"Ting Ting!"

In the dimly lit forge, Five was intensely focused on the piece of metal in front of him. He had already hammered the small iron ingot 45 times and slowly shaped it into a triangle.

"45 out of 50, just 5 more!" exclaimed Five. His heart was racing, it was almost over and this time, he did not make any obvious mistakes.

Droplets of sweat started appearing on Five's front head. It was not easy to continuously hammer a piece of metal while standing in this hot environment. Hopefully, it will be over soon!

"Ting Ting Ting!"

Five's eyes lit up with excitement; just two more hits but the next second:

"Ting Cling!"

"Crap!" As soon as he heard the different tone, Five tensed up and as he expected, the small triangle in front of him suddenly cracked and broke apart.

"F*ck, why is it so hard? They should have made it easier... It is not user-friendly at all, so many people would be discouraged by this system!"

Five's heart sank, he dropped the tools down before taking a few steps back away from the heat. He had failed yet again and clearly, it was starting to get on his nerves. Despite the appearance, crafting was not as easy as it looked; a system was set up to help the players, but it did not necessarily help them in a good way.

From the books he purchased, Five obtained the recipe and techniques to forge basic grade 0 weapons. The books contained several images, explaining the different steps in details and to further help the players, a hologram could also be projected by the book to show the basic forging techniques.

Every single detail could affect the result and unfortunately, luck also greatly influenced the product. The system would evaluate how the player fulfilled each requirement and determine whether the crafting would be successful.

First of all, controlling the temperature properly would contribute 20% chance of success. It was essential to heat up the metal and quench it when needed. The temperature could drop quickly depending on the environment and it could affect the quality of the weapon. As a result, the player would need to regularly place back the metal in the fire but overheating it could also have consequences.

Apart from the temperature, how, where and when the metal was hammered could also affect the product. 40% chance of success came from there; it was essential to not only hammer at the correct location but also exert an appropriate amount of force and to time it correctly. Blindly hammering with all one's strength would only lead to failure.

Another 20% chance of success simply came from following the recipes. It was basically free chances of success given to the players as long as one would purchase a recipe and follow it accordingly. 20% did not sound like much but it was also the reason why developing new weapons was not that easy. While a large variety of recipes were available to the players, the game also allowed the players to make their own creation but doing so was naturally not that easy.

As for the last 20%, they were entirely based on luck. It might seem unfair, but it reflected reality to some degree and introduced some dynamism to the game. The materials used for crafting were naturally not perfect. At the surface, they all looked the same but in reality, they could contain impurities or defects which could influence the product. Unfortunately, there was no way to control this factor; the players could only hope to be lucky.

A lot of numbers were hidden behind the scene but in the end, the game was fair and as long as they did not mess up, the players would usually obtain around 50% success rate for Grade 0 items. While this gave the chance to even the worst player to successfully learn a profession, it also penalized the skilled players to some extent.

Fortunately, it was also possible to influence the success rate by using the correct tools. Just like weapons, crafting tools also had grades, stats, and durability; they could naturally influence the end result. Similarly, professions also improved the crafting success rate; the higher the level of the profession, the higher the success rate.

Statistically speaking, Five should have already succeeded in obtaining the Grade 0 Blacksmith profession. However, it had yet to happen, all thanks to bad RNG and the tricky hidden system.

While it was nice to give the opportunity to even the worst player to obtain a profession, only the diligent players would be rewarded. To provide a sense of progression to the players, the success rate was significantly decreased for the first 20 attempts. As a matter of fact, it would be almost impossible for one to obtain a profession on the first try unless the player had prior knowledge and sufficient skills to obtain a high success rate.

Furthermore, another important hidden factor that influenced the success rate was resting. Resting itself did not affect anything but crafting continuously for a few hours would slowly diminish one's success rate. The longer one would craft, the lower the success rate would be; just like in real life, players needed to rest and working for long hours could seriously affect one's focus and productivity.

Unfortunately for Five, these factors were not mentioned anywhere and although he slowly grasped the rhythm and technique, persevering and spending hours trying to craft a weapon did not amount to anything as his success rate was secretly dropping.

...

"Sigh... Maybe I should ask the Shaman for some help? He should know a thing or two about this. At least, Angela is making some progress..." Five quietly complained as he opened the recipe for iron arrowheads.

Iron Arrowheads were the most basic weapons available for crafting; all one needed to do was to shape an iron ingot by hammering it a total of 50 times. Five spent the past few days understanding the basics of forging and at first, he tried to forge some Grade 0 daggers. However, as he only encountered failure, he ended up lowering the bar and opted for easier weapons to make.

Iron Ingots were easily made using Iron ores but unfortunately, as they did not count as weapons, they did not allow Five to obtain the profession. Despite failing 56 times, Five did not give up; his confidence naturally took a blow but seeing how Angela progressed day by day, he could not accept this result.

"Okay, second try..." said Five as he once again grabbed his tools and focused. Taking out an iron ingot, he placed it on the anvil and grabbed it using large pincers. After securing the grip, the iron ingot was quickly placed in the middle of the raging fire.

