The advance crystals that had been given to Quinn, couldn’t be used to get any of the items from his system shop. Usuelly the items that came from the systems shop were better quality and more powerful than the ones he could find online. The only downside was, many of the items required specific crystals for them to be created.
An example of this was the intermediate crystal Quinn owned, that could now be used to create two short swords for Vorden. Although, he didn’t quite have the funds to make it for now, as it still required him to purchase two more intermediate crystals. He was already low on funds and didn’t know how much a forger would charge him to create the advanced weapon.
This all put him in the situation he was in now, he had no choice but to head off in search for a forger. On the weekend, the school would set up a market stall inside one of the school’s gyms. Here students were able to sell items they didn’t need or items that they had made. This included beast equipment.
It was a good place for the forging students and the rich kids to sell of either thier old equipment they didn’t need or just getting for getting thier name out there. There would also be a few beast crystals there but very rarely. Most of the time, beast crystals would just be sold on the online market place, because they already had a value attached to them.
The reason why forging students didn’t do the same was because they were beginners. If a forger didn’t belong to a faction or a good family, it meant they had no reputation. Next to no one would buy thier equipment online, only being able to view it through a computer screen. At least in the stall, the other students could test it out a few times or feel the quality of the item.
But looking for items on the market place wasn’t a problem for Quinn, since he had his inspect skill. It would show him the stats of each item, and he could find the best one. This was what he had planned to do today.
He had entered the gym, and it seemed a little busier then he was expecting, as he heard the voices of people talking he soon realised why. Equipment here was sold at far lower price than on the online market, and you could haggle for prices.
‘I hate haggling.’ Quinn though realising that he would now have to go into one of these situations.
He quickly stood at the entrance and used his inspect skill, bringing up the stats of as many items as possible. Next, he would filter it down to those with an active skill, and finally, the best quality ones of the lot.
‘I found you.’ Quinn said as he walked over to one of the stalls. It was one of the more quieter ones, and while using his inspect skill, he realised why. The booth was selling only Basic tier equipment. It might have done well during the start of the year, but now towards the end, most students were looking for at least intermediate level gear.
[Inspect]
[Basic tier Spiked Boar spear]
[Strength + 2]
[Active skill]
[Barbed spear: When active, several quills of spikes will appear from the head as well as the body of the spear. These quills are just as sharp and do as much damage as the end of the spear.]
[Creator: Alex Way]
“Excuse me,” Quinn said. “Did you make all of these?” pointing to the spears off to the side.
“Oh, a customer.” The man behind the counter sprung up to live. “That’s made by one of the top forgers in the school. It’s really good quality and even has an active skill. It’s going for the great price of 239 Credits, but for you, I can do it for 229 Credits.”
“Yeah, it’s great.” Quinn laughed nervously, not knowing how to deal with the pushy student. “Do you know why he only creates basic tier weapons, do you not have anything at the higher level?” Quinn asked.
“Unfortunately, Alex background is not a mighty one. After all, how can you create higher tier equipment if you can’t afford the materials? Anyway about that spear, are you happy to go ahead and take your order?” As soon as the student said this, he had already lifted the spear and then started to set the transaction on his watch.
“No, I ergh….”
****
*Ding.
“Thank you for your purchase, have a nice day!” The student said with a smile, and Quinn walked away with a basic tier spear in his hand.
‘Why couldn’t I just say no.’
After being practically forced to buy the spear from the merchant, he was told by the student that none of the forgers actually sell the equipment themselves. They pass it on to them, who get a commission from each sale. This allows them to in the future, practice thier negotiation skills. If they wanted to become a merchant or an advisor for a big faction in the future, it would be good to have some practice.
However, he did get information about where the forger known as Alex would be at this time and day. His search had led him to the forging Club, which was a separate room located on the bottom floor, at the back of the school.
To enter it though, one would have to go outside and enter through the back. To the side of the forger club, thier were several rooms which each had smoke coming out from the top. These were forging rooms that students were able to practice in or on the weekend if they wanted to use them, rent out for a certain amount of credits.
