The Second Life of Adam Cosmos

As soon as Adam returned to the smithy, he intended to ask Vetius for smithing tips. Even though he did his homework and researched as much as he could, the input of the person who made the dagger he was trying to imitate would still be indispensable.

However, for the first time, he couldn't find his teacher.

It only dawned on him that every time he visited the workshop, Vetius was typically working on something. But now, he's nowhere to be found.

Vetius told him that they would be crafting daggers after making the steel ingots. But it appears that it will be postponed.

Just to be safe, he activated his emblem to check if Vetius was in one of the many hidden rooms that can only be accessed by manipulating the walls.

Emblem of Vetius' Workshop (Unique)

Description: A special item created by Vetius to allow the user to open or close pathways on the maze-like structure of his workshop. Allows the user to view a projected map that shows the entire workshop, its surrounding area, as well as any living or undead being within.

Details: Using the key function requires Essence. The map and surveillance function uses MP.

Restriction: Vetius' Apprentice

However, his teacher is nowhere in the workshop- or at least, he can't find him in the rooms that the projected map that he can access in the emblem. While the projected map shows a huge chunk of the workshop's rooms and areas, there are notably dark sections that Adam is not authorized to access.

'Oh well,' shrugged Adam. 'I'll just practice what I've learned.'

He activated the forge. As soon as it reached optimal temperature, he placed three steel ingots.

His method is to craft three daggers at the same time with different specs. Before logging in, he made detailed notes on the specifications of each dagger.

His goal is to check which one would be closest to Vetius' Dagger.

Vetius’ Dagger (UNCOMMON)

Type: Dagger

Damage: 75

Weight: 1

Durability: 40/40

Description: Using nothing but ordinary materials, this remarkable dagger was created. This is a testament to the caliber of the blacksmith who created this weapon.

Adam knows it's not realistic for a low-level blacksmith like him to expect to create something like Vetius' Dagger. There's a reason why the quest to re-create Vetius' Dagger was on hold. He just doesn't have the same skill honed by experience yet. It would be like expecting Hao Jun to create the notable potions Adam casually makes by the hundreds.

Some things simply take time before they happen. There is no reason to force things.

Instead, Adam decided to divide and conquer. He would try and reach the three main stat of Vetius' Dagger separately.

The first dagger is meant to get as close as possible to the damage stat. The second dagger would be to get its weight. And the third would be to aim to get the same durability.

He will consider it a success if he can get three daggers to represent the stats of Vetius' Dagger.

And so he began to work.

Using what he learned from reviewing everything in the real world, he implemented it in his forging of the three daggers. After 12 straight hours, he completed three daggers at around the same time.

Ding!

[Forging has been completed. Please name your dagger.]

[Forging has been completed. Please name your dagger.]

[Forging has been completed. Please name your dagger.]

"Steel Dagger 1."

"Steel Dagger 2."

"Steel Dagger 3."

[You have completed Steel Dagger 1. You have gained 18,000 Essence.]

[You have completed Steel Dagger 2. You have gained 15,000 Essence.]

[You have completed Steel Dagger 3. You have gained 16,000 Essence.]

[You have gained a slight understanding of the weapon Vetius' Dagger.]

[Blacksmithing proficiency has increased.]

Steel Dagger 1 (COMMON)

Type: Dagger

Damage: 60

Weight: 2

Durability: 20/20

Description: Created by a novice blacksmith, this dagger is of average quality but there's nothing else notable about it.

Steel Dagger 2 (COMMON)

Type: Dagger

Damage: 40

Weight: 1.5

Durability: 30/30

Description: Created by a novice blacksmith, this dagger is of average quality but there's nothing else notable about it.

Steel Dagger 3 (COMMON)

Type: Dagger

Damage: 50

Weight: 1.75

Durability: 50/50

Description: Created by a novice blacksmith, this dagger is of average quality but there's nothing else notable about it.

"Patience, Adam," he said to himself. "Patience."

The outcome wasn't as great as he hoped.

If he were to put this up for sale, the weapons would net for a fair to decent price. But that's about it. There is nothing remarkable about the stat.

