The 'Winners' Pt2

Throughout this entire process, QTPi just wandered silently along, watching and learning everything that took place.

As a crafter herself, I expected she was probably a sadist version of Mistress and thus was taking advantage of the situation in her own way. Every recipe and enchantment I was bandying about was eaten up by the peanut gallery. However, her presence was a clear deterrent to the companions.

Even now, nobody had bothered entering the smithy and all but two of them had left entirely. These two were both level fifty-nine and were probably the connects to the aforementioned parent clans.

That level was insanely high for a starting region unless they dedicated themselves to learning and exploiting different recipes for experience and never actually fought. However, it was entirely possible that this was exactly what they did and probably resorted to these means to exploit any creativity among the recent generation of players.

I actually felt good about my twelve-hour sweatshop after learning that, and not just because my math went up to six swords and six hours of armor crafting. I was giving these guys over-par materials and means from the start with top clan access AND five hundred dollars!

I once again fucked up in the process but at least the clan and I would still profit from this eventually. Even if it took an IRL week to get them in the stat and skill shape I wanted, I had three reality weeks to work them like dogs. The initial investment value will be paid over by ten times per person.

Halfway through the armor crafting stage, the sun was actually lightening the cloudless sky a pale blue as it finally peeked the horizon. By now, the enchantress was basically asleep on her feet while my recruits were only at the early yawning stages. For them, though, I had energy potions to buy a few extra hours.

For QTPi, I simply stuck her backwards to a wall so her character could go so sleep. There was no metal work taking place so everything was more or less silent except for some sleep-resisting conversations and crafting discussions. As it turned out, only a handful of these people had proper leather or tailoring titles and skills.

Those that did were all below thirty and from the most recent generation of players. These guys, like only about half of my generation, had all done their research and acquired all the tutorial benefits that were so much as hinted at on the forums. This and some of their reference materials from the forums during the impromptu update period made me proud.

However, my titles and recognition afforded me the ability to give everybody the same basic job title and relevant skills. If I was not a Divine Designer, I could probably only do that with alchemy or blacksmithing and not tailoring or leather work. Regardless of those, though, each of the noobs now had a functioning mana perception by the time I put QTPi to bed.

They had also worked their way through half of the necessary scrap silk suits. Most of the handiwork was simply cutting, seaming, and then folding and seaming so it was not that hard once they got used to it in a video game. It was literally scrap silk armor so the designs could not be complicated at all or the name and values might change.

Since this was silk canvas from Ferithar's platform, they were able to study the material itself to learn fabric enchantments which was slightly easier than he teaching them one at a time. All they had to do was learn the compiling of enchantments and ended up developing a lesser compiling material enchantment.

These took up a lot of space in a material, but one could still fit one or two more material enchantments as long as they suited one of the compiled effects and the material itself was high in quality. This was a money-maker for higher end armor models.

With their introductory levels, these scrap silk suits came out green Uncommon in grade in the first round of armor. However, each piece of armor raised their skill levels by at least two every time, afforded one or two stats apiece, and overall raised their character level three times.

Their values were not bad with a passive sixty MDEF from the platform processing in each piece for an overall high-class MDEF but PDEF additions of twelve in the gloves, boots, and helmets and twenty in the body and leg pieces. This also added up to level par with the region, giving each of the green suits level twenty restrictions.

None of the noobs were below level twenty anymore so they could all wear the first suits they made. With their newly raised scales, the next thirteen suits they crafted were still green in name but level thirty in physical values. Their magic values did not change any because they magic was used in the crafting besides perception.

The third generation of scrap silk suits only took half an hour to make with their accumulated experience but also brought in less experience than even the first set of suits. The level thirty set had brought in the same as the first because of the raised values, and their characters levels were now sitting under twenty-five, but only a couple of them actually reached level twenty-five with the third set of suits.

From the looks of what were blank notification windows on my end, it seemed like only a couple of pieces from the third suit brought stats points for everybody and only the lowest three levels left got any stat points upon completing the suit. Then again, it was still a scrap silk suit with comparably noob level requirements and additions compared to my handmade standards.

Getting an average of five levels just from three suits of light armor would be outrageous for most people and impossible now if not for Ferithar's platform. However, halfway through the fifth suit everyone peaked at level twenty-five and only got stats upon completion with a few people leveling up. The value of the suits had finally dropped.

