Second World

”Cool!” Jack exclaimed. ”Can the difficulty be adjusted as well?”

”Not like the training cave where you can adjust for every ten levels. For Legacy cave, normally there are only three types of difficulty, easy, normal, and difficult. Each legacy item is unique, so you might find more set of difficulty once you activate the cave.”

”Great, we should go back immediately and build this legacy cave.”

”Unfortunately, aside from needing a legacy item, the minimum requirement for building a legacy cave is Guild level 3.”

”Oh…”

”Furthermore, do not treat legacy cave the same as training cave. You donʼt lose anything when you die in the training cave. But you will lose one level if you die inside a legacy cave. The rule that governed it was the same as normal dungeons.”

”Hm… All right, letʼs just give it to Jeanny and John, I will let them deal with it,” Jack said as he stored the Ice Throne Legacy. He also took out another Energy potion to drink, the cooldown for the potion had passed, so he could drink another bottle.

He watched Samuel and Kirsi dispatched the Snow Minotaurs one by one while he rested. He still received exp when they killed the monsters, so he happily cheered them on. His Blade Dancer class although just increased in level, was already very close to level 34. The Ice Demon Spawn provided lots of exp, he surmised it should not be long before his level increased again.

Jack watched some of the furthest Snow Minotaurs run away into some small caves at the far end. Just as Kirsi said, they were leaving once the temperature rose again. They probably ventured down through those caves from the higher part of Mount Thenias. He did see a snow-covered top far high on the mountain.

When he felt he could move freely again, Jack stood up. By then, the Snow Minotaurs were pretty much routed. Jack didnʼt see any visible one around the cavern hall. When the fire pillar was sucked by the ring machine, it had lighted up the various lighting apparatuses around the cavern, so everyone could see pretty clear around the cavern.

Samuel and Kirsi went back to Jackʼs place once they were done. Jack was still admiring the flame pillar which surged high into the huge hole on the ceiling. Jack was certain this fire mana site was a couple of leagues above the ice mana site he encountered during the kingdom faction initiation test.

They heard some clappings. They turned and saw Haestus and Grenmir with several other people approaching.

”Bravo! Third princeʼs champion. You are indeed dependable,” Haestus exclaimed. ”When the fire energy returned to power up our forges, we knew then that you have succeeded.”

ʼWell, actually we are still fighting the beast when the machine was activated,ʼ Jack said in his mind, but he didnʼt relay the information. Whatʼs important was the result.

”So, we have held our end of the bargain,” Jack said.

”Obviously! Here is our official letter to cooperate with the third prince. You can bring it back to His Highness. Please send him my regards as well. I will come to visit once I have some spare time,” Haestus said as he gave Jack an envelope.

Jack received and stored the envelope in his inventory, at the same time he heard a notification voice informing him his chain faction quest had been updated. He also received another notification telling him that his quest, Freeing the Fire Mana Site, had been completed. He received a bunch of exp and coins.

As expected, his Blade Dancer reached level 34 after gaining the exp from this quest completion. His Archmage class remained at level 32, but it was also close to leveling up.

”As thanks to freeing this Fire Mana Site, I have to offer you a reward,” Haestus said. ”We can craft an equipment of your choice.”

Jackʼs ear perked up when he heard it. ”Really? Then, please craft for me a super rare grade medium armor pants!” Jack said.

Haestus gave him a wry smile. ”Champion, can you be more courteous when making a request? Do you think materials to craft super rare grades are easy to acquire? We can at most craft rare equipment for you.”

”Uh, in that case, I want two pieces of rare medium armor pants,” Jack said. He was only lacking two more pieces to fuse them into a super rare grade.

”Champion, this is a reward, not a request,” Haestus said helplessly. ”Okay, let us do it this way. If you want two pieces, then I canʼt give them for free. You need to at least pay the materials cost.”

”How much does it cost?” Jack asked.

”30 gold coins,” Haestus replied.

