[Virtual Reality Interface activated. The Helmet is secure. No abnormal conditions. Condition is green.]

[Connecting…]

[… Welcome back to Tales of The Heroic Kingdoms, Yushin! This program is safe within the World Wide Virtual Reality Protection Act guidelines. Please behave within Terms of Service.]

[Global Server is currently selected. Your character is at Red Clay City in the Vavell Kingdom.]

Yushin logs back in the game one more time, already getting used to closing his eyes inside the cockpit and then awakening in another world. Last time, he logged off somewhere near Free Forest, wishing to avoid contact with unwanted people.

This time, the power up screen shows up after a few seconds, before he can do anything else:

[System: You have reached Level 04!]

[System: You have reached Level 05!]

[System: You have reached Level 06!]

‘Three levels from that dungeon run! I wonder how much of it came from the boss itself. I’ll ask Shum later,’ He kept looking at his changes.

[System: Spear Mastery has reached level 03!]

[System: As Spear Mastery reached the third level, you learned [Spear Throw] Skill!]

[System: Spear Mastery has reached level 04. Congratulations, Spear Mastery reached the intermediate beginner’s level.]

‘Intermediate, beginner’s level?‘ Yushin raised his brows at this new info.

[System: As Spear Mastery reached the fourth level, your [Spear Thrust] Skill has been improved!]

‘Not a new skill, but improving an existing one…’ So far, each Mastery level provided a new skill or improved an existing one.

[System: Spear Thrust has reached level 04!]

[System: Spear Sweeping has reached level 02!]

[System: Double Thrust has reached level 02!]

[System: Unarmed Skill Mastery has reached level 02!]

[System: As Unarmed Skill Mastery reached the second level, you learned [Fast Punch] and [Fast Kick] skills!]

[System: Strong Punch has reached level 02!]

[System: Strong Kick has reached level 02!]

[System: Sword Mastery has reached level 02!]

[System: As Sword Mastery reached the second level, you learned [Strong Slash] Skill!]

[System: Quick Cut has reached level 02!]

‘My weapon skills leveled greatly. This will also affect my stats, although I won’t be able to see exactly how much changed,’ His eyes could barely contain his excitement. Powering up was an essential part of gaming in an RPG, and in Tales, everyone was going at it blindly right now.

There wasn’t enough info to try to min-max or choose the best path. This would drive some people crazy. Of course, no one wanted to spend so much time on their characters just to end up with a weak build. Unfortunately, from what they have seen so far, Kingdom Corp has no intention to make this easier.

[System: Hunting Skill Mastery has reached level 02!]

[System: Track Skill has reached level 02!]

[System: Skinning (Passive) has reached level 02!]

[System: Leadership Mastery has reached level 02!]

[System: As Leadership Mastery reached the second level, you learned [Inspire] Skill!]

[System: Raise Morale (Passive) has reached level 02]

Yushin smiled at Leadership Mastery improvements. Out of all the power-ups so far, he was most happy about this one. Being a passive only, he thought it would take much longer to level. Now, there’s even a new skill.

‘Leading the group certainly had something to do with this level up. Sigh, I wish we could see skill experience.’

[System: Athletic Skill Mastery has reached level 02!]

[System: As Athletic Skill Mastery reached the second level, you learned [Jumping (Passive)] Skill!]

[System: Athletic Skill Mastery has reached level 03!]

[System: As Athletic Skill Mastery reached the third level, you learned Acrobatics (Passive)] Skill!]

[System: Running (Passive) has reached level 03!]

[System: Furtivity (Passive) has reached level 03!]

‘Two new passive athletic skills… More mobility is never bad.’ His whole skillset right now was based on mobility. He didn’t even bother looking for better armor once he knew they could break. A good armor that didn’t limit his mobility would require a lot of coins and probably even some magic properties.

Of course, as the enemies grow stronger and if he is somehow unable to keep dodging, armor becomes of great importance. By then, Yushin is hoping Bitter Cat advances a lot on the blacksmithing skill.

