Chapter 163

Bubble…

Molten iron was boiling in an airtight container. With a diameter of about 30 centimeters and a height of one meter, this circular column was one of Merlin’s greatest accomplishments from his intensive research.

“It’s taking a lot longer than I expected. It’s convenient that the magic circle is activated automatically, but….”

Then, a message appeared on one side of his field of vision. This type of notification meant that a new public notice had been posted.

“Um, an announcement before the event… this can’t be good. I’m still short on gem points.”

Merlin said this as he retrieved his Beholder, and if any user heard him, they would’ve gone crazy. After all, didn’t he take all the gem points? They were supposed to be divided amongst the hundreds of thousands of event participants. However, Merlin didn’t feel an inkling of guilt. He had acted to the best of his abilities, nothing more. Of course, if the developers prevented him from participating for the benefit of everyone else, he would follow their decision, but he had no intention of quitting of his own volition.

/DIO (Dynamic Island Online), a fantasy world no one has ever seen before!

Welcome to this exciting island!

In relation to today’s event, the following patches shall be applied as of January 29th.

– The abilities of the Gem Fish have been changed as follows:

1. The gem fish appearing in the event will acquire a new ability, Water Breakthrough. They will no longer be bound by currents and the flow of water.

2. The gem fish’s physical defense stats will be increased.

3. All gem fish shall appear in one place.

We will try our best not to cause any outages to the service. Thank you./

“Hmm, there’s a subtlety to this message. On the surface, it appears to hinder me.”

The notice seemed to sanction Merlin. With the information given in the patch notes, it was apparent that the gem fishes’ new ability would make it difficult for them to collide, and since they would all be in one area, Merlin’s maneuverability lost its advantage. Everyone would essentially be restricted to a certain space. As such, these changes made it seem as though Merlin was being penalized, but he frowned.

“It’s dubious though….”

On the surface, the patch’s content seemed to punish him, but these changes would have little to no effect. Actually, they might even make it easier to catch all the gem fish at once. If there had been no reaction, Merlin would have just chalked it off as the developers not seeing his actions as serious, but this subtle change made him think that there were other motives.

“Well, I’m going to execute my plan anyway. There’s no point in safeguarding myself after already attracting their attention.”

Recently, Merlin thought a lot about the identity of the management team that ran DIO. In the first place, they possessed technology that didn’t exist in modern civilization, and they didn’t seem interested in money. Merlin wasn’t the only person that had questions. He had been spending an inordinate amount of time in the library digging into the history and worldbuilding background of DIO. Of course, all the information he researched could be fake, but even so, Merlin felt that he should learn as much as possible.

“Quiet Heaven, have you finished the magic upgrades?”

“What? Are you taking out your whip already? I’ve just started!”

“What do you mean you just started? You don’t have to log out, so you’ve had a little more than a month to complete the assignment.”

“This type of magic upgrade isn’t something that can be completed in one or two months! Time needs to be spent on theory crafting and-”

“I made this, though.”

When Merlin pointed to the circular cylinder, Quiet Heaven couldn’t help but shut its mouth. In truth, Quite Heaven’s research was less difficult than Merlin’s. Furthermore, while Quiet Heaven was still researching, Merlin had already established a working theory and created a prototype. For someone who’d studied and practiced Dao arts for many years, Quiet Heaven couldn’t help but feel a sense of humiliation.

“Don’t waste any more time. Finish it by tonight. If you don’t, I’m going to permanently engrave the word dunce on your head.”

“So inconsiderate… ugh, making me not only do physical labor but also mentally labor….”

“Work hard. See you later.”

Merlin left the housing while Quiet Heaven sighed. Since Quiet Heaven was prideful of its magic work, Quiet Heaven wouldn’t easily give up. If Merlin had just given an order, Quiet Heaven might have dragged its feet and lazed around, but since it had witnessed Merlin work and present the fruits of his efforts, Quiet Heaven had no choice but to try its best.

After stepping out of the housing, Merlin made the door invisible. The house was a kind of subspace, so when the door was closed and transformed into a housing card, the dimension within was folded. Consequently, any living beings within would be negatively impacted. Of course, unlike one’s inventory, the housing space was connected to the real world, so the damage wouldn’t be fatal, but it was still dangerous.

“Let me know if anything serious comes up.”

“Don’t talk to me! I’m busy!”

After hearing Quiet Heaven’s shout from across the dimensional space, Merlin gave a quick smile before lifting his Close glasses. He looked at Starting, which was quite far. When his Enhanced Eyesight was released from Close’s restrictions, it could look through Starting’s walls and peer into the city’s streets. After weaving through various areas, his eyes landed on a manufacturing building.