The student had informed Quinn, that Alex was always busy working hard. with each credit he earned, he would use it to buy more supplies and start working on more items. At first, it was great for his business, but now, they had an overstock of weapons, and no one was buying, but Alex was a little stubborn when it came to listening to his business partner.
Just by looking at the outside of the rooms, it wouldn’t tell who was in It. But it didn’t matter for Quinn, because his inspect skill was at level three and had improved greatly. Allowing him to slightly see past the walls of the rooms, and he had finally found his target.
There was a thick iron door at the entrance. At first, Quinn gave it a knock but there was no answer. From inside the sound of clanging could be heard, so it was expected that the knock might not have been heard. Still, not wanting to waste any more time, Quinn used his brute force to barge open the door with his shoulder.
As soon as he did, a gust of heat directly hit him in the face. It was so hot it was causing him to feel slightly faint, and he was already feeling that way due to the sun.
“Darn it, what idiot would open the door in the middle of someone forging a weapon!” Alex shouted as he threw down his metal hammer on the floor and lifted the goggles off his face. He quickly went to the furnace to turn it off, trying to save all the energy he could.
“Great.” He said, looking at his weapon that was half done. “It’s ruined!”
Alex was quite a skinny lad for a forger. Usually, they would be quite large and muscular in size due to all the hammering and lifting of metals they did all day. But on a closer look, Alex did indeed have muscles even if he did have a small frame. He was still tall though, and it seemed as if he just ate a bit more he would have been in great shape.
He had short blonde hair, that was styled up a little, and all over his body, he was sweating, his clothes looked like he had gone for a swim, and Quinn just couldn’t imagine how long he had been in here with this heat to look like that.
Alex walked up to the student he had never seen before and held out his wrist, showing his watch. Quinn could see it had the number three displayed showing he his power level, but didn’t know what Alex was trying to do.
“Come on, Pay me… Pay me for the materials that you just ruined?”
Quinn looked completely confused, as he had just opened the door, what was Alex talking about?
“Well no wonder you opened the door without thinking, You changed the temperature of the room, which destroys the whole crafting process.”
Again, Quinn was equally confused, but he was no forger. He had seen Logan make a few items before and he had never complained about temperature, although thinking back, Logan’s methods also seemed unconventional compared to normal forgers. Perhaps all of this talk of heat was what allowed Alex to make the perfect weapon.
“Sorry,” Quinn said not wanting to get off on the wrong foot and decided to pay a total of three hundred credits for the materials used as well as Alex’s time.
“Well, at least you no when you’ve done wrong,” Alex said as he looked down and noticed the spear in his hand. He then started to walk away and was about to clear up his work table, to prepare the next batch. “No refunds.”
“Huh?”
“I said no refunds,” Alex replied. “That spear, if you want a refund go talk to Joe at the stall about it, it’s none of my business.”
“No, you got it all wrong, this I was kind of forced into buying it. I noticed the quality when seeing it at the stall. It’s great, and I was hoping you could do something similar. I heard you have problems finding materials for creating weapons.”
Quinn then took out the three advanced tier crystals and placed them on Alex’s worktop.
“I want you to make me a new weapon.”
At a glance, Alex could tell straight away that the crystals were at the advanced level. He had never worked with this high quality of a crystal before and had at most worked at the intermediate level. Although the process with such things would be the same, the higher crystal, the more time would be needed.
“Sure I can do that for you, there are three crystals here right, so that will cost you 30,000 Credits.”
As Quinn looked at his money remaining, he realised, he only had 4400 credits to his name.
‘How the hell am I going to come up with that amount of money?’
Just outside the school, a slim female body stood outside the gate. She looked up and saw that the building looked identical to the one she was at herself not too long ago, but this one was different.
Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought she would be coming back here again, and not so soon. The wind blew her hair, and she quickly grabbed her round hat that covered most of her face.
“I’m coming for you.”
*****
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