I had seen this a lot when making weapons for my teammates, the general value of that kind of crafting will go down no matter what you smith in the end after repeating and cycling so many times. By the time ten of the same items were crafted, your stats, skills, or overall level would have reached a 'negligent level'.

New materials were the quick fix for this, but in armor most of my party wore different designs of the same styles. Personalizing their armor for them kept the experience fresher longer. Even the higher leveled craftsman had already cycled through all the leather processing and were now setting to work applying them to all of the level-thirty green suits.

These guys had already accumulated more than enough noob suits and materials for themselves, but I wanted to test to gain limits on these noobs while their levels were still 'low'. They would make as many suits as material I had provided and silk canvas was light as hell. Even by the yard, one square yard of this canvas was one-third of a pound.

Cordycep canvas weighed one-tenth of a pound which makes me glad that I had measured its output by size instead of weight.

Each of the noobs ended up crafting a total of ten suits with enough scraps left over for me to eat and 'print' the same material out as ten square yards of canvas again. Now, though, it had become cordycep silk. These guys could not yet work with this.

Each of the noobs were now peaked at some point within level twenty-seven and were enthusiastic classless players, meaning their Agility and Endurance stats had probably gone up by ten from the tailor-style armoring and then probably ten or more in Endurance and Strength from the blacksmithing competition.

By the end of that event, these guys were already peaking at level nineteen and eighteen. Since these guys probably did not see enough combat at the right times to accumulate numbers and higher level achievements, they probably did not have much in the way of titles either. On top of them, only a few of them were human while the others were various halfling races.

Their currents physical stats were probably on either side of sixty but below seventy depending on their race and possible combat skills while their magic stats were probably all under between thirty-five and forty thanks to my perceptions training. Mana induced pain was apparently very conducive with their Willpower stats and studying perception and enchantments aided their Intelligence.

Once they start actually magic crafting, their magic skills will balance with their physical skills. A good round of simply transmuting dozens of armor augments instead of actual pieces would balance their magic stats and their levels with their physical stats while a round of ten magic signature steel swords would bring their levels to just under forty and their stat balance into the seventies for the human classless.

For these craftsman at level forty with stats similar to my own, they could start dungeon training with Cweeper and Hermes. At such a time, though, their combat skills would be so lacking that they would all die out their dungeon run limits. Before they could continue crafting training, they had to further push their physical stats now through combat practices.

If I wanted to trained them as all-rounded players, I would have first made them acquire familiars and beast catching skills and then had them do fleeing training before crafting. These guys had spoiled their stats to physical training from crafting abuse at this point and just needed to raise their active skill levels.

For this, the good doctor would prescribe Elder Oak training exercises as the shortcut. What better way to accumulate combat achievements and experience than to fight their way through the three-part wave event and then succeed on their first tries?

All they have to do is spend a day doing thousand-stroke training to learn some basic skills and then get to level thirty. In the current region full of mob craziness that I was too high in level to enjoy, these guys could do that tomorrow- today while I visited the baron.

The sun was already a few hours into the sky by the time the higher leveled craftsman had all produced about five suits of completed armor apiece based on the scrap silk armor. Their first wave were the higher leveled equipment they would wear and the rest would be eventually sold in bulk to the Golden Ferry for auction.

However, before any of these short-term dreams could be realized, I needed a proper babysitter for the noob party.

By now, every who was below thirty had gone up over thirty, the people above were all hovering under or above forty, and everybody in their forties had gone up one or two levels. They also mostly had classes and joined for the various training and equipment rewards. Despite the fact everybody had made three different swords, only some of them actually used them.

Since it was still long before noon I still had plenty of time to take care of business. Even though the foreman had no longer disturbed me after my contest, I still made sure to eat, recycle, and clean up the work areas as necessary while giving every and old gold as inn fare. Everybody but the noobs were sent on their way while the noobs all drank a new potion.

Finally, I turned my attention to the sleeping QTPi and checked to see if she was still online by abruptly pulling her down from the wall. Her eyes flashed open in an instant and I could even see a notification window six inches from her face as she stumbled to catch herself when her feet hit the ground.

Her compatriots had all long since left, giving up on any efforts to salvage or even monitor situation. She was now complete at my disposal and I had never even made any ransom demands. Then again, I was never actually approached for any negotiations.

When she woke up and looked around to find herself alone except for the noobs and I, it probably came as a blow to her psyche to realize that they had actually given up on her entirely at this point. It was already daylight when I pulled her off the wall, almost halfway to noon.

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