MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!

For quite some time, the only sound that echoed throughout the temporary campsite was Valyr's hammer. 

Rigorously hammering every nook and cranny that made up the armor piece he had chosen with the Hammer of Beginnings, the young man slowly felt the armor's properties gradually reach a higher level.

Eventually, after spending over ten minutes reforging the armor piece he had chosen, a satisfied smile crept up onto Valyr's lips as he placed his hammer to the side.

Then, without hesitation, he lifted the piece up into the air.

"Two down… three to go." With the smile on his face growing wider with every passing second, he admired the near imperceptible changes he had made to the armor through the reforge before equipping the piece once more.

Feeling the substantial increase in stats after equipping the armor piece he had reforged, Valyr took in a few deep breaths before utilizing [Superior Analysis] on his chestplate.

"Let's see how much of a difference a second piece reforged with [Breath of Beginnings] would make to the final skill," muttered the young man to himself, briefly licking his lips in earnest.

Fortunately, the difference brought by the second reforged piece changed [Descent of the True Wyvern] more or less in the same way the first reforged piece did.

From a cooldown time of 18 hours, Valyr only needed to wait for half a day before gaining access to what was basically the strongest buffing skill in his arsenal.

Naturally, the cost to activate it, as well as the consequences that came with activate it had also reduced in severity.

What used to take 90% of his HP and MP and weakened his stats by 90% for 10 minutes now took 80% and weakened him by 80% respectively.

'Hmm…' Noticing this slight pattern brought by the reforged armor pieces, a hypothesis gradually formed in his mind.

'I don't know if the same thing would apply for the skill's cooldown…' thought Valyr to himself. 'But if my math checks out, I would only need to sacrifice half of my health and mana to activate the skill.'

'However, I would have to endure having access to only half of my stats for 10 minutes…'

At the thought, Valyr let out a brief chuckle. 'Compared to the price I had to pay to use the skill at the beginning, this is undoubtedly a more worthwhile trade-off.'

Seeing that he would have to wait another half day to reforge another piece of armor with [Breath of Beginnings], Valyr began to store the equipment making up his temporary workshop back into his spatial bracelet.

"Speaking of [Breath of Beginnings]…"

"[Enlightenment]."

Ding!

[You have unlocked the advancement <Basic Knowledge: War Weapons of the Early Middle Age Lv. 1>.]

"It may not be a lot, but a journey of a thousand miles still has to begin from a single step." Nodding in satisfaction as he took a look at the advancement the skill had unlocked, Valyr sat around the campfire once more as his thoughts shifted onto another topic.

"Now how the hell would I go about killing the quadrant leaders on my own?"

As this thought surfaced in his mind, a wry smile appeared on his face.

Though it may not seem like it, Hal and the others had greatly helped him in the path to finally killing the north quadrant leader once and for all.

After all, the fact that the five of them worked together to clear the imminent area of primitive humanoids still stood.

If it was just him doing all of that work, he was certain that he would take the greater portion of the day to do just that.

And that wasn't even taking the fight with the quadrant leader into consideration.

Sure, it might seem like the four had only stalled the quadrant leader in its place until Valyr could return, but what they did was more or less the action that determined whether the young man would continue to live or die at that moment.

After all, if no one else was accompanying him in the fight against the north quadrant leader, he was certain that the quadrant leader would've undoubtedly headed to where he landed and dealt the killing blow to end the fight.

Then, if one were to imagine what would happen after that, it went without saying that the four would be implicated by it one way or another.

Worst-case scenario, the five of them would die under the hands of the quadrant leader they deemed to be the weakest out of the four.

"I really gotta be more vigilant towards these kinds of things," muttered Valyr to himself, recalling the punch he had received from the quadrant leader.

"Speaking of which…"

Whoosh!

Taking out his anvil and hammer from his spatial bracelet, he took off his chestplate before proceeding to mend the damage the quadrant leader had dealt to it with his repair skill.

"I'm surprised I overlooked this, even though I had all this time to fix it," said the young man to himself, only to shrug his shoulders soon after.

"Well, better late than never."

Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!

With the skill having received an upgrade thanks to his small expedition into the Enlightenment Skill Pavilion, [Advanced Repair] allowed Valyr to mend the damage to his chestplate at great speeds while using minimal materials.

In fact, the young man was quite surprised at how much of a difference an increase in skill rarity brought to the efficiency of his work.

"In a way, I guess that's part of the reason why those Rank 4 and above are immensely strong," said Valyr as he put on the chestplate. 

