Abel decided to take two missions. He wanted to do “rune-making” and “weapon forging and maintenance.” For “weapon forging and maintenance,” he only wanted to do the maintenance bit. As a grandmaster blacksmith, he wouldn’t want to make weapons for others at a price that was too low.
If it was just repairing damaged weapons, he didn’t think that it was particularly hard at all. Also, the required number was 15 pieces a month. He could probably get it all done in a day, so there really wasn’t a reason that he shouldn’t do it.
After Abel took the two missions, he decided to pay visits to two addresses first. The first was the retrieving point for the rune sign’s ingredients. The second was where the damaged weapons were stored. He decided to go to the weapon warehouse first. It was faster to get there first. The rune sign’s ingredients were all the way in the wizard’s encampment.
When he arrived at the weapon warehouse, he was guided to a nearby room. Then, as he walked in, he saw that an elder was checking through a list. The elder shook his head as soon as he saw Abel bowing to him.
“Good day to you, sir. I am K3516, and I’ve come here on a mission to repair damaged weapons.”
The elder shook his head, “A wizard like you? Do you think you’re Grandmaster Abel or something?”
Abel tried to hold his laughter, “Uh, well, uh, I’m here to collect the gears that need fixing.”
The elders decided to remind him first, “What happened to the city spirit? This isn’t a job that anyone can do! Fine, try to finish the mission first, and if you can’t, hurry up and go cancel it.”
On a side note, it was perfectly fine to cancel a mission that was already taken. It was meant so that losses could be avoided as early as possible. Obviously, a penalty would be charged if someone decided to cancel a mission he already took. It’s usually about a tenth of the amount that’s put up as a reward.
The elder stood up. After he went inside the room behind him, Abel heard the sound of metal items clashing into each other. Soon, the elder went back while dragging a knight’s lance with him.
The elder placed the lance on the table, “I don’t know if you can see it, but there’s a part that’s been scraped off during combat. Remember, about nine out of ten of its original power must be recovered.”
Abel began to pick it up for examination. It was a full hundred-skill lance. Upon a closer look, he could see a rune pattern drawn on the lance’s body. It was easy to tell that it was meant to be a magic knight’s lance.
In the middle of the lance, there was a huge chunk that’s been scraped off. Whatever did it, the impact must’ve been great. Even the rune was half-destroyed because of it.
Abel asked curiously, “So the mission is to repair magic weapons?”
The elder was getting quite impatient, “What, of course, it is! You get 10 points for recovering magic weapons. If you want to repair normal weapons that you want to repair, you get 1 point!”
That’s when Abel started to remember. K3308 might’ve known a lot about the mission, but he was a complete amateur in forging. He should’ve not taken his words for granted.
Abel asked again, “From what I’ve heard, you can apply for this job even if you’re a beginner blacksmith. Since when can a beginner blacksmith repair magic weapons?”
The elder was about to yell at this point, “You said it yourself! “Apply” doesn’t mean you can complete the mission! Stop wasting my time! If you don’t think you’re good enough, just take the 1 point job already!”
Abel waved his hand at the elder, “Alright, alright! Hey, is it alright for me to take all 15 magic weapons in one go?”
The elder was quite surprised, “So you’re not canceling the mission?”
“Of course not! I’m sure of it,” Abel nodded.
The elder decided to remind him for the last time, “Sure, then. Remember, if you can’t finish the mission, it won’t just be 1 point that you’ll have to pay. You’ll have to pay more than that to compensate for the other losses.”
After seeing how resolute Abel was, the elder went back to the room to get the other gears. Soon, he went back with a trolley full of damaged magic weapons.
The elder reminded Abel again, “After one month from today, you are to bring back all fifteen magic weapons back here. If there are any you can’t repair, you must be on time to exchange for the ones that you can. If you go over time, the Miracle spirit will automatically take your points away.”
“Got it, sir. Thank you for telling me,” Abel said as he proceeded to take the weapons into his portal bag.
The elder said at last, “For one month from today, you are free to use your military tag to access the tools at the blacksmith department.”
When Abel walked out, he scratched his head as he thought about how hard the mission had actually turned out to be. Normally, fixing magic weapons was something for the master blacksmith to do. He might’ve been a grandmaster blacksmith himself, but this was quite demanding in itself. That being said, he really doubted K3308’s words now.
“Next stop, huh. Let’s hope it’s not too much of a hassle.”
As Abel arrived at the wizard encampment, it didn’t take much time for him to find the retrieving point for the ingredient he was supposed to take.
A beginner wizard, K3411, was there to welcome him.
“Good to see you arrive here, K3561. I am K3411. You have just accepted to take a rune-making mission. I’ll now give you a list of the rune signs that we need. If you can tell me which ones you can make, that’d be awesome.”
Below was what’s written on the parchment paper K3411 gave Abel.
11# Amn
12# Sol
13# Shael
14# Dol
16# Io
17# Lum
18# Ko
19# Fal
Abel was starting to feel a headache. All the rune signs were of advanced levels. They were all meant to be learned from advanced wizards.
Like, even he didn’t manage to learn all of them. Wizard Morton didn’t teach him all the runes. For example, 12# Sol. None of the rune signs Wizard Morton had used this symbol.
Abel couldn’t help but ask, “these are all beginner signs?”
K3411 wasn’t sure what the question was, “Well, yeah. 1 to 10 are low-tier symbols. The ones I’m showing you are beginner level.”
That was basic knowledge for the wizards that came to do this job. Of course, K3411 would think that question was weird. Not to Abel, though. He didn’t learn how to draw runes directly from Wizard Morton. He did it by reading a book he got from Wizard Morton. It’d make sense that he would lack a lot of the basic knowledge required.
K3411 was a bit uncertain now, “Are you okay with this list, K3516?’
Abel nodded his head, “Yeah, no problem! Just, uh, give me a month-worth of ingredients, yeah?”
K3411 shook his head, “A month’s worth would be too much to give out, I’m afraid. The most I can do for you is 5 days. If we weren’t so close to the Budapest Mountain Range, it’d be much less than that.”
“Sure, five then,” Abel nodded.
K3411 reminded, “Remember, after five days, you must bring what you’ve completed.”
“Also, you get three shots for every rune sign. If you can manage to make fewer failures than three per sign, you’ll get to keep the spares that you have.”
After Abel scanned his military tag on the table, a sack full of materials was quickly teleported over.
“Here. this is five days worth of raw materials. Good luck now!”
