Succession of Breakthroughs

Yale knew that advance to the expert stage in Smith Mastery also needed a turning point.

The grandmaster had said to him that the turning point was being able to craft something with a special property, for example, heat resistance or cold resistance.

Any smith at the expert stage was able to infuse some special properties to the weapons or armors, even if they were only making a piece of metal to use later in a more complex crafting.

However, to a smith at the apprentice stage that was far more difficult, so the breakthrough to the expert stage had stopped a lot of people in the past.

It was also possible to infuse elements to create magic weapons, but that was something of a different level of difficulty, only a smith at the peak of the expert stage would be barely able to do it with a lot of difficulties, and that was because it was the turning point to reach the next stage. 

As for the Space-time Judgment Sword, Yale didn't even dare to imagine what level one should have to craft such a weapon; Yale didn't expect to reach that level in his life as he wasn't too fond of forging and didn't have an incredible talent in it.

Two weeks passed quickly and the day for Julie's breakthrough arrived; Yale went to see Julie's advance to the Novice Rank as he had never seen someone doing the advancement to Rank 1. 

Julie had planned to advance in both paths at once, as in that way she would only need to ask for help one time, the difficulty of doing it increased due to it, but as she was exceptionally well prepared, her breakthrough worked successfully and didn't have any problem.

After the breakthrough, Julie announced that she would be training without showing herself until she reached the 1-star Novice Rank.

The starless Novice Rank was unstable like all the starless realms; the best was to advance quickly to the 1-star to consolidate the Rank.

Fortunately, going from the starless Novice Rank to the 1-star Novice Rank was quite easy for those who had their training speeds improved as the difficulty to that advance was still the same than the one at the Mortal Rank.

Julie had only needed two weeks of secluded training to reach the 1-star Novice Rank. Seeing Julie reaching that stage of training,  motivated Oscro to train harder, he didn't want to be left behind by the others as he knew that even if his path was easier than the others, his talent was lower than Julie's or Yale's.

Two months later, Yale finally managed to reach the expert stage creating a dagger with a cold resistance effect.

[The user upgraded the Passive Skill Smith Mastery to Expert Level 1.]

[Vitality points increased to 90 due to sub-quest reward.]

[Strength points increased to 90 due to sub-quest reward.]

[Agility points increased to 90 due to sub-quest reward.]

[Intelligence points increased to 90 due to sub-quest reward.]

[Wisdom points increased to 90 due to sub-quest reward.]

[Dexterity points increased to 90 due to sub-quest reward.]

[Origin Points increased to 90 due to sub-quest reward.]

That was what Yale was expecting; he directly maxed all his stats and Origin Points thanks to the sub-quest reward. Yale hadn't stopped practicing while training to advance to the expert stage in Smith Mastery, so his distance to the limit of the 9-star Mortal Realm was shorter than three months ago.

The dagger Yale had created while advancing in rank was without doubt his best crafting. Yale had remained forging only daggers as they were easier to craft than swords, he had also learned how to craft them, but his practice advanced more quickly making daggers as they could be done in less time and with fewer materials.

When Yale appraised it, the description was quite normal, but at least it didn't say that it was flawed like his first crafts.

[Dagger (Cold resistance): Dagger forged by the user. Standard dagger with resistance to cold.]

Furthermore, thanks to the Craft Menu, he was able to replicate the dagger by using 80 Origin Points as long as he had the same materials. If Yale hadn't absorbed the Origin Orb, duplicating the dagger with cold resistance relying upon the system assistance would have been impossible because the Origin Orb had also reduced the cost of Origin Points in the Craft Menu.

"Congratulations for making your breakthrough. With your advance to the expert stage, we can consider the lessons finished. Remember, that before reaching the Apprentice Rank you won't be able to improve further in the expert stage. Now, you should practice in order to increase your realm."

"Thank you very much for your teachings."

Yale bowed to the grandmaster and left; both only had a relation teacher-student due to Tar's orders to the grandmaster to teach Yale. The grandmaster didn't have any preference towards Yale as Yale's talent in forging wasn't extraordinary. 

The grandmaster respected Yale due to his relationship with Tar, it was clear that someone who the chief elder wanted to help that much had a special status that was worthy of respect, but he didn't have any affection towards him as his teacher.

After leaving, Yale used his badge to contact Tar and ask for help to advance to the Novice Rank.

"Of course, don't worry. I will use the best materials and set the best formation to help you in the breakthrough. Furthermore, it will be in a secluded place where only those with my permission can enter. I know that when someone who has reincarnated makes a breakthrough from the Mortal Rank to the Novice Rank, some special effect can appear due to the soul. You can be certain that no one else would be able to detect anything that happens in your breakthrough."

Yale didn't know about that special effect reincarnated people could provoke due to the soul, thankfully Tar liked to reach his own conclusions and speak them without worries.

The truth was that Tar only acted that way in front of Yale, he was almost mute in front of the others, speaking only when necessary and with a quite cold personality. That was something needed with his status as the chief elder.

However, as Yale's past life was someone of his master's generation, Tar relaxed in front of him. Tar had been acting for too many years without emotions carrying all the weight of the Zuatania Merchant Association. Thus, having someone to who he could speak without worries was something he liked a lot.

"I will need a month to set up the formation in a perfect state. Come to my office in just a month from now, and I will guide you to the place where the formation will be placed."

Yale simply thanked him and cut off the transmission.

Then, Yale went to the Quest Menu to check the next sub-quest as he had just finished the previous one.

[Advance to the Rank 1. Reward: Main Chain Quest: Origin Path Rank 1 will be completed.]

Yale smiled as there wasn't any more requisite before reaching the Novice Rank, he hadn't forgotten that he would obtain a Storage Space after completing the first Main Chain Quest.

The next month was quite relaxed for Yale, but he also wasn't able to make any improvements, he merely made a lot of daggers with cold resistance. Yale was planning to use them in combination with Frost Claws adding more strength to the skill, as the daggers had some resistance to cold, they would be able to resist at least a few uses before breaking.

In that month, Oscro had also managed to reach the peak of the 9-star Mortal Rank and also asked an elder of the merchant association for help to advance to the Novice Rank.

Although Oscro had asked for the help later than Yale, as Oscro wouldn't have such an awesome formation like Yale, he ended up advancing three days before the appointed day Yale had with Tar.

Oscro had also gone into secluded training to reach the 1-star Novice Rank. Although he loved doing business, he still cared about practice.

Three days later, Oscro was still training, and Yale took Wyba with him and went to meet with Tar; no one else would be present in Yale's breakthrough. Although Yale didn't know if the fact of being reincarnated would cause any special effect like Tar had said, the chances of the Origin Path doing something were high.

When Yale was walking in the headquarters of the Zuatania Merchant Association, everyone greeted him, they were already used to Yale walking around the headquarters, and they knew that he had the chief elder's permission, so the people wanted to have a good relationship with him.

However, Yale had only a good impression of the elder who taught him the foundations of smithing because he had helped him without knowing his status. Yale didn't care about the people who only treated him well due to his status.

That elder even went sometimes to the Frost Wolf Company to visit him and explain things about the old times. Yale liked that first-hand information, which was better than the information obtained from reading books and the elder liked to speak about it, so both were happy with those meetings.