Chapter 9: Chef's Kiss

Everything was going well. Frank had just completed his Chemist's Jug and once he added a liquid to it, it would store it and only cost mana to make more. Though the restriction was that it could only make fluids once a day.

That was fine with Frank as any more would be broken. Once he had built his jug and hidden it away in his room at the inn, Frank journeyed to the local blacksmith. As he arrived, he let out a sigh of relief.

"I finally made it. I keep getting distracted." He shook his head and entered the front shop of the smithy. As Frank stepped into the selling floor, which was decorated with all sorts of weapons and armors, Frank noticed an increase in temperature.

He looked around and found a man wearing a leather apron covered in soot. Frank moved over and waved to him. "Hey there. I was wondering if I could buy some rust and aluminum powder?"

The smith tilted his head, a puzzled expression covering his face. "You want to buy rust powder? Why? Actually. I don't want to know. I'll ask my pa' give me a second." He held up a finger and entered the back.

After a few minutes, he returned. "Pa' said you can have all the rust you want for free if you clean it up off the floor around the grinder. And for the aluminum powder? A gold for a pound."

Frank did some quick math and responded, "I'd like to buy 45 grams then please." He fished out a silver coin and handed it to the man who motioned for him to follow. Inside the smithy, Frank could feel the intense heat.

In the back right corner was a wide man hammering without rest on a glowing metal. He ignored Frank and his son. Frank trailed after the man until he reached the grindstone. On the dimly lit floor, he could see lots of rust, as if some weapons were fixed from their reclaimed state.

"I'm guessing some adventurer wanted his goblin weapons fixed up?" Frank asked with a chuckle.

The man nodded, "Some blond kid came in here with over a hundred rusted daggers and swords, wanting them all rust-free. I don't understand rich people but work is work. I'll go work on turning the aluminum to powder. There's a bag behind you and a broom."

Grabbing them, Frank got to work gathering every last bit of rust. It took a bit, but since it was for progress Frank didn't mind it too much. After about 30 minutes Frank had finally finished gathering all the rust, about 400 grams total.

The man had already given him the aluminum so after patting his close down, Frank took his prize and left the smithy. He headed towards the forest, picking more mushrooms along the way.

He ate the safe ones and kept the magic and deadly mushrooms in his bag. Once he felt like he was sufficiently far enough away he stopped. The first step was to prepare an area. So with the use of [Shape Earth], Frank began to turn large rocks into bowls so he could work.

After making three stone bowls, Frank eyeballed roughly 18 grams of rust into one, six grams of aluminum into another, and left the last one empty. After sorting his materials, Frank dragged the bowl containing the rust away from the rest.

With it a good enough distance away, Frank used [Flames] to heat the iron oxide. Once it was dried enough to his liking, he took the bowl and emptied it into the empty one. Next, he took the aluminum and mixed it in with the rust.

Now Frank needed to mix them up so he heaved another rock onto the bowl and used [Shape Earth] to stick both together. He then picked up the quite hefty rock and shook it until he thought the mixture inside was evenly mixed.

Setting down the rock and separating the 'top' revealed a nicely mixed red powder. "And with that! Thermite is made. Time to light this sucker." Frank grinned like a child on Christmas morning and dragged the bowl roughly 20 feet away from where he was going to stand.

Once placed, Frank began to walk backward using [Flames] to ignite the powder. As it heated up, he thought about the chemical reaction so that when it finally went off he would hopefully get the skill he intended.

[[Chemistry lvl. 1] acquired]

Seeing the notification, Frank jumped up and down. "Fuck yes. I knew it. Science, baby!" He continued to celebrate for a few minutes before finally settling down. Since he had finally gotten this out of the way, he needed to work on gathering more wealth and equipment.

Deciding his next course of action would be to head to the Adventurer's guild in hopes of getting a quest for a nice sum, Frank once again used [Shape Earth] and buried the evidence of his experiment.

This time, on Frank's return trip to town he used another route and walked. He continued to collect mushrooms that would net him a good sum and finally arrived at the guild. Frank stepped up to the quest board and began to look around the copper-rated quests.

"Hmm…Cliche rat and goblins quests, some manual labor, ooo. A gathering quest." Frank read the quest that had caught his eye and frowned in contempt once he read the contents. "No way in hell I'm gathering feces for one silver."

