Second World

When Hedite didn't show another image, Jack asked, "Only four?"

"How many do you expect?" Hedite asked back. "Do you think I spend my time working on a hundred different looks for just your pet?"

"Four is good. Four is good," Jack hurriedly said. He didn't want to offend the person that was helping him craft his pet armor.

"So, which one do you prefer?" Hedite asked.

Jack swiped the holographic images back and forth to take a look again. After a while, he decided. "I will take this one," Jack said.

He had chosen the one that prioritized speed. He had built his abilities around speed. He would need his pet to be able to keep up with his fast movements.

"Okay," Hedite said and did something with the interface. "Okay, the design had been inputted. It will show you the process to work on each part. There are nine parts. Head, neck, upper body, lower body, four leg parts, and rear guard. You just press the part you want to work on first and it will show you the process."

Jack pressed on the head part in the holographic interface. The image was then replaced by a tutorial video showing the crafting process.

When Hedite saw Jack proceed to work, she left him and went back to her work as well.

The two worked for the whole day. During the forging of the head part, Jack finally encountered some roadblocks where he asked Hedite questions. Hedite was rather surprised with how few questions Jack asked, yet she noticed that Jack's work progressed smoothly.

By the end of the day, Jack completed the helmet part. Hedite gave him pointers to do a few finishing touches. Some smoothings and shapings using different tools as well as applying spray for color. Jack asked if these were necessary. A good look was fine, but it was not his priority. He preferred to not waste workhour on this unnecessary embellishment. Hedite assured him that these were necessary if Jack wanted his pet armor to be considered complete.

Hedite stopped working once the sun was setting. Jack wanted to continue working but Hedite closed the holographic interface and took the hammer from Jack's hand.

"Hey!" Jack protested.

"Go! We rest when the sun rest," Hedite said.

Jack left unwillingly, but his mood was lifted again when he saw how much blacksmith proficiency he had earned from this half-day work. If he continued this for the rest of his stay here, he could probably be the first outworlder to become a basic master blacksmith, at least in his guild because he knew no one had yet to achieve that level.

"This place is truly a good place to build auxiliary skills," Jack muttered.

He returned and found the same scene as yesterday. Grace and Jet were practicing their combat skills while conversing with Captain Whitebeard and Shortpaw. No, there was another additional member this time. It was the owl that they met when they entered this village, Oldeye.

Jack greeted them. He then noticed that Oswald was also there but he was sitting quietly in the corner with his eyes closed.

"What's he doing? Is that one of the ways he sleeps?" Jack asked.

"He is practicing mana sense," Grace answered.

"He did?" Jack was astonished.

"He saw me doing it during the day. He asked me to teach him as well, so I did," Grace informed.

"Yeah, I give them some pointers," Jet said. "That native is rather serious about learning it. He is very hardworking, and this place is a very good place to learn, considering the dense mana."

"I see," Jack thought. He wondered if he should teach Arlcard as well? But he had a feeling that would be an exercise in futility.

Jack decided to spend his evening the same as them, increasing the proficiency of his combat skills and spells while conversing with the talking animals to increase his diplomacy skill.

*

They spent the rest of their days in this same routine. Grace trained her mana sense during the day while Jack did the blacksmithing work. At night they trained combat skills while conversing with the native animals. Jet trained his combat skills all day and took some breaks to swim and conversed with the other locals, especially the young women. Oswald spent almost all day practicing mana sense.

"Looking at him, I'm afraid he will be able to sense mana before you," Jack commented.

"Doesn't matter. This is not a competition," Grace said.

"Sure it is," Jack returned.

During those days, he also received a notification, "Guild Everlasting Heavenly Legends had become the first guild to have members of all seven races. Receiving secret rewards of 100,000 reputation points, 50 gold coins, 100 food, 100 minerals, 100 woods, and a blueprint to construct a Global Embassy structure."

'Oh? We have finally recruited draconian and ethereal members as well?' Jack thought after hearing the notification.

Jack turned to Grace and Jet who showed no reaction. He guessed this notification was only heard by guild leaders or those with high enough ranks.

"What is this Global Embassy structure?" Jack asked Peniel.

Peniel who had also heard the notification through Jack, answered, "That structure provides links to all the Guild Associations in every main city of the seven countries. Now all the natives will be able to easily send you guild quests via their cities' Guild Associations. I must say, with this structure, you will see a sharp increase in available guild quests."

"Amazing," Jack remarked. With this, it should not be long before they reach guild level 4.

A message from John arrived at this time, "Expert, do you mind asking that talking encyclopedia of yours what this Global Embassy does?"

Jack had expected either John or Jeanny to ask, so he told John what Peniel had just informed him.

"Excellent! I will divert resources to begin construction immediately," John said. Jack could feel the excitement from John's message.

*

At the end of the fifth day since he started forging his pet armor, the seventh day after they arrived in the village, Jack completed the last piece of his pet armor.

"I am surprised. You actually did it at the same pace as me," Hedite complimented.

"That's because you spent your time helping me as well," Jack tried to be modest. "If you just focus on your work, you would have finished yours earlier."

"That is correct," Hedite said, not trying to be modest. "All right, the last step now is to link them all together. Once you did, you will be able to register it to your pet and the armor will automatically be equipped."

"How do I link them?" Jack asked.

"Carry the hammer and the parts and follow me," Hedite said. She was also carrying her hammer and the completed parts for Jet's Crimson-maned Lion. They walked to the stalls where the two pets were still inside.

Hedite went to the one containing Jet's pet. She put the nine parts of the armor on a bench next to the stall. She then accessed a panel by the side of the stall's gate. A holographic image appeared around the stall, with the Crimson-manned Lion at its center. Jack saw nine boxes floating around the pet. Every box had different hollow shapes. After further observation, Jack found that the hollow shapes were the shape of the armor parts.

Hedite operated the panel and the hologram turned around until the box with the hollow shape of a helmet came before her. She then took the helmet from the bench and put it inside the hollow shape. It clicked inside as if the hologram was a tangible thing. The helmet part was now floating inside the box.

Hedite turned the hologram again to the box next to it and inserted the neck part. A link appeared between the two boxes. Hedite readied her hammer as a red bar appeared above the link. The bar had a pin and a triangle that kept moving from left to right. These pin and triangle, however, always moved opposite from one another.

When the pin passed by the triangle, Hedite struck her hammer at the spot they were crossing. Blue areas appeared on both sides of the bar, reducing the originally red area. As the pin and triangle passed by again, Hedite hit a second time. The red area was further reduced and the blue area increased.

As the red area reduced, the speed of the pin and triangle increased. However, Hedite had no problem hitting the spot they passed one another with uncanny accuracy. She did it a few more times until all the red area was replaced by the blue. When that happened, a notification appeared indicating the link was successful.

Hedite turned the hologram again and inserted the third armor part into the next box. She turned to Jack and asked, "Did you get all that?"

"I think I do," Jack replied.

"Then get to work," Hedite said.