Eternal Forge: Starting with a SSS Rank talent and a Myth Rank Class

Chapter 10: Chapter 10- The price of Gold.

Leo worked through the night.

When the final hammer strike landed, the forge went silent.

[Ding!]

[Pattern-Welded Greatsword]

Tier: Uncommon

Quality: Flawless

Damage: 24–34

Durability: 75/75

STR Required: 25

Effects: +4 STR +3 VIT +3 Fire Damage on hit Stagger Resistance +10%

Self-Repair — Recovers 1% durability per minute while sheathed

Active Skill attached — Flame Strike Cooldown: 15 seconds Cost: 20 MP

Concentrate residual fire essence into the blade and unleash a fiery arc. Deals +40% bonus fire damage and leaves a 4-second burn on the target.

Leo stared at the floating panel.

Just a hair shy away from rare. Well, the next item I forge will definitely be rare then.

He waited till dawn broke.

Hugh was asleep in the corner, snoring loudly. The old man had fallen asleep while watching him forge.

When the sky started to brighten with morning sunlight, he messaged VanguardKnight. ”Meet me at the fountain to complete the transaction.”

Leo had honestly benefited from this deal, because he still had one set of all the raw materials given by VanguardKnight.

Soon Leo walked into the same bustling marketplace and made his way to the fountain.

The knight had already arrived and was waiting for him. He waved his hand as soon as he saw Leo from afar.

”So?” VanguardKnight asked eagerly, his eyes literally sparkling. ”Have you finished the sword?”

Leo nodded and handed him a greatsword wrapped in a piece of cloth.

Vanguard excitedly opened the cloth and checked the attributes.

Then... He froze.

It was more than he expected.

He checked the stats once again.

”Active skill attached?” he whispered. He looked at Leo in disbelief.

His previous excited expression was nowhere to be seen.

”It also has self-repair ability?...” the knight’s voice dropped. ”Are you sure you handed me the right sword?”

”You commissioned a greatsword, did you not?” Leo said simply. ”I forged what the materials allowed.”

A dead silence fell between them. Vanguard let out a long breath and started laughing.

”Haha... Hahahahahaha!”

”This was worth every coin,” he muttered as he gripped the sword and pointed it upward.

The morning light caught on the steel, making it shine. He gave a satisfied laugh, nodded at Leo, and completed the transaction. ”Thanks for your help. Here’s your gold.”

A system chime echoed, marking the completion of the transaction.

[Ding!]

[Commission Complete: Greatsword]

Client: Vanguard Knight

Reward: +9 Gold Wallet: 55 Gold, 45 Silver

He now had nine additional gold coins, bringing his total to 55 gold and 45 silver. This was the biggest earning he had made so far.

Leo watched as the knight walked away, the wrapped blade already strapped across his back.

Leo finally let out a breath after the knight walked away.

He looked around to see if there was anything suspicious or if any suspicious-looking people were around. After making sure nobody saw him taking the money, Leo directly walked toward the wealth exchange NPC.

There was a long line, as usual. He should at least be able to pay his rent with this, even if it probably wasn’t enough to settle the debt at the bank.

He waited for around fifteen minutes and finally stood in front of the NPC.

As soon as he stepped up to the counter, the NPC asked, ”How much do you want to exchange?”

Leo looked at the exchange rate panel hovering in front of him and was dumbfounded.

The exchange rate had skyrocketed — it was totally different from before.

[EXCHANGE RATE]

1 Gold = $500.00 USD

(Market re-evaluation in progress — global demand spike)

Five hundred dollars per gold coin? That was nearly a fifty times increase from the previous rate.

[Leo Stone]

[MONTHLY WITHDRAWAL QUOTA : .....∞]

[WITHDRAWAL FEE : ....None]

[∞ .... 0% (System Error.....)]

It’s still no cap. No fee.No changes on this since last time I checked.

His heart trembled. I thought it was a glitch and it would be fixed, but if this is permanent...

