--3 Weeks later--

Late at night, he finally heard this notification after three weeks of hard work, but it did not come with a wave of joy. The last week had reminded him of a bitter memory. A repressed memory he came to forget over the past few months.

Level 9 of a skill, was a nightmare. For normal levels, one could roughly calculate that the proficiency demand of the next level was double that of the current. However, the last level before a rank-up would need several times the proficiency or more to rank up.

Now, he had reached Craftsman lv. 9 in , , and . The last week was solely spent making accessories for . Looking at his skills now, only as the first to reach lv.9 had some proficiency. It had gained a whopping 10-15% while he worked on getting the others on the same level.

Seeing that he needed roughly ten times the proficiency for the next level, when compared to lv.8 was disheartening. He only had three weeks until they would set off for the dungeon exploration. Even with the bonus from the ranking, there was no chance he would be able to reach the master tier AND make the items for the others in time.

Begrudgingly, he had to make the decision, whether he was going to make their items before he reached master, or become master and not make their items before they set off. Looking at the two options, Seth didn't have to think long to choose.

He would make the items now. Although it would not be as good as making them directly as a master, he could later use the skill to improve them. It was a skill he had not touched himself for quite some time.

The blacksmith had left it to Cerberus to regularly reinforce the items of the people of Minas Mar, to keep the updated. The skill was currently lv.5 thanks to the golem's efforts, if it was ten he could improve items to the point that there was almost no difference between whether he made them earlier or with his current skill level. At least when it came to their base stats.

Seth decided to make them now because a chance like the expedition to the "holy land" wouldn't come as easily again. He wanted them all to have at least one legendary item beforehand and have some time to get used to their abilities.

Since the decision was made, Seth did not hesitate anymore and brought out the legendary . Although Seth had a pretty good idea about what his friends needed after spending time with them in the dungeons and training, he used the past weeks to also ask them what they wanted.

McCarthy had not brought over any new materials in the past three weeks, but he was finally able to get some fitting souls from Tano'Mol. There was no problem starting for now and in the worst-case scenario, he would get other souls and increase their size with .

It was a little selfish that he wanted to save the items made of for last. He had only 1kg of special-grade . The people in question for items made from the were Mina, Lydia, and Evee.

Since the material had a strong affinity with darkness, chaos, and destruction, the shadow assassins were an obvious choice. Evee on the other hand would profit from it when she used curses or turned into an undead.

He hoped to reach the master tier before he made Mina's so he would save hers for last.

Of course, the material would have also been great for any of the warriors if turned into a weapon. However, the amount of he has would have been barely enough for one weapon and he didn't intend to make an alloy, like with the Dragon Scales.

Even if they were above epic materials, their unique properties as refined materials made Seth worry that they may drop in rating, if he mixed them with other materials. This was why he only considered accessories or small items to make out of the .

For everyone else, he would be using the instead. Although McCarthy was unable to bring any new materials, he had managed to scrape up some more which brought the amount of legendary in Seth's possession to 35kg.

First on his list were Monique and Jonah. They wished for new personal weapons. Monique still used the spear Fang of Decay. Jonah had switched from Aderlass to one of the Sanguine Silver Swords some time ago.

Although Aderlass also had a growth effect, its use was still far below one of the new Sanguine Silver Swords, despite Jonah using it for a long time. Since Jonah had a sword for now, Seth decided to start with Monique's new spear, but this was something for the next day.

His skills may have plateaued for now, but he could soothe his worry with the fact that everything else was on track.

Orry Abell had recently made the Tutor Oath with Seth and started working in the workshop alongside the dwarfs. The skills he lacked the most in were enchantments to make magical rings, which led to him spending most of his time studying and copying enchantments from items Seth and the dwarfs prepared for him.

Seth didn't have the fancy enchantment scrolls that could instantly teach someone and Orry didn't have the that allowed him to gain an enchantment by disassembling an item. Which only left him with learning the enchantments the hard way. Copying them over and over until they were registered in his skill.

Daimon, the shoemaker, and Bess the bowyer were also diligently raising their levels by mass-producing items for the shops. There were no big surprises to what a bowyer could do, however, Daimon had some cheeky skills.

He couldn't just make shoes or leather armor. He could also make leather accessories and special bags. He could even make weak bags of holding, without using any space-related magic. It was similar to how a carpenter could make chests that were acknowledged by the system and could hold different things inside while using the same inventory slot.

The bags Daimon made were slightly bigger on the inside than one would expect from the outside look and they held some special effects depending on the leather he used. All his bags even had an option to lighten the weight, if magic power was infused.

Seth had questioned him once, what the use of these bags was and one of his primary examples were herbalists and alchemist. The crux of the matter was, that these bags allowed the transport of living things, such as harvested plants.

Depending on the bag's effects, they could also help conserve the efficacy of materials and the life force of plants that were harvested for replanting. Seth had no real use for these kinds of bags, but it was interesting listening to the old man explaining.

As long as Daimon could raise his proficiency with them, Seth didn't mind offering them for purchase in their shops.

Their business on the trade route was also going well. The first group of settlers, workers, priests, and adventurers had arrived in Tree Station 1 and were now busy preparing the city for human habitation. Installing infrastructure, power, and all the shenanigans people needed to live comfortably.

The latter groups were sent by the guild and the system church to man a respective branch and manage dungeons and communication. The church also offered to install safety measures to prevent the random portals to open within the city.

With the tree guarding the city it was technically not needed, however, Seth and Mary understood how unsettling the sight of the tree's protection measures could be. If a random portal opened in the middle of the city and the barbaric, terrifying monsters that jumped out, were suddenly grabbed by thick vines and hauled up into the tree crown where they would be pitifully strangled to death and turn into a dry-sucked husk...

The people may have doubts about which of the two was truly to be feared. And this was why they agreed to provide a branch for the system church in Tree Station 1 for free.