60 Serena’s Masterpiece

This dagger was her very first masterpiece. Quality would be more difficult to raise when the materials, process, and abilities got stronger and more complex. Serena actually managed to forge an exceptional quality epic item using four-star materials at only the professional forger level. As a result, she became a prodigy expert forger and an intermediate rune scribe. She already far outstripped her father's potential, and in Leo's opinion, even most dwarves couldn't compare to her.

All economic jobs such as forgers, cooks, alchemists, etc tended to use an unofficial ranking system for any materials that correlated with creature rankings. Four-star materials were at the legendary rank and usually consisted of monster-rank materials. This system was only a generalization so two materials could be within the same star level but be leagues apart. Darien could utilize peak four-star materials and not have the quality or rarity of the product reduced by much, but his daughter was able to make an epic item out of four-star materials, which was already outstanding! She still had a long way to go before she could consistently use four-star materials without botching the quality or rarity, but this was certainly a horrifyingly massive stride in the right direction.

Darien was so overwhelmingly proud that he had no words. She's been dreaming and planning the forging of this dagger for years now, while finally getting serious about two months ago for some unknown reason. The amount of effort she put in daily to practice for the real thing made her parents nervous for her health but helpless because she was far too determined to see it through.

Other than the quicksilver, all of the materials had legendary (four-star) or above rarity. Youngling Void Dragon leather was just barely legendary as it teetered on the edge of epic, only crossing the line because of the void element. The blade is a monster-rank creature core of an infamous Grand Gemstone Stag that used to be able to dish out S~grade attacks easily, becoming a terror for all during its lifetime. The dark amethyst ink-like veins infused into it was actually Kyren's draconic blood from his old amputated arm combined with some other rare alchemy ingredients. It was only a youngling's but it did add many unique abilities. Even the stuff used for the runes were a four-star level unique mixture of three-star paint, more Void Dragon blood, and other potent ingredients. Darien was confused as to why Serena wished to use two-star quicksilver so badly, arguing that it would bring down its quality and rarity, but she was enthusiastically adamant about using it for some odd reason.

To gather and pay for all of these materials, Darien and his wife worked staggeringly hard for and took loans from Maya, even going so far as to sell a large portion of his wares to her. The monster creature core alone was worth tens of platinum. There were better and pricier choices for the material of the blade, but again, she was inflexible about the color and look of the core. The fact that she made something of this caliber at an unreasonably young and novice age, could be compared to having extreme or overwhelming growth potential as a forger. Her future was blindingly bright.

'Yeah, I see it too.'

There was more to this little dagger than meets the eye and Kyren's transcendent, draconic, magical, and spatial senses picked up on the hidden side of this intricate item and it looked like no one else noticed. Even Darien who was an apex forger was ignorant.

"May I please see it?"

Serena beamed as she handed it over to him, "Of course!!"

"Could you step outside of the room? Just trust me."

"Huh? Okay..." Although she was profusely confused as to why he made such a weird request, as a child who was fond of him and obedient in nature, she walked outside and closed the door.

His null magic isolated any noises that might escape the room and placed some dark magic on any openings of the door, just to be thorough. He inspected every detail as he tried to discern why such a hidden and terrifying aura was seeping out of it. After he finished his investigation, he rolled up his sleeve. He swiftly and methodically grazed his forearm, only intending to create a paper cut sized wound. As he predicted, a staggering amount of pain erupted from the origin of the invisible wound while he only reacted with a wince but nothing else.

No more than half a second later and considerably large gash appeared while spraying a more than the usual amount of red blood. Quadruple digit damage chipped away at his bottomless health as he manually stopped the bleeding and he was forced to use soul and life magic to heal the wound completely.

"Little Boss!! Why would you do that?! Even if you're a dragon, you're only a youngling! Did you think it would do no damage?"

Kyren and Rayna couldn't even hear his words as they stared at the item with a serious and dumbfounded expression. She had a hunch that he was no longer a mere mortal so she also knew the full weight of that wound. This weapon was absolutely not supposed to be able to harm him even in his more vulnerable human form. Who would've thought that a lowly epic item made of four-star materials would make him bleed... it was unthinkable.