The only marginal exception to this is Steel Dagger 1. The damage of 60 is considered to be on the higher tier of damage for the ordinary dagger-weapon class. However, it's a little heavier than most daggers yet the durability is very low. Meanwhile, the other two are not even worth scrutinizing. From a critical standpoint, the daggers are all poorly made.

He made a mental note to put it up for a quick sale at the Mercury Auction House. Other than selling it at a low price, he can't think of anything else to gain from the daggers. At the very least, he learned firsthand not to try three different things at once.

He casually placed the failed daggers in a corner of his smithy. There's no need to put it in his spatial ring or bag of holding.

"In hindsight, this was never a good idea," admitted Adam.

While the research he did was solid, the way he implemented the knowledge was not the best way. He should have just focused on a single strategy first.

He wasn't wrong to try to craft three daggers at the same time, blacksmiths have been known to do so in the interest of saving time. However, using different experimental techniques on three different daggers at the same time while only he has a basic working knowledge of blacksmithing is wrong.

It would be like a novice player trying to craft a complicated potion using three different methods at the same time. The outcome was never gonna be good unless one was incredibly lucky.

But Blacksmithing- and for that matter, other crafting skills, do not rely on luck.

Instead, it relies on qualities like technique, precision, consistency, knowledge, understanding, and focus.

A strong argument could be made that all classes across all paradigms require these qualities.

At the very least, Steel Dagger 1 had a fairly high damage stat. He could use what he learned from forging it and apply it on his next attempt.

He would still make three daggers at once, but this time around he'll apply the same method on all three.

Adam started the forge once more.

Another 12 hours passed.

Ding!

[Forging has been completed. Please name your dagger.]

[Forging has been completed. Please name your dagger.]

[Forging has been completed. Please name your dagger.]

"Steel Dagger 1, Steel Dagger 2, Steel Dagger 3."

[You have completed Steel Dagger 1. You have gained 19,000 Essence.]

[You have completed Steel Dagger 2. You have gained 16,000 Essence.]

[You have completed Steel Dagger 3. You have gained 16,000 Essence.]

[You have gained a slight understanding of the weapon Vetius' Dagger.]

[Blacksmithing proficiency has increased.]

Unfortunately, the stats of the dagger are still far from Vetius' Dagger. However, the damage stat on all three daggers ranged from 55 to 60. The weight had somewhat lessened- he was able to get them in the range of 1.25 to 1.50. Unfortunately, the durability was the common weak point of all three.

"One more time," said Adam with determination.

There is no shortcut to mastering a craft.

He prepared himself for more instances like this.

Time passed by quickly and the daggers also began to quickly pile up.

***

One day...

Two days...

Three days...

Not long after, an entire week passed.

At the very least, the seven days of forging had brought some encouraging status notifications.

[You have gained a moderate understanding of the weapon Vetius' Dagger.]

[You are now an Intermediate Blacksmith.]

Thanks to reaching the Intermediate rank of being a blacksmith, the base stats of the daggers he's been making have improved. However, they are still nowhere near what he was aiming for.

He also made sure to squeeze in a few hours to craft more potions for Hao Wei- he is quite a bit away from securing ten thousand ores so he can't afford to neglect it. As for the lumber, he doesn't feel the need to rush Hao Jun for as long as he hasn't secured the complete amount of ore for his quest.

And during this entire time, Vetius has yet to return.

'What Vetius is doing?' he wondered. 'It's been over a week now.'

He has considered the possibility that Hao Wei players encountered his teacher. But there is no chance that they could kill Vetius. He is far too powerful to be at risk when facing players- even in huge numbers.

As someone who has slain countless undead at this point, including a Lich, Adam can tell with certainty that Vetius is the most powerful undead he has met so far.

More importantly, he knows for a fact that if a teacher who has a player apprentice died, the player would receive a notification. And Adam received no such message.

For the next few days, he continued forging.

His daggers have universally improved across all measurable stats.

It's still not at the level of Vetius' Dagger. But at the very least, he can objectively say that his crafted daggers would be within the top 100 among the weapons made by player blacksmiths in the Lorikan server.

While he has a slight advantage over the other blacksmith players due to his tutelage with Vetius, blacksmithing was not his focus until recently so it's inevitable that other players who had dedicated more time to smithing would be better than him at this point- at least for now. The proof of that is he has not received a single title or achievement for blacksmithing yet. Somebody has most likely claimed first-type of titles and achievements already.

