'So, what about my old quest? I guess I will just wear the armour then.'

Peter went to meet the master blacksmith.

"Hi sir, can you help me with this. I just made a hammer. Could you mind inspecting it?"

"Why? It's normal to make hammers." As he kept staring at the hammer, his eyes lit up.

"A unique hammer? Nice I haven't seen one in a long time. I can only assume that the gods have favoured you, my friend."

Master blacksmith Duffan has praised your work. Blacksmith fame 10.

You have passed the test of a master blacksmith. You will receive a unique blacksmith job. Please pick a suitable unique job class quest.

Blacksmith Job Change Quests(U)

1. Rough hand(U)

Difficulty: B

Find the master blacksmith Scarlett in the Alderriver forest and complete the work assignment.

Reward: Rough handed smith(U), improved crafting speed and fast crafting replicas upto uncommon items. Branding on produced items.

2. Wood Carver(U)

Difficulty: C

Travel to Willow Creek village and meet carver smith Joan. Complete missions to learn the craft.

Reward: Wood Carving. Ability to craft superior arrows and bows with bonus damage. Mass producing arrows. Branding on produced items.

3. Master of all(L)

Difficulty: S

Find elven smith Dorsa with title equipped for further information.

Reward: Unknown.

4. Crafter of Legends(L)

Difficulty: SS

Find the divine smith hiding in Summerbrook.

Reward: Unknown.

'I'm not sure if I can complete any of these quests.'

'It looks like a long time objective. I shouldn't have any issues considering I will be promoted to tier 2 anyway.'

You have chosen 'crafter of legends' would you like to confirm?

"Yes"

You have picked the quest and progress can be viewed in the quest log.

Duffan suddenly shifted his gaze back to him.

"I see you have chosen a path and I hope you have the strength to see through to its end. Well, there is no point in rushing towards an unknown destination. Take your time and improve your methods during your quest."

You have become a tier 2 blacksmith. You may brand any items of quality rare or above with your name.

'Tier 2 blacksmith for now. Well, what did the title give?'

Title: Creative Artisan(R)

Blacksmith fame +20

World fame +10

Recognised as a decent blacksmith.

Chances to craft different unique items with the title equipped.

'Fame? Not bad.'

Peter went through the quest log and saw that the blacksmith quest was much longer than he expected.

Passive Quests

1. Crafter of Legends(L)

Difficulty: SS

Find the divine smith hiding in Summerbrook. (0/1)

Reach world blacksmith fame. (30/5000)

Reach world fame. (10/200)

Craft rare. (0/500)

Craft legends. (0/5)

'This is absolutely a long term goal.'

With more people entering the realm every hour, the demand for items had raised to an all-time high. Yet there was an extreme drought of craftsmen professions. Most of this was related to the extreme difficulty in crafting items.

This was considerably reduced when one advanced to the higher tier. When a player reached tier 2, they were allowed to mass craft common grade items. This was done taking into consideration the number of players that were currently playing the game.

With almost all stocks running out of stock, most of the players were currently using the beginner village common equipments.

Even the mass-produced common items were heavily sought after at the auction house.

'I should make a bunch of common gear and put it up at the auction house.'

Peter had a thousand each of copper and tin ore. Placing them to mass smelt, he surfed the forums.

'Looks like there is a great demand for crafters right now. They are even offering millions in annual remuneration for high tier crafters.' Peter was browsing through the forums when he saw offers from different large gaming studios.

When the notification came up that the smelting was complete, Peter went to start crafting armours and weapons. Peter again chose to mass-produce but the only head, torso and leg gear. These were the most important pieces of armour one could get.

With a thousand common grade equipment pieces in the inventory, Peter approached the auction house. He placed all of them as individual bids and left looking for the master swordsman to upgrade his combat class.

Kilu was watching the spar between two of his underlings when Peter approached him.

"You have become stronger. Are you here for raising your tier?"

