this week, then I’ll look for other options. Maybe I’ll get lucky and someone who can see quality will notice my wares, who knows… but giving up is not the solution. I’ve come way too far to just give up now!

With that mindset, I again headed for the exhibition market.