Leo checked his quota and fee and compared them to others, and he finally realized how much of a jackpot he had acquired.

Normally, the withdrawal cap per month for players was:

[MONTHLY WITHDRAWAL QUOTA]

[Novice (Level 1-15): $10,000]

[Adventurer (Level 16-40): $100,000]

[Veteran (Level 41-70): $1,000,000]

[Legend (71-100): $10,000,000]

[Saint (above 100): $100,000,000]

While the withdrawal fees were:

[WITHDRAWAL FEE]

[Up to $1,000 : 5%]

[$1,001 - $10,000 : 10%]

[$10,001 - $100,000 : 20%]

[$100,001 - $1,000,000 : 30%]

[Above $1,000,000 : 40%]

If he could earn enough gold, he could run his own conversion business, charging a lower percentage than the NPC and exchanging without any limit.

The limits and fees were not just for gold to dollars, but also applied to dollars to gold.

Players were all new to the game. They were desperate for gold — especially the rich guys.

He did the math. He could really run this business and profit much more.

Then Leo’s eyes finally landed back on the exchange rate.

It was one gold coin to 500 dollars — that was nearly a fifty-fold increase.

This skyrocketing market showed that people were using dollars to exchange for gold.

Leo was planning to convert all of his gold into money, but now he had a different idea.

Because just exchanging 28 gold was more than enough for him to earn fourteen thousand dollars.

He was truly shocked this time. He thought he would still have to grind for a while to completely pay off the debt, but now he had no need to worry about that.

The NPC was starting to get annoyed at Leo, who was standing there like a fool. ”Hey.” The NPC’s voice cut through his thoughts. ”If you’re not going to exchange, get lost and give others a turn,” the NPC glared at him.

Leo was shaken out of his stupor by the NPC and hurriedly said, ”Convert 28 gold coins, please.”

The NPC calmed down and waved his hand. A system chime sounded in Leo’s ear, and a panel appeared in front of him.

[TRANSACTION COMPLETE]

Converted: 28 Gold

USD Deposited: $14,000.00

Fee: $0.00

Status: Available for withdrawal

Leo checked the notification and then checked his inventory. There were still 27 gold and 45 silver remaining.

His heart was racing, beating like a mad horse.

He hurriedly walked away, found a relatively safe place, and logged out.

Leo disappeared and was back in the real world. He hurriedly checked his phone for notifications.

He waited for a while with bated breath.

Then his phone buzzed. A new message popped up.

Deposit confirmed: +$14,000.00

Available Balance: $14,037.37

He stared at the screen. After confirming the money had been transferred into his account, Leo finally released the breath he had been holding since logging out.

Then he started laughing, louder and louder, until he sounded like a madman.

”Hehe... he... he... Hehehehehe...”

”Huahahahah!”

”Hahahahahahah!”

After thinking about the unlimited withdrawal cap and zero fee, his laughter grew even louder.

His head was tilted upward, his hands slightly raised.

If anyone saw him, they would think it was a typical villain’s laugh, celebrating some evil scheme.

After a while, the laughter faded and he calmed down. He looked around the smithy. At the worn tools on the rack. At the cold forge. At the anvil.

It had been too long since he had laughed like that in this place.

After staring at the smithy for a whole minute, he shouted, ”I did it, old man. I protected the smithy.”

Then tears started to fall from his eyes. He stroked the hammer and anvil for a while with care, bawling his eyes out.

After calming down, Leo took out his phone again and called the bank.

The phone rang for a few seconds, and with a click, a person on the other side picked up.

”Hello, this is Carol from the customer service of the Bank of Gray Haven speaking. Respected sir, how may I be of help to you?”

It was a woman from the bank who introduced herself and sounded very polite.

Leo told her nervously, ”Ahm... ahh... I want to clear my loan. I think it was about to be due soon.”

The woman politely asked, ”Okay, sir. Please tell me your name and bank account number so that I can confirm the loan and due date.”

