Second World

Within these five days of work, Jack's blacksmith's proficiency had increased greatly, but not enough yet to level up. One of his other auxiliary skills had increased, though. During the day, he had conversed with Hedite regularly. At night, he conversed with the animals. His Diplomacy skill had upgraded to Intermediate Expert.

When Jack returned to where they were staying, Jet immediately showed off his armored Crimson-maned Lion. Jack did admit the lion looked much more impressive with the new armor. The lion's armor also possessed an active skill. The skill was called Supremacy.

The skill increased Crimson-maned Lion's attributes by 100%, all its attacks inflicted additional 30% fire damage, and it was immune to all movement restrictions while the skill was active. The skill lasted two minutes with a cooldown of six hours

When the Supremacy skill was activated, a red fiery aura enveloped the Crimson-maned Lion, making it look more fierce than it already was.

Jet kept on flaunting his pet in front of Jack. Jack ignored it at first but he got annoyed after a while. He uttered, "Dude, do you forget that I also forged an armor for my pet?" He summoned Therras and had it stand before Jet's lion.

"Oh? Is your ugly-whatever-beast you have here trying to challenge my great lion?" Jet uttered.

"How dare you call my majestic Therras ugly? You are asking for a beating. My Therras will beat your kitty down no sweat!" Jack didn't back down.

"You are on! Let's fight then!"

"Come!"

"If you two want to be kicked out of this village, go ahead!" Jack and Jet heard a voice from under them. They looked down and saw Captain Whitebeard looking up at them with arms akimbo.

The mouse continued, "We tolerated you throwing your skills or spells around as long as no one is hurt. But fighting one another, even if it is a friendly match, is too much. We don't tolerate that kind of conflict in this village. I guarantee you will be kicked out the minute you defy our value of peace."

Grace came by and said to Whitebeard, "They are just kidding, Whitebeard. They are not truly going with it." She then turned to Jack and Jet. "Right?" She asked with a glare.

"Y–Yes, we are just kidding," Both Jack and Jet replied. The two unsummoned their pets.

Jack spent the rest of the night with his routine. Talking to the animals while practicing combat skills and mana manipulation. He also used the two gemstones from the treasure chests to upgrade his runestone. He used the super rare amethyst for his Runestone of Probability and his unique diamond for the Runestone of Luck.

The Runestone of Probability upgraded to a super rare rank.

*

Runestone of Probability (super rare runestone)

Increase approx. 40% success chance to auxiliary jobs.

Elemental energy required for upgrade: 710/10,000

*

With this increase, he would be able to reduce the failure rate for tomorrow's equipment upgrade even further.

As for his Runestone of Luck, the unique diamond was not enough to level it up. He still needed 5,150 lightning energy to level it up. That required at least two more unique amethysts or diamonds plus a rare grade one.

Jack asked Grace and Jet if they want him to upgrade their equipment as well. The two happily gave him their current equipped equipment. But Jack informed them first that he would prioritize his ore stock for his own use. He would only work on theirs after he was done. The two had no problem, they even gave Jack whatever ores they had on them. The quantity was pitiful compared to Jack's stock, but it was better than none.

*

The next morning, he went directly to the lake and dove in. Now that he was doing it alone, it was much easier. Last time he began his dragon transformation starting from the fifth hole. This time he didn't transform until the sixth hole. He could still swim until the sixth hole in his human form, albeit barely.

The deposits containing unique grade runic metals were after the seventh hole. Since he only transformed starting from the sixth hole, his beast form still had plenty of time to spare when he reached the seventh hole. He was tempted to go down further. The quest indicated that he needed to get at least the unique grade, which meant if he get an even higher grade, there was a possibility of an increase in the reward?

But after some pondering, he decided against it. He might be reckless sometimes in taking risks, but it was always a calculated risk. If there was no eternal-guardian beast dwelling down there, he might have taken the gamble. But he was sure if he went down further to get the legendary-grade runic metal, the guardian beast would involve itself as an additional obstacle to test if one was worthy enough to get the material.

If he somehow failed and was killed, he won't be able to get back here from Themisphere in three short days. He didn't think Meratis would let him stay for long on his second visit. He would then be unable to utilize Hedite's workshop.

So, he decided to play it safe this time and mined the deposit under the seventh hole. Once he got the deposit, he waited for the vortex to appear before utilizing the updraft to push himself back up to the lake's surface. He then jumped out of the lake and flew in the sky directly to Hedite's workshop.

Hedite was visibly startled when a humanoid dragon landed right in front of her workshop. Jack saw her expression and immediately transformed back.

"It's you? I thought which abomination dares to attack our village. I was about to attack you myself. You are lucky you changed back when you did," Hedite said.

'You, attack me?' Jack wondered. He inspected Hedite again to make sure. 'Yep, she is still a level 20 elite. Does she not know my level?'

Jack didn't bother too much with that thought. He took out the runic metal from his bag and gave it to her. "One unique grade runic metal, as requested," Jack announced.

Hedite received the metal and Jack received a notification that his quest was completed. He received exp points and gold coins.

"Can I use the workshop now?" Jack asked.

"Knock yourself out," Hedite said. She was still admiring the runic metal in her hands.

"Yes!" Jack went inside. While preparing the tools, he asked Hedite, "You don't happen to have any ores I can buy?"

"This is a workshop, not a store," Hedite replied. She was walking back to her house beside the workshop. On her way, she said, "I remember everything inside this workshop. Don't you dare to snatch anything!"

"Do you think I am that kind of person?" Jack asked. He then looked at the unique-grade blacksmith hammer in his hand. 'I am tempted to be one, though,' He thought.

He spent the day working on enhancing his equipment. With the unique-grade blacksmith tools assisted by the super-rare runestone of probability, the failure rates were very much being suppressed. After he leveled up his Rapid Dazing Staff and Sword Fiend's Gear set to level 56, he still had many ores to spare. So, he took a spare super rare grade longsword and leveled it up to level 56 as well. He then fed that longsword to his Storm Breaker, bringing it up to level 56.

At level 56, his Sword Fiend's Gear set combined with Beastmaster's inherent defensive boost gave him a total of 1742 physical defense and 1562 magical defense. He almost caught up to Therras' unique-grade armor physical defense, while his magical defense was now higher than his pet's armor. Considering his gears were level 56 while Therras was still level 46, this didn't come as a surprise. If Therras leveled up to 56, its unique-grade armor would give a much higher defensive stats.

For his Rapid Dazing Staff, its magical damage had increased to 427. While his Storm Breaker's physical damage increased to 470.

Since he still had a decent number of ores, he used them to upgrade both Grace and Jet's equipment. He concentrated on their weapons first. Grace was level 49 and Jet was 48, Jack leveled up Grace's mace and shield to level 59 and Jet's katars to level 58. He left the remaining ores for their armors.

Before that, he noticed some of their armors were still of the rare grades one. He checked his stock and found that he had enough heavy and light armors to fuse them using his Transformation Prism into the super rare grade, so he did so. Afterward, he leveled their armors up.

He didn't save any ores, he used all his current stock. Even if the benefit was not for him, he did so because he didn't think he would have the chance to use Hedite's workshop again after this.

Even with the repressed failure rates, he still couldn't level up all their armors to the maximum. He only managed to level them up to around levels 56 and 57.

When Grace and Jet received their gears back, they were lost for words.

Jack himself received a boon after his altruistic act. His Blacksmith skill had finally leveled up to Basic Master.