"Yes sir. I was wondering if you could get me the quest for it."

You have received a quest.

Path of the sword.

Difficulty: C

Find and kill Ron Staffen, the assassin hiding in the worn-down house along the Alder river.

Reward: ascend to tier 2. Unlock the world fame system and leaderboards.

'This should be easy.'

Walking down the city stairs to the Alderriver forest, Peter bought a few cooked meat that gave a bonus to strength. The rare armour that he made had already given him a defence of 1100. Now, all Peter needed was to grind down the monsters' health and kill them.

'Looks like the girls haven't reached the town yet.'

There were many worn down huts along the river and all Peter could do was search them one by one.

On his third try, he saw signs of recent use.

'This is probably it. Doesn't look like he is here.'

There was no one inside the house. A few blood trails visible which extended through the back door.

'Looks like someone got to him before me.'

Quest update.

Path of the sword.

Difficulty: D

Find what happened to Ron Staffen, the assassin who was hiding in the worn-down house along the Alder river. Bring the necklace on him as proof of completion.

Reward: ascend to tier 2. Unlock the world fame system and leaderboards.

'The quest changed.'

Peter chose to follow the trail which led him to a clearing. Four people surrounded a man who was bound and kneeling on the floor.

When Peter entered the house, the four who bound Ron stared at him. One of them, who looked like their leader broke the silence.

"Kid walk away. There is nothing for you to see here."

"Sorry." Peter stood there for a few seconds startled and then continued. "I'm afraid I can't just leave. I still need him for my mission."

"You really don't know what's good for you. Do you?"

"I know I need him."

The leader glanced at one of his lackeys and slowly he merged back into the shadows.

'Assassin.'

Peter had never fought against others who used stealth. Currently, Peter had nothing to break the stealth. Being a sitting duck, Peter started to sweat.

Suddenly he was hit from the right with a sharp blade.

(-32)

'My armour broke?'

After a small pause from the stun effect, Peter quickly retaliated swinging his sword to face the assailant.

"Nice armour. But my blade can break right through."

(-1)

The assassin's first strike had extremely high burst damage. But since the assassin striked once, stealth was disabled and the second attack did not pierce his armour.

Peter too had a grin on his face and started swinging his sword at the assassin.

The sword hit the assassin across his shoulder.

-1

'Damn nice armour.'

Peter kept swinging his sword and accidentally grazed the cheek of the assassin.

-360

'The spots visible outside the armour is defenceless.'

Pete slowed down. The assassin still had over 2000 health left.

'Hmm, others don't seem that interested in helping.'

Seeing Peter eyeing them, the leader said, "Don't worry. We won't interfere."

Even without the rest of them interfering, this was a tough battle for Peter. His opponent was a highly skilled and possibly high levelled person.

The assassin standing in front of him kept staring as if waiting for something to happen. Peter clenched his sword tighter and leapt towards him.

The sword moved fast but the assassin backed out two feet and with a swift rotation reached his back.

Backstab

(-70)

'Damn. Too close.'

"Ok, that's enough. Stand down."

The leader said breaking up our spar.

The assassin jumped back and returned to stand next to the leader with a bow.

"Not bad. You are not yet strong enough to face my student alone. Why don't we stop here? There is nothing for you to achieve here but your death."

"Sorry, but I was asked to kill him for my tier quest."

"Kilu?"

"Yeah, he is my master."

"Tell Kilu that the assassin was taken care of by the death squad. He will understand. Just give him this token."

The leader threw a locket at Peter which he grabbed mid air.

With that, the assassins disappeared back into the shadow with Ron on tow.

Quest updated.

Path of the sword.

Difficulty: D

Return to master swordsman Kilu and hand over the locket of the death squad.

Reward: ascend to tier 2. Unlock the world fame system and leaderboards.

Peter started walking back to the town entrance with large strides. Since he was passing through the auction house, he went in and checked the sales on his items.