Aside from that, Adam has gotten so used to Vetius' Dagger's stats that even the daggers he made do not meet his standards. Now that he knows ordinary steel can be forged to such a level, he can never see regular good steel weapons in the same light anymore.

On top of that, the system notification that normally says his understanding of Vetius' Dagger improved stopped coming.

But Adam is not frustrated. He is simply being objective in assessing himself. He has not paid attention to blacksmithing as much as he should have.

After all, he had been busy raiding tombs to level up and secure various items. And in the process, he gained bountiful rewards from doing so.

But it doesn't change that it came at the cost of neglecting his third class.

'It is what it is,' Adam thought to himself. 'I must dedicate serious time to blacksmithing.'

And so, Adam steeled himself to focus mostly on smithing for the next several weeks. Of course, there are still other tasks that require his attention that he can't neglect.

Primarily, he needs to maintain the potion exchange with Hao Jun for the ores.

But other tasks are equally important.

First, he needs to add Rune Tracing as his fourth class. Fortunately, he knows many rune encryption so it will not be a blind trial and error. He is confident he can level up Rune Tracing in the same way he can with Alchemy.

Not to mention, Vetius might be able to help him improve on this.

He previously asked Vetius to teach him Rune Tracing, but he was rejected. Adam assumes this is because he's still at a low blacksmithing level so Vetius did not want him to be distracted. Either that or it's because he can only secure tutelage in a single skill.

Second, he will also need to take care of something important in the real world: uploading his adventures on NewTube for extra revenue. However, he cannot do this alone as managing a channel would consume a lot of real-world hours. While he does have someone specific in mind for the job, he needs to make the timing right to recruit the person.

Third, there is also the matter with the trio he met in the Mountain Top Crypt; Rebecca, Jessica, and Dexter. He has a steady communication via the Mercury Auction House messaging system, mostly through Dexter thanks to the herbal collection task he asked him to do, but after nearly 2 weeks, that task is almost up.

The only reason that task took this long was because Dexter needed to use the herbs to extract toxins. But now, he has reached a point where he doesn't need to do that as much anymore.

Adam has been giving Dexter useful tips on how to develop his class to maximize his effectiveness in combat. Toxin Herbalist is a very specific branch of crafting that focuses on poisons. As an Alchemist, Adam has a good working knowledge of poisons and he had been sharing some of this with Dexter. Simple but useful poison recipes, stat distribution, and skill points prioritization are the information Adam is regularly sharing with Dexter.

As for Rebecca and Jessica Rivers, they had reached out occasionally to try and trade potions with him- to which he accepted. The sisters, while doing better financially, are not in a position to be able to compete with other guilds when it comes to bidding for Adam's borderline overpriced potions. So Adam decided to spare a dozen potions for them from time to time in exchange for some of the loot they found.

The reason they need to trade with Adam directly is because the trio haven't been to the Sanctus Lux Fortress yet. They have been exploring the Mountain Top Crypt when they first Adam, and they are still exploring there.

Despite Adam leaving them three tethered scrolls that they can use to follow him- they ultimately decided to stick to the crypts as it is a goldmine of valuable loot and essence for leveling up. Adam expressed his approval of their decision.

For one thing, the cavern, where the tethered scroll is connected to is now occupied by the Hao Wei Guild. The trio would be immediately attacked if they were to use the scroll now- something that Adam warned them as soon as he fought the Hao Wei team after battling the Lich Novhekaar.

Secondly, the trio has gained quite some serious level during the past few weeks in the crypt. Now, the trio are in the top 1000 of the Lorikan server- Rebecca, in particular, is in the top 100.

Besides, the Mountain Top Crypt is a high-level area, and anyone who clears it is bound to benefit immensely. This is why Adam entered that place, to begin with. The trio can benefit more from clearing the entire crypt there than they could from doing missions for the Sanctus Lux Fortress. Even now, players are only beginning to reach the late level 90s. yet the trio is continuously fighting enemies past level 100.