[System: Defensive Skill Mastery has reached level 02!]

[System: As Defensive Skill Mastery reached the second level, you learned [Block (Passive)] Skill!]

[System: Defensive Skill Mastery has reached level 03!]

[System: As Defensive Skill Mastery reached the third level, you learned [ Dodge (Passive)] Skill!]

[System: Parrying (Passive) has reached level 03!]

‘Block and dodge! Parrying also leveled. Good, I need better defenses.’

[System: Hidden Weapon Skill Mastery has reached level 02!]

[System: As Hidden Weapon Skill Mastery reached the second level, you learned [Throw Multiple Hidden Weapons] Skill!]

[System: You have reached enough spear experience to create a new skill.]

[System: You have reached enough unarmed experience to create a new skill.]

[System: You have reached enough sword experience to create a new skill.]

[System: You have reached enough defensive experience to create a new skill.]

[System: You have reached enough athletic experience to create a new skill.]

Yushin was speechless. Five new skills, including one spear, one unarmed, one sword, one defensive and one athletic.

He knows what to expect from the weapon skills, but athletic and defensive ones are new.

[You have obtained [Minor Dark] Power.]

[You have obtained [Minor Dark Resistance] Power.]

‘!!! Is this what Mister Green talked about…? The tainted power…? Power of Dark!’ This was his first power. A power that can be used to damage Lataf.

[You have learned [Herb Gathering] Skill from a teacher.]

[System: By understanding the [Power Of The World], you learned [Soul Control Mastery] skill!]

[System: By applying [Soul Control] to [Spear Thrust] under an extreme situation, an [Ultimate] was created: [Type: Soul Strike (Spinning Spear Thrust + Soul Manifestation, Soul Amplification)]. Damage: Based on Original Technique. Activation Condition: Facing an enemy much more powerful than yourself, Emotion Drive is activated.] The technique has been named [Raging Spear]. You can rename it at will.]

‘An ultimate!’ The term isn’t new to any gamer. It meant a powerful attack that often could only be used after some level, condition or high cost.

‘Are ultimates only born from applying Soul Control to existing skills…? Under an extreme situation like before…? No, I doubt it. That is probably only one of the conditions. It makes sense… Sigh, what is Emotion Drive? The activating conditions for this ultimate are too restrictive and unclear to be useful right now. It doesn’t even state its attack power.’

To make things worse, the info command didn’t give any extra information on ultimates or the so-called “Emotion Drive”. Yushin can only deduce it has something to do with the state of mind during activation. At that time his emotions were clearly out of control. If this is correct, it will be too hard to activate in normal conditions.

Yushin wasted no time in checking his new stats, ‘[Status Window].’

[Player Yushin. Class: Spear Weaving Captain (Warrior Class, Low Leadership, Low Magic). Level: 06. Race: Half-Human.]

Title: Savior Of The Mutal and Mahrga (Hidden)

Bounty: None

Fame/Infamy: +100

Strength: F+

Magic: F

Defense: F+

Agility: F+

Intelligence: F+

Magic Defense: F

Dexterity: F+

Endurance: F+

Charisma: F+

Health Points: 6500/6500

Mana Points: 350/350

Soul: 420/420

Wealth: 49 SC

‘My class changed, is it because I didn’t level my magic enough?’

Most of his stats also increased because of skill and normal level ups, but his magic stayed the same. Having no magic skills to improve right now is slowing his progress in that area.

‘Skill List. Athletic Skills info.’

[Jumping (Passive)] Level 01.

Info: Increases jumping speed and maximum height.

[Acrobatics (Passive)] Level 01.

Info: Increases user agility when trying feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination.

There is no change to running, ‘By leveling those skills my mobility will become a great weapon. Having the system help with jumps and acrobatics will benefit some people greatly.’

‘Defensive Skills info.’

[Block (Passive)] Level 01.

Info: Slightly decreases incoming damage to weapon/body part from a successful block.

Dodge (Passive)] Level 01.

Info: Assists the user’s dodge timing by a very small margin.