You received 1318 gold.

'Holy...'

All of his items were already sold out.

'Millionaire overnight.'

Peter rushed to the training ground looking for master Kilu.

"I see you have returned. So, how was the mission?"

Peter handed over the locket and explained what happened.

"The death squad took him? That's ok. I will have to request them for an opportunity to interrogate him later. As for you, you fought one of them and lived. I guess I will approve of your new rank."

"Thank you, master."

"Master do you know where I can store my earnings?"

"Look for the bank. It should be near the material storage area."

Congratulations you have been promoted to a tier 2 swordsman.

There weren't any special notifications but the promotion meant that Peter was now capable of levelling up again.

The bank was located right next to the storage area but entering through the back resulted in Peter being transferred to a separate instance. There were no players around him and the only administrator welcomed Peter to the bank.

"Hi, welcome to the bank of Hedgesnow. How can I help you today?"

A panel of options was now visible in front of Peter which included currency exchange and property purchase rights.

Since the accounts were all linked with retina scan at birth there was no need to go out and make one. Every human was given a transaction account which was constantly monitored by the government.

Peter initially thought to change all his income to bucks but he truly had no use for it at that moment. After a short hesitation, Peter went over to the real estate of Hedgesnow to check the prices.

Hedgesnow

Current shops available: 50

Current houses available: 10000

Current territories available: 5

Current instance maps available: NA

After that, there were tabs to navigate through the different shops and houses that could be purchased and rented throughout the town.

The price of each building depended on its location. The shop right next to the bank cost nearly a million gold while the one closest to the slums cost 10,000 gold.

After that Peter went on to check the details of the other tabs.

Houses

Low-income area

Small house:

1 floor

5 rooms

1 garden

Cost: 1000 gold

Medium house:

1 floor

8 rooms

1 garden

1 pool

Cost: 4000 gold

Large house:

2 floors

13 rooms

3 garden

1 pool

Cost: 10,000 gold

Medium-income area

Not sufficient tier rank

High-income area

Not sufficient tier rank

Territories

1. Ballad's Mannor

Cost: 50,000 gold, territory token

Reinforced headquarters.

Training ground

3-floor mansion

Large warehouse. (Unlimited storage)

Closer to Alderriver forest

Terrain type: Grassland

2. High gate castle

Cost: 50,000 gold, territory token

Reinforced headquarters.

Training ground

3-floor mansion

Large warehouse. (Unlimited storage)

Closer to Hedgesnow Town

Terrain type: Plain

3. Fort Minnar

Cost: 50,000 gold, territory token

Reinforced headquarters.

Training ground

3-floor mansion

Large warehouse. (Unlimited storage)

West to Hedgesnow Town

Terrain type: Rocky

4. Relecus Palace

Cost: 50,000 gold, territory token

Reinforced headquarters.

Training ground

3-floor mansion

Large warehouse. (Unlimited storage)

Far north of Hedgesnow mountain

Terrain type: Snow

5. Digging ranch.

Cost: 50,000 gold, territory token

Reinforced headquarters.

Training ground

Cave dwellings

Large warehouse. (Unlimited storage)

Underneath Hedgesnow Town

Terrain type: Underground

Instances

Cost:20,000 gold.

Buy a separate instance to create unique mansions suited to your person.

Instances can not be used for growing, taming or crafting works. You may obtain these privilege by purchasing the plots or crafting areas from the regional banks.

'Looks like a huge money drain.'

*****

Profile

Name: Peter

Title: Creative Artisan(R)

Race: NA

LVL: 20 (LVL up 1450/12000)

Gold: 1323.4337

Available points: 0

STR: 25

VIT: 20

AGI: 10

Swordsman (C): T2 (LVL 10)

Miner: T1 (LVL 10)

Blacksmith: T2 (LVL 10)

World fame: 10

Blacksmith fame: 30

Swordsman fame: 10