Poof!

In an instant, Merlin’s surroundings changed. Merlin’s teleportation ability had already reached the pinnacle, so he could move short distances with just a thought; if he could see his destination, he could teleport in less time than it took for one to breathe.

“It’s been a while.”

“The items you requested are outside.”

Aidelin had his eyes half-closed while looking into a burning furnace, focusing. It didn’t seem like he was surprised by Merlin’s sudden appearance.

Bam!

The molten, liquified metal within the furnace flames gathered into a ball, rose in the air, and then went back into the furnace. This step was repeated several times. It was an unnatural scene. Moreover, Aidelin didn’t seem to be using any magic power.

‘It must be his attribute affinity.’

As someone who had total control over the medium of water, Merlin immediately recognized the power behind the controlled liquid’s movements. Aidelin seemed to possess a metal attribute affinity.

“What skill’s secondary effect are you utilizing?”

“Weapon production.”

Once more, the ball floated up. Its impurities seemed to naturally fall away before the ball transformed into a meter-long bar. With no need for a hammer, Aidelin’s metal control ability reinforced the strength and resilience of the metal bar.

“Yet, I find something weird. If you have such a skill, why aren’t you creating a finished product immediately? If you can shape a sword’s edge down to the nanometer, you could produce swords with unrivaled sharpness.”

“I can’t control it to that level. Even for steel, I’m unable to alter the carbon composition levels and purity on the atomic level; my control has only reached this point through repetition and instinct.”

After saying this, Aidelin placed the metal bar in his inventory. Though it was just a metal bar, it had already undergone all the necessary processes as a material. As such, it only needed a little more work to create an excellent sword.

“Anyway, what’s going on with you? My assistants oversee sales.”

Since a user’s combat effectiveness differed depending on their ability, a surprisingly large number of players gave up hunting and instead engaged in other activities. In addition, due to the simplicity of converting in-game money to real-life cash, many users were working in-game to make a living. After Aidelin became famous as a blacksmith, he hired others to sell his products.

“I came to you because I have a production request.”

“You should have sent me a whisper first.”

While grumbling, Aidelin organized his workstation. In the past, Aidelin had seen Merlin imbue magic spells into items, so he knew that Merlin wasn’t a normal user. This was also the reason why Aidelin accepted Merlin’s friend request despite not being too sociable.

“Anyway, what did you have in mind? It looks like you’re a mage, so a staff?”

“I don’t need one since I recently came across an excellent staff. I’d like whatever is your best-selling product at the moment.”

Aidelin threw a housing card upwards. The housing card spun in mid-air before turning into a full-sized, gray-colored door.

“The best-selling product is, unsurprisingly, a sword.”

“A sword….”

“The traditional western swords make up 60 percent of sales while eastern swords make up 40 percent. Among the eastern swords, the Katana is the most popular, regardless of whether the client is eastern or western. For western swords, the Bastard Sword and Long Sword are the most popular. I’m not the weapons provider for the entire DIO platform, but I’m sure that the overall sale statistics are similar.”

Once Merlin stepped inside the housing, he saw hundreds of weapons neatly organized in their own displays. There were eastern swords, western swords, and stringless bows. There were also massive hammers and maces.

“What other weapons are popular outside of swords?”

“Many bows. Long rods, hammers, and even spears are fairly popular as well.”

“However, you’re saying that, overall, swords dominate the market.”

“If you stand in a busy street in Starting, you’ll get your answer. Nearly everyone carries swords.”

While Aidelin explained, Merlin inspected the displays. The weapons were imbued with little to no magic, yet they were all exceptional pieces of work in their own right. Furthermore, these items weren’t created by just an ordinary blacksmith; they had all undergone a spiritual production process, making them more easily imbued with mana and output magic-based attacks. The strength and resilience of the weapons’ materials weren’t something that was comparable to the metals in real life.

“Hmm, then I guess swords are the answer. Please make the sword appear like the one displayed here.”

“If you want a weapon that already exists, you can just purchase it instead of asking me to produce one.”

Aidelin gave a confused expression as he questioned Merlin, but the latter just smiled.

“The only thing that’ll be similar is the outward appearance. Please make it out of these materials.”

After saying this, Merlin took out some metallic liquid from his inventory. The liquid, which kept its liquid state even at room temperature, exuded an aura that instantly made Aidelin’s expression change.

“This is….”