Hidden Genius

Aria could feel her blood boil and her eyes twitch as she stared at the 1-story wooden building.

"I can't believe you pulled me all the way from the Highlands because of a craft shop!!!" The veins on Aria's forehead were popping as she screamed at Cian.

"And I can't believe that greedy old man charged me for your ride," Cian mumbled, shifting his gaze from the wagon to meet Aria's fierce eyes.

"It's not just any Craft shop, this is the Branwen Craft shop, one run by the very best craftsman in all of Aetheria," Cian claimed

"A craftsman not even a specialist like a blacksmith or alchemist, just a craftsman?" she scoffed.

"What's so bad about being a craftsman?"

"You don't know? I can't blame you since you are a newbie. The skill of a craftsman in item creation can't be compared to other specialists in the creation class like blacksmiths and alchemists, Craftsmen are known as jacks of all trades and a master of none. They are known for their versatility in the creation class, but their skills are never anything to brag about," 

"Then take my word when I say Sir Owain has become a master of item creation," Cian assured her, holding the door so she could go in.

As Aria entered the craft shop she was met with no surprises, Low-grade and very few Mid-grade weapons were on display. Her experience in information trading had made her develop an innate skill of identifying the quality of certain features of an item that could allow her to accurately guess the grade of the item.

"Hmmm, this craftsman is better than what I would expect to see in a small village in the Lowlands, but he is only a bit above the average Craftsman, there's nothing special about this,"

'Just wait, you are about to be blown away,'

Footsteps could be heard as Sir Owain came down the stairs before emerging.

"Sir Owain, I've brought you your first customer," Cian said proudly.

'Oh… he is a named NPC,' Aria noted as she saw his name floating above his head.

As if stuck by lightning, Sir Owain jumped into action as heard the word 'customer'

"Welcome to the Branwen Craftshop, are you looking for something in particular?" He asked with enthusiasm.

"Not really, my clan has no use for such low-quality items," she answered coldly, carefully scrutinizing the items with prejudice, before entering into the backroom.

"Oh," she exclaimed, picking up an unfinished golden steel spearhead from the working table.

'This is going to be a little over Mid-grade, if he is lucky it might even become a Perfect Mid-grade item, but only if he knows how to finish it well enough,' she reasoned.

"Forgive my mistake, I forgot to throw out the trash while cleaning up," Sir Owain swiftly claimed the spearhead from her and dumped it with the rest.

There was a pile of spearheads of roughly the same quality, some even slightly better than this one, at the corner of the workshop.

"Why are you throwing all those away?" she asked puzzled 

"Because they are all failures," he shrugged.

"Failures?" She wondered.

Sir Owain pulled out a spear wrapped in clothing from under one of the display cabinets, slowly unwrapping the masterpiece.

It had a strong, solid steel handle adorned with golden inscriptions and designs, and a golden blade almost as long as half the length of the handle of the spear.

"Is-is… that a High-grade?" 

"No…" she reached for the spear.

_____

Ideal Golden steel Half-blade spear

Grade: Epic grade

Info: 15% DMG increase; +30% Attack speed; Durability: 501/501

(Attack power-: 778-860)

*Generates the skill (Precise Pierce)

*Generates the skill (Golden reflection)

*Generates the skill (Drilling Pierce)

*Generates the skill (Return)

User Restriction: LVL 150+. 

______

"It is an Epic grade!! Did you make this yourself?!"

"Of course I did, It took me a few test runs before deciding how long the blade had to be for maximum output that fits the material… I did waste a few materials in the process and the closest I came to replicating it is these two," he pulled out two identical spears that looked slightly different from the first one.

_____

Golden steel Half-blade spear

Grade: High-grade

Info: 10% DMG increase; +20% Attack speed; Durability: 401/401

(Attack power-: 613-682)

*Generates the skill (Drilling Pierce)

*Generates the skill (Return)

User Restriction: LVL 75

______

"One Epic-grade and two High-grade, a mere Craftsman really created all these spears" she marveled as she ran her trembling hand across the spears

'it must have taken him years of trial and error for him to finally create all these spears, I've never heard of a craftsman that showed such dedication to his craft'.

'Any of those other unfinished spears would have easily turned out to be a very decent weapon, but he discarded them because of his attention to detail, he truly is a master craftsman. This is exactly what we needed for this Ragnarök Event,'

"I can't begin to imagine the amount of time and hard work you put into creating your items, every part of the spear reflects the level of your skill… why don't you make exclusive weapons for my Clan?" Aria offered.

"I'm sure with better weapons we'll become a top clan in no time, and we will certainly reward you handsomely for your services,"

Up until now, the XXX Machina clan has been struggling to reach the top Clans. Over the past two years, the clan had grown by depending solely on the premium information Aria could acquire, but there's a limit to how far that can take you.

For the last few months, their clan ranking had slowly been dropping, so Aria reasoned that having weapons with better output during this Ragnarok Event would definitely make the difference.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, I and my partner agreed to auction out the items I create," Sir Owain declined

'Partner?' Aria wondered.

"I understand… then I would have to be satisfied with just buying these two spears, our clan has only two spear bearers and I doubt either of them are at level 90 yet" she sighed.

After a few minutes of haggling, the spears were sold for 3500 gold coins before Cian escorted her outside the Craftshop

"Who are you?" She suddenly asked, her icy stare hinting that she meant something more.

"What do you mean?" Cian wondered.

"As an information broker, I have to follow up on every little thing that happens in Aetheria, including the day-to-day activities of NPCs," she explained, pulling a newspaper from her inventory. "I read this every day, so I don't miss any detail."

"It has been bugging me all this while but I finally remember where I saw you," she added before showing Cian a page with what looked like a hand-drawn picture of himself.

"A New player, gets a special class, acquires the title of a hero, and becomes partners with a highly skilled craftsman, all within the same week of joining the game, that doesn't just happen by luck, so tell me who exactly are you?"