Elderwood Village, Weapon Master explained

Kirou looked around as soon as his vision returned to him. He was currently near the center of a rural village. Though it has been at least a full week since Immortal Era was launched, you could still find quite a few people moving around the village.

As Kirou was surveying his surroundings, a Lycan reminiscent of an old man approached him.

"Hello and welcome to Elderwood Village, young one. I see that you are new here. I am called Old Wolf." The old man now identified as Old Wolf gave Kirou a polite greeting.

"Greetings senior. I go by the name Kirou. Is there anything I can help you with today?" Kirou returned the greeting with a polite bow and asked.

Old Wolf looked at how Kirou greeted him and couldn't help but smile in satisfaction. Most of the new Lycans he had greeted in the past few days never returned such a polite greeting to him. To them, apparently even interacting with him was a hassle but this new young Lycan, a half-ling at that, gave him a more pleasing response when dealing with an elder.

"There are many things to do in Elderwood Village, young one. Alas, they will have to wait until you receive a weapon from the armory and officially talk to your class instructor." Old Wolf then pointed to a direction that leads to the eastern side of the village. "Follow this path east and it will take you to your class instructor. After he is done speaking to you he will then take you to the armory to receive a weapon. When you are done with him, come find me here and I'll give you something to do."

Kirou then cupped his hands and gave a slight bow to the old man. "Many thanks, senior. I will get on it right now." After saying that, Kirou then started walking along the path Old Wolf had directed and he disappeared within the crowd.

As he left, Old Wolf gave Kirou a meaningful look before going back to his chair near where the two spoke. He seemed to have thought of something but decided to stay his thoughts until Kirou returned.

'It's been ages since a Weapon Master appeared in my village. I wonder how he will react to this new rookie?'

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As Kirou was walking along the path, he decided to open up his stats window and check out how his stats and skills look like.

Name: Kirou

Race: Halfling(Lycan/Human)

Class: Weapon Master

Traits: Lycan Transformation(Minor), Keen Senses(Minor), Adaptability(Minor), Information Analysis (Minor), Man-at-Arms(Class), Forge Your Own Path(Class), Fast Hands(Class)

Level: 1

HP: 120/120

MP: 100/100

Str: 9

Int: 7

Def: 8

Mag Def: 8

Const: 10

Dex: 5

Luck: 55/100

Phys Attack: 27 (27)

Mag Attack: 21 (21)

Phys Defense: 16 (16)

Mag Defense: 16 (16)

Movement Speed: 2.5m/s

Attack Speed: 0.75/s

As he was looking over his stats, Kirou wasn't sure if it was high or low for his level but he knew that he felt quite sluggish as opposed to his body outside of the game.

'Seems like I really should hurry and level up. Maybe it's due to my level but it feels like I'm moving through the mud here.' And with that thought, Kirou broke into a sprint on the path.

As for the skills, he decided to hold off on exploring them just yet. He felt like it would be best to hurry back to Old Wolf and see what quests he can get before finding some time to sit down and explore his traits in detail.

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After walking for five minutes Kirou now finds himself in front of a building with the words 'Armory' and 'Weapon Master Hall' written on two separate signs. He took a few seconds to look over the building before walking up to the door and giving it a few solid knocks.

"Come in!" yelled a voice coming from inside the building.

Kirou then opened the door and walked inside, only to find a very muscular Lycan currently hammering away on a piece of metal in the back. Instead of interrupting the man, Kirou decided to wait quietly near the door while observing the interior of the building.

From the outside, the building looked like just another cottage that could be found everywhere in Elderwood Village but the inside looked like a smithy on one side completely equipped with all the required furnishings and a bunch of weapon wracks lined up with weapons of all types on one side. On the other side, Kirou found a rest area that was slightly messy due to materials being scattered all over it.

After he finished giving the room another once over, Kirou then turned his eyes back to the blacksmith still hammering away on the metal. Though he had the body of a humanoid wolf, Kirou could still make out the muscles on his upper body bulging and contracting as he used the hammer. Kirou then started looking at his form.

From what he could see, he could tell that this Lycan has been doing this for years as all his movements were made with extreme confidence. It might look random to others but Kirou could tell that each strike the man-made was done with sufficient strength and each location hit was done so with purpose.

As a fellow blacksmith himself, Kirou could tell that this Lycan blacksmith can craft any melee weapons he is tasked with given the right amount of time and materials. And like that, Kirou spent the next half hour admiring the man's work while he made the finishing touches on the weapon.

When the Lycan was done, he set the hammer down and finally turned to face Kirou.

"Sorry for the wait. Now what can I do for ya lad?" asked the man asked while moving over to the rest area of the cottage.

"Senior Old Wolf sent me here to see the weapon master instructor and to collect a weapon for myself," Kirou replied in neither servile nor an overbearing manner.

"Well if you're looking for the Weapon Master instructor, that's me. The name's Bladesmith. Never thought I'd run into a weapon master rookie in this backwater village," Bladesmith said as he started sizing up Kirou from where he was.

"I never thought I'd run into such a skilled blacksmith in this village either. That being the case, let's call it even," said Kirou with a smile on his face.

