Draco was currently performing Blacksmithing in the work area of the nearest village to Evergreen, which was called Oak Village. This village had the same design and racial diversity as the previous one.
Heck, if Draco didn't know any better, he would think he had entered Evergreen Village once again. It was almost like someone copy pasted the previous village's template and used it here.
Even the resource zones and tools for crafting were nearly identical!
However, there was – of course – some notable differences. For one, the houses and workplaces had different styles of decoration due to the different tastes of the inhabitants.
Also, the resource zones had slightly different unique animals or materials compared to the previous one as the evolution of these things branched out from the origin over the millennia.
Finally, the racial distribution was certainly similar, but not exactly the same. After all, not every birdman would crossbreed with a gnome, or any halfling would lay with an elf.
How people in Evergreen choose to breed over the millennia would be different from how the people of Oak would, which was normal. This allowed Draco to see some crazy crossbreeds here.
In fact, part of why Natasha and Ophie were so valuable was because they were considered purebreds of their races in this day and age, as well as beauties. Such a combo was quite difficult to see, making them extremely popular.
Draco was crafting in a similar manner to how he did for Alchemy. Everything was turned off, leaving him with his default 10% success rate that came with his Tradeskill Rank and the 30% from his Three Pound Origin technique.
With only 40% in total, he was currently smelting ores into ingots. He never really used Worldly Energy for this stage as he had Mjolnir to raise the level of ingots automatically, so it had been a while since he last had to manually smelt anything.
Here, he had no advantages since the ores he was smelting were at the same Rank as himself. If he wanted to do things smoothly, he would need to utilize his technique and wealth of knowledge.
Luckily for anything up to Epic Rank, Draco could safely claim that he was number 1 under the heavens. If he had been attempting something at the Legendary Rank, he would only be disgracing himself in public.
Right now, Draco was trying to craft a simple dagger. There was no need to go for something complex and fancy, as he was trying to turn complexity into simplicity.
The ores were purified to the Superb grade, which was already a great feat. After all, above Superb was only the Exquisite and Perfect grade in terms of item quality.
Most Master Rank Blacksmiths would only get Average or Good grades for their ingots, which showed how talented Draco was in smithing. After turning the ores into ingots and removing as many impurities as he could, Draco brought them over to the forge.
As he slowly melted the ingots to increase malleability, he then focused on hammering it into the required shape. Since he was making a dagger, he made sure the ingot was small enough to fit his requirement.
If he used a typical-sized ingot, he would likely be displaying limitless ignorance since a lot of the metal would be superfluous. Even if he was skilled enough to incorporate it into the dagger, it would just end up being unreasonably dense and heavy.
At that point, it would have been better to make it a shortsword. Draco slowly and steadily created the outline of the dagger he wanted to make, fully utilizing and displaying the specialty of his Three Pound Origin technique.
As one might remember, Epic ingots had a form of backlash when they were being worked upon, though it could no longer severely harm Draco as he was at the Master Rank. However, its presence was still there and usually interrupted the flow of Master Rank Blacksmiths.
Draco would usually buff himself with subjective magic, but he did not do so at this time. After all, what was the need when he wanted its stimulus to raise the Three Pound Origin by another level?
Of course, there were many onlookers watching him work in silence. Their eyes were glued onto his techniques and gleams could be seen in many of them as they watched how Draco moved his body in tune with the metal, shaping it to utter perfection.
There was no way any living being could strike metal so perfectly that it would be shaped effortlessly. Even the greatest master would have a margin of error, only that it was so negligible that it could be ignored.
However, Draco's shaping followed a certain pattern that entranced all onlookers. It felt like his movements were the best possible set of actions when dealing with this specific craft, even though many didn't even know what the final item would be.
Not only that, but he always used a precise amount of force to go with the timing of his swings. His actions did not resemble and known forging technique, because most smiths would carefully hammer a certain section to perfection before moving onto another that was right beside it.
However, Draco's Three Pound Origin was like playing whack-a-mole. He would hit the tip of the blade, then suddenly strike the area near the hilt, then strike a rivet, then the blade edge, and so on.
If it wasn't for the dagger quickly being shaped using this method, any onlooker that had no idea about the intricacies of Tradeskills would think Draco was a total amateur who was just hitting anywhere on the dagger to look cool.
Sometimes, the hammer would come down with enough force to shake the entire work area, making the onlookers marvel at Draco's strength. Sometimes, the hammer would come down so softly and gently, like a father spanking his beloved daughter, but not really having the guts to hurt her.