There is no change to parrying, ‘They work as I expected them to. All those passives mean less skilled players will also be able to work at a high level if they work hard. The best players might benefit less from them.’

‘Hunting Skills info.’

Track and Skinning have no changes, ‘Track has been very useful and skinning gave me a few extra drops. But I can’t imagine how they will progress.’

‘Leadership Skills info.’

[Raise Morale (Passive) ] Lvl 02.

Info: Allies (Friends, Party, Guild or similar, not recognized as a foe) on close distance receive several small bonuses. Current: +2% HP, Mana and Soul. The skill raises based on time and the number of people affected.

‘Only a 1% bonus increase.’

[Inspire Bravery] Lvl 01.

Info: You are able to inspire bravery on an ally for a few moments. Inspire recovers 10% of an ally soul and magic once, and removes and gives immunity to fear for thirty seconds. Cannot be used on self. Can only be used once on the same ally every hour. Cooldown: 3 minutes.

For Crafting Skills, herb gathering was added but had no special information. His other skills didn’t level up since he barely touched them.

‘Soul Control Mastery info.’

[Soul Control Mastery Skills]

[Soul Manipulation (Passive) ] Lvl 01.

Info: Soul Manipulation is the ability to change Soul shape, form, weight, height and range.

[Soul Manifestation (Passive) ] Lvl 01.

Info: Soul Manifestation is the ability to present soul in a visible form.

[Soul Projection (Passive) ] Lvl 01.

Info: Soul Projection is the ability to project soul to cause long-range effects and attacks.

[Soul Breathing (Passive) ] Lvl 01.

Info: Soul Breathing is the ability to circulate soul in one’s body through breathing, recovering Soul Power.

[Soul Amplification (Passive) ] Lvl 01.

Info: Soul Amplification is the ability to amplify effects through Soul.

[Soul Reinforcement (Passive) ] Lvl 01.

Info: Soul Reinforcement is the ability to increase resistance through Soul.

‘That’s not very helpful… I have no idea how to use them. Sigh. I suppose I’ll have to test some things out.’ [Soul Control] is currently the most interesting system in the game and the hardest to grasp.

‘Physicals Skill info.’

[Physical Skills]

[Spear Thrust] Lvl 04. Atk 140%. Speed: 1.2. Soul cost: 10. Required: Spear.

Info: A powerful attack with the spear.

[Spinning Spear Thrust] Lvl 04. Atk 150%. Speed: 1.1. Soul cost: 18. Penetrating Power: Low. Required: Spear.

Info: A powerful attack with the spear. A spin during the strike makes it slower, but also increases damage and penetrating power.

‘Spinning Spear Thrust was also improved. Its level seems to be based on Spear Thrust since I didn’t use it as often but they are still at the same level. Soul cost doubled though. What are the new modifiers?’

[Level 03 Modifiers]

[Dash]: The skill can be used after a small run without losing speed. Increased speed and range. Cost: +2 Soul.

[Improved Penetration]: Increases penetrating power, lowers speed a little. Cost: +2 Soul.

‘Dash again? I’ll pick Improved Penetration.’

[Penetrating Spinning Spear Thrust] Lvl 04. Atk 150%. Speed: 1.0. Soul cost: 20. Penetrating Power: Medium. Required: Spear.

Info: A powerful attack with the spear. A spin during the strike makes it slower, but also increases damage and penetrating power.

‘Huh? The regular spear thrust didn’t change, but the spinning one instead…? Does this mean some modifiers create new skills, while others improve either the new skill or the original one, but only one at a time?’

[Level 04 Modifiers]

[Soul Manipulation: Reach]: The skill’s reach can be increased through Soul Power. Cost per Increased reach: 1/3 m per 5 Soul. Maximum accumulation: x2.

[Soul Amplification: Power]: The skill’s attack power can be increased through Soul power. Cost: 10% extra damage per 5 soul. Maximum accumulation: x2.

‘Soul modifiers! So this is how they’re applied to skills. Do they become techniques after I choose?’