The only thing they're missing out on is the supplies they could buy from the fortress like potions and scrolls. But their trade with Adam has dampened that shortcoming.

Overall, it could be said that Adam's regular correspondence and support to the trio made them look at him in a very positive light. It is one thing to support future key individuals, it wouldn't hurt to have a good working relationship with players in high-level areas with access to good loot. Although he can teleport back into the Mountain Top Crypt, he doesn't have the time to do so.

And fourth, there is the matter of getting to the Sanctus Lux Fortress. However, this one is not in his immediate to-do list.

As for the reason why Adam doesn't bother to get to the fortress yet, this is because he is confident that presenting Dark Priest Novhekaar's body, the lich, would be enough to grant him sufficient contribution points to be in the top 10 contributors in the fortress. Plus, he still has several Necromancer's Hearts.

He decided to let the other guilds and players get busy with the daily quests in the fortress and stick to improving his crafting skills.

'One, maybe two months before the main quest in Sanctus Lux begins,' thought Adam. 'I can just go there a few days prior.'

With that thought, he continued the forge. He has a lot to do but the most pressing matter is getting his smithing up as much as he could.

***

A few hours later, there was a subtle shaking in the ground.

Adam sprang into action, ready to defend the place. But upon checking the emblem for the invading party, he was relieved to see that it was his teacher.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

A hole in the ground opened, just a few feet away from where Adam was standing.

"Welcome back, teacher," said Adam courteously while bowing. "I hope you are well."

Vetius simply acknowledged him with a grunt.

Wherever his teacher went, it was muddy, dirty, and deep underground. And if his bulging Bag of Holding is of any indication, it is clear that he went somewhere to collect many items.

His teacher's robes are as dirty as they can be. If one were to compare an old rag to his teacher's current robes, the rags would seem like a luxurious dress by comparison.

Even as an undead, cleanliness is a requirement for being a blacksmith. After all, a grandmaster blacksmith would not want dirt to get into the metal they're working on.

Vetius then opened a room and closed it- Adam assumes it is to change and clean himself up. Not long after, he is back with a clean robe and blacksmith's apron.

He briefly looked at Adam but said nothing. Then, he put the Bag of Holding down and started rummaging through it.

"Teacher, can I help you?" asked Adam tentatively.

In response, Vetius just held his hand up to say it was not required.

The Bag of Holding is an interesting piece of equipment. Though it is not on the same level as Adam's Spatial Ring, it can still hold an enormous amount of items without breaking. Of course, this is under the assumption that one can carry the bag with all the weight that accumulated. And obviously, Vetius is someone that has great strength.

Adam couldn't help but wonder just how many items are currently in the bag.

Finally, after several minutes of rummaging, Vetius found what he was looking for.

It was two bottles. He handed it to Adam.

"Drink... this..."

"We... have... a... lot.. to... do..."

"Drink... it... now... so... we... can... start..."

"Of course, teacher," said Adam readily. "Let me-"

Then he stopped mid-sentence. Whatever Adam was supposed to say in response, he completely forgot about it.

And understandably so, the bottle he received is something he never would have thought he'd lay his eyes on- much less have it handed to him so casually. Aside from that, as soon as he touched the bottles, several notifications flooded his status window.

Slave's Treat

Description: A concoction given to all slaves granted the honor of serving the Great ??? Empire. Allows the slave to work for days on end requiring little to no rest.

Increases ENDURANCE by 5, and STRENGTH by 5 points permanently.

Better Slave's Treat

Description: A concoction given to the slaves who survived their first year of service to the Great ??? Empire. Allows the slave to work for more days on end requiring little to no rest.

Increases ENDURANCE by 8, and STRENGTH by 8 points permanently.

Ding!

[You have acquired proof of the existence of the Great ??? Empire. The achievement 'Proof of ???' has been added.]

[You have found an item that came from the Great ??? Empire.]

[You have activated the legendary quest: Find the Great ??? Empire.]

[Legendary Quest: Find the Great ??? Empire]

Details: n/a

[You do not have the necessary conditions to continue the quest 'Find the Great ??? Empire']

[You must have the necessary conditions to continue the quest 'Find the Great ??? Empire']

[The necessary conditions are...]

Adam took a deep breath. There's a lot to unpack.