Chapter 38: The Other Difficulties III
James held a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other, holding it to the anvil and pounding it slowly but powerfully. Beads of sweat rolled down his face and he wiped it off with his arm before resuming his constant pounding. An hour later as the sun started to rise over the city walls of Dominatum, the capital city of the Solic Empire, otherwise known as the empire of the sun, James finished the sword.
James shrugged away a yawn from pulling another all nighter and used Eye’s of the Craftsman to inspect the sword''s functions and quality.
Slightly Enhanced Iron Sword
Quality: Decent
Tier: 2
Rank: Ridiculously Low
Aspects: None
Skills: None
Enhancements: +200 Strength
Enchantments: None
Runes: None
Required Tier: 2
Required Stats: 200 Strength, 100 Dexterity
It was the best sword he had made so far, and it showed. It finally added to a user''s stats, something that was slightly above the rest of the world’s basic weapons. It was easy to make a slightly enhanced weapon, provided one had decent education and had a year or two of experience, and that was for the average person.
James was not average. He had no to little experience in the creation field, and had only a couple days of experience. He was further up the curve to greatness than even he knew. The benefits he got were not the sword he made, there were millions of swords just like it, or even better than it. The benefit he got was from Art of the Craftsman.
Art of the Craftsman activated! Analyzing…
Analyzed! +2 Knowledge, +2 Strength.
He gained stats for every item he created, depending on the level of the item, the more benefits he received. He had originally despaired when he saw all of the horrible side effects of his class, such as not receiving stats for leveling and not having a subclass or certain stats. But he soon realized that the pros vastly outweighed the cons. After just a few days, he had gone from a tier 1 nobody to being more powerful than he had been at his peak previously.
Original(
James Buzzler
Level: 49
Class: Warrior
Subclass: Builder
Titles: None
Skills: Power Strike (C), Calm mind (D), Parry, (D), Slash (F), Crafting (F)
Spells: None
Talent: F
Potential: F
Stats:
Endurance: 5
Constitution: 26
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Strength: 84
Dexterity: 44
Wisdom: 3
Intelligence: 3
Free points: 0
)
James Buzzler
Level: 1
Class: Legendary Craftsman
Subclass: N/A
Titles: Legendary, Creative Being, First Blacksmith, First Artisan
Skills: Eye of the Craftsman(SSS), Art of the Craftsman (SSS), Knowledge of the Craftsman(SSS), Body of the Craftsman(SS)
Spells: None
Talent: S
Potential: S
Stats:
Endurance: 84
Constitution: 12
Strength: 102
Dexterity: 44
Willpower: 82
Knowledge: 107
Free points: 0
His stats and skills were monstrous when compared to before, he would win everytime if he were to fight his past self, simply because of stats and skills, seeing as level was useless for him, as it only gave him the 1 free point and no class benefits.
All said, he was happy. He loved crafting and exploring everything his class had to offer, and he especially loved being able to watch his growth real time. His life felt like it was solely his to control again.
***
Lars held up his shield and bellowed at the orc, diverting its attention away from his teammates and placing its fiery rage solely on him. It screamed its fury at him and hacked down at him with its axe, failing to penetrate the seemingly average shield. Its fury only grew at this fact and it slashed again at him, its blows ringing like a gong with every clash. Lars used one of his skills to buff his teammates, “Light of Vindication!” He cried, increasing his teammates and his highest stat by 20%, which for him was constitution, before using another skill -Light of Protection- to add a divine shield over his teammates to protect them from the orc.
The orc was quickly attacked and killed at the hands of his teammates, and they celebrated before looting the body as it turned to ash and bones. They got a couple mana crystals and an axe, which was about average from these monsters. They took a break for a few minutes to recharge mana and go over anything they needed to.
Lars turned on his notifications and checked to see if anything interesting had happened.
Level Up!
Another level? Quite good for a fight that split the experience between him and 5 others. Lar opened up his status sheet to soak in the beautiful numbers that had quickly grown since becoming a paladin of protection.
Lars Robin
Tier: 2
Level: 112
Class: Paladin of Light
Subclass: Tank
Faith Pathways: Uncommon
Faith: 27,443
Life force: 23,920
Stamina: 11,800
Titles: First Paladin, Sophras Champion, First Champion
Skills: Holy Shield (Z), Light of Protection (SSS), Light of Vindication (SS), Light of Healing (SS), Grand Hunt (S), Holy Sphere(S), Quick Steps (B)
Spells: None
Talent: S
Potential: S
Stats:
Endurance: 1,180
Constitution: 2,392
Strength: 1,135
Dexterity: 126
Wisdom: 120
Faith: 2,249
Free points: 1
He had lost a large chunk of his skills, the only skills he kept were Grand Hunt and Quick Steps, both of which were passive skills. Grand Hunt made him gain a lot exp if the opponent was half a tier or more higher than him, with it capping at level 0 of the next tier, while Quick Steps merely made him faster, which was sorely needed because of his lacking dexterity.
His team started to rise and stretch and he joined them, preparing to fight once again, but this time, with friends.
***
Malcolm stood alone in a bloody field, surrounded by corpses of those who had mistakenly thought of him as a friend. They had been foolish, he had led them on the entire time, acting like a weak tier 2, when in actuality, he was halfway to tier four. Needless to say he had destroyed them while they had set up camp while travelling from one city to another in a large caravan.
400 people had left the city, only one returned, bearing the sad news of a wyvern attack that came out of nowhere and killed off the entire group.