Although the item did inherit some of his draconic void abilities, such as [Dragon Slash(void)] which was why he needed soul mana to heal, it was only at a youngling level. There was something else about it that was hidden deep within that made even Kyren alarmed.

'Should I lock this up?'

<I believe that whatever's in that item, is in a weakened and dormant state. At the very minimum, it would need a couple of decades, maybe a century to get unstable and break free."

'What is it then?'

"*Sigh* Nothing, just wanted to test something out," He handed the blade back to Darien, stored all of the blood into a crack in space, and got rid of the metallic scent with wind manipulation, "You can come back in now."

All he could do was observe the dagger for now and confirm if it would stay safe for as long as Leo estimated. Although he was worried about her safety, Leo persisted with his theory that it would take at least a decade for anything to happen. That was unless it was intentionally set free.

Serena came up to him with a little worry, "Is something wrong Uncle?"

"Nope, false alarm."

"Then... what did you think?"

"It's amazing!" He easily hoisted her so she could sit upon his right forearm like the branch of a sturdy tree. His gaze was joyful as he connected with her eyes, "I can tell you put a lot of effort into it."

She was still giggling from him picking her up and she fiddled with strands of his hair, "You should like it silly!! I used you as a reference and inspiration after all!

"Ohh?" An amused light shone in his eyes as he realized why she was so driven about the materials and color, "I'm deeply flattered and extremely honored to be apart of the creation of your first masterpiece. I didn't know I was so cool looking in your eyes."

"That's a given! I-I wanted something that reminded me of you."

Surprise and speechlessness was the only way he could react.

Darien felt like an arrow pierced his heart, "Hey!?! How come you didn't use your father as a reference?! I'm cool too!"

"No, you're cool. It's just, what am I supposed to make? An old mace with a perfectly round and shiny but dull head?..... Maybe some other time."

Countless arrows skewered his very soul, taking critical damage and falling to his hands and knees while a depressed thunder cloud formed above him, "*Mumbling* I try to keep my head polished, it's not my fault that I humans age over time... *inaudible* God, am I even on the queue to be the inspiration for my own daughter? *mumbling* When did so many pretty people enter our lives and take my pride and joy away?!....."

As Darien's entire world began to cave in, Serena went back to messing with Kyren's hair, paying no heed to her overdramatic parent.

Rayna crouched by his side and patted his back consolingly, "There, there. She said you were cool right? I bet she's far more grateful than she lets on."

Even with her soothing words and charisma attribute, Darien didn't change much. He dragged himself to a nearby stool and leaned against a wooden table with forging designs and blueprints on top, contemplating life's meaning.

Kyren gathered some clean and cold water from a nearby unused product cooling bucket and splashed a little onto the back of her neck. She yelped and shivered in surprise while he briefly scolded her actions. A wronged and confused expression appeared on her face as she didn't know what she did to deserve this.

"*Sigh* Anyway, did you decide on a name for it?"

"Uhh, how about your name?

"Haha, I'm flattered yet again, but my name is mine. Come up with something unique and memorable... Do you need help?"

They brainstormed for a couple of minutes, using the dagger's abilities and the materials utilized to fabricate ideas. It took them a while to settle on something because she kept wanting to make the name blatantly related to him, but she seemed quite satisfied with the result.

"So, your final decision is The Quartz Antler, Clareste? Don't real forgers engrave their signatures and the item's title on it?"

Serena excitedly rushed off to a tool covered table with the dagger in hand, practically skipping. Kyren walked up to Darien and sat down with him.

"Is there a reason you ca- Ahh, the armor you ordered. Follow me..." He seemed to have recovered a bit, looking only slightly downcast as he stood up and guided them towards the door.

As soon as they were about to exit, Serena rushed over and gave her father her famous bear hug, "Thank you for everything..."

Warmth finally found its way back to Darien as he got on his knees and hugged back, "Anything for you my little forger."

She let go after a few moments and ran back to continue her work.

Now rejuvenated, he turned to Kyren and Rayna with a hearty smile, "Hehe, shall we go see my masterpiece now?"

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