3 03 - Goblin Slayer Knife

'This... Am I not a legendary blacksmith? Why is this all so difficult?' Damien thought as he wiped the sweat from his forehead as he hammered on a piece of hot metal.

"Boy, you're very lucky that I sprained my wrist yesterday. Normally an apprentice would take months before he can touch a hammer in a forge, but you were lucky enough to be able to do that on the first day. Few have that chance," the man said with an honest smile as he watched Damien from the side and pointed out some mistakes, "There, that point is getting fragile. You will have to warm it up again."

"Right." Damien agreed. He had noticed and went to take the iron to the furnace to heat it up again.

'This boy, there is something very wrong with him. Even though it is the first time he has entered a forge, with every tip I give him, he learns very easily. Every mistake I point out he can quickly see where it was and after knowing how to solve it, without much difficulty he has managed to fix it. If he didn't make such serious mistakes, I might have believed he was actually a master in disguise…' The man thought, surprised by the skill that Damien was demonstrating.

"Hello sir... Can you help me with something?" a timid female voice sounded at the entrance to the forge.

'I think she's already the seventh person. What is she going to ask for?' Damien asked himself mentally with curiosity.

He knew that this girl was a player, probably desperate to get a quest from the blacksmith. She was already the seventh person to ask the man for a quest, and for everyone, he just said random things he needed. For a young man he asked for a goblin tooth, from another he asked for 10 kg of iron ore, and so he went on. Damien had been here for a few hours and had already gotten used to this scene.

"Bring me a big bag of coal. I'll make it up to you." The blacksmith said to the girl, which left her with a big smile on her face and a relieved expression.

"Thank you, you can count on me to get it for you!" she replied energetically before running away.

"How much are you going to pay for this one?" Damien asked as he paid attention to the iron that burned in the furnace.

"Maybe 5 copper coins. It depends on the size of the bag she brings," the blacksmith replied.

Damien considered asking the blacksmith for a mission, but all the rewards the man offered in comparison to the work the mission would cause discouraged Damien. It was more fun for him to stay at the forge learning to make a knife.

Unlike the vision of the blacksmith who taught him, as soon as Damien knew where there was an error in the blade, the game system already pointed out to him where he should hammer to get better. The strength used in the hammering depended entirely on Damien, so because of the weak strength he had for being level 1, he was taking much longer to make this knife than the blacksmith would have taken to make it himself.

But every time the blacksmith pointed out some place that there was a problem, the system learned that place and was able to identify the next time it was about to happen, making the blacksmith never have to speak about the same mistake more than once, which was a pleasant surprise.

However, even with so many things making it easier for Damien, still, the task was extremely exhausting. Spending hours hammering a piece of metal was just as exhausting physically as it was mentally.

But when he finally heard a notification noise from the game, Damien smiled a proud smile before looking at the notification that startled him.

[Congratulations player! For making an item 'Below average' you received +1 statistic points because of your 'Legendary Blacksmith' class. Keep up the hard work.]

Reading this notification, Damien was as happy as he was disappointed. After having invested so much time in making this knife, he thought he could make a 'Divine' knife because of his class, but the knife was still considered to be 'Below average' even though he had tried so hard.

But when he saw that he had received 1 free statistic point, Damien was shocked. In MMORPG games, receiving statistic points was one of the greatest joys for a player, but the joy it brought was inversely proportional to the number of times a player received stats.

This usually only happened when a player leveled up, which was already very good. Sometimes the player achieved an achievement that would boost his

statistics by a large margin.

But what Damien didn't expect was that even though his class had already given him so many statistic points when leveling up, that he would still get extra points for forging equipment. That was incredible!

"What did you think, boy?" The man asked Damien for his opinion of the knife with a curious expression.

Remembering the system's assessment, Damien replied, "I am proud of my first job, but I cannot lie and say that it is not below average. I had hoped to be able to make some average items today!"

Seeing Damien's reaction, the blacksmith was a little taken aback. He thought Damien would be proud of that knife and think that it was a divine knife, because it was the first thing he had tried his hand as a blacksmith, but who knew that the boy not only knew how bad the knife was, but also did not let himself be shaken by that and was prepared to make a better item.

"Very good, but that knife was not free. The forge you used I can consider a gift, but the materials are expensive. How are you going to pay me for it?" The man asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hearing this, Damien looked at the blacksmith and also raised an eyebrow. Apparently the man's invitation was not as pure as he imagined, but still, the man still guided him through the whole process of making the knife. Maybe the man just wanted to profit a little on that.

"What is the cost of materials for this knife?" Damien asked.

"Counting the amount of coal spent, used metal, and wood, I would say at least 2 copper coins," the man replied with a smile.

Damien knew that that price was definitely much higher than it really should be. Had he not seen the blacksmith buying pounds of iron for 7 copper coins, where the iron needed for a single knife would cost 1 or 2 copper coins?

'He really wants to profit a lot from this...' Damien thought, with a little bit of hurt rising in his heart. When he believed that he had met someone good in this game, different from real life, in fact, everything proved to be the other way around, and the man just wanted someone to pay an exorbitant price for a commodity that was not worth that price. After all, the only thing that the man sold him were the materials, since the most expensive part was the blacksmith's work, which had been executed by Damien.

But he had a solution for that.

[Do you want to give the knife a name?]

'Yes, set the knife name to' Goblin Slayer Knife,' Damien responded to the system mentally.

[ Complete.]

'Hehe.' With a smile, Damien agreed to the blacksmith's price and went to the very busy street.

"Wow! I made a knife that can kill goblins!" Damien shouted as he looked at the knife in an exaggerated way.

Hearing Damien's cry, several people stopped running and looked at him with dubious expressions. But when they saw the knife in his hand, they finally understood what the commotion was about.

A chubby young man quickly approached Damien with a false expression and asked. "Friend, would you mind selling this knife to me? I can buy it from you for 3 copper coins. You can even buy a better one for yourself with that money."

Looking at the young man pretending to be astonished, Damien looked at the knife again and said quite loudly, "But it is a goblin-killing knife. With this knife I would be able to level up very quickly outside the city."

Hearing this made the young man's eyes shine even more, especially after he used 'Inspect' on the knife and discovered that the name of the knife was 'Goblin Slayer Knife'. "Friend, don't worry. How about I pay you 4 copper coins for this knife? You know that novice players just start with 10 copper coins; 4 coins will be a fortune for you already!"

Damien looked at the young man, pretending to be a little suspicious before he spoke. "I would sell for 8 copper coins, so I might be able to buy a life potion so I don't die outside of town."

"Neither 4 coins nor 8 coins… How about I buy it from you for 6 copper coins?" the young man asked anxiously.

Damien pretended to reluctantly accept the price and sold the knife to the young man.

Seeing the surprised look that the young man had after 'Inspecting' the knife with more attention and the expression of joy that he made when he saw that the knife really had that name before leaving, Damien also broke open a smile on his face before looking at the blacksmith, who at that moment had his mouth open in the shape of an 'o'.

"I believe that 6 copper coins are enough for three more mentoring sessions from you while I make a few more knives?" Damien asked, acting in an 'innocent' manner.