Yushin thought about it and decided to choose Power. He also wanted the reach, but his Spinning Spear Thrust is slow. Extra power should be better.

[Spear Thrust] (Soul Amplification: Power) Lvl 04. Atk 140%. Speed: 1.2. Soul cost: 10 (10% extra damage per 5 soul, maximum x2). Required: Spear.

Info: A powerful attack with the spear. Can be enhanced through Soul Power to cause extra damage.

[Penetrating Spinning Spear Thrust] (Soul Amplification: Power) Lvl 04. Atk 150%. Speed: 1.0. Soul cost: 20 (10% extra damage per 5 soul, maximum x2). Penetrating Power: Medium. Required: Spear.

Info: A powerful attack with the spear. A spin during the strike makes it slower, but also increases damage and penetrating power. Can be enhanced through Soul Power to cause extra damage.

‘Both skills got the modifier, but neither became a technique. Oh well, moving on.’

Double Thrust also leveled up, presenting two modifiers: “Extra Speed” or “Reduced Soul Cost”, of which “Extra Speed’ was chosen, presenting a new Skill:

[Double Thrust] Lvl 2. Atk 130% each. Speed: 1.0. Soul cost: 10. Required: Spear.

Info: Thrusts twice in a row with the spear.

[Quick Double Thrust] Lvl 2. Atk 120% each. Speed: 1.2. Soul cost: 10. Required: Spear.

Info: Quickly thrusts twice in a row with the spear.

Since his Spinning Thrust is developing based on power, Double Thrust was, if possible, going to be developed on speed, so they could be used in diverse situations. Also, Double Thrust takes more time to finish due to the second strike, so Yushin thought more speed would not be bad.

On [Spear Sweeping], the “Extra Power” modifier was applied, becoming [Powerful Spear Sweeping].

For [Unarmed Mastery], [Fast Punch] and [Fast Kick] were similar to his other punches, with less damage but higher speed. For [Strong Punch] and [Strong Kick], Yushin chose “Extra Power” as both of their second level modifiers, adding a small percentage of damage. They became [Powerful Strong Punch] and [Powerful Strong Kick] respectively.

[Quick Cut] received the “Dash” modifier for extra range and speed, becoming the new skill [Dashing Quick Cut]. [Strong Slash] followed the same logic as the other skills, since so far it was common for there to be a quick and a strong version of that weapon skill.

However, how were modifiers chosen? Are they random or due to specific actions?

Even though he was curious, Yushin had no way of discovering that right now. This is also one of the reasons his guild needs to be established soon since a bigger pool of people he can experiment with will lead to a better understanding of the game systems. In this regard, the big guilds and groups have an advantage.

The basic Throw Hidden Weapon Skill didn’t level up, but the Mastery did, so he obtained the skill:

[Throw Multiple Hidden Weapons] Lvl 1. Atk 100%. Speed: 1.1. Soul cost: 3 + 3 per Extra Weapon. Can only be aimed at the same target. Max of 3 weapons. Required: Hidden Weapon Type.

A slightly weaker version but capable of throwing multiple weapons at the same target. Before taking a look at how the Power of Dark worked, all he had left was to create the new skills. With a thought, the skill creation window appeared:

[Spear Skills]

[Spear Deflection Skill]

[Spear Deflection] Lvl 01. Speed: 1.2 Soul cost: 6. Required: Spear.

Info: The user rotates his Spear at great speed, deflecting multiple projectiles at the same time.

‘This is the only skill I can pick but it seems pretty useful.’

[Unarmed Skills]

[Palm Strike]

[Knee Strike]

Both skills looked very similar to [Fast Punch] and [Strong Kick], so it took a while for Yushin to realize why they were a separate skill. Just because they shared a similar beginning didn’t mean their modifiers would be the same. It was probable that the [Attack Timing] would be different since a palm strike was very different from a punch or a knee strike from a kick. Besides, it was still unclear how many other skills could be generated.

