Chapter 50: Oya and the Master Blacksmith
"Did you manage to forge this piece of equipment?"
The master said as she stopped a couple of meters away from Oya. Her tone was calm as if she wasn't interested in this staff, however Oya knew she was. Her features were totally opposite to her voice, she was a terrible liar.
"Yes, I did it as you instructed me to."
The master looked again towards the staff as she was trying to see through it, however she failed. she had no choice but to ask:
"Can you show me the design of this masterpiece?"
Oya smiled as she had the credit from a master like her without making anything. This piece was made by her system, however she had to take the praise for that.
"I have the design in my head, do you want me to draw it for you?"
Oya didn't lie, as she had the design in her head after touching that staff. The master eyes got widened for a moment before she tried to control her emotions and shock as she said:
"Sure, here take this scroll and pen. Just draw whatever you have in your mind."
Oya found a small pale orange scroll and a dark red thin pen made of wood in front of her on the forging table. Oya kept looking at the two without moving for a few moments, which seemed awkward.
"Don't you want to show me your creation? I can understand that, however if you did this it will be a favor. Also I intend to make you my apprentice, if that suits you."
The master misunderstood Oya's hesitation, which made Oya get a favor from her plus being her personal apprentice. Oya began to see the fruits of being with a system. It was like having a guarding angel.
"I-I just can't draw it on this scroll."
The master seemed to guess the issue, and that deepened her surprise of Oya.
"How many scrolls do you need? One more?"
Oya took a deep breath as she tried to count the needed scrolls to draw what was in her mind. After couple of minutes, she opened her eyes and said:
"I need eight scrolls with size triple this one. I also need another four pens with different colors."
The words of Oya were strange on the ears of the master, who muttered in disbelief:
"What have you created exactly?"
Oya smiled faintly as she replied honestly:
"It's just gold grade equipment."
"Gold grade equipment doesn't need more than three scrolls to be drawn. The highest grade I heard of, the platinum grade, had only five scrolls to be drawn. All of them needed only one pen to be done."
The tone of the master finally showed her true emotions towards Oya and her staff. Oya knew this was due to this equipment potential. It could augment the PSR energy, which was a superior and unknown energy form to these NPCs.
However she didn't intend to cover this up, and also she didn't plan to attract any doubt. So she vaguely replied:
"I just had a stroke of inspiration here, I think this studio is special."
The NPC just glanced at her, silently from shock and disbelief, before she finally muttered:
"Give me a minute, I will prepare everything you need."
The master blacksmith then vanished, and Oya finally heaved a sigh of relief. She just asked the system silently in her mind:
'What the hell did you give me?'
'It's just a small token of appreciation, plus gaining favor from this lady will help you a lot in the future,' the system vaguely replied, and this made Oya more certain it did this on purpose.
"Here, I had all what you asked for," the NPC master blacksmith appeared suddenly, cutting her inner argument with the system. Oya wasn't refusing to get special items or gears, but she didn't want to attract any attention to her, not right now.
Oya then moved to the forging table, where she took one pen and held one piece of scroll, and she started to think about the drawing in her mind.
The design was quite simple if looked at it as a whole, but it was separated on different scrolls, which made it quite hard to draw. She started to focus on a single line, a single color, the color of the pen in hand, and as delicate as she could, she carefully started to draw what she had in mind on that paper.
The platinum grade forging room was quite special, as her mind entered a serene state and she didn't realize the time passing.
On her side, the female master had all her intention focused over what Oya was doing, and she had a ton of questions in her mind, but she held herself back from interrupting her and asking all her questions.
She kept track of what Oya was doing until she picked the second pen, and then her mind wasn't full of any question, but one, what Oya was doing?
Slowly she started to feel impressed by Oya, as this little player who came here by accident, was now doing something a master like herself couldn't understand.
She couldn't get how Oya got this design, or how she even used it to make this staff. The design was really complicated, with all these pages and all these colors on them, and that made her unable to figure where she could start and how she would proceed.
As Oya finished, she turned to look at what she did and she couldn't believe her eyes, the whole drawing was exactly copied on these scrolls. She looked back, towards her master, to find her mesmerized, with unblinking eyes over the scrolls, like she was enchanted by them.
Oya hesitated, but finally decided to remain silent, calm, giving this good hearted person a chance to study and got absorbed in what she did.
After nearly another hour, that NPC jolted awake, as she looked at Oya in disbelief while muttering:
"What concept did you make this staff upon?"
Oya knew what she meant, as she was referring to the type of energy. The fact that this NPC had figured such a fact this fast indicated how proficient she was at forging, but Oya decided to play dumb, as she replied:
"I honestly don't know, I just got absorbed in a state of forging, and ended up making this staff."
"Aha, I see," the female NPC said, before pointing to the design, "may I keep it? I want to study the design and try to forge a staff like it," she asked, with respect like she was speaking to one of her own peers.
"Sure, you can have it," Oya simply replied, before the designs disappeared.
"Tell me, do you intend to stay in the city?" the blacksmith master asked.
"I will go out to level up, then I will come back at night," Oya said.
"Great, I will always leave you a permission to use my studio here at any time you want, and if you may, if you produced any extra gears in the future, I will be pleased to buy them from you," the blacksmith master said, as she also wanted to have a gear produced by Oya to examine.
If not for the fact Oya was a magician and she needed the staff, she would have asked for it already. Oya understood her intentions, and nodded without any objection, after all she was in desperate need for gold coins.
Just as she left the place, she recalled the mission she just accepted from the system, as she thought:
'System, show me the list of missions please.'
'List of basic missions- complete any mission to get the corresponding rewards and the next mission will be unlocked automatically.
Mission number one: Kill one hundred level ten monsters.
Reward: Gain one level.
Mission number two: Gather twenty players and form a team with them.
Reward: Twenty bronze grade materials.
Mission number three: Establish a Guild.
Reward: A map for Ihnasia Ridge treasure trove.
You have already accepted the first mission, and you have one day to finish it.'
Oya was surprised by the presence of a timeline here, as she asked:
'Is there a timeline for each mission?'
'Of course there is, and if you failed to finish it before time, you won't be able to get it again.'
"That is harsh!" she muttered to herself while darting through the empty streets of Ihnasia city, as her mind was now busy about many things to do, but first she had to kill those monsters and gain one level, and try out the new staff.
She passed through the doors of the city main gate, and found the wilderness waiting for her. The cities here were surrounded by wilderness directly, where monsters of certain levels might gather at specific places, but that didn't mean it was always safe.
Sometimes a lone higher level monster might lurk in the tall grass, waiting for a prey to hunt.