First Task

In Rise Online, there are tens of thousands of professions. Among them are the carpenters, tailors, chefs, bodyguards, and many others that once were or still are common in the real world.

This system of professions will always be one of the factors that attract hundreds of thousands of users to Rise Online, making it such a popular game.

Many users prefer not to fight other players or monsters, choosing instead to spend their in-game time engaging in quieter activities to relax from the stress and worries of the modern world. For this reason, once these people start learning a line of work during the first few hours of playing Rise Online, they never let it go.

Battles usually provide faster progression than tasks, as well as excitement, adrenaline, and various other discoveries, but professions also provide quests, level-ups, and promotions within the chosen task. If a person wishes to have status and power within the world of Rise Online, they will soon discover that it takes more than killing powerful monsters or hunting down Ranked players.

Most people don't know about the advantages of the professions, although users can occupy high positions of professions of great renown and influence in the world of Rise Online. Only a few users have ever achieved this feat, which explains why most of these positions are still occupied by NPCs, and this includes especially the work of blacksmithing, which requires time, effort, and knowledge.

After Kaizen logged into Rise Online, he appeared outside the Medullar Forge.

Immediately, he turned around, opened the colossal doors in front of the statue of the headless woman, and entered the dusty forge.

"Therkara, I'm back." He said as he saw the back of the brown-haired woman.

The smith-lady, who seemed to be looking for something in the massive pile of weapons and tools, immediately turned to look at Kaizen.

"So, you really have returned, apprentice!"

Kaizen was confused. "Of course, I have returned. Yesterday, I agreed to be your apprentice."

Therkara smiled, pleased. "All right, I'm sorry for doubting you. Now, can you get this here for me?" She pointed to a pickaxe that was on one edge of the pile.

"Sure."

Then Klaus moved closer and saw an old silver pickaxe with a head and handle made of metal. Impressively, this tool had not been badly damaged over time, nor had it been consumed by rust. Klaus bent down, picked it up, and held it to Therkara.

"Hehe! That's not for me, dear student." She spoke with a mischievous smile and raised her right index finger, like a true teacher about to say something. "Your first mission as a blacksmith will be to collect fifty iron ores. That will be the minimum amount of material we need to start forging."

[Therkara Ironstone, the last Blacksmith Master of the Ironstone lineage, has proposed a Profession Quest].

[Mission Name: A Blacksmith's first task.

You have become the apprentice of Therkara Ironstone, a ghost of the long-forgotten Ironstone Blacksmith Village, and the first task she has requested for you is to collect at least fifty iron ores.

Possible rewards upon completing this Quest:

- Learn to forge and repair tools].

Lucky for Kaizen, the mission had no time limit. Yes, it would probably take many hours to get the 50 iron ores needed to complete the mission. However, it was Sunday, and Kaizen had plenty of free time.

'I'll get 100 iron ore in an hour!' Kaizen exclaimed internally, determined.

Therkara looked at Kaizen's cheery expression and laughed. "Apprentice, do you know where you will find iron?"

The large man who wore only a blue tunic and a black shirt across his chest looked around and thought for a second before answering. "I saw some ores glowing on the wall in the cave behind us. Maybe there?"

The Smith-Master shook her head, denying. "Actually, no. In that cave, there is no such ore. All the minerals that iron absorbs to develop are soaked up by the Cerulean Crystals, those blue crystals you see everywhere. That shows that the iron you have here is not enough to produce even a single nugget, let alone a blade. However, a few days ago, I heard two men talking in the forest about an iron mine near the city, further to the northeast. Go there and return when you have the fifty ores."

Kaizen nodded and accepted the mission.

Since Kaizen had no other option to get back to Holinda faster, like the teleportation crystals mentioned by Magma. He had to return walking, and to do this, he would need to retrace his steps with Therkara to the Medullar Forge.

He still had the lantern he found at the entrance to the Ironstone residence in his inventory. Thanks to this, and his impeccable memory, it was easy not to get lost in the caves on the way back.

When Kaizen reached the part of the cave where he fell after jumping from the spiral-shaped staircase, he began to climb the stairs, which still seemed in one piece, and luckily the Huko Arrows hadn't damaged it much. The bodies of the Scorpion Spiders that Kaizen had killed were not there, which meant that they were either completely charred or maybe just disappeared after he completed the quest, so Kaizen didn't interrupt his return.

However, as Kaizen approached the entrance hallway, he noticed something different in the air. Everything was so quiet, in fact, too quiet to be true.

The slimy noises that usually the eggs hanging from the ceiling produced were no longer there; everything was completely still.

At this moment, Kaizen came up with a theory of what might have happened, and when he finally reached where the staircase began, this theory was proven.

The chamber was filled with the residue of the little white eggs. On the floor, on the ceiling, on the walls, everywhere had traces of the obvious: the hundreds of Scorpion-Spider eggs had hatched. Even so, Kaizen didn't find any creatures during his return to that place, which meant that at least most of them had fled into the Misty Wood.

In any case, that was not a problem for Kaizen for the time being. He ignored the traces and left the cave, hoping he wouldn't encounter these creatures on the way to the town.

By the time of day, it must have been morning in Rise Online, but the Misty Woods always had the same thick fog and cloudy skies, even during summers or winters.

'It's going to suck having to face that fog once again,' Kaizen thought. He couldn't use his excellent memory with such thick fog in that forest, not after getting one of the biggest scares of his life with Therkara sneaking up on him.

To find the fastest route from where he was to Holinda City, Kaizen slid his finger down, and on the interface that appeared at his chest height, he clicked on the MAP tab.

The transparent square of the interface before him expanded and revealed the entire area around him.

"Expand." Kaizen commanded, and the area that was shown to him widened.

On this map, most areas were still completely dark, except for the regions Kaizen walked through and the City of Holinda. However, to Kaizen, there were three strange and new icons on this map, which were not there the day before.

One of the icons was an emblem, and inside this emblem was some kind of simplified illustration of Therkara's face. This indicated her location.

Another icon was an emblem with a spider head with eight eyes, showing the Spider Den entrance.

Finally, an icon was further away on the map, near the City of Holinda. This icon carried an emblem like the others and a pickaxe in the center of this red emblem.

"This must be where is the iron mine that Therkara mentioned. Well, if I already know the location of where that is, I don't need to return to the city. It's better this way. I don't want to run into Magma and his colleagues until I'm at least at his level."

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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