In a matter of an hour, the dagger finally took shape. Draco then finished the necessary procedures before holding his finished creation up for inspection. The moment he was done, many in the crowd rushed off to practice the new ideas they had gained.
It couldn't be helped really, as it was filthily easy to enlighten these folks due to the nature of their bottleneck as well as their own natal talent for Tradeskills.
Draco smiled when he saw the effect of his actions and used his Control to once again monitor the natives as they worked on their enlightenments. He also harvested a lot from them as he unscrupulously watched them try out many different ideas, which broadened his own knowledge.
It was akin to having multiple computers running various simulated experiments, while he, the main computer, harvested everything from them at once. Even as he gave unto them, he also withdrew from them.
That wasn't all though. Draco also raised his Three Pound Origin to level 6. It now increased everything, his success chance, the quality of refinement, the reduction of material use, the increase of weapon durability, the receptiveness of enchantments… everything.
The only problem was that it was just like his level 6 Refined Star Technique, in that he couldn't tell exactly how much it increased everything by. It seemed like his innate technique generator was having a hard time assessing just how much he had improved.
This was strange, as he always instinctively knew what his current level entailed. He had thought it might be due to the fact that he used a slightly unorthodox method to increase his grade, but that could not be the case for both of them.
He also assumed that it would require time for him to get used to them, but he doubted that as well. If it wasn't any of this, then exactly what was special about these new levels that made it hard to gauge them?
Draco quickly extracted the benefits he wanted from the hard at work crafters here before smacking Natasha on her amazing butt once again to bring her out of a trance.
This time, the birdwoman only frowned and followed along, not even blushing. She had gotten used to this kind of stuff, and as they said, repetition begets desensitization.
Draco then took her to a new village after meeting the excited lord of Oak who thanked Draco profusely. The next was called Maple Village, and Draco found that it was almost the same as Oak and Evergreen.
As such, he came to understand that no matter the village he visited, it was extremely likely that he would see such things on the norm. As such, he stopped paying attention to the difference and similarities, instead focusing on his own research.
Currently, he was most interested in finding out about his two techniques for Alchemy and Blacksmithing more than enlightening the populace. He figured that the best way would be to practice using the new techniques.
Since he had only enlightened two villages, he hadn't had time to practice with his level 6 Refined Star Technique, or the recently upgraded Three Pound Origin at level 6 as well.
Draco then performed Alchemy at Maple village, and his eyes lit up as he felt something different when he crafted. It was as if his mind could auto-generate the best method to handle these Epic materials, and he just needed to follow the processes.
This was different from before, as his Control allowed him to do this, but actively. In essence, his entire mind would be focused on it and actively calculating using Control as a means.
Now though, it was doing this on its own, without his input. He could even spend this time thinking about other stuff while his body moved on auto-pilot, an amazing feat that stunned Draco.
However, he still could not glean the exact details of this increase aside from this, but he also felt there was another grand change in the technique that he couldn't yet put his finger upon.
When Draco was done enlightening this bunch, he hurriedly left the village, even ignoring the excited lord. The lord could only scratch his head in confusion and wonder if some idiot in the village had offended the fellow.
Draco then entered Willow Village, and this time he used his Three Pound Origin. He noticed that it was almost the same as the Refined Star Technique, in that it automatically worked on its own, calculating and perfection the best method to handle this craft.
Instead, he used his 'free' mind to observe the processes of how this went about in order to find some clues. This was very effective, as Draco noticed some interesting details as he continued to work on this issue.
After leaving Willow Village, he then went to Plum Village, where he used the Refined Star Technique to perform Alchemy, observing that with his free mind.
Just like that, Draco spent 2 weeks shuffling between 95 of the 99 villages. He had enlightened them all while switching between his Refined Star Technique and his Three Pound Origin.
Today, Draco stood outside the gates of Cedar Village. His breathing was deep and his mind was still. After coming this far and practicing many times, he had already gleaned the full details of his improvements.
The reason why he was still was because he was far too shocked by what he learned, and he began to fear himself once more, especially this innate gift he had.
Natasha simply stood behind Draco quietly. In these past two weeks, her impression of Draco had changed as she watched his impeccable crafting and his ability to bring fresh ideas to her people.
At this point, even Natasha was aware that walking behind Draco was not something she would usually have a right to enjoy if they weren't in the Treasury. The lord of the various villages had introduced many beauties at her level to Draco and more, making her feel pressured.