"Oh? And how would you know that lad?" Bladesmith asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It wasn't that hard to see. Though your hammering seemed random, I could tell that each strike followed a peculiar rhythm. Each spot hit was done with just enough force to drive out the impurities while keeping the metal's shape and it was done in a way to minimize the amount of hammering needed to be done on the metal itself. Had it been someone less skillful, they wouldn't have been able to forge such a weapon in such a short amount of time, especially when you started not too long before I knocked on your door." Kirou's reply was given with a cheeky grin.

Bladesmith couldn't help raising an eyebrow at the fact that this young lad just pointed out the details of what had happened so easily as if he was there from the start. He then nodded to himself before getting up. He then walked over to Kirou and extended his right hand out in greeting.

"Alright lad. Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Bladesmith. I'm the Lycan in charge of this village's armory and I'm also the weapon master instructor."

Kirou then grabbed his hand and shook it. "Greetings Bladesmith. My name is Kirou and I'm a new Weapon Master recruit. Please instruct me."

"Very good lad. Since that old man sent you here and you were patient enough to allow me to finish crafting this knife, allow me to gift it to you." Bladesmith then retrieved the knife and passed it to Kirou.

Kirou raised an eyebrow but accepted the knife nonetheless.

"Now that that's out of the way, allow me to tell you what Weapon Masters are. Weapon Masters are people capable of using all weapons in existence. The only limitation on what a Weapon Master can use is that he must have the required skill to use each weapon. Let's take for example those three weapons," Bladesmith pointed at a wrack in the corner with a sword, a lance, and an axe on it. "For those weapons over there, as long as you know how to use them and your body is strong enough to wield them, then it doesn't matter because you will be able to equip them and fight with them. Depending on the weapons themselves, you might even be able to equip multiple weapons at a time. This all falls under the class-specific trait, <Man-at-Arms>.

At the mention of that trait, Kirou quickly brought up his status menu and looked up the details of the trait from his menu. From there, he saw that all the words Bladesmith just said correspond to the description of the skill. Some details not even mentioned in the skill description were also revealed by him and Kirou was thankful to Bladesmith for that.

"That being said, while Weapon Masters can equip the weapons, they cannot learn any skills from any other class for those weapons. It is up to the weapon master himself to come up with new skills for each weapon they equip. This is made easier on you due to the second class-specific trait, <Forge Your Own Path>. This trait allows you to develop new skills easier for a weapon the longer you use it, especially under strenuous circumstances."

Again Kirou looked at the trait from his menu. Hearing these hints from Bladesmith allowed Kirou to come up with a few ideas of his own in terms of using this trait.

"As for the last trait for the weapon master class, <Fast Hands>, a weapon master is basically able to switch around his weapons and swap his main weapons with weapons in his storage without any lag time in between. Well, there is still a lag time but unlike other classes where they require a few seconds to do so, a weapon master can basically swap a weapon every half second so it makes it much easier for a weapon master to use certain skills in certain orders depending on the situation at hand."

Kirou once again looked at the trait on his menu but this time he narrowed his eyes. The reason being that unlike what Bladesmith just said, his skill menu only told him that <Fast Hands> only gives him an increased dexterity during combat. This conversation alone opened his eyes wide to the info he would have missed had he tried to learn about these things on his own. He then turned to Bladesmith, cupped his hands, and gave him a polite bow.

"Thanks for informing me of these details Senior Bladesmith. Had you not done so, I'm afraid I would have faced misfortune soon." Kirou then rose from the bow.

"No worries lad. This is the information I tell everyone. Or I would if the previous ones who came before weren't in so much of a rush to leave after collecting their weapon." Bladesmith said with a shrug.

"Either way, I must still thank you for informing me. That being said, how about I repay you by showing you a unique weapon?"

"Hoo? You'll show me a unique weapon as thanks? What kind of weapon will that be?" asked the curious Bladesmith.

"After I collect the materials, I'll be sure to return here and make it in front of you. Would it be alright if I used the smithy at that time?" Kirou gave his response and asked.

"Though I doubt there's a weapon that exists in this world that I haven't seen, that look in your eyes tells me that you have something exciting in mind. You know what, take this." Bladesmith then tapped Kirou's head and he was enveloped by a white light.

[System Message: Weapon Master Instructor Bladesmith has granted you the class {Blacksmith} temporarily and has given you a quest.]

Quest: Pique Bladesmith's Curiosity.

Rank: C+

Details: Bladesmith is intrigued by your story about showing him a new weapon. Find the materials you need in the wild then return, forge the weapon and present it to Bladesmith. Depending on how unique the weapon is, the rewards are as follows:

Pass:-

Unique weapon type: 1 skill book, blacksmith class (permanent), 10sp, affinity increase to intimate (Mortal Enemies, Enemy, Hostile, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly, Intimate, Respect, Worship).

Unique weapon: Blacksmith class (permanent), 5sp, affinity increase to friendly

Weapon: Blacksmith (permanent), 3sp

Fail:-

Bladesmith will take back blacksmith class.

After seeing the quest, Kirou couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. It seems like Bladesmith really was looking forward to his creation. Kirou then gave his thanks to Bladesmith and promised he would be back as fast as possible before leaving the smithy. Kirou followed back the original path and made his way back to Old Wolf.