"Then again, it wouldn't make sense if Rare grade skills only brought marginal improvement to what was once Uncommon grade."

Returning both items to his spatial bracelet now that his entire armor set looked to be in peak condition, Valyr returned his thoughts to how he was going to go about fighting the quadrant leaders on his own.

"Hmm…" Scratching the back of his head for a bit, the young man commanded the system to bring up his list of skills, hoping to find some inspiration from one of them.

"Nope… nope… not that one either…"

Scrolling through the large list of skills that made up his arsenal, Valyr gradually came to realize that quite a considerable portion of his skills were somewhat useless…

In the context of fighting a difficult opponent like the empowered quadrant leader, that is.

Whether it was the level of damage the skill dealt, or the flexibility the skill offered in a combat situation, most of the skills Valyr had looked through were somewhat lacking.

Even if he were to use them in taking care of the primitive humanoids in the quadrant leader's vicinity, they were still somewhat lacking.

"Wait a minute…" Thankfully, after looking through his skill list for a bit more, the young man came across a skill he seldom used within the inheritance, which caused memories of a certain past to flash in his mind.

Ding!

Staring at the description of the skill to remind himself of what it was capable of, Valyr slowly nodded in understanding as a thought began to form in his mind.

"If I were to use it against the quadrant leader, it would stand no chance whatsoever," said the young man to himself.

"But if I were to use it to take care of the primitive humanoids in the area… it might just work."

"Only if my stats are up to par, that is." At these words, Valyr took in a deep breath before commanding the system to bring up his status screen.

"From what I could remember while taking a look at my stats after reaching the peak of Rank 3, I have a couple of stats that surpassed the four-digit mark," said the young man to himself as he looked at the screen in front of him with eagerness.

"Now, with the armor set and my weapons equipped, I wonder how high my stats are currently?"

Ding!

————

[Valyr Zeihardt]

Class: True Prodigious Blacksmith (Rank 3 — Mythic)

Subclass: Shadow Serpentine Manalancer (Rare)

Species: Human (3rd Unsealing)

Level: 55

Power Level: 35,952 (A+)

Unused XP: 3,151,016,478

————

HP: 35,800/35,800

MP: 45,768/45,768

Shadow Energy: 89/89

Mystic Energy: 1/1

————

Attack: 10,681 - 11,689

Defense: 10,721 - 14,191

Stats: 1084 VIT, 845 STR, 1005 AGI, 1628 DEX, 1441 INT, 446 WIS, 627 PER, 258 LUK

Hidden Stats: 5 Mana Purity, 5 Vigor 

Intents: [Intent Seed of Shadow Energy — 1st Stage], [Intent Seed of Forging — Nascent Stage], [Intent Seed of the Forger's Flames — Nascent Stage]

Remarks: Your strength rivals even those who have accumulated their power for centuries. Nevertheless, it is a proof of the path you've taken. One that would lead you to a world beyond the apex.

————

"Hiss…" 

Sucking in a deep breath of cold air, Valyr stared wide-eyed at the screen before him.

Though he had expected his stats to undergo an increase thanks to the equipment he wore, he expected the increase to be somewhat substantial at best.

Yet, reality couldn't be any further than his expectations.

Not only were DEX and INT, the two four-digit stats he had before equipping his equipment, around halfway to reaching 2,000 points, his VIT and AGI had also broken through the four-digit mark as well.

Aside from that, both his Attack and Defense stat were solidly over 10,000 points each, which was already difficult for a normal peak Rank 4 being could achieve.

Much less someone at the peak of Rank 3.

Then, there was the fact that he had plenty of XP still unused, with the number that appeared on the screen causing his eyes to pop out of its sockets.

Though, as he mulled over it, the number eventually made sense, considering that he had killed a ton of aberrations and primitive humanoids so far with the disparity in levels between them not being that small.

At this thought, Valyr wryly smiled as he let out a sigh. 'If I also gained XP from the 10,000 aberrations I killed within the trial, I'm sure that I wouldn't only have billions of unused XP.'

'It'll definitely be tens of billions.' 

'Then again, it's better to have something on-hand rather than having to find it first when you really need it. Even more so if I think about all the skills I have.'

With his current stats still lingering in his mind, the young man was more than confident that the skill he chose would prove effective in moving the primitive humanoids away from the quadrant leaders.

As to what the skill was…

It was none other than [Intermediate Shamanic Summoning Arts].