For the original skill, Yushin named it [Base Skill]. For their dependants like [Spinning Spear Thrust] or [Powerful Strong Punch], he called them [Variation Skill]. Of course, this was not set by the game, but by him, so it wouldn’t be called that by everyone. It was clear to him that the more attacking options he had, the better.

Repetitive attack patterns might work on bad A.I., but on good players, they would be caught quickly, ‘I’ll just pick palm strike for now.’

[Sword Skill]

[Sword Draw]

[Sword Draw] Lvl 01. Atk 120%. Speed: 1.6 Soul cost: 12. Required: Sheathed One-Handed Sword/In inventory.

Info: The user draws his sword at great speed to strike at the enemy.

Yushin nearly drooled when he saw the skill. It was true he barely fought with his sword in hand. He usually drew it from inventory to land a strike then put it away again, just like he did against the two from Red Leaf Guild. Apparently, the system recognized this pattern to create this skill.

He picked it right away and lost no time before testing, even though he was still inside the city.

Swoosh!

Even though the sword was still in the inventory it appeared on his hand as he made the motion, as if he drew it from an invisible sheath.

‘Amazing! This skill can be deadly in a surprise attack!’ How would the enemy know a sword attack was coming if he wasn’t even carrying a sword?

He could even use it together with the spear, as long as he held it in a single hand. At this moment, Yushin looked like a three-year-old who just found a new toy…

‘Ahem, going back…’

[Defensive Skill]

[Quick Dodge]

[Brace Impact]

The first one, once activated, would quickly throw the user to one of the sides in a roll. It gave no other bonuses. [Brace Impact] allowed the user to reduce incoming damage by taking the strike directly. This would work great for tanks and frontline fighters. Since he was based on mobility, Yushin picked the dodge.

[Athletic Skill]

[Air Jump]

[Air Jump] Lvl 01. Speed: 1.2 Soul cost: 3. Required: Jump.

Info: The user is capable of doing a second jump while in the Air. Can be activated once.

‘Great, more mobility!’

Overall Yushin felt very happy with his powerups. Although he didn’t get any op skills and his so-called “Ultimate” was hard to activate, his versatility increased and he got to understand a lot more of how the skill system worked. As long as he kept trying things out his new skills would give him a lot of options.

He quickly checked the info on Minor Dark Power:

[Minor Dark Power - Rank One]

Info: Can be activated together with a Soul Modified Skill. Doubles the Soul cost of the respective skill. Adds Minor Dark Power to the Strike.

‘Soul modified skill…? What does Dark Power do? Sigh, one more thing I’ll need to test once I get the chance. Soul modifier skill is probably something like my Spear Thrust.’

Now, with powerups finished, he had to decide what to do. Taking a look at his friends list, Shum, Gron, Rain, and a few others were on, but those three could not be reached by Private Messaging right away. That meant they were probably inside a dungeon.

Yushin chuckled, ‘Shum and Gron must be at the Mutal already. Heh. Grom must be anxious to put in some effort since he gained the most, while Shum must be raring to go out of frustration.’

Yushin planned to go there after taking care of some things. First, he left a private message to Rain telling her about the events that happened with Lataf. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to read the message right now, but as a guild leader candidate, it was good to know these things.

Next, he had to deal with the loot. Since there aren’t many drops so far in Tales they managed the inventory pretty well during that run, but any longer and there wouldn’t be any space. It was essential that they had extra inventory space soon.

After getting the duel money from Sinkred, Yushin had 49 Silver Coins. From the dungeon loot, last time he gave [Peachtooth Sap], [Peachtooth Rare Sap], [Spinner Horn], [Spinner Rare Horn], [Spinner Wings], [Spinner Blood], [Spinner Rare Blood], [Variation Vitalus Resin], [Marhga’s Blood], [Marhga’s Rare Blood], [Mutal Sap], [Mutal Rare Sap] and [Mutal Eyes] to Aurei and Bitter Cat.