Leo paused and gave the required information to the woman.

She confirmed his account and pulled up the file. ”Sir, you have a $12,000 loan, and your deadline is in a week. The bank would have seized your property after a week. You have reached out on time, sir. Otherwise, it would have been very troublesome for you, Sir Leo.”

”So how much do you want to clear this time, sir?” she asked again.

”All of it,” Leo replied.

A pause....

”All twelve thousand, Sir Leo?” the woman asked with some suspicion.

”Yes, all of it,” Leo said again.

The woman typed for a few seconds. ”I am showing a payment of twelve thousand dollars that has been applied to loan number 4-7-3-2-1. This clears the outstanding balance in full. Congratulations, Sir Leo, for clearing your debt in time.”

She paused, trying to ask something. She hesitated for a while but still asked, ”Sir Leo, I don’t want to sound rude, but... may I ask how you came across this sum of money all of a sudden? Just a casual procedure, Sir Leo. It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me.”

Leo nodded and didn’t hesitate. He just said, ”I’m a blacksmith. I forged some items and sold them to earn money.”

Silence...

When the woman heard this, she was dumbfounded at first, and her face immediately became covered in black lines, thinking Leo was playing around.

But just in time, another person in the background beside the woman who was listening to the conversation spoke out.

”Oh, he must be playing that Myth Online. My son also plays. He earned a lot of money. He said he can kill monsters to earn money, but the blacksmiths and other lifestyle professionals are truly rich in the game.”

The woman on the phone realized it and her tone shifted immediately. ”Ahhh... Of course, sir. I apologize for the confusion. Congratulations again on clearing your balance.”

”It’s okay,” Leo said and hung up.

The smithy was once again silent. He had not logged out yesterday and had kept forging the sword, so he was wondering if he should sleep or log in right now, as it was still midday.

Just as he was wondering, there was a knock at the door.

He had clearly posted the ”Shop Closed” sign outside.

So who could have come? Not that anybody visited the shop even when it was open. But he had his guesses.

Leo walked to the door and opened it.

Just as he had guessed, it was Mr. Hargrove, the owner of the building where he rented his apartment.

Mr. Hargrove complained, ”Young man, if you close the shop all the time, how are you ever going to get customers and earn money? Just because nobody comes to the shop doesn’t mean you can close it down. If you close it down, what are you going to do to earn a living?”

The old man coughed, cleared his throat, and spoke again. ”Well, lad, I’m not here to make trouble for you, but you know the mortgage on my building is starting to pile up. I’ve been covering the gap myself, but now I’m also short on money, Leo.”

Leo was genuinely respectful toward this old man, who always asked him for rent every time he saw him but never made trouble for him. He understood that Leo was going through a rough time.

”Mr. Hargrove, you came at the right time. Can you please watch the store for a while? I’ll go and withdraw some money right now.”

With that, Leo rushed out of the store.

The old man was dumbfounded.

The old man stood at the doorway, his fury rising.

Thinking Leo had become truly shameless now — he had even left the store to him and ran away. He was fuming and cursing Leo in his mind, but after a few minutes Leo actually came back.

He held out a stack of bills. ”Here you go, Mr. Hargrove. This is all the rent I owe you to date.”

Saying this, he handed it to the old man.

The old man was surprised as he took the bills and counted them. He couldn’t help but ask, ”Young man, did you go out and rob someone? Are you doing something bad? You don’t need to pay me off in a hurry. You can take your time. I just didn’t want you to waste your time.”

”No, no. I earned it myself by forging — in the game Myth Online. Mr. Hargrove, you should try the game. In the game, even if you’re old, you can run, jump, and do anything as if you were young.”

Mr. Hargrove was surprised and just nodded, still a bit dumbfounded by this. ”You’re a strange kid, Leo, but your father always told me you were a genius and would be a great man someday. I think your father was right. But you’re still strange — no changes in that department.”

Mr. Hargrove praised Leo and walked away, muttering, ”Strange... truly strange...”