”Deal!” Jack fished out 60 gold coins, but before he gave the coins, he asked, ”Since I am paying, can I ask for more? I donʼt mind paying more coins.”

Haestus sighed, ”sorry. Even this is a special treatment because we want to thank you for aiding us in getting this fire mana site back. If you want to ask for more requests, you have to join our faction and accumulate faction points and use them to make a request.”

It was a tempting offer, but Jack declined. He got no time to tackle more factions. He did ask Peniel if she had provided the info about this faction to John, because this faction was definitely a good choice to nurture their guildʼs blacksmith members.

Peniel told him that John already had the information.

Jack handed the gold coins to Haestus. Haestus received them and asked, ”Is there any particular ability you want for the pants?”

ʼWe can make a request? This faction is truly impressive,ʼ Jack thought, but he told Haestus that anything was fine. Once he fused them using the Transformation Prism, the resulting ability would be random, so it made no difference.

”The crafting process will take one day. Please stay another night here. I will give you the armors tomorrow morning.”

”In that case, can I have one of the lectures again for today?” Jack said as he looked at Grenmir.

Grenmir shook helplessly, ”dude, you really ask for a lot of requests. Donʼt you feel shame from it?”

Jack shrugged, ”If I have a chance to get them by simply asking, why worry about shame?”

”I got no lecture today. But if you want to practice blacksmithing, we can provide you with the materials for crafting, but of course, we will take the end products, and you will only craft common and uncommon equipment this time.”

Jack thought the offer was good. Proficiency acquired from crafting equipment was better compared to increasing equipmentʼs level. He almost never did any crafting because he had no recipe and the corresponding materials. In the training provided here, he was provided recipes and materials, so he could craft to his heart content. The recipe was registered to this faction though, so they wouldnʼt register in his blacksmith recipe list even if he had successfully crafted the equipment.

”Okay, better than nothing I guess,” Jack said.

”Why are you saying it as if you lost something? We are already generous to let you use our facility, you know?” Grenmir grumbled.

”Haha, Iʼm sorry. I do appreciate it,” Jack said.

”Thatʼs better. Follow me, then,” Grenmir said.

Haestus stayed down there to re-worked the perimeter around the fire mana site with the other people he came down with. Kirsi stayed with him. Jack and Samuel followed Grenmir back upstairs.

On the way, Jack asked, ”Any possibility for me to buy ores? This place should have plenty, right?” He remembered he needed ores to level up his new super rare sword. He had bought some stock in the capital, but he might need more.

”We can only sell you iron ore and steel ore. Any higher grade and you will need to…”

”Join your faction. I know, I know. Itʼs ok, I only need iron ore and steel ore,” Jack interrupted Grenmir.

Grenmir felt like grumbling again. He said, ”I will show you to the counter where you can make your purchase.”

Once they arrived back up on the factory floor, Grenmir took Jack first to the counter where he could buy ores. Samuel excused himself to go back to the guest room. Jack spent some gold coins to purchase lots of iron ores and copper ores. The stock they had here was more than the city shops. Grenmir was dumbfounded by Jackʼs purchase.

”Why do you need so many of those basic ores? Are you simply trying to exhaust our stock?” Grenmir said.

”I need these,” Jack simply answered. ”I believe you still had more stashed away somewhere.”

”Of course, we have. We will be in trouble if we run out of those basic ores.”

”Any chance I can buy more?”

”You still want more? No way! Thatʼs all you will get!”

”Haha. Okay, okay.”

Grenmir then took him to a different room from yesterday. Other blacksmiths were using some of the worktables inside as well. Grenmir took him to a vacant one. He fired up the forge on the worktable before gesturing for Jack to approach.

”It is activated now. You can use them. The recipes you can craft are the equipment we are mass-producing. You can craft as much as you want. You can take the materials in the pile over there. Someone will refill them again when they are empty.”

”Doesnʼt this mean Iʼm working for you? Do I get paid?”

”I will shut down the forge if you arenʼt interested,” Grenmir said.

”Iʼm joking! I will get on with it!” Jack said.

😉