Chapter 59 – Accepting Tasks

Seeing that Mu Xi was eyeing him with a pair of provoking eyes, Tang Wulin was at a loss for a moment before deciding to reject her offer. “I’m not competing.”

He turned next towards Mu Chen. “Uncle President, where may I go to accept tasks from the Association?”

Mu Chen shot a glance at Mu Xi which prevented her from speaking her mind before smiling back at Tang Wulin. “Brother Cen will bring you there. You are now a part of our Association’s large family after having passed the test successfully. If you meet with any difficulties in future, you can apply for assistance from the Association. Though our Blacksmith’s Association is not the strongest association around, it surely is the most united one.”

As he spoke of the word ‘united’, he gave his daughter a pointed look. Mu Xi, with a discontented expression, lowered her head and pouted.

“Follow me then,” Cen Yue said with a smile.

After Mu Xi sent Tang Wulin and Cen Yue off with her eyes, she could no longer wait before bursting out with a question towards her father, “Dad, why did you prevent me from having a match with him?”

Mu Chen’s face darkened. “Such a presumptuous attitude. What do you take this place for? This is the Blacksmith’s Association! As a member of the association, especially as my daughter, your every word and action represents the association. This child has just joined our association; what if you scared him off? You should compete with him when both of you are familiar with one another. Until then, if you are still keen on competing with him, I won’t stop you. But you should hold such a contest privately. Isn’t he your junior? You should keep your eyes peeled and watch for him especially.”

Mu Chen didn’t get a chance to speak with Tang Wulin too much today. With regards to this child, he needed more chances to observe Tang Wulin. He had seen the block of Heavy Silver Tang Wulin had refined, and judging from its degree of uniformity, he knew well that Tang Wulin’s forging standards was above his daughter’s. His true motive was that he didn’t want his daughter to suffer any blows to her confidence. After all, self-confidence was of the utmost importance, especially for kids at their age.

Since Tang Wulin was keen on accepting tasks, he would have ample opportunities observing him. The planning for how he should cultivate Tang Wulin could be done after observing him a little more, which wasn’t too late.

☀

The Task Acceptance Hall was located on the 2nd floor of the Blacksmith’s Association, with the whole of the 2nd floor filled with round counters. Each of these counters had task rank sign, that looked similar to the badges of the association. A blacksmith could only collect tasks within their rank or ones of lower ranks. They were unable to collect tasks that required rank higher than theirs.

Within this blacksmithing trade, materials were all provided by the entrustors. Because of this, the association would try their absolute best in order to maintain the quality of the end product prior to collection. This was to avoid the association from needing to compensate.

“Little boy, you’ve brought me many surprises! That fellow Mang Tian, he’s…” As he thought about Mang Tian’s taunts towards him that day, Cen Yue was fueled with anger. However, he really had cultivated an outstanding disciple.

“What type of task would you like to pick?” Cen Yue asked Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin said, “Anything that is within my capabilities would be good.”

Cen Yue said, “Our association rents out forging workshops too. Are you thinking of forging within the association?”

Tang Wulin shook his head. “Teacher is letting me use his Eastsea City’s forging workshop. I’ll complete my tasks over there. Thank you though.”

A flash of disappointment streaked through Cen Yue’s eyes. “Alright, but I do want to remind you that all tasks from the association must be completed and you cannot fail them. Once you fail, you must compensate for the ruined materials. That counter in the center, facing the front, is where you collect your tasks. The left counter is where you report and place completed products while the right is where you are allowed to purchase all kinds of metals. Our association has, ideally, every kind of rare metal that exist in the market. However, due to an individual’s blacksmithing rank, the quantity they can purchase each month varies differently. If you need to, you can get your metals there. Then there’s the 4th floor and 5th floor. That’s where the forged products are sold. You can go have a look up there as there’s a lot to look at.”

“Yes,” Tang Wulin said respectfully. Right now, he didn’t have any intention to purchase metals or forged products as he didn’t have any need to. Another reason was that he didn’t have the money. He was actually hoping to earn coins through forging, enough purchase a hundred year soul spirit.

Cen Yue brought Tang Wulin to the front of the two star counter. Behind the counter was a staff member and in front of the counter were ten soul screens. One could collect a task with a mere swipe of the screens. The staff present were to answer on any questions one might have.

Following Cen Yue’s directions, Tang Wulin touched one of the soul screens. A list of available tasks popped up.

At the front was a summary of the task, followed by the quantity and payments.

“The association will take 10% of the payment while the rest will go to you.”

After listening to Cen Yue’s words, Tang Wulin’s gaze sharpened.

Task 1 – Refine the rare Sky Dragon Iron. Requirements – Hundred Refined. Time – 30 days. Quantity – 10. Payment – A unit price of 2,000 federation coins.

So, one would earn a total of 20,000 federation coins when they successfully refined 10 pieces of Sky Dragon Iron.

To Tang Wulin, this was definitely a large sum . After having completed the Thousand Refinements on a piece of Heavy Silver, it had given him the confidence to successfully refine a huge amount of rare metals.

It seemed to him that a blacksmithing was a very lucrative career.

Without much thought, he picked the first task and a dialog box popped up, requesting information about the delivery location. Shortly after he completed that, the screen requested his Blacksmith’s badge.

Tang Wulin plucked off his badge and placed it down.

Di!

“Congratulations, second rank blacksmith Tang Wulin. You have successfully accepted the second rank forging task of refining Sky Dragon Iron. The materials will be sent to your indicated location within three days.”

His badge bounced up.

“Is that it?” Tang Wulin raised his head towards Cen Yue.

Cen Yue nodded. “Isn’t it simple? However, I have to remind you as this is your first task, you have to be very careful. Though the stated payment is quite a hefty sum, many blacksmiths don’t have a high pay as they were unable to complete every task flawlessly. If there’s a flaw in the product, the blacksmith would have to dig into his own pocket for the amount acquired to purchase the new materials, which is usually a big sum.”

“Yes, Master Cen. I will be very careful.” Tang Wulin’s chest tightened as he noted Cen Yue’s advice quickly.

“Do you have a communicator number?” Cen Yue asked.

Tang Wulin shook his head and blushed. How would he have the sufficient money to purchase a soul communicator?

Cen Yue broke into a grin. “Then here’s two items for you.”