After just a few seconds, a red-hot ingot was placed back on the anvil and the hammering process started.

"Ting Ting!"

To Five, this looked just like playing several mini-games together. He did not spend a lot of time on games in the real world but after practicing that much, he understood the basics.

"Ting Ting!"

"10... 11... 12..." As he brought down his hammer, Five calmly counted the number of strikes. His heart was calm but as the number increased, so did his heartbeat.

"Ting Ting!"

"48... 49..." Five slowly tensed up; only the last strike was left and then, he would just need to quench the arrowhead!

"The last strike..."

"Ting!"

As he heard the tone of the strike, Five knew that it had been a success. The arrowhead did not break and now, all that was left was to place it in the oil bucket.

"Tssshhh!" The sizzling sound resonated through the small forge and soon, a small triangular metal object was placed on the anvil.

Five emotionally picked up the small arrowhead and immediately, an information window appeared.

[Iron Arrowhead(Grade 0)]

Can be combined with other materials to make an arrow.

At the same time, Five heard a short "Ding" as a system prompt appeared:

[System prompt: You have successfully crafted your first weapon, you have obtained the profession: Grade 0 Blacksmith, congratulations]

As he carefully examined the small arrowhead, Five slowly felt a heavy weight being lifted off his shoulders. He had finally succeeded! On his character window, he could effectively see his profession as Grade 0 Blacksmith.

"After so many tries, I finally got it right! From now on, it can only get easier!" said Five. He carefully looked at the small metal arrowhead, treating it as a small treasure; before that, he would never have thought that such a simple tiny piece of metal could have brought him so much satisfaction.

...

At the same time, in the middle of the forest.

"That's it! Angela, continue to mix the potion for 30 more seconds but be careful, with the fire... Mira, don't be so hasty! Take your time when adding the Chirus leaves!"

Under the cover of the night, 2 silhouettes were quietly mixing the content of the cauldron in front of them. Behind them, an older man was giving out instructions accordingly while thinking, "Such a pity... They are not in sync at all... Maybe I should make them practice one at a time?"

Angela was continuously mixing the liquid in the cauldron; she was calm and was able to maintain a constant speed. Unfortunately, it was not the same for Mira who had already messed up the timing. Although both mixtures were still red in color, Angela's potion had a more pronounced color, meaning that her chances of success were much higher.

Angela's heart was aching as she watched Mira struggle, but she could not really help her. The harpy had a huge advantage since she could easily control the temperature using the wind to cool down the mixture.

"Top! Quick, take out the fire and let the potions rest!" said the Shaman.

"Woosh!" Instantly, a wind gust blew under the two cauldrons, taking out the fires as the two girls lifted off their cauldron and placed them on the ground.

"Ahhh. Angela, you are so good... Why is my potion not as clear as your..." quietly complained Mira. As soon as the session was over, she immediately compared her potion with Angela.

With a kind smile, the harpy patted the young child, "It's alright. You improved a lot too! I am sure you'll be able to do the same in a few days!"

"I hope so too..." murmured Mira. The two girls took a step back, allowing the Shaman to more closely inspect the potions. The brewing was already done and all that was left was to bottle the mixture when it would be cold.

However, there was no need to wait for the Shaman to evaluate the potion! "Good job, Angela, the Health Potion you've made should be able to restore about 21 HP. You too, Mira, it's not as good but there is definitely some improvement; yours should restore about 19 HP."

"Thank you, Teacher!" answered Angela. She was proud of herself. Grade 0 Health Potion would usually restore an average of 20 HP. Those available at stores were usually brewed following a standardized process resulting in all of them having a fixed effect. However, potions made through crafting would usually vary and clearly, thanks to her wind abilities, Angela was able to make potions above the average standards!

"Ummm, is it fine if I don't wait for the potions? I have something important to do... Can you bottle it for me and I will pick the bottles later?" quietly asked Angela. It was the first time she was making such a request and although she had gotten relatively used to the Shaman, just for this time, she reverted to her usual shy self.

"Something to do?" asked the Shaman suspiciously. "Alright but before that, please take that with you and pass it to your master; he should know what this is. Also, can you tell him that I would like to meet him? Almost a week has passed, and I would like to discuss the terms of the deal with him."

As he spoke, the Shaman took out a small amulet from his coat and gave it to Angela. The amulet looked like a metallic skull of an animal; it was covered with strange runes that would occasionally glow.

"This... Okay..." Angela reluctantly took the amulet. She knew that the amulet was harmless, but she nevertheless did not like the idea of touching this kind of object. She carefully covered it with pieces of cloth before placing it in her small bag.

"You can go, but tomorrow, we'll meet near the waterfall. There will be a few townsmen coming to the village, it will be safer to meet away from their sights!" declared the Shaman.

"Are you really going, Angela?" curiously asked Mira on the side.

Angela nodded to the Shaman and at the same time, she kindly smiled to Mira, "I am sorry, my mother is coming back tonight! I want to be there to welcome her back! I will see you tomorrow"

The harpy took a few steps back before deploying her wings. She waved at Mira before quickly flying into the distance.

Left on the ground, the old Shaman frowned, "Mother?"