Those two needed to keep experimenting and finding uses to these materials in their respective professions. Yushin had great faith in their success, and aside from the coins, his skills couldn’t make good use of the items right now. He only kept [Wood Elemental Branch], [Wood Elemental Rare branch], [Vines] and [Mutal Core].

Aside from that, both of them provided many services for free during the dungeon run, like repairing, and Aurei even gave away plenty of pills and potions.

The branches would be useful for the Old Man to try his fletching skill and could also be used for him to try building gadgets. They were drops from Wood Elementals so their durability would be good. The vines can be used for a few designs, as he saw clever uses of vines and branches from the Mutal.

The cores, while probably useful for alchemy, also carried a bit of Mutal life force in them, a magical force. They might be used as reagents for magic, so Yushin didn’t want to share everything with Aurei. One of his goals was to have more support Magic.

After taking a look at his inventory, Yushin sighed. There wasn’t much he could sell aside from the magic jewels. He would keep being poor for now, but at least he didn’t need to repair weapons. Aside from the bonehead spear that shattered in the fight against Lataf, Bitter Cat repaired all his equipment during the run.

He finally checked the [Vine Lance] given to him by Mister Green:

[Vine Lance]

[Rare Vine Lance Lv1 Rank: Two Stars Condition: Excellent]

Attack Power: Between One and a Half and Two Stars

Speed:1.2

Range: Mid

Modifiers: Penetrating Power + Durability +.

‘My best weapon so far.’

While he thought about what to do next, Yushin walked around Red Clay. He had gotten used to tagging things along the way. Visiting the Hunter’s Lodge, he earned enough contribution points to reach Rank 2 after giving out info on Margas, the Mutal and other monsters on the Tree of Many Paths.

While most of the info on the common monsters were already there, the Variation Vitalus, the Marhgas, and the Mutal were all new. Being Rank 2, he obtained info on a lot more common mobs of the surrounding areas and even where to find some. In case he wanted to know where to obtain certain items or kill certain mobs, this was the place to come. For a certain sum, of course.

There wasn’t a lot going on there, except that Yushin learned the Faint Forest was now a place where only well-coordinated parties dared to venture. The monsters are growing in strength every day, so much that new players die right away and even experienced parties have a hard time fighting.

‘What’s going on…? Is this because of the Monarch Bear? I need to go back there to find the secret. I’ll wait until everyone is a bit stronger,’ Yushin already considered his friends as the core of his party and even his future guild. Not everyone was equally skilled, but their personalities were great. A great guild is not born by having the same type of player. It was born out of a sense of unity and a greater purpose.

He took another trip to the [Engineer’s Guild]. From the Tree of Many Paths and Rain’s dungeon, he obtained a few insights, but he didn’t have the opportunity to research and experiment. While not major happens, this was precisely the right time.

Yushin greeted a few NPCs and went for a simple workbench. Although there were better ones, they were only for higher ranked members. At this point, it was only for NPCs.

His first step was using the [Research and Experimentation System] to test his materials, [Wood Elemental Branch], [Wood Elemental Rare Branch], [Vines] and [Mutal Core].

[Wood Elemental Branch]

Common Wood-type material. No special effects. Durability: One Star. Resistance: One Star. [Result: F Rank Engineering Material]

[Wood Elemental Rare Branch]

Rare Wood-type material. Resistance to Acid. Durability: Three Stars. Resistance: Three Stars. [Result: C Rank Engineering Material]

[Vines]

Common rope-type material. No special effects. Durability: One Star. Resistance: One Star. [Result: F Rank Engineering Material]

[Mutal Core]

Rare Power-Type material. Nature Effect. Durability: One Star. Resistance: One Star. [Result: B Rank Engineering Material]

‘...! What! B Rank Nature Power-Type!’ Yushin was only happy for a second, ‘Sigh. It’s not like we can go farm the Mutal for these…’

Suddenly, another thought hit him, and he instantly regretted giving out the info on Mutal to the Hunter’s Lodge. While it was unlikely that people came looking for it if somehow they found the Mutal inside the dungeon and knew about the effects of their cores, wouldn’t that be extremely bad for them?