He rolled his eyes and continued to browse the quests. Out of the corner of his eye, a blond figure wearing magnificent armor passed and Frank couldn't help but turn to look. As he did his mood instantly soured.

There he was, the [Hero] himself. Frank gazed at his back and used [Appraisal]

[????, [Hero lvl. 25], ????]

Frank's eyes bulged at the level and snorted. "Bastard looks like he's been power leveled. That armor is too nice for him to have bought it himself." Frank mumbled to himself as he tried to ignore the presence of the man who had gotten him killed.

He needed to focus on more important things like making money. As he finally reached for something called 'Dungeon Scouting,' a familiar gauntleted hand reached over his shoulder and grabbed it.

"I don't think you're ready for something like this, [Artificer]." Frank turned around to see the face he hated staring back at him.

The teen was smirking, contempt visible in his eyes. Frank got a good look at him for the first time noticing his blueish-green eyes and stupid chiseled jaw. He looked sort of familiar to someone Frank knew, but he couldn't quite place him over his anger.

"I saw it first and you know it." Frank bit the words out and drew the attention of everyone in the guild. He could hear faint whispering and noticed the gawking. The [Hero] gave him another smirk, one Frank wished he could wipe off his face.

He held in his anger though and decided he wasn't worth his time. Frank turned around, grabbed another quest at random, and walked towards the counter. The teen turned to watch him silently. As Frank moved towards the line, everyone who was left headed towards the bootlicker.

"Everyone wants to suck the [Hero]'s dick." Frank mentally sneered as he got to the counter. He didn't even greet Aslef this time and just placed the paper on the surface. Aslef, seemingly noticing Frank's inner rage, stayed silent and processed the quest. After stamping it, he handed it back to Frank with a pained expression.

Swiping it off the counter, Frank left the guild and headed towards the apothecary to sell his mushrooms. With his pockets 23 gold heavier, Frank returned to the smith. There he purchased a set of leather armor, parts to assemble a crossbow, bolts, and a set of tools for 25 gold.

With a few more odds and ends bought at the general store, Frank headed to his spot in the forest to work on his equipment. He started by removing the enchantment on his clothes and adding it to the leather armor.

Once he had donned his new [Arcane Armor], Frank nodded at the improvement. He felt much safer. The leather felt weightless and flexible, almost as if he wasn't wearing clothes at all. It was perfect.

Following the completion of the enchantment, Frank endeavored to turn the crossbow kit into something that would fit him better. First, he carved the body; he carved away what he thought was excess and added a channel so the bolts would be fired from an internal barrel.

Then using some other wood he bought, he added an external magazine that rested slightly above the chamber horizontally. After, he took the few metal rods he bought and used his tools to make some crude springs.

With the magazine complete, Frank remade the trigger system so it would use the new barrel. Next came the limbs to which he attached pulleys. Satisfied with how it was looking, Frank finally strung his crossbow.

As he completed the final step he received a few notifications.

[Level up!]

[[Arcane Crafting] has become lvl.2. Two unselected options]

[Created a unique weapon. Name it to see its stats.]

Frank smiled at the floating boxes and quickly added two points into intelligence and wisdom than the last one into constitution. He then named the crossbow 'Herokiller,' before moving on to looking at his new options for Arcane Crafting.

He selected two options he remembered from last time and started to cackle crazily. "HAHAHAHAHAHA. YOU BETTER WATCH YOURSELF, [Hero], BECAUSE I'M COMING FOR YOU." Frank shouted at the top of his lungs and let loose all of his rage.

Calm washed over Frank and applied his new enchantments. To his backpack, he added [Expanded Holding], and to his crossbow, he added [Repeating Shot]. With his pack now a bag of holding, Frank added his coins and old clothes to it.

Frank then stared at his crossbow and focused on it to see its stats.

[Name: Herokiller

Type: Unique Crossbow +1

This crossbow was made with rapid-fire in mind, what was once a crude construction became a budding masterpiece thanks to the infused emotions. With the addition of an enchantment the crossbow now automatically refills its bolts along with its unique reloading feature.]

"Finally, some good fucking food."