He shook his head. He didn’t even know exactly what it could be used for, and there weren’t enough Mutal around in the first place.

He moved on to the design phase. Without any extra blueprints, all he could produce was a normal [Gear], so his first thought was to try a few designs. While in the real world engineering was comprised of many different types, in Tales the Engineering skill was still unknown, so where should he start?

Looking for examples around the guild, he didn’t find anything inspiring. Thinking about his first dungeon run on Tales, the Yrb were supposed to be quite advanced in this path. Yushin could remember the crossbow, the broken guitar, the expanding shield and… guns!

His thought moved to the design screen and he started to design a gun from the scratch. It was quite easy to find a gun design online, so everything was going well until the system notice:

[System: You cannot use or design regular guns in Tales]

Being shot down in flight, Yushin could only sigh. He then moved on to the expanding shield.

The design of the shield itself was quite basic. Slowly adding gears and shafts, he made a dual-layered shield that was capable of expanding. Once it was activated, the hidden layers would open, covering a bigger area. When deactivated, the shield was supposed to be extremely sturdy.

After the basic design was ready, Yushin was thinking about how to activate the gears and found on the design screen that he could add a [Manual Lever], [Powered Switch] or [Soul/Magical] activation mechanism. In short, a lever, a button with a power source, or a soul/magic imbued receptor.

Of course, it would be extremely dumb to put a lever in the shield. In the heat of battle, the tank had to pull it fast enough for it to open. This would be fine as s joke, but never as the real thing. The lever was a good option for revolving door or traps. For the shield, he had to go with the [Powered Switch] or [Soul/Magical Receptor] mechanism.

With a button, a power source was needed. He had the [Mutal Core], but that is a rare item, so he wanted to go for a common version for the prototype. This was the best option to save Soul/Magic during combat since the other receptor had to be activated using the fighter’s resources.

He designed two blueprints, one with each activation mechanism except for the manual one. Those were [First Draft Blueprints]. This type of blueprint was used for the engineers only, so they could change things on a basic level for upgrades or other versions of the same product.

The next step was building the prototype. While the guild had a few materials around for members to use, for anything other than a rough prototype he needed a blacksmith for the metal parts or carpenter for the wood parts.

The goal of a prototype was to test for final attributes, weight, activation speed, durability, etc. After he was done with the testing, a [Final Blueprint] would be created with the exact creation process, such as materials. This blueprint would be open for anyone to use. It was locked except for exchanging materials. This means that, unless someone builds a similar one from the scratch or the owner turns it into an [Open] blueprint, no one but the creator can upgrade it.

For the shield, not only the respective materials, but the end weight, opening and closing angle, and the shield’s final position were extremely important. They needed multiple rounds of testing to reach the best efficiency. As Yushin knew this would take a lot of time and needed Bitter Cat’s help, he decided to create a few more rough blueprints.

A fun weapon for Aurei. A composite bow for Old Man Young. A mechanical mask for himself.

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Once again, in another big city in the Kingdom of Vavell...

Faith entered the small and suspicious house with confidence. Her azure long hair waves slowly with each step and the bunch of scoundrels around could only stare at her. She pays them no mind, this bunch is undeserving of a single glance.

Straight ahead, in another room, a middle-aged man with a wicked face sits on the floor and plays a game of dice with a few others. He looks up, a bit surprised, and before he can tell the others to leave the commanding voice sounds:

“Scram,” Faith said with her clear and beautiful voice. The men looked around at each other for a second before hurrying out of the room.

When they thought everything ended, Faith turned around and looked at the rest of them, “Out of the house. NOW.”

The men were angry, this was their own hideout!

But none of them voiced their displeasure in front of the fairy and made their way out with ugly faces. One of the ignorant ones almost drew his weapon and went forward, but his friend suddenly grabbed him and took him away.

“What the hell man, how could you all just leave?!” That ignorant fellow said.

“Dude, what the f*c* are you doing! Don’t you know who that is?!” His friend screamed at him.

“What, are you afraid of a woman? You bunch of cowards.”

“That’s the Azure Haired Demonic Goddess, son. You’d best steer clear.” Another guy said.

“Never heard of her, so what? She’s just a girl!”

All the man around laughed, “By all means, go tell her that. We’ll just watch the fun.”

His friend took matters into his own hands before he could do anything stupid, “You know the Blue Heaven Guild? The one with that eSports pro player you like?”

The ignorant fella eyes lit up, “He is my god! What about it!”

The friend sighed, “On the first day, that guild found a common single player dungeon. The pro player wasn’t there, so they were deciding who would go in when the goddess appeared and went forward. They just stood there silly and watched her go in.”

“Hahaha, dumbasses! But they waited for her, no?”

“Of course, once they realized what happened they went mad. There were over ten guys. When she cleared the dungeon and went out, they all attacked her.”

“Serves her right!” He smiled.

“They all died,” The friend added, seeing the ignorant fella smile disappear.

“That’s…”

“After that, they started hunting her everywhere. Even the pro player came,” The friend continued.

“NobleJun! He is my god!” The ignorant fanboy smiled again.

“Well, he died too. Multiple times.”

“WHAT!” He couldn’t believe what he heard, “W-wha-whatever, she c-couldn’t win against a guild forever anyway!!!”

“Bro, after a while, the other players became pissed off at Blue Heaven’s Guild behavior. They were hunting their goddess, you know.”

The ignorant fella had a bad premonition, “S-so, what happened...?”

“A lot of them banded together. People from many different guilds. They raided Blue Heaven’s guild base, killed everyone and kicked them out of the city. I guess some of them worked for the City Lord. There are rumors that even NPCs joined in...”

“M-my god… There was such thing,” He could only be happy his friend stopped him in time!

Back inside the room, the middle-aged man sighed, “How rude, I was making money.”

Faith didn’t bother with his remarks, “Be quick about it.”

“Hehehe, I come with good news, is this how you treat me?”

“I’m just about ready to cut your head off,” She said angrily.

The man laughed awkwardly, “Here, watch this video.”

He sent her a link to a recorded video on the cloud.

The video showed a duel between a spear user and a dual daggers fighter. Everything was going in the favor of the man with the daggers, but the spearman laughed and reversed the fight. Afterward, there almost was a big conflict and the video ended. It was entitled “Red Clay’s City First Contract Duel”.

Her eyes shined brightly, but she didn’t say anything. She then glared at the middle-aged guy.

“I only found out the guy’s name because people saw in the contract. The video became quite famous,” He wanted to brag a bit more, but saw that Faith’s hand was nearing her sword, “He’s called Yushin. I’m not sure if it’s really him, but it’s the best info I’ve got.”

Faith thought for a second, “It’s him.”

The middle-aged guy was a bit surprised, “How are you so sure?”

“Because I’ve heard his name before,” She said before turning away to leave.

“I’ll go with you.”

“Why?”

“The same reason as you. I want to play with him again. Those were fun times.”

“Why?” She asked again, still unsure of his intentions.

“Haha, don’t look at me like that. You know, back in Project Legend, you were definitely a legend. Top three player. Attack General of The Golden Spear Guild. We weren’t the biggest guild, but once people saw our banner, they were scared shitless.”

She kept looking at him. What does he want to say?

“Some thought it was because of you, me, and the dragon bastard, but that was far from the truth. Although our boss wouldn’t come into the top players, his hand was the most dangerous of all. I know, because I did his dirty work.”

Faith knew what he was talking about. Spying, breaking alliances, stealing bosses, stealing talent, causing wars, and creating conflict. This man was Golden Spear Guild’s spymaster, and one of the people closest to Shin. She just wasn’t sure he was a good influence on him.

The middle-aged man looked at her expression and knew she was deep in thoughts, “He needs me.”

She glared at him.

“Without me, he won’t be able to do his best.”

And no matter how much she wanted to leave him behind